SWEET! i just received this email from the executive chef of cru (one of our favorite raw restaurants in town) regarding their stance on honey. it looks like the restaurant is going to quickly become even more vegan-friendly. check it:

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i know it may sound crazy coming from us, lovers of all things pizza and baked goods, but we have decided to give raw food a try….at least for the next week.

what does that mean? well it means that we are gonna be eating nothing but uncooked, unprocessed, and mostly organic food for the next 7 days. i know to a lot of you readers this is pretty normal, but to us it’s fucking astrophysics. so please, if you have any tips/advice/knowledge, please leave it in the comments section.

otherwise, keep checking the blog for tasty vegan adventures—we have lots of posts stored up for this week! <3

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hey everyone, it’s time to wish a very happy birthday to the meat-free anthem that has been fueling the vegan movement for two and a half decades.

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yep, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. the infamous quarrygirl.com vegan soundboard is finally available for download on itunes!!! you will never have to speak again!

special thanks to smooth landon for creating this app, and for brittany from sickoflettuce.com for voicing it.

Just what you were looking for – the app to keep you from having to talk to all those non-vegans! Or maybe you just want to put that pretentious vegan in their place? Regardless, this is the app for you. Smooth Landon partnered with the kind folks at quarrygirl.com and the result is this fun (and free!) app for all your vegan needs.

fuck yeah!

UPDATE: the vegan soundboard is now also available as an iphone app! check it out!

hey vegans, this is for you, because you shouldn’t have to strain your voice anymore. we’ve compiled a soundboard of all your favorite key phrases and if you use this correctly, you probably won’t ever need to talk again at all.

special thanks to the wonderful and talented brittany from sickoflettuce.com for providing us with the ultimate vegan voiceover.

if you live in los angeles and want to have a completely unique vegan food experience, lemme tell you, it is definitely worth making the hour-plus drive to orange county to visit au lac. located in fountain valley, the humanese restaurant offers an entirely vegan menu, with several raw and cooked selections. all the raw foodies i know have nothing but wonderful things to say about this place, so my husband and i stopped in to check it out a few weeks ago when we were in the area.

we decided to go all out, ordering appetizers off both the raw and cooked menus, plus dessert (which is only available in raw). thankfully, although we ordered several dishes, the some of them were quite small, so we left feeling satisfied but not overly stuffed.

dau hu rang muoi: battered soft tofu seasoned in salt, black pepper, cilantro and jalapeno. $8

for our cooked appetizer, we started with a flash-fried tofu dish called ‘da hu rang muoi,’ which consisted of ultra-soft tofu in a light batter and cooked with salt, pepper, cilantro and jalapeno. this may sound like a typical asian tofu appetizer, but oh my word, it wasn’t! probably the best tofu dish i’ve ever tasted, it was barely coated with batter, completely covered in seasoning, and perfectly soft and moist in the middle.

for our raw appetizer, we went with the chimichurri, which turned out to be two slices of doughy bread with an oil and herb sauce for dipping. i seriously have no clue how they got ‘raw’ bread to taste so fucking good, but this dish was spongy, soft and porous beyond belief. even if you aren’t in to raw food, i’d recommend the chimichurri. not to mention the perfect infusion of fresh herbs and oil…excellent dipping sauce any way you look at it. at $5, it was pretty pricey for two pieces of bread, but i definitely think it was worth it.

chimichurri: dip with garlic bread. $5

for his main course, my husband ordered the ‘bo luc lac’, which was a massive plate of watercress and vegetables tossed in a light vinegar dressing, all topped with several slabs of faux beef. for just ten bucks this thing was absolutely huge, and everything tasted amazing. the soy meat was tender and well seasoned, and all the vegetables tasted extra fresh. i stole several bites of this throughout the meal.

bo luc lac: watercress, soy beef, garic, vinegar dressing, tomato, onion. $10

i went raw on my main dish and ordered jino’s pizza, a small round of raw bread covered in vegetables and a ‘cheese’ sauce. while i ended up liking my pizza in the long run, my enjoyment was overshadowed by the fact it arrived about 20 minutes later than my husband’s main course. in fact, he finished his food before i even started mine! when the pizza finally did arrive, it was delicious, albeit rather small for $12. i guess raw food is just phenomenally expensive any way you look at it, so at least this tasted really good. the crust was soft and squishy, kinda like the chimichurri appetizer, and was covered in just the right amount of herbs and vegetables. the cheese sauce was exceptionally creamy and tangy, and i couldn’t help but wonder what it would taste like on a plate of raw nachos. don’t let the picture fool you, the pizza was very small, maybe 3 or 4 inches across, i’d say the size of a medium pancake.

