Vive le Euphoria Loves Rawvolution

I tend to have a love-hate relationship with raw cuisine.  Sometimes it can be really good, and sometimes it just makes me want to gag.  I think I initially put off raw cuisine, because my first experiences were more of the gagging kind.  Luckily, I persevered and found items I liked.  One place with some tasty raw cuisine is Euphoria Loves Rawvolution in Santa Monica.

One of my new favorites at Euphoria is their Warm Adzuki Bean Miso Soup ($4 cup/$7.50 bowl) – soy free miso with homemade Nofu, scallions, and mushrooms.  The Nofu just melts in your mouth and the broth has great flavor.  I’m going to remember this soup when I feel a cold coming on.

Euphoria Loves Rawvolution Miso Soup

Miso Soup

I also got a Taco Salad ($11.50) – walnut taco meat, guacamole, and tangy mayo on a bed of lettuce.  This thing was huge!  I had to take half of it home.  The taco meat was very filling and they give enough of the topping so you can have some with each bite of lettuce.  I really hate it when places are stingy with the dressing.

Euphoria Loves Rawvolution Taco Salad

Taco Salad

My vegan guy got the Avocado Cheese Scramble ($10) – homemade cashew scramble with avocado, sunflower seed cheese, red bell peppers, red onions, and marinated mushrooms served with heirloom purple corn chips.  I had a tiny taste of it and really liked it.  He also enjoyed the dish.  Good thing breakfast is served all day, so we can get this anytime.

Euphoria Loves Rawvolution Avocado Cheese Scramble

Avocado Cheese Scramble

Euphoria Loves Rawvolution is located at:

2301 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 392-9501

Open 10am to 9:30pm daily

Topanga Earth Day 2012

Last Sunday was Earth Day.  While everyday should be Earth Day, it’s still fun to have festivals every year that bring out eco-minded businesses and food.  This year, I attended the Topanga Earth Day Festival in Topanga Canyon.  I had never heard of this event, but apparently it’s been going on for more than a decade.

Topanga Earth Day

Topanga Earth Day

This event was a lot of fun.  There were many vendors, music, speakers, and even a small film fest.  I’d like to go again next year.

Of course my favorite part of the event was the food.  They had a separate area for food.  Most of the vendors here had vegan options.

Topanga Earth Day Food Vendors

Food Vendors

Some of the food vendors there were La Dolce Vita Gourmet selling gourmet cashew butter sandwiches (vegan options), The Vegan Joint, Green Truck, and JAM Vegan Bakery.

I went with a Mother Trucker® Vegan Burger from the Green Truck and opted to add avocado.  This burger is made with a vegan veggie burger, made from scratch out of local vegetables, topped with Suzie’s sunflower sprouts, heirloom tomato, and beet sauce.  I had had this burger years ago and didn’t like it.  I remember it to be either too chewy or too dry.  Either way, it was not the case this time.  It was moist and delicious.

Green Truck Vegan Burger

Green Truck Vegan Burger

Whenever vegan treats are available, I always save room in my tummy.  JAM Vegan Bakery made an appearance and provided very tasty goodies.  I got a Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, Strawberry Cream Cupcake, and an Orange Cake Pop.  Nothing beats peanut butter and chocolate – I thought this cupcake was delicious.  The Strawberry Cream Cupcake had the most wonderfully fresh strawberry frosting.  It had vanilla cake with a real strawberry baked in.  I like the idea, but would have rather had smaller pieces of strawberries baked in, instead of one large one mushing up the center of my cupcake.  The Orange Cake Pop was a super sweet orange cake ball coated in chocolate.  I love being able to take part in this trend (who else makes vegan cake pops?).

JAM Vegan Bakery Goods

JAM Vegan Bakery: Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, Strawberry Cream Cupcake, Orange Cake Pop

Come next Earth Day, I highly recommend this event.  And remember, make an effort everyday to do your part to Save the Earth!

Detox Food Box from Leaf Cuisine

Like so many of you, I bought a Groupon for a three-day detox food box from Leaf Cuisine.  This detox food box included a lot of juices with some raw salads, a soup, and a raw entree.  I purchased this box for $59, but it had a value of $125.

Leaf Cuisine Detox Food Box

Detox Food Box

Day 1 included four drinks.  I was glad I ate breakfast before picking up my box, because I went to bed hungry this night (no telling how hungry I would have been without that breakfast!).

