Where to Eat Vegan: Los Angeles

After my first successful demo at Savor Filipino, I was excited to do more. And do more demos I did. I got a Facebook message from a friend who said he knows a professor asking about me and asking if I could teach a demo showcasing my vegan Filipino recipes. I thought about it and said no. Just kidding! Of course I said yes.

The class is on Filipino American studies at Pitzer College in Southern California. I was thinking it would be a piece of cake- the job, not the dish. ANYWAY, I was getting confident until I saw a new email asking that not only I’ll do one dish, the class is asking for at least three dishes to veganize, live, face to face. Three courses? That’s like picturing a worst case scenario multiplied times three. But one thing I learned at “Savor Filipino” and from what I do at Astig Vegan, a challenge is just another opportunity. So I took on the challenge and featured: Vegan Roasted Eggplant Salad (Ensaladang Talong), Vegan Sisig, and Vegan Bibingka.

Professor Todd Honma, who organized the whole thing, asked me to emphasize the health aspects of my cooking so I did adjustments to my recipes by replacing natural sugar to agave, rice flour to coconut flour, and white rice to quinoa.

Below are snapshots of the demo:

 

I love that the students were so receptive. The workshop took about four hours and they paid attention the entire time! The students asked tons of great questions and remained inquisitive all throughout the demo.

I felt so lucky and fortunate to have been there sharing what I learned about vegan Filipino cooking. I’m grateful to Pitzer College as well as Professor Todd Honma for their interest in my work.

Before heading back to the Bay Area, of course I had to check out some vegan restaurants in LA.

It’s safe to say that there’s no shortage of vegan restaurants in LA. In fact, a new one just opened a couple of months ago. The Springs LA, an all raw vegan restaurant houses a wellness center as well as an office for the organization, Farm Sanctuary. It also has sections for cute shops which I’m assuming also sell vegan products.

Here are some of the nice exteriors and interiors of The Springs:

For food, we got the raw vegan carbonara, hummus and crackers, raw tea leaf salad, raw rangoons (made of dried coconut skin wontons!) as well as raw vegan green curry.

For dessert, we got the raw cheesecake with blood orange ice cream, ice cream trio (black sesame, peach, and chocolate), and chocolate cake.

The place was spacious but homey. It also has a feel of both a luxurious loft and a tropical resort.

I went with my sister, my boyfriend, my uncle, and why yes, that’s Hiram Camillo at hiramc.com and Yvonne Ardestani at My Ecclectic Kitchen.

It was my third time meeting up with Yvonne and my first time meeting Hiram who was very nice and friendly in person.

The executive chef also came out to meet us, Chef Michael Falso.

The next night, my family and I went to Bright Star Thai Vegan restaurant. Interestingly enough, the sign “Bright Star” looks way too small compared to the sign “Thai Vegan”. I think that’s cool though that they’re proud to be a vegan establishment.

Bright Star reminds me of the vegan Thai restaurants in the Bay Area. It offers a variety of fresh vegetables and tofu as well as mock meats.

I highly recommend getting the orange tofu.

Bright Star restaurant is a personal recommendation of my sister and her husband who both frequent this place.

On top of my photos, I also shot some videos from the trip. Please feel free to watch it out below.

Thanks for watching!

Have you been to LA? What’s your favorite vegan spot?