Vegan Grubbin at Sipz Cafe in San Diego

Whenever I protest in San Diego, CA (Typically against Bloomingdale's (Fur) and Sea World (Slavery) our after-protest-grub-fest has always been at Sipz! Love this place TO DEATH... It is Asian/ Thai themed vegan food with some awesome baked goods as well :) I recommend this place with my heart and soul! Oh ya and after 5pm (At the location I frequent) they serve VEGAN SUSHI (Please don't piss your pants!)

Thai Tea

Vegan Crab Rangoons 

Tangy Orange "Chicken" with steamed broccoli added and served with white rice (Did I mention, health reasons are the lowest on my vegan priority scale: FUCK YOU BROWN RICE)

Carrot Cake & Red Velvet Cupcakes

One happy stuffed vegan here... Can we protest again soon please?! ;)

Peace.Love.Vegan

Always&Forever

Amy

Man Have I Been Eating A Shit-Ton of Loving Hut Lately

YES EXACTLY AS THE HEADING READS... I can't get enough of Loving Hut, Ladera Ranch, CA this past week and have ate takeout more than a few times (Sometimes I want to eat dank food without cooking, I confess)... Loving Hut is EVERYWHERE and the menu has similarities and differences between each location and is priced CHEAP for vegan-fare... So basically, I am going to make you green with envy (not your hippie green juice) about all the delicious vegan Asian food I have shoved in my face this week.

Starters: Golden Nuggets & Jumbo Drum Sticks

Golden Nuggets verdict: BOMB! Better than Pink Slime Mc Donald's Nuggets any day... The barbecue sauce was even better than Mc D's too and that is some hard shit to beat!

Jumbo Drumstick's verdict: Pretty good, I liked that what looked like a chicken bone was actually a SHROOM that you could eat (As in the whole thing was edible, some vegan places have the fake bone for looks but you can't eat it).

Chef's Special: Clay Pot (Keep in mind, all of this is to-go packaged)

 

This shit was BOMB, loved the sauce, can't really say it tasted fishy (Which is probably a good thing) but it was delicious and the look was spot on as well as the texture... Mad props.

Rice Dishes: Tangy Orange (I suppose it is called a "rice dish" because it comes with rice?! Though that is an inconsistent hypothesis if you look at the dish above)...

Really liked this... Reminds me of orange beef, and it came with a cute salad with some whack-ass dressing so I used some of my own since I was in the luxury of my own apartment :)

Noodles & Soups: BBQ Noodles & Pho

I have had the BBQ Noodles before at a Loving Hut in Orange, CA and they were AMAZING... These were mediocre at best compared to my first experience, maybe it was because they were to-go?

Here are the noodles mixed up and the okay-tasting Crispy Roll gone from the picture into my tum tum :)

Now the Pho was OFF THE CHAIN (Ya, I just said that)... Perfection, SOOOOOO GOOD! I will admit though, I have never had Pho with animal meat in it so I cannot compare. I have had vegan pho at an actual pho restaurant and it was bland and boring as shit (Vegans apparently don't need flavor only steamed veggies and broth that tastes similar to water)... This dish definitely changed my opinion on how Pho is DANK when done right!

Thank you for reading my reviews and if you want to punch me in the face for all this I understand. I am sorry if you live somewhere where such amazing vegan restaurants aren't like EVERYWHERE (Hey, I ain't in LA though so it is kinda "Hood" for vegan restaurants)... The times are changing, hang in there fellow vegan comrades, I am sure one will pop up soon!

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

What Vegan's Do After Activism: THEY MACK DOWN!!!

Hello Luvers,
I didn't make many new years resolutions this year, only a couple... One of them was to get involved with Animal Rights Activism! I have been a passive vegan for the past 3ish years just trying to convince people being vegan was easy through my happy vibes and food sharing. For 2013, I decided it was time for me to get my butt out there and use my enthusiasm to be a voice for the animals whose cries for mercy fall on death ears. I haven't been involved long but THANK GOD I GOT ACTIVE... Mind you, I went to these events BY MYSELF at first with no one with me for moral support... I felt, OUT OF PLACE... Everyone seemed to KNOW EACH OTHER... Will shit, a few demos in and I have made some AMAZING FRIENDS and my life feels that much more complete! I now show up to events and always see a few familiar faces and if not... VEGANS ARE FUCKING AWESOME AND WELCOMING... Step out of your box and get involved, I promise you it will be fulfilling! ANYWAYSSSSSS... What do Vegans do after protests? WE EAT DANK VEGAN RESTAURANT FOOD AND WE TAKE PICTURES BEFORE WE EAT IT! Soooooo awesome to find people as strange as myself :)

