vegansaurus!

Kite Hill Cheese Is Here  »

Meave reported on Kite Hill cheese rumors last month, and we’re back with an update. The rumors are a reality, and the fabled cheese has arrived OTS at Northern California Whole Foods. 

We took to the streets to report on the new vegan product that has all the vegans (and omni food-lovers!) dropping their edible panties (and checkbooks!) for. Here’s our HARD-HITTING JOURNALISM:

I learned the following from the Whole Foods in Los Gatos cheese people:

1. Kite Hill has an exclusive contract with WFs and will only be available at Whole Food stores for a year — after that, the rest of the world can have at it.

2. It’s currently only at Los Altos, Palo Alto, and Oakland Whole Foods, but it’ll expand to either 9 or 11 more Northern California WFs “very soon”. They weren’t sure which stores, but they THINK Redwood City and Berkeley are in. Los Angeles folks can try the cheeses at Crossroads, Tal Ronnen’s new vegan restaurant on Melrose, and I think there’s a cheese shop opening up next door or inside the restaurant or something CONFIRM OR DENY PLZ.

3. As of last Friday, all No Cal WF stores were sold out, but the’re supposed to get shipments this week. If you call in advance, make sure the employees look in the dairy case, and not with the vegan cheese!

OK, so what I tried… descriptions from Kite Hill’s FB page:

Costanoa, a semi soft dusted with a piquant blend of paprika and fennel pollen; and White Alder, a soft ripened cheese with a delicate white rind, pungent aroma and velvety texture. 

There’s one more flavor — Casuccio, a soft fresh with a supple, silky texture — but they didn’t have it at Whole Foods.

The people working the cheese section at Whole Foods were crazy about both cheeses, but particularly loved the White Alder. They were all genuinely excited about it, and impressed by it. 

I sampled it with a professional food critic (an omnivore!) and she thought it was good, if a bit salty. My vegetarian sister liked it a lot, but said it didn’t “trick her” into thinking it was cheese. She mentioned that it was crumbly like tofu, and not creamy like cheese — which was also my experience eating it. However, if the critic or my sister didn’t know it was vegan to begin with, who knows if they would’ve been able to tell. 

For my part, I thought it was good. Very good, especially when I ate it as instructed on the Kite Hill FB “info” page.

Costanoa:
Costanoa is a semi-soft cheese encrusted with a piquant crust of paprika and fennel pollen. Its texture is smooth and compact, making this cheese excellent for slicing and serving on crackers or fresh baguette rounds. We love to offset Costanoa’s buttery, earthy, peppery flavors with a pairing of fresh or caramelized figs.

Suggested wine pairing: A crisp, zesty dry white wine with citrus or floral notes. 

White Alder:
White Alder is a soft ripened velvety cheese with a white, fluffy rind. It has a tangy mushroomy flavor profile with a rich, silky texture and pungent aromatics. This cheese is best served straight from the refrigerator and pairs well with white grapes.

Suggested wine pairing: A dry white wine such as a Chardonnay with fruit or citrus notes or even Champagne.

I did think both flavors were a little salty, but mainly delicious. I preferred the White Alder because the rind was extra fun and reminded me of brie; I would be excited to eat this as part of a cheese plate at a fancy restaurant.

That said, I’m not sure if it’s as revolutionary as all that, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing — the more good vegan cheeses on the market, the better. Plus, the fact that the Whole Foods cheese people were SO excited about it, got me excited, too. Because if they say it tastes like cheese, it must taste (at least kinda) like cheese, right? And if the rich people are willing to switch from their cow cheese to this vegan cheese, that’s a good thing. And, uh, it’s gonna have to be rich people because this shiz is NOT cheap: White Alder is $14.99, Costonoa was $13.99 for six ounces. 

So, what’s up? Have any of you tried it? What did you think?? 

UPDATE:

From San Francisco Magazine, here’s the list of Whole Foods the cheeses will be available at (and when!):

The brand will debut today (March 25) in Whole Foods Los Altos and Palo Alto; Tuesday in Oakland, Berkeley, Noe Valley, Franklin, and Potrero Hill; Wednesday in Mill Valley, San Rafael, and Sebastopol; and Thursday in San Jose, Cupertino, and Capitola. The cheeses are all exclusive to the Bay Area until they go national later this summer.

UPDATE 2:

Super Vegan tweets that Crossroads is out of Kite HIll and won’t have it back for “awhile”. DEMAND IS HIGH, MY FRIENDS. 

