Wednesday, May 25, 2011

World Fest

This past Sunday was World Fest. I am untimely with this post because I worked two 12 hour days of teaching right after World Fest and I didn't get a chance to update. So here is my belated World Fest report.
Having never been to World Fest before, I was pretty impressed. I hadn't been to a festival before where I could pretty much eat anything, so that was a major plus. It also gave me an opportunity to talk to vendors about my wedding cake.
I talked to the Luscious Organic Desserts people, who have very reasonable prices and I may be having a cake consultation with them in the near future, which will be shared on this blog...I also shared a bag of two cookie dough bonbons with Mike. Alas, I forgot to take a picture. Let me assure you, they were everything you could want in a bonbon and more. That it is why there is no picture; they just sort of fell into my mouth.
There were a lot of food booths that looked really delicious. Lots of Indian food, The Vegan Joint, my dear friends at One World Veggie, two Italian places (one was called Vegan Heights. They had samples of lasagna that were amazing), and a couple supplements. One was Hail Merry Raw Foods and I sample two macaroon cookies, chocolate and coconut. Both were pretty good, but a little dry.
There were also lots of booths there. Some were what you'd expect: a lot of nice PETA people, Arm the Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Herbivore (!), various rescue association (I felt bad I have no room for more kitties) etc. There were also ones I didn't expect, like the Christian Vegetarian Association, of which I am now a member. There were also a lot of clothing booths, and people selling, for lack of a better word, hippie stuff. I sat through seven minutes of "healing light" as part of a demonstration of how light can heal. I felt lightheaded afterwards but I'm not sure if it healed me. They were very nice, however, and gave us free canteloupe and cucumber seeds.
Back to food. Mikey waited in the longest line there for the Vegan Barbecue. Specifically, he wanted the fried shrimp. While he did this, I wandered over to Rawsheed's. The Pasadena locale is closed, but Rawsheed said he's opening a new one in Sherman Oaks. I had the chicken salad, made from jackfruit:

It was decent. A little bland. There was a lot of vegenaise or something like it involved, but it was good. I'm still getting used to jackfruit. Since it mimics the texture and look of shredded meat so well, it sets off the warning system in my head for meat, which has developed over many years of restaurants "accidentally" getting a piece of meat in there.
Mike was still in line, so I went to Follow Your Heart's booth and got tempeh tacos:

These tacos were amazing. Whatever they use in their tempeh is really good and flavorful. I usually don't care for FYH cheese either, but it went really well with this taco. Maybe it's fresher than in the stores and that had something to do with it. The beans and rice were also good. The blac beans weren't bland they way other restaurants (nameless) cook them.
Next to them is Cas Cal fermented juice. We got two bottles free at the door. It tasted like beer, and I think beer is gross, so Mikey had both. If you like beer, this is the apple juice for you.
Meanwhile, Mike was still in line. Eventually, he got to order. The Vegan Barbecue is based in San Diego, with no restaurant location. Mike got the fried shrimp. They were out of fries, so he got macaroni instead:

I found both items to be disgusting. The shrimp was the VEGE shrimp brand, covered in tapioca based batter. It was really gross. The consistency was weird and it had a horrible aftertaste. The macaroni was noodles with some shredded Daiya thrown over them. It was really lazy macaroni. Totally not worth the wait. I thought maybe I didn't like the shrimp because I've never had shrimp, but Mike, who used to love shrimp, assured me that it was gross. I have since promised to come up with my own fried shrimp for him.
Next was dessert. I got two scoop of So Delicious mint chocolate chip, with chocolate sauce:

Delicious, as always.
Mike got a Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcake from JAM Vegan Bakery, who we are also in talks with for wedding treats:

It was just like eating a PB&J but more yummy. I have no idea how they got the jelly on the inside, but it was there! Very good. I'm going to track them down again and try more.
And that was World Fest. I can't wait until next year!

8 comments:

  1. Hi Jennifer! Thank you for including So Delicious in your WorldFest post. The photo of your chocolate-covered mint chip ice cream looks incredible! The PB&J cupcake and tempeh tacos look pretty amazing, too. We're glad you had such a delicious time.

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  2. Loved those tacos...and those cakepops from luscious. So delicious frozen dessert...my favorite frozen desert. Funny I read that quarrygirl said last year that shrimp was nasty...so I avoided that place. Great review my first there too....
    Jelly is places on top of batter and the muffin bakes around it...that's how I've made them

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  3. I was very sad that Maggie Mudd was not there this year. Remembering how the line was last year, I went to the Southern Fried Vegan BBQ booth early. Last year I tried the vegan fried chickun sandwich and although I prefer that over trying the shrimp this year, I did really like the shrimp. My shrimp had a flour based cajun spiced batter on it and was served with delicious organic tartar sauce. My mac n' cheeze did not at all look like yours. Mine was drenched in a pool of a couple different kinds of vegan cheeze and it did not taste like daiya. Sorry your experience wasn't as good as mine there. Maybe they were running low on things which hurt the quality. I am jealous you were able to snag one of those PB&J cupcakes before they ran out.

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  4. I was in line at the Southern Fried Vegan BBQ place for like an hour! When I got to the front they were out of the "shredded meat" po'boy so I got the shrimp one and I agree it was gross. And that sandwich was $10! I also got the crab cakes with fries and coleslaw. The crab cakes were ok and the fries and coleslaw were fine, but boring. I also got a twinkee and that was pretty dry. I really wish I didn't waste my time in that line! SInce I shared these meals with my hubby. I also was able to try the curry next door to the BBQ stand and it was delicious. A kale salad (I forgot where but it was delish as well. Next year, we will definitely skip the long line at the BBQ!

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  5. I have to say that I truly loved Southern Fried Vegan. There line was HUGE yes but that crew was truly working there asses off. You guys should be reminded how much work goes into running a booth and trying to make every single person happy. I know people love to complain first but seriously give them some credit, its not like they were sitting around with thumbs up there asses. Oh and by the way I ordered The fried chickun sandwich and that was AMAZING also my mac and cheese was also DRENCHED in cheese and equally AMAZING. I was able to get the last twinkie and I'm happy I did :) It was organic and not dry at all!!! I was very impressed. I am happy I waited in line for Southern Fried Vegan and will be doing it again next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  8. Thanks for posting this. I have been wanting to go to World Fest for the past two years and am going to make it a point to be there next year.

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