Vida Vegan Con: The Food!

I know, I know... It's a food blog! It was a VEGAN blogging conference!

Show us the FoooooOOOoooD!

The folks at VidaVeganCon did such a great job of offering gluten-free, soy-free & raw options at every meal... and always tasty. If, like me, you don't need to follow any of those more specialized diets, it meant there were so many things to try that you couldn't even fit it all on your plate in one pass. Just the way I like it!!

From the Opening Night Reception: Tuxedo Cupcakes and Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes - This is the one I tried. The lemony cake was great, and that lemon curd was really, really good!

Day One Lunch: A piece of Grilled Zucchini, Steamed Kale, purple Cauliflower Hummus (purple!!!), roasted asparagus, BBQ Tempeh, Shredded Yellow Beet Salad, Orzo Salad, & Pesto Potato Salad. SO Many Yumz! And I loved how healthy it was, too.

Plus at lunch, these fancy bottles of MetroMint water were available. I tried one... orange mint flavor. Orange flavored things aren't usually my favorite, and plus flavored water isn't my favorite, but I found this unexpected pairing somewhat intriguing and compelling.

Dessert was a Coconut Bliss chocolate ice cream bar. Verdict: GOOOOOOOD! Problematically good, in fact. I will try to repress this memory and walk past the freezer aisle without stopping.

Saturday night was a big gala event and there was much delightful food to munch on. Vegan pizza (can you see that my piece is already half-eaten in this picture?? I was so impatient!), bruschetta with a spinach-artichoke spread, Gardein "chicken" nuggets, little mini veggie burgers cut in half, fresh spring rolls...

... and they even had Gluten-Free pizza for the xgfx amongst us!

All of that dinnertime glory was followed by an amazing ice cream sundae bar. They had chocolate and vanilla Coconut Bliss ice cream with SO many toppings... I chose chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, roasted peanuts, chopped walnuts, and crumbled oreo cookies (actually they were the ones from Trader Joes). Such decadence! Plus, ice cream twice in one day! OMG!

Lunch on Sunday was a taco/burrito bar.... Your choice of corn or flour tortillas, super yummy soy curls, roasted onions & bell peppers, lots of toppings, a whole salsa bar, walnut chorizo, spanish rice, guacamole... all soooo good. I love Mexi food, and I love guacamole and I love soy curls, so the whole thing was pretty much a hit with me.

For dessert, we had a whole bunch of new flavors from Coconut Bliss to chose from. Some people were excited about the ginger snap flavor, but I am all about chocolate. I had the Chocolate Walnut Brownie, which was absolutely great. I love nuts in my ice cream (controversial stance!), and it turns out I love pieces of brownies in my ice cream too. One of the classes I went to at the conference was called "Opinionated Bloggers," regarding taking a stand and sticking to it... apparently that message really sunk in! ha ha!

* Note: How did I not take pictures of breakfast either day? I guess I was too groggy from late night fun to take pictures! We had fruit, coconut yogurt, chia pudding, coffee & tea, biscuits & gravy, gluten free pancakes, tofu scramble... YUMZ!

Vida Vegan Con: The Conference!

I'm just back from the 1st ever Vida Vegan Con, aka. Most-Awesomest-Fun-Time-Vegan-Paradise-Cool-People-&-Good-Times-Event-Ever. In case you were wondering, I had a kick-ass time! There's so much to say that I'm going to break up my VVC posts into 5 parts: the Conference, the Food, the People, The Swag & the Day After!

* bonus challenge: Where's Kittee?

The conference was so wonderful! There were so many great people. I met people whose blogs I've been reading for years, and people whose blogs I just heard about for the first time, and people who don't even have blogs (yet!).

I was signed up to speak at two events: a panel called Build-a-Blog, and our own self-styled all-vegan game show called Vegan Battle Royale. They were both great fun... but I have to say, that game show was just about the most fun I've had in a long time! Here I am with fellow game show planners and co-hosts, Kittee & Mo!

First place team: Team Vegan Destroyer! Glory in Victory!

Second place team: Vegan With a Shotgun! Dignity in Defeat!

Saturday night was a huge Gala event / fundraiser for Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Vegan food, music, dancing, friends, funky fun... it was great! Except that I got a cold and had to peel out around 9 pm. Sigh! Even vegans get colds sometimes!

Part of the fundraiser was a silent auction, with lots of great goodies that were donated. It was so fun to peruse all the cool offerings!

