We’re keeping it brief today as we’ve only just arrived back from a day-long field trip showing the local 6th graders from Cheremoya Elementary around the virtual orchard that makes up Hollywood Orchard up the hill from their school.

The Hollywood Orchard is a local community group that works “to better neighborhood quality of life by operating a community orchard that is a teaching model for sustainability through its workshops on growing fruit locally, and sharing the food in open-air events held in the Beachwood community, outreach communities, and food-charity organizations.” And, as luck would have it, we ended up moving to Ground Zero for the Orchard—Glen Green Street—and have subsequently involved ourselves in their regular events, like educational Farmers’ Circles, Pick ‘n’ Kitchens, and, today’s

We’ve briefly mentioned the Orchard in other posts—like the lemon poppyseed cake recipe we posted and the interview we did with local cafe owner, Patti Peck—and will surely use this space to tell you about other work we do with them, both design and hard labor. We’ll also be sure to explain exactly what a cherimoya is and why it’s awesome a little down the road.

Right now, though, we need to go sleep off seven straight hours of unforgiving sun, harrowing cliff-climbing, and socializing with 6th graders.  In the meantime, you can find out more about Hollywood Orchard on the group’s site and see pictures as they’re posted to the Orchard Facebook page.

Above, 6th grader, Tad, showing off the local Black Walnut tree branch bearing tiny walnut fruits as George looks tough in the background. Go Team Dragonfruit!

To the right, Cheremoya Elementary, circa 1920.

I didn’t take that photo.

Guys, guess what—the restaurant at the beautifully historic 1920’s hotel and celebrity hot spot, Chateau Marmont, is totally vegan friendly.

We stopped by for a quick lunch and some wine in the garden last Friday with our friend from Brooklyn, Suzanne, and had a really lovely time.

For those who don’t already know, the hotel (to the right) was built in 1927 by a prominent Los Angeles lawyer—Fred Horowitz—in an effort to bring a little European class to LA. From Chateau Marmont’s site:

“Hotels are the stuff of stories, of mini dramas, a world unto themselves – we leave our lives behind and become who we want to be. Arriving at Chateau Marmont you surrender yourself to a grandi-loquent environment, an infamous hideaway and the perfect getaway in the center of one of the world’s most exciting cities.

Modeled after an infamous royal residence in France’s Loire Valley, Chateau Marmont is a fantastical folly in the land of make believe. While in residence you become part of a highly discriminating, international clientele desiring an experience at once luxurious and unique.”

It’s like Wes Anderson himself wrote that up.

Clearly, you don’t have to be a guest to visit the restaurant or bar.

Marmont asks that you “refrain from taking photos and smoking.” Being the grammar contrarians we are, we thought it’d be fine to take a quick photo since we weren’t smoking at the time—above, their Chickpea Panisse with Kale, Quinoa, Walnuts, and Beets, which is honestly exquisite and highly recommended.

To the right, Katie + Suzanne in the garden looking classy.

One of our long-time staple recipes at home is our vegan chili recipe. We’ve written it up in this space many times now—first in early 2009, then again when I ALMOST made it onto the Today Show with the recipe—adjusting the particulars of the chili as our tastes changed and (we hope) became more refined.

These days, we cook the chili in largely the same way we always have, giving us the flavor we’ve loved over the years, but we now prepare it to be gluten-free and far more plant-based than it used to be, shooing seitan out of the spotlight and ushering in fresh shiitake mushrooms instead. Though we’re losing some protein, we’re veering closer to a whole foods diet with the meal and the mushrooms’ earthy flavor and meaty texture make for a natural star in this chili.

Besides that, we’ve made a few other changes, like subbing poblano peppers for green bells, adding a subtle Ethiopian flare with a dash of the delectable spice mixture berbere, upping the garliciness, omitting sweet Vidalias and bringing in more savory ones instead, and employing dry beans over canned ones to bring down the sodium content and give you a better firmness and overall robustness in the chili. Let’s go!