jinos pizza: roma, sundried tomato, marinara, basil, melted mozzarella. $12

au lac offers a raw dessert menu, and i was told by several people not to leave without trying the donut holes. while i was a bit skeptical of raw donut holes, these suckers definitely converted me. covered in a sugary powder, the round little treats had a distinctively nutty flavor and were filled with a thick rich syrup.

raw donut holes. $7

i actually almost spilled the syrup all over me when biting into the first one, because i didn’t know what to expect! while my husband wasn’t a fan of the donut holes at all, i thought they were wonderful. definitely like nothing i’ve ever eaten before, i highly recommend them.

so overall, our visit to au lac was a great success, leaving us filled to the brim with healthy vegan raw and cooked food. the cuisine there is definitely unusual, as is the decor (think asian-inspired 1980s), so this place may not be for everyone. although if you have an appreciation for raw food or humanese cuisine, or if you are just in for a tasty adventure, au lac will not disappoint.

plus, did i mention they have the coolest parking spots ever? check out the one above…reserved just for me. 🙂

au lac
16563 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 418-0658
Tue-Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Tue-Sun. 5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

It’s been a rip-roaring week in the no-holds-barred quarrums! From Paul McCartney debates to vigilante undercover investigations of vegan dating sites it’s all there. Here are some highlights:

Vegan Pizza Photos. The world is going nuts for vegan pizza. If we didn’t execute tissue samples on the posters of every picture here, we’d be concerned that some of these amazing pizzas might not be vegan!

vegan teese pizza posted by quarrygirl. check out the forums for pix from other users.

Vegan Thai Food Boycott? The world is also going nuts for vegan Thai food. Read about how little of this cuisine really is vegan, and the paces to frequent as well as avoid.

What did you cook today? Tons of great pictures from nutso vegans that cooked food at home.

Share your stories about perceptions others have about you being vegan. Funny observations from others here.

The undercover vegan dating site. Member jvedman went out on a limb to investigate eligible vegans in Atlanta. Read all about out here.

Finally – if you’re on Twitter, check out this topic as it’s full of cool vegan cats to follow.

Are the forums missing anything that you think people should be talking about? If so, feel free to go in and add a topic. The more the merrier!

Happy weekend!

hey kids, i’ve got some good news for ya. today marked the opening of los angeles’ newest vegan restaurant…and it wasn’t vegan thai. that’s right, sunpower natural cafe in studio city opened its doors to the public with organic raw and cooked offerings for the health-conscious, ranging from burgers and salads to quiches and cakes. i know what you are thinking: a 100% vegan restaurant in studio city that doesn’t serve thai food? it sounds too good to be true! fortunately though, sunpower is a reality. you gotta get over there and check them out asap.

i hit up sunpower with my friend and fellow vegan blogger, brittany from sickoflettuce.com, and both of us are dying to go back. for a newly opened establishment, sunpower is already making some bangin good food, and i’m pretty excited to see what the future holds.

chopped seitan salad sandwich: seitan, celery, onions, vegenaise, dill and parsley on a whole grain bun. with a side of hummus and pita. $8

tons of stuff on the menu looked delicious, but i decided to go with the less adventurous seitan salad sandwich. this was basically like an old-fashioned tuna sandwich made with seitan instead of fish, and sunpower really nailed it. the seitan was top notch, the vegenaise was creamy, and the chopped vegetables were fresh and flavorful but not overwhelming. the seitan salad itself was really exceptional. although it sounds a bit boring, it was just so perfectly mixed and the seitan was so succulent, i doubt i could replicate this at home. i’d definitely order it again.

the sandwich came with “choice of side dish” and i went with the pita and hummus, which i loved. other options included coleslaw, cookies, vegetables with dipping sauce, and kale. the hummus turned out to be an excellent choice, because they gave me like a vat of it. 8 bucks for a load of hummus and hearty seitan sandwich? can’t beat that.

