SoCal Round Up: Orange County

Man, I miss eating in SoCal! But do I make up for it whenever I'm out there. This time out, I caught the KogiBBQ truck:

And enjoyed a tofu taco and tofu burrito:

Also got to try the new Crispy Chickin' plate at Veggie Grill, featuring Crispy Chickin', Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes with porcini mushroom gravy and steamed kale--so delicious!

And went to the Umami Burger in Costa Mesa. I was excited to visit this branch after my amazing experience at Umamicatessen. The cheesy tots were a great treat--especially after completing a mud run the weekend before it!

And I decided to try the classic Umami burger a try, with a portabello mushroom instead of the beef patty.  Truth be told, I wish I had stuck with the Earth Burger--the portabello mushroom was incredibly oily and overwhelmed any other condiment or flavor. Next time...

The next day, a lovely friend dropped off this Banzai Bowl from Banzai Bowls:

It's this GIANT (see my pen cup for comparison) portion of acai smoothie with delicious fruit like bananas, strawberries, and granola.  So tasty--and bonus--good for you!

Already craving this food again!

Crust pizza

We decided to try this mobile pizza bakery, Crust, that makes artisan pizzas when it parked at our local Rosewood Market.  The girl and her friend were treated to some fancy natural sodas:

We got an assortment of their specialty pizzas: a few Plain Janes, Pepperoni, and the Green Goat:

And since they didn't offer a vegan pizza toppings, they kindly agreed to use the Daiya vegan "cheese" I bought inside the market and make a Plain Jane with it:

And it tasted as good as it looked! Rumor has it that Crust will be opening a "bricks and mortar" store here in Rosewood. Fingers crossed!

Vegan Columbia: Lamb's Bread Cafe and Good Life Cafe

For my birthday we hit the two Vegan restaurants in the greater Columbia area.  For dinner, we went to Lamb's Bread Vegan cafe:

They've got a strong cosmic-African-love vibe outside:

And inside as well.  It's a low-key setup where the menu is Soul Food oriented and offers different proteins (e.g., vegan versions of beef tips, rib, chicken nuggets) and sides (e.g., cabbage, yams, broccoli) posted on a whiteboard as well as vegan versions of popular sandwiches (e.g., reuben, cheesesteak, BLT, chicken salad).  The night we went, it just one friendly man behind the counter.  We ordered there and he would prepare and bring out the food when it was ready. 

I'd love to know why Lamb's Bread is a vegan restaurant (most vegan restaurants profess their reasoning on their websites and menus, usually for health and/or ethical reasons).  The only explanation on the back of the menu was: "Lamb's Bread Vegan Cafe was established to assist the raising of human vibrations in preparation for the inevitable cosmic shift through a high frequency vegan cuisine." Unfortunately, it's still not clear to me why they choose to cook only vegan food (I'm kind of thinking health?), but in the end, I guess it doesn't matter.  I certainly appreciate that they're doing it.  Again, it's nice to eat at a restaurant, knowing I can eat anything on the menu.  The cafe also had this interesting huge altar in the middle of the place with a lot of African arts and sculptures:

For my dinner, I got the beef tips plate with collards, sweet potato souffle, and rutabaga with a pineapple & ginger lemonade, while Paul tried the Reuben:

I enjoyed my plate--really tasty, home-style food, and needless to say, I'd didn't miss the meat.  The pineapple & ginger lemonade was really bright and refreshing--I loved the pineapple and ginger.  And the Reuben was delicious as its own unique sandwich, though having eaten real Reubens before, this didn't quite taste like a Reuben--besides the salty tender pastrami, it was missing the sauerkraut and the flavor of thousand island dressing.  Hands down, best Reuben in my book is still from Native Foods.

Velina ordered the Philly Cheesesteak with red potato home fries:

She LOVED the red potato home fries and I agree, they were really good.  I don't normally get home fries, being a hash browns addict myself, but these were dynamite.  The Philly Cheesesteak was again, delicious as a unique sandwich on its own, but having eaten plenty of Philly Cheesesteaks as a kid, I wouldn't say anyone would mistake this vegan version for a real one.

Unfortunately, they were out of dessert.  So we headed to the only other vegan place in the greater Columbia area, Good Life Cafe.  Not only is this place, vegan, it is also all organic and raw.  Which means all ingredients are organic and that basically nothing is baked, cooked, or even heated above 115 degrees.  We arrived 20 minutes to closing but we grabbed two desserts to go.  One was the cinnamon roll:

I really enjoyed this--the flavor was awesome, really cinnamony.  Again if one is expecting a Cinnabon, they will not be fooled with this cinnamon roll.  But as its dessert, it was delicious.  The "roll" part was a firm, sticky "pastry" of various nuts, sweetener, and some kind of flour?  It kind of reminded me of the filling in baklava (another one of my favorite delicious desserts).

