Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, Los Angeles

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! So, there I was, just walking down Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Ventura when I see an ice cream truck and I think, 'I wonder if they have vegan ice cream.' Guess what?! They do!

Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream has shops in LA and NYC and trucks in each city too. This one only had two vegan flavors this day: Coffee Bean and Sicilian Pistachio. I went with a pistachio ice cream sundae. The ice cream is made with cashew milk, coconut milk, coconut oil, and cocoa butter and it si delish!

Topped with their homemade chocolate sauce, cacao nibs, and pistachios, this sundae was to die for! The ice cream had a creamy texture and all the toppings served to complement the flavor really well. I was in heaven.

For about $10, it wasn't cheap. But, heck, I'm not complaining. I just got a gourmet vegan ice cream sundae from a truck. Could you please bring this to DC?!

Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream
Food Truck - location varies

Zoe's Vegan Delight, DC

Eastern Market is the famous year-round market in DC where you can get anything from dill pickles and exotic mushrooms to artwork and t-shirts. On this beautiful spring day, we arrived around noon so first on the agenda was lunch. I hadn't been here in about a year and was delightfully surprised to find Zoe's Vegan Delight!

Zoe is the owner and chef of her own catering business in Landover, MD and she runs a booth at Eastern Market. She has a few options to choose from as well as vegan dessert. I chose the stir fry with vegan chicken. This stir-fry had kale, broccoli, squash, carrots, and faux chicken over rice. It was absolutely delicious. And she had a variety of hot sauces to add to it as well.  The only thing I'd change is to request she use less oil as the meal was very oily. But, it is still one of the best vegan meals you'll find at Eastern Market. Thanks, Zoe, for bringing your goodness to us! And thanks for using all non-GMO ingredients!

Homegrown Smoker, Portland

On our last day in Portland, we decided to check out the infamous Homegrown Smoker, a vegan BBQ food truck. I knew the food wasn't exactly on the healthy side, but I had heard so much about it that I had to try it.

This food truck is located in one of many food truck parks in Portland -- in Mississippi Marketplace, complete with seating. From sandwiches and BBQ platters to chili mac and chili cheese fries, they offer a wide variety of unhealthful meals. But, regardless, I wanted to try their most famous sandwich of all -- the SloSmoMoFo. This sandwich was overflowing with applewood smoked soy curls on a Killer (Dave's Killer Bread) bun with chipotle slaw and maple bourbon BBQ sauce. It was all the badness I wanted and more. I thought it was pretty good, but needed more sauce so I doused it with some more of the sauces I found at the cart and then it was perfect. The soy curls were smoky and soft and represented the typical pulled pork in this meal, Carolina-style. Complete with a grilled bun and crispy coleslaw, it is just like your mom used to make. I also ordered the Mac Nocheese, which was awesome, and the stewed greens because I felt I needed something healthy to counter this meal.

I have to admit though, that I actually liked Corey's sandwich better. He ordered the new Buff Chik'n Sammich, which was made with smoked Beyond Meat chikn on a Killer bun with salad greens, grilled peppers and onions, jalapenos, Buff sauce, and Ranch dressing. Although you really can't see it in this picture, it was delicious.

I also had the minted lemonade, which was sweet and refreshing.

Homegrown Smoker has been a long-time staple in Portland and is worth a visit if you are in town. Just be sure to pair whatever you order with the Mac Nocheese. You won't regret it.

Homegrown Smoker
4233 N. Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97217

Taco Pedaler, Portland

Vida Vegan Con, the vegan blogger conference, held a gala on the second night to benefit an animal sanctuary.  There were two food carts invited to serve food and one of them was the Taco Pedaler. The Taco Pedaler isn't a food truck, rather it is a food cart on the back of a bicycle. How inventive is that?!

The owners have tasted tacos from the coast of baja to the border of Belize and brought these wonderful tastes back to Portland via a traditional Mexican tricycle.  They always offer vegan and gluten-free options. 

On this particular night, they were offering a vegan taco meal for $6.50. The coolest thing was watching them take a ball of dough, press it out round, then cook it on the grill to make fresh tortillas!  From there they topped two with fresh pinto beans, mixed grilled veggies, and guacamole along with shredded cabbage and cilantro. They were as good as bike food is going to get!  I wasn't a big fan of the chips, but the salsa was pretty good too.

Follow them on Facebook and Twitter to see where they'll be next!

Sonny Bowl, Portland

Portland is known to be one of the food truck meccas of the US. Combine that with its status as one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the US and you have yourself a city filled with vegan food trucks. In most cities, you are lucky to find a vegan option in a food truck. Here, you find 100% vegan food trucks. Love it!

