vegansaurus!

12/15/2010

Vegansaurus NYC: Vinnie’s Pizzeria!  »


I went to Vinnie’s Pizeria in Greenpoint (there’s one in Williamsburg too) yesterday, and YUM! I got a small vegan pizza with Teese and broccoli and it was delicious. You can get it with Daiya too but for some reason it’s $2 extra on a small pizza and $3 on a large; is Daiya really that much more expensive than Teese? Yowza. I was happy with the Teese and the broccoli was the perfect texture. My friend said the pizza needed salt but I said he’s crazy—burn! 

And they don’t just have vegan pizza, they have a whole vegan menu!:

Pretty sweet, right? And I guess I have to go there on Tuesdays for vegan doughnuts. That makes all kinds of sense.

∞ posted at 10:27 by youtalkfunny  

11/17/2010

Scream Sorbet opens in Oakland! A field report from the amazing (and intoxicated) Megan!  »

Megan of Such a Vegan and Sugar Beat Sweets fame is adorable and delightful and also, DRIZ-UNK! That’s just how we like our adorable and delightful ladies! We got this field report (read: email) from her letting us know about the opening of Scream Sorbet’s storefront in Oakland (that stuff is delicious!) and I’m just gonna print the email in its entirety because I love it very much and it’s filled with useful info! BAM:

LAURA!!!!! I was getting Lanesplitters with a friend tonight in Temescal, hence the terrible typing as I am super drunk, but I was all ready to go home on my bike and shit when I saw a HUGE sign at the corner of Telegraph and 51st, that said SCREAM SORBET and I straight up screeched on my brakes and locked up my bike again and ran in there like “OMG YOU HAVE A STOREFRONT” and the girl at the counter was like, we do!  And I was like HOLY SHIT! And she was like, I know! They have little 12oz. containers of the ice cream (no scoops yet), and cookie sammiches. Sadly, the cookies are not vegan, BUT in the future once their store is more open-like (it is straight-up bare in there so far but has SO MUCH potential to be SUPER CUTE OMG) they’re going to have vegan cookie sammiches, and gluten-free (GF) cookie sammiches, and VEGAN GF cookie sammiches! My little gluten-intolerant heart was overjoyed. I seriously walked out of there wanting to give a hug to every panhandler in Temescal—which, btdubs, is straight-up Berkeley, I don’t care what zip code it is or whatever, Temescal is so Berkeley. It’s like diet Berkeley, because there’s still panhandlers and graffiti, but still Berkeley. I almost got hit by like three Mercedes (Mercedeses?) riding my bike there WTF why are cyclists maligned for doing something good?! But anyway! The girl at the counter was super duper nice and I bought some kettle corn sorbet (OMG WHUT how is that even possible) which is so goddamn amazing I cannot even begin to describe. My commute is exactly 2.8 miles there and that will be calories WELL EARNED.
But like, it’s totally worth it to go all the way up there, because it’s right by Lanesplitters, and Burma Superstar! VEGAN DATE!!!
OK. I wanted to share. They’ve been open for two days apparently. Also no pic of the store because I was too busy telling the girl how all the vegans in SF Bay Area were gonna be flocking to that shit pronto!!!!  She seemed sorta confused but happy!!
<3 Megs

p.s. I almost forgot!!!!! Lanesplitters has vegan sausage now!!!!! I got it and it was pretty good!!!!

Amazing, right? Adorable, right? Also, she got Kettle Corn flavor (love their crazy flavors! They are somehow delicious) and here’s what the cute-ass tub of it looks like:

Let’s all go this weekend! See you THERE!

[this report has been edited very minimally for clarity]

∞ posted at 11:34 by laurahooperb  

11/05/2010

BREAKING: Escape from New York Pizza in the Mission HAS VEGAN CHEESE!  »

Yo! Another SF pizza parlor serving up the good stuff with Daiya. That makes Amici’s (the review says they serve Cheezly but it’s Daiya now!), Patxi’s, and now Escape from New York Pizza on 22nd Street in the mission, all carrying vegan pizza made with Daiya! Delightful! We have confirmation that their crust is vegan, but we’re not sure if the other locations are serving it. Street team, where you at?! If you know, leave it in the comments and we’ll update the post. Further, you can get POTATOES on your pizza. I love potatoes on a pizza. That starch-on-starch goodness makes me very happy. We haven’t tried this one yet but we hear it’s amazing so everyone, order it tonight! And report back! Thank you much!

