Labor Day Weekend

So we had a long weekend and oh how I already miss it. Sigh.  Every year at this time,  my family migrates back to Seattle, Washington for Bumbershoot, a three day musical festival with hundreds of acts, games, rides, comedy, films and more.  It is utterly divine and I enjoy myself every year.  I have gone consistently since I was in the womb, that's how much my family loves this.  Also, this year I got the added bonus of meeting my 9 day-old niece Jasmine, who is adorable and sweet. I so enjoyed meeting her. However, what I quickly noticed was that for a city that boasts being vegan-friendly, it was actually pretty difficult to find food, especially inside the festival.  I mean, Coachella has vegan options!  Why is it so hard for Bumbershoot to keep from cooking veggies in butter.  Even the Indian and Thai choices were usually either a. bland or b. cooked with meat or on the same grill.  It was a little crazy so I was forced to visit the QVC grocery store quite a bit and/or eat a ton of french fries.

However, one restaurant close to my hotel was Bamboo Garden Vegetarian.  This was a tacky-looking joint that served up the real deal.  All protein in this place was vegetarian wheatmeat.  This made me very happy and I ordered that hot and spicy chicken. It was pretty good, though a bit skimpy on the portion especially since my brother ordered the hot and spicy tofu, which came in a pie pan of goodness.

For the other two days of the festival, I mostly just ate fries and fruit along with some cotton candy (sometimes I just can't help myself.)  But this made me wonder why a vegan diet isn't more thoroughly represented here, especially since Washingtonians believe themselves to be on the hippy liberal side of things.  For next year, I'm gonna beg that they get some vegan vendors in the house.

I was ecstatic to get back home to LA.  I missed my cats and just the feeling of being home. Plus, I knew that I would have a disgusting litter box to clean so I'd rather just get it over with.  Sadly, the cold I picked up in Washington is lingering so today I had some vegetable soup from Whole Foods.  In Brentwood, they also feature a vegan curried chicken salad sandwich.  It comes on ciabatta bread with vegan chicken curry, spinach, shredded carrots and Veganiase.  I also threw on some cucumbers because I believe cucumbers and avocado make every sandwich special.  I had them heat it up in the panini press and gotta say it came out nicely.  Yes, the fake meat is a little chewy and I'm not a huge fan of the sporadicly placed raisins in the curry but overall it was a satisfying little meal and one I hope helps kick this cold's ass.