Your Vegan Mom

10 Hot Vegan Dates

Sparked by a topic that our lunchtime conversation briefly rested upon on Sunday, I have since been compiling a list of fun vegan dates in Los Angeles. They are all cheap, and they all take advantage of summer. A winter addition of this list will be coming later in the year as the city briefly retires indoors and the air is crisp and clear. So for now, wether you are hoping to romance a vegan, just looking for something different to do this summer, or are reading this because you're related to me and feel obliged to do so, I am now going to tell you what to do next Saturday night. I am very bossy. That is actually a major reason for this blog, to give me a fictional audience to command. Now, go, do this:

1. Meet in Marina Del Rey after work. Begin with silly tropical drinks at the Warehouse to break the ice. There's really nothing for you to eat here, so now move onto Antica Pizzeria. You know good pizza. You know that any schlock covered with cheese is probably going to be palatable to most people, but truly good pizza does not need cheese. Truly good pizza is unashamed to step forward and flaunt its saucy undressed crust. At Antica Pizzeria you will eat truly good pizza.

2. I know that this one is pretty obvious, but you can't beat this classic summer date: take a picnic to the Hollywood Bowl. You might stop and pick up dinner from M Cafe de Chaya or, if your family is living on one modest salary while one of you stays home to write a food blog, then you should make dinner. How about this and this and preferably this to have with the thermos of coffee that you bring for later?

3. Get dinner at Native Foods in Westwood. If this is an early-on date skip the big ol' sloppy sandwiches and pizza and opt instead for an appetizer to share like the "Save the Chicken" Wings or Tempeh Chips, followed by a salad or hot bowl. Now go see a movie, preferably a good one at the Fox or Bruin. Or go see a screening at UCLA. Or go visit the Hammer Museum. They're open until 9:00 on Thursdays and the museum is free all summer. How cool is that?

4. Meet in Redondo Beach, ideally an hour before sunset. Park on the Esplanade around Avenue I. Take the stairs down to the beach and walk north until you get to the pier. Go have a sunset cocktail at Tony's. The bar is upstairs. If you order a sickly sweet mai tai you get to keep the glass. Or if you prefer beer dive to midcentury nautical, then go to Naja's where they have a slew of good beer on top. Grab a bar stool and watch the light change. When you're good and tipsy and the conversation is flowing, head back towards the car where you will continue up Avenue I a block to find a healthy little joint in which to sober up: Green Temple. Sit outside in the courtyard.

5. Meet at the Farmer's Market on a Thursday or Friday night during the summer when they have live music. Depending on what you're in the mood for, you might get tacos from Loteria Grill (a bonus here-you can sit at the bar and watch them make your food, it might provide something to do if the conversation lags) or Malaysian food at Singapore's Banana Leaf. Start with the Roti Paratha to share, then order the Mee Goreng with tofu, no egg, and the Rojak Salad. Ah the Rojak Salad, that is a sexy food for a sultry night. Eat it. Now, obviously, grab a cocktail and go listen to the band.

6. For a langorous Sunday afternoon date, you should go get lunch at Coco Renos a tiny taco place in the Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach. They prepare three different vegan tacos (normally served with cheese, order without dairy) for you to choose from on their extensive menu. And they have good beer on tap, notably Fat Tire and Stella Artois. Now stroll off your lunch on the way to the Long Beach Museum of Art located on the bluff in a beautiful old craftsman house. If you really want to Long Beach it up, go right now when you can see the "Looking at Long Beach" exhibit. (I can't vouch, I haven't seen it.) Loving Long Beach and don't want your date to end? Go get dinner at Zephyr Cafe and maybe catch a show.

7. Go have a late lunch or an early dinner at The Trails in Griffith Park before heading up the trail to the newly reopened Griffith Observatory.

8. One Thursday evening this summer, ride your bikes to Good Karma in Venice. Find a nice bench to eat your chipotle chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries. Then pedal north to the Santa Monica pier to enjoy the free live music at the summer Twilight Dance Series. Too good to go home? Go get chocolate pudding from Real Food Daily.

