festival of food

Today was the Boston Vegetarian Society's annual Food Festival. I hadn't been in a few years, and I decided to go this year because they finally expanded it to a 2 day event. We got there right at 10am (and the parking lot was still full already) and visited maybe half the exhibitor booths. Since it's free, I didn't feel a need to spend any more time than the boys' attention allowed (we were done in an hour and a half).













First up, ice cream! What better way to start the day?! We'd been waiting to try Wheeler's Vegan Ice Cream for quite a long time. AJ chose peanut butter & jelly flavour, and Ryan chose the pumpkin pie ice cream! Mmmmmm! If I ever get an ice cream maker, I'll definitely be buying his book The Vegan Scoop.

I'm
really
glad
I was
dealing
with a
finite
amount
of cash
today,
because
these
mini
cakes
by
Vegan
Treats
Bakery
were
ridicu-
lous!


The Coconut Bliss ice
cream was really good.
The boys tried chocolate
hazelnut. It turns out
this ice cream is available
at Whole Foods already,
though it's rather steep
at $6/pint (yes, I already
checked, LOL).

How about some really
dark chocolate? Theo
cherry almond was
good, but the boys liked
the orange. Not shown
was some chili chocolate
that I thought would
go great chopped inside
muffins or cupcakes.
There's
always
a huge
spread
of fun
desserts
from
the
bakery
that
made
our
wedding
cakes...
Hippie
Chick
Bakery.
Let's
just
say
we
didn't
leave
their booth empty handed, with extra to bring home for Dada! Amy is just the sweetest, always ready to please with some awesome cake flavours.

I didn't get pics of every booth we visited at all, but it seems like there was an awful lot of dessert! Chocolate cake samples from Nourish (no website I could find!), Dandies vegan marshmallows, Teese cheese (I've heard people in the UK rave about it for awhile, I was happy to finally try it), Equal Exchange chocolates...
























AJ wanted to try the
spicy red pepper flavour
of the Creative Chef
tofu--we had to beg a
water from the neighbor-
ing booth as he almost
had steam coming out
his ears! Luckily Ryan
and I chose to sample
the teriyaki variety.

I couldn't resist a
cinnamon roll from
Dulce Vegan to bring
home to my husband.
This bakery came to
Boston all the way
from Atlanta!

The Akara bean cakes
were interesting. Tasty,
though rather dry, almost
a bread-like consistency
instead of the burger
flavour I was expecting.
Gluten-free though!


We also tried a variety
of different hummus,
Blue Mango veggie burgers,
a delicious quinoa salad with
cranberries & nuts, enough
chocolate to last me--well, at
least a week, LOL. There was
A LOT of food, and many
informational booths.

Attending with kids prevented
me from sitting through any of the lectures or cooking demos. While the location at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center is convenient to the Boston T (subway) system, driving and parking there has always been a pain. Spreading the crowd over 2 days was MUCH better, as there was actually room to walk around instead of the claustrophobic nightmare of past food festivals. Still, the thing the location is severely lacking is a comfortable area to sit and talk and EAT! They need a venue large enough to locate tables and chairs within easy reach of the exhibits. There are many restaurants there to sell food, yet I have never bought anything from their buffets because it's too inconvenient to manuever through the crowded hall and find a place to enjoy it. But hey, it's a POPULAR event! Yay for vegetarian--mostly vegan--food free to the public!

Aftermath...this chocolate
sandwich cookie cake
didn't get any further than
the car. Soooo good...

The frosted leaf sugar
cookies from Hippie
Chick did make it home
safe and sound for Nate
and Maia to enjoy.

Between these goodies
and the existing sugar
high from Halloween
candy, we ought to be
in awesome shape on
Monday morning!