I started my trip off by going to Sonny Bowl for lunch. Sonny Bowl is located on a street lined with food trucks and there are at least two all-vegan food trucks just on that block. I chose Sonny Bowl for my meal because I really wanted a fresh, wholesome meal. They have a basic menu of bowls, salads, and smoothies. I ordered a large Number One and a smoothie.

The Kale-Mango smoothie was a delicious blend of orange juice, apple, kale, mango, and agave. I could have drank 4 of them.

When I picked up my lunch, I was floored at the sheer weight of the container. It was filled to the brim!  The bottom layer was mostly black beans and brown basmati rice. On top, there were mixed vegetables, corn, anaheim chilis, and walnut faux-rizo served with cilantro-lemon sauce, roasted red pepper cashew cheese, and fresh apple-mango salsa. It sounded so amazing, but the taste left me disappointed. It was a nice vegetable, bean, and rice bowl, but, unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good as it sounded. That said, it was good, but with all of the vegan options in this city, I was left wishing I had chosen another cart.

Willing to give it just one more try, I tried my friend's The Four. This was soy curls, bamboo shoots, and red and green bell peppers sauteed in Thai style almond butter sauce served with kale salad tossed in sesame-ginger dressing over rice. On top, there was fresh cucumbers and almonds. Again, the same impression -- good, but not great.

Both bowls cost $7 so they were quite the value given the amount of food served. However, as I previously mentioned, with so many incredible options in Portland, I have to say that I am going to choose to dine somewhere else the next time I am in town for a limited period of time. I love that they are serving fresh, wholesome vegan food, but the flavor is lacking in the sauces.

Sonny Bowl
SW 3rd Avenue & SW Washington St.
Portland, OR 97204
(971) 285-6713

Taco Bus, Tampa

OMG! How had I not heard of Taco Bus until now?! Imagine roaming the streets of Tampa seeking nonexistant vegan food all hours of the night until you finally collapse from a lack of tasty morsels. Then out of the corner of your eye, you see Taco Bus to the rescue! With its four locations including three in Tampa, Taco Bus is growing quicker than you can say, "tacos, please." And the best part is that they have tons of vegan options!

On my first visit to the downtown Tampa location, I was a little disappointed to find that the bus was merely part of a short bus made into a storefront with a full restaurant behind it because I really wanted to see the real bus. On the other hand, I was glad to have a place to sit down and eat.

Taco Bus offers an extensive menu. First, you choose "Your Favorite Way." This includes options for tacos, burritos, quesadillas, salads, Mexican sandwiches, tostadas, and plates. Next, you choose your filling. Vegan options include grilled tofu, vegan "steak" strips, tempeh, butternut squash or just rice, beans, and veggies.  Then you choose the veggies you'd like: tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and/or cabbage.

Additionally, they even have a vegan food facts page that details what is vegan and what isn't. The Mexican rice, refried beans, corn and flour tortillas, red and green salsas, and guacamole are all vegan as are the vegan tamales!  I am so thankful for this page as many of the people working there do not speak much English. In fact, their slogan is "Broken English, Perfectly Spoken." Ha!

I was so overwhelmed with the choices that I just ordered two tacos--one with grilled tofu and the other with tempeh.  They were both better than I could have ever expected. The tofu had this amazing spice on it and it was grilled so well as was the tempeh. I mean, they were both very good. And they were topped with fresh veggies. I put lots of hot green salsa on them and went to town.

I also ordered the refried beans. These were just so-so.

I had such a great experience that I headed to the original East Hillsborough location a couple nights later. Now, this is a serious operation. There was a brick and mortar restaurant along with a white take-out bus and a yellow bus that opens for the late hours so you can get your taco fix 24/7. There was a long line for the take-out bus so I went inside.

Again, I ordered two tacos--this time with butternut squash and steak strips. The butternut squash was okay, but it didn't have much flavor. The vegan steak strips were seasoned like the tofu and tempeh and again, were very good.

I also tried one of their pineapple drinks, which was a bit too sugary for me.

I am so thankful to have found Taco Bus. For $6, I had a better meal than I've ever had in the city of Tampa along with great servers who truly spoke perfect broken English. Taco Bus, you are a godsend.