UPDATE 11/7/10: They’ve got Daiya at all five Escape from New York Pizza locations! Get on it!!

[image by Troy Holden on Flickr!]

∞ posted at 09:45 by laurahooperb  

07/28/2010

You know how, as a vegan, there are certain places you don’t even bother to check out because you already know there’s nothing for you? Like ‘The Meat Hut’ or ‘The Cheese Shack’ or whatever? You might think MilkShake Werks in Redwood Shores is kind of like that, but you’d be making a huge mistake! Because…VEGAN MILKSHAKES! Yay! SIDE NOTE: Actually, you might think all of Redwood Shores is kind of like that. It’s mostly a big tangle of housing developments that sprang up south of Redwood City after Marine World moved away; on first glance not a lot of exciting vegan potential. But again, huge mistake! More on that later. First, MilkShake Werks and their delicious VEGAN MILKSHAKES! The shop has been there for a while, but we only found out about the vegan shakes recently&#8212;surprise! We zoomed over and ordered chocolate-chocolate chip, which was the vegan flavor the owner made that morning. All the ice cream is handmade from scratch (not delivered in bulk by some stinky truck) using plenty of local ingredients. There’s always at least one vegan option, but the available flavors are determined by what got made most recently, so call and check if there’s a flavor you MUST have. Anyway, back to the shakes: we were sooo happy. Haven’t had a &#8220;real&#8221; milkshake in years and years, and this more than lived up to the memory. It was thick but not TOO thick–-easily drinkable through a straw, no problem. Lots of yummy speckles of dark chocolate throughout. Special bonus: the shakes are served in Greenware cups that are actually made from plants, so no plastic or Styrofoam guilt there. Once we figured out they had vegan ice cream, I starting nosing around and other possibilities opened up as well. They’ll make vegan ice cream cakes! You can have a regular sized one or a cute little one that serves 4 to 6. Also, the hot fudge isn’t vegan (boo) but the chocolate sauce is, so you can even pig out on vegan banana splits. Nice. From 4 to 6 p.m. every day is Milkshake Happy Hour-–20 percent off &#8212; and they’re always hosting special events like the “Shake It” Milkshake Drinking Contest this Saturday (July 31). The owner says the vegan ice cream has been a hit so far, so keep sending them love!  Now, let’s say that for some reason you consider a milkshake or banana split to be merely dessert? There are tons of meal options in easy walking distance. You could try: Yeah! Chinese: The menu has a vegan-meat section, subbing in faux pork, beef, fish or chicken in some classic dishes, but that’s just a starting point – they’ll veganize almost anything on the menu. Definitely try the (vegan) sweet-and-sour pork if you’re eating with die-hard meat-eaters and want to fool them. It’s so realistic we freaked out the first time and demanded proof that it was really fake (it is.) Or if faux meat isn’t your thing, they have a big selection of veggie-based main courses also. Or how about Ike’s Place: Yes, I said Ike’s Place! Almost no one knows about their Redwood Shores location because it’s tucked in an office building and is phone-order only, but no problem–-just call from the parking lot then stroll in for the BEST VEGAN SANDWICHES EVER. (You may have to duck in to grab a copy of their huge menu first.) Just try not to hog all the soy cheese because they sometimes run out, OK? I want some too. Or Amici’s: Yes, a Redwood Shores location! Their vegan pizza used to be kind of meh, and now is great because they switched to Daiya cheese. And their pizza sauce has no hidden meat–-only tomatoes, basil, garlic and salt–-so you can go ahead and order any pizza you want, just ask for the vegan cheese. Yum yum yum. Thanks to writer/illustrator/vegan/feral cat feeder/Vegansaurus reader Rhonda for this fabulous write-up on what to do in Redwood Shores! If you want to highlight your town and let readers know about what the vegan options are, holler at your dino! Or your other dino! All of the dinos are here to serve you. I actually think this is kind of a rad idea because we can&#8217;t fully cover all the vegan options in the Bay Area, so if we&#8217;ve neglected your slice of the Bay, we want to know!