Last Saturday, I joined Fur Free LA for a fur protest outside of Intermix in Beverly Hills straight across the street from The Ivy where all the yuppies go to try to get noticed... Fur is so cruel on so many levels and completely unnecessary in our times... If you are a caveman/woman you are excused otherwise, you are just an asshole without a heart or soul... If you need to see how fucked up this is for yourself, Peta2 has some intense videos... Animals are skinned ALIVE for fur, that my friends is SADISTIC whether companies do it or you create a demand by wearing it. Please read "Ingredients" on clothing to make sure you are not supporting fur, leather, wool, or silk... FUCK THAT NOISE FOR REAL. So after an amazing protest, I carted a car full of vegan girls and met a few other protesting homies at Doomie's in Los Angeles, CA... This is vegan fried comfort food... The shit you eat on a rare occasion so enjoy!!! Me and my friend Sara, who is also my navigator for finding demos in places outside my radius (I call her Columbus), shared 3 dishes cause we are fatties :) The Big Mac (On the "Secret" Menu), Fried Chicken, and the Seafood Combo... All were awesome comfort food and I wish my stomach was bigger so I could eat more!

Last Sunday, I boycotted the shit out of a pet store called Barkworks that sells puppy mill dogs (This Barkworks was located in Riverside). Side note: My sisters fiancee worked there so I actually have first hand knowledge that many of the puppies that arrive to the pet store DIE and the ones that do survive sit in tanks without being walked until some dip-shit buys them... Did you know that you can ADOPT the designer dog of your choice through petfinder.com for a fraction of the price?! Or, if you don't give a fuck like myself, you can adopt a fur-baby, PREFERABLY A MUTT, at a shelter (Or for me a KILL SHELTER) and save an animals life who will love you forever for it... The choice is easy: ADOPT or be the reason another homeless companion animal is euthanized this year. So on to food... Me and Sara had to go to Native Foods to try their new limited time Southern Fried Stack available only 1/18-1/20/13... I can tell you that while it was pretty good, I wouldn't order it again... Not overly impressed but ate the whole damn thing... I was impressed however with my side of choice: Chipotle Black Bean Soup!!! It was bomb and I will order it again! See below:

If I can encourage anyone out there... Look at meetup.com for vegan groups in your area or be like me and facebook friend request the hell out of vegan people and meet tons of new friends and have the inside scoop on TONS of events you would have never known existed. I know eating vegan is the most positive impact you can make but I challenge anyone reading my randomness to try one event this year... I think that is a realistic goal for anyone... Don't you agree?

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

Awesome Saturday! Vegan Dining at Thuyen Vien in Anaheim CA!

Holy smokes Thuyen Vien in Anaheim California is freakin AMAZING! I want to go back tomorrow for realzzz people! Take a seat and embrace yourself for some food porn and if you're ever in So Cal, get your fanny over to Thuyen Vien. Almost everything is vegan except like five "fish" dishes... kinda wonder why they even bother...

So my amazing step mom treated me to lunch today and this is what we had:

Thai Iced Tea... Solid

Spring Rolls... Wrap these in the lettuce leaf with some of the mint and double dip your heart out in the sauce

Banana Flower Tacos... Plain ingredients that somehow become heavenly

Fried Rice Thailand Style... Loved it! Tofu chunks, fake meats, cilantro, delicious short grain rice... Add some chili paste and now we're talkin :)

Soy Chicken Garlic with Special Sauce... Good, standard TVP chunks with some good sauce and green onions, no complaints

Eggplant Claypot Sensation... Eggplant is the new love of my life, this melts in your mouth, I will be fantasizing about this tonight <3

Vegan Flan... First vegan flan experience, epic, no difference!

Vegan Cheesecake... Solid, no complaints

Get your ass to Thuyen Vien HERE IS THE MENU.

Cinnamon Vegetarian Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)

LA has like a million vegan restaurants, it is overwhelming to have so many options, seriously. I chose Cinnamon Vegetarian Restaurant and I wasn't disappointed. I didn't want the typical Asian or American themed vegan food, I wanted something different and this Latin food did not disappoint 4 out of 5 stars! 

We split the Empanadas that were served up with some salsa. The filling was TVP for sure, sinfully fried and delicious!