for dessert, brittany and i split a slice of the special of the day “cacao cheesecake”. the thing was so rich and dense, it was fucking ridiculous. i loved every bite, but it was so thick that it was hard to eat with a plastic fork! this cheesecake probably could be a meal on its own, it was so decadent. however, it didn’t sit like a brick in my stomach as do many desserts. sunpower really has conquered the intersection of delicious and healthy(er).

vegan cacao cheesecake. $6

a few things to note about sunpower: they are a ‘take out’ restaurant officially…kinda like seed in venice. so while they have tables, your food is served in to-go containers and you pay at the counter. the service is great and the meals come out super fast. this is an excellent choice if you are in a hurry. also, the staff and ownership are pretty passionate about veganism. we really felt at home there and the people serving us showed genuine concern that our food was good. hell, they even invited us to an animal rights conference happening soon in LA! total vegan homies. oh, and they were also open to criticism…so if you eat here and don’t 100% love everything, they seem like the kinda people who would appreciate your feedback.

so vegans, let’s welcome this new animal-free restaurant to los angeles. get your asses out to studio city and eat at sunpower natural cafe!

sunpower natural cafe
3711 Cahuenga Blvd
Studio City, CA
(818) 308-7420
11am to 8:30pm, 7 days a week

hey everyone, just another quick vegan update from coachella. if you are an adult (or a cool kid with a fake ID) attending the festival today, be sure to get over to the beer garden across from the sahara tent and try some of the vegan pizza from slices…it’s amazing. that’s right, VEGAN NY-STYLE PIZZA at coachella.

vegan pesto pizza at coachella. $6/slice

i would have never thought to go to the sahara beer garden in search of vegan food, but luckily a quarrygirl.com reader named nick read my last post about coachella and told me i needed to try this place. i guess slices has been selling vegan pizza in the beer garden for years…i don’t know how i missed this place. seriously, the pizza was incredible. enormous thin slices you can fold in half with a light and crispy crust, all topped with a flavorful pesto sauce and huge chunks of vegetables.

slices even advertises one of their pizzas as vegan (you don’t have to modify it or anything)…and the vegan stuff goes really fast. when we got our pizza, they were just taking a new pie out of the oven and it was all sold within about 5 minutes.

there are tons of places to get pizza at coachella, but so far this is the only vegan-friendly place i’ve seen. it kind of sucks that it’s in the beer garden, so it’s off limits to people under 21. and the only other decent vegan food at coachella is in the VIP section. what fucking gives? i guess you have to be either old or rich to eat amimal-free at this festival.

sunday coachella goers, have a great time out there today. hope you check out tons of awesome bands and get some vegan pizza. thanks to reader nick for finding this place.

hey vegans, quarrygirl here reporting from coachella. yesterday in between drinking $7 beers, watching morrissey, and waiting in line for the bathroom, i was running around snapping vegan options all over the festival with my iphone. i wrote a quick post from my phone but had to delete it upon finding out that some of the stuff i suggested contained honey. so here is the updated info on vegan coachella 2009:

the best spot for vegan food is definitely inside the vip area. there you have luscious organic desserts selling a kick-ass selection of vegan cupcakes, plus a raw vegan stand called jenny’s. i had a cupcake from luscious and it totally blew my mind. more to come on that later.

luscious organic desserts

jenny's raw organic

if you don’t have vip access, never fear…you can get food in the dining area across from the dance tents. over there they have sweet leaf, an almost all vegan organic stand…except there is honey in all their dressings. so grab a wrap or salad at sweet leaf…just get it with no sauce or dressing. there is also a mexican stand called leno’s that uses no lard and a curry/mex stand called cowboys and turbans that sells vegan tofu masala. there’s also a middle eastern stand where you can get a falafel sandwich and some garlic fries.

sweet leaf

leno's lard free mexican

cowboys and turbans

so that’s it for now. if you are at coachella this weekend, i hope you enjoy the festival and that this helps you find somewhere to eat!

according to their myspace blog, doomie’s home cookin’ has officially closed for business in its current location. we reported on their temporary closure yesterday, and today it’s looking a lot more permanent.

on a hopeful note, they state that doomie’s is planning to open again in a new location by the end of the year.

unfortunately, on the first day of february, the end of the year is a long, long way away.

i don’t know what to say, i am completely and utterly shocked and saddened by this news. they were one of my favorite spots in los angeles, no doubt. 