You know how, as a vegan, there are certain places you don’t even bother to check out because you already know there’s nothing for you? Like ‘The Meat Hut’ or ‘The Cheese Shack’ or whatever? You might think MilkShake Werks in Redwood Shores is kind of like that, but you’d be making a huge mistake! Because…VEGAN MILKSHAKES! Yay! SIDE NOTE: Actually, you might think all of Redwood Shores is kind of like that. It’s mostly a big tangle of housing developments that sprang up south of Redwood City after Marine World moved away; on first glance not a lot of exciting vegan potential. But again, huge mistake! More on that later.
 
First, MilkShake Werks and their delicious VEGAN MILKSHAKES! The shop has been there for a while, but we only found out about the vegan shakes recently—surprise! We zoomed over and ordered chocolate-chocolate chip, which was the vegan flavor the owner made that morning. All the ice cream is handmade from scratch (not delivered in bulk by some stinky truck) using plenty of local ingredients. There’s always at least one vegan option, but the available flavors are determined by what got made most recently, so call and check if there’s a flavor you MUST have. Anyway, back to the shakes: we were sooo happy. Haven’t had a “real” milkshake in years and years, and this more than lived up to the memory. It was thick but not TOO thick–-easily drinkable through a straw, no problem. Lots of yummy speckles of dark chocolate throughout. Special bonus: the shakes are served in Greenware cups that are actually made from plants, so no plastic or Styrofoam guilt there.
 
Once we figured out they had vegan ice cream, I starting nosing around and other possibilities opened up as well. They’ll make vegan ice cream cakes! You can have a regular sized one or a cute little one that serves 4 to 6. Also, the hot fudge isn’t vegan (boo) but the chocolate sauce is, so you can even pig out on vegan banana splits. Nice.
 
From 4 to 6 p.m. every day is Milkshake Happy Hour-–20 percent off — and they’re always hosting special events like the “Shake It” Milkshake Drinking Contest this Saturday (July 31). The owner says the vegan ice cream has been a hit so far, so keep sending them love!
  
Now, let’s say that for some reason you consider a milkshake or banana split to be merely dessert? There are tons of meal options in easy walking distance. You could try:
 
Yeah! Chinese: The menu has a vegan-meat section, subbing in faux pork, beef, fish or chicken in some classic dishes, but that’s just a starting point – they’ll veganize almost anything on the menu. Definitely try the (vegan) sweet-and-sour pork if you’re eating with die-hard meat-eaters and want to fool them. It’s so realistic we freaked out the first time and demanded proof that it was really fake (it is.) Or if faux meat isn’t your thing, they have a big selection of veggie-based main courses also.
 
Or how about Ike’s Place: Yes, I said Ike’s Place! Almost no one knows about their Redwood Shores location because it’s tucked in an office building and is phone-order only, but no problem–-just call from the parking lot then stroll in for the BEST VEGAN SANDWICHES EVER. (You may have to duck in to grab a copy of their huge menu first.) Just try not to hog all the soy cheese because they sometimes run out, OK? I want some too.

Or Amici’s: Yes, a Redwood Shores location! Their vegan pizza used to be kind of meh, and now is great because they switched to Daiya cheese. And their pizza sauce has no hidden meat–-only tomatoes, basil, garlic and salt–-so you can go ahead and order any pizza you want, just ask for the vegan cheese. Yum yum yum.

Thanks to writer/illustrator/vegan/feral cat feeder/Vegansaurus reader Rhonda for this fabulous write-up on what to do in Redwood Shores! If you want to highlight your town and let readers know about what the vegan options are, holler at your dino! Or your other dino! All of the dinos are here to serve you. I actually think this is kind of a rad idea because we can’t fully cover all the vegan options in the Bay Area, so if we’ve neglected your slice of the Bay, we want to know!