The first drink I had was their Got Greens Juice.  This juice includes celery, kale, parsley, and cucumber.  I don’t like cucumbers and this reeked of them!  I gagged this one down and proceeded to my next juice:  a Veggie Combo Juice.  This juice includes carrot, celery, beets, and kale.  The color just reminds me of cough syrup, so drinking this one had its own mental challenge to overcome.  It did have a sweet carrot flavor, but I still had to remind myself it wasn’t that nasty medicine.  Every time I took a drink, I had to say to myself that carrots are good!  Mmmm, carrots!  After gagging down that juice, I moved on to the Druids Detox Juice.  This one includes burdock root, lemon, apple, ginger, agave, and cayenne.  Oh dear, maybe I’m not cut out for juicing.  The taste was bad and left a spicy grossness in my throat.  Oh please, High Fiber Chocolate Mylkshake, be my saving grace!  Upon first sip, I thought it was too bitter, but definitely way better than the last three drinks I had consumed.  It was thick and satiating.  Two more days to go, but at least I knew the mylkshake was palatable.

Leaf Cuisine Day 1 Cleanse

Day 1: (left to right) Got Greens Juice, Veggie Combo Juice, Druids Detox Juice, High Fiber Chocolate Mylkshake

Day 2 started off with another High Fiber Chocolate Mylkshake.  The flavor was less bitter than the night before.  So far, so good.  I had an early lunch of their raw Gazpacho soup.  I was never really a fan of gazpacho – to me it’s like eating cold salsa.  The flavor of this soup was good, but I really wanted some freshly fried tortilla chips to scoop it up (it’s only day 2 and I’m already succumbing to evil food thoughts!).

Leaf Cuisine Gazpacho

Gazpacho

My Day 2 mid-day meal was a Hale Kale Salad.  This was loaded with kale.  I felt like a cow chewing all those tough leafy greens.  The dressing had a spicy kick to it, but there was not nearly enough to cover the bitter kale flavor.

Leaf Cuisine Hale Kale Salad

Hale Kale Salad

My Day 2 dinner was a Caesar Salad.  This salad includes romaine, tomatoes, crawtons, and dressing.  This salad was huge!  It had a nice topping of these cheesy flavored nuts.  The crawtons gave the salad some added texture and the dressing was tasty.  After dinner I had another Druid Detox Juice to drink.  I was starting to notice the sweetness in this drink – are my taste buds adapting that quickly?  It went down a lot easier than the day before.

Leaf Cuisine Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad

On Day 3, I started off with my last High Fiber Chocolate Mylkshake.  By day 3, I am really enjoying this shake.  It’s a lot less bitter than on day 1.  Mid-Day I have a Probiotic Salad.  This salad includes lettuce, sauerkraut, sprouts, carrots, sprouted mung beans, and probably some other vegetables I am forgetting to mention.  I liked this salad the best.  There were so many textures in this salad, that it made it easier to eat (who really wants to just chew on lettuce?).  To wash it down, I was provided with a Kombucha.  I’ve had Kombucha before, but never really got into it.  It’s a drink with an interesting flavor, that one must taste to really get a grasp of.  Let’s just say that I didn’t find it hard to drink, but won’t be getting it again anytime soon.

Leaf Cuisine Probiotic Salad and Kombucha

Probiotic Salad and Kombucha

My last dinner was a Bedouin Burrito.  The filling on this burrito was a sprouted chickpea hummus.  I love hummus, so this burrito suited me well.  While I still prefer conventional hummus, this burrito was still very tasty.  I loved that it was wrapped in lettuce and not some weird raw tortilla trying to taste like a delicious flour tortilla.  My final drink was another Druids Detox Juice.  It’s not bad by day 3.  I am very aware of the sweet taste now and not so much focused on the spicy ginger or cayenne.  I am still very surprised at the rapid change my taste buds went through.

Leaf Cuisine Bedouin Burrito

Bedouin Burrito

My final thought about this detox box was that I was glad I did it, but I won’t be continuing this type of diet for the long run.  If I were to ever get into juicing, I’d need to experiment and find a drink I actually like gulping down (one not based on cucumbers – yuck!).  I thought the deal I got was really good and that the value they say this detox box is was dead on.

Leaf Cuisine has food boxes available at full price.  If you are looking to detox or start a raw foods diet, I definitely recommend starting with Leaf Cuisine.  The time and effort they put into their food is time and effort you don’t have to do.  Check out their Luscious Living Boxes here.

