VegSarasota in Los Angeles

Dill & I were glad to be able to get to Los Angeles the weekend of Sep. 8th '07 for the 2007 Farm Sanctuary Gala.

First thing we did when we got off the plane was to go downtown to a highly recommended restaurant called 'Real Food Daily'. Yes, the chance at tasty vegan food - sans begging waiters to make special accommodations - is that appealing as to make it priority numero uno :)



Once we got there, we had a short wait until they opened at 11am, so we scanned the menu outside. Strangely (or so I thought) there were about 10 people waiting by the time they opened the doors. It's rare to see a dedicated group of people hoovering about as the wait staff scurries about inside like Target employees prpepping for the Playstation 3 release. Oh, so back to the food - Things like "Scrambled tofu with onions, tomatoes and cashew cheddar cheese, two pancakes or French toast, tempeh bacon & hash browns" and "Tortilla filled with scrambled tofu, onions and peppers, guacamole & pico de gallo, topped w/ ranchero sauce & melted cashew cheddar cheese w/ hash browns or fruit" caught my eye, but alas, it was Friday and that was the Sunday Brunch menu. So we turned our attention to the rest of the huge menu. Dill decided to go with the monthly special, entitled 'French Connection' which was roasted polenta with walnut pesto tofu cheese, vegetables and portabella mushrooms on a saffron fennel tomato coulis w/ grilled vegetables. I opted for the 'RFD Burger' Tempeh vegetable patty, grilled onions, rustic roll, onions. lettuce, tomato" w/the works which added "avocado, tempeh bacon, cashew cheese.

The portions were huge, each coming with a side. Needless to say we were stuffed, but' thankfully the lattes we ordered magically created room for us to share a 'Coconut Moon Pie'. Which, upon tasting, caused my storage of endorphins to be dumped directly into my blood stream. This tasty delight was cool on the pallette, totally succulent, fluffy, and sweet but not too rich. Knowing that an innocent animal didn't have to spend days in a confined cage or be hooked up to a machine to make this dessert made my heart feel as good as my taste buds. I barely hesitate to admit that this tasty treat alone was reason enough for us to buy the RFD Cookbook:




















In order to not make this one huge entry, I'm going to break up the adventure into distinct areas of significance - so stay tuned for our "Fun with Freebies".