Over the weekend of March 3-4 I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual NY Vegetarian Food Festival.  Two days worth of great vegan food, speakers, animal advocacy organizations?!  Sign me up!  I purchased a set of 2-day VIP passes for my partner and I, so we could take in as much as the vegan goodness that we possibly could.

Lets get straight to the goods — THE FOOD!  I was super excited to learn about some great new products, and boy did the NYVFF deliver.

As soon as you walked in the door, you were greeted with the delicious smell of Daiya Vegan Grilled Cheese.  I am super familiar with their products — their line currently boasts three flavors of shredded vegan cheeze goodness, Mozarella, Cheddar and Pepperjack.  Its fantastic on pizza, in nachos, grilled cheese, basically any recipe that calls for cheese, Daiya can handle with dairy-free vigor.  It melts, its ooey and gooey and tastes just like the real thing.  They were taking this opportunity to begin advertising their newest product, Daiya wedges.  Flavors to expect are Jack, Cheddar and Havarti.  VEGAN HAVARTI CHEESE?!  Lord have mercy, the vegan gods really do love us.  You can expect a full review as soon as I get my hands on these things.

The Vegan Bodega‘s table was impressive.  They served up a trifecta of fantastic vegan goods — Bee Free Honee, Food For Lovers Vegan Queso and the much anticipated Vegg.  They did share some other products, but these three were the stand-outs for me.

I know what you’re probably thinking — bee-free honey?  How can that be?!  Well, some brilliant folks in the great state of Minnesota have figured out how to make honey from apples.  Its got the texture, the thickness, the deliciousness of honey but without the guilt.  I want to kiss these folks on the face.  Because I did love honey very much… and now I can have it!

I originally heard about The Vegg a few weeks ago and was very excited at the prospect of french toast in my future.  The Vegg can be used in any recipe that calls for eggs.  I happily purchased a pouch (Vegan Bodega was selling it for $6.50 a pouch) and look forward to writing a review for everyone in the near future.  The best part of The Vegg?  ZERO Cholesterol!  So many folks don’t realize that the amount of cholesterol in ONE EGG puts you near your upper limit of recommended dietary cholesterol for the day.  You could eat salad for the rest of the day and it wouldn’t make a difference.  So The Vegg is for sure going to be a game changer not only the vegan world, but I think the omnivore world as well!  Bonus points:  10% of sales goes to Compassion Over Killing!

A lot of non-vegan/vegetarian folks don’t know that marshmallows aren’t vegan.  They typically contain an ingredient known as geletin which is a no-no in vegan land.  But have no fear!  Sweet & Sara, based out of Queens, are purveyors of vegan marshmallows!   Not only do they make just marshmallows, but they also delight us with vegan smores.  I was a big fan of their peanut butter smores and their toasted coconut marshmallows.  Can we all say YUM?!

This next product blew. my. vegan. mind.  Plant Based Foods, a new food distribution company based in Virginia, is introducing Cavi-art, vegan CAVIAR, to American markets.  And boy are we glad to receive it!  Made from seaweed, it comes in nine flavors – black, red, salmon, orange, wasabi, ginger, Balsamico and chili.  It’s got the texture and pop that one would expect from caviar and is completely plant-based.  I picked up a jar of black to save for a special occasion.

I’ve grown quite the appetite while sharing all of these wonderful, plant-based products.  Which of these products intrigues you the most?  I can assure you that they are all delicious and prove even further that it just keeps getting easier to eat plant-based in a meat-centric world.

Stay tuned for Part Two which will feature a few of the speakers, animal advocacy organizations as well as the Saturday night Special Event which included a movie screening and a talk by one of my vegan gurus, Jenny Brown of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.