How to Be Vegan in Los Angeles? It’s Easy As Pie!
You want to know how to be vegan in Los Angeles? Well, you’re in luck.
It’s easy as pie!
Okay, well, it’s easy if you’re dedicated.
Apparently, that’s what I’m not. I’m only 4 days into a challenge to myself to go vegan for 30 days… and today I had pie… and ice cream on top… and none of it was vegan.
I took to my @aroundLAwithTK Instagram to confess my sins. I realized I was about to eat dairy after I’d already gotten in the dessert line at a USC tailgate and asked for Bruce’s well-known “warm cookie pie.” The lady in her white, USC-logo-covered sundress, in front of me said, “oh, the smell.. this is how you know you’re at a USC football tailgate.. you can’t skip the cookie pie!”
And indeed, I couldn’t.
Side note: This is at their top donors tent. Don’t go to USC grounds looking for cookie pie elsewhere and say I lied to you.
Ugh! I failed myself and ate dairy.
(Not eating dairy was my main focus because I’m lactose intolerant and it’s been messing me up pretty badly as of late, so I was trying to lay off for a bit.. It’s not that I care about animals.)
But what is a girl to do without dessert?!
I want real dessert. That gluten-free, dairy-free, joy-free crap doesn’t cut it. I want creamy, rich, gooey goodness! Mm! I’m tingling simply thinking about it.
Wait, vegan dessert that tastes like real dessert exists?!
When I made it back on my bike ride from the USC season-opening football game, I looked through my pre-stocked picture ideas for an Instagram post on the @aroundLAwithTK page and it dawned on me..
T.K., you have had delicious dairy-free dessert!
As I mentioned in one of my very first entries on this Los Angeles lifestyle blog, the farmers’ market is my shiz-nye-ee! A few times that I’ve visited my Tuesday and Thursday farmers’ markets, I’ve picked up a pie from Ms. Shae.
Related: A Farmers’ Market for Every Day of the Week in Los Angeles
I didn’t know (nor care) that they were vegan.
All I knew is that they were good. The first time I saw this table of cobblers at the LaCienega Farmers’ Market, I stopped because the lady was Black and there aren’t ever many Black vendors at any of these markets, so when I see them, if they’re selling something I can eat, I’m buying.
When I stopped at her booth, Cobblermania, she began telling me about her handmade pies. She went beyond what flavors she offered. She told me how they’re made. Child, she may have even told me the ovens used! Of course, she said how they’re vegan; that’s a big selling point in Los Angeles being that everybody is or goes vegan at some point here (aren’t we annoying?! [inserts eye roll]). But what caught my attention most is that they’re sugar free!
photo: Foodzooka
You mean to tell me that a diabetic-friendly, dairy-free dessert actually tastes good?
Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. Yeah, I know, I could barely believe it myself. Really, I didn’t. I bought it only to support and figured I’d bring it by my 90-year-old, diabetic landlord. (Call me a kiss-a**, but I like to make my renters happy; please don’t ever raise my rent, baby.) It was after my landlord told me how good it was that I had to try it!
And honey, let me tell you, she ain’t neva lie.
(Please see a YouTube video by one of my girlfriends from Louisiana about things southerners say, by clicking here. It mildly annoys me when people tell me I have a grammatical error in my writing when what I wrote was very intentional. This goes for words such as “cain’t” as well. I didn’t graduate at the top of my college class — in journalism, at that — to not know basic subject-verb agreement. However, it overjoys me to know that people are really reading my stuff [inserts teary-eyed emoji].)
So, see, vegan dessert that tastes good is possible, meaning being vegan in Los Angeles is more than possible..
It’s easy as pie!
Now, go getchu some! You can find Cobblermania at the following farmers’ markets:
Hollywood Farmers’ Market
Culver City Farmers’ Market
LaCienega Farmers’ Market
Torrance Farmers’ Market
Related: A List of All Los Angeles Farmers’ Markets
The owner of Cobblermania, Shae Seward, also does catering and events. She can be reached by phone at 323.316.4793, or on Instagram @cobblermania.
