The Unvegan » Cheese

The Monte Cristo of Cafe Orleans

The Unvegan — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:00:05 +0000

These fries are frites.

On another fantastic trip to Disneyland, this one filled with wheelchairs and electric scooters rather than roller coasters, we ended up at Cafe Orleans for lunch. More upscale than your average Disneyland restaurant, Cafe Orleans is located in the heart of New Orleans Square, not far from Pirates of the Caribbean. Serving up French-influenced food, they had a good-looking menu with a couple unvegan options.

Since I had been and would continue to push a wheelchair all day, I figured I needed to load up on some heavy foods, beginning with an appetizer. I started with their Pommes Frites, which is just a fancy French word for French fries. But these weren’t your ordinary fries. They were covered in cheese and garlic, which you could smell all the way to The Haunted Mansion. Fortunately, the garlic and parmesan weren’t overkill. There was just enough flavor and the fries had been fried to a perfect crisp. They came with a bit of a Cajun sauce that provided a nice balance to the cheese and garlic flavor.

More dangerous than The Count of Monte Cristo.

On top of that cheese, my main course got even cheesier. I ordered the Three-Cheese Monte Cristo (presumably named after the Count). This was mozzarella, swiss and brie, fried in some batter. It came with a berry sauce for dipping and was sprinkled with powdered sugar. When I first read the ingredients, I was under the impression I was getting the French version of grilled cheese. Instead, I found myself faced with one intense meal. The sugariness of the sauce and powdered sugar coupled with the salty cheesiness was one delicious meal. The batter ad been fried crispy enough that you could eat it with your hands, but it was really a dish best eaten with fork and knife. When things got too heavy, it was served with some grapes and strawberries to make me feel better about myself.

The only real downside of this meal was how truly heavy it was. After only eating half, I was a full unvegan. I boxed up the rest to tackle another day, then departed Cafe Orleans for an afternoon of wheelchair pushing to work off one tasty and destructive meal.

Getting Cheesed at Cobras & Matadors

The Unvegan — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:00:52 +0000

Burrata cha-cha-cha.

Taking advantage of a special from Living Social, the girlfriend and I headed to Cobras & Matadors in Mid-City for a bit of a date night. The place specializes in tapas and is BYO with a slight corkage fee. We forgot the booze, so had to make up for it in food instead. The deal was for 70 bucks worth, so that meant we had a lot of tapas to eat. As usual, I eyed cheeses and meats, and was happy to be eating small plates because so much looked good.

We narrowed our tapas list down to something reasonable and placed our order. First and foremost were the bacon-wrapped dates (blue cheese, almond and port wine), followed by burrata in a jar (basil, olive oil, grilled bread and sea salt), baked Spanish goat cheese (port honey wine reduction, warm grapes) paprika spiced patatas and an order of oven roasted mussels for the girlfriend. It was a good start and we looked forward to downing our tapas.

First up was the burrata. This delicious, creamy derivative of mozzarella tasted amazing when spread across the pieces of bread that came with it. Not content to be a simple burrata, the flavor of basil and olive oil made the burrata in a jar a great way to start the meal. By the time the bread was finished, there was still burrata in the jar, so we saved what we had in the hopes that it could enhance a later dish.

Why are there clovers on my dates? Off with you!

Our next plate was the bacon-wrapped dates. Aside from the strange green plants (they looked like clovers, but do people eat clovers?!) garnishing the tops of the dates, they looked incredibly delicious. But with only four of them, I was bothered that they were 10 bucks. Had I not been getting a Living Social deal, this would have really gotten to me, put I pushed the thought from my mind and dug in. I found some very welcoming dates with nice, crisp bacon. Inside, the almonds added a nice crunch, but I found a lack of blue cheese. I don’t know if this was forgotten or what, but blue cheese is certainly a flavor that sticks out and refuses to be subtle. As if to apologize for this lack, the dates had been placed upon a wide, thin sheet of Italian meat that was essentially a pepperoni. It was a pleasant surprise, but I’m not sure if it was enough to make up for the missing cheese.