Smokey Jo’s Chili (Gluten-Free Version)
• 2 Large Yellow or Brown Onions, finely diced
• 2 Large Poblano Peppers, de-seeded + finely diced
• 9 Cloves of Garlic, smashed, peeled, and chopped into small chunks
• 4 tbsp Olive Oil
• 3-6 Chipotle Peppers, depending on how spicy you like things, chopped (these can be found canned in a lot of stores now and dried in specialty shops)
• 1 lb Fresh Shiitake Mushroom Caps + Stems, finely chopped
• 1 cup, Dry Red Kidney Beans (we like light, but dark are good too)
• 1/3 cup, Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (we like San-J’s low-sodium Tamari)
• 1 tbsp, Agave
• 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes (we used to use Sclafani without exception, but those are harder to find on the Left Coast, so we now mainly just look for any high-quality brand that lists only tomatoes in their ingredients—no additives, salt, or sugar)
• 14.5 oz can Diced Tomatoes (you can go with whatevs, but we like using flame roasted ones)
• 3 tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor
• 1 tbsp Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
• 2 tbsp Berbere (available at fine spice stores, Ethiopian specialty stores, and most Indian markets too)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• pinch Cinnamon (ideally freshly grated)
• Salt (to taste)

So, first, you need to soak the beans overnight, ideally. This makes cooking easier and gives them a better texture overall. If not possible, you can do a quick soak method, but we’d recommend the overnight soak. Oh, and don’t forget to first sort the beans—for real, they can sometimes have tiny rocks in them that have escaped the sorting process in production. But then simply drain after soaking, fill a large (8 quart or so) pot with new water, bring them to a boil, and then lower to a simmer and cover. They should be done in an hour or so, with times depending on bean size and your elevation. Science, man. It’s a good idea to just check them regularly, adding water as needed and removing from heat once the beans taste good and have a nice, slightly firmer than canned beans texture.

In the meantime, dice the onions into small, roughly 1/2-inch pieces or smaller and chop the peeled, smashed garlic into small chunks. Throw onions into a cast iron skillet with warmed olive oil and cook over medium-low heat until the onions start to become translucent and brown at the edges a little (about ten minutes). Don’t let them blacken though. Now throw your garlic in and cook for about five minutes, after which time it should be giving off a nice, pungent, savory smell.

For the mushrooms, we usually de-cap them, slicing the caps into small pieces and setting the stems aside to cut separately once we’re done with the caps. The two parts of the mushroom tend to have very different textures—the caps, being soft + spongy; the stems, tough + meaty. Both lend well to the texture of the finished chili, they’re just easier to first separate before chopping. Once ready, throw in with the cooking onions and garlic and sauté for ten minutes or so, allow the flavors to mingle and the mushroom to cook down and brown a bit. Add the hickory smoke, quickly stir and cover so the mixture absorbs the smoke taste, cooking for about five minutes. Uncover again and stir, scraping the mixture from the bottom of the pan if need. Cover and cook for another five minutes, again, allowing the mushroom to cook down and brown.

While that’s all going on, in a small bowl, whisk together with a fork the soy sauce and agave and then add to the mushroom-onion-garlic mixture along with your diced chipotle peppers. With the peppers, you can always add more later if you like, so maybe a good idea to add a fewer up front and then taste to test the heat of the mixture to try to gauge how that’ll affect the spiciness of the finished chili. Essentially, what you’re doing right now is creating the concentrated base for the chili, so flavors should be slightly more intense than what you’d want in the finished product, but not crazy-hot. Unless you like crazy-hot.

Simmer for another five minutes, covered, adding a bit of water or vegetable broth if the mixture starts to dry out or sticks too much. Add diced poblano peppers, again about 1/2-inch pieces or smaller, cooking covered for five minutes or until the peppers become deep green, but not too dark or too soft. It’s a good to test the raw poblanos after de-seeding and cutting them up. Depending on the size + age of the pepper and the season, they can vary greatly in spiciness. Again, maybe a good idea to add slowly and test the heat of the mixture as you go.

Once your beans are finished cooking in the large pot, gauge how much liquid is left. A little bean stock is a nice flavor enhancer for the finished chili, but you don’t want them to be too watery or you’ll spend a lot of time cooking off that extra liquid. Once you’re feeling good about it though, throw in your diced + crushed tomatoes.

