Vegetarians in California.

I recently arrived back in rainy old Manchester after a two week road trip around California with my brother. You can read his blog post on our holiday here. We had the best time, enjoying the sunshine, friendly people, eating out everyday and exploring new and exciting places! What's not to love?!

I was a little concerned before we left on our adventure, that the vegetarians options whilst eating out would be very limited but actually, we had plenty of delicious food to feast on and found some absolute gems to eat out at in California. I think perhaps if we went into the deep mid-west or places like that then we might have struggled more to find meat-free meals but seen as California is a pretty health conscious, laid back place, we found lots of organic/vegan/vegetarian cafes and restaurants. 

You can see lots of photos of meals my brother and I (he is a lifelong vegetarian too) ate in California here, here and here. It's making me want to go back just looking at them! Breakfasts were fairly straight forward as we usually went for pancakes and tonnes of fruit. The berries in particular were always huge and juicy and so fresh and tasty. They tasted like when you pick them yourself. I was impressed by breakfast at The Sportmen's Lodge in Los Angeles as their menu had this guide on it - 

I have never in my life seen a menu that specifically differentiated between pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans! Huge kudos there. The pancakes turned out to be the best we had for the whole trip. I mean, just look at them, glorious. 

Look how big those blackberries are!

We were disappointed at the lack of vegetarian options at Universal Studios Hollywood, despite the guide map saying there was vegetarian food available at several outlets at the park, it never seemed to be listed on the menu and you had to ask for them to make it specially for you. I understand that it's a big theme park in America, nearly everyone eats meat so why not put meat in every sandwich/salad etc but it did make it difficult for us. I was pretty surprised that there wasn't even a salad that didn't have meat or fish in it. Like seriously, I just want leaves and some veg. No dead animals in there please!

Portion size was big, and I mean BIG, it didn't matter what we were eating - breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, snacks. Everything seemed to be supersized! This is my brothers dinner at The Cheesecake Factory - 

That could have easily fed two people and been an ample meal for the both of them. We found that you get more food for your money in California than you do in the UK. It seems like better value really and they will always offer to box up your leftover meal if you can't finish it. We couldn't do that with the pasta as we didn't have a fridge at the hotel. I often saw people boxing up food to take home with them, I've only ever done that in the UK with a few slices of a Pizza Hut pizza! They refill your drink for free in nearly every restaurant and the cups are the size of your whole head! 

At The Cheesecake Factory I was asked what salad dressing I wanted on my side salad, well I don't usually have anything so I said I didn't want one thank you and the waiter looked at me in utter SHOCK. He kept repeating "so you want a dry salad? Are you sure? Dry salad?" Er, yes I was pretty sure. It's not that unusual to just eat salad right? Even when he brought my meal to me he asked again if I really wanted a "dry salad." In the end actually I wished I had got a dressing because the leaves tasted a bit chemically and the dressing would have disguised that! I felt like I had to eat plenty of it to show that YES I LOVE DRY SALAD. 

I asked if the cheesecake was vegetarian and the waiter said "well yeah it doesn't have meat in it". Did he think I was asking if it had bacon or lumps of beef lodged in the cheesecake? I did clarify that I meant gelatin, he said he that word rung a bell and it turns out that the cheesecake had gelatin in it. Boo! It became apparent in different places when I asked this question that people mustn't be familiar with gelatin and they just think being a vegetarian means not eating meat. I was disappointed that the cheesecake wasn't veggie as plenty I've come across in the UK are.

We did a little bit of research in Santa Barbara on somewhere nice to eat and found The Natural Cafe, a ten minute walk from our hotel which had plenty of vegetarian options. It also took us a while to realise entrée means main meal, not a starter like I thought.

This place was smallish and not very fancy but the food was absolutely delicious! It's such a treat to have such a large vegetarian selection to choose from. I also had a peach, pineapple and coconut smoothie which blew my mind. If you're in California anywhere near these places then I really recommend checking out The Natural Cafe. It's reasonably priced, you get massive portions and it's yummy. 

Looking at the menu is making me super hungry. I gave my guacamole to my brother. Is it a cardinal sin to be a vegetarian and not like avocado? I don't know but it just doesn't float my boat.

I love going to supermarkets whilst on holiday, I love seeing how big their fruit is compared to the UK, here is a giant peach and some monster grapes we had.