Patatas with battling sauces.

Next came the paprika spiced patatas. These were sort of like potato wedges, but in little chunks the size of home fries. Covering both American and European styles, they were served with ketchup and aioli, but I found an even better condiment: burrata! That’s right, although the ketchup went well with the patatas, I scraped what was left of the burrata and created a tasty mega-tapa not to be reckoned with.

Stop global grape warming!

Finally, my last dish came (remember the mussels weren’t for me), the baked Spanish goat cheese. Wow I love goat cheese. It was served on some bread with a reduction that ended up tasting a lot like balsamic. The combination was pretty tasty, but I couldn’t help thinking I could easily make this at home. The warm grapes that came with it, on the other hand, were simply weird. I don’t know why people decided it would be fun to warm up grapes, but to those people I have a message: If you’re going to heat them up, make sure you heat them enough that they dry and become raisins. Otherwise, keep them cold because they are just better that way.

Cheese in the morning, cheese in the evening, cheese at supper time. And for dessert.

With all of our dishes served, it was time to choose a dessert. And what dessert should we choose? More cheese! Yep, none of the actual desserts compared to how attractive the cheese platter was. I’m not really sure what cheeses were served aside from blue (stolen from my dates?) and some slices of what I assumed were Manchego. Yet, whatever they were – coupled with candied walnuts, apricot jam and some grilled bread – these cheeses made for a perfect unvegan dessert.

The cheese platter was a perfect way to end a great tapas meal. I always say there can never be too much cheese and this meal proved it. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have some bacon, pepperoni and potatoes thrown in there.

Not My Kind of Gogi at Lee’s Philly

The Unvegan — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:00:52 +0000

Fuse me!

Where the mac and cheese balls from World Fare were my appetizer at the Silver Lake Jubilee, I still needed to find myself a main course. After a long stroll around the trucks, I found myself at a truck that I had never seen before, called Lee’s Philly. Lee’s Philly is born of the same vein as many of the Kogi-style food trucks. Their specialty is gogi beef, but while they have fused it with tacos and burritos, they have also created a Philly cheese steak out of the stuff. Wording on their truck claims that they have “LA’s Best Gogi,” but I took it upon myself to be the true judge of that.

Looks clean, but this gogi has deadly veggies.

I decided to order their Gogi Cheese Steak and when I asked what came with it, the lady told me it was beef and onions topped with cheese. Aside from the onion part, this sounded great, plus it came with chips for only $5.99. I ordered it without those terrible onions and waited a few minutes for it to be ready. It came rolled up in a combination of tin foil of paper. I peeled away the layers and it looked deliciously onion free. Then I took a bite. There was a crunch. Onions? No, kimchi! I walked back up to the truck with a sad look on my face and explained to the lady that I had no idea it would come with kimchi. She then explained to be that the kimchi was a part of the gogi style. I’m no Korean, so I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with her, but I was under the impression that gogi only applied to the way the beef was cooked and had nothing to do with extraneous vegetables such as kimchi. Nonetheless, she offered to give me a regular cheese steak to replace it and I accepted.

No flavor=no fun.

When it was ready, I repeated the ritual of unwrapping. When I made it through the wrapping, I found that the beef looked less seasoned than the other one, and when I bit in my fear was confirmed. The beef didn’t really have much flavor and the cheese also didn’t add much. It’s hard to mess up cheese and steak, so I am hesitant to say that there was anything wrong with this sandwich, but it certainly was missing a special something that bulgogi beef may have added. Instead, it was just an ordinary cheese steak that failed to satisfy my desire for delicious fusion.

Haute Food at AOC

The Unvegan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:30:36 +0000

Say cheese!

For the birthday of a special someone in my life, we headed to little French restaurant called AOC. You may be wondering what AOC stands for, and so did we. Apparently it is not some made-up acronym, but actually is the French version of the FDA, which makes it far more pretentious and Frenchier. We had a reservation and were seated immediately, as I would expect from the French. Our waitress, who had an indistinguishable accent that most certainly was not French, brought us our menus so we could figure out some foodstuffs.

