Afsoon’s Posties

I can’t believe how fast time flies, it’s already been a month since the first Bake Me Up! LA  bake sale. So what’s the grand total that we made in two days you ask? Drum roll please…$2,115! Isn’t that fantastic? I know next year will be even bigger and better.

In the mean time, I’ve been fluttering here and there trying new foods in different restaurants. The first place I hit up was Shojin with my friend Ashley. It was my first time going and I was really stoked to try it due to all the good things I’ve been hearing about their food. Shojin is located in a heavily populated Asian run down building. I arrived a few minutes early so I went exploring in the broken down facility. It’s a great place to shoot an indie horror movie (for anyone interested). Ashley eventually came (damn LA traffic) and we went inside to eat.

Ashley ordered the Shiitake and Avocado Roll with Barbeque Seitan, which was presented so lovely. I didn’t try any, but it looked really good.

I ordered the Orange Kale Salad. I’m a kale girl. I L-O-V-E kale. And hands down, this is the best kale salad I’ve ever had. The dressing was amazing and the oranges accented it so beautifully. I would go all the way back to downtown LA just for this salad (maybe that’s kinda over doing it since I’ve been asked recently if I wanted to go to Shojin and I refused because I didn’t want to deal with the traffic. Ughhhh).

On to the desserts! (A heads up: all the desserts at Shojin are microbiotic) Ashley’s mum ordered the chocolate tart with a side of vanilla soy ice cream. The chocolate filling was really strong. The bread part was meh. It’s like that weird feeling you get on your tongue when you eat a banana. But combined with the ice cream it blended nicely so the chocolate wasn’t so overpowering. Not my go to dessert.

I ordered the pumpkin cheesecake. Oh man…not what I was expecting. There was a layer of raspberry paste on top of the pumpkin cheesecake. Together it tasted terrible. It’s like eating a peach and wasabi together. Yekh. So I took off the raspberry to see what the pumpkin tasted like. Too much nutmeg. Nope. This cake did not work for me. Ah well. You can’t have everything perfect.

After the second bake sale was over, I thought we should all have a celebration dinner for all the hard work we poured into making the bake sale successful. The closest place to Locali is A Taste of Life and that’s where we went. Again, another place I haven’t been to. A Taste of Life is a soul food restaurant, which means KALE! Rachel and I decided to split up there Lunch option, where you order three sides, a salad, and KALE. Luckily Rachel is a kale nerd like me so we trippled the amount of kale. Woooo!

The kale salad was ok, nothing BAM. A regular kale salad.

For the main dish we ordered the recommended seitan roast, mac & cheese, and double amount of kale. The roast was kinda weird. It reminded me too much of eating animal’s fat. Ugh. The mac & cheese was good. Creamy and mac & cheesy, just the way it should be. Kale, a bit greasy, but hey! It’s KALE!

Ashley ordered the same as us but instead of the roast she got the barbecued tofu. Sounds good…but that thing was scary! You couldn’t cut it in half because it was fried so much. Talking about fried, there was no tofu inside. There was the crispy outside, but nothing in the center of it when you bit into it. Gross. The barbecue sauce itself tasted fake (Celine said it reminded her of McDonald’s BBQ sauce. Ewww).

Celine ordered the chickpea burger. It was soaked in Vegenaise (I love Vegenaise, but too much becomes too much). Celine’s review: tasty but too greasy. Heart burn!

Michael had a gyro (stuffed with seitan roast–ewww–veggies and some sort of sauce that Natalie describes tasting like marshmallows [?]).

He also ordered a raw salad. I took a nibble of it. Tasted like celery and ten pounds of nuts. No thank you.

I ordered an apple cobbler (people looked at me like I was crazy because the whole day everyone was eating sweets from the bake sale. Hello? Sweet tooth over here!). It was too salty. The crumb topping was soggy and the apples were weird. And no ice cream! Boooo.

The next day Celine, Rachel & I went to M Cafe in Melrose for brunch.

Rachel got herself an almond croissant. Thing was huge!

Look how flakey it is!

Celine ordered the California Club Sandwich  and my highly recommended quinoa red salad.

I was originally going to order the Vegan Benedict, but the Enchilada caught my eye and I couldn’t resist. One word: AMAZING. I can’t even describe how fantastic this enchilada is. It even had melted cheese on it filled with avocados, tempeh bacon, and scrambled tofu surrounded by chili beans. I’m drooooling just talking about it.

Rachel and I went out to Pure Luck because she’s never been. We ordered their famous pickle chips. Addicting and disgusting. They were dripping in oil.

This is from pressing one pickle chip on my napkin. Do you have heart burn yet?

Thankfully we ordered a healthy entree. Rachel got Angélica’s Garbanzo Salad.

And I got an Avocado Salad. I liked the dressing, although it was a bit too garlicky. Mint please.

I went up to Fresno to visit some family friends and if you don’t know Fresno…the place is a desert (they’ve built it up a lot, but it’s still dead and freakn hot as hell in the summer). When we went out to eat, we went to a vegan friendly Indian restaurant, North India.

I ordered the Bengan Bartha (eggplant), this had to be the best eggplant dish I have ever had. EVER.

And the Chana Masala (chickpeas), woah! This dish was uber spicy, but delicious, none the less.

And my mum ordered the Pasta Masala (pasta mixed with vegetables), I’m not a huge fan of pasta, so I skipped out on that.

On the way to Fresno, I stopped by Bakersfield to say hi to my friend, Celine, and to check out the only vegan cafe there, Elaine’s Cafe and Market.

Bakery?! And ice cream?! I don’t mind if I do, thank you.

My mum ordered an iced Rose Tea infused with Cranberry juice. To me it tasted like Kool-Aid. She liked it though.

I got a Rocky Road ice cream (made with Dandie’s marshmallows!). It was a tad too sweet and had a funky texture, but I savored every cold mouthful. If you didn’t know, Bakersfield is HOT. When we were there it was 104 degrees Fahrenheit! Elaine’s is known for their gluten free ice cream, so what’s it made out of? Cashews! Read more here.

Lemon bars!

Fresh bread!

 Whew! All that food and 100 added pounds to my rump.

Currently, I’m working on a lot of personal art pieces (which you can see some here on my Flickr page). And if you heard the rumors that I’m working on starting a chocolate business…it’s true! It’s still in the works. Lots of testing and chocolate poo to cover myself in. I’m so excited! More details to come soon.

I’ll leave you with a video I made. I warn cake eaters, this is gross.

Images ™ J. Afsoon A.