When I wasn't busy presenting or partying, I got to attend some of the other panels and talks, which was so wonderful. The people (presenters and attendees) were smart, fun, kind, compassionate, passionate, creative, energetic, interesting, and interested. It was absolutely rejuvenating to be in the company of such great people. Some of the classes/panels I attended included the Small Town Vegans (pictured), Planting Seeds of Compassion, The Marketing Panel, Publishing Panel, Opinionated Bloggers... and more. I know this photo is totally lackluster... but in fact it was really enthralling! There were so many great panels and talks and cooking demos, it was difficult to choose where to go and what to see. It was really inspiring, and I came away with so many ideas for myself, for my blog, and for activism.

Those of you who missed the conference should definitely check out Jordan and Erika's excellent fun podcast from the conference on The Cosmopolitan Hour!

Vida Vegan Con & Homemade Bloggie Buttons!

The first ever vegan blogging conference (sold out!), Vida Vegan Con, is just around the corner and I am getting really excited! I'm so honored that I was invited to be a speaker, and I'm super looking forward to meeting everyone. There will be so many friends there whose blogs I have been reading for years, but who I've never had a chance to meet in person. I can't wait.

Lucky me, I get to be on two different panels. In the first, I'll be co-presenting with Sherri (of Vegan Nosh!) & Bianca (of Vegan Crunk!) on the "Build-A-Blog" panel - we'll be discussing all the ins & outs of hosting options, blog promotions, stat tracking and more. It should be very informative!

Also! Kittee (Cake Maker to the Stars) & Mo (Mo Betta Vegan!) & little ol' me are throwing a party with the first-ever all-vegan gameshow, Vegan Battle Royale. We have grand plans and awesome prizes, so it should be a seriously good time!

To celebrate, I wanted to have a little something to share with all the kind folks I meet, and everyone who comes to the classes I get to be a part of ... so I got out my trusty button maker and make about 150 buttons featuring my little family! What fun!

See you at the conference, and if you can't make it this time... rest assured, there are already plans for the next time around!

Snackin' Around Town in Italy

Italy is such a vegan-friendly place, especially Southern Italy - where they are much more likely to use olive oil than butter. It's also helpful that I speak Italian (well enough, anyway!), so I can ask and make sure that what I'm eating is vegan... Of course there are plenty of amazing looking pastries and breads and pizzas that aren't vegan, but I thought I'd show you some of the snacks I found while touristing my way across Southern Italy.

Tomatoes in Naples!

Seriously friends, those tomatoes in the south were downright glorious. I love tomatoes, I grow tomatoes, I have friends who farm organic dry-farmed tomatoes... so, it's not like I've never had a proper tomato. But the tomatoes in Southern Italy were so amazing and so full of flavor, we would often just buy a big bundle for a snack.

Stuffed focaccia in Naples

Off on some lesser-wandered, totally non-tourist back street we found this great little bakery. Mr Vegan Eats & Treats got something non-vegan (boo!), but I got one stuffed with escarole and it was great. Incidentally, according to Mr. VE&T, it was better than the one he got, so there!

Fruit Vendor in Naples

Of course, everywhere you go in Italy there are glorious vendors of fruits and veggies... where you can find delicious, hydrating, nutritious snacks! (this place is a little pricey, though!)

Open-air Market in Naples

Every once in a while you'll get extra lucky and stumble upon a bigger market... with fruits and veggies and undershirts and flea market items and notepads and other things you don't need but that are really fun to look at. The fruits and veggies are always the most beautiful though, all nicely arranged and colorful.

Antica Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica

Down in Sicily, our first destination was Modica... a beautiful little town that has a long history of making chocolate. We went to the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, the most well-regarded chocolatier in town. Every single flavor but one was vegan, so I was quite delighted. It's not that often, as a world-traveller vegan, that I get to enjoy the regional specialties!

Traditionally there were only a few flavors, but now they make so many flavors it's quite amazing! My favorites were hazelnut, cardamom, and white pepper. Mmm. The chocolate in Modica is still made in the way that the ancient Mexicans used to make chocolate. It's a little bit gritty, but very rich and full of flavor. The history goes that when Modica was controlled by Spain (back in the day!), the Spaniards came back from Mexico with chocolate and the people in Modica have been making it that way ever since.

Pachino Cherry Tomatoes

Pachino is a little town in the SE of Sicily, famous for its cherry tomatoes. Boy Howdy, were they delicious! I bought some seeds, but it turns out that Pachino is very special because the soil there is very sandy, and the farmers use half-fresh water and half-sea water when they water their crops, which is what results is such special little tomatoes. At least, that's what the man at the seed store told me!