I had the "Chicken" Mole with Refried Beans and Spanish Rice. The "Chicken" had a texture and taste I wasn't too familiar with and the little pieces were even presented on a fake bone which kind of creeped me out, for realz. It was pretty good, I really liked the Mole sauce and the refried beans and homemade whole grain flour tortillas that came with!

My step mom got the Stew in Green Sauce with Black Beans and Spanish Rice. I liked the texture of the "Beef" or whatever they were trying to mock in the dish, the taste was decent.

I also enjoyed a glass of Horchata which was very yummy! I haven't enjoyed this yummy drink since going vegan almost 3 years ago :)

The reason I went up to LA was to see my "friend" via the internet vegan community, Quintess (Author of Radiant Health Inner Wealth), do a cooking demo and book signing. I love meeting online friends in real life and this chick is so healthy she freakin glows people, no joke! She made some kale salad and lemme tell you... It actually tasted good! I rushed to the store and bought all the ingredients I didn't have on hand so I can make it tomorrow! I tried making kale salad once and it tasted like ass. I knew I did something wrong if so many other people seem to enjoy it. I won't post pictures of me and Qunitess cause I look semi-gooberish :) The kale salad is so easy though it's just kale, lemon juice, crushed garlic, sea salt, agave nectar, olive oil, raisins, and kalamata olives... Like a perfect mix of sweet (raisins), spicy (garlic), and sour (kalamata olives)!

Gravy and Indian... Yup

^ Not together, though I am not guaranteeing this will never happen... I will welcome you to my bizarre world of food pairing, seriously bizarre peoples... This is one of the reasons I usually just show the dish alone and not the actual plate I eat. Ha! I will let you in to my world, just this once for my gravy posts:) Kidding...

So first, I had potatoes, which grew into parsley garlic mashed potatoes, these mashed potatoes felt a little nakee (Yup that's how I say it) and wanted a good slathering of gravy. I made two different types of gravy, both from VegWeb and my nakee mashed potatoes were satisfied.

First off was Vegetarian "Chicken" Gravy. This was very good gravy! I used the Superior Touch's No Chicken Bouillon which is good stuff! I am happy that this is easy to find now that Mother's Market stopped carrying No-Chicken Broth Powder in the bulk bins :(

(Mashed Potatoes with Vegetarian Chicken Gravy, Creole Seasoned Roasted Zucchini and Poblano Peppers, and Tofu Scramble)

Next off was Miso Gravy. This was alright, I used white miso and I think I would have liked it better with red. I added some poultry seasoning and a few extra tablespoons of flour to thicken it more. Not bad but not insanely good. I was happy to use up some of the miso paste that has been parked in my fridge for the past few months.

(Mashed Potatoes with Miso Gravy, Baked Teriyaki Tofu, and Easy Elotes)

On to the Indian! Manjula's Kitchen is such an awesome resource to learn how to cook some easy and tasty Indian Food. I've made both these dishes before but this time around I tweaked them a little!

Aloo Gobi with green peas added this time as she suggests and I doubled the green chili's, diced them, and added them in with the "paste". Loved it!

Aloo Baingan was much better this time around! I doubled the spice/ paste ingredients except for the salt which made the dish so much better since last time this was really mild and bland in my opinion.

Peace, Love, and Veganess <3

Veggie Grill

I hit up Veggie Grill  for an APRL event on Thursday last week (Half of the meal price was donated) and I was not disappointed! It seems to be kind of similar to Native Foods, and I've heard there is a connection between the owners so it makes sense... Sorry, VG, Native Foods "Chicken" Wings with Chipotle Ranch hold an unbeatable place in my little vegan heart. 

I tried the Buffalo Wings which were phenomenal! But the Ranch was a bit thin compared to Native Foods (And if you are a vegan ranch whore like me make it at least double serving seriously)...  The "Chicken" was definitely the same recipe as Native Foods, which I need to get my hands on ASAP!

I also got the Nachos, which were good as well. The cheesy nacho "cheese" sauce was definitely nut yeast based and I could have duplicated these at home, but yummmmmm!

Breakfast at Mother's Market

Breakfast at Mother's Market:

As you peeps know, I love Mother's Market. Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be treated to a breakfast feast by my friend Troy (Thanks Troy)... Troy watched Forks Over Knives and has decided he wanted to change his diet and came to me for some help and guidance :) This coming Sunday, I am driving down to San Diego to go shopping and teach my buddy how to cook some easy and delicious vegan grub.

