Vegan Las Vegas!

I spent last weekend in Las Vegas. The Sahara, Mikey's favorite casino, closed Monday and he wanted to see it one last time before it did. I think perhaps one of the reasons it closed was the lack of vegan food. There was a NASCAR cafe, a bar and a steakhouse. Think about it.
Anyway, before we got to Las Vegas, we stopped at the Mad Greek Cafe in Baker, California. I love Greek food and I had always wanted to try this place. Unfortunately, they did not have a huge selection of vegan food. This might be due to the fact the restaurant caters to truckers. They did have hummus and pita, so we got the and hit the road.

This was the saltiest hummus I have ever had in my life. I tried eating it with the chips I had in the car and it was an overload of salt. Even with the pita, it was pretty salty. As hummus goes, it was so-so. There could have been more of a garlicky or lemony flavor to it.
By the time we got to Vegas and got dressed in non-traveling clothes, it was time for dinner, so I immediately headed to the Wynn (after a stop at the Sahara, the first of four). The first restaurant I saw when I walked in was Pizza Place. I wanted to eat there immediately, but Mike insisted we look around. I'm really happy Steve Wynn is vegan and makes a separate vegan menu for everything, but man that place is expensive. Forty bucks for the buffet! And that's on the cheaper end of most restaurants. Steve, buddy, a lot of us vegans are poor, could you please cut us a break?
So we went back to Pizza Place, hoping it would be slightly cheaper. I ordered a vegan cheese pizza with olives, mushrooms, and pepperoncinis on top. We also got a side of vegan bread knots (not garlic knots because that involves butter).


They use Teese on their pizza. I had never had teese before, but I loved it. I like it way better than Daiya. Mikey said he liked Daiya better, however. The olives were sliced Greek olives and the mushrooms had been sauteed and seasoned. I also loved whatever tomato sauce they used on it. It was truly one of the best pizzas I've ever had.


Later, we got off the monorail at Harrah's and walked past a place called Ice Pan that caught my eye because they advertised that any ice cream flavor could be made vegan with soymilk. The deal with Ice Pan is that have mix different flavor bases with your choice of milk and then pour the liquid onto a coldstone and mix it around with metal spatulas until it turns into ice cream right there! Then they add in your choice of topping. I was beyond thrilled this place existed. I got peanut butter flavored ice cream with banana mixed in.

It was so good. Ice Pan advertises that they don't use processed sugar, everything is fruit-sweetened. They also use seaweed inn their bases. Their little brochure warns that some people have stomach discomfort after eating it because it naturally helps your bowels work, but I had no problems afterward and neither did Mike. Mike got banana flavored with Oreo mixed in. It was good, but not as good as mine. They offer twenty flavors, of which peanut butter and mint chocolate chip are the best sellers.
The next morning, I had breakfast at--where else?--Ronald's donuts. This place is awesome. It's ridiculously cheap, which I found out is rare in Vegas, and all the donuts are amazing and delicious. I had the cream filled chocolate donut.

The donut itself is exactly how I remember donuts tasting. Fluffy, bready, sugary and yum. The cream reminded me a little of vanilla yogurt. It was thicker than most cream-filled donuts I remember having all those years ago. I actually preferred this consistency.
Mike had a glazed raspberry jelly donut.

Despite the fact it looks like it's sticking out its tongue at you, it was a good donut. Again, exactly how I remember donuts tasting.
That filled us up for awhile, but not for long. I was in Mandalay Bay when the hunger pains struck. In the Mandalay Bay mall, there is a place called Burger Bar. I had a vague recollection of reading on Quarrygirl that they had vegan burgers and I was right! We decided to try it out.
I got the Vegas Vegan. It's a burger with no bun. In lieu of a bun are two grilled portobello mushrooms. Inside are grilled zucchini, tomato, pepper and eggplant (the eggplant was promptly discarded). It came with a choice of side, so I subbed skinny fries for sweet potato fries.

For some odd reason, it came with a tomato, lettuce, onion and pickle side as though it were an actual burger. I ate them anyway. They burger itself obviously was eaten with a fork. It was pretty decent. The mushroom was grilled perfectly, as were the veggies inside, with the exceptions of the tomato, which was burnt. The sweet potato fries were also good. My biggest complaint is that they mixed up our sides and mine initially came with Mike's onion rings on the side...which are NOT vegan. think, people.
Although Mike's side wasn't vegan, his veggie burger was. It had a patty made of various grains, brown rice and veggies. It was so-so. I'm not big on those kinds of patties. It came with the same standard sides as mine did. He said it was good, but he likes vegan boca patties better.