Sun-drying Tomatoes in Modica

Up in the sweet little residential streets of Modica, we met so many friendly and talkative folks. We spotted this beautiful display of cherry tomatoes drying in the sun, and the lady of the house (who did not want her picture taken!) came out and offered us some. Such a sweet lady, and such delicious tomatoes. She said it takes about 2-3 days for the tomatoes to dry out, depending on how big they are. Mmmm.

Oranges from Siracusa

Sicily is famous for its citrus and the oranges really were great. In fact, we saw SO much agriculture (and even wild fruit trees!) in Sicily. We saw fig trees, pomegranate trees, caper bushes, almond trees, stone fruit trees, olive trees (duh!), orange trees, lemon trees, and so much more. It was so beautiful!

Fennel Seed Taralli from Siracusa

Also in Siracusa we got some great little snacks - various cookies and crackers all made with olive oil (not butter!), and therefore vegan. These round crackers came in a few flavors, but we got the ones with salt and fennel seeds and they were crazy good. A perfect car snack for a car full of folks road-tripping around Italy! These taralli can be found in sweet or savory varieties, and of course we tried both. :)

"God is Vegetarian"

Somewhere on a small road in our travels through Southern Italy, we were just cruising along when my mom spied this excellent little graffiti moment! On the other side of this wall, they had also written "Animals Have Souls" - most excellent! I loved knowing that somewhere in the Sicilian countryside was a kindred spirit!

Italy! Pizza! Pasta! Gelato! Ciao!

You might be wondering what the heck happened to this blog!? Well, I've been off in Italy for 5 1/2 weeks... pretty much without much access to the internet, and with no way to blog. So, here I am - home again, with copious jet lag, and loads of pictures to share with you!

What is the first thing you think of when you think of Italian food? PIZZA!

Followed shortly behind by PASTA! and then, of course, GELATO!

I can assure you, great quantities of Pizza, Pasta & Gelato were consumed.

I won't bore you with all the details, just a few representative pictures & highlights:

PIZZA TIME!

This isn't technically pizza, it's more like foccacia, or schiacciata... but whatever you want to call it in Italian, I call it YUMMY in Amey-language. This delicious snack was from Naples, where we had quite a lot of good pizza... most of which was gobbled down without pausing for the camera. But this was an amazingly good find, from a wonderful little bakery, covered with totally amazing flavor-bomb cherry tomatoes and just the right amount of olive oil and salt. This is the sort of thing I really miss from Italy... simple, straight-forward, super-fresh ingredients, and somehow totally magical.

Usually, at your average pizzeria, a friendly vegan is required to find something on the menu and remove the cheese. Occasionally you'll find a very simple pizza with just olive oil, garlic, & oregano or something like that... but that's not really a super great dinner now, is it? So, I usually go with a pizza "Vegetariana" and ask for it without cheese. This one here was sort of an oddball combo - artichoke hearts, peas, spinach, eggplant... honestly, not really all that delicious, but it did the job of getting me something to eat. By the way, I ate this pizza around midnight, at an outdoor pizzeria in Modica (Sicily), that was completely full with people and children and families. Ah, la bella vita!

That said, every once in a while, a hungry vegan gets really lucky. This cheeseless Pizza Vegetariana was a real highlight. It's from the amazing little town of Pizzo (!! Pizza in Pizzo!!) - and as you can see, the veggies were grilled first, and had so much flavor, and even without the cheese, this pizza was full of flavor and served with much love.

I'm not sure what kind of expression that is on my face, but it must be something having to do with "Let's get this photo over with, and start eating!" By the way, did you know that in Italy, the usual drill is to order a whole pizza per person? Pizzas in Italy don't come in sizes, it's just 1-pizza-per-person-sized, and that's that. Also, most Italians eat their pizza with a fork and knife, not in slices. Unless you're specifically getting just a slice to eat for a snack, of course.... which is sort of a different thing.

This sweet little number was my last meal in Italy, and was probably the best pizza of the whole trip... except maybe tied with the very first meal we had - which was also pizza, in Naples. This is the pizza "Pasquale" from a great place in Florence called "Pizza Man" - naturally vegan straight off the menu! - with tomato puree, black pepper, olive oil, cherry tomatoes, basil and fresh oregano. Oh MAN this was good. I'm so grateful for my awesome friend Cecilia who buzzed me around the hills of Florence on her scooter and then took me out to Pizza Man for dinner. All the ingredients on this pizza were super fresh and the end result was magically delicious. There is a little Pizza Man-shaped hole in my heart now, which can only be filled with another trip to Florence for more Pizza Man pizza.

I AM A PASTA MONSTER!

