Eating Los Angeles: evarestaurant

-- menu --

whipped tofu with nasturtium and root vegetables

chocolate

wild halibut, cabbage, lemon verbena, charred spring onion

Snackers, I'm writing you from the Avalon Hotel in Beverly

Hills!  Like most country bumpkins, I was really looking

forward to spotting a celebrity in their natural element here

in Los Angeles.

Disappointingly, I ran into one in Green Hills right  before 

I left Nashville.  I chalked it up as further  proof that Taylor 

Swift is on a private campaign to ruin my day. She always 

takes my parking spot.  You think I'm kidding, but it defies 

mathematical odds.  If I'm going head-to-head with another 

car at the Green Hills mall, there's a solid 50% chance that 

she's in the vehicle.

Anyways, the great thing about being vegan in Los Angeles is 

that every single restaurant accommodates.  I even found a place 

that had "oxygenated vegetables," though I have only a vague

guess as to what that means.  In my head, it's the exact opposite

of hydroponic.

My mom went to evarestaurant last night, and gave it a

glowing review.  She asked me to post pictures of her meal,

so here they are!  I couldn't find the details on the chocolate

dessert.

I went to M Cafe de Chaya, a macrobiotic restaurant in Beverly

Hills.  More on that tomorrow.

Rich People, Poor Food

This is Beacon Hill.

Two homes in the Beacon Hill area are currently on the market, priced at $14.5 million and $18 million.  Not for the likes of plebs like you or I is this Hill.

I used to work on Beacon Hill, and I love to go back and walk up and down the streets, sipping fashionable tea as I watch professional dog walkers wrestle with massive Saint Bernards up and down the street.

It's a beautiful area, and believe it or not, the people who live there are really nice folks.  I wrote a piece for a local organization, and they were friendly and warm to the feckless intern in their midst.

What I just can't understand is this...

Why do people who can afford to eat better... eat cheap junk food?

I saw a woman on Beacon Hill this week carrying the $1200 Louis Vuitton bag I'd been coveting.  This is not remarkable.  The combined retail value of the handbags walking down that street could fund a nuclear research facility.

The strange thing is that all of her children were eating those 99-cent firecracker popsicles.  You know... the red, white and blue ones you used to get at summer camp that are equal parts corn syrup, water, and experimental food dyes.  The artificial cherry flavoring was invented by some scientist who never tasted a real cherry.

I stopped in at the local grocery store looking for a snack.  In the interest of full disclosure, I've seen worse.  There are those city convenience stores where the only vegetable is a Ho-Ho.

But the prognosis wasn't good.  Here's a look at the cereal aisle.

You can see we've got our root vegetables, our grains, and our deep leafy greens.

Oh, my bad.  That's Cap'n Crunch and Weetabix.









T'wasn't all dire.  They made an effort with some dried fruits and nuts.  At about $5-$9 a pop, they were a little pricey for the likes of me and mine, but if you're cruising $14 million houses, a $5 box of wasabi peas won't hit you where it hurts.

Still...  A lot of this "health food" was misleading.  Yogurt-dipped pretzels were nestled right alongside roasted almonds.  Everything was given a really peaceful "organic" looking label.  It made me feel like a kindly Vermont grandmother tucked my Assorted Dried Fruits in their plastic box and sealed it with a loving kiss before heading out back to sing the cows to sleep.

Holy unseasonal, totally non-regional produce, Batman.  The last time an avocado grew in Massachusetts, I'm pretty sure dinosaurs roamed the earth.


The point of this journey through the grocery store isn't to nitpick and highlight the fact that almost every one of those vegetables is a nightshade from a different climate.

I just want to know why nobody has a problem with constantly ingesting food that atrophies our health.

Especially people who have the financial and educational resources to care.

The brunch, breakfast, and lunch restaurants on Beacon Hill are filled with eggs, ham, bacon, and sugar.  Donuts, pastries, cakes, croissants...  Why is nobody insisting on better food?

Why do the financially impoverished neighborhoods of Boston have higher quality produce and restaurants than the most expensive square mile in New England?

What are they eating?  At first I thought they were leaving Beacon Hill to get organic produce and food.  Then I saw the family of popsicle-wielders and thought again.

I'm not passing down judgement.  There is no finger-shaking here.  When it's on TV, in our magazines, advertised on the subway, listed in the Michelin Guide, subsidized by the US Government, and carried in every store on the planet, it's not a matter of being aware or unaware.  We're being fed.

And I believe that as a nation, for richer or for poorer, we deserve better than what's being put on our plates.

Making the Big Easy a Little Easier

So here I am in gorgeous New Orleans trying to bring my gluten-free macro life with me. This city uses butter for crude oil, so this is no easy task. When I did my customary pre-trip "gluten-free" "vegan" restaurant searches, I was met with resounding silence. I had a really rough time living in Nashville eating out, and that was WITH a lifetime of knowledge about the city and the secret restaurants and hang-outs.

Here is my strategy for traveling macro:

1. Search for local restaurants and grocery stores that cater to the health food community. Even rural Mississippi has one or two vegans.

2. Plan on packing a suitcase entirely devoted to food. I stock up on things like microwaveable veggies, brown rice, and healthy snacks from Trader Joe's.

3. The night before, do all your cooking and bring a cooler as your carry-on. This is how I usually travel with relatively "stable" dishes, like greens-based dishes or squashes. Daikon radish is not, was not, and will never be a "stable" dish. From the second it leaves the frying pan it smells like the recently exhumed dead, and it will earn you a special place in the heart of Homeland Security.

I stuff my suitcase with macro goodies like microwaveable brown rice and packets of tuna fish, and strap granola bars to my person like Rambo straps bullets. Last year when I flew up to stay with May in Boston, she told me I stashed granola bars like a drug mule.

Here in New Orleans, my plan is to stick to lots of steamed fish and vegetables. I'm allowing myself to eat omelets because I had my miso this morning, but I'm really trying to stay away from dairy and sugar, because I sure as heck am planning a stop on Bourbon Street. It would be wrong to pass it up. It's New Orleans, for crying out loud!!

Just remember. The great thing about using your luggage for food is that as you eat, you make room for all the new stuff you buy shopping.

I am studying for the GRE's right now. There's nothing graduate school testers love more than word-based math problems. Here's one for you:

Becky packed a 11" x 4" x 22" tupperware container of nishime vegetables. The combined cost of the ingredients was $17.

After eating the nishime, Becky puts a box of Kate Spade Aggie Shoes in Yellow, size 10.5 in the suitcase in a box that is 7" x 6" x 23". The cost of the shoes was $298, and worth every bleeding cent for that matter. How much more per square inch did the Aggie shoes cost than the vegetables?


And the real question... with cute shoes like this, does it really matter?