it was a sad day as we learned one of our favorite vegan products is no more: the vegan mozzarella teese sticks by chicago soydairy have officially been discontinued. their run was short lived, but i speak from personal experience when i say these things were AMAZING. they were my favorite discovery at expo west earlier this year, and i was lucky enough to enjoy a whole bag of them at home. if you live in LA, you may have tried them at tony’s darts away, or grabbed them at viva la vegan in rancho cucamonga. wherever you obtained them from, if you ate these things, consider yourself lucky.

fried up and crispy with melty stretchy vegan cheese inside, these were some of the best snack foods i’ve ever eaten. they were too good for this world!

on the happy news front, it appears chicago soydairy is expanding their business like never before…and now teese is even available at whole foods on the west coast. if you haven’t tried teese yet, track it down. it’s definitely one of (if not the) best vegan cheeses available in america.

let this serve as a reminder to you all: buy vegan products like they’re going out of style, stock pile them, and freeze them for the apocalypse…or the sad day they get discontinued.

SO PUMPED! teese, one of the best vegan cheeses ever (you may recognize it as the cheese in the LA’s best vegan deep dish), is now available at whole foods in california, nevada, arizona and hawaii. this is so great, i think i’m gonna celebrate with a buffalo mozzarella style pizza. what up:

click here for a complete list of western US whole foods locations selling teese, and click HERE for a one dollar coupon from chicago soydairy. race you guys to whole foods! 3 2 1!

what’s the best vegan cheese in america? you tell me. i go back and forth on this quite a bit. daiya was my favorite for awhile, and then the new stretchy teese came out. at first i wasn’t a fan of follow your heart, but hard times pizza completely changed my mind. i can’t decide! what do YOU think? vote below and let us know.

[poll id=”3″]

feel free to elaborate on your decision in the comments section!

dudes, this is HUGE!!! the much coveted mozzarella teese mozzarella cheese sticks (we have been obsessing about them for ages) are now available at our favorite pub, tony’s darts away!

photo credit: mercy for animals

i was just there and i saw them on the “specials” menu…

Read the rest of this entry »

whew! yesterday was the first annual vegan pizza day, and it was insanely fun. people all over the world were eating loads and having a great time…all in the name of our favorite food: vegan pizza. huge thanks to teese vegan cheese by chicago soydairy for sponsoring this event with us. i know that everyone is already looking forward to next year.

check out the official vegan pizza day facebook page for a huge pool of mouthwatering fan photos, and be sure to upload your own. here are the pictures that readers sent in to us. if you’d like to have yours posted on the blog, shoot us an email. beware, graphic vegan pizza photos to follow. you’ll wanna be sitting down for this.

Read the rest of this entry »

i haven’t seen anything this awesome in awhile. apparently this chicago-based missed connections ad was inspired by one of our favorite vegan products and sponsors of vegan pizza day, teese by chicago soydairy.

heyo!

“If you want to get together sometime before Monday and drink PBR and make vegan grilled cheese, we’re in if you are.”

Read the rest of this entry »

vegans, mark your calendars because vegan pizza day is less than a month away!

mark your calendars! vegan pizza day 1/29!

what is vegan pizza day, you ask? it’s a national celebration sponsored by chicago soydairy and quarrygirl.com of the greatest food on the planet: vegan pizza. we are trying to get vegan pizza parties going down all over the country on saturday, january 29th…so get involved. we’ve already got a list going of places to get vegan pizza…it’s easy to update, so get in there and fill out any missing information for your area. also, help us spread the word for the chance to win THREE POUNDS of teese from chicago soydairy. here’s what you gotta do…

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 12/22: as of today, these things are back in stock! get ’em while they last!

UPDATE 12/17: they sold out of vegan mozzarella sticks! we will let you know when they are available again!

oh man, back when i was a vegetarian i used to love MOZ sticks. that’s why i’m so excited that today chicago soydairy has launched frozen VEGAN MOZZARELLA STICKS available at veganessentials.com!

photo credit: mercy for animals

Read the rest of this entry »

unless you have been living under a rock, you probably know that the wynn is the vegan capital of las vegas. basically the owner, steve wynn, went vegan and decided that there should be an animal-free option at EVERY restaurant in his casino. score! walk into any wynn eatery, ask for the vegan menu, and you are set.

we hit up wynn over the holiday weekend, and pizza place was our first stop. vegan-friendly salads, appetizers, and pizza covered in teese by chicago soydairy. you just can’t go wrong…

Read the rest of this entry »

this is just a quick post to let you all know about figueora produce, a small little grocery store in highland park that’s bringing you high-quality foods at discounted prices. in an area that lacks a whole foods, this place has got most our favorite products including gardein, daiya, teese, and so delicious. plus, they are always willing to take suggestions from vegans about what they should carry.

we popped by the store over the weekend, and i was so excited to see the shelves stocked with so many vegan items.

silk and so delicious right there with the normal milk…

stinkey monkey pudding and blissed out chocolates (two very good, yet hard to find vegan products)…

several gardein frozen products…

along with teese, tofurky, and daiya…!

i was actually pretty excited to see teese on the shelf, because i’d just suggested to figueroa produce via twitter that carry it a couple weeks ago. they sure didn’t waste any time!

but it’s not just bloggers that figueroa produce listens to. my friend recently moved to eagle rock and was shopping at the grocery store when one of the owners, ruben perez, introduced himself and welcomed her to the neighborhood. he gave her his email address, and said if there were any vegan products she’d like to see, to let him know. she emailed him to suggest they carry field roast sausages, and with in a few days she got a response saying they had been ordered and would be in stock soon. WOW! talk about customer service!

if you are ever in the area, be sure to stop in and check figueroa produce out. it’s a real gem in the highland park neighborhood with a wonderful staff and great vegan products. oh, and be sure to follow them on twitter! they are always announcing deals and discounts. in fact, TODAY is twitter tuesday…meaning, if you go to the store and mention twitter, you get 10% off your check! so go do it!

