It can be hard to find good comfort food when trying to live a plant-based lifestyle, especially when it comes to breakfast. This is largely because living this way encourages one to pay attention to the ramifications of any excess consumption. Part of it is because, well, most comfort food relies on some sort of meat. To this, Munchies Vegan Diner in Santa Ana, CA scoffs.
Michael Jordan beat three teams on the way to his first NBA finals appearance during the 1990-91 season: the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. After losing a total of one game in those three series, MJ trounced the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals to begin his reign in the league. This summer, Nike honored this playoff run by releasing the Air Jordan 1 Mid SE “Rivals,” a shoe featuring each team’s colorways. More recently Jordan brand released an accompanying Rivals clothing line featuring the same bold colorways and retro style. To celebrate the release of this collection, Foodbeast and Foot Locker have teamed up to open the “Rival’s Cafe” Pop Up in Los Angeles during the next two weekends.
The “Rival’s Cafe” will open up in Foot Locker’s flagship store at Hollywood & Highland as a pick-up window that will be available to anyone buying a piece from the Jordan Rivals collection. The pop-up will be open during the weekends of Oct. 24-27 and Oct. 31-Nov. 3 from 5-9 PM Thursday-Saturday and 3-7 PM on Sundays . Here, we’ll be dishing out iconic menu items specific to the flavors of Los Angeles and Chicago.
The LA vs CHI menu pits two cities, and their corresponding versions of two iconic street foods, against each other. Let’s break it down:
First up, the hot dog. The LA Dirty Dog will have a bacon-wrapped hot dog, grilled onions, peppers, charred jalapeño, mayo, mustard and ketchup. It’s opponent, the Chicago Hot Dog, features an all-beef dog, chopped white onions, sweet pickle relish, dill pickle spears, tomato, short peppers, and mustard, all served on a poppy seed bun.
The other juxtaposition we see is the two city’s variations of a beef sandwich. The LA French Dip is a white roll stacked with thinly sliced roast beef and a side of beef broth, as well as the option of Swiss cheese and onions. The last menu item is the famed Chicago Italian Beef, which is an Italian roll stuffed with simmered beef, hot giardiniera, and sweet peppers.
What menu item, and city, will come out on top? It doesn’t really matter. Both cities win, purely for having these delicacies grandfathered into their culture.
But, really, it would be a shame if I had to try every item to see what I like best. A real shame.
Created in partnership with Foot Locker.
As veganism becomes increasingly more popular, so too do the options for those who choose this way of life. Plant-based meat is absolutely booming, and there seems to be a new type of milk in the supermarket every day. When it comes to energizing drinks, though, options remain limited. Luckily, Monster’s new Java Monster Farmer’s Oats combines oatmilk, coffee, and their signature energy blend to produce an energy punch fit for any vegan in need.
Monster’s newest recipe starts with real coffee and a plant-based version of their energy blend. These are combined, and then blended with oatmilk. Oatmilk, made by soaking oats in water and subsequently straining, acts as a creamy neutralizer that evens out the robustness of the other two ingredients.
Currently, the blend is releasing in the Farmer’s Oats flavor, which has notes of cinnamon, brown sugar, and vanilla. It’s close to an oatmeal cookie, but minus the calories, as a whole can of the new drink is only 150 calories.
If you’ve ever had a bowl of oatmeal that was so good you wished that you could skip the spoon and drink it– now’s your time.
If this sounds like it fits your lifestyle, Java Monster Farmer’s Oats is available nationwide beginning October 28th, 2019.
Created in partnership with Monster Energy.
Going to Korean BBQ is an event. It’s treating yourself to a hefty portion of delicious, prime meat. It’s getting together a group of friends and chatting about everything going on in your lives while your favorite cuts sizzle away on the grill. It’s having no intention to rush. It’s fasting all day so that you can eat to your heart’s content once the bulgogi starts flowing. It’s leaving with a belly fuller than a perm in the 80’s. Sometimes, though, it’s not about all that.
Sometimes, you just want the food.
This was exactly the case for Foodbeast’s very own Elie Ayrouth and Mark Kharrat, along with Christina Kim (@vivalastina), in the newest episode of Going In. And boy, did they get the food.
One of LA's quintessential KBBQ restaurants, Quarters BBQ, is bringing their high-grade meat to a more casual setting. This has translated to the debut of a new iteration of their restaurant in the form of Quarters Kitchen, in Orange County, CA. Here, they’re serving up their famous marinated meats in ways more attuned to your local spot that explodes with people at lunchtime.
