"Meh" Cafe: fool me once, shame on you...

I was never too successful trying to get our little art department to go to M Cafe for lunch--not only does the macrobiotic cafe offer very few meat options (and only seafood at that) but the place is a tad outside of our usual budget and the portions are smallish. During our last week, our crew members slowly started dropping off until the last two working members in the art department were me and my coordinator. We took the opportunity to eat at the places that everyone else always scoffed at. So we found ourselves ordering one last time from M Cafe.

I ordered the Gado Gado salad which is described as "organic mixed greens, napa cabbage, crisp vegetables, golden tempeh triangles marinated with ginger, lemongrass & lime, frizzled onions & spicy peanut dressing." While that is basically an accurate description of the salad I got, I was still disappointed. The lamest thing about M Cafe is that over fifty percent of the items on the menu are prepackaged and sit in their display cases for who knows how long. This salad is no exception and it is just plain outrageous that M Cafe gets away with charging $12 for a teeny tiny salad that has been sitting out. If work hadn't been picking up the tab, I would have felt like a total sucker. I just kinda overlooked this lameness before, but I can't get over the fact that I would have been much better off grabbing a sesame tofu salad from Trader Joe's for three bucks.

We also ordered a couple chocolate truffles which were good but, again, were they worth $1.50 a pop? Not really.

I think the idea of M Cafe has been fooling me into thinking it's pretty good all this time. Maybe it's because I'm on hiatus now and I have to --gasp!!!--pay for my own food, but I won't be going back there anytime soon unless I have a hankering for being ripped off.


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

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

Another sign that The Devil has infiltrated Culver City

Bad News: After 11 years in Culver City, Cooks Double Dutch is closing due to skyrocketing rent.

Good News: The business is packing up and moving across town to my hood--Silver Lake!

Bad News: Only the catering side of the business will be operating. The restaurant is no more.

Dammnit!!!! I really love Double Dutch and am very sad to see it get pushed out of Culver City. When I whined to the staff about not bringing the restaurant with the rest of the biz to the east side with them, they said I could just place an order with catering for me and ten of my friends. While that seems slightly crazy, I wouldn't be surprised if I break down someday and place a call for ten orders of their perfect sweet potato fries. But the liklihood of me sharing them with ten friends is slim, I could wipe those puppies off on the walk home.

For our last ever meal from the restaurant, I opted to try the Vegan Mac 'N' Cheeze. I'm not really a fan of fake cheese but I figured that since Double Dutch does other vegan classics so well (like their tofu burger and tempeh club which are both the best on the west side by far) their knock off of macaroni and cheese would be great too. Well, it wasn't the tastiest thing in the world. The cheese flavor was subtle. It really tasted more like noodles with oil than anything else and the few "cheese" chunks were crumbly and generally not too appetizing. With that said, I love the taste of just noodles and oil, I just don't love paying ten dollars for it (so I guess it's a good thing production buys my lunch!).

Even though my last meal at Double Dutch wasn't a total success, I will still miss the place dearly. So adieu, my love, and good luck East of Vermont!


Top photo taken by GreengirlLA on Flickr

"The Happy Vegan" Does Its Job

Truth be told, this week has not been the best. So when we went to Tender Greens this week, I splurged and ordered "The Happy Vegan" which just so happens to be the tastiest salad this side of the equator. Even thought we go to TG at least once a week, I rarely get The Happy Vegan because it's a bit of a calorie-fest, so I tend to opt for something lighter. But today I knew a big bowl of oil and carbs was exactly what I needed.

The salad is really five in one. There is a tangy tabbouleh, a vinegary mix of pasta pearls and corn, a garlic-cilantro hummus, a sweet blend of farro wheat and dried cranberries, and mixed greens with lemon vinaigrette, all served with a slice of crusty grilled French bread. I'd happily take just one of those salads as my lunch, but throw them all together and you get five times the happiness!!! Tender Greens obviously has a very astute and accurate menu-writing department. My Happy Vegan along with my cheer-up trip to Alvaro Street (more on that later) have helped make this week slightly less terrible, so big thanks to TG!!!

