vegansaurus!

Fun in the East Bay: Vegetarian Feast & Pop-Up Market!  »

Kitchener Oakland is hosting an awesome event on Tuesday, and you should go! Here are the details:

There will be hot, fresh, local artisanal food and cocktails for sale, plus FREE beer. There will also be food available for you to take home, and like any Tuesday, you can pick up your CSA boxes and many of our artisan’s delicacies by pre-ordering them through Good Eggs. Come unwind after work, support your local community, enjoy amazing vegetarian and vegan fare, sip an artisanal cocktail and enjoy the music. It’s like happy hour and a farmer’s market are getting together for a play date.

List of Artisans:
Muffin Revolution: A creative selection of sweet and savory muffins
Barbarian Gourmet: Seasonal sweet and savory baked goods
Sunny Side Catering: Vegan gumbo
Picnic Bakery: Vegan coffeecake and peppermint pandas
The Living Apothecary: Fine drinks and cocktails
Santipapas: Local, organic salsa
Javi’s Empanadas: Vegetarian empanadas

You know we love Picnic Bakery and those scrumptious peppermint pandas. But vegan gumbo? FREE BEER? We are SO THERE. Are you?

Be at Kitchener Oakland HQ at 372 24th St. (about five, six blocks from 19th Street BART)  at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6, to get buying and eating! Smother your Election Day stress in tasty food and drinks, and then go home and watch the returns. It’ll all go down easier on a full stomach (and a good buzz). See you Tuesday!

[photo via Kitchener Oakland]

Scream Sorbet now has ice cream sandwiches!  »

Scream Sorbet, who we love, is now serving vegan ice cream sandwiches! And they are hella tasty GET UP ON THIS. I think they might only be available at their store, but it’s well worth going to a farmers’ market location to check and ask. ALWAYS BE ASKING FOR MORE DELICIOUS VEGAN OPTIONS! Where there’s demand, there’s supply! Or, at least we can hope and dream and ask some more and maybe one day that will be the case! Besides, the worst thing that can happen is that you show up at a farmers’ market and all they have is their DELICIOUS SORBET*. Boo fucking hoo!

*please note, I am not normally a fan of sorbet, the poorest excuse for vegan dessert that’s ever been excused, but Scream Sorbet is different. They have amazing flavors that are rich, creamy, and deliciously divine. Get up in it!

Bay Area: Koja Kitchen’s MUST EAT Teriyaki Zen with Pineapple!  »

Koja Kitchen, a San Francisco-based food truck, dishes up plenty of meat-mouth entrees, but they really shine in the veg department. (I’ve heard this from vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike, so put that in your pipe and choke on it!)

Their “Teriyaki Zen with Pineapple” is maybe the best thing I’ve eaten all month. That is saying a lot as I’m nearly constantly eating as evidenced by the fact that I am typing this with one hand while eating a hot dog. When people say that they are typing with one hand, it is usually an allusion to jerking it. But not me, I am always talking about eating, ALWAYS.

Koja Kitchen’s Teriyaki Zen with Pineapple’s homemade patty consists of portobellos, soy, and spices all mashed up and mixed into MEATY PERFECTION. It’s then topped with a caramelized pineapple slice, Japanese seasoned romaine lettuce, teriyaki sauce, and served in TOASTED RICE BUNS. The buns are made of rice! It’s sorta like a giant amazing sushi roll IT IS THE VERY BEST. I really can’t stress enough how good this is and you must check their weekly schedule and go eat one immediately. Or three. Three is probably a fair amount and I mean that seriously and with all of my little piggy heart.

SF Bay Area: there’s a new vegan ice cream!  »

Reader Katie (of the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition!) reports about new ice cream (and ice cream sandwiches!) that are sweeping the vegan scene by storm. I can’t vouch for them but I totally trust Katie because girl knows what’s up so let’s see what she thinks:

At the Montclair Village farmers’ market this past Sunday, I was perusing the stalls when I came across an aesthetically-adorable ice cream booth, Green Girl BakeShop. I stopped to admire their ice cream sandwiches, steeling myself for the disappointment of not being able to eat any, when I saw the “no dairy” sign! It turns out all of their ice creams and ice cream cookie sandwiches are vegan! The ice creams are cashew and coconut based. I sampled the toasted pecan, and the balsamic fig. To me, toasted pecan ice cream is just like donuts; I was never that crazy about them before I was vegan, but as soon as I couldn’t have them anymore I craved them. The toasted pecans were so delicious and slightly carmelized tasting. The ice cream itself definitely has a cashew-y flavor, which I enjoyed. I couldn’t really taste the balsamic fig very well because my mouth was still full of toasted pecan. Unfortunately, since it was 10 in the morning I couldn’t justify buying a full ice cream sandwich, so I didn’t get to taste the cookie. Anyway, their products are adorable.

