Jane and I really love Ethiopian food. We first encountered it way back when we were dating. As much as we love it, we don't really get much of it. "Little Ethiopia" is a 20 minute drive from our home. (Like everything else in Los Angeles, regardless of how long it will actually take you to get there, your destination is always only 20 minutes away.) Which means it's only a weekend option for us.

Over the years, we've frequented a few of the restaurants in "Little Ethiopia," but we'd never noticed a 100% vegan restaurant. When we were omnivores, that would have never registered.

Anyway, Jane's been craving Ethiopian, so Sunday afternoon I googled vegan Ethiopian. Rahel Ethiopian is listed as the only 100% vegan Ethiopian restaurant in all of LA. Off we went. It was wonderful. The cuisine is made up of spicy vegetable dishes (meat dishes too, but not at Rahel), mostly in a thick stew format called wat. The wat is served atop injera, a large flatbread made out of fermented teff flour. Traditionally, Ethiopians eat with their right hands and use pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes. No utensils are used, which can make for an entertaining meal if you're the slightest bit clumsy. It's probably not your best choice for a first date, but as a long married couple, it can be a fun excursion!

We shared the Hudade Special Combo for two. And it was was excellent. The plate looked beautiful. There were two little piles of each of the items in the special, which makes sharing easy. We have no idea which was which, but they all tasted good. Something resembled tuna salad, and there was a tomato salad, which was a little awkward to pick up with the inerja, but mostly they were spicy, hearty stews. By the end of the meal, we were completely stuffed and were each wearing a little bit of our meal.

The service is slow, but friendly. Our time in the restaurant with no appetizers or dessert was over 75 minutes. So don't go if you're pressed for time. Otherwise... we can't recommend it highly enough. Jane's trying to get me to go back next weekend!

They're open 11am -11 pm every day. 1047 South Fairfax. 323-937-8401.

If you don't live around here, but do have access to this cuisine, we recommend you give it a try! And if you don't know where to find Ethiopian cuisine, we've got a few Restaurant Review sites on our Resources page which can be modified to search for type of cuisine. Go, try something new!

Daring Bakers Challenge was Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake from Baking From My Home To Yours. Good! I had to make a cake this month anyway.

The recipe seemed fairly straightforward, a run of the mill white cake like any other white cake; we didn't have to stand on our heads while whipping the ingredients together! (This is not meant to sound nasty towards any of the other challengers -- some of the recipes are very difficult and some are rather easy.) Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts, the baker who issued this month's challenge, promised a delicious end-result, and who am I to argue with that? So, overall, it looked like an easy challenge. After last month's nine+ hour project, that was a welcome idea. But as usual, it wasn't geared for a vegan diet, so there were substitutions to be made. I used Earth Balance margarine in place of the butter, almond milk in place of the buttermilk, and Ener-G egg replacer in place of the eggs.

One good thing about being vegan is that you can taste your batters as you're going along without any fear of salmonella! The batter tasted okay, but something wasn't quite right. I attribute that to the Earth Balance. I was a huge fan of butter in my pre-vegan baking days. I really don't think anything else tastes quite as good, but I don't consume butter anymore, so... The cake didn't rise as high as I would have expected, but others Daring Baker's also indicated their cakes didn't rise, so I wasn't too concerned. It looked and smelled delicious.

Out of the oven and on to the racks... everything looked and felt normal, but when I sneaked off a tiny piece of the cake to try, it didn't taste right. Lane agreed, but didn't think it was bad and suggested I carry on. But this was going to be a birthday cake for someone special, so into the trash it went.

Attempt number two came out a little better; I incorporated some almond meal in place of some of the flour, which gave the cake a nice flavor. Typically, I would be concerned that the almond meal would make the cake more dense, but this cake is dense already, so I didn't think there would be any harm in trying this. I often do that in my cookie recipes. I love the taste of the nuts, and there's the added benefit of injecting some nutritional value to something decadent!

The recipe called for a buttercream-meringue frosting. Alas. The other option afforded us was whipped cream. So, back to the internet I went in search of vegan buttercream meringue, no luck there. I was kind of relieved not to have to make the buttercream-meringue as Morven (the host) injured herself making it. After last month's near trip to the emergency room, I didn't want to have any medical disasters to have to blog about!!!