Another Trip to Golden Mean Cafe

Thinking of all the veg*n restaurants in LA, I would say that Golden Mean Cafe in Santa Monica is one of my favorites.  I love the variety of menu items (and the daily selection of desserts!).

My vegan guy and I went during their weekend brunch.  I took advantage of their brunch menu and my vegan guy took advantage of one of their daily specials.

My breakfast burrito ($10.95) included tofu scramble, veggie sausage, soy-free cheese, pico de gallo and was served with a side of potatoes.  This burrito was huge and delicious.  The side of potatoes were well seasoned and also delicious.  I love breakfast burritos and will be getting this one again.

Golden Mean Breakfast Burrito

Breakfast Burrito

My vegan guy got the Tempeh Reuben ($11.95) which included tempeh, sauerkraut, soy-free cheese, and their special dressing.  It came with your choice of side – kelp noodle salad in this case.  This reuben was so good!  It was one of the best reubens I think I’ve had.  It was so juicy and the sauce was wonderful.  I hope they turn this special into a regular menu item.

Golden Mean Tempeh Reuben

Tempeh Reuben

I really wanted to get one of their many desserts, but was pretty full from the breakfast burrito.  I ended up getting one of their new offerings: raw truffles.  Yep, they now offer a variety of raw truffles in exotic flavors. I had them pick a flavor for me (I’m still not sure which one it was).  This thing was super creamy, but (as you’ll see is common in my posts) the raw chocolate was a little too bitter for me.  For those who like that very dark chocolate flavor, these will be heavenly.

Golden Mean Truffle

New at Golden Mean: Raw Chocolate Truffles

Golden Mean is located at 1028 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401  310-393-6500

Sunday – Thursday 11 – 9pm
Friday – Saturday 11 – 9:30pm

Milky’s Frozen Yogurt

Los Angelenos finally have a fro-yo place that has vegan options!  Milky’s Frozen Yogurt sells regular dairy flavors and FOUR vegan flavors!   Look how wonderfully easy it is to find the vegan options.

Milky's

Inside Milky’s

The vegan flavors are made with organic soymilk and are self-serve (so you can mix and match).  Just take a cup, fill it, add any toppings, and pay by weight.

Milky's Poster

Poster Inside Milky’s

On the day that I went with my vegan guy our flavor options were chocolate, original, caramel, and strawberry-kiwi.  I ended up getting the first three (they were out of the strawberry-kiwi).  I thought the consistency was spot on.  Just as creamy as the dairy version.  My vegan guy and I both thought there wasn’t enough caramel flavor, though.  I found that the caramel flavor and original flavor tasted almost the same.  The chocolate was perfectly chocolatey- not too bitter.  I also didn’t taste any “beany” flavor that I’ve tasted in vegan varieties at other shops.  Unfortunately, they were all way to tangy for me and my vegan guy.  Apparently they are supposed to be that tangy?  I never remember having tangy dairy frozen yogurt in my life (and I was a frozen yogurt fiend back in the day!).  I actually don’t remember plain dairy yogurts (Yoplait-type) to be that tangy, either.   I still don’t even think soy yogurts (like WholeSoy) are tangy as well.  Am I completely wrong?  Maybe the fad when I ate dairy frozen yogurt was more sweet and less tang (like how I’ve heard it is now in modern Pinkberry-syle places).  For this reason, I probably won’t be back (sadness), but you should definitely check it out for yourself.  Maybe you’ll disagree with me.

Milky's Frozen Yogurt

Chocolate, Original, and Caramel Frozen Yogurts

The sign out front makes it super easy to recognize.  I love seeing “vegan” proudly displayed on buildings!

Milky's Frozen Yogurt

Milky’s Frozen Yogurt

Milky’s is located at:
1429 S Robertson Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Mon – Fri :11 am-11 pm
Sat: 11 am-12 am
Sun: 11 am-11 pm

Cafe Muse in Hollywood

Cafe Muse is a great cafe to go hang out or get on your computer and do some work.  They have a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan food (one real tuna dish as well).  They also offer free wi-fi.

Their menu keeps adding many more vegan options.  The addition of Daiya cheese makes modifying their vegetarian items to vegan even easier.  On our last trip to Cafe Muse, my vegan guy got the BBQ Chicken Sandwich ($9.95): veggie chicken cutlets topped with melted cheese, mushrooms & red onions grilled in BBQ sauce, on a whole-wheat roll.  It’s served with your choice of sweet-potato fries, tri-flavor tortilla chips or salad of mixed greens.  I had a bite and thought the chicken, Daiya, mushrooms, and BBQ sauce were excellent. The BBQ sauce is thick and sweet – just the way I like it.  However, the roll was too “wheaty” for both of us.