The menu was a bit confusing, but we go our bearings and decided to start out with some cheeses. Not knowing too much about cheese except that I’ve never met a cheese I didn’t like, we let the waitress decide. One cheese was $5, while a three-cheese platter was $15. Not sure why they had to tell us the price of a platter of three cheeses since it was just three times the amount for a single cheese and wasn’t discounted, but that must be some sort of French thing I can’t comprehend. She picked out a goat cheese from Sardinia, Italy called Pantaleo, a sheep cheese from the Loire Valley in France called Le Berger de Rocastin and finally some good old fashioned cow cheese from Burgundy, France called Chaource. No, I can’t pronounce any of them, but I can tell you that they were all mighty tasty. We also had some bread, which came with a nice semi-spicy spread that was really good and could easily be coupled with the cheeses.

Is that a purple carrot?

For the main course, I decided to get into some white meat. The white meat I chose was listed on the menu as Grilled Chicken, Roasted Roots, Aged Balsamic. I asked the waitress what roasted roots entailed, hoping she would bust out into a song by Rusted Root, but instead she told me it was potatoes. Really? Couldn’t just put potatoes down on the menu? At least it wasn’t vegetables.

When my chicken arrived, it was surprisingly small for the $14 price tag. It tasted good, to be sure, and this was greatly aided by some sort of a puree that the chicken was laying upon. Nonetheless, I cannot take away from the fact that the seasoning on the chicken was pretty good. The potatoes, I mean uhh the roasted roots also tasted nice, but I spotted a couple carrots in the mix. Definitely a root, but definitely not a potato.

By the time I finished that little piece of chicken, I was definitely full, unfortunately this wasn’t because of the chicken itself. I had to eat a ton of bread to fill up this unvegan tummy of mine. It was great that they kept refilling the bread, but I would have liked the main course to do the job of filling me up.

Eating the Desert at Nick’s Coffee Shop

The Unvegan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:30:30 +0000

Hmm what's the ruling on cactus?

For a nice little Sunday brunch, the girlfriend and I headed over to Nick’s Coffee Shop at Pico-Robertson. Coffee shop is kind of a misnomer for this place, since it’s really more of a diner in the S & W vein. The place is pretty small, so there was a bit of a wait, which wasn’t a big deal on the sunny morning. By the time we took our seats, I was hankering for some food. I perused the extensive menu and found an omelet that looked pretty good to me. It was called the Cactus Omelet and the menu described it as being packed with nutrients. This was confusing, but then I saw that the ingredients included Hebrew National Salami and Jack Cheese. It came with a side, so I got myself some grits.

I waited eagerly for the omelet and when it arrived I was shocked by the giant flecks of green in it. Apparently I was an idiot and didn’t realize that the omelet actually had cactus in it. I just thought that cactus was the cutesy name it had been given. Hell, I didn’t even know that cactus was edible unless you were dying in a desert. I contemplated the unvegan-ness of cactus briefly and ultimately decided the stuff was worth a try. I’m still not sure whether or not cactus is a vegetable, but it is not something I would order again.

The salami and cheese part of the omelet, on the other hand, were badass. Unfortunately, these took a backseat to the namesake of the omelet. Despite my distaste for cactus, I would definitely pay another visit to Nick’s. Their grits were awesome and I could tell that I could find some delicious other items on their giant diner menu.

The First Melt at the Grilled Cheese Truck

The Unvegan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:46:33 +0000

So shiny and like-new

The highly anticipated Grilled Cheese Truck finally rolled into town tonight and due to my frightening obsession with cheese, I made sure to greet the truck. In the tradition of other great ks before it, the unveiling took place at The Brig on Abbot Kinney. I arrived 15 minutes before the scheduled 8:00 start time and was shocked to find the parking lot at The Brig empty except for the shiny orange truck. Apparently, I was to be the first in line!