Figueroa Produce Market
6312 North Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90042
Phone 323-255-FOOD (3663)
Fax 323-255-3030
Mon – Sat 7am to 9pm
Sunday 8am-8pm

FINALLY it’s here! if you want authentic, vegan, amazingly delicious chicago-style deep dish pizza in los angeles…look no further than masa of echo park. the restaurant has offered vegan pizza for awhile, but as of a few days ago, they have perfected the art of the animal-free deep dish using the new and improved stretchy teese from chicago soydairy.

i want to start by saying, this pizza is a million times better than any other deep dish we’ve covered on this blog. when i say it’s “authentic” chicago-style, i mean it…and that’s something that masa takes very seriously. in a letter on the restaurant’s website, owner rob rowe explains that he was born and raised in chicago, has worked in chicago pizzerias, and is passionate about making chicago pizza. each pie consists of a 2 inch deep cornmeal crust, filled with whole pear tomatoes, chunky garlic, and cheese underneath the sauce.

to say this pizza is incredible would be a gross understatement. it’s perfect in every way from the extremely flavorful sauce, to the melty-ness of the teese, to the soft cornmeal crust that basically melts in your mouth. the crust is the most amazing pizza crust i’ve ever tasted, in fact.

masa also serves tap beer and wine, which is good news, because their authentic deep dish pizzas take about 40 minutes to bake. this is definitely a great place to come and unwind, have a few drinks, and wait patiently for pizza perfection to emerge from the oven. if you don’t want to wait though, you can always call and order your pizza ahead of time.

please take my advice, and check out masa as soon as you possibly can. order the deep dish with the new stretchy teese, and enjoy what will be without a doubt some of the best vegan pizza you’ve ever eaten.

Masa of Echo Park
1800 West Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 989-1558

PS: masa butters the crust of their deep dish pizzas, but when you order vegan cheese they instead use olive oil. i’m just letting you know, because you may wanna remind them NOT to butter your crust…even though it’s policy not to. i’m just paranoid like that.

Back when I was a vegetarian living in London, I used to visit Chicago frequently. On my trips I would only eat two kinds of food: Mexican (as there is no Mexican food to speak of in the UK) and Chicago Pizza (same issue). Now that I’m a vegan living in LA there’s an abundance of incredible Mexican food to satiate my love of things from south of the border, but I really do miss the tastes and textures of a thick, cheese filled Chicago pizza that’s so humongously large that it has to be eaten with a knife and fork.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve probably written more about Purgatory Pizza in Boyle Heights than any other restaurant. Since it became the first pizza joint in California to carry Teese vegan cheese, we’ve been regulars at Purgatory. Add in several other vegan Pizza firsts: First to carry Field Roast sausage, Gardein “Chicken” and one of the first in the country to carry Daiya vegan cheese, and we’ve been visiting Purgatory constantly. It’s no surprise, then, that Purgatory is again ahead of the pack, as one of the first places on the West Coast to offer the brand new Teese vegan mozzarella, which we’ve raved about before.

A quick grounder and history in vegan cheese is probably worthwhile at this point…

Read the rest of this entry »

we already blogged about how awesome chicago soy dairy’s new stretchy teese is, but you shouldn’t take our word for it.

for the next week, vegan essentials is having a buy one, get one free sale that is not to be missed. here are the details…

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve always been fans of Teese, a vegan cheese substitute that took the art of cheesy taste and texture and put it firmly on the vegan map. We started going to pizzerias again, ate paninis for the first time in years and just generally enjoyed ourselves in ways that were hitherto taboo!

We were delighted, then, when Chicago Soy Dairy sent us a preview of the latest creation they’ve been working on: Tasty, stretchy, vegan MOZZARELLA cheese, that comes as close as you can get to the “real thing”. We set about challenging the new formula, and were, frankly, blown away with the results.

Most vegan cheeses today aim to emulate the taste and texture of regular, velveeta-style or pizzeria-like cheese but we found something different in the latest offering from Teese—something more flavorful that lends itself to a variety of dishes.

Points:

– Streeeetchy. REALLY.

– Tasty: Like Teese of old, but better. Even when eaten straight out of the package, its flavor is excellent.

– Awesome in a panini.

Mozzarella panini with tomato, basil, and new stretchy Teese

– Pizza works really well. It’s excellent on both a normal pizza (pictured above), as well as an NY style “buffalo mozzarella” pizza.

NY style vegan buffalo mozzarella pizza with new stretchy Teese

The buffalo mozzarella pizza was a complete WIN, and the closest I’ve had to vegan NY-style pie yet. This only goes to show how versatile and impressive the new Teese is, even in these early stages.

Get excited, get very excited. When this product hits the shelves, you are going to LOVE it.

Here is a letter from Chicago Soy Dairy that came in our sample pack:

Of course we will keep you posted, and let you know when this Teese is available to the public. Lookout!