Like everything else in Vegas, this place is really expensive. Altogether, it costs forty bucks (although Mikey had a Guinness, and yes, I know, they aren't vegan).
By the time dinner rolled around, I had spent the entire day on the strip and I was tired of it, so I looked up nearby Mexican restaurants and found one called Macayo's that was on Sahara, but a few miles from the strip (as was our hotel).
They had a build your own nachos there. As I have mentioned before I love nachos. I asked the waitress nicely if I could get nachos with toppings but no cheese and she said yes. I ordered nachos with refried beans (made with oil), guacamole, olives, tomatoes, onions and green chiles.

Sorry about the picture quality. Mine doesn't have a flash and this is the best Mikey got. I assure you, the nachos were far superior to the quality of this picture. And the price was decent and not thirty bucks for one plate of nachos.
The next morning, we stopped at Ronald's again and got a dozen donuts to take back to my sister and dad (and eat along the way).

The most interesting thing we got was this thing, which we called weird burrito thingy:

It appeared to be a rolled apple fritter. It was really good. Nice and cinnamony.
The glazed donuts kept well so that when I got home from work later on that day at 7, they were still nice and fresh.
That was my vegan Las Vegas trip! i hope to be able to try out more vegan stuff the next time I go, which might be in July.

One World Veggie

I live in the San Gabriel Valley. We do not have a great vegan/vegetarian scene here, unless you count Pasadena, which I don't. Our one bright spot is One World Vegetarian is West Covina. It opened about eight years ago, and I was one of the first customers! The menu and the restaurant have changed and expanded over the years. I know that they deliver pre-packaged food to Viva Vegan! Grocery in Rancho Cucamonga. They also sponsor a number of events in the store, such as special dinners/lunches for just about every holiday and weekly specials. Their menu runs the gamut of cuisine. There is spicy Indian curry, veggie burgers, pho, pasta, burritos and fajitas, philly "cheese" steaks, chili fries (a personal favorite), stuffed tomatoes (another personal favorite), chow mein, and so on. The restuarant used to serve cheese, but it now completely vegan. They cheese they use is Daiya. I think they only use the cheddar flavor. I have never had anything that uses mozzarella and few places have the new pepperjack. They also have cakes, chocolate and sandwiches to go in their deli case.
I get their weekly updates in my email and I found out this week they are offering my all time favorite weekly special!!!!! Can you gues what it is?!
NACHOS!
I love their nachos so much. Yes, I could probably make them on my own but the point is, I don't have to.
Here is the tasty goodness:

Mmmm. The chips are Mission tortilla chips in the bag, but you, that's okay. The toppings are lettuce, guacamole, vegan sour cream, tomatoes, beans, olives and white onions.
I may have to go back for dinner!

Chili Addiction Review

Sunday, after attending the LA Times Festival of Books at USC, Mikey and I went over to Chili Addiction, since we were already in LA. I have been wanting to try it for a long time since it keeps getting rave reviews and it's vegan AND omni-friendly.

I must confess something: I am addicted to nachos. I could eat nachos morning (chilaquiles!), noon and night. They are delicious, they are utensil free and they can be made in a million different ways and still be tasty. So despite the fact Chili Addiction has many different types of vegan sausages and burgers, I went straight for the vegan nachos, with the Santa Fe chili:


They were so good!! The Santa Fe chili consisted of black beans, veggies crumbles and garbazos in a tomato-based chili sauce. They were topped with raw white onion, Daiya cheese, a tomato salsa and fresh jalapeño peppers. The chips were homestyle and amazing. The salsa was almost exactly like my favorite salsa ever from La Tolteca, here in Azusa (although they have nothing else vegan). I must make my own version of these nachos soon. The spice level was perfect. Not too high, not too low (although I confess some of my jalapeños made their way over to Mikey's chili mac).

Speaking of which, Mikey got chili mac with the other vegan chili, the Durango. It was veggie crumbles in a chili sauce. No beans. It was topped with Daiya, and on top of elbow macaroni. I had a bite and it was pretty good, although I would have preferred it with a cheesy Daiya sauce, a la Amy's macaroni. Still delicious.
If I lived closer to this part of LA, Chili Addiction would probably become an addiction for me. Go try it!

Loving Hut

First off, Loving Hut sounds like a Polynesian porno title. But I digress. I've had a drink from the one located in the Westfield Shopping Center in San Francisco, but I've never had their food before. See, I'm not big on Asian food, except perhaps Indian. I don't know why; their flavors usually aren't my thing. But Mikey likes it (he likes it! Hey Mikey!) (sorry, that was terrible) so I gave it a try.

I went to the closest one, in Upland, Ca. They sell some prepackaged foods at their counter, like Daiya, Dandies, Go Max Go candy bars and Vegenaise there, which is pretty cool.

