Jumping for Vegan Joy in San Francisco

Ahoy Mates!

I'm not sure how it's possible, but I seem to be 100 times busier on hiatus than when I was working. Go figure. Anywho, as I mentioned, I made a quick trip to San Francisco last week when I caught a ride with my friend Neal who was driving back to Norcal from San Diego. Therein lies the beauty of being unemployed--I can just decide at the last minute to drive up state in the middle of the week for no other reason than just wanting to be in weather cold enough to actually merit wearing one of my many scarves.

On to the food...

Basically every restaurant we saw looked incredible. I could spend decades there and probably never make it to all the awesome dining options. So for our one day in the big city, we had to choose wisely. I checked out Quarrygirl and To Live and Eat in L.A. for ideas and they both seemed pretty smitten with Herbivore, so that's exactly where Neal and I went after a wonderful morning at MoMA.

My fellow bloggers raved about the grilled seitan shwarma wrap, so it didn't take me long to order. Soon out came my wrap packed with grilled onions, tomatoes, hot sauce, hummus, tahini, pickles, and the awesome seitan. Would I like to add eggplant and potatoes to that? That would be a yes--I'm on vacation after all! I could easily eat this wrap every day for the rest of my life--it was that good. Neal ordered the falafal wrap which was also delicious. I was also very pleased that the wrap was totally easy to eat--it wasn't constantly in danger of exploding and dripping like wraps are wont to do. (These pictures are much better than mine)

The desserts sounded uber delish, so we couldn't resist ordering a slice of german chocolate cake. The server brought out this huge slab of heaven, which we devoured even though we were already so full we wanted to die. The fudgey icing was the best I've had--vegan or otherwise.

The added bonus of eating at Herbivore, was that while we chowed down in the sunshine, we spotted a very cute looking Indian restaurant. When we were craving Indian later on, we knew right where to go. It was back to the Mission for us!

Dosa serves South Indian cuisine which is different than the stuff one sees on a usual Indian menu. I was pleased to see a note at the top of the menu pointing to the vegan options. I ordered the Tamil Vegetable Curry which was made up of cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, plantains & cherry tomatoes in a "Chettinad-style" curry. Spooning the curry over coconut basmati rice made for one of the best meals I've had, period. The menu described the curry as mild which makes me fear what they find spicy because it was actually quite hot. Neal ordered a dosa which was unfortunately not vegan, because it looked amazing.

Neal and I had an amazing time in SF and I cannot wait to go back--especially because I found it to be even more vegan friendly than L.A. which is very impressive! Thanks to Foodeater and Quarrygirl for the great advice! Also, after eating at Dosa I really want to start cooking obscure Indian dishes more often. Anyone have a good suggestion for a vegan (or easily veganizable) Indian cook book?

George and I Take a Walk-Away at Akasha

Production gigs are not like normal jobs where you might get an hour or so for a lunch break where you can have a Sex in the City style gabfest with your closest friends and then stop by the bank or maybe do a little shopping before heading back to the office. In the production world, lunch is either catered or ordered in and on set you get a 30 minute break and in the office you get no break at all--most people work straight through lunch, taking bites at their desks between sending e-mails. Although our little art department tries to be a little more civilized--we always gather around our ping pong table for a short, communal meal.

Some shows employ a different kind of system: the walk-away lunch. The walk-away lunch is a cruel and inhumane system and is usually seen on shows that shoot on big studio lots. A walk-away means that instead of a 30 minute break for a catered meal, you are given an hour break to go feed yourself. Here is why the practice is so repulsive:

1. A longer break may sound better than half an hour, but when your days are 12-18 hours long, you'd rather have that extra 30 minutes of sleep at the end of the day.

2. An hour is usually not long enough to go anywhere off the lot because it can take 20 minutes just to get to your car which is probably parked at the deck that's on the complete opposite end of the lot from your show's stage. This means you are stuck eating at the commissary (which vary in quality from studio to studio) or the other lame restaurants found on the lot.

3. You have to pay for it yourself!!! The horror, the horror!

Now you may be saying--but Liz, surely you could just pack your own delicious lunch. But no, that's not really an option, because after you've worked 18 hours it's hard enough to force yourself to take a shower, let alone create a satisfying meal for the next day.

Like I said, my show doesn't use the dreaded walk-away, so I don't have to fret. But on Friday, when almost everyone in the art department had to attend a production meeting at location, George and I were left to our own devices for lunch and we decided we'd go out!

Not only were we treating ourselves to a trip away from the office but we decided to go all out and splurge with lunch at Culver City's newest fine dining place: Akasha.

Akasha's shtick is serving all organic, upscale California cuisine with a lot of vegan/vegetarian options. The restaurant is truly green from the biodegradable dishwashing soap to the organic hemp uniforms on the wait staff. I ordered the Punjabi Mung Beans and Rice (hold the raita) and was glad I did as it was the best lunch I've had all season.

The dish came with a bean and rice mixture in a korma-like curry, tomato chutney (which tasted like Indian-style ketchup), local greens, and a crunchy tandoori flatbread topped with caramelized onions. I had never had mung beans before--they never sounded too appetizing--but they were great and I plan on cooking with them sometime in the near future. George also really enjoyed his meal. That is the beauty of this place--usually at fine dining restaurants, vegans are forced to create some bland salad while their friends order feasts. But at Akasha, vegans and omnivores alike can share an outstanding meal.

So today I learned that walk-aways aren't always so bad. I have a feeling George and I will be trying to take one again at least once before our season wraps.


Akasha
9543 Culver Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
310.845.1700

Indian restaurant's are a jolly good place for vegheads!

I have been trying to get my mom to be vegetarian for years. It makes no sense that she isn't one already--she is the one who got me into animal rights in the first place as a kid and she gives money to four different animal charities every month. I finally got through to her and she recently gave up meat (although she is still a pescatarian).

She is still getting used to having to order meatless meals in restaurants so while she was in town visiting I wanted her to see how limitless the vegetarian diet is. I had to take her to the best Indian place on my side of town: Electric Lotus. We created our own feast of Veggie Korma, Chana Masala, rice, and nan. The nan actually isn't vegan, which I'm glad our waitress warned me about, so I stuck to the rice. Everything was perfectly spiced and we left with plenty left over for lunch the next day. We also ordered some samosas which were the best I've ever had. Sometimes they can leave a bitter aftertaste, but these were a little sweeter than usual.

There aren't as many Indian options East of Vermont as there are, say, in West Hollywood, and I haven't even been able to try the other ones yet because I like EL so much I can't bear to pass it up!


Electric Lotus
1870 Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 953-0040