Taco Bus (several locations)
913 East Hillsborough Avenue
Tampa, FL 33604
(813) 232-5889

Cirque Cuisine, DC

It's officially food truck mania in DC. And although the city isn't quite as food truck-friendly as Portland or Austin, there still seem to be more and more food trucks appearing every day. I see them outside my office window lining up in the early hours of the morning hoping to get a spot for the lunch crowd, but yet I almost never consider them as a lunch option. For one, I haven't had the best experience with food trucks in DC. They just don't seem to have healthy vegan options like other cities. So when I was in my trapeze class one day (yes, I do trapeze) and discovered that one of my instructors owned a food truck with his girlfriend and that they served organic vegan food, I knew this was a food truck I had to check out.

So on a Wednesday, I headed out to Franklin Square to the line of food trucks. As I passed by some nasty mystery meat trucks and others that appeared to also have a few vegan options, I came upon the bright purple striped Cirque Cuisine truck. The name is inspired by Sean Swartz's career as as circus performer and the cuisine is inspired by Jessica Shields, a CIA-trained chef. Together, they started a food truck to serve healthy organic food in DC with a vegan option each day.

The menu changes regularly so I had no idea what to expect. To my delight, the vegan item of the day was Tofu-Charred Veggie Tacos and they were even marked as vegan. At $10, I thought the price was a bit steep for a food truck lunch, that is, until I actually saw the lunch. The plate they gave me of three corn tortillas loaded with blackened chipotle-mango tofu with charred onions, peppers and zucchini topped with pico de gallo, salsa rojo and verde, cilantro, and crisp radish was as good as it sounded. I have never seen such fresh delicious food from a food truck in my life.

I also ordered their fresh made Honeydew Cucumber Mint Limeade, which was deliciously fresh and refreshing.

I enjoyed my meal so much that I came back a few weeks later and ordered the Quinoa Veggie Burger. Oh my goodness, was this good. It was a thick housemade patty made with quinoa, sunflower seeds, and other good-for-you stuff topped with tomatoes, avocado, sprouts, and lettuce on this amazing grilled multigrain bun with sunflower seeds. It was served with a mango-jalapeno sauce that really made the meal.

I am so impressed. Yes, my lunches with a drink cost $14 in total and no, I wouldn't buy an expensive lunch like this every day. But, once every couple of weeks, I plan to splurge. This is great, healthy, organic food and I am proud to spread the word about this one. Bravo Sean and Jessica! Keep the vegan specials coming!

Arlo's and Me So Hungry, Austin

On our first day in Austin, we ate at food trucks for lunch so why not finish the day at food trucks for dinner?! I had heard so much about the vegan bacon cheeseburger at Arlo's that I absolutely had to try it. We headed out to find it and discovered a massive food truck park of at least 6 food trucks. We parked and walked through it only to discover that Arlo's was not there. They were actually located in the back lot of a bar next to the food truck park. So, we walked through the bar to the back and found Arlo's along with another food truck called "Me So Hungry."  No, it wasn't owned by 2 Live Crew.

Arlo's is 100% vegan and has an amazing menu of items like the Chik'n Chipotle, Tomato Basil Dog, and Artlito's Burrito. It pained us to order the same thing, but we both wanted to try the Bac'N Cheeze Burger. So we ordered the same thing. The guys working there did not seem like your typical vegans -- very muscular, but still tattooed...then again I guess I don't know if they were vegan.

We took a look around to see what else we could get to go with our burgers. Arlo's only offers guacamole and chips and we really weren't in the mood for something so heavy to be paired with our burgers. So, Zach walked over to the Me So Hungry truck and ordered the vegan cucumber sashimi.

The bar we were at had a stage in the back and a band was playing. It was pretty cool. We sat down at the picnic tables and after about 10 minutes, we went to pick up our food.  The burger patty and bac'n was made with housemade seitan. It was slathered with mayo, mustard, and ketchup, and topped with melted cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles. I thought it was pretty good, but it was covered with so much mustard and ketchup that it was hard to really taste the burger.

The cucumber sashimi from Me So Hungry was tasty. It was made of raw sliced tomatoes topped with spiced ginger peanut sauce, toasted sesame seeds, lime, and cilantro. Very creative.

By the time we were done, the band had stopped playing and a drag queen was on stage raffling off items to support a transvestite's upcoming sex change operation. Really - I can't make this shit up. They said something about how those people who came to eat at the vegan food truck were probably wondering what they got themselves into. Yeah, we found it pretty funny. Way to keep Austin weird.

All in all, the burger and sashimi were pretty good. Nothing really blew us away, but I do think that burger was good. I would recommend trying it. For $7, you really can't go wrong. And be sure to go on a Friday night so you can catch the live entertainment. This is Austin in all its glory.

Arlo's
1104 East 6th Street
Austin, TX 78702
(323) 359-5689

Me So Hungry
1104 East 6th Street
Austin, TX 78702
(512) 796-0804