Despite there not being a lot of options at Beachside Bar Cafe, I felt like they had made an effort with the veggie paella, it was really tasty and I know that looks like a lump on meat on top but it was just a grilled portobello mushroom. This was one of my favourite meals because we were right by the beach on a beautiful day. (Everyday was beautifully sunny!) My brother had a mushroom burger, that was pretty much a staple on lots of restaurant menus!

 We enjoyed the Chinese vegan food at Loving Hut in San Francisco. I'm happy to say they are in the UK too! We found Loving Hut in a big shopping shopping centre in San Fran and it was really cool to see such a popular vegan place in a large food court. Come to Manchester Loving Hut! On the theme of Chinese food, we did a bit of research on places to eat in San Diego and found Plumeria, a vegetarian restaurant. We only really ate dinner at our hotels twice, in Yosemite and Death Valley where there were no other options for miles around! You had a choice of protein such as tofu, vegetarian beef, vegetarian shrimp etc. I don't like anything that looks too much like meat so I steered clear of those (I don't even know what vegetarian shrimp could look or taste like?!) and went for the safe option of fried tofu. Look how cute my rice is, it's in a heart shape.

We spent a while wandering around the high street in Palm Springs for somewhere to eat. All the menu boards outside seemed to be severely overpriced with little veggie options so we decided on LuLu California Bistro. It was pretty busy but we got a nice table outside. This place had its own separate vegetarian menu! Yay! CHOICE! I had angel hair pomodoro. Deeeelish. I loved that this place gave you ice water and freshly baked bread often. The waiters were very attentive!

I really enjoyed finding vegetarian restaurants and cafes to eat in, I felt sort of bad if I ate at a Subway or a large chain (we may have got a large fries and a large drink from McDonalds once or twice...) I'm not usually too fussed about eating organic but it was cool to see how health conscious California is and how much value they place on eating right. I was really happy we decided to explore new places to eat, hopefully this has given you some meal inspiration, vegetarians and none-vegetarians alike. If you live in California or you're just traveling there, be sure to check these places out.

What I Ate This Week #6

We headed home this week, boo! It's been very strange to eat out every day. I feel like I don't want to go out to a restaurant for ages now. I will do a proper blog post about how I found vegetarian food in California.

We searched for a vegetarian restaurant in San Diego and found Plumeria in a lovely part of town called University Heights. You chose your protein and could have it in any dish! It was very spicy even though we chose medium! I ate Panang Curry with fried tofu. How cute is my rice?!

Had to show you these. They were the best.

We had a kitchenette in our room/apartment in San Diego so we decided for our last main meal we would just cook something simple, pasta and tomato sauce. We went to a Vons supermarket for the ingredients, I say ingredients, I mean a jar of pasta sauce and some pasta. Strangely you could not buy small jars of sauce, we had to buy one that fed 5-7 people! I hate throwing food away but I didn't really want to pack it in my suitcase.

Wanted something substantial for lunch at San Diego Zoo as we didn't know what time we'd be served food on our flight that evening. We had an actual quite nice veggie burger and fries. Not bad at all!

Plane food again, this time BA's plane food which i'm preeeetty sure hasn't changed since I last flew with them to Zambia in 2008. It was an aubergine bake thing with some half hearted broccoli. Not that great, the bread was dry and the salad tasted weird. If you're flying in bog standard class then I don't think you can expect much. 

Got off the plane and had to wait hours for our delayed flight to Manchester. By this time we had slept a bit on the overnight flight and even though we were given breakfast (it was all gross) we were hungry. We headed to Boots for a meal deal. My wrap was all soggy but I didn't care. It was better than plane food. 

Nice to have a homecooked meal! Risotto with courgettes, sprouts (sounds strange but actually really nice, they were chopped up lots), mushrooms, peppers and onion.

Naughty, naughty, a chinese takeaway! My boyfriend treated us on a Friday night. I had mushroom fried rice, beansprout noodles, veg spring rolls and some sweet and sour veg (which was horrible and I didn't eat it).

Fresh homemade scones with homemade jam and whipped cream. Nothing much to say about these other than they are perfect. 

Sunday lunch! Mushroom bake, peas, carrots, cabbage, baked potato and Yorkshire puddings. 

