Amazing Vegan Food and New Flickr Feed
Being a Vegan is in large part, what you eat and what you won’t eat. The other and more important part is why and I’ve blogged on that beginning for me. I’ve been on this journey for about 6 weeks now and I feel wonderful. Remarkable. Something that has been a big part of my transition and adventure is exploring and seeking out places to eat vegan. On a recent visit to California, I had the opportunity to visit two great vegan restaurants.
My favorite of the two, Native Foods, had such remarkable foods that we begged founder Chef Tanya Petrovna to please consider bringing a future east coast location to Chapel Hill. During our time in Palm Springs we ate there everyday, had wonderful conversations with Chef Tanya and brought her cookbook back home to do our our Native Foods cooking. Native Foods is food and philosophy and it works. The Seitan and Tempeh (vegan meat substitutes) are made from scratch daily, making the foods incredibly fresh and tasty. Chef Tanya makes meals that are creative and familiar, so many vegans and those who are still omnivores are kept happy. My favorites were the Native “Chicken” Wings with great vegan ranch dressing, and the Tempeh based Scorpion burger.
The second dedicated Vegan restaurant we visited was Real Food Daily in West Hollywood. The food was good but not nearly as diverse as Native Foods. Clearly there was not as much of a personal touch as with Native. Although I loved the Alfredo sauce on my fettucini and the ideas were there (as in the salsibury steak) there was a bit of a mass produced taste. Perhaps we were spoiled by the from scratch mentality at Native Foods?
More about Real Food Daily at: 
I’ve started a flickr photo feed to highlight some of the products and foods that I will discover in my vegan journey. It will grow, but there are quite a few interesting photos there now. Some homemade food stuff, and some photos from Native Foods and Real Food Daily. Enjoy the slideshow and be sure to click on the pictures to get details of what the products are and what the food is made of. You can click the photo feed in the future for updates. The photo feed will be a permanent fixture of the blog, found in the right sidebar.

