Native Foods gets thumbs up

USA Today named a local eatery one of the ten best vegetarian
restaurants in the United States as part of a feature story on
vegetarianism.

Native Foods on Gayley Avenue in Westwood was one of two
California restaurants to make USA Today’s list, published in
October in an article about World Vegetarian Day. The other was
Millennium, a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco.

Manny Angel, chef and manager of Native Foods, said he thought
the creativity and variety of their food distinguishes Native Foods
from other vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles.

“It’s really the quality of the food, the flavor,
that makes us stand out,” Angel said.

Aileen Chang, a fourth-year microbiology student who eats meat,
said she first tried Native Foods out of curiosity.

“I was interested in trying it because I like soy
products, and I noticed they used a lot of soy in their
foods,” Chang said.

Native Foods serves a variety of dishes, most of which include
some type of mock meat, such as “chicken” made from
soy, or steak made out of seitan, a meat substitute made from
wheat.

Some of the most popular dishes are the Chinese “Save the
Chicken” Salad, the Chicken Run Ranch Burger and the
Meat-Lovers’ Pizza, which is made with grilled soy chicken
and blackened tempeh, an Indonesian mock meat made with soybean,
grain and rice culture.

Angel said meat eaters often say that the restaurant’s
meat substitutes taste like the real thing.

“People ask me, “˜What do you put in here? It tastes
like chicken,” he said about the various chicken dishes.

Native Foods also has restaurants in Palm Springs and Palm
Desert as well as a newly opened restaurant in Costa Mesa.

Owner Tanya Petrovna hopes to open eight to 10 more restaurants
in Southern California, Angel said.

In addition to making USA Today’s top ten list, Los
Angeles Magazine named the restaurant the “Best Vegan
Restaurant” on their “Best of Los Angeles 2004″
list, and VegNews Magazine named it among “The Best
Vegetarian Restaurants of 2004,” according to Native
Foods’ Web site.

About 3 percent of American adults identify themselves as fully
vegetarian, another 6 to 10 percent as almost fully vegetarian, and
20 percent said they were consciously reducing their meat intake,
according to an MSNBC article.

A majority of Native Foods’ customers are not vegetarians,
said Holloday Allen, assistant manager at the Westwood branch,
adding that about 60 percent of their customers eat meat.

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