M Cafe: A good choice if you are a hungover vegan going to work on the westside

My friend Phil and I had a super excellent time dancing the night away at a party at Custom Hotel on Tuesday. Unfortunately, that meant that Wednesday was a bit of a headache-y nightmare. After getting about three hours of sleep, I spent the whole drive to work trying to keep my eyelids pried open while deciding where to go to get a good old fashioned hangover breakfast. I settled on this tofu scramble from M Cafe.

The scramble itself was actually kinda gross. The only flavor came from onions which is fine but it's bland next to other scrambles which have herbs/spices/sauces to pump them up. No matter though, I was hungover, remember? So of course I totally ate most of them. The sides were the better part of the meal: tempeh bacon, a tasty sweet potato hash with bell peppers, strawberries, and really awesome toast made with a sweet cranberry walnut bread.

Not the best meal, but when you've had one too many mojitos:
alcohol-soaking-up ability > taste

So danke, M Cafe!


M Cafe de Chaya
9343 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310.838.4300

Tennis, Tofu, Two Scoops, and Tecate

I meant to spend my Saturday doing the bajillion errands I neglected to do during the week, such as fixing my tire which has been leaking air for over a month now. But of course that didn't even come close to happening. Instead I started the day with a match of doubles tennis. I chose The Food Monster as my teammate and that turned out to be an excellent decision because not only did I discover he is insanely good at tennis, but he also had a very snazzy outfit that made him look a bit like Andre Agassi but less bald. We totally dominated, no thanks to me.

After that intense game we were all starving so we headed to the new Silver Lake location of Home which turned out to be just as whimsical and delicious as the original in Los Feliz. We ordered the Avocado Mash which is just avocados mashed onto a piece of thin sourdough. T'was slightly lame for three dollars. I got the tofu scramble which is by far the best of its kind in all of L.A., with the yellow curry being the ingredient that pushes it over the edge into crazy-good territory. The most drool-inducing food at the table however was The Food Monster's Frozen Iced Peach which is a blend of peaches, ice, mango, and coconut milk. At five bucks it's a tad more expensive than your average smoothie but its huge and could practically be your whole meal. I plan on making my own at home as soon as I get to the store.

After brunch we all seemed to have the same thought on our dessert-crazy brains: Scoops, of course. I think we all felt embarrassed about suggesting it as we had just stuffed ourselves like August Gloop proteges, but one of us sort of whispered it and that was all it took--we were off to Hel-Mel for the best gelato in the land. Scoops is always amazing, but they were in rare form--I tasted practically all the vegan flavors of the day: Vanilla Jack Daniels and Avocado Alcohol were good but I ended up getting Chocolate Sunflower Seed and Almond Mocha. Annnnnd that is the beauty of Scoops--when you order a One Scoop Cup you actually get two scoops! Oh Scoops, way to do your party in the great American obesity epidemic.

We returned to the The Food Monster's casa where literally all of us proceeded to take three-hour food coma naps before our raucous poker game and subsequent Tecate-filled Wet Hot American Summer theme party that night (I dressed up as The Cure Girl). It wasn't the most productive day, unless you count excessive eating and drinking as productive. Actually that sounds pretty good to me!


Home
2500 Riverside Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90039
323.665.0211

Scoops
712 N. Heliotrope Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
323.906.2649

Tofu Salad from Metro Cafe: Really good but would be better in a compostable container

Behold this lovely salad that I devoured for lunch today. It comes to us from Metro Cafe which is yet another Culver City lunch spot with tasty sweet potato fries. When we ordered from Metro a few weeks ago, they accidentally forgot our SP fries and the owner drove them over to our stage. Yay, three cheers for Metro! But Metro uses all styrofoam take-out ware, so deduct those three cheers immediately.

This salad is tasty and super simple--just grilled tofu, orange segments, and walnuts with mixed greens and a homemade sesame-orange vinaigrette. It was the perfect light lunch--especially after having a soyrizo burrito for breakfast. But more on that later...