∞ posted at 11:47 by laurahooperb  

06/14/2010

I think everyone knows by now, but if you don&#8217;t, Patxi&#8217;s has vegan deep-dish pizza made with Daiya cheese and it&#8217;s the mickey fickey bomb. OH ALSO: they hella deliver. With two locations in SF, they have most of the city covered. They&#8217;re also in Palo Alto so all you dorks are covered too, but probably not you poor people in East Palo Alto. SORRY, try being born rich! That&#8217;s the only thing that will save you now! Moving on: Some Steves I know are hella persnickety about shiz and if you like stuff to taste its best, you&#8217;ll heed his ordering how-to: It takes a really long time for them to make the deep dish (worth it, though!), usually around 40 minutes. But you can call ahead before you come in, and they&#8217;ll start making it for you, even if you&#8217;re going to sit down and eat there. Not everyone is impatient but sometimes you want the slow, leisurely part of the dinner to happen after you&#8217;ve stuffed your face and you&#8217;re no longer an inch away from cannibalizing your unsuspecting dinner date. You can also have them prepare a pizza but not bake it, then you bring it home and bake it whenever you want. I&#8217;ve never done this, so I have no idea how it turns out. Point is, they are flexible and they know how busy and important you are. If you&#8217;re like me and just want to be fat and happy ASAPly, have them deliver to your face and then eat it all. And by eat it all, I mean you&#8217;ll be lucky if you get through a piece HOLY SHIT SO BIG AND FILLING. It&#8217;s a little expensive but you have to consider that it&#8217;ll provide enough sustenance to get you through the zombie apocalypse. Let&#8217;s hear it for Chicago-style deep-dish vegan pizza in San Francisco! Some dreams do come true! Not like the ones where you live in a pink mansion in Malibu surrounded by Nagels but at this point, I&#8217;ll takes what I can gets.

I think everyone knows by now, but if you don’t, Patxi’s has vegan deep-dish pizza made with Daiya cheese and it’s the mickey fickey bomb. OH ALSO: they hella deliver. With two locations in SF, they have most of the city covered. They’re also in Palo Alto so all you dorks are covered too, but probably not you poor people in East Palo Alto. SORRY, try being born rich! That’s the only thing that will save you now! Moving on: Some Steves I know are hella persnickety about shiz and if you like stuff to taste its best, you’ll heed his ordering how-to:

It takes a really long time for them to make the deep dish (worth it, though!), usually around 40 minutes. But you can call ahead before you come in, and they’ll start making it for you, even if you’re going to sit down and eat there. Not everyone is impatient but sometimes you want the slow, leisurely part of the dinner to happen after you’ve stuffed your face and you’re no longer an inch away from cannibalizing your unsuspecting dinner date. You can also have them prepare a pizza but not bake it, then you bring it home and bake it whenever you want. I’ve never done this, so I have no idea how it turns out. Point is, they are flexible and they know how busy and important you are.

If you’re like me and just want to be fat and happy ASAPly, have them deliver to your face and then eat it all. And by eat it all, I mean you’ll be lucky if you get through a piece HOLY SHIT SO BIG AND FILLING. It’s a little expensive but you have to consider that it’ll provide enough sustenance to get you through the zombie apocalypse.

Let’s hear it for Chicago-style deep-dish vegan pizza in San Francisco! Some dreams do come true! Not like the ones where you live in a pink mansion in Malibu surrounded by Nagels but at this point, I’ll takes what I can gets.

∞ posted at 08:19 by laurahooperb  

06/02/2010

What’s new at Rainbow Grocery: a vegan odyssey!  »

Man, we have it so lucky in the bay area. In other parts of the country, they have to literally climb mountains, cross rivers, and pass tests of endurance, skill, and wit to get to a quality vegan cupcake. For a decent vegan pizza, they must whittle a squirrel while riding an elliptical. For vegans in Middle Earth America, grocery shopping is basically like living in Saw, but worse*. WHICH LEADS ME TO MY NEXT POINT: God Bless San Francisco and God Bless Rainbow Grocery. Now, let’s get down to business!