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

Meltdown is the Soup Nazi of the West and Kevin Arnold Comes to Visit

This picture is not really appetizing, but I assure you, this Spicy Black Bean soup of the day from Meltdown Etc. was outstanding. I was expecting your typical pureed fare, but what I got was a peppery mix of veggies and beans which makes this the twentieth or so amazingly tasty soup I've had from Meltdown. I am dying for them to publish a soup cookbook. I would buy it in an instant and open up my own little stand in my kitchen where friends could come over and try everything from chowders to bisques. Meltdown really is like the Soup Nazi outpost of the west coast, although they are insanely nice there so they are more like the Soup Teddy Bear.

Perhaps the more interesting part of my day, however, was when this dude totally trespassed on stage. I was the only one down there as almost everyone was on set when I saw this guy and girl walk up to the stage. I assumed they were just passing by, but then they turned and walked right through the elephant door. They proceeded to walk right past me and into a dressing room. I just kinda sat there stupefied for a second and then followed them and asked what the hell they were doing busting on to our stage without asking! Wellllllll truth be told I just said, "hello?"

The guy then proceeds to remove his sunglasses, revealing himself to be the one and only Fred Savage a.k.a. Kevin Arnold.

It turns out, The Wonder Years was filmed on our stages and Fred was showing his girlfriend his old dressing room. Later, Stage Manager Dave showed me where the powerbox still has Fred's name on it:

Fred/Kevin was very nice--apparently he is a director on the show that shoots at the stage across from us--and said he is a big fan of our show.

So basically, Kevin Arnold gave me a compliment. Between that and my awesome lunch, Friday was a pretty sweet little day! Also, when I was looking for that pic of Kevbo, I came across this fun blog by a chick who "stalks" movie locations, and she has a picture of her in front of the Wonder Years house which is just over the hill in Burbank!

One question remains: What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?


Meltdown Etc.
9739 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 838-MELT

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.)

The Simplest Dish on the Planet: Summery Avocado Salad

Well, it didn't take us long to go back to Beacon after our fabu meal there last week. This time I got the avocado salad and miso soup. I had the avocado salad there before and make the same thing at home a lot--it's the kind of dish you feel a little dumb ordering because it's so simple you could whip it up yourself in 2 minutes, but whatever, it's free for me! Thanks, work!

The Beacon version uses Tokyo Negi (a kind of Japanese leek) and while it's good, the dish is just as good without it and really who wants to go to the trouble of tracking down Tokyo negi? Here is the way I make this simple salad at home:

Knock-off of Beacon's Avocado Salad
Ingredients:
1/2 avocado (pit removed)
1 bunch microgreens, washed and dried
1 tsp. sesame seeds
1 tsp. cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp. sesame oil
3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar


Directions:
Slice the avocado and arrange in a fan on the plate. Top with microgreens. Sprinkle plate with sesame seeds and cilantro.

Whisk rice wine vinegar and sesame oil together; drizzle over avocado.

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

My Beef with Top Chef: All the Beef

Did anyone catch Top Chef this week? I love the show but this week was a tad annoying. They kicked off Antonia which is totally whack. TC needs to take a cue from Project Runway and keep in the likable contestants regardless of their work. Lisa is staying and she is unbearable--mostly because of her eyebrow ring. I mean, can you think of a bigger crime against humanity than an eyebrow ring?! It is so painfully white trash circa 1996.

But perhaps the bigger problem I had with Wednesday's show was the pig situation. The elimination challenge was to butcher a whole pig and make a meal out of it. As if it's not bad enough that in its four seasons, TC has NEVER had a vegan/vegetarian challenge of any sort, they had to show the chefs whacking away at a pig that was basically Wilbur without eyeballs. As it is, I have to watch the show with a willing suspension of disbelief to ignore that every dish is a major violation of animal rights, but it was pretty much impossible to do that when Babe was lying lifeless on a counter.

Meanwhile, my lovely Art Department Coordinator, Canada, attended Taste of the Nation this past weekend and had the chance to sample Antonia's food and meet her and her daughter. Here is the two of them:

Canada said her food was outstanding (she mad a linguine with clam sauce and a spicy chocolate shot with cream and saffron.) If you are in the L.A. area you can check her food out for yourself at Foxtail, that is, if you are sexy enough to get in. Word on the street is that this latest addition to the SBE empire is particularly hard to get into. Bonne chance!