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| Vancouver VegFest: August 4, 2012 |
Note: This Review is from 8/5/2012
Yesterday my husband and I drove up to Vancouver for their VegFest celebration. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for wandering around outside and enjoying the street fair. We stopped and talked to Melissa from The Hungry Taurus blog about New Westminster and their amazing vegan-friendliness. Sure I knew about Karmavore, one of my favorite spots, but I had never been to any of the other places she has featured, and now I really look forward to checking them out soon! She also gave us a flyer for the Paradise Noodle House in Burnaby, which is a vegan Vietnamese restaurant that has such an amazing-sounding menu, it is now on the top of my restaurant to-do list.
After chatting with Melissa, we walked around taking in the sights. We picked up a pamphlet here and there, eyed some amazing-looking vegan cupcakes, and talked to a really nice guy at a table for a sanctuary for rescued pot-bellied pigs called Hearts On Noses. They are doing some great work and they had some really adorable pig pictures out on the table. I wanted to drop some change in their donation jar, but we didn't have any yet, so we ended up buying lunch at The Loving Hut food cart first, and then returned afterwards, change in hand.
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| Doug's vegan bacon cheeseburger |
Now The Loving Hut was one of the main reasons my husband wanted to go to VegFest with me. He still gets an occasional hankering for the associations that come with fast food, burgers and fries, etc. and he loves when he comes across vegan versions that satisfy him just as much as the animal-based ones used to--(in fact, you might say they satisfy him even more, because when done well, they taste amazing, offer more nutritional value than their non-plant-based counterpoints, and are cholesterol free--in addition to being better for the animals as well as the environment!)
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| My chick'n sandwich |
For Veg Fest, The Loving Hut was featuring a Gardein chick'n sandwhich, or a bacon cheeseburger. They used the Gardein beefless patty in the burger, and their "bacon" was made in-house. I chose the chicken and Doug was very excited about the burger. We also ordered a side of onion rings, because I had not had onion rings in years!
The food was phenomenal. Seriously amazing. In a fast-food, comfort food, eating on a bench, sauce dripping down the front of your shirt, fried-food-goodness sort of way. I was so full I had no room for the lovely cupcakes I had been eyeing earlier, but I also had no regrets. The onion rings were absolutely perfect. They were everything I had hoped they would be. And the vegan ranch dipping sauce was really tasty, creamy, and good.
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| Quite possibly The Best Onion Rings I Have Ever Had |
In closing, I highly recommend The Loving Hut. You should look at their picture menu if you want to get an idea of what else they offer. I truly believe even your junk-food loving omnivorous friends would dig it. Meat-eaters who are wary of vegan food would be very impressed for sure, which just goes to show that eating vegan is not about what you give up; it's about what you get to enjoy!