T. Palmer

​Saturday's East Bay Vegan Bakesale should be a good time to try those apparently controversial Cinnaholic cinnamon rolls we mentioned yesterday, as well as treats from organizer Fat Bottom Bakery and more. Proceeds will be donated to Vacaville's Animal Place Sanctuary and also to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. These cruelty-free bake sales on both sides of the Bay are truly making a difference; they've already raised thousands for humanitarian and animal relief organizations in less than a year.

Event details:
East Bay Vegan Bakesale
Date: Sat., March 20, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Location: Issues, 20 Glen (at Piedmont), Oakland, (510) 652-5700
Cost: Free

Cinnaholic

Cinnaholic says it'll offer a rainbow of vegan cinnamon roll flavors.

​Cinnaholic Sweets recently signed a lease to open a vegan bakery in a yet-to-be-disclosed Berkeley location, and anticipates a summer opening. And while storefronts dedicated to animal-free sweets are woefully few and far between around these parts, Cinnaholic plans to further distinguish itself by offering a mind-boggling variety of cinnamon roll flavors. Its blog boasts 25 varieties, including s'mores, cherries jubilee, candy cane, pumpkin pie, mocha almond fudge, rocky road, and, erm, savory pizza. Tweets have indicated at least 30 recipes in Cinnaholic's arsenal.

While we haven't had the pleasure of tasting a Cinnaholic cinnamon roll in any flavor, we were part of the team that voted its vegan blueberry dragonfruit chocolate ganache cupcakes first place in the (nonvegan) Mini-Cupcake Clash last fall. And if the rolls are anything like Cinnaholic's cupcakes, we suspect we're all in for a treat.

sffnb.org

​Tonight's edition of Mission Street Food is Vegan Night for Food Not Bombs, with proceeds going to the local chapter to help defray the costs of its many free food events. And rather than MSF resting on the laurels of its lauded vegan burger and Lung Shan's Vegan Delight soup, all of tonight's dishes (black garlic-stuffed tofu, cassava fritters, olive oil cake) are brand new. 

Menu and more after the jump.
More >>

T. Palmer

Eat your vegetables.

​Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, co-manager of the Sunset's natural co-op grocery store Other Avenues (3930 Judah at 44th Ave.), is like some kind of vegan sorceress in the kitchen. Her latest trick? She's made beet juice, avocado, and other ingredients (including, okay, raw cacao powder) taste like brownies. OA's new raw and vegan "chocolate mini luv cups no. 9" ($5) are a sweet way to get some of your five-a-day.

Tomorrow, from 11 a.m. until a frenzied mass has picked them clean (actual probable time: a few hours), Papalote (1777 Fulton at Masonic) will offer what it likes to call its special "Mexi-Pino" menu, a hybrid of foods inspired by owner Miguel Escobedo, who is Mexican, and his Filipino wife. This time, that means chicken or vegan tofu and Wildwood mushroom adobo burritos and also garlic fried rice burritos.

If you think we were kidding about this recurring event's popularity, check out the above episode of We Eating filmed at the last one.

Jessica O./Yelp

Buffalo-style deep-fried seitan: Going, going ...

​Vegansaurus' mrpenguino was drop-the-F-bomb ecstatic yesterday at news that Weird Fish had brought back vegan-friendly deep-fried seitan. Last week, mrpenguino penned a rage-filled post about the Mission restaurant apparently pulling the plug on deep-fried seitan. When the restaurant seemed to bow to vegan pressure and restore it to the menu, she was understandably self-congratulatory. "High fives team!" she wrote. "Let's all fuck in a bucket of deep-fried seitan!" Seems Uptown Almanac had the scoop about seitan's return: "Weird Fish Caves to 'Uppity Vegans,' Brings Back the Seitan," crowed blogger Kevin Montgomery in a headline.

Only trouble is, it wasn't true. Any of it. Especially the caving.

More >>

T. Palmer

All cupcakes great and small.

​Local blog Vegansaurus is in search of cruelty-free bakers for its next S.F. Vegan Bakesale on Sat., Feb., 13, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. in front of Ike's Place (3506 16th St. at Sanchez). Interested parties should feel free to holler at head honcho Mr. Penguino (laura@vegansaurus.com). Vegansaurus' bimonthly Bakesale launched late last year and has raised more than $10,000 for animal-related charity efforts. So far, it's saved kitties, bunnies, and even misunderstood pit bulls; the next one will benefit many different species.

T. Palmer

​San Carlos' Off The Farm has succeeded in knocking our socks off with these blueberry vanilla almond energy bars. Although colorful, they look like they'd taste like any other dry, sad granola snack bar on the market. But this outpaced our textural expectations by about a thousand. The blueberries could barely be juicier if they were fresh, and the adhering brown rice syrup is still delightfully sticky.

Other flavors include cranberry lemon spice and orange walnut date, both of which you might have to content yourself with after we go swoop up the rest of the blueberry babies at Blue Fog Market (2794 California at Divisadero).

lgo.mit.edu

​The Spotted Rooster, blog of S.F.-based agrarian culture jammers Good Farm Movement, has begun its 365/140 Project via Twitter feed. Follow along for daily updates incorporating beans into at least one meal, a simple exercise to show how easy it is to eat the magical fruit.

We're still waiting on today's update, but the first three days of the year brought notions of bay leaf-sweated black beans, pinto bean burritos, black and green bean stew, and roast pork sandwich with black bean spread.

T. Palmer

​Inspired by the fund-raising feats of this year's two S.F. Vegan Bakesales, Oakland's Fat Bottom Bakery has organized the first East Bay Vegan Bakesale for Saturday, Jan. 9. An array of local bakers including Fat Bottom, Cinnaholic, Local Love Services, and In the Mood for Food will tempt, with the proceeds to benefit Bad Rap Pit Bull Rescue. Come support from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of Issues (20 Glen at Piedmont, Oakland).