LA’s Pressed Juicery to open SF location in Noe Valley!  »

Awesome vegan food trends: Vegan seafood!  »

In news that is not actually new and still very depressing, seafood is terrible for human consumption and the environment. These studies serve as such crucial reminders for me, as seafood has been the hardest non-vegan food for me to stop dreaming about. I loved the stuff. I won’t bore you with the gory details of my obsession with raw oysters, but an obsession it was.

Lately, however, I’ve been noticing a plethora of vegan “seafood” around me. I couldn’t be more excited about this! (Maybe with more veggie seafood options, we can lobby for this whole “pescatarian” thing to go away. Every time I check, seafood is still considered meat.) Let’s go over some options, shall we? In pictures, because we all love looking at pictures of food! Isn’t this why we’re all on Pinterest, styling our future parties, houses, and weddings? Yes it is.

Ocean Basket from Loving Hut. Those seaweed patties are my favorite! 

You can add soy shrimp to any entree at Thai Idea. Don’t forget about those scrumptious and completely necessary Firecracker balls—they are the best appetizer in San Francisco! Have you been to the new location in the Mission yet?

Fish and chips from Weird Fish in the Mission. Not actually fishy-tasting, yet the batter is perfect, and just what I remember being the best part of traditional fish and chips!

Sea Cake from Real Food Daily in L.A. I don’t know what it’s made out of, but I want it!


What is that, amid all the brunch food at Mohawk Bend in L.A.? HEARTS OF PALM CRAB CAKES. Get me on the next plane to SoCal, I’m sold.

Where else can I get my fix, beautiful readers? What else is out there? I must know! And when do we get a creamy soup in a bread bowl here in San Francisco? Preferably one that rivals clam chowder and is served at Pier 39.

[Photos from Real Food Daily and Mohawk Bend are by my girl Marie Ferrier. Follow her on Instagram @kweenmahreeh!

Check out this cake! Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s the vegan carrot cake that Pink bought to celebrate her daughter’s first birthday! Vegan baked goods, for the win! That is some beautiful handiwork, from Jamaica’s Cakes in Los Angeles.

Join our team, Pink! You know I’ve been saving you a seat for awhile now, starting with when you called Kayne out, not once, but twice, for being a total fucking idiot.

Rumor alert: Ellen may not be opening a vegan restaurant after all!  »

Word on the street (and by street I mean the internet highway) is that Ellen and Portia’s SoCal vegan restaurant may not be happening after all! Oh no! I was looking forward to this collaboration of superstars—Ellen, Portia, Chrissy Hynde, Steven Bing, Tal Ronnen and Waldo Fernandez. I was also looking forward to hooking up with a Sugar Daddy, because I knew there was no way in hell I’d be able to afford eating at that joint, being a restaurant worker myself.

As excited as I may have been about a new vegan hotspot opening up, I did have my reservations. Everyone wants to open a restaurant. Everyone thinks they’ll be great at it, but the truth is, most new restaurants don’t make it in their first year.  It’s hard work. Nevermind that the people who can handle working in the restaurant industry are bat shit crazy. The turnover rate is astronomical. If you haven’t read Laura’s “Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Be a Professional Chef” for SF Weekly, get on that! She got some flack in the comments section that it was unrealistic, but those people are dead wrong.
My point is that working in this industry is my career, and I love it, but it has been both the best and worst experience of my life. It’s tough, mentally and physically. So if Ellen and Portia want to keep their sanity, maybe they should run the other way. Plus, I’d hate for them to be the jerk owners who show off their shiny new cars, while their staff juggles two jobs—because let me tell you, this industry does not pay well (that is a paraphrased sentiment from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but also true of my own experience. You can love or hate that guy, but Kitchen Confidential is THE first-hand account of working in the industry, and I for one, really enjoyed its harsh honesty).

{Photo via Ecorazzi.com}

Guest post: Eating vegan in Los Angeles!  »

My beau and I set out on a three day eating extravaganza adventure to eat as much tasty Los Angeles vegan food as we could possibly fit our mouths around.

Day one
Our journey began as soon as we stepped onto the tarmac at Burbank airport, and my kindly obliging parents brought us some Veggie Grill. We got my fave, the chipotle BBQ burger, and the All-American Stack (live out all your burger junk food fantasies - it’s got onion rings on it!!). The bf thought the two burgers tasted too similar, but I say they’re probably the best damn veggie burgers I’ve had. Plus Veggie Grill has won over many an omnivorous friend.

On Saturday, we tackled some Los Feliz/Silverlake delicacies: Cruzer Pizza and Scoops ice cream. Cruzer isn’t the best vegan pizza I’ve ever had, but it’s damn tasty & affordable, plus they’re an all-vegan pizzeria! We got it to go and ate it in Griffith park, where we were serenaded by drum circles and the carousel organ.

