vegansaurus!

Los Angeles Road Trip: NiceCream’s dreamy vegan ice cream!

Sorry my northern compadres, but NiceCream is based in LA. While not totally 100 percent vegan (some of their ice cream has honey in it, but these flavors are clearly marked, and they wrote about their use of honey on their website; decide for yourself), this raw ice creamerie is one of the only (or the only?) dedicated nondairy ice creameries in Los Angeles. Located conveniently off of the 101 at Cahuenga Boulevard (and only a few doors away from SunPower Natural), NiceCream has an assortment of rotating raw flavors (notable: maple pecan, banana chocolate swirl, ginger-basil); toppings include Newman O’s, granola (à la Café Gratitude), raw caramel (made up of some sort of desert plant or something pulsed with macadamia nuts and vanilla), raw chocolate sauce, Dagoba chocolate chips, raw cacao nibs, and chopped fruit.

Pictured is a scoop of ginger, beet, and something-else-I’m-a-bad-foodie-I-forgot-sorry next to the mammoth of ice cream porn: raw chocolate soft-serve (first of its kind?!!?) mixed with fresh cut bananas, doused in raw caramel. SO FUCKING CREAMY AND AMAZING AND YUM OMG. The two together were like $10. Steep? Yeah, no kidding. It’s $3.99 for a scoop of ice cream and the soft-serve can range from $3.99 to $7.99 depending on the size you get. Toppings are $0.99/each. Yeah, that’s pretty fucking pricey. But I guess it goes along with being raw, maybe? Well anyways, it would be nice to see a price drop, but it’s great to finally see a vegan ice cream place open up shop in LA. Oh, and did I mention this place also doing smoothies, juices, and milkshakes?!?! DAAAANNGGGG. Gotta go back to try GoGreen the Sequel: cucumber, kale, celery, lemon, and spinach blended with avocado, Himalayan crystal salt, and chile.

Vegansaurus NYC: Bonobo’s Real Food

For the past few months, my life in New York City has revolved around the strange non-neighborhood that is “Flatiron.” Not quite Midtown, not quite downtown, not even the fucking Upper West Side, this strange little corner is where people go en route to somewhere else. That is how I walked by Bonobo’s dozens of times, not realizing that it was actually a place for eating. It’s covered by scaffolding and obscured by a Quizno’s and a Southern-themed restaurant called Live Bait that serves Hurricanes (naturally, I have been there).

Finally, one night on the way to work, I stopped in and picked up some dinner, wanting to eat something healthy and not the pizza my work provided on the weekends. I still ended up having some pizza. Why? Because Bonobo’s ended up being made of fail.

Bonobo’s has a cooler with foods that are already prepared, so I decided to just make a selection there. If there’s one thing that vegan restaurants and Latino people have in common, it’s that we are both agonizingly slow at everything. So, I knew better than to ask them to prepare me something. I believe that was probably my fatal error.

After throwing down my hard earned $15 dollars for the privelege of a “Nori roll” with “nut pate” (anything described as “nut meat” that’s not in the description of a gay porno flick is not cool!) and a “raw coconut chai” the dubiousness began to seep in. My family didn’t come to the United States 30 years ago so that I could pay $15 dollars for food that wasn’t even cooked. They came to give us a better life, and I knew, upon biting into the first tasteless roll, that the better life did not involve this.

OK look, I’m not a raw foods girl; If it’s not deep-fried, I am probably not interested in it. But, I’ve been to Cafe Gratitude. I’ve gotten down with it. I have a palate, I swear. However, I can not abide by this foolishness. The side salad the nori rolls came with was no different than the loose spring mix you can buy at any grocery store. Not even the dressing could salvage it.

The one positive item was the coconut chai. But really, how can you go wrong with coconut water and some spices? That’s cheating.

In conclusion: I think I like looking at pictures of bonobos versus actually eating there.

[Image by Flickr user Jeroen Kransen via Creative Commons]

Vegansaurus NYC: Pure Food and Wine!

Here I am, still on my East Coast holiday. I went up to New York to visit my big brother and while I was there my sister, my sister-in-law, my sister-in-law’s sister (what do you call your sister-in-law’s sister? She’s my brother’s sister-in-law but I don’t think she’s mine. There’s no word for it! Wacky English language!) and I went to Pure Food and Wine in Manhattan. It’s a pretty swank raw vegan (some items have honey but they’re marked) restaurant in Union Square. OMG the last time my sister-in-law was at Pure Food and Wine, Gisele was there! The model! OMG! You starfucker.

The food was pretty damn good. Raw isn’t always my favorite because while I’m not a meat-and-potatoes kind of girl, I am a bread-and-potatoes kind of girl. There’s not much of that at a raw place. But the menu here was pretty impressive; it was hard to decide what to order. For starters, my sis-in-law got a papaya salad that she loved. I got a super-delicious frisee salad that had some tasty pears and stuff in it, and I’m not that into salads. I’m a picky eater! Don’t you hate when you don’t want to eat something and people are like, “but it’s vegan…” like you’ll eat anything that’s meat- and dairy-free! Jeez louise. I guess this is kind of an aside. Back to our regularly scheduled program!