There’s the fresh handmade Kimchi, Spicy Pork Belly Bowl, Nutty Green Tofu Salad, and the Kimchi Fried Rice, and the Grilled Pork Belly Bowl, and the Japchae, and — okay, I’m running out of breath. There’s a plethora of mouthwatering food, needless to say. And our favorite Foodbeasts tried them all. And when I say ‘all’, I mean they ordered every single item on the menu — in true Going In style. Check out the dishes they picked out as their favorites after sampling the menu.
Bulgogi Burger (Elie)
Often times, the best part about KBBQ, surprisingly, isn’t the meat. It’s the bowl of cheese that sits next to your meats on the grill, melting down until it turns into a luscious fondue. Thankfully, Quarters hasn’t abandoned that cherished feature here. This Korean-American BBQ hybrid is stacked with soy-marinated ribeye steak, lettuce, mushroom, cheese, and Quarter’s house signature sauce, all of which sits in between two brioche buns.
Bulgogi Kimchi Tater Tots (Christina)
Almost anything goes well with crispy, golden tots — even nothing, really. But when they’re covered in bulgogi, kimchi, and (as Christina stresses in the video) cheese? Forget about it. We’re taking it all.
Mandu (Marc)
These dumplings are filled with a mixture of beef, pork, bean sprouts, zucchini, dried tofu, onions, and chives. If you’re curious to see how these are made, make sure to check out the episode, as our hosts were lucky enough to make their way into the kitchen and receive a lesson in mandu making.
The trio finished off their meal with Quarter’s soft serve ice cream, which comes towering in a cup with a couple churros sitting atop. I’m not sure how there was any stomach space left there, but I guess our hosts were truly… going in.
You can view everything mentioned in this article in the newest episode of Going In. If watching isn’t enough, you can try for yourself at Quarter’s Kitchen at the Yorba Linda Town Center in Yorba Linda, CA.
Created in partnership with Quarter's Kitchen. Feature image by AYCE Creative.
The countries of Lebanon and Mexico are some 7,700 miles apart, yet their people have a rich, intertwined history, particularly when it comes to their food. Today is not a history lesson -- it’s a field trip, an off-menu discovery at Irvine, CA-based Falasophy: Lebanese Quesadillas!
When we think quesadilla, our mind conjures up images of corn or flour tortillas, filled with cheese and griddled until crispy.
Today, I caught up with Lebanese-owned Falasophy as I had learned that they were serving off-menu items people were calling "Lebanese Quesadillas." The gist? They were stuffing cheese into thin, oversized pita breads, filling them with Lebanese and greater Middle Eastern ingredients, and searing them off to delicious fold-over matrimony.
I’ve had Falasophy before, but hadn’t had any of these “Lebanese Quesadillas” before, so I dug into em:
The first one I saw owner Rashad Moumneh, aka the Chief Falasopher, fold over, was an homage to the ultimate Lebanese street comfort food, the chicken shawarma wrap. It starts on a pita slathered with their housemade toum (garlic sauce), freshly shaved shawarma chicken, avocado slices to remind ourselves we’re in Southern California, thin French fries (the ultimate pro move in shawarma or kebab wraps), grilled corn seasoned with za’atar, spicy sambal sauce, candied pickled jalapenos, and a generous amount of cheese to bind everything together. I’ve had these flavors separately, but when cheese and toum have melted together, you’re hard pressed to find a more punchy and memorable flavor experience.
The second quesadilla I tried utilized Armenian flavors. In this pita, a walnut and red pepper paste called Muhammara lines the walls. Additionally, a seasoned kafta meat is spread across the surface area of the pita, topped with sumac and plenty of cheese to glue it all together.
This particular quesadilla is already a favorite on the Falasophy menu, but still seems to twist my friends’ necks when I tell them about the combination: Nutella + cheese + pita bread. The combo is decadent, the textures work, it’s crispy, and when you get the perfect bite — a mouthful of Nutella, stretchy mozzarella, powdered sugar, fresh mint leaf, and crispy pita bread — you’ll wonder why you hadn’t done this before.
All three of these Quesa-pita creations are available at Falasophy’s Irvine, CA location, inside the Irvine Spectrum complex. They’re technically “off the menu,” so you’ll want to tell the person ringing you up that you want a Lebanese Quesadilla, and tell them what flavors you want.
Go indulge!
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