My vegan husband Jeff and I are serious eaters. On a typical weekend, our repast is as varied as the weather—we could be craving curries, tacos, homemade pineapple fried rice or peanut butter pancakes. To give you an example of our weekend eating extravaganza, here’s a recent menu.
It started on Friday; I was driving home after work and, after sitting in traffic for about an hour, was starving. Once home, the normal hour-long conversation of where should we eat was thankfully shortened by 55 minutes. I knew what I wanted and Jeff didn’t take much convincing. It’s was to El Segundo we went.
Our stop was gelato—vegan chocolate and pineapple for me, coconut for him. As we were eating dessert, we call in our order for pho—veggie for him, brisket for me. Yummy rice noodles, melt in your mouth brisket, basil and cilantro … Yes, thank you very much!
Once home, we pulled out the metal TV trays I bought at the Palms Springs antique show and tucked in to a great Friday night feast.
On Saturday, we awoke relativity early, still full from the night before so we skipped breakfast and hit the streets for a walk.
First stop was Santa Monica, the west side; we walked along Palisades Park up Montana Avenue heading to two of our favorite gluten free/vegan friendly bakeries: Erin McKenna’s Bakery and Bread Bloc. At Erin McKenna, we went crazy! We ordered a large chocolate chip cookie sandwich with chocolate filling, a black and white cookie and a samosa donut. Then it was off to Bread Bloc. Jeff got a loaf of chestnut bread and I get sourdough, because we got there too late for the caraway rye (my favorite, especially toasted with Miyoko’s oatmilk butter … forget about it).
We crossed the street to Kye’s for brunch to go; they have gluten free, vegan and paleo options, bowls or “Kyeritos.” We each got the breakfast “Kyertio” wrap with pinto beans, brown rice, salsa and vegan chipotle cream. Mine was wrapped in seaweed with spinach and scrambled eggs, his was in collard greens with no eggs. Then it was back to the car to eat; it was getting windy and we were starved. “Mmmmmm” sounds followed!
Saturday evening’s spread was southern Indian from Mayura Indian Restaurant: kerala chicken curry, rice cakes, veggie korma, veggie pakoras, two ginormous dosas (potato and onion), fried lentil donuts, coconut, mint and mango chutneys, and samabar (veggie stew), with vegan strawberry ice cream for dessert.
Sunday morning, full from Saturday’s feast, we rolled ourselves to the Farmers Market where it was decided we need to eat. We get a few tacos at the MV grab & go. By then I was in a full food coma and can’t remember if we went downtown for lunch at Ramon Hood with ice cream (pistachio & chocolate) at Donut Friend, or to Boyle Heights for Oaxacan Lebanese, or maybe Wild Living Foods raw basil noodle salad? Our weekends are so full of good eating, it’s hard to think straight sometimes. Oh, that reminds me, it’s lunch time!
