Lots of Ice Cream in LA;Peanut Butter Parfait;Kind-of-Amazing Coffees;&&& More

Peanut Butter Chocolate,Vanilla Crumb,and Hazelnut Oreo Ice Cream at Scoops in LA.
So after getting a $45 plane ticket to Southern California instead of driving and waiting at the airport for 4 hours to get picked up by my best friend who had been there for 4 hours too and was just waiting at the wrong terminal,we went to Scoops.The ice cream was kind of amazing.But not the best ever.I still think that Lula's Sweet Apothecary in NYC has had the best vegan ice cream i've ever had,but this was much better than Maggie Mudd in San Francisco,and I thought Maggie Mudd was great.


Guava Sorbet and Vanilla-Chocolate Ice Cream











Two days later I went back to Scoops with my friend Ashley and Desiree and had Coffee-Molasses Ice Cream.


it was soo good.
A LOT like the starbucks coffee ice cream i used to eat from bristol farms in like 1999.but also kind of like an uncle eddies molasses cookie.zedomg.


that is a vegan peanut butter chip.
they had peanut butter chip ice cream,but by the time i got there,there was only enough for a sample-not even a scoop.
:(


I know,sacrelige,but here's some "real" food. I love the Kale Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce at M Cafe on Melrose. I mentioned how much I love kabocha squash before,and next to that is a Kabocha Cous Cous Salad. It was mostly mashed squash,but with a nice textural bite/clump of cous cous every once in a while. Together,the two salads were even better.


Ashley had the Club Sammich,which I had there about 2 years ago the first time I ever went,and Liz had last year,sans tomatoes.


Desiree had some crazy huge sammich that wasn't as good as the club,and I thought it tasted like pizza,but she liked it.


yum.








LACMA




Green Tea Ice Cream with Fried Bananas at Wheel Of Life in Irvine.
The fried bananas were sooooo good.I kinna wish it was peanut butter ice cream,but green tea was nice.Not too sweet,but not grossly unsweet.I had no idea that Wheel had desserts,which I think I would have since I first went there when I was 12(!) and had been vegetarian for less than a year.I used to really like the orange chicken,but I can't stand fake meat anymore.And i've tried it since.






'Better than Cheesecake'.
Apparently it's their most popular dessert.I didn't like it after the first bite,but then it grew on me,and I finished it,so it was good.I'm just not huge on cheesecake,but if you are,then I think you'd like it.






alan voo,desiree and ashley's cat,is the best.



Did you know that they opened a Native Foods in Aliso Viejo?
This is only kinna a big deal because I used to hangout in front of those movie theatres every Friday night in middle school,when I attended Aliso Viejo Middle School.So I used to go to the Native in Costa Mesa,I started going there when I was 13 and go to that one with Orange County friends whenever I visit,but now there's one 5 minutes away instead of 20 minutes away,so we just went to the AV one,kinna a lot.Well,Chris and I went there twice and the CM one twice during my 5 day trip,so...


Native Caesar.


some posole soup.part of the bail-out special.


Seitan Peppersteak Sandwich.
It had a suuuper yummy broth to dip into.I had this last April at the Costa Mesa location,but we got it because it was the special that day-though not the bail-out special like Chris thought.


just steamed vegetables.
NOT grilled.and with kale.thanks greg.


Oh,this is Greg.He's Chris and my new BFF.He works at the Aliso Native AND at the Laguna Woods Mother's Market.
how freaking vegan is he?!


"gregarious".ha!

Enough messing around.Here's the most important thing about Native


PEANUT BUTTER PARFAITS!!!

SO good.Chris and I had these every night for 3 consecutive nights.Well,Chris had one for breakfast once instead,but still.


Boogie Bars.
Yes,there's chunks of the boogie bars in the parfaits,but you really need to buy a separate chunk of boogie to go along with the parfait.




what can I say?




3 nights,3 moustaches.




raw chocolate pudding 'stache at Aliso Native Foods.


Oh,and I met Tanya,the owner/mastermind behind Native.She's on the cover of the cookbook.Well,her cookbook.Ummm uhhh yeah anyways,it was awesome,we just started talking and I ended up showing her my sketchbook and her,Chris,and I ended up talking for like half an hour!She has a lot of energy and ideas,and really liked to talk.awesome.



In LA there's an awesome 7-11 type convenience store that is all eco-friendly and what-have-you and it's really awesome.It's called LOCALI.They have an agave-sweetened slurpee machine,hot pretzels,fresh vegan baked goods,a large freezer with raw ice cream,coconut milk ice cream and more,vegan truffle tarts in the fridge,pre-packed sammiches from M Cafe,vegan condoms,tons of books and chocolates and other stuff.The two staff working were suuuuper nice,too!




This Michelle's Vegan Peanut Butter Apricot Cookie was actually really good.I wasn't expecting much since it's whole wheat and fruit juice sweetened,but it has a crunchy exterior with a chewy,sweet,peanut buttery inside.Though it was a bit crumbly.BUt the apricot chunks were fantastic!It's such a crazy combination,like it's not a "thing" or anything,and I just happen to maybe like both of them.


soy macchiato at Intelligentsia in Silverlake.



Of course I HAD to go there.And I did.And I would go back in an instant,because it was really fantastic coffee.I've had Intelligentsia espresso before at Raging Bean and Wicked in Vancouver,so I knew the taste,and I knew that it would be good,but the baristas here actually knew wtf they were doing with soymilk(West Soy,apparently)and when I asked him to make my drink all pretty he said "that's how we do them".In a pretty snarky tone,too!It made me soooo happy.Though,I've never been to a more expensive coffee shop,so if you plan on going,plan on spending like at least $10 for 2 drinks.







Well,I guess that's my Southern California post!I did a bunch more stuff there,but it wasn't related to veganism and baking and stuff,so I won't mention it.