These prices changed at some point.

Within a few minutes, other people formed a line behind me, assuaging my fears that this was some sort of well-coordinated, but cruel joke played on me. As 8:00 rolled around, someone asked when the truck would open, only to discover they weren’t really expecting to open until 8:30. Patient and unwilling to give up my prime spot, I continued to wait. I was glad I didn’t leave, because my hanging around gave me the chance to meet Zach Behrens, editor for LAist. He gave me a little interview, which should probably be popping up on LAist soon. But back to the truck.

Finally, 8:30 arrived and one of the proprietors of the truck came outside to announce that technical difficulties were hampering the preparations of the mighty grilled cheese. One of the griddles wasn’t working, so with heavy hearts and even heavier anticipation, we realized we would have to wait even longer.

A perfect sample of tots.

Then, something magical happened. Rather than face an impatient mob, the workers (including someone’s elderly and incredibly sweet parents) started handing out samples of what they could prepare on a single partially-functioning griddle. First came the soups, which I politefully declined since they were vegetables like tomato and pumpkin. Then came the tater tots. These were nice and crispy, but a little bit too salty. It definitely saved me the trouble of having to order my own side of tater tots.

Looks onion-free to me.

As more time passed, they brought out the mother of all samples, the Cheesy Mac and Rib. This little delight was filled with mac and cheese, plus BBQ pork. In two bites I was finished and knew I would have to order a full sandwich with that.

Finally, around 9:30, a mechanic came and went, signifying the real melt was about to begin. I sauntered over to the window to finally place my order. Although my Cheesy Mac and Ribs sample didn’t have carmelized onions, the menu said it came with them, so I first ordered one of those without the onions. Unfortunately at some point between dishing out the samples and taking my order, they had combined the onions with the meat, creating a concoction unfit for an unvegan. As a replacement, they suggested bacon, and I didn’t argue. In addition, I ordered a regular cheddar grilled cheese with bacon and a dessert grilled cheese, which was made of a roasted banana puree, Nutella and marshmallow. The woman taking my order asked how many people were in my party and I laughed as I told her all that food was for me.

Mac and Bacon/Heart Attack

The bill came out to just under $20, which was a little sad, but then I did order three entire sandwiches. The strange part was that the prices didn’t include sales tax. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a mobile eatery that didn’t just include sales tax in the prices, and a fear that dealing with copious amounts of change will hinder the efficiency of their operation. Nonetheless, my order was in and although I was first in line, I was given the number 6 and a coupon for half off next time to thank me for waiting.

Cheddar and bacon, another potential heart attack.

When my number was called, I dashed over to grab my sandwiches. They were packed in convenient little foil bags, which I rapidly tore open to begin eating. I started with the Cheesy Mac and Bacon. It was pretty darn good, but not as good as that onion-free sample of Cheesy Mac and Rib I tested out earlier. After taking that sandwich down, I moved on to the Cheddar and Bacon, which was grilled perfectly, but couldn’t compare to having mac and cheese in a sandwich. Finally came the dessert melt. This was the least tasty of the lot. The bread was kind of dry and the insides were a bit overwhelming with sweetness (yes, it is possible).

And finally, the decent dessert.

Overall, the sandwiches showed that the chefs had a great understanding of how to use the griddle. Each sandwich was grilled to a crispy perfection and I know that despite the relatively minor maintenance issues, the grilled cheese truck has a bright future on the streets of LA. Especially if they can separate their caramelized onions from the BBQ Pork!

Doing the Arizona Restaurant Week at Bloom

The Unvegan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:15:17 +0000

Oh cheesy joy.

LA isn’t the only place in the world to offer a restaurant week. Arizona also flexed their restaurant week muscles last month. At $29 for a three-course meal for every restaurant listed (as opposed to LA, which has three different price levels), it’s important to pick the right place. They also note that the price is $58 per couple. Thank you, but I can do math. I know that 29 x 2 = 58, so if you’re not going to offer me some sort of couples discount, I really don’t see the point of showing me this. Mathematical anger aside, we decided to head to Bloom, a fancy American restaurant.