First, we have VEGAN COOKIE DOUGH. That’s right, we can eat cookie dough straight out of the tub with the fattest of ‘em! And guess what, we ain’t getting Salmonella! HELL YEAH. Check out the ridiculously amazing Eat Pastry in the frozen section!

AAAAAAND… let’s give it up for Tofurky Pizzas! It’s a melty, delicious, Daiya-topped, vegan pizza and it’s ALL YOURS. It’s like $8 so my cheap ass will be saving it for special occasions like weddings and graduations and days ending in y. The actual pizza doesn’t look exactly like the box but SEX SELLS.

Also, vegan fertilizer for vegans who want to get DIR-TAY. Sorry, listening to too much Christina Aguillera.

Don’t know much about this but thought it might be of note for all you outdoorsy types. Cheers!

*I kid! It’s pretty easy to be vegan just about anywhere in America and so all you whiners better shut the hell up and GO VEG! Also, MOVE TO A COAST. I kid again, GO MIDWEST!

∞ posted at 10:02 by laurahooperb  

05/13/2010

Recipes: Megan Rascal’s after-school special!  »

I know lots of people like to get all fancy with their daiya creations but I like to kick it after-school-snack-style! Whole-wheat English muffin + tomato sauce + Daiya mozzarella = Childhood, veganized!

I suggest you make yourself little English muffin pizzas right now. Then grab your chocolate soymilk and enjoy this very special anti-drug episode of Punky Brewster:

∞ posted at 10:04 by youtalkfunny  

04/29/2010

Patxi&#8217;s Chicago Pizza (two SF locations, one in Palo Alto RICH KIDS NEED PIZZA TOO) has shown interest in serving vegan pizza (!!!). And we can help the process by letting them know that we&#8217;ll eat TONS OF IT. Fatties, you know what this means. Go to Patxi&#8217;s Get Satisfaction page and click &#8220;I&#8217;m interested&#8221; (You can sign in with your Facebook or Twitter accounts so CALM DOWN, lazy!) and pretty soon we&#8217;ll have vegan deep dish pizza in SF! AHHH!!!!!! (Thanks to Virag for the heads-up!) UPDATE!!!! Paxti&#8217;s just replied on the Get Satisfaction thread&#8230; THERE WILL BE VEGAN PIZZA!!!!: Hello everyone! We are absolutely going to add Daiya cheese - and soon. Here&#8217;s the deal: we&#8217;ve tested out the cheese and have placed the order. We are also in the process of updating our menu. The Daiya cheese will be replacing our soy cheese option on the menu (and that will be reflected on the new menu). However, we will have the Daiya cheese &#8220;live&#8221; before the new menu is published. The day we do the switchover to the Daiya vegan cheese, we&#8217;ll Tweet it, post it here, and post it on our facebook page. So follow us on twitter to be the first to know. All of our crust and sauce is already vegan, so this cheese is the last component for the truly vegan pizza. We&#8217;ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but until Daiya came along, the quality was just not there. So, we&#8217;re super excited to be able to do a vegan pie for all of you vegan pizza lovers!!! Expect the announcement before the end of May!

Patxi’s Chicago Pizza (two SF locations, one in Palo Alto RICH KIDS NEED PIZZA TOO) has shown interest in serving vegan pizza (!!!). And we can help the process by letting them know that we’ll eat TONS OF IT.

Fatties, you know what this means. Go to Patxi’s Get Satisfaction page and click “I’m interested” (You can sign in with your Facebook or Twitter accounts so CALM DOWN, lazy!) and pretty soon we’ll have vegan deep dish pizza in SF! AHHH!!!!!!

(Thanks to Virag for the heads-up!)

UPDATE!!!! Paxti’s just replied on the Get Satisfaction thread… THERE WILL BE VEGAN PIZZA!!!!:

Hello everyone! We are absolutely going to add Daiya cheese - and soon. Here’s the deal: we’ve tested out the cheese and have placed the order. We are also in the process of updating our menu. The Daiya cheese will be replacing our soy cheese option on the menu (and that will be reflected on the new menu). However, we will have the Daiya cheese “live” before the new menu is published. The day we do the switchover to the Daiya vegan cheese, we’ll Tweet it, post it here, and post it on our facebook page. So follow us on twitter to be the first to know. 