What I Ate This Week #5

Carrying on our Californian roadtrip, we struggled to find small meals to eat at lunchtime and ended up at Subway twice which I felt bad about because it's a chain that's all over the world and I wanted to eat in local places. I didn't take photographs of everything as usual, no-one wants to see my Subway sandwich or my Chipotle buritto! (Even though they did fried tofu as an option for the filling which was nice).

An unusual combo at Ceder Lodge restaurant but the vegetarian options were very limited (two). Mushroom ravioli, broccoli, courgettes, carrots and fried bread! This was a half portion as we decided to split the plate. We got used to huge meals so even half a portion filled us up.

I actually laughed out loud when I saw this meal (we split the plate again) as it was a veggie stir fry with fried bread again! I don't know what their obsession with fried bread was but it seemed to come with everything. The stir fry did have a nice spicy sauce and even the rice had a kick.

We got this margarita takeaway pizza after a long day of driving (don't judge). We were in Death Valley so not a lot of choice on where to eat either. The tomato sauce base tasted like proper tomatoes. The little green peppers were very hot, I only had one bite of them and they burnt my mouth off.

We ate lunch at a Denny's in a town called Pahrump (great name). I had a Loaded Veggie Omelette which had spinach, mushrooms, courgette, squash and tomatoes in it. It was a bit watery for my liking and the potato hash brown didn't taste of much.

I had a fajita salad at La Salsa Cantina in Las Vegas. I ate quite a bit of brown rice on the trip which was nice, you get huge servings in the US so I was stuffed after this.

We decided to buy a voucher for a half price meal at the Monte Carlo Buffet in Las Vegas. After buying it I was worried that there wouldn't be a lot of veggie choice as I've had bad experiences concerning buffets in the UK! My brother and I were pleasantly surprised again at the choice of veggie food and the quality! This is my second plate from the buffet. I had macaroni cheese, green beans, orzo with feta and baby tomatoes, pizza, sauteed mushrooms, veg spring roll, pitta bread and hummus.  

This was another one of my favorite meals from the trip. We ate at LuLu California Bistro in Palm Springs. Angel hair pomodoro with a tomato and garlic sauce. They served us freshly baked bread rolls too and it was just lovely. It's worth mentioning that my brother had a pear and Gorgonzola pizza and the waiter said it was his favourite item on the menu!

What I Ate This Week #4

What a tasty week! This week my brother and I jetted off to California for a two week roadtrip so our meals were going to be a little different that usual. As a vegetarian I've found you get served your meal before everyone else on a flight which is good. I was pleasantly surprised to find so much vegetarian choice in Santa Barbara and a vegan place in San Francisco. It is such a luxury to be able to choose anything from a menu!

Mezze at Topaz Cafe. Wholegrain pitta, veg stew, falafal, hummus, stuffed vine leaf, leafy salad, ricotta and mint pastry and I don't know what the green rice looking thing is but it's YUMMY.

Smoked paprika risotto with peppers and mushrooms.

American Airlines vegan meal. Couscous with sultanas and a roasted veg stew. A little wholewheat loaf, A salad with lemon dressing (yuck) and orange segments. 

American pancakes with berries and maple syrup. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE BLACKBERRIES. 

It was very difficult to find vegetarian food at Universal Studios Hollywood. There were no sandwiches or salads that were vegetarian! We ended up getting a margarita pizza and a weird vegetable wrap from The Hollywood Grill that had a strange sauce. Lots of courgettes in there.

We ate at The Cheesecake Factory at The Grove in Los Angeles. Mushroom burger with Swiss and Fontina cheese and side salad. This burger was so big I couldn't finish it.

I had a Buddha Buritto and my brother had a Veggie Stir Fry at The Natural Cafe in Santa Barbara. It was really good and had tonnes of vegetarian options.

Vegetarian paella at The Beachside Bar Cafe in Goleta. A huge portobello mushroom plonked on top. This was one of my favourite meals of the trip as we had a beautiful view of the beach and ocean right next to us!

Hands down the best grilled cheese toastie I've ever eaten. It was awesome. We had the nine grain cheese melt at Coopers Pub in Monterey. The blue cheese salad dressing was great too.

Found a vegan Chinese place to eat in San Francisco called Loving Hut. I had Garden Vermicelli and veg fried rice. My brother had the same noodles and sweet and sour stir fry.