Carefully toss your skillet mixture into the large pot with the beans and tomatoes, add your spices (chili powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, berbere, bay leaves, and cinnamon), gently stir, and cover, cooking over low heat.

A few quick notes on the spices: First, berbere, while a great flavor, isn’t 100% necessary if you can’t find it. It’s a wonderful mixture—giving you a sweet, smokey, exotic edge—but you can easily substitute it with a little more smoke paprika (which is actually an ingredient in some people’s versions of berbere). If you eat a lot of Ethiopian food, it’s that taste of that one red lentil dish that everyone loves, for reference. Then bay leaves—we recently discovered fresh bay leaves at the farmers’ market and some spice retailers selling bright green, relatively fresh ones in grocery stores for not much more that their older, run-of-the-mill, dried-out brown counterparts—highly recommended. It’s like another flavor altogether. Finally, if at all possible, we totally recommend buying a fine spice grater and hand-grating cinnamon in this recipe and any other. You’ll never look back.

Back to the chili—bring everything to a low simmer and give it a careful taste (make sure it’s not too hot). Need more heat? Add spices as you see fit or reserved chopped chipotle peppers? Add salt to taste and then simmer covered on low for one hour, stirring every so often to make sure it’s circulating and the bottom isn’t burning at all. Serve and enjoy. Freeze leftovers for a nice, quick meal of chili boats, chili dogs, vegan chili cheese fries, or chili anything, really.

Following up on some requests from friends to post the recipe for the cake Katie recently posted photos of on her Instagram feed.

She made it from scratch using these amazingly fresh lemons from our neighbors’ tree for this past weekend’s Hollywood Orchard Farmer’s Circle using a recipe from a great Australian food blog, Just Eat Love. It turned out really lovely and, from what I’m told, wasn’t terribly difficult to make.

Give it a go if you get a hankering for some quality baking time.

One we thing we love about LA is our particular neighborhood—Beachwood Canyon. It was a part of town we knew absolutely nothing about seven months ago, but it has this unique, small-town charm to it that we never would have expected from Los Angeles. There are local theatre performances in an old silent movie theatre, bingo nights, square-dance jamborees, and we’re told our particular street is “legendary” for its street-closing Halloween parties.

At the hub of much of the community activity is the Beachwood Cafe—a beautifully designed, sun-filled cafe about halfway to the Hollywood sign up Beachwood Drive. We took a little time out to talk with owner, Patti Peck, about the cafe and to find out more about our new neighborhood and what makes it so special.

raven + crow: So, how did Beachwood Cafe start? I hear there used to be a more scaled back coffee shop there before you all opened.

Patti Peck: Right, the same family operated it for 37 years and I remember coming up here in the 80s and being aware of what a time bubble it was (and still is). I loved the feeling of the place, so when the landlords asked chefs and restaurateurs to put in their proposals, I jumped at the opportunity. And here we are.

Who did your interior design? We LOVE the wallpaper and overall aesthetic.

Thank you so much for saying that. We got a lot of grief about the changes we made to the place at first, but Barbara Bestor—who is the goddess diva of architecture and design in Los Angeles—was very mindful of echoing the old place (instead of the slash and burn approach) with a fresh face.

And the logo/branding? Again, we’re fans—such a nice blue.

Yep, again that’s Barbara I have to thank for our logo. Someone on her team has a letterpress printing and design company called Krankpress, and she’s a genius named Elinor Nissley.

Well it’s awesome. It all works so well with the cheery mood of the space. How would you describe the cafe to someone who hadn’t been before? I feel like you’ve got takes on pretty traditional cafe fare and home cooking, but then you’ve got some nice dishes like your bowls + your banh mi with some Western influences.

I would describe it as a healthy California coffee shop. We make everything from scratch including our pickles and jams and we source all of our proteins and produce very carefully so we can make the cleanest and tastiest food possible. We do have some ‘all over the map’ dishes on our menu and that’s because the menu has evolved through consensus—these are the things that stuck.

While we’re on it, is it possible to do the chicken banh mi with tofu instead of chicken? …we love banh mi….

Oh gosh yes—why didn’t we think of that? I’m going to put it on the next menu, which is coming soon. Thanks for that.

