The Unvegan

7/6/2009 Reviews Lake Nebagamon

Tastes of the Northwoods, Part I: The Waterfront Bar & Grill

The transition from eating in LA to eating in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and Minnesota is pretty darn easy, especially for my tastes. While visiting the area recently, I found plenty of food (and beer) to make my tastebuds happy, while forking over a fraction of what I’ve been used to paying.

My first meal up there was at the Waterfront Bar & Grill in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin. After ordering two pitchers of Leinenkugel’s (the best beer in the world) for $6 each, I took a look at their food menu. What stood out to me the most on their menu was the double bacon cheeseburger. At $6, it appeared to be the most expensive burger on the menu. Not too shabby.

Bar Food Bars Beer Burgers Hamburgers Lake Nebagamon Leinenkugel's Meat Northwoods Restaurants The Waterfront Travel Wisconsin

7/6/2009 Heroes and Villains

The Bacon Brothers: Unvegan Heroes

It feels so wrong to crave bacon right now.

Here’s a fun little picture that’s been floating around the interweb. Everyone is calling them the Bacon Brothers and I see no reason to stop that trend.

It’s almost like the creators of these tuxedos saw the Meatwad dress and knew they had to make a male counterpart.

Bacon Clothing Formal Wear Heroes and Villains Meat Tuxedo

7/3/2009 Reviews Santa Monica

Further Down the Riva (CLOSED)

My friend told me about a relatively new “pizza” place called Riva in Santa Monica. I put pizza in quotes because in my mind a pizza place is like a parlor. This, however, was no parlor. Rather it was a posh and fancy restaurant that happened to have pizza as its specialty.

We took the bar-style seats that had a perfect view of the preparation area and the wood-burning oven. While sitting there, it was really unnecessary to look at the menu, because we could decide what we wanted based on what we saw in front of us.

In this case, I took a slight deviation from my usual unvegan pizzas. Instead of getting the meaty offering, I got the Patate Semplice, which is just a fancy Italian way of saying potato, rosemary, fontina and sea salt pizza.

In the meantime, I enjoyed the appetizer of Wood Fired Pizza Bread. With olive oil, it tasted pretty good, but almost seemed silly to order a partial pizza as I was waiting for a real pizza. Nonetheless, the wait was quite short, as I watched my pizza go in the oven mere moments before it was pulled out fully cooked.

Food Italian Los Angeles Pizza Restaurants Reviews Riva Santa Monica

7/2/2009 Rants and Raves

Eat Meat for Stronger Bones

A recent joint Australian-Vietnamese study found that people who eat meat have stronger bones, and who are we to question the Australians and Vietnamese?

According to the study, “vegetarians had bones five percent less dense than meat-eaters.” It was even worse for vegans.

Australia Bone Density Meat Studies Vegans Vegetarians Vietnam

7/2/2009 Reviews Santa Monica

A Long Dinner at Enterprise Fish Co.

Being so near to the ocean, you would think LA has a lot of good seafood. To test this theory, I went to Enterprise Fish Co. in Santa Monica.

After looking over the menu, I decided to get something from the “Traditional Favorites” section. Now, typically I am not a big fan of shrimp because I find it to taste only slightly different than rubber. Don’t question my knowledge of the taste of rubber. The one way I have found I can eat shrimp is when it’s fried, so I decided to order the Golden Fried Coconut Shrimp. The only trouble was that our waitress never really came to the table. After dropping off the menus, we didn’t see her for quite a long time. Then, after ordering, it felt like the meal took forever to arrive.

Enterprise Fish Los Angeles Restaurants Santa Monica Seafood Shrimp

7/1/2009 Heroes and Villains

Eric Brocklebank: Unvegan Hero

The American Independence Day is just around the corner, which usually means a weekend of fireworks, BBQs and patriotism. For an unlucky UK man, a recent BBQ traded in fireworks for lightning bolts.

Eric Brocklebank was innocently cooking some sausages when lightning decided to make a rapid pass through his body via a BBQ fork. Miraculously, he survived and had only one thing on his mind: sausages. According to Brocklebank, “I was told the only thing I could say as I was drifting in and out of consciousness was ‘sausages.'”

BBQ Eric Brocklebank Fireworks Heroes and Villains Independence Day July 4th Lightning Patriotism Sausages UK

6/30/2009 Danger

When Vegetables Attack: Organic Salad

Look out, loyal Canadian readers. It looks like deadly organic salad is now out to get you. According to the Times Colonist, organic salad from Vancouver Island is having some salmonella-related problem. The salad comes under the label of Kildara Farms Organic Gourmet Salad Greens, so if you have any of that laying around in your fridge in a 113 gram container with a best before date of June 25th, it’s time to send it back to Vancouver. In unrelated news, you probably shouldn’t eat salad that expired five days ago.

(via Times Colonist)

Canada Danger Kildara Farms Organic Salad Salmonella Vancouver

6/30/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

Avoiding Toppings at Fuddrucker’s (CLOSED)

EDIT: This location is closed, but I mean, you can find one of these elsewhere and they’re all the same.

Though rare in Southern California, Fuddrucker’s is a pretty common burger chain with an uncanny name. The Fuddrucker’s I found was in the Century City mall’s food court, sandwiched among many fancier looking places. After a short perusal of the other restaurants, Fuddrucker’s became my top unvegan option.

One thing that is unique to Fuddrucker’s is that that they put no toppings or condiments on your burger. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger knowing that they wouldn’t be putting any terrible vegetables on it. Rather, once the burger is served, there is a virtual cornucopia of toppings to add to the burger. Sadly, most of these were vegetables and no good to me.

Burgers Century City Chains Condiments Food Food Courts Fuddrucker's Hamburgers Malls Meat Restaurants Toppings

6/29/2009 Rants and Raves

Trying to be a Vegan?

Well then you’re probably failing. No offense. It really isn’t your fault. It’s not because you’re not trying. It’s just that it’s so hard to avoid eating animal products that even “vegan” restaurants can’t avoid them. Wondering why that vegan taco tasted so good? That was probably because it contained casein, which comes from cows. Curious how chicken made from tofu could actually taste decent? Well, that’s probably because it had a decent amount of egg in it. For more info, check out the full article here.

Thanks to Jeff for the tip.

(via quarrygirl.com)

Fail Restaurants Tofu Vegan

6/29/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

BBQ the Right Way at Baby Blues BBQ

After attending the LA BBQ Fest, all I wanted to do was find a good BBQ place to go to whenever I wanted to. I heard some great things about Baby Blues BBQ and saw their mac n’ cheese at the BBQ Fest, so I decided to try the place out.

The restaurant looks like a BBQ place should, reminiscent of a shack and nothing fancy by any accounts. The wait to sit inside was pretty long, while outside seating was pretty empty. We decided we may as well sit outside and eat because it would probably take just as long to get our food and eat outside as it would to just wait out there for a table inside. Does that make sense? Well, it does in my head. Anyway, the waitress was there in an instant to offer my girlfriend use of her jacket, which was one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen a waitress do, and she accepted the offer.

Baby Blues BBQ Barbecue BBQ BBQ Fest Brisket Chicken Food Los Angeles Meat Memphis Ribs Restaurants Venice

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