Metro Cafe
11188 Washington Pl.
Culver City, CA 90232

The Courtship of Green Truck and the Art Department

I think Green Truck has a crush on us. I started to suspect it last week when the restaurant-on-wheels started courting us like one teenager asking another to prom. Every day they would park their big green vehicle right outside the elephant door at our stage and a staff member would appear upstairs in our little art department to suggest we order lunch from them. Finally, on Monday of this week, we decided to give in, but when we called to place our order, we were informed that they aren't open on Mondays. Why then, did a Green Truck guy come tell us that very morning that they were? Oh Green Truck, I thought we were past all the game-playing days of our youth!

Now we were intrigued. Seems hard-to-catch is actually an effective ploy. We had better luck today when I ordered the breakfast burrito which was filled with a scramble of tofu, broccoli, onion, and spinach. (Breakfast for lunch!--I know, I'm so scandalous). According to the menu, there were supposed to be black beans as well but alas, they were missing. The meal really could have used them too, but it was still tasty without. The tortilla was a flour-less one, which is sort of boggling to think about. It tasted just like a regular tortilla but it broke apart very easily. When it was all said and done, the burrito was more of a tofu scramble with tortilla bits in it, than something you could eat out of your hands. The wrap also had a light slather of a very good bbq-esque sauce which was almost tangy enough to rival Pure Luck's. We also ordered hummus which had a weird gritty texture which would have been okay had it not also been completely devoid of any flavor.

This post makes it sound like I didn't like my food, but I did, I did! There were just some flaws. But we can overlook a few things. Especially when the setbacks are made up for with other good character traits such as Green Truck's commitment to sustainability. After all, we don't need a Mr. Right, just a Mr. Right Now. So Green Truck, I'll give you another chance. Let's go out on a second date, and this time I promise not to get so drunk.


Green Truck
(the address is sort of pointless, just click on the website to see where the truck goes or call to place your delivery order at (310)204-0477.)

Gary's Breakfast Bowl of Champions

I've had set catering ranging from cold takeout from The Olive Garden (AFI film) to gourmet cuisine from a three star Michelin chef (a commercial for Hummer). While the caterers on our show don't have any stars to their name, they serve up an amazing array of delicious food.

Breakfast is where our caterer really shines. Unlike at lunch and dinner, there is no menu, you just ask for whatever your little heart desires and they whip it up for you on the spot. Whenever I roll up to the order window in the morning I always say the same thing: "One Gary's Breakfast Bowl please."

Gary's Breakfast Bowl, or GBB, is your typical tofu scramble with tofu, spinach, various veggies, and a sesame/soy sauce. Its name comes from our first AD who insists the tofu scramble be served in a bowl so he can easily carry it while bossing everyone around on set.

I always mix in some of our caterer's homemade pico de gallo to make a perfect little breakfast!

And just for kicks, here is the infamous George Maya chowing down on his breakfast sandwich:

We should all be so lucky to work on shows that are 20 seasons old .

My dear friend Joe works down the road from us on a certain animated t.v. show about a quirky, yellow family. Every day around 11 o'clock we have the same gchat about where our respective productions are going for lunch that day. And everyday I have to hear about how Joe and his coworkers are being treated to L.A.'s finest cuisine while we have to adhere to our strict $10 per person lunch budget.

Beacon, the asian fusion joint in Culver City, is a favorite of Joe's show and he has always made me insanely jealous when he got to go there. We had always assumed Beacon was way out of our price range, but the other day I was flipping through the menu and realized we could totally swing a lunch there and come in under budget! So we did and it was a huge hit. I had this Thai Tofu and Vegetable Wrap with cellophane noodles, cilantro, and a super good peanut sauce. Our show still has 15 more seasons before we can get the kind of food budget Joe has, but at least we know we aren't eating like a brand new mid-season replacement in the meantime.


Beacon
3280 Helms Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90034