Food weekend in Laguna Beach

Every beach town has its own personality, and Laguna’s is laid back, health-conscious, and well-to-do. Seriously, I have never seen so many obscenely expensive cars and surgically altered women. Even without the plastic surgery, California is just full of attractive people that make you hate your life, but to top it off, they don’t just have the genetics, they have the money, too. So that naturally wind-blown-curl look was actually painstakingly styled at one of the city’s many “Blow out” salons, which does nothing except styling (not cuts or color or anything else…because apparently you can make a living having a salon that does nothing except perfectly blow dry people’s hair).

Despite clearly caring too much about appearances, this town wins everyone over. Seriously, everyone who visits Laguna wants to move there. I want to move there.

My friends already DID move there after visiting, and subsequently getting married there. Now Maci and Jeff live an amazing life of dog parks, beaches, ubiquitous amazing food and almost perpetually perfect weather.

(This makes me ponder why we humans insist on living in climates where the only way we can survive is by conquering nature? We are clearly not biologically designed to occupy northern Europe. If we all lived on a beach we’d be living off avocados and oranges that we didn’t buy because it just grew next to our little hut, which is the only shelter we need because it’s between 60 and 80⁰ F year-round. What the hell is wrong with people?)

What really distinguishes this coast from other beach areas you can visit, in my opinion, is the food. It’s glormazing (which is what happens when something is so glorious and amazing it needs its own adjective). And, as a vegetarian, it is one of the friendliest places I’ve ever been. I have no trouble finding vegetarian food in most of the US, however having not one, but dozens of purely vegetarian and vegan restaurants to walk into almost puts me into a joy coma. Only someone with big dietary restrictions can understand the euphoria of walking into an eating establishment and realizing “Wait…I can order anything…ANYTHING on the menu???” Thankfully my hosts knew how great this novelty would be, and took me to as many vegetarian and veggie-friendly places as possible, and there are many others we could have patronized with enough time.

Our first stop was Veggie Grill, a more or less fast food joint that focused on whole foods, but had enough deep fried comfort food on the menu. I had a Grilled Chickin sandwich while the mister ordered the “fish” tacos.  And let me tell you, tacos are where it’s at on the west coast. The mister successfully negotiated for tacos every single day during our stay, and we weren’t event in town for Taco Tuesday (which is totally a thing and every restaurant advertises it and I’m devastated I have never experienced)!

Los Tacos had really decent veggie tacos, as does Coyote Grill, but La Sirena, the Mexeco Eatery, was disappointing. The ingredients were fresh, sure, and they did put fresh cabbage on the taco, which I love, but there was no sauce, no cheese, no flavor. Fell short of delicious.

But one taco place exceeded all expectations. Anyone in Orange County must must must must try the Taco Asylum. Novelty and traditional street tacos made from healthy ingredients (whole foods, no preservatives, all the fresh avocado you can stomach). The mushroom and brie were our favorites, though the meat eaters informed us the PB&J (where B stands for bacon) was the best.

We found this gem at The Camp (also called the “anti-mall” and the “Lab” which got very confusing so you might hear it referred to as any one of those). All the restaurants and shops emphasized eco-friendly, ethical and sustainable food and fashion choices. It was heaven. Pretty much every chocolate bar in the bakery was fair trade, there were at least two entirely vegan restaurants, and they have a Wine Lab. They have a lab. For wine.

At the Wine Lab, the tastings come in test tubes and are mostly organic wines from California. The cheesecake also deserves honorable mention, but is the only dessert we tried there, so I can’t say whether or not the rest of the menu will blow your mind.

In Laguna itself, two gelato places stand out: Gelato Paradiso, which is high quality and the largest variety, but Dolce Gelato has – I kid you not – Jameson-flavored gelato.

Another trend that is taking off in California and sure to make its way inland is the Acai Bowl or Banzai Bowl. It’s basically a parfait with smoothie. The smoothie has an acai base, and from there it’s topped with granola and whatever the heck else you want to throw on top. Again, fresh fruit, whole ingredients play a big role in this dish.

Brunch is another high point in Laguna. Many places have it, and you can eat it waterfront, but obviously for a price. Las Brisas is well-known but a bit out of our budget, so we went to C'est La Vie. It was perhaps a little overpriced for what it was, but I have not a single complaint about the Eggs Oscar (an avocado-based take on Eggs Benedict) and a champagne or mimosa comes free with your meal.

The ethnic food other than Mexican is the only thing that disappointed a bit. The Thai was more or less tasteless, and the Indian food, while tasty, did not blow me away. I’ve had better of both in Kansas City pretty much any time I’ve ordered.

Clearly I could not hit all the vegetarian-friendly places or do all the wine tastings, or taste all the gelato in four days, so I would go back to Laguna in a heartbeat, budgeting much more for eating out. Totally worth it.