Koji BBQ

It seems gourmet lunch trucks are popping up all over Southern California these days. These once gastral frightening “roach coaches” are now cleaned up and serving some delicious food. Today I had the pleasure of happening upon the Kogi BBQ truck. Having heard the whispers of this truck I was excited to see if there were any options for this veggie girl. I wasn't too hopeful since it is Korean BBQ but, to my wonderful surprise there was. They had a few options with one of them being Korean tofu tacos. Between you and me, I know I don’t eat meat anymore but that doesn’t mean I love all things tofu. I have had some good tofu here and there but I tend to eat it just to get protein in at times. I was a little nervous with this endeavor but as I am on a cuisine adventure lately, I had no choice but to jump in head first. It also helped that I was with one of my vegetarian friends as well. We ordered 2 tacos each and opted for the limes and radishes that come on the side by request. (All the people before us had ordered them so when in Rome…)
We got our tacos and grabbed a bench in the park. At first glance we were a little concerned about how to eat them. They were smaller tacos packed high with goodies. They had marinated tofu with a lettuce and cabbage topping with Korean chili-soy vinaigrette. When I dove in for the first bite, I was so pleasantly surprised with all the flavors in my mouth. There was a spiciness, vinegar, and peanut taste that wove together like a beautiful song. Truly, I didn’t come up for air until the first taco was done. A few bites of the radish did add a nice cooling flavor to the spicy taco too. It wasn’t a very spicy/hot seasoning but it did have a nice bite to it. For the second taco I added the lime to it which gave a refreshing dimension to it as well. Although I was tempted to order more, about 10 more actually, I decided 2 was good. At first it did seem like I could eat more but once it settled, 2 were perfect.
Koji BBQ has 3 different trucks driving around the city. To find them you can check their website or they have a very large Twitter following. Their Twitter updates are how you can find out exactly where they will be every day as they update that the most. They also serve food at the The Alibi in Culver City.

When I got home I saw on the website exactly what was on the taco.
• sesame-chili salsa roja
• julienne romaine lettuce and cabbage tossed in Korean chili-soy vinaigrette
• cilantro-green onion-lime relish
• crushed sesame seeds
• sea salt
• garnished with lime wedge, orange wedge and red radish wedge

There were a few other veggie options as well at the truck, so hopefully I can try those next time. You can bet this veggie girl will be stalking, I mean following, that truck again very soon. The followers of 44,408 grew one more today.

www.Kogibbq.com

Hotel Shangri-LA

I recently stumbled upon a restaurant in Santa Monica, CA when I was looking for a place to meet a friend on the west side for dinner. It is the Dining Room in Hotel Shangri-LA. It is located on Ocean blvd. at Arizona. The hotel was “the place to be” in the 80’s and I was recently updated earlier this year. shangrila-hotel.com
They had indoor and outdoor seating so we opted to be out on the beautiful patio under the white linen canopy.
For dinner, we choose to do a little sharing of some plates (my favorite thing to do) and started off with grilled artichoke.

(I promise this blog will not only be about artichokes but, I do love them.)
The artichoke was cooked OK although maybe a little undercooked for my liking. I know some people like them just a little on the raw side as I like to be a little softer. The dipping sauce was an aged sherry aioli. We enjoyed the aioli but it was a little sweeter than I normally prefer. Over all, not disappointing though as it did take care of my fix for the night.

After that we had the Heirloom tomato caprese. This dish was quite delectable. The usual buffalo mozzarella was substituted with Burata cheese. The soft, buttery cheese, was a perfect match with the seasonal tomatoes and the virgin olive oil that was drizzled over it.



For our main course we had the Heirloom Corn Risotto. This, my reader, was my favorite part about the restaurant. The Risotto was totally vegetarian. As most veggies know, or find out at some point, it is commonly made with chicken broth. They even offered to make it vegan but hey, I don't want to go to extremes here. This light, but still hearty risotto was delicious. One of the better risotto's that I have eaten at a restaurant. The portion was just right and the corn added a great texture to the dish. It truly brightened up the dish. The flavor was a nice change up from some of the more traditional versions.


After the wonderful dinner, we chose to have a small dessert. They had a peach crumb with raspberry sauce. This was the interactive part of the meal. The sauce was served on the side for you to decide how much you wanted to add. Of course we dribbled all of the sauce on it. The raspberry sauce was wonderful and not too sweet or tart. It did end up taking over the dish though so in hindsight, you might want to start with half of what they give you.











All in all, Hotel Shangri-LA is a restaurant I would definitely go back to.

Pierre LaFond restaurant

I recently took a trip up to Santa Barbara with some friends for the weekend. The city itself makes for a great getaway from Los Angeles where I live. There is plenty to see and do there that you could easily spend a few days up there and visit so many different places. On the first night of our trip we ended up at Pierre LaFond Bistro and Wine Bar.They are located on State Street and have been there since 1993. They are considered California cuisine and are known for using local ingredients.We started off with a few of the appetizers and shared most of the dishes. The favorite was the Garden tomato and Arugula Pesto Flatbread.

The flatbread was thin and soft and was a great canvas for the toppings. The fresh tomato’s and the goat cheese on top melted in our mouths. The pesto and reduced balsamic truly, helped pull the dish together. We also had the artisan cheese plate and their special, a breaded caprese salad. The breaded caprese was a little lacking in flavor next to the rest of the dishes on the table. We then had the Ratatouille stuffed artichoke.
As a big artichoke fan I was really looking forward to this dish. It sounded unique and tasty. Unfortunately, we found it to have a little too much going on. The ratatouille was cubed placed on top of the cooked artichoke and then bread crumbs were added and it was baked. It basically seemed like two dishes in one. When eating artichokes leaves you need to get in at them and usually dip them in a sauce. Putting vegetables on top of the leaves just made them taste dry. The sauce that was a the bottom was tasty and may have been a better addition to the top then all of the veggies. Although the artichoke was cooked well and the heart was great, it was a little bit of a disappointment to an artichoke lover. This however was quickly forgotten when our wonderful waitress brought us out dessert. She brought out a chocolate cake of sorts and a wine cake.

Let me just say that the chocolate part was good and all but oh my, the wine cake was great. This was the first time I had ever had a wine cake and it was so tasty. It was a moist yellow cake with a slightly crunchy outside drizzled with sweetness. This was easily the highlight of the dinner and a recipe I plan to try out soon.I would recommend trying this restaurant as the food was great and the service was truly excellent.

www.pierrelafond.com

Hello!

Welcome to my blog.
I am planning to use this to share my love of vegetarian food with you. I have been a vegetarian since 2001 and couldn't be happier. I enjoy finding new veggie friendly food, restaurants, and recipes and want to share what I have found. For years I have hosted themed parties and dinner parties for meat and veggie eaters alike. I always serve pure vegetarian food and have yet to disappoint any of my guests. I have found that if you cook "regular" meat types of recipes and sub out the meat and add in simple substitutes, nobody really notices.
This site will be for me to share some of my thoughts about food, places to go for vegetarian food and entertainment ideas.
Most of the restaurants and food spots that I review will not be your typical vegetarian places. As most of the people in my life are not vegetarians, the places that we go out to are not. As you may or may not know, for the most part, vegetarian restaurant options are usually either ethnic or somewhat abstract. Some of them are places that when you first look at the menu, unless you are a seasoned foodie, you may not know what it is. The places that I like to typically eat out at our not these places. Although I do love some of them, they aren’t always where we end up for the night.
What I am getting at here is that this blog is for everybody, not just vegetarians. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy working on it.
Feel free to share any thoughts or comments as well. I truly welcome all of them.