Oh awesome. We will promptly eat that. Even to an outsider or someone first visiting the cafe, I think it’s fairly obvious that you really try to emphasize local and house-made foods and ingredients. Was that something that was important to you going into this?

I grew up on a farm and I am always trying to get back to that place where you are close to the land and make everything on your table, including the table itself. Also, the first people I met in Beachwood Canyon were the residents who were just starting the Hollywood Orchard, which is a virtual community orchard. Lucky for me, they are really great and do fun stuff in the community, which I get to be a part of. Also, I get to be a recipient for local fruit that gets canned or jellied.

Yeah yeah yeah! We had no idea we were moving to Ground Zero for the Hollywood Orchard when we moved to Beachwood. We were just planting some new trees with the team a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, I don’t know who thought of starting the orchard, but I’m so glad they did. We made grilled loquats last year that went on a pork chop and Minh made some coffee cake with them; she also pickled some.

Right—we heard that Chef Minh, who helped open the restaurant, has moved on after these initial few years. I know that was planned from the start, but how do you see that changing the Cafe in the near- or long-term?

Minh brought so many good flavors to the menu and we’ve kept a good percentage of them as our back bone, but it changes depending on who’s designing the menu and how the backbone fits the body.

Nicely put. We’re both long-time vegans, so we were especially excited to see so many vegan options on your menus. Do you feel like there’s more of a need for restaurants to cater to a meat-free crowd than there has been in the past?

Yes, and I hope that keeps expanding until it gets popular with our country’s interior. I think so many people think of eating vegan as a punishment—I know I did once—but I feel like it is more sophisticated and comfortable for people to cook vegan now than it used to be. I mean, you still have the vegan food that is trying to mock chicken or bbq beef, and is all processed, but I like the vegan food that is delicious because of the same things that make all food delicious, ie., the sweet and sour or salty and the crunch vs mush ratio. Just honest ingredients in a clever combination; that’s what i like.

Hah. I’m going to start a band called Crunch vs Mush. Love it. Now, I know you all have daily specials—Taco Tuesday; Whatever Wednesday; Curry Thursday; Fish n Chips Friday—but we haven’t check any of those out yet. Are any of those…veganizable? …I know, that’s totally not a word. Oh, and what’s ‘Whatever Wednesday’—culinary catch-all?

Yes, we can do tofu tacos and the curry on Thursday is…oops, no it’s not vegan because it has fish sauce in the curry paste…darn it. Also, Wednesday became Meaty Meat Pie Wednesday, so not vegan there.

Ooh, if you’re keen on trying other curry pastes, the brand we use is mostly vegan except for a few of their kinds (Maesri is the brand—I think they do bulk sales). Just a thought, but definitely let us know if you give them a try. We can be official taste-testers. So tell us more about what drew you to open a cafe in Beachwood specifically? What do you like about it?

It’s a small town in the middle of the big bad city. I love the kids and the families and how Astrid’s parents told her if she ever gets lost, to just go to the cafe and we would take care of her. So it’s the community that draws me here and our cafe is an anchor in the community. It’s a place for people to connect.

Ah. I don’t know who Astrid is, but that’s super-cute. Do you get a ton of people coming in asking for directions to the Hollywood sign?

Yes and we tell them directions are free with purchase. 

Nice. Any specific goals or future plans for the cafe?

We just started doing delivery and that’s going well. I am in the process of expanding our baked goods with some savory and sweet stuff, as well as vegan and gluten-free options. Then I want to tackle a prepared food division for families to stop and get dinner to take home.

Oh, that’s cool.

Oh and let me plug this cooking show that will air in April that I’m a contestant on—it’s called Chopped and I had so much fun doing it. When it airs, we’re going to do the menu from the show that night and watch the show in the cafe—can you come? It’ll be fun!

We’ll totally come!

Becahwood Cafe is located at 2695 N. Beachwood Drive and open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner Tuesday – Saturday; breakfast + lunch Sundays. You can view their menu online and take a look to see if they deliver to your area. We recommend the vegan burger and Sophia’s Bowl.

Below, the cafe menu; Sophia’s Bowl; the vegan burger; Katie enjoying a fresh basil lemonade; a Red Eye; Hollywood Orchard merch; house-made pickles; and window butterflies.