Next up was Scoops. Hoo, boy. Scoops always has four vegan flavors, which are all crazy inventive and wacky and ridiculously awesome! Scoops takes customer suggestions for flavors, so you never know what to expect. We got pomegramate tiramisu (I know, holy shit, right?!), banana oreo, and pear champagne sorbet. Just in case you’re some sick masochist who needs additional incentive to go to Scoops (what part of pomegranate tiramisu ice cream don’t you understand?), it’s right across the street from another amazing vegan restaurant, Pure Luck. They have jackfruit carnitas burritos! And sweet potato fries! And sweet potato fries in a jackfruit carnitas burrito! [Ed.: It looks like Pure Luck is closing. We cry a million tears]

We took a short break from gorging with the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I know, it’s not food or vegan-related, but if you appreciate humor and/or conceptual art, it’s the best tourist attraction in L.A.

Then more gorging at the beloved Native Foods Cafe. We split the Native Nachos: infinite layers of deliciousness! It’s listed as an appetizer, but it’s enough for two people to get completely stuffed. Native Foods founder and head chef Tanya Petrovna is completely adorable. Every table has flyers with what she’s up to and this month it included building a tree house out of recycled materials for her rescued cats. Come on. Plus, the bathrooms have info on why elephants shouldn’t be exploited for entertainment. Tanya’s clearly got the right idea; lure people in with delicious food, then convert them to animal rights.

Day two

We culminated our gustatory odyssey in a run-down mall in Little Tokyo. Past all the Karaoke bars and Korean BBQ restaurants lies a vegan heaven. Shojin. The restaurant itself is beautiful and peaceful. Deciding what to order was a painful and lengthly ordeal, but well worth it.

We started with appetizers: pumpkin croquettes, and stuffed shiitake mushrooms. I have never tasted such an amazing combination of new flavors and textures as the pumpkin croquettes with homemade ketchup.

Then we reached le petit mort: the dynamite roll, a spicy tofu “tuna” roll with spicy mayo and green onion on top with spicy soy sauce. It lives up to its name; it has an explosively spicy and charred flavor—incredibly savory and satisfying. We got the dragon roll too, but it couldn’t hold our attention when we had the dynamite roll sitting right in front of us.

It’s not really fair for anything to follow Shojin, but we had to keep go(rg)ing. For dinner we went to Vinh Loi Tofu House in Reseda. Don’t let the whole strip-mall-in-Reseda thing scare you; they’re all vegan, make their own tofu and soy milk, and are Vietnamese fake meat heaven. I’ve heard the soups are souperb (sorry), but haven’t tried them yet.

Since it wouldn’t be L.A. without gratuitous driving, we had dessert at My Vegan in Pasadena. Coconut ice cream, banana spring rolls, and carrot cake. BONUS MEAL!

I couldn’t pass up a chance to go to Stuff I Eat in Inglewood, an all-vegan restaurant whose motto is, “If you don’t want meat, try the Stuff I Eat!” It’s like Souley Vegan + Mexican food on high-quality acid. Case in point: the Kilamanjaro Quesadilla topped with vegan cheese sauce, organic wild and black rice, seasoned tofu, black beans, mock chicken salad, carrot un-tuna, organic sauteed portobello mushrooms, sauteed broccoli, tomatoes, corn, and guacamole.

Though we left L.A., our exercise in gluttony will never really end, especially when we live in a land of Cinnaholic and Scream Sorbet.

Katie C. is a former Los Angelino who’s forsaken the smog and best vegan food ever for Berkeley. She works with autistic kids, and gives presentations on the evils of factory farming. Check out Vegansaurus’ previous L.A. coverage here!

LA Folk! Get grub, help PETA!  »

EXCITING NEWS! At least if you’re in the Los Angeles area! On Thursday, Apr. 28, one of L.A.’s best vegan restaurants is donating 50 percent of its beverage and food purchases to PETA. That’s right folks, use this flier at Veggie Grill’s Sunset Boulevard location and they will donate HALF of your order total to PETA. Isn’t that great?!? Some suggestions when ordering: The Santa Fe Crispy Chickn’ Sandwich, the-oh-so-yummy mac ‘n cheese, sweetheart fries, watermelon water, and don’t forget the cookie for dessert. Take my recommendation, swing by Veggie Grill, order some delish vegan delights and you’ll be helping the animals. How could you say no?

This is a guest post by Sawna Guadarrama! Sawna is a Los Angeles native, a fashion/beauty writer for entertainment website www.getitwhit.com.