Dear friends. I ate so much pasta on this trip. Phew. I love pasta, but really now... some times a vegan just wants to eat some vegetables, you know? However, there were a few pasta highlights worth sharing:

When we were in Sicily, we spent one day at Agrigento - enjoying the amazing and beautiful ancient Greek ruins. First we went to museum, which was quite wonderful, and we decided to have lunch there at the museum. The museum cafe was a very sweet little outdoor area in the shade of the pine trees, and I ordered some totally lovely pasta for lunch. Vegan as is! This may not look very exciting, and I suppose it isn't really, but it was another example of how the freshness of the ingredients can really transform a simple dish into something surprising. This pasta was totally scrumptious - not in spite of the simplicity, but rather because of its simplicity.

I am a happy chicken.

Back in Modica, we went out for dinner at a lovely restaurant that had a few nice pasta dishes that were vegan. This was a really beautiful soup with homemade pasta (eggless! *) and fava beans. Mmmm. The favas had a great earthy flavor and the pasta was just perfect - chewy and soaking up the flavor of the broth. Also, what a great serving dish, huh?

* vegan traveller side note: If you are a mindful vegan, it's helpful to check which pastas are made with eggs, since most fresh pasta does have eggs. Apparently some shapes are not usually made with eggs, however. Also, I found that pretty much every restaurant has dry pasta in the kitchen, even if it's not mentioned on the menu... and restaurants were happy to switch out the dry pasta for fresh pasta without any hassle.

At the same restaurant we also got this lovely dish - with a tomato & eggplant sauce. I really loved this one. It had a much brighter, higher acid flavor and it was a great compliment to the earthy fava bean dish. Although I am happy to ask for dishes without cheese or track down the pasta with no eggs, it's always a special joy when traveling to be able to order something straight off the menu and feel that I am enjoying a local dish the same way the locals enjoy it.

Of special note: I bought this pasta at a little shop in Ragusa... First of all, this is one of my favorite shapes (little rings), and not an easy shape to find in the states. Second of all, this is a special pasta made in Sicily on with crops and production entirely free of mafia influence. It says on the top "from land liberated from the mafia"! Wow! Not a pasta consideration that I usually think about... but seemed like a very appropriate vegan purchase - another way to contribute to the elimination of suffering and injustice through dietary choices. This project even has quite an extensive website, if you're interested.

GELATOoooooOOO!

The gelato situation in Italy is really fantastic. Everywhere you go, there are gelato shops. And it's not just a tourist thing... it's downright legitimate. At all hours of day and night you will find people eating gelato - kids, old people, business people, tourists... everyone loves gelato. And, luckily, you will also have many vegan options. Sometimes you'll find soy-based gelatoes, which is always a treat, but pretty much always in Italy the fruit flavors will be vegan. Also, I found that very often the dark chocolate was vegan (cioccolato fondente), much to my delight. This is one of my favorite combos: dark chocolate and frutti di bosco (mixed berries). Mmmmmm.

Here I am in Pizzo, having finished my pizza, and ready for some more gelato. Looks like another dark chocolate + fruity combo. I think I got strawberry that day. And I recall that this dark chocolate was especially powerful - just the way I like it!

Here's something silly. I know I should be more excited about the fancy little glass jars of fresh artisanal-made gelato, but I was really really excited about finding these vegan ice cream cones at the Coop supermercato in San Casciano. They came in a 4-pack, and I ate those little babies up all by myself! (though I did manage to make them last for 4 days). These sorts of pre-made cones and ice cream treats are a real phenomena in Italy and I really associate them with my time in Italy over the years. So, finding a vegan version meant a lot to me.

Plus, there is the special joy of peeling away that paper wrapping and uncovering this glorious creation! Swirls of frothy ice cream! Chocolate topping! Roasted peanuts! Glory hallelujah!

And then you get to dig in with vegan-abandon! What fun! The best part of all is that the inside of the cone is coated with chocolate, and when you get down to the very bottom of the cone there is a big chunk of chocolate, which guarantees that your last bite will be wonderful and satisfying. It's probably a good thing that I was only able to buy one box of these, and that they aren't available at my local hippee store, because otherwise I would be eating them all the time. Yumzo!
Last but not least - Sicilian Granitas! We had these amazing creations in the lovely little town of Noto, which is famous for its granitas. They are pretty much like an super high class icee/slurpee. We got lemon and almond flavors - both of which were vegan, and both of which were totally glorious and delicious. I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. Both lemons and almonds are big crops in that part of Sicily, so these are the traditional flavors, along with coffee, which we didn't try. If you ever find yourself in Noto, looking for something to eat, don't skip the granitas, they were really fantastic.

more posts from my Italian travels coming soon,

it's great to be back!