Forget who won big, who was snubbed, and who wore it best—here’s what we ate last night.

American Hustle Disco Fries—Potato fries covered with vegan cheese + gravy—decadently, depressingly delicious, like the 70s.
Dallas Buyers Club Sandwiches—Hickory Smoked Tofurky Deli Slices, sriracha tempeh ‘bacon’, lettuce, tomato, mayo, finished off with a little AZT sprinkled on top.
12 Years a Slave Blackberry Ink—Blackberry compote syrup to mix with any vodka, gin, or tequila drink; use in place of vermouth in a bourbon drink; or attempt to write home to seek rescue after twelve years of enslavement.
Leonardo DiCaprese Salad—Salted tofu, heirloom tomato, fresh basil—simple + classy, like the Wolf of Wall Street (note: we didn’t catch the Wolf of Wall Street; it was classy, right?).
The Great Guacsby—A story of the breakdown of avocados in the face of modern tomatoes, onions, and jalepeños based not on status + inherited position but on innovation and an ability to meet ever-changing consumer needs. Obvs.
Wolf of Walnut Lentil Dip—Smokey walnut lentil dip for the dipping of crackers, daikon chips, or Jonah Hill’s junk.
HERbed Nut Mix—A mixed herb nut medley so good you could fall in love with it and start to have an oddly socially accepted relationship with it publicly.

Last summer, before embarking on our great western adventure, we raved about the then-new vegan offerings from Brooklyn purveyor of fine ice creams, Van Leeuwen. Now that we’re Los-Angeles-based, it very easily—sadly—could have been added to the long list of things we miss about New York, along with dear friends, big old buildings, fast-paced-walking, and frigid, soul-crushing cold.

Wait, maybe strike that last one.

So imagine our delight when, driving by Oaks Gourmet Market on Franklin—a mere stone’s throw from our street in Beachwood Canyon—a sign reading ‘NEW VAN LEEUWEN ORGANIC VEGAN ICE CREAMS’ bold-facedly informed us we could promptly omit that item from the list of things to miss about New York.

What’s more, with their new packaged line, Van Leeuwen’s expanded from their initial vegan offerings of chocolate + vanilla to include six exciting new flavors: Mint Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, Banana Nut, Sicilian Pistachio, Salted Caramel, and Coffee Crunch.

GMO-, gluten-, and soy-free, the vegan line of ice creams focuses on showcasing the purity in taste of limited, largely local ingredients. From their site:
“With just a handful of simple and pure ingredients we have created the creamiest and most decadent vegan frozen dessert possible. Van Leeuwen Vegan is always free of stabilizers, gums and thickeners. Made in small batches in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, our flavors are a celebration of some of the finest small farmers, chocolate makers, and producers in the world.”

The line also sets itself apart from the majority of recent successes by others in the vegan frozen dessert field by bringing in not only coconut milk but also cashew milk as a main ingredient—the primary one, in fact.

The result, from our recent experience, is fucking awesome. We picked up the Coffee Crunch, with crushed beans from Brooklyn Roasters, Toby’s Estate Coffee; Sicilian Pistachio, which is smooth and rich, made with finely ground pistachios imported from Bronte, Sicily; and—my favorite, by far—the Salted Caramel, a salty-meets-decadently-sweet, crave-worthy concoction that tastes (I imagine) like unicorns + rainbows.

The new vegan line is now available at all Van Leeuwen locations (Boerum Hill, Greenpoint, and the East Village), Whole Foods Markets in the Northeast Region, various other NYC locations, (randomly) the market down the street from us in LA, and rotating in by the scoop in their trucks in NYC and, now, LA (woo!).

Check Van Leeuwen’s Web site for a full list of carriers and follow them on Twitter for truck locations. We’ll certainly quickly work our way through the rest of the line and will be sure to post to our Facebook page when we do.

Golden Road Brewing was founded in October 2011 by Tony Yanow and Meg Gill. Tony—a long-time vegan—is also the man behind Tony’s Darts Away pub in Burbank + the wildly popular Mohawk Bend in Echo Park. He’s also the reason the menus for all three of those establishments are so delectably vegan-friendly.