They’re at the Montclair and Lafayette farmers’ markets, so have at it everyone and come back and tell us what you think immediately!

New Poll: Oakland residents not terribly excited about neighbors raising and killing backyard animals  »

For over a year, controversy has surrounded Oakland’s plan to draft a new urban agriculture policy, and specifically whether or not it will encourage raising and slaughtering backyard animals like chickens, rabbits, pigs, and others.

A new poll of 1,158 residents of Oakland’s Districts 1 and 3 (where urban animal agriculture is most prevalent) strongly indicates that animals should be left out of the plan.

Sizeable majorities in both districts oppose it: 52 percent opposed to 28 percent supportive in District 1, and 55 percent opposed to 20 percent supportive in District 3, with the remainder undecided in both cases. These are the sort of numbers you want to see if you’re mounting a ballot initiative campaign; for a response to a proposed regulatory change, they’re basically a community mandate.

Here’s hoping that city officials, from the Planning Commission to the City Council itself, take note. Given that it’s an election year, there’s a good chance they might … but to be sure, if you live in Oakland, consider sending the link to the poll to your elected officials.

“Urban agriculture” shouldn’t and doesn’t have to mean “urban animal farms foisted on communities that don’t want them.”

Rick Kelley spends his days at an Oakland workers’ rights nonprofit and his evenings probably playing moderately accurate renditions of Propagandhi songs with his awesome partner and their rescued pups, Bandit and Emma. He’s currently active in organizing for an Oakland urban agriculture proposal that does not include animal exploitation, and both writes and serves on the advisory board for the Food Empowerment Project. He used to blog, and might do so again someday.

Oakland’s Beer Revolution opening a veg eatery next door?!  »

SUCH VERY EXCITING NEWS. We love Beer Revolution because we love beer and sitting outside in the sun and drinking beer while sitting outside in the sun, and so we were VERY EXCITED when we heard that they’re opening an all-veg eatery next door.

All the info we could gather from our thorough investigation (phone call) is that It’s going to be called Old Depot Public House, they’ll serve “European food,” and it’ll open sometime in the early fall. Obviously, you can now enjoy Beer Revolution with a side of next-door’s tasty Souley Vegan, but now you can enjoy appetizers at Souley Vegan and then move to Old Depot Public House< for main course and then back to Souley Vegan for dessert and then back to Old Depot Public House for second dessert. If this sounds like too much eating to you then you’re not a real vegan and need to rethink your priorities in ALL of your life, and maybe just jump off the Bay Bridge jk jk be cool.

Man, Oakland, you are really, truly the BEST lately—you know that, right? Yeah, you do. Come here, Oakland. (I’m making out with Oakland, you can go now.)

Drink all the tasty beer in Oakland TONIGHT!   »

SF Bay Area! Go to this beer drinking event TONIGHT in Oakland!$18 gets you a custom sandblasted, bottomless tasting glass (!!!) to sample over 25 beers. All beers are produced by local homebrewers, spanning a wide range of styles and brewing techniques. It’s not specifically vegan event but these beers are from small brewers so the fuck are they gonna get dried fish bladders?!?! Still, you might want to ask in a non-obnoxious way to raise awareness and make sure you’re not drinking fish butts.

There’s gonna be food for purchase from Spice Money, who looks rad because they’re all about building community via fresh eats, but also kinda stupid, because their vegan options look like they might be pretty weak, but what do I know?* There will also be DJs, do with that information what you will.

If you want to go, you gotta RSVP and you gotta be 21 years old because IT’S THE LAW, SON.

*but you’re in downtown Oakland and so there are mad delicious vegan places to eat! Go on a food crawl before the 8pm start time and then make it your job to get drunk even though you ate hella food already. VALUE, FOOL.

For the vegan sports fan, PETA’s best veggie food at baseball stadiums  »

I grew up on baseball. My parents took me to my first Baltimore Orioles game when I was two months old. I didn’t realize you couldn’t throw peanut shells on the ground in polite company until I was way too old. And when I became a vegetarian at age 11, one of the few things I missed was ballpark hotdogs (I now shudder at the thought, but kids will be kids).

As a grown-up vegan, baseball games are still fun, but I don’t ever go for the food (though I do love the garlic fries at Giants’ Stadium). I usually bring my own version, scoff at the suckers around me paying $12 for a crappy hamburger.