Surprisingly, there were many recipes for vegan buttercream out there, all basically the same: an equal amount of vegan margarine and powdered sugar, plus a tiny bit of liquid... soy milk, usually. So, that's what I went with, assuming that if there were that many sites lauding the same basic recipe, it had to be good. WRONG! It was horrible. It had a chemical taste to it. Trying for a quick fix, I added some almond extract which actually helped.

So, I didn't like it. Everyone else was polite and said they did, but no one asked for seconds, and most people didn't finish their slices which is generally not a good sign. Lane's busy chomping down his second slice as I write this, so it wasn't a total waste. But I won't be making this cake again. There are some really amazing results out there. My absolute favorite was prepared by Sakya.

Overall, I'm left wondering if the Daring Baker's is the right group for me. The bakers are all wonderful and the group is supportive and fun. And I love the idea of baking something a whole slew of "my friends" are baking as well. There's a great sense of camaraderie in belonging to this group. But I'm a lone little vegan in a sea of butter and cream. We'll see what next months challenge brings!

Cheers! Jane

Tonight Vegan Soapbox poses the question many of us are challenged with as vegans... Where do you draw the line? What will you not eat?

Eccentric Vegan writes:

It’s simple to me. If you don’t need to kill or harm another sentient being, then you shouldn’t kill or harm another sentient being.

I’ve never considered myself to be an animal rights activist. But the more I learn the more appalled I am at the barbarism that we perpetrate as a species. (Read about the Baby Seal Hunt which has "opened" today in Canada.)

I find myself compelled to watch videos like Earthlings, even though I really don't want to see some of these images. As I wander through the grocery store, sometimes I'll look at the packages of boneless, skinless, chicken pieces and think how hard it is to reconcile those pieces with any chicken, never mind the abused animals these pieces actually represent. And I'm sure where I draw my line...

I used to draw the line at four-legged animals, fish and fowl seemed much less intelligent, and therefore it was okay to eat them. Then I went vegan (motivated by a desire for better health and a better earth), so I now draw my line at plants. Although in reality I can't imagine voluntarily eating insects, although I suspect they're in my salad on occasion!

After being vegan for nine months, I know I will NEVER eat animal flesh again. I will not consume dairy products, nor will I eat eggs. I have seen and read too much to allow myself to participate in the needless brutality that is perpetrated against these animals. I am not a barbarian. I will not eat as one. It's my choice to eat vegan.

Hi everyone. It's Jane writing tonight. Lane and I realized that he's hogging all the spotlight, so tonight I'm getting the byline. To tell the truth, we often collaborate on these posts. I tend to spend time in the morning researching what we'll write about (time permitting), and put together an outline, and then Lane will flesh it out.

Things were hectic around here today, so I just threw something together for dinner. As I rummaged around the fridge I found the Trader Joe's Chicken-less Strips I'd purchased in the recent past (sorry, the box got trashed, so no image). There are always onions on hand in our house, and I had asparagus spears and orange pepper. Perfect. I could make a dinner out of that. Plus we always have salad with any dinner I make.

I chopped the veggies, added a little olive oil to the pan, and sauteed my onions. When they were translucent I threw in the peppers, and after they'd cooked together for a bit in went the chicken-less strips and the asparagus. For some reason (could it be that I didn't read the package?), I thought the strips were seasoned. Imagine my surprise when I tasted the concoction brewing in my frying pan. It definitely needed something. And I had moments until everything was done. Thankfully, my pantry is fully stocked. I threw in a few pinches of sea salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and about a half teaspoon of ground ginger. It came together quite well.

Lane and I would definitely recommend this product. It has good mouth feel and seems to be very versatile. Best of all, it cooks up in moments. It took me under 15 minutes to throw tonight's dinner together. Next time I think I might try throwing the chicken-less strips in a light broth, or even pasta.

These strips might even compete with the prepared Gardein chicken products we get at Whole Foods, specifically the Vegan Chicken Sonoma Salad and Vegan Chicken Curry Salad. The "chicken" in the salads is cubed, and this "chicken" is sliced, but otherwise, the taste and texture seem to be the same to us. Since Gardein doesn't advertise where their products are sold, I'm wondering if this is a private label version packaged for Trader Joe's? Anyway, we'll be keeping this stuff on hand.