We also grabbed a mocha cheesecake:

Yum--the mocha flavor was really good. And frankly if it didn't get un-chilled in the car ride home, it might actually come close to fooling someone into thinking it was the real thing, like a lighter version of cheesecake.  The only downside to Good Life Cafe is the sticker shock--understandably as an organic and raw cafe, their ingredients and labor are going to be much, much more expensive than standard cafe fare.  But to me, as an occasional treat, it will be worth it.

Overall, I loved my birthday food fest!

Brodards

My friend, Sweet P, took me to Brodard's for some tasty Vietnamese takeout--notably their famous spring rolls.  I didn't even know what kind I'm eating but I LOVED the crunchy goodness inside and their killer sauce.  Honestly, I could have eaten a dozen of these:

I also enjoyed their Banh Khot--these crispy little rice cakes that are wrapped in lettuce and dipped in a light sauce. So tasty and savory. Again, bummed that I only got one order.

Another treat Brodard's are known for--macarons!

And I had to get one of each flavor of the macarons they had: chocolate, coffee, pistachio, mango-passion fruit, raspberry, coconut, hazelnut, salted caramel, orange, taro, green tea, lemon, strawberry, and durian:

They were all tasty, but my favorites were mango-passion fruit, salted caramel, and orange. I will confess that the durian may be an acquired taste if you're not used to it. A slight digression: I remember a long, long time ago, a co-worker told me that I had to try durian fruit--how it was once of the best tasting fruits BUT, she warned me that the smell of the fruit when you cut it open can be off-putting. Her description? Cat litter, she whispered. So yeah, I guess it's an acquired taste, for sure.

Next time I think I'll want to eat here so I can keep stuffing my face with various tasty rolls. I definitely recommend stopping here if making a visit to Orange County.

BabyCakes

Yesterday I took Augie to check out another famous New York bakery, BabyCakes, a vegan bakery where a lot of the baked goods are also gluten-free, soy-free, and refined sugar-free. Currently Augie is allergic to wheat and eggs so I was excited to try a place where he could enjoy a little baked goodness.

We picked out a healthy assortment--mini donuts, chocolate chip cookies, a red velvet cupcake, a banana cinnamon cupcake, and a slice of corn bread:

Side note:  around the corner from the bakery, they were shooting scenes from an upcoming film, Now You See Me.

But this guy just wanted to head home and check out the treats.

Sigh. We are so related.

Augie loved it all.  It was all pretty tasty and you certainly don't miss the gluten, eggs, and dairy.  It wasn't as sweet as typical cupcake fare which, frankly, was actually pleasant.  I highly recommend the banana cinnamon cupcake and mini donuts.

I hope to take Augie back there next time I'm in New York and make it "our place" where his auntie gets him sweet treats!

Milk bar

After dinner last night, we headed to Milk Bar to grab some sweet snacks:

They're famous for their Corn and Compost cookies:

As well as their addictive Crack Pie:

We sampled their soft serve, both cereal milk (which is astonishing exactly like cereal milk and was awesome with corn crunchies) and fried apple pie, which was really, really good.  We brought back a selection of baked goods to enjoy as late night snacks.

First up, the cornflake-chocolate chip-marshmallow cookie:

This was our favorite--it had a toffee like flavor from the corn flakes, balanced by the chocolate chips and had a great chewy texture from the marshmallow. I'd get this again.  And again.

Then we tried their famous Crack Pie:

It was delicious but with all the butter and sugar, the richness is a bit overwhelming, though I have to say the oat crust was delightful and grounded the dessert as whole a bit.

Next was the Corn Cookie.  A really pleasant surprise.  Very "corny" in a surprisingly refreshing way.  Balanced sweetly, it was a unique cookie experience.

The next morning we started out the day with coffee and their famous Compost Cookie:

Presumably named for having a lot of stuff in it, including chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and coffee grounds, it was a delicious cookie where you couldn't quite put your finger on why it was so tasty. Definitely wouldn't turn down one of these if offered to me.

Overall, Milk Bar is a definite treat and I would highly recommend trying one of their unique offerings if you're in New York.

Big Gay Ice Cream

While my sister still lives down the block from Big Gay Ice Cream, I manage to hit it every time I visit.

Real ice cream (vs. frozen yogurt or "light" versions I'll grab at the store) is obviously a treat for me so when I indulge, I really like to go for the unique and flavorful.

Combos that feature dulce de leche, chocolate dip and sea salt (Salty Pimp)? Yes please. Curried coconut (CocoCone)? Out there, but yes, I'm curious. Pretzels, sea salt, chocolate dip (American Globs)? I never would have guessed it would be so tasty. And for what it's worth, I kind of doubt I could recreate this combo at home.

Guess I'll have to keep coming back. Man, I can't wait to eat another cone from there soon.