So far, I'm having a blast here with my sister and grandma in Huntington Beach, Cali! When I was living here a few years back, I was still an omnivore, and so this is my first time experiencing the area as a vegan. This trip is totally opening my eyes to all the vegan options here! I never knew there were so many vegan or veg-friendly restaurants around Huntington Beach, let alone LA, until I did a quick search online. I'm so overwhelmed by them all, I could just pee in my pants. I have now realized that being veg here really is indeed a lot easier than in Korea. How am I going to go back to Korea, what with its measly number of vegan restaurants, now that I have seen all this??
Anyway, more food talk to come in a sec, but let's first talk about the LA Renegade Craft Fair that I went to this weekend at the California Market Center. It was the first time this traveling craft fair stopped in LA, so I feel really lucky to have been here for it! It wasn't half as big or extravagant as the Maker Faire that I went to in SF last year, but there were still a lot of cool shtuff to see and play with.
Going to these kinds of fairs always inspires me to do more, create more, and just get my own work out there. I have so much respect for these serious crafters who are just doing what they love, with lots of style.
So, back to food-talk. After walking around the fair, my sister and I worked up a bit of an appetite, so we found the booth for 'Tiara Cafe,' which is actually a restaurant in the Fashion District of LA, but was serving part of their menu on location for the fair. Being a jaded vegan from Korea, I was skeptical that there would be anything I could eat, but then my sister asked the man behind the counter what their vegan options were, and he nonchalantly pointed to about 5 different things that were vegan! My jaw just dropped. haha. This simply does not happen in Korea, where you go to any regular food joint and they rattle off a list of all their vegan dishes without you having to explain what a 'vegan' is. Granted, it probably shouldn't have been such a shock that a food booth there would have a few veg dishes, considering that the crafty types are generally eco-conscious, and hence, veg-aware people... but still! It was a totally refreshing experience. So here's what I picked:
From left to right, top to bottom, we have, quinoa mixed with beets, hummus, baba ganouch, tomatoes & other veggies (including artichokes), rigattoni, and greens topped with two different types of beets. It. Was. Ah. May. Zing. I never thought beets could taste so good! I also especially liked the hummus and tomatoes with mixed veggies. This was a total parray in the mouth.
A view of downtown LA from the California Market Center.
I've been eating so much good food so far, and yet I have no time to sit and blog about it all! But fret not, my dear friends, I will slowly but surely get around to revealing my stash of vegan food porn that is piling up on my camera. Stay tuned!