DC Vegfest 2011

This weekend was DC Vegfest! It's one of my favorite events to attend each year. Fantastic eats, lots of amazing organizations represented and thousands of like-minded people. What's not to love?!

Jesse and I arrived right as they opened at 11 and each got a tote bag of some goodies (coupons, flax seed, Vega, lip balm, Parma, etc.) Then we immediately headed for the Vegan Treats table. Every year it seems as this is the hot spot, so we like to get there early. Above is a small sample of some of the wide variety of treats they brought with them all the way from Bethlehem, PA.

This, my friends, is a vegan donut full of pumpkin-spiced cream and topped with a cinnamon glaze. Ohhhhhh yeah.

We hung out for a few hours, so we eventually got hungry for some lunch. I finally got to try the Fojol Bros. food truck! They called themselves a traveling culinary carnival and they aren't kidding. There are two trucks. One truck claims to be from the imaginary land of "Benethiopia" and the other from the land of "Merlinda". They play fun music and are dressed up in crazy costumes.

At the Merlindia truck, you could choose from such Indian-inspired delights as pumpkin curry, a delicious eggplant mix, mixed veggies, lentils, and spinach and cheese. They are served over rice.

Here is Jesse's Benethiopian lunch: Collards, lentils and a mix of carrots and green beans over injera.

My Merlindian lunch: curried mixed vegetables, lentils and eggplant over rice.

Doron Petersan was the emcee for the Sticky Fingers Bakery cupcake eating contest. Doron's cookbook comes out in February.

The contestants getting their cupcake on. The first to finish five cupcakes (without using their hands!) won!

Highlight: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau talking about The 30 Day Vegan Challenge. If you've never heard her podcasts, cooked from one of her cookbooks, heard her speak or had her garlic and greens soup, I suggest you do all of these things immediately. I really believe that she's changed my life.

Colleen signing books immediately after signing mine! I left Vegfest inspired to keep a vegan house (we were very close anyway, but we're getting rid of the few things that remain) and to do more for the animals. I'm in awe that I get to live in such an amazing community.