Cafe Muse BBQ Chicken Sandwich

BBQ Chicken Sandwich

I got a vegan pizza ($11.95): 10” pizza on whole-wheat crust with cheese and your choice of 3 toppings.  For my toppings, I got grilled chicken, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes.  Again, everything was excellent except the crust.  It was too “wheaty” for me.

Cafe Muse Pizza

Pizza with Veggie Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Mushrooms

For dessert, Cafe Muse offers some vegan options.  I went with the cheesecake.  It was a basic vanilla flavor.  It was cold and creamy and hit the spot after the cheesy pizza, but the top of this cheesecake had a thick skin to it.  It created an interesting texture that I would have liked to avoid, but overall it was a nice dessert.

Cafe Muse Cheesecake

Cheesecake

Cafe Muse is located at:

6547 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles 90038
323-464-MUSE

Monday – Thursday 9am – 11pm (kitchen closes at 10pm)
Friday & Saturday 9am – 12am (kitchen closes at 11pm)
Sunday 9am – 10pm (kitchen closes at 9pm)


Golden Mean Cafe in Santa Monica

Golden Mean Cafe is a cozy all vegan restaurant in Santa Monica.  They have a variety of dishes including salads, sandwiches, International entrees, desserts, and even brunch on weekends.

For a recent lunch, my vegan guy went healthy and got a Cobb salad ($12.95): romaine hearts, tofu egg, breaded chicken, tomato, and cashew cheese in a creamy ranch dressing.  OK, well maybe ranch and breaded chicken isn’t exactly the epitome of health, but it sure was good.

Golden Mean Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad

I got the Chicken Parmigiana ($13.75): breaded chicken served with ancient grain pasta in a tomato sauce, topped with Daiya soy-free cheese and served with mixed green salad.  The salad was your basic side salad with a nice dressing.  The chicken parmigiana part was amazing.  The pasta was light on sauce, but not on flavor and the slice of chicken had just the right amount of crispy to it.  I want to eat this again right now.

Golden Mean Chicken Parmigiana

Chicken Parmigiana

Gold Mean has a nice bakery case full of vegan desserts.  This little guy caught my eye: a gluten free chocolate, pumpkin brownie topped with chocolate ganache ($4.25).  Gluten free goodies tend to have a grainy texture – not this one.  It had a wonderful flavor that even my vegan guy (not a sweets person) couldn’t resist taking a few bites.

Golden Mean Pumpkin Brownie

Gluten Free Pumpkin Brownie

Golden Mean is located at 1028 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401  310-393-6500

Sunday – Thursday 11 – 9pm
Friday – Saturday 11 – 9:30pm

Vegan Pizza at Cruzer Pizza in LA

Cruzer Pizza is an all vegan pizza shop in Los Angeles.  This place used to be all meat, then switched to all vegan, and is now under new ownership and have since added even more vegan options.

While I wanted to get their Cheese Bread Sticks for a starter (they are so good!), I decided to get something new.  Their Potato Skins ($5.99) sounded great, but actually weren’t that good.  The Daiya and marinara were the good parts, but the potato part didn’t really taste like much.

Cruzer Potato Skins

Potato Skins with Marinara and Daiya Cheese

I love pasta – especially pasta that is more than just noodles and marinara sauce (I’m talking to you generic meat-serving restaurants).  Cruzer Pizza has a plethora of vegan pasta dishes.  I got their Chicken Parmigiana ($9.99): noodles, marinara, and chicken all topped with Daiya.  I really liked this dish.  Their marinara sauce is great and the chicken wasn’t chewy.  My only problem was that it was a bit watery at the bottom.  It seems like the noodles weren’t drained well enough when taken from the pot of water to the serving container.

Cruzer Chicken Parmigiana

Chicken Parmigiana

And of course we got a pizza from Cruzer Pizza.  My vegan guy opted for the Hawaiian Pizza ($15.99): tomato sauce, Daiya, pineapple, and ham.  I love Cruzer’s crust- not too thick and not too thin- and they always add just the right amount of toppings.