For the entree I had this pretty crazy pickled-beet ravioli thing pictured above, officially titled “Sweet Pickled Beet and Rosemary Cashew Chèvre Ravioli.” It was good. I wasn’t in love with it…but it was good. The chèvre was very tasty but I wasn’t that into the pickled beets. My sister got this enchilada thing that was just some mush but SO GOOD. She’s not vegan at all but she was totally into it.

With dinner, I had a sake mohito and it was the sheezy. All their cocktails were sake-based. Does anyone know what that’s about? I didn’t ask our waiter. He had a ponytail. Those are unrelated thoughts.

The desserts were really good. There was a lot of ice cream and sorbet, as well as a few cake-like items. My sis-in-law got the assorted sorbet dessert. It was very pretty and very yummy and we all shared it with her (AND got our own desserts. You know how we do!). That’d be a good dessert to share if you didn’t all want to get your own thing. I got the mint chocolate sundae. It was AWESOME. It had three kinds of ice cream, all very delicious. My sister got that too and she liked it a lot.

All in all, banging! If you couldn’t guess, it was very expensive. If you can afford it, it’s definitely worth checking out. It would be a great date place, it’s got kind of a romantic atmosphere—reds, dark woods, romantical lighting—but still relaxed.

[photos by Megan Rascal]

Preview Gracias Madre! Right now!

OK, more like “pre-taste,” but the prefix is the key here because oh boy: They’re serving Gracias Madre tamales at Café Gratitude right now! Oh I cannot wait for this place to open, one of everything to stay, please.

The tamales are described as follows:”Stoneground heirloom masa steamed in the husk filled with seasonal vegetables. Served with pumpkin seed salsa and black beans. Rajas – roasted poblano chile strips sautéed with onion. Calabaza – roasted butternut squash.” ¡Muy delicioso!

[thanks for the tip, Grub Street San Francisco!]

Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Dessert Party TONIGHT!

The always fantastic VegNews magazine is hosting an Urban Dessert Soiree tonight at CandyBar in San Francisco, featuring desserts from Ani Phyo’s new cookbook, Ani’s Raw Food Desserts. You can find me there tonight eating my weight in pie. Unfortunately, the event is sold out (what is with me and posting sold out events?! I am the worst!) but you should add your name to the VegNews Newsletter to be notified of upcoming events like this first! And in the future, I’ll post about them before they’re sold out PROMISE.

If I won’t see you tonight, FEAR NOT! The lovely ladies over at Cupcakes Take the Cake have published one of the recipes from the book, Chocolate Crunch Cupcakes with Molten Mint Frosting! Most likely when you hear the words “raw” and “dessert” combined, you also think GET IT AWAY FROM ME, but after sampling some of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten in my life at raw restaurants like Cafe Gratitude, this recipe looks pretty g-d tasty. Plus, no oven! This is good for certain friends of mine who use their ovens to store extra clothes. True story.

Café Gratitude!

Café Gratitude is vegan, it’s raw, it’s fucking cheesy and you have to say shit like, “I am eternally blessed with happiness and vibrancy and the richness of my cup overfloweth with bounty.” But I say, go with it. In fact, fucking embrace it. Be all, “I’m a white-hot mess of insanity and I love every crazy-ass minute in this bizarre land of happy, privileged white folks with dreads and LA LA LA I’m a centaur and you are my forest nymphs and we will drop acid and eat at Café Gratitude and be totally 100 percent out of it and contented smile love peace rainbows of happiness!” DO IT TO IT! Own the crazy town that is this place and you will fucking love it. Because the food is GOOD and it’s so clean and healthy that you won’t feel like total crap afterward.

The shakes (the “I am eternally blessed” coffee shake is the best thing i’ve ever had EVER) and desserts (you must get the key lime pie! UGH SO GOOD!) are RIDICULOUS. I mean, they are in a league of their own; I’ve never had something so rich, creamy or delicious, and this goes for before I was vegan too. Instead of going into Café Gratitude with a skeptic’s eye, I say, come in here with your bed-head ratty hair, a skirt worn over pants (Laura’s ultimate fashion no-no but if you’re gonna do it, there will be no half-assing it. This goes for men too: skirts are not just for women at Café Gratitude), and if you have them, stilts. Hippies love stilts for some reason. Clown makeup is optional but encouraged. If you can let yourself completely go with the hippie-dippy shit, you will really have a great time, eating surprisingly yummy food and possibly enjoy group sex with some of the staff/communal-table-sharers. After all, these are hippies, and if there is one thing that hippies like better than not showering, it’s group sex (bonus points if it’s a co-op’s hot tub) (I’m gonna throw up).

NB: Don’t take your uptight parents here. Especially if they’re already annoyed that you’re vegan and think all vegans are freaky weirdos. It will not go well, trust me.  Uptight parents and hippie love gods who share tables and conversations and tell each other that they are beautiful magical fairies worthy of love and happiness DO NOT MIX. My dad does not believe that you are worthy of love and/or happiness. He does not acknowledge your specialness and in fact, probably hates you for thinking you’re special. Also, he thinks you have an odor containment issue (which you do).