VEGFEST, SEATTLE - Part I

So the moment I've been waiting for all Spring has arrived: that wonderful, educational and informative (not to mention TASTY!) event known as VegFest... in Seattle!

For those who don't know, VegFest is an annual Vegetarian Food Festival (supposedly one of the largest in the US? I don't know if that's true but it is big) where you can taste free food samples - (over 500 different kinds to try according to their website); as well as see cooking demonstrations by chefs from all over the country and hear the latest information on nutrition from doctors and dieticians who are specialists in vegetarianism.

Fellow veggies to hang our with? Free samples of the latest vegetarian products and yumminess, you say? I am all over that! My kids and I have gone the last couple years and had a BLAST!

So my Middle Sprout and I met fellow veggie-friend "4EverGrounded" (I'll use her VeggieBoards screen name, like I do with all my friends, just in case they're hiding from the IRS or whatever) for an afternoon of veggie-ness.

But first, Lunch! (I know, with all those samples, this may seem like overkill, but venturing into Seattle is, in itself, a rare treat for us, so we decided to hit up one of our favorite all-vegan restaurants "Bamboo Garden" for lunch before braving the wall-to-wall crowds, long lines and hours of walking...

Everything at Bamboo Garden is wonderfully vegan. Many items use faux meat products that are all quite yummy - they have a HUGE menu and narrowing down choices is always difficult.

We ordered some super-spicy Ruby Chicken and Vegetables (my choice), some potstickers which I didn't get a
picture of, and Almond Fried Chicken which my duaghter absolutely adores...

Everything was insanely good, of course.

At the end of the meal, we all got to giggling hysterically because instead of "Iced Tea" I had "Rice Tea".

(My Sprout discovered I'd dropped rice into my teacup and thought it was wildly funny... OK, maybe you had to be there).

After lunch we headed out to VegFest. At least this way we figured we wouldn't be starving and cranky waiting in all those lines and ready to chew people's legs off... (which, being vegan, I suppose we really ought not to do anyway...).

Stay Tuned.