Troy ordered the Ma's Flap Jacks, which were huge! Yummmmm! He also ordered some kind of carrot juice (I don't know where the picture went!) and a shot of wheat grass.

I got the Antioxidant Smoothie which was pretty good... Kinda icy and thick instead of creamy and smooth like I prefer, but good none the less.

I also got the Tofu Omelette stuffed with avocado, bell peppers, and onions, served with herb roasted potatoes and raisin swirl bread... The Omelette needed some nut yeast or something... I think I'm going to try to make my own this weekend... I'm guessing all you need to do it process the tofu into batter, season well (Which this omelette lacked), and add some sauteed veggies in the middle... Sounds easy peasy for sheezy :)

Peace, Love, Vegan <3

The Post-A-Thon... Massive Unload Part 5

Restaurant Food Porn:

(Native Foods Green's Salad)

So I'm sure you peeps know, I live in So Cal where good vegan food is not so hard to find, thankfully! I do most of my "specialty" shopping (Cheap organic tofu, Earth Balance, Vegenasise, Tofutti Cream Cheese, Tofurkey Deli Slices, Nutritional Yeast, broth, etc.) at Mother's Market. Why I put "cheap" in bold is because I can still find most of these items in grocery stores but they are typically half the price at Mother's, as these aren't seen as such "specialty" items at a health food store chock full of vegan goodies! 

Mother's also has an awesome deli case with a deal for 3 hot items for $6.99 (Perfect for lazy hungover weekend days!). Some days they don't have much to offer, other days, it's a gold mine! I am usually happy if they at least have a vegan pizza out so I can have two Daiya cheese covered slices along with another item from the case. 

Last weekend, I chose 2 vegan pizza slices (One pictured above) and some barbecue soy "chicken". The "chicken" was especially tasty with some leftover rice from some vegan Thai takeout at Jumbo Thai Cuisine.

So on to Jumbo Thai Cuisine (Sorry their website isn't up an running yet so I used the best link I could find above)! I love the fact that they have a small section labeled "Vegan Dishes" but what I don't understand is that the restaurant has a huge VEGAN sign in the window yet most of the dishes they serve are not vegan?! 

I do appreciate how helpful the owners are in letting you know what meat dishes can be veganized but I feel like Jumbo Thai alienates both of their potential audiences: Typical "sheepoles" who want to mack on Thai animal fragments and run the opposite direction at anything vaguely vegan and vegans/ vegetarians who foolishly go in thinking that this is a legitimate vegan restaurant. 

I mean shit, what if I was that big if a dumb ass that I just phoned in my order thinking the Mongolian Beef was "Beef" made from wheat gluten or something?! I am developing a relationship with the owner, a VERY friendly lady, who knows me since I have come in a few times and talked to her while I was waiting for my food and the restaurant was empty... I am eventually going to tell her she should lose the sign that screams "VEGAN" so that this little gem stays in business!

First off, I would like to mention, the prices are cheap, especially the lunch specials! Here are a few dishes I tried when my battery was getting replaced at the Pep Boys nearby.

Spicy Eggplant with Tofu (This is my favorite Thai dish typically at any Thai restaurant so ya, I liked it!)

Pad Thai sans the egg (barf) before a good mixing...

Post mixing... Very good! I needed to dump on some Sriracha though to make it spicier.

 This is Young Ginger Thai Style with Tofu... This was okay, lots of shrooms and ginger... The owner recommended it. I personally wouldn't order it again though even though I don't particularly dislike any of the ingredients, it was just overkill.

(My personal favorite thing on Earth: Native Foods "Chicken" Wings)

Lastly, my love child, Native Foods, that has blessed this sweet Earth with happy hour every Friday 3pm to 6pm, which encompasses half priced appetizers and drinks! 

(My sisters favorite, Sweet Potato Taquitos... Sorry peeps these are greasy tacos, just sayin!)

I rush over straight after work to meet up with my sis every week we possibly can coordinate our schedules so we can stuff our happy, fat little vegan faces with as much food as we possibly can!

(Native Nachos are the bomb!)

This week, Chef Tanya was at the Aliso Viejo location we always hit up and was delighted to see us squealing with our typical joy as we fill up on half priced appetizers galore. She had us shoot a little video for yelp or something telling how we (Well my sister cause she was all dolled up so I nominated her for the role haha) loved Native Foods. We got a free Strawberry Shortcake Parfait for our difficult task :)

Saigon Roll (This is purdy but not orgasmic or anything)

Peace, Love, Vegan <3