Their menu was different than the one in SF. That one was more like a Panda Express, with pre-made food under heat lamps. The drink menu there was also a lot smaller. This one had a fairly decent menu with good drinks.
I had a berry shake to drink:

It was nice and creamy, kind of like drinking berry ice cream.

Mikey had pineapple green drink:

It as very sweet and syrupy, too much so for lunch.

For our lunch, I had the Simply Fried Rice:

It was fried brown rice, with chunks of peas, carrots, onions and fried tofu. The fried tofu was meant to resemble the flavor of chicken slightly and was very good. I put a lot of chili sauce on it, but then, I love things spicy. It was fried with a little soy sauce and was simple, but filling.
Mikey had something called the Sweet and Sour Lady. It was not the most weirdly named menu item, either. I'm shocked mine wasn't Super Love Happy Rice.

I frankly thought it was disgusting. I think the mock meat was supposed to be sweet and sour grilled chicken and I don't care for sweet and sour food. It is not something that appeals to my palate. The mock meat was also chewy and weird. The salad had some funky ass honey mustard-like dressing on it that I did not think was appealing either. The brown rice was the best thing about it.
I suppose for former meat eaters who miss sweet and sour stuff at Panda Express et al., this would be a good transition. Mike thought it was great, so point proven. For me, however, I will stick to rice and chow mein at places like this.

Zephyr Cafe

My fiance is a former Marine and we go to the VA in Long Beach a lot. Thanks to my Los Angeles Vegan Guide that came Tuesday, I found out that there is a vegetarian/vegan cafe nearby, The Zephyr Cafe.

I had a glass of what they called "Hibiscus Iced Tea" but I call Jamaica. It wasn't very sweet, but it was nice and refreshing.

I also had a BLT, made with tempeh bacon, toasted whole wheat bread, vegan cream cheese, tomato and romaine lettuce.


It came with two toasted tortillas and a cup of salsa. They helpfully explain behind the counter that they no longer carry commercial brand blue chips, but use handmade tortillas from a local tortilleria to minimize environmental costs and "step away from corporations".
I enjoyed the sandwich. The bread had the little grains and whatnot in it, which I love. There were two strips of bacon in the sandwich, but I felt it would have been better with one. It was strongly flavored like barbeque and overpowered the other flavors in the sandwich a little. The cream cheese was a nice touch. The salsa was nice and fresh and the tortillas nice and crispy.

Mike had the tofu steak sandwich. I had a bite and the tofu was the opposite of the bacon: it lacked a lot of flavor. It was lightly grilled, but it didn't taste seasoned at all. The bun and toppings were good though.

I didn't have any dessert but there were lemon poppyseed and ginger wasabi (?!) cupcakes available.

There you have it. Pretty good vegetarian lunch for a decent price in the LBC.

Sage Vegan Bistro

I went with Mikey into LA the other day for something job-related (for him) and because I was pretty sure I could talk him into lunch at a new place. Unfortunately, things took longer than expected and I had to be at work by 2:45. Yet, I was determined to try Sage Vegan Bistro inside the Kind Kreme in Echo Park.

The setting is pretty small but bright and cheery. The waitstaff was also very friendl, if a little slow. After patiently waiting for ten minutes to have my order taken, it became kind of obvious I was going to have to get it to go. They were very accomodating in that respect.

There were many delicious things I wanted to try (pretty much anything NOT involving eggplant...shudder). I went with the Black Bean and Plantain Burger, shown below, with a side of potato salad. I had never had plantains before, although it's been on my to-do list for awhile. Let me tell you, you will not be sorry with this burger!
The plantains were lightly grilled. They weren't as sweet as bananas. It was kind of like eating a grilled green banana, both in taste and texture. I love green bananas so I loved it. The black beans had pico de gallo atop them. There was also some sort of sour cream on them. The top bun had arugula, jalapeno and a sauce which I believe was a jalapeno/chipotle aoli sauce. The potato salad was made of red potatoes and lima beans and seasoned with rosemary and dill.

The whole thing was so good, I asked Mike for permission to marry it. Seriously, it was probably one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. My only complaint was the arugula...not too fond of it. But the aoli covered up its taste pretty well. The potato salad was seasoned perfectly.


Mikey got the Jack Daniels Barbeque Burger. It was jackfruit seasoned like pulled pork (so he says, I've never had it), covered with Jack Daniels sauce. Carmelized onions were also involved.

He loved it. I need to find jackfruit somewhere because I've been told I need to learn how to make this :)


While I was waiting for my order, I had a line of view of the treat counter at Kind Kreme and eventually I just gave in and ordered a walnut fudge while I waited.

Not bad. I couldn't finish it all because it was extremely dark chocolate-y, so Mikey got a piece and a half.
So there you have it. Sage Vegan Bistro's food more than makes up for slow service. Next time, I will plan better so I am not writing about flavors while in a car.