All of our crust and sauce is already vegan, so this cheese is the last component for the truly vegan pizza. We’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but until Daiya came along, the quality was just not there. So, we’re super excited to be able to do a vegan pie for all of you vegan pizza lovers!!! 

Expect the announcement before the end of May!

∞ posted at 11:22 by laurahooperb  

12/23/2009

NYC: Viva Herbal Pizzeria!  »

The pizza at NYC’s Viva Herbal Pizzeria is so good, I would brave a blizzard for it, which is exactly what I did last Saturday. As 13 inches were falling from the sky, I managed to finish off two huge slices of vegan pie at this kosher, vegetarian-menu-only spot on the Lower East Side. And when I say HUGE, I mean the size-of-your-head big. With plenty of exotic, fresh, vegan options, this place is a dreamland for the indecisive–-especially when it comes to crust. You can choose from wheat-free, yeast-free, whole wheat, corn meal, spelt, green tea herbal, hemp herbed or traditional crust. And even if you’re consuming a few pizza slices as big as a spaceship, it still feels healthy.

I ordered my fave, the Zen, which is green tea herbed miso tofu, green tea basil pesto, shiitake mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomato and roasted garlic, on a green tea herbed spelt crust, and a slice of the La Vita: roasted red peppers, soy sausage, mushrooms, broccoli, roasted garlic, tomato sauce, and corn kernels on a spelt crust. The Zen is majorly flavorful, not to mention colorful, and one of the most popular menu items. I guarantee it’s unlike any slice of pizza you’ve ever had. The La Vita, which I had never tried, blew my mind. (It was so yummy, I couldn’t bear waiting to take a picture before I tore into it.) Although it wasn’t as good as the Zen, the flavors were tangy, hearty and saucy. I haven’t tested it out on any carnivores, but I’m willing to bet this slice with soy sausage would fool them and the spelt crust is the icing on the vegan cake. I’m not sure how it’s possible to be both crunchy and chewy, but this crust does it.

As far as I know, the only downside is that their soy cheese is not vegan, but you won’t miss it. Slices run about $4 a pop; full pies are also available. They offer a selection of vegan desserts, including whoopee pies, in case you are craving sweets.

∞ posted at 13:11 by bohemianvegan  

09/30/2009

Pi Bar, take 52! OH AND SCREW YOU BEFORE YOU SAY SHIT I’ll WRITE ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT  »

I am in an ornery way today. A cocktail of vicodin, theraflu, and percocet (HA I WISH) will do that to a girl. I love my life, I’m alive, someone get me down from here, I think I need to go to the hospital. There, we’ve run the gamut of my emotions. I cycle those about every 15 minutes. Right now, I’m riding the high so let’s do the damn thing!

So, from our hot field reporter/disqus commenter, Kim, we learn that our BFFs at Pi Bar are responding to emails. Here is what she received:

    I too was a vegan at a point in my life and understand the hardship it can sometimes be.  We are planning on opening October 1st with a bit of a limited menu and depending on how strict you are […] we can do a pie without cheese and include yummy vegetables.  We are open to suggestions as we really want to establish ourselves as a neighborhood “hang out” and offer the best of what our guests want.

Kim rightfully points out that calling veganism a hardship is bullshit and I’ll also note that if you were vegan at one point in your life then you were never actually vegan because you, Sir, DID NOT GET IT. Anyway, cheers to them for responding to a vegan and although they are clearly not the brightest (LAURA! What?? They’re not rocket scientists so really, it’s not an insult, is it?), I look forward to sampling their wares/giving them all my money, as they are right across the street and I am SO HELLA SUPER LAZY, you have no idea. Let’s do this, Pi Bar.

Update: Pi Bar is apparently open now, and at the moment has no explicitly vegan options on its menu. Hoping that changes! For both our sakes, you get me? Have you guys heard of Daiya yet? Also, they have a MANIFESTO? I kinda want to beat them for that.

∞ posted at 13:51 by laurahooperb  

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