Okay, so basically Urban Food Crawl is a walking tour of some of downtown LA's vegan restaurants. We visited six different locations in the area, grubbed until our bellies were full beyond capacity, and burned off some calories with a good walk. We even got a little history about the downtown area and a few of the buildings. The tour lasted a little over three hours and at the end of it we got a huge goodie bag. :-) Jen and Shari were our amazing tour guides and they did such a great job at making everyone feel comfortable, explaining the food and giving us some history info., and answering questions to the best of their ability. There were some non-vegans on the tour and they really seemed to enjoy themselves...there were a lot of "yums" and "mmm" going on in each place...they asked questions and took a real interest in the food we were eating.
Our first stop was Two Bits Market. They serve fresh, local, and organic produce...along with deli sandwiches, and snacks. The owner was really cool and very enthusiastic about food...which I love.
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| Rupee Sandwich Bean Puree with artichoke, black olives, squash, and arugula puree on a baguette. |
Next up was Nickel Diner...this place is far from vegan but their stuffed avocado is AMAZING! If I had room I would have had two servings of this.
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| Stuffed Avocado With Quinoa Salad - black beans, red peppers, squash, corn, and cilantro. |
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| Roasted peach salad. |
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| hungry peeps! |
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| Heirloom Tomato Pizza Fresh local heirloom tomatoes and basil with Daiya Cheese. This was everyone's favorite. |
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| Field Mushrooms Pizza Crimini, Oyster, and roasted shitakes with daiya cheese. This was one good but not my favorite. |
We had a pit stop at the Bradbury before our next meal.
Mas Malo a vegan menudo restaurant with a range of classic and unique dishes.
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| Traditional style Mexican Menudo made with tempeh, tofu, chiles, and hominy. Veg. ground beef and pickle taco. This taco was the bomb...crunchy, a little greasy, and messy...I loved it! |
Casa Cocina y Cantina is a very modern Mexican restaurant with a cool vibe and fabulous outdoor seating.
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| Enchiladas de Espinaas y Papas Sauteed spinach, pan-crisped potatoes, and soy chorizo wrapped in flour tortillas with red tomatilla enchilada sauce. Served on a bed of cilantro rice. |
And last but certainly not least we have Babycakes! I posted about my last trip there a little while ago and I was so glad to be back with some sweets!
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| Blondie Sandwich Two chocolate chip blondies with frozen vanilla frosting. |
Oh my gosh! I was so stuffed and happy by the end of this tour! If you ever want to hit up some vegan restaurants, meet some new people, or are curious about trying something different please check out Urban Food Crawl, it was such a blast!
Look at all the goodies I got!
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| Vegan Beef Jerkey. |
As one of the non-vegans, and a visitor to the LA area :), I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Urban Food Crawl. The food was amazingly and surprisingly good! For some of the meals, if no one had explained to me that they were vegan, I never would have known. I gobbled it all up. To me, only the menudo was obviously on the healthier side because of the tofu pieces (but I ain't gonna lie, I wish that dish had meat instead! haha). Also, I've had quinoa before so I already knew it was super yummy and healthy and didn't necessarily need meat. I thought the extra stops to point out interesting or historical spots of the area was also a nice touch! Hope to see more from the super cool and cute Urban Food Crawl chicas!
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