Bloom’s set menu had a lot of choices, but with my unvegan diet, I narrowed it down to a few good veggie-less dishes. To start off, I ordered the cheese platter. It had some brie, bleu cheese and some other subtle white cheese. Maybe even more impressive than the cheeses were the almonds, garlic and cherry confiture that came with them. These additions went well with all of the cheeses and were a great way to start out my meal with horrible breath.

Love that bed of fries.

For my main course, I had a little trouble deciding. For some reason, I wasn’t in the mood for red meat, but the Crispy Half Chicken came with green beans. The steak, on the other hand, had parmesan fries. I asked very politely if I could swap out the green beans for those yummy-sounding fries and Bloom complied. Not only did they give me the fries, but they arranged them as a bed for my chicken, allowing the delicious chicken juices to rain down upon them in a gastric orgy. The chicken itself wasn’t as crispy as I would have hoped, but it was pretty decent.

Creamy and brooley.

To conclude my meal, I ordered the creme brulee. It hit the spot and tasted like most creme brulees I’ve ever had. It came with come cookies as well, but I had no need for them as I delved into the sugary creme brulee.

In all, my meal at Bloom was very satisfactory. They didn’t make any sacrifices in size and were willing to cater their set menu to my unusual dietary needs. Their food wasn’t half bad either.

Umami Burger is All Grown Up

The Unvegan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:42:15 +0000

Not blood, but tastier.

The newest edition of Umami Burger opened up a couple weeks ago in Los Feliz and I got there as soon as I could to see if they could continue producing those same amazing burgers. The last time I went to Umami on La Brea, it was still BYOB and had yet to develop a burger built for unvegans. Even the so-called “Manly Burger” had onions, but they were still nice enough to make burgers for my unvegan specifications. Umami Ni, as I like to call the new Umami Burger (ni meaning two in Japanese), was a grown up version of the original.

Not only does Umami Ni serve beer and wine, they even have a bar called Salaryman (another Japanese homage) where they serve Asian beers for comfortable prices. Arriving at 9:00, I expected to be seated quickly, but the place still had a waiting time, so I headed over to experience Salaryman. The place seems to really only exist for people waiting on their tables. I wouldn’t really consider the bar itself a destination, but it is a nice place to wait. Before I had time to finish my beer, my table was ready.

I checked out the menu and was amazed to find that they had finally crafted a burger for unvegans, the Truffle Burger. This veggie-free dream simply has Italian truffle cheese and a truffle glaze. With my mouth watering, I ordered my burger.

After a relatively long wait, a runner brought my burger, but to the surprise of my co-eaters none of their burgers showed. The burger looked amazing, but I waited a minute for the other burgers to arrive before digging in. A minute passed and our waiter came to tell us there had been a mistake. The burgers would be coming soon, but I should eat mine. Confused, but now free of being rude by eating my meal first, I started eating. It was everything I hoped for and more. I can say without a doubt that this is the best burger I have ever had. I don’t know what it is about truffles, but they seem to make everything taste better. I am now adding them to my list of things that make everything taste better, which includes cheese, garlic and bacon.

And what’s more? With the arrival of the rest of the burgers at the table, they brought me out a second burger, which I cut up for the rest of the table to try. It was nice to see a restaurant like that recognize even a little mistake and make up for it in spades. Now if only they could start making sides that match the burgers in tastiness. I tried both their sweet potato and regular potato fries, and neither were worthy companions to the Truffle Burger. They weren’t bad by any means, it is just that the standard is so high.

Umami Ni and its Truffle Burger has spoiled me for burgers and I now long for my next opportunity to devour some of their perfectly prepared burgers.

An Ode to Olga’s Snackers

The Unvegan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:23:15 +0000

These could bring world peace.