Now PETA’s gone and messed that up, by pointing out there’s some veggie food at stadiums, and giving them publicity for it, so they maybe have an incentive to add more. Last week, they released a  Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks list.

Surprise! No. 1 is in Philadelphia. Apparently the Phillies offer a vegan chicken-steak sandwich. Sign me up!

Other top contenders, and the things there I really would want to eat, are:

2. Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field: Vegtastic has the run-down of what to eat here. Sushi! Vegan hotdogs!

3. Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park: vegan hot dogs.

4. Oakland Athletics’ O.co Coliseum: Eh. I’ve been here, not impressed. Not much vegan that I know of, though the vegetarian offerings might be OK.

5. Los Angeles Dodgers’ Dodger Stadium: vegan sloppy Joe, veggie sushi, and edamame, hurray!

6. New York Mets’ Citi Field: veggie dogs, veggie burgers. Here’s an outdated report!

7. Los Angeles Angels’ Angel Stadium of Anaheim: veggie dogs (I’m noticing a theme here), black-bean burgers, bean burritos, veggie wraps, and California cucumber rolls. Plus gluten-free options!

8. Washington Nationals’ Nationals Park: Hell yeah, I want me a tofu sandwich with Vegenaise, and a falafel! Last time I was here I brought my own Chipotle; that was good too.

9. Pittsburgh Pirates’ PNC Park: Vegetarian lo mein and salad with fried green tomatoes sound interesting, but not sure they’re vegan. Sigh.

10. Minnesota Twins’ Target Field: “vegan mousse martinis”?! What is that? Why don’t I have one? Plus veggie kabobs!

Road trip in order? Find out more and get ongoing news at Veggie Happy. And watch some MLB bloopers to get in the mood!

Organic Soul Live: vegan soul food (permanent?) (pop-up?) in Oakland’s Chinatown!  »

You guys! There’s some really exciting news from the East Bay Express about new vegan soul food place in Oakland’s Chinatown, Organic Soul Live! And it’s omnivore restaurant reviewer approved!

From the write-up:

Vegan readers, feel free to call me out on this cliché, but if Joy had told me the dish was made from real cheese — not a mix of commercial soy- and rice-based “cheeses,” plus a cream sauce he makes out of nutritional yeast — I wouldn’t have blinked. He had me fooled.

Sounds damn good! Here’s a photo from EBX!

Should we call him out? It IS a total cliché but it’s pretty great that he called out his own shit. I hate that the ultimate compliment for vegan food is that it, “you wouldn’t know it’s vegan!” You KNOW when plenty of stuff you eat is vegan, and it’s STILL hella good. No disclaimers or comparisons needed! Still, hard for me to get all up in arms about this shiz because I do it all the time FUCK IT I’M ONLY HUMAN. Just a vegan trying to hustle in an omnivore world!

Anyway, he loved the shiitake bacon and massaged collards and the whole thing sounds prettttty delicious. Let’s all go! It’s open every day from 12-9pm and is located inside the Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt shop at 388 9th Street in Oakland. Which means that you can eat VEGAN FRO-YO with your soul food. Seriously, life is getting pretty damn fancy for vegans in the East Bay. Something bad has to happen, right? It’s going too well! Oh wait, there’s the total collapse of the economy, looming environmental destruction and the fact that I STILL don’t have a network sitcom based on the double shenanigans of me and my dog.  

Two new vegan restaurants in Oakland! Woohoo!  »

This is all basically second hand information and I’m no journalist (FOOLED YOU!) so I’m leave it up to you fine people to check it out and let us know what’s up! Deal? Deal!

Okay, lez go:

1) Nature Vegetarian Restaurant, 1116 Franklin (between 11th and 12th), (510) 238-9688. Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. It opened sometime in last few weeks and it’s possibly all vegan. Looks like some real competition for Golden Lotus! I wonder if it’s cult-owned? It looks like maybe not. It’s Chinese-gluten style. Tasty!

2) Banana Soy Vegan Restaurant, 416 15th (between Broadway and Franklin), (510) 272-4700. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Closed Sunday. It’s all vegan (!!!) Vietnamese food (YES!) and isn’t Ching Hai-related (YES!). The menu looks delicious and imma be all up in it later this week. And look, it says vegan on the banner! We have to support them!

Both restaurants are super close to the 12 Street BART station in Oakland, so no excuses! Let’s eat!

Man, this area of Oakland is just pregnant with vegan food, isn’t it? I’m so sorry for that sentence that’s half-disgusting and half-delicious. But really, PREGNANT WITH IT.