Love, for me, is spelled F.O.O.D.

Luckily, they sell that at the restaurant I went to last night, called Desert Rose. This wasn't just a regular dinner at a newly discovered Los Feliz restaurant, no sir. Any and every time I leave the house something strange and unusual seems to happen to me. That must be my superhero power.

I found out, through twitter (I'm sorry to the PR people I met if that makes me sound less legitimate as a writer) that Citysearch was having a wine and mushroom tasting for vegan foodies and if we RSVP'd real quick, anyone could get in on that action. I'm no vegan, but I love mushrooms, especially when paired with wine. I was pretty excited when I received the confirmation email. Sounded like it was going to be a fun party!

When I arrived, I was caught off guard, seeing as the people that I happened to be sitting next to were bloggers, not unlike myself, but they seemed a lot more serious about their shit and they were definitely a whole lot more vegan. My apologies, dear readership of Open Salon. I will not be providing pictures with this post because I don't own a digital camera. I will only be able to tell you about my experience there. Perhaps I should strive to be a little more professional... he he.

I was absolutely charmed by the Desert Rose. I might just be saying that because I got a free meal out of the place, yes. On top of that, the open air patio, where most of the seating is situated, makes for lovely al fresco dining, perfect for romance or for outings with friends. The restaurant provided a few appetizers: delicious stuffed grape leaves and Baba Ghanouj (I don't know if I'll ever learn how to spell/pronounce that correctly). The rest of the dinner was provided by Veggie Thing at Citysearch.

We were sitting next to an adorable couple, a handsome screenwriter and a petite vegan baker/foodie blogger/Silverlake resident/all around girl I want to be. We got to talking about the blogs that we write and I told them about this one, how it's mostly about my job as a personal assistant. Someone asked who I work for, and as I've written about in one of my bitchier moments, I don't really like talking about it so I smiled and said I'd leave it a mystery. Still, the couple and I got into a fun game of Twenty Questions. My favorite guess of the night: Dolf Lundgren.

The first dish was an appetizer of dates stuffed with walnuts and Maitake mushrooms. What are Maitake mushrooms, you ask? Wiki Check It! It was probably my favorite dish, as I love savory and sweet things. It led to the utterance of the most inappropriate thing of the night: "These are delicious, but they'd be so much better wrapped in bacon." Word to the wise: don't bring up bacon when surrounded by a table of herbivores, no matter how delicious it would have been.

All dishes, including a beautiful gruyer cheese flan and hearty lentil soup included mushrooms. It had all of the joy of Iron Chef, but without the nasty competition. Fungus was provided by Hokto Kinoko Company.

The wine. I nearly forgot about the wine. I actually didn't write the name of wines down, but the companies that provided all the bottles were Torbeck Wine and Brander Wines. We were served a beautiful, fruity, peppery Australian red, and a white that I probably should have had first, since the red overpowered my tastebuds. Regardless, booze is booze and by the end of dinner I was talking about how much I loved the soap box scene at the end of Little Rascals. I don't think anyone understood the reference.

We were encouraged to go back to our blogs and write about the experience we had there. I suppose you could say I'm participating in viral marketing at the moment. But don't worry, I don't have any coupons or anything that will encourage my readers to go to Desert Rose (those coupons are for me, thank you). I empower you all to make your own dining decisions.

Based on the fun I had last night, though, if my readers don't go, I'll find you and cut you and tattoo the word "JOYLESS" across your forehead.

Update: You can find another review of the event at Could It Be Seitan?