Cruzer Hawaiian Pizza

Medium Hawaiian Pizza

You can even order online instead of calling it in.  Cruzer Pizza is located at:

4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323.666.0600

Monday – Saturday 11am – 11pm
Sunday 11am – 10pm

Trip 2 to Hugo’s Restaurant

I took another trip to Hugo’s Restaurant in West Hollywood and again I couldn’t resist some of their monthly specials.  Sadly for you, I went on the last weekend of the month and didn’t have a chance to post these amazing dishes in time.  I do hope they add these to their regular menu.  Both dishes I got were superb!

For an appetizer, I got their Grilled Polenta & Portabello Ragout ($7.75): grilled polenta topped with sautéed diced portabello mushrooms, artichoke hearts, broccolini, and sun dried tomato, in a cashew-cream marsala-tomato sauce and sprinkled with fresh chopped basil.  I wish they bottled this sauce.  Vegans don’t have a creamy red sauce readily available in grocery store and I think our time has come – Hugo’s, are you listening?!  I loved this dish.

Hugo's Polenta and Portobello Ragout

Polenta and Portobello Ragout

For my entree I ordered their special of Oyster Mushroom Tacos ($12.75): warm corn tortillas filled with breaded crispy fried oyster mushrooms and topped with shredded lettuce, jalapeno-marinated vegetables, fire-roasted-tomato salsa and cilantro. Served with chopped romaine salad and Caesar dressing.  I already knew I’d love this dish, because I’ve been recently obsessed with oyster mushrooms.  These mushrooms were perfectly seasoned and not too oily.  The salad was also wonderful.  I couldn’t think of anything I would change about this dish.

Hugo's Oyster Mushroom Tacos

Oyster Mushroom Tacos

In case you missed it in my first post about Hugo’s, here are the details:

Hugo’s Restaurant West Hollywood
8401 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 654-3993

Hugo’s Restaurant Studio City
12851 Riverside Dr
Studio City, CA 91607
(818) 761-8985

Monday – Friday
7:30am – 10pm 
Saturday – Sunday
8am – 10pm

Babycakes NYC in LA

Babycakes is an all vegan bakery that specializes in gluten-free and wheat-free goods.  They opened their original storefront in New York City, but have since expanded to the west coast (aka “the best coast”).  I finally got the chance to check out their downtown location.  It’s so hard to find parking down there, but their treats are definitely worth it.

Babycakes has donuts… DONUTS!!  Oh, these are good!  I didn’t even get all the flavors available that day (although I wanted to).  I did get maple, blueberry, pumpkin, salted caramel, and chocolate glazed.  The maple was sprinkled with cinnamon and was wonderful, the blueberry was simply topped with some powdered sugar and tasted like a fried blueberry coffee cake, the pumpkin was a cute heart shaped and had extra amounts of frosting in the indented center, the salted caramel was not too salty and had a lovely caramel flavor, and the chocolate glazed was nice (but a bit too bitter for me).  I could eat these everyday.

BabyCakes Donuts

Donuts (clockwise) – Maple, Blueberry, Pumpkin, Salted Caramel, Chocolate Glazed

I also got two spelt flour cupcakes – a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting.  Let me admit that I have had these before.  Long before Babycakes came to LA, I made a visit to their NYC location.  Frankly, I wasn’t too impressed with what I got (cupcakes and a cookie or two).  This is the main reason it took me so long to visit their LA location.  These cupcakes reminded me of that NYC trip.  The cupcake itself was a little dry and the frosting was a little gummy (my same reaction to the NYC cupcakes).

Babycakes Cupcakes

Vanilla with Vanilla Frosting and Chocolate with Chocolate Frosting

Fortunately, the cupcakes were the only disappointment.  I also got some brownies and some chocolate chip cookies.  The brownies were cake-like and moist.  They are the size of mini-muffins and I could have kept popping these little guys into my mouth.  The chocolate chip cookies were also good.  They were chewy, perfectly sweet, and had no graininess at all (something gluten-free cookies often have).

Babycakes Brownies and Cookies

Chocolate Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Babycakes has made it even easier to get their goodies.  They opened a new location in the Larchmont Village area.  So much easier to park there.  I recommend a trip to either location:

130 East 6th Street
(between S. Main Street and S. Los Angeles Street)
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Sunday 10am to 6pm
Monday through Thursday 10am to 7pm
Friday and Saturday 10am to 9pm

or

236 North Larchmont Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Sunday 9am to 8pm
Monday through Thursday 9am to 9pm
Friday and Saturday 9am to 10pm