as the blog says, DOOMIE’S IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR CATERING. if anyone is interested in pitching in ten bucks and having an awesome, vegan mac ‘n cheese throw down, please contact me. let’s give doomie’s some catering business whenever we can.

vegan los angeles is definitely changed now that doomie’s has closed its doors; i will miss the awesome food, great service, and all around unhealthy-tasting and delicious home-cookin’.

philly cheesesteak: strips of beef smothered in cheese piled with grilled onions and mushrooms. $8.75

i hope doomie’s comes back. i mean, WTF…they had the best vegan junk food i’ve ever tasted. not fair i tell ya, fucking not fair.

to keep track of doomie’s and what they are up to, friend them on myspace. they deserve all the support they can get from our vegan community!

UPDATE: since this post, doomie’s has closed for business. this is very sad news, and we hope they will be back up and running again soon. for old times’ sake, the original post on doomie’s follows. but please note, the restaurant is CLOSED.

It was late on a Friday afternoon, and I found myself wandering Skid Row on foot in Downtown LA. Don’t ask how I got there, what I was doing there or even why I’m writing this post (some things are best left unasked), but I was very glad that it happened to be my wedding anniversary and my wife, coincidentally, was with me.

We were tired, a little inebriated and more than a little hungry when we trekked through the ghetto to Chinatown towards Doomie’s. As always, finding the place is challenging, not least because it’s elevated off the street, has no visible signage (other than a windswept cloth banner) and the entrance is a foreboding set of steps surrounding a disused elevator that bring you to a patio above street level where you will wander into a dark, disused nightclub that looks like (and is about as welcoming as) back-stage when a band has finished playing.

Once the staff notice you’re there, you begin to realize that the book which is Doomie’s should not be judged by the cover of its approach. You will be welcomed by a knowledgeable server (in this case the daughter of one of the owners) who will stop at nothing to make sure you’re seated right and served so well.

Although there were only two of us, we were sat at a nice large table which had a great view of Chinatown and the Hollywood Hills, replete with our own heat lamp to ward off the dim December gloom.

From the extensive menu we chose some dishes that looked to be filling and tasty – and we were not disappointed.

country fried steak: this beefy, breaded bad boy comes smothered in our homemade country gravy! your choice of roasted reds or garlic rosemary mashed potatoes. $9.95

I plumped for the Country Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. Now, I’ve never had a real fried steak, but this concoction of seitan and crispy batter was so damn good I wolfed it down in a jiffy along with the perfectly creamy mashed potatoes.

The wife opted for the absolutely humongous “Meatball Samich” which is a gooey tomato sauce fest of firm meatballs, soft bread and tangy marinara. Oh, and the welcome side of onion rings were to die for.

meatball samich: our homemade meatballs smothered in marinara sauce and melted cheese! real cheese or make it vegan. $8.95

We cleaned our plates, and relaxed back full but not stuffed while we watched the shenanigans of Chinatown down below. At all times our server was there for us, and was cheerful and informative.

You see, the experience at Doomie’s is anything but Fine Dining. If you want that, go to Real Food Daily, stand in line for ages and pay $20 for an entree. If you are more focussed on tasty good value food and friendly service then Doomie’s will go the extra mile to ensure you’re satisfied.

Doomie’s has all the traits of a family business staffed by people who really care that you have a good experience. On the evening we were there we ran into Doomie himself, two generations of the owners and Doomie’s girlfriend. How often does that happen when you go out to eat?

Doomie’s again delivered wonderful service and (just like they say) “Home Cookin'” that is the perfect intersection of professionally produced restaurant food and the stuff that mom used to make. Only you don’t need your mom no more, as Doomie is there to cook for you, and it’s highly unlikely he’ll ask you to go tidy your room before he serves the food.

coachella saturday was the day of technical difficulties. the screens went out during death cab for cutie‘s set, when M.I.A. took the stage the lights broke, and the biggest technical difficulty of all made us several hours late for the festival, causing us to miss the beloved MGMT.

luckily, the food was even better than it was on friday! god bless vegan rockers—at coachella, i reap the benefits of their dietary choices.

combination plate: coconut rice with dal and tomato pea curry $8

taking veganism one step further than the night prior, on saturday we decided to eat dinner at the bombay station, a stand that proclaimed to be ENTIRELY vegan.
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