9. Meet for a cocktail in the late afternoon at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood when the bar is quiet and the waiters are gossipy. Stroll east down Hollywood Blvd. to the rustic little vegan restaurant cleverly named, "Truly a Vegan Restaurant" which adheres to the Vegan Express School of vegan dining. Pick up the metro at Hollywood and Vine. You will only take it one stop, so if you're up for more of a walk, by all means do so, but I'm giving you options. As I was saying, take the metro to Hollywood and Highland where you will go see a movie at Grauman's Chinese, or walk back toward Musso and Frank's to see something at the Egyptian.

10. I've decided that I'm saving this one for the winter edition. So, what do you got? What's a vegan to do in your neighborhood? And Paul, I'm just cutting you off at the "dumpster diving" head. I appreciate the spirit of economy, but I'm afraid you're going to need to think of something more girl-friendly, or summer-friendly for that matter. Okay, I can't leave you with the smell of garbage, but I have a similarly unpleasant note to add. I am not guaranteeing the veganness of any of these establishments. Real Food Daily, Native Foods, and Good Karma are completely vegan. At the other places please make your needs clear. I can say that they are all vegan-friendly. There, friendly is a good note to leave on.

Tuesday Night Dinner

It was late. I didn't feel like cooking, but the salad greens wouldn't make it another day and we did need to eat. I had some leftover grilled tofu, and there's always corn in the freezer. Here is the result- a simple meal-worthy salad for a Tuesday night. This would be the perfect thing to do with a leftover ear of grilled corn on the cob and some barbecued tofu. As it it was were pretty dang good.

Here is an approximation of the Maple-Dijon Vinaigrette that I made:
(I will revise this asap with more precise measurements.)

1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
dash of cayenne
pinch of salt
crank of black pepper
1 tsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. flaxseed oil

Whisk together all ingredients except oil, whisk in oil. Toss with lettuce and top with barbecued tofu and corn.

Again, to Vietnam

I consider any day in which I get to taste something new a pretty good day. Today was great. Look at that warm soy custard flavored with pandan leaf and swimming in slightly salty coconut milk and sweet, pungent ginger syrup. Such an exotically comforting dish, which is, apart from being a new taste, even a new sensation. We just returned from our first long anticipated trip to Vinh Loi Tofu in Reseda, and I understand now why that small pudding is so freakin' big. I can't stop eating it. At first bite, I wasn't smitten, but it kept sneaking up on me until I was polishing off my third little dish.

My fire to visit this Vietnamese Tofu Factory/ Vegan Cafe was rekindled by the frequent postings on To Live and Eat in L.A. And here's a funny story (not laugh-out-loud funny, more hunh funny, so don't be disappointed)- there was another hungry vegan lurking around the beautifully photographed plates of that enticingly fresh and spicy fare. As we both left comments, we discovered that we knew each other from a decade ago. So we arranged to meet up for lunch today to become reacquainted over plates of fried tofu and spring rolls.

Here my old friend, the Toulousaine, models our partially eaten lunch. So pretty. I'm so embarrassed to take pictures of food in public, hence the frequent pictures of the baby.

That fried tofu. It comes in three varieties: chili-lemongrass, mushroom-noodle, or plain. I loved the spicy triangles of firm tofu spiked with lemongrass and chili. We dipped them in both peanut sauce kicked up with a bit of sriracha and coconut sauce which is akin to a light sweet and sour. We didn't try the fresh tofu which was a major reason for our visit because I was distracted, hungry and grouchy from fighting our way through traffic from the Hollywood Farmers' Market. Next time.

But we did try a fairly sizeable portion of the menu. We had two different kinds of spring rolls, a rice noodle salad with sliced "beef" called bun bi thit nuong or number #5 if you prefer, two different "chicken", rice, and vege combos in addition to the fried tofu and pudding for dessert. We were a bit divided over which chicken dish was best. I found the ginger chicken to be a bit salty, while I loved the flavor of the lemongrass chicken. Paul liked the sauciness of the ginger chicken, and felt the lemongrass chicken was a bit dry (he was wrong however), and Toulousaine, what did you think? We were united on the perfection of the beef noodle salad though. It's one of those huge bowls of crisp lettuce and fresh herbs, shredded carrot and cool noodles, and crispy sliced beef drizzled with that light coconut sauce...a perfect summer meal.

