Early Birthday Brunch

First things first: All the photos in this post were taken by and are courtesy of the immensely talented Foodeater of To Live and Eat in L.A., a fellow Taurus. We've already revealed that my birthday is May 5 (yes, you will be reading about this until the actual date has passed; I love birthdays!) and hers is May 10. This birthday brunch included our other L.A. vegan Taurus, Your Vegan Mom, in spirit. She was supposed to be part of the actual celebration, but is with her family in Shreveport, LA for a few months. Her blog highlights their Shreveport adventures for your reading pleasure and we three will celebrate together upon her return!

Foodeater and I decided on Madeleine Bistro for our birthday celebration because their brunch menu now features donuts! Now, anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that donuts were not something I would've touched with a 10-foot pole pre-veganism except for maybe once every 5 years. I am very weight-conscious and donuts just don't fit within my comfort zone. However, 1) this was a birthday brunch, 2) vegan donuts just sound infinitely (although, truthfully, not much) healthier than real donuts, and 3) how could I possibly pass up donuts created by the amazing Chef David Anderson? The donuts you see here are currently the only flavor at Madeleine's (our wonderful waitress, who shares my birthday, told us that other flavors are in the works) and they were donut perfection. Warm, light, and soft with a coating of sugar and served with fresh strawberry compote. They were shaped like jelly donuts (i.e. without a hole), but they were not filled. I liked that we could add compote as desired instead of dealing with whatever amount of filling would've fit inside the donut.

I'd never tried rhubarb, but I'd always wanted to, so I ordered strawberry rhubarb crepes for my meal. The filling was actually strawberry rhubarb compote and some kind of vanilla cream that was approximately the consistency of yogurt. These crepes were delicious! I was a bit chagrined, though, that the flavor of the rhubarb wasn't apparent in the compote, so I still feel as though I haven't tried it! Oh, those are yummy home fries on the side with homemade ketchup.

As if the above were not gluttonous enough, our waitress surprised us with matching ramekins of homemade vanilla ice cream with a strawberry fan and candle! Can you tell how fabulous our waitress was? We were stuffed, but still managed to eat our ice cream after making wishes and blowing out our candles (I admit, I finished mine! Foodeater had more restraint). Normally, I'm not a vanilla ice cream fan. This vanilla ice cream, however, was very flavorful, like a toasted vanilla marshmallow. So good!

Stay tuned for more exciting birthday adventures, including, if all goes as planned, a multitude of cupcakes and a couple side salads that I've never prepared before (I know, but who else is going to make me vegan birthday food?).