Field Roast Hand Formed Burger Review

Field Roast is a meat alternative company based out of Seattle Washington. They have been around since 1997. They have a wide range of meats and now cheese to choose from. They have sausage links in Italian, Mexican Chipotle and Smoked Apple Sage as well as Meat loaf, Hand Formed Burgers, breakfast sausage, deli slices, and so much more. 

Today I’m reviewing the Hand Formed Burgers. The burger patties don’t look very meat like right out of the packaging, but don’t let that fool you. This time I decided to cook the burgers in a pan with a little oil, though in the past I have barbecued them and they have turned out amazing. By the time they are done browning and cooking, they look for the most part indistinguishable from a non vegan hand formed burger. 

Check out that vegan big mac! (it was damn good by the way! Video recipe coming soon?)

The burger patty tastes a lot like a real burger. The flavor is there, though it’s not an overpowering fake beef taste like you sometimes get from other brands of mock beef. The burger isn’t particularly juicy, though that could have been due to my cooking method or cooking time, but it was delicious nonetheless! 

These burgers are by far my favorite over all the other brands that I’ve tried, though I rarely buy them due to them being $7.50 for a pack of 4 burger patties.

 Regardless of the price, you should try these for yourselves! You can find them at Lassens and sometimes Whole Foods, but I haven’t seen them at my local one for a while, though they always cary field roast’s other products.

Gardein BBQ Pulled Pork Pocket Meals Review

Gardien is a company that makes amazing vegan meat and fish alternatives. They set the bar pretty high for other vegan substitutes. When I first was making my transition to veganism, Gardein helped me out tremendously. They offer things like Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’n, Chick’n tenders, Sweet and Sour Porkless Bites, BBQ Chick’n Wings, Beefless Ground and more. What I like about Gardein is that all of their food not only tastes amazing, but is normally in major grocery store chains such as Vons (Safeway), Ralphs (Kroger) or Albertsons. It’s nice not always having to go to Whole Foods or other health food stores to get vegan convenience food.

These Porkless Buns have a lightly fried outer bun that smells and tastes reminiscent of a not so sweet doughnut, which is in no way a bad thing. The “Pork” on the inside has a pulled pork like texture which in my opinion is indistinguishable from the real thing. I would have to say that the Porkless Buns are pretty sauce heavy (which I’m not complaining about), so you really don’t get a ton of texture out of the pork, which may add to why it tastes so damn close to the real thing. The sauce is tangy and sweet like I would expect saucy pulled pork to be. 

The box comes with 4 Porkless Buns and are very quick and easy to make but they are a bit on the small side. 

Tl;dr 

It’s really good and you probably won’t be able to tell that it’s vegan! 

I bought these at Whole Foods, but some other grocery stores may have them!

(Picture is Porkless Buns and a home made Mac n cheese)

Donut Friend Review (Vegan Donuts!!)

I first heard about Donut Friend at the Los Angeles Vegan Beer and Food Fest, aka Eat Drink Vegan. I believe they had a spot there, but there were so many things to try, I just couldn’t get to them all…But since they are located in Los Angeles, I decided to go try them out!

Donut Friend, as far as I can tell, is not exclusively vegan, though almost everything is. There were only 2 donuts out of the lot that were not vegan, which if you think about it, is pretty awesome because usually it’s the other was around! What sets Donut Friend apart from the rest is that you can make your own donut (DIY)! You can order One of their specialty donuts that are already made or that they make for you, or you can have them make it however you want. For example, you want a donut with peanut butter, coconut bacon, vegan marshmallows, chocolate glaze with a crushed chic stick? You got it. 

We went the easy route. We said, “DIY donuts? Ain’t nobody got time fo dat!”. 

So we ordered –

• “Custard Front Drive” (bottom right corner) is their version on a Bavarian creme.  I have to say, it was pretty awesome because I used to love custard filled donuts.
•  “Fritter Seems Forever” (left)  is pretty much just an apple fritter. It was good, though it was my least favorite. 
• “S’Morrissey” (top right)  is a chocolate cake Donut filled with toasted marshmallows with a chocolate glaze. This one was my favorite! 

• “Polar Berry Club” (bottom left) has a lemon glaze with fresh berries and mint on top of a regular donut. 
• “Panda Berry” (top left) has a mixed Harry glaze with a white chocolate drizzle and a blackberry on top. 
• “Fudgegazi” (top right) which has a chocolate creme filling with a chocolate glaze and topped with chocolate shavings. Another one of my favorites!
• And the most interesting one, and also one of my favorites, “Srirachosen” (bottom right). This donut is stuffed with peanut butter, strawberry jam, coconut bacon, with sriracha sauce on top! I highly recommend this donut, as it’s probably unlike any donut you have ever had. It was like the ultimate PB&J with a little spicy kick!

Overall, Donut Friend was a great experience and was absolutely delicious. None of it “tasted vegan” or lacked anything. This is one of those places you could be going to for years without realizing that almost everything you ate happened to be vegan. The only thing I didn’t like about Donut Friend was the price on some of their donuts. A couple of these donuts were $5 a piece, which seems like a bit much, but as a vegan, if you want these kinds of specialty things, you sometimes have to pay.

Tl;dr 
The donuts are pricy but delicious. Definitely worth a visit!