NYC Veg Fest!

I was lucky enough to attend the Veg Fest at Union Square Park on October 16th. I met up with my girlfriend and we checked out all of the cool booths.

First off we got a goodie bag at the Supreme Master Ching Hai booth, it included a booklet with animal activist literature and recipes - shame they weren't giving out samples from Loving Hut - YUM I highly recommend their veggie burger with the guac, it's delightful.

Then we got some hemp seeds from a vegan athlete how cool is that!

We also got to meet THE Pamela Rice, that was the best! She was great and let us know to look out for the 2011 Veggie Pride Parade on May 22nd. I became a fan of Pamela's listening to the Vegan - Vegetarian Solutions for a Sustainable Environment podcast.

                                                         Yes that is my @#$%%# thumb...

The next stop was the olsenHaus sample shoe sale - alas my financial future is uncertain so I didn't buy anything and well let's face it 50% off of $200 is still $100. But I have to give credit where credit is due, the shoes are gorgeous. So those of you that think you have to sacrifice style to be cruelty free, well it just ain't so.

The Mercy for Animals table was next. The girls working it were really nice and informative. I look forward to getting their e-newsletters.

AND they were right next to an amazing brownie sample from the Bhakti Cafe. Talk about kismet, discussing saving animals and the environment and eating your cruelty free cake too.

There was also a Sea Shepard and PETA table:

After hitting all of the tables we took a walk through the farmer's market 

The radishes and the carrots looked so beautiful I couldn't not stop to take a photo.

Once we were though the farmer's market we went back to the VegFest to see Latina vegan chef Terry Hope Romero - yippee!! She's the co-author of Veganomicon, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar  and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. She is also the author of Viva Vegan! a Latin cookbook and one that's on my Amazon wish list (subtle hint)...

She's totally cute and tiny and put us all through a veg trivia contest, wow we really sucked. But we did get the pleasure of meeting Rachel from Rachel's Cakes and her two adorable daughters, they really helped with those tough questions.

Finally, we were able to go to lunch. We ended up going to Purume Organic & Local Kitchen, our dishes were very nice, I had a pea soup and a roasted veggie platter, my girlfriend also had the soup and a stuffed pita that was really good. I will be going back and having drinks and dessert too!