With its outdoor patio, outstanding ever-changing food menu, growler fills, 20 revolving beer taps, specialty on-daught only beer experiments, and game area (including giant versions of Connect Four + Jenga), Golden Road’s pub is one our favorite establishments in LA. Honestly, it’s probably a good thing we don’t live any closer, lest we risk going every day, getting the “NORM!!!” treatment, and completely draining our bank accounts.

Another impressive aspect of the brewery is their ever-evolving line of beers, including their signature Custom IPA Series. In the past, the series has included their Heal the Bay IPA—a bright, citrus-forward, summery IPA thats sales support Heal the Bay‘s work to protect the Southern California watersheds; the Better Weather IPA—a fruity, slightly darker IPA set to match LA’s less-than-harrowing winter weather; and, this writer’s favorite, the Burning Bush IPA—the first-known Rauch IPA (the German word for ‘smoke’; Rauchbier is a traditional German smoked beer), a coppery IPA made with a blend of 3 different smoked malts. It’s like a hoppy campfire in your mouth.

Golden Road returned to its altruistic roots last month, partnering with the LA River Revitalization Corp to create the 2020 IPA. The beer celebrates + supports the Greenway 2020 Project to connect 51 miles of the LA River, “transforming it from a neglected, concrete riverbed to a connected, public green space by the year 2020.” A portion of proceeds from each can sold in stores + pint sold at Golden Road pub go directly to LA River Corp, warming your heart that your benevolent beer-drinking is all for a greater good and warming your toes with a solid 7.4% ABV.

The beer itself has an earthy, piney flavor profile—making it a favorite with gin-lovers like myself—and boasts a beautiful bright red color on a sunny day…which we seem to have no shortage of in LA (sorry, still getting used to the ‘winter’ here). It was described to me at the pub as the “missing link” in the brewery’s IPA line and the taste palette in total. Beer nerds—the 2020 employs 2-Row, Crystal 77 malts and a total of six kinds of hops (Warrior, Palisade, Cascade, Ahtanum, Chinook , and Simcoe, the latter two of which likely contribute the most to the piney taste).

It rivals the Burning Bush on my personal Best EVER IPAs list…but I may require some more testing to give a thoroughly exhaustive opinion on the matter; purely for scientific reasons, of course.

In LA? Get thee to Golden Road. Elsewhere in California? Check your Whole Foods—we’re told they deliver as far north as San Francisco and as far south as San Diego. Pint cans come in cardboard boxes—cans because they’re easier to recycle than bottles and thus easier on the environment AND, we’re told, they actually keep beer fresher.

We posted this recipe to our Facebook page and released at as a someway infamously long Instagram photo just before the Super Bowl. Now that we’ve got the journal back, we thought we’d give the recipe a more fitting home.

These Buffalo Tempeh Skewers are easy-to-make, a hit at parties, and a lot better for you (and those poor buffaloes) than meaty wings. Plus we have two different, equally awesome marinades for them. Here’s what you need:

Tempeh (we use 3-5 8 oz packages depending on the party size—adjust the marinades to suit)

Smokey Buffalo Marinade
4 parts Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
1 part Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 part Agave

Creamy Maple Sriracha Marinade
2 parts Sriracha (we like the original, Huy Fong’s rooster sauce, but use your favorite)
2 parts Veganaise
1 part Maple Syrup

Garlic Tofu Dip
Half a block (roughly .5 lb) Silken Tofu
1 Green Onion
2 cloves Garlic
Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
Dash of Salt

First, you need to dry out the tempeh. We use a stovetop grill pan so you get those nice grill marks, but you can use a standard skillet too. Cut the tempeh into long, thick rods that’ll hold up to dipping and cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, watching closely and turning . If you use a well-season grill pan, you won’t need oil. You might a little olive oil with a standard skillet.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°F. Mix your marinades in separate bowls and, once done stovetop, place the grilled tempeh rods on an oven-safe pan or dish. Brush the marinade on and bake in the preheated oven for roughly 30 minutes, turning and reapplying marinade as it cooks off and is absorbed, roughly every ten minutes. Remove from the oven once the’ve browned and blackened at the edges, set aside and give a final brushing of marinade as they cool for 5-10 minutes.

Serve + enjoy.