29 July, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Yesterday we went for lunch at the trendy Real Food Daily (RFD) in West Hollywood. It’s an organic vegan restaurant with its own cookbook, so you know it’s good. I’m not a vegan or a health-food fanatic (by any means!), but given certain food intolerances I have, vegan food is always “safe” for me and I love to visit vegan restaurants. (I’m guessing there won’t be many of those in Paris.)
My sister is a very picky eater and the thought of going to a vegan restaurant literally nauseated her, but she put on a happy face for me. We ordered Better with Cheddar Nachos to share, which are made with the restaurant’s famous cashew cheddar cheese. (This vegan cheese is made primarily from cashew nuts, nutritional yeast, soy milk and miso.) If you’re vegan or otherwise dairy-free, you know how difficult (nearly impossible) it is to find good cheese substitutes. As such, I was really amazed by how delicious the cheese was. It was melted with the exact consistency of nacho cheese. My sister didn’t like it, but as someone who hasn’t eaten real cheese in almost two years, I thought it was fabulous. The nachos were topped with black beans, guacamole, tofu sour cream, pico de gallo and seitan chunks cooked in taco seasoning. I must tell you it was one of the tastiest dishes I’ve had in years.
Not everything I tasted was as good as the nachos. When vegan/vegetarian cuisine tries to mimic very meaty dishes, the results are often hit and miss. But overall I was very impressed and the servers there were probably the friendliest I’ve ever encountered.
After RFD, we drove to Beverly Hills and stopped at a tiny hole-in-the-wall called Sprinkles, a cupcake bakery. My sister needed to get a dozen for a special occasion. The queue was outside the door and down the street. This place has always had a cult following, but recently it was mentioned on Oprah so now it’s legendary. I really shouldn’t eat cupcakes (!), but I took a bite of my sister’s red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and it was super yummy. However, I still prefer the Buttercup Bake Shop in New York, whose cupcakes are also much cuter. Cuteness cannot be underestimated when it comes to evaluating cupcakes.
So if you’ve been following my trip to LA so far, you know that the highlights have revolved around food. There aren’t too many things I’ve missed about America, but I’ve missed the food.
Tags: Real Food Daily, Sprinkles, vegan
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Really??? Is our food that bad!!?? I have to say I’m not impressed with you taunting us with those lovely looking cakes!! How I could devour one of those right now….yummy!!
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Though not a vegan myself, those nachos do look really good.
