Vegan Soup Delivery and Late Night Tacos: Totally LA Food Experiences

Feb. 2, 2014— -- L.A. is suddenly on every critic’s “best food cities” list, but locals will tell you that it’s always been a great place for culinary adventures. Everyone has their weird snack of choice: Kombucha, bacon-wrapped matzo balls, Korean-Mexican hybrid BBQ tacos, homemade kale chips. Special dietary requirements are expected – the more stringent, the better – but yet greasy Mexican street food is everyone’s 3 a.m. go-to. And raw food gets its own three-day expo. From new to classic, here are 10 food experiences that are, like, totally L.A...and we love them.

Vegan Soup DeliverySpecialty food startup Soupelina’s premise is: gourmet vegan soups, and only gourmet vegan soups, delivered to your door. Chef/founder Elina Fuhrman makes “soups with a purpose” from the finest farmers-market produce. No soy, no dairy, no gluten…Is it any wonder Hollywood starlets and CAA agents are clamoring for daily delivery? If you’re not quite ready for that yet, look for soups like The Fennel Hurrah! (for weight loss) and Sweet Coconut Thai Oh My! (for anti-aging) at L.A.-area Whole Foods.

Organic, Biodynamic CocktailsOf course the craft cocktail movement would go to this extreme in L.A. Not only do consumers love a healthy/diet-conscious trend, but the weather allows for great produce year-round. Mixologist Marcus Tello got big buzz for creating a cocktail menu that incorporates organic or sustainable ingredients into almost every drink, at newcomer FEED Body & Soul. Meanwhile, Natalie Bovis, author of Edible Cocktails: From Garden to Glass, has teamed up with vegan cooking school Spark Foods to teach “Vegan Cocktail Party” workshops to those who would do it at home.

Bottomless BreakfastsNot all L.A. cocktails have gone fancy, though. Because so many people are underemployed actors and/or students, they don’t have the money for craft cocktails…but they have the time for day drinking. Hence, the popularity of bottomless brunches and various other all-you-can-drink specials. The Waffle in Hollywood is the early bird that gets the morning degenerates, offering Bottomless Mimosas or Bloody Marys for $12, from 7 a.m. till closing Saturday and Sunday.

Local, Sustainable AffirmationsThere are two ways to order your food at Café Gratitude: The way you’ve always ordered food–i.e. by its name. And the way they want you to do it – with affirmations. If you can tell your server, “I Am Connected, and then I Am Generous without chopped cilantro,” and not feel self-conscious, then this place was made for you. It’s vegan, organic, relentlessly cheerful, and (possibly because of how many Westside women frequent it), it actually has a nice little wine list.

Sweet Rose + Caffe Luxxe How much do Westsiders love their single-origin, artisanal hand-crafted espresso drinks? As much as they love their small-batch, seasonally driven ice cream hand-spun from organic cream. Which is to say, they’ll pay just about any price, visit several times a week, and the new-in-2014 partnership between Sweet Rose Creamery and Caffe Luxxe is like the best/worst thing regulars have ever heard. Because YUM, but...calories.

Drink on the Cheap, Because it’s RainingPeople of Seattle, stop reading now before you get angry. In the beachy South Bay area of LA, not only is rain a rarity for 10 months of the year, but Rock & Brews in El Segundo offers 2 for 1 beers on when it rains. This seems more of a goodwill gesture toward regulars than a marketing gambit, because on rainy days, people aren’t likely to hit the beach – they’d rather hole up in their local and have a few beers. This place has 52 on draft – one for every week of the year.

Raw Food SchoolRaw food chef Matthew Kenny takes the whole raw lifestyle to the next level at M.A.K.E. in Santa Monica. Not only is this a restaurant, it’s an academy that educates people in the “plant-based cuisine” that is Kenney’s current specialty, as well as classic raw food techniques. With communal seating at the bar, an omakase-style menu option and a “commercial living foods kitchen” where classes are held most days of the week, this place aims to become a West Coast hub for raw food – or as Kenney now refers to it, “living food.”

BYO VegIn a bid to out-Portlandia the actual city of Portland, Silverlake favorite Forage invites local gardeners to bring their own produce to the restaurant, where chefs will incorporate it into specialty dishes. Actually, you don’t even have to be a local gardener – just pull something out of the backyard and see whether it’s fit to cook. This thankfully, is not the main way that Forage gets its ingredients. It sources from local farmers and markets, thereby achieving consistent quality while still pulling off a hippie-potluck vibe.

Tacos, Any Time, Every TimeAuthentic Mexican tacos are a Los Angeles staple, a Holy Grail for visiting foodies, and most people’s favorite way to end a night of boozing. If you’re driving and not intimidated by a sketchy neighborhood, King Tacos in East LA gets the local vote as “hands-down best and LA legend.” They have the cabeza, they have the lengua…they also have the not-scary meats like chicken for the gringos. If you’re boozing it up in Hollywood, go to Cactus Taqueria on Vine – it’s convenient and open till at least 3AM.

SrirachaThe year 2013 was a rollercoaster for Sriracha, the chili sauce produced by Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale (San Gabriel Valley, CA). Fans threw the first-ever L.A. Sriracha Festival, signaling just how popular the fiery condiment has become – and then a month later, the factory was partially shut down because Irwindale residents were complaining of fumes as bad as tear gas. The drama still rages on, and in the meantime, more and more Southland restaurants are putting Sriracha-laden specialties on menus, urging “Indulge before it disappears.”