While in Michigan, one restaurant I had to visit was Olga’s Kitchen in West Bloomfield. The local chain has been around forever and has never attempted to veer away from the core factor that makes the restaurant a success. This core factor is Olga Bread and it is no ordinary bread. The closest thing it can be compared to is Greek pita, but to simply call it Greek pita would be an injustice. It is buttery and crispy and multiple levels of delicious. Olga’s uses it to make their sandwiches and as a side for their salads, but by far the best use of Olga Bread is in Olga’s Snackers.

This incredible appetizer/side is made from sliced up wedges of Olga Bread, toasted to a crisp and seasoned. They come with a Swiss almond cheese dip if you get the original or a marinara dip if you order them pizza style. You can’t lose with either choice, but I prefer the original style. I’m convinced that if Olga’s Snackers were served at any sort of peace negotiation, all issues would be quickly resolved. Trying to disarm Iran? Give them Olga’s Snackers and uranium enrichment will be halted at once.

While the snackers are the best reason to visit Olga’s, they also serve some great

I bet this makes you hungry.

sandwiches made with that amazing Olga Bread. Not really any of them are unvegan from the start, but they can be customized to fit unvegan needs. My favorite is the Three Cheese, featuring Cheddar, Swiss and Monterey Jack cheese. It also comes with onions, tomatoes and Olga Sauce. I ask for it without the offensive onions and tomatoes, but keep the sauce, which is like a Greek-style yogurt sauce without the cucumber flavoring that all-too-often makes its way into that sort of sauce.

The result is like a grilled cheese taken to the next level of awesome. The cheeses are melty and delicious, while the sauce keeps the sandwich from being too cheesy (if such a thing exists). The only concern here is the possibility that some of the melted cheese escapes out of the back end of the sandwich. It’s always good to keep some extra snackers on hand to scoop up the remnants in case this occurs.

Olga’s Kitchen is really a great and unique place. Were they just to offer Olga’s Snackers, it would be enough, but they didn’t just settle for that and created a restaurant full of joyous Olga Bread. It is definitely a place worth returning to again and again.

The Glory of Zingerman’s

The Unvegan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:23:09 +0000

Looks just like a corner store.

Perched on the corner of Detroit St. and 5th St. in the little town of Ann Arbor is the seat of an international empire. It is the Zingerman’s Delicatessen and the little nondescript building that houses it has spawned an entity known by lovers of good food and business everywhere.

When I went to college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, I knew of Zingerman’s, just like everyone did. I knew it was good, too, but I really never comprehended the magnitude of it until I left Michigan. Since then I have learned that they are nationally renowned for their mail-order service, business practices, overall quality of their food and more. So when I returned to Ann Arbor recently, I knew I had to revisit the wondrous little deli and reacquaint myself with its delectable foods.

Zingerman’s has scoured the globe to find some of the best foods in existence, but they don’t just try to convince you that something will taste good, they give you the chance to decide for yourself. Everything in the deli can be tasted and the people working there are all-too-eager to serve you some samples. On this trip, I tried multiple cheeses (awesome), pretzel bread (also awesome), bacon chocolate (not as bad as it sounds, but still not very good) and some aged balsamic (which was great despite the fact that the guy wouldn’t let us eat it with bread). After the exploring was finished, it was time to get some lunch.

The menu hangs over the deli, but I already knew what I wanted: #74, also

A menu for all.

known as Dave’s Open Road. This delicious sandwich is filled with grilled Amish chicken breast, applewood-smoked bacon, Wisconsin muenster cheese and ranch, on grilled challah bread. The only down side is that it also comes with lettuce. I ordered it without and also made sure to ask for it without a pickle, then I headed outside to sit at a purple picnic table under a tent to wait.

A sandwich of beauty.

Dave’s Open Road arrived just as I remembered and tasted just as perfect. All the components blended together in perfect harmony, yet were all distinct in their delicious flavors. Using Zingerman’s for mail-order purposes alone does not do justice to the original deli. The sandwiches, atmosphere and overall glory are something that everyone stepping foot in Michigan should behold. The prices are a bit steep, but well worth it for the experience, especially if you take your time to enjoy the samples.