Layonna Vege

If you're into meat-replacement foods, Layonna is a shop where you'll find stuff you probably haven't seen anywhere else. Layonna herself is personally dedicated to the cause and used to run a veggie restaurant in Oakland but eventually decided to focus on selling the mock meat products she'd been importing.

We tend to use these products only in moderation because many of them are rather processed and thus not entirely good for the health, but a little bit isn't gonna hurt anyone.

It's definitely worth checking out if you're into fauxtein.

This place is kind of funny and adorable. They've got nothing but veg meats. It's an Asian store and the veg meats are all Asian, no Gardein or anything like that. They have vegan beef jerky and stuff! The veg shrimp don't really taste like anything, but they're very cute. It's kind of like eating animal crackers and being like, "Awww, it's so cute to eat these animals," all the while knowing you're actually eating something that contains no animal flesh or secretions.

I know some people are against veg meats and if you're one of them, more power to ya, I suppose, but Layonna Veg seems really unique and cool and fun to me. It's small and packed with stuff. I got some kind of slab of barbeque slices that were like ham and I put them on a Cuban-style sammy with some vegan cheese and it was not the healthiest thing I ever ate but I enjoyed it very much. No need to make any animals suffer to fill certain cravings!

Teeny tiny store in Oakland, but a vegan mock meat heaven! You can buy just about anything mock here. My favorites are the 6 lb bag, yes, 6 lb, of mock chicken chunks. Great for stirfrys, and curries. I also love the mock scallops, thai beef, and chicken drum sticks. The also have a small dry goods section, where you can find vegan fish sauce, and yummy jerky. If you have no idea what you are looking at, the people at the register can help you, they have laminate cards explaining what ingredients in various items are. They also can tell you which items are non gmo.

the veggie chicken, beef nuggets & roast pork ROCK! worth the trip.