Posted on June 22, 2010 by Jill
Before you start your travel adventures, do a little research, connect with other vegans, pack a food stash, and learn some local lingo.
Posted on July 13, 2010 by Jill
No vegan or vegetarian restaurants in sight? No problem! You just need to know which restaurants offer vegan options, and how to order without confusing the waiter.
Posted on May 19, 2010 by Jill
New York is home to many awesome vegan treats. For the best of the best, I mean seriously mind blowing treats, I'd recommend heading over to Atlas Cafe.
Posted on June 16, 2010 by Jill
At Manna vegans can indulge in a traditional English breakfast that's all organic and cruelty-free.
Goodbye 2011, hello 2012! I can’t believe how fast 2011 went. In contrast to 2010, last year I felt very much like I was rooted in Ottawa. But looking back at my photos I’m realizing I did get out of town quite a bit.
Halfway through 2011 I stopped making time for blogging (see my new baby, Vegan Cuts), and forgot to tell you about some of the fun places I went and delicious food I devoured. So how about we play catch up with a photo roundup of Vegan Backpacker’s adventures in 2011…
I recently interviewed Kristin from the Will Travel for Vegan Food project. Learn all about this epic road trip and how you can support it by funding the Kickstarter campaign.
What’s the Will Travel for Vegan Food project all about?
The “WTF Vegan Food” project is a year-long vegan food focused road trip across the US. The plan is to eat at all of the 100% vegan restaurants in the country, as well as visit all 50 states! :)
I’ll be interviewing restaurant owners, business owners, and attending vegan meetups, as well as volunteering at farm sanctuaries and the like, all along the way.
What inspired your trip?
Nearly a year ago I started reading about unconventional living, and being able to travel while work thanks to the Internet. I had also picked up two books that were turning points for me: Crush It! Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion and The 4-Hour Work Week. It was like a one-two punch to the gut style, wake up call. After reading these books I was more inspired than ever to following my passions.
Passions: after becoming vegan I had fallen in love with food and I had also been bitten with the travel bug … so within a few months I was creating a plan to leave my 9-5 job and hit to road on what’s sure to be an epic adventure that combines my love of food and interest in travel. :)
John and I recently went camping at Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario Canada. It was our first time camping together, first time camping as “adults” and first time camping as vegans. Luckily, we went camping with another couple who had enough gear for all four of us. Not having to think about packing sleeping bags, tents or tarps meant we could focus all of our energy on packing food. We decided to keep our cooler stocked with traditional camping eats, like s’more supplies, burgers, hot dogs, sausages and enough veggies to make some sweet kabobs.
Making s’mores over the open campfire was definitely a highlight. We made them using Dandies vegan marshmallows, dark chocolate squares and digestive biscuits. It would have been nice to use graham crackers but we couldn’t find any that were made without honey. Despite all of our substitutions, the taste of the s’mores was not compromised! We were delighted to discover the vegan marshmallows melted and toasted up just like the old fashion kind.
I know I’m far from being the only person who is SUPER excited to be heading to Portland for the Vida Vegan Con. I think we’re all looking forward to meeting some of our online friends and learning from all of the talented vegan bloggers and authors on the agenda.
The conference website has a list of speakers but, as far as I know, there’s no list of people attending. So I decided to make one!
This is by no means a comprehensive list…. yet :) I’m adding people as they comment on the Vida Vegan Con Bloggers Facebook Group and this blog post. Please comment with your URL so I can add you.
Road trip!
This guest post is by Mandi Hoffman, a vegan blogger and activist hailing from sunny Portland, Oregon. She runs Chicvegan.com, a website for ethical ladies who want to do good deeds while looking hot and feeling fabulous.
Driving across country can be fun – especially when you can have all types of food adventures on your way! My boyfriend and I recently made the long trek from Portland, OR to Charlotte, NC. Admittedly, I did not do much planning for this trip. It came as an unexpected surprise and I hardly had time to get my shoes on before embarking on the journey, let alone strategically plan every stop. As a vegan, this was a bad idea. Since our trip was a rushed one, we had to grab things to eat at whatever place was open during the time we happened to be passing through. While we ended up discovering some truly great places, we missed out on an abundance of others.
Viva Vegan Store in Montreal, QC
Whenever there is a long weekend, John and I try to escape Ottawa and go on a mini vacation. We did just that a few weeks ago when we hopped on a Greyhound bus and headed to Montreal for a few days. Since my last visit, which I think was almost two years ago, a few new vegan spots have popped up. My favourite new addition is the Viva Vegan Store. This place is a little slice of Canadian vegan heaven. They’re well stocked with all kinds of rare goodies (rare to us deprived Canadians), like Field Roast products and Eli’s Earth Bars.
Gado-Gado salad with peanut sauce, wontons and hot & sour soup
Last month I headed off to Edmonton, Alberta for a work conference. I’d been there twice before, but always missed the chance to eat at the city’s most popular all vegan restaurant: Padmanadi. This place serves a blend of Indonesian, Chinese, Thai, and Indian cuisine. They have a variety of mock meat dishes, traditional soups like hot & sour, and fried goodies including the wontons pictured above. These wontons were super tasty! Instead of having real or even fake meat inside, they were stuffed with carrot, bok choy, mushroom and pesto. They were served with a delicious plum sauce and quickly disappeared from our table.
boardwalk chocolates
Hey, lovelies! It’s been awhile!
In May I went to Toronto not once, but twice. I usually make it there a few times a year and am always eager to check out the city’s new vegan restaurants, as well as old favourites. One place I always like to visit is Panacea, Toronto’s all vegan store. They’re well stocked with vegan treats and I couldn’t resist picking up a bunch of chocolate goodies, including a box of vegan truffles made by Boardwalk Chocolates. If you have a chance to try anything made by Boardwalk, don’t pass up the chance! I brought these chocolates back to Ottawa and John and I savoured every single one. My faves were the White Cashew (cardamom cashew ganache dipped in white chocolate) and Peanut Butter Cloud (Ontario peanut butter and marshmallow topped with roasted peanut).
A few weeks ago John and I rented a car and drove to New York City with some friends. Oh boy did we take advantage of having three days to eat our hearts out! Last year we spent a week in New York and made a good dent in the vegan food scene, but didn’t even come close to trying all the hot spots. There are just so many vegan joints and more are popping up all the time, like Champs Family Bakery (176 Ainslie St, Brooklyn, NY 11211) which opened since we last visited. We ventured across the bridge and met up with some friends to feast on a sugary selection of Champs’ baked goods including cinnamon buns (best ever!), bear claws, donuts and cheesecake brownies.
The Good Egg by Resuce Chocolate
Whether you celebrate Easter or not, I think it’s hard to avoid getting excited about all of the new Easter themed vegan treats that are available this year. While in New York City, John and I picked up The Good Egg by Rescue Chocolate. This cream-filled egg was stuffed with delicious creamy chocolate. As usual, 100% of Rescue Chocolate’s proceeds go to animal rescue causes.
Dandies Tweets
We also have some of Chicago Soydairy’s Dandies Tweets to enjoy this weekend. We picked up a bag of these bunny-shaped orange marshmallows while in Syracuse, NY at Strong Hearts Cafe. They are really yummy but I’d recommend eating only half a bunny at a time to avoid going into a sugar comma.
Over the long weekend I’m going to catch up on some blog writing and next week I’ll be sharing the story of all our NYC eats. Happy long weekend!
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