I'm going back for the soup, obviously the fresh tofu, and maybe a sandwich to take to the park, oh, and the cake, how did we neglect to try the cake? Thank you for an enjoyable afternoon Toulousaine (would you prefer another moniker?) and To Live and Eat in L.A. for making it possible. I love this crazy world wide web. Here, I leave you with the Lemongrass Chicken.

Tree People

This is to rectify my photoless post from Casa de Tree. At the time I expected you to just trust me that their bakery was absolutely lovely, but look at that. It is, isn't it? And it is absolutely delicious, all at once wholesome and refined. It has the decadence, the buttery crunch of French pastry, but you taste so much more. It has a round nutty flavor that backs up the perfectly ripe fruit. I thank you Casa de Tree people, you have made my world delicious.

An Afternoon in the Vietnamese Countryside

As I have often professed, well maybe not to you because I'm new here in this here...I just can't bring myself to say blogosphere, I'm a late adopter when it comes to language and most things really...vegan blogging community, one of the things that I love about Los Angeles is the fact that you can see something new everyday. This sunny side of L.A.'s much derided urban sprawl means endless adventures for Your Vegan Mom who can't actually travel anywhere exotic at the moment. Since jetting off to Southeast Asia is sadly not in our near future, Paul and Desmond and I took off down the 405 last weekend to Little Saigon.

Though the area needs much more investigating, probably with a bit of planning first which really isn't our style, we had a quick tasty jaunt into the region. On our way to lunch we realized that all, literally all, of our adventures consist of setting off absolutley famished to some far-flung corner of the city to sample some storied vegan treat that we hungrily dream about as we search for parking only to discover that it's closed for the lunar new year or for good as of 3 years ago. Why don't we ever plan ahead? At least this time Paul had the good sense to call. The woman on the phone assured him that they were in fact open. Yes, but did she say, "Van Hanh" when she answered? Paul was unsure, so at this point we at least knew that there was some place of business open in Little Saigon. Good enough for us. As it turned out, this was not one of our disappointing adventures. We found it. They were still there. Baby slept, so I hopped out to get us a picnic.

Upon entering the restaurant you are greeted with a big L-shaped steam table a la that $1 Chinese place or Panda Express (as another sidenote, this entry is simply full of them, can't seem to stop myself, did you know that everything at Panda Express, except for the steamed rice, has some kind of chicken flavoring in it? So much for that reliable fast food.) As I was saying, unlike Panda Express, this is a vegetarian Vietnamese cafeteria. The woman behind the counter didn't speak English, and I, alas, don't speak Vietnamese, so I simply pointed at the most exotic looking dishes and she packed 2 three-item combos to go. I grabbed some prepackaged dumplings, and shelled out $14.83 for our feast. We took our meal to El Dorado Regional Park where we wrested a patch of grass from a family setting up for some big ol' shindig.

We dined on bitter melon stuffed with a tofu mixture (which was a little too true to its name for me, I think it may be an aqcuired taste, though Paul liked it) and fake fish in a light, slightly sweet sauce that was enjoyed by all, even P. the former fish hater,

and an unpictured curry of sweet potatoes and tofu in a rather sweet coconuty broth.

We also ate vermicelli with shredded carrot and bean sprouts and this delicious little tofu cake served on top of half a grilled tomato.

You might notice that there are no dumplings pictured. We devoured them in the car as we drove to the park. I told you that these adventures always begin with delirious hunger. The dumplings were delicious though, slippery and loose with a mild tofu-mushroom filling served with crispy little fried onions and cool bean sprouts to add texture and contrast to the silky dumpling and a sweet vegetarian nuoc cham for dipping. I love a condiment heavy culture.

The boy ate a puree of peas and spinach with brown rice cereal and applesauce. (He doesn't usually express his love through bib messages, but come on, it was Father's Day.)

And we took a baby-size hike through the nature center on the 1/4 mile paved loop. There is also an extensive network of unpaved trails for you more adventurous sorts.

This felt so far from Los Angeles, so far from the junction of the 405 and 605, it was a perfect little afternoon in another country. There were even turtles.