Monday 30 July 2012

Salem to Northampton - The road trip continues.

I don't know when or why my obsession with Salem started, maybe it had something to do with watching The Craft too often as a teenager, but as soon as I knew we were going to be near Salam I insisted that we went!

We visited all of the main witchy tourist attractions including the incredibly kitsch Salem Witch Museum which included a puppet show of sorts which explained the history of the Salem witch trials.


It was a cute town and I even found another new type of root beer!


After this brief trip north of Boston I was still dreaming about that Lemon Meringue Pie so we turned back south and headed for Veggie Galaxy again!

Nick ordered the "Eggs", Toast & Home Fries...


...and I went for the Baked Mac & Cheese.


I hate to say that the Mac & Cheese was bad but it really wasn't what I consider a classic diner style Mac & Cheese. I'm just as big a fan of nooch sauce as the next vegan but this was a little watery and there was so much pepper in there that I could hardly eat it. The vegan eggs Nick ordered were great though, like a couple of mini tofu omelettes, and unsurprisingly the home fries were delicious.

I stopped caring about this sub par mac & cheese pretty fast though because this was what we were really there for, more lemon meringue pie!


This is still the best dessert I've ever eaten, this photo doesn't do it justice AT ALL so check out my last post if you haven't already!

That night we ended up in Northampton. We heard that it's a really awesome, liberal, artistic town full of women's colleges which sounded pretty rad to us. When we arrived we noticed that women seemed to outnumber men at a ratio of around 4:1! Kinda cool! It turned out that loads of Smith College alumnae were back in town for reunions that weekend and there were loads of fun things going on like choirs singing and orchestras playing in the street!

We chatted to a couple we bumped into in the street who stopped us because their young daughter wanted to ask me some questions about my piercings. I really loved that they were teaching their child to be respectful when people look different. It's awesome to be asked questions about why I choose to look the way I do rather than just having people pointing at me & making comments which they think I can't hear!

When we told them we were vegan they pointed us in the direction of Green Bean, a veg friendly lunch spot, where we had an excellent slice of raspberry vanilla cake.


Green Bean is located on Main Street which is also where we found an adorable sweet shop called Sweeties.


I loved that they had a great vegan beacon right there in the window, we probably wouldn't have bothered going in to investigate if I hadn't spotted that sign.

Inside the store the vegan options were clearly marked & I took home a bag of chocolates which included some of these Hazelnut Crisps...


...a few of these Hazelnut Cream Cats, yes, cats...


...and some heart shaped strawberry creams. Sweeties also has a vegan list on the wall telling you which sweets and chocolates are vegan.


I love it when businesses go above & beyond like this so I bought a cute Hello Kitty Lunchbox from them too, well, I needed somewhere to put my chocolates!

We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Herrell's Ice Cream parlour. We'd heard about Herrell's on Happy Cow and we were excited to try their legendary ice cream!


We both got cones with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sprinkles.



These were the perfect treat on a hot summer day. Before leaving this part of the North East we swung by the all vegan Cafe Evolution for sandwiches and yep, more root beer!


I didn't get a picture of my sandwich but it was an awesome grilled Tofurky and vegan cheddar affair on seeded bread with an good amount of salad, sprouts & Veganaise. I loved Cafe Evolution, everyone working there was super lovely and it was just a really nice chilled out space.


I really liked Northampton, it reminded me a little of Brighton with its chilled out vibe, high concentration of feminists, and fun vegan options on every corner. I'd definitely love to go back one day.

Next time we go driving around Vermont and meet up with my friend, and ex-blogger from Where's the Revolution, Bazu!

11 comments:

  1. You really know how to plan a proper road trip :) And, I am envious of all those vegan chocolates!!

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  2. what delicious eats! And i love finding new root beer! theres this place in Wisconsin that has it on tap -- nothing like it in a frosty mug! :)

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  3. That sweet shop looks great! I'd love to try all those yummy hazelnut and strawberry chocolates. And really, everything else, as well. I love that you were able to fit so many visits to vegan-friendly places into each day!

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  4. I can't believe how vegan-friendly America seems to be - better than the UK! I'm so excited to go to New York and California!

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  5. I'm so happy you went to Northampton! I lived there 4-5 years, graduated from Smith College and love it there! It is indeed vegan heaven! Especially for such a small town. There's also a vegetarian Chinese food restaurant called Butterfly, which is pretty amazing and Northampton Coffee has soya lattes that are the best I've ever had. This makes me miss home, although Berlin is also a vegan paradise. :-)

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    1. Thanks for the tips! I'd love to go back & visit the vegi Chinese restaurant one day.

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  6. I need to go to Northampton! I meant to tell you Luciana and I went to Cafe Blossom based on your blog recommendation and loved it. Can't wait to see the Syracuse post... ;-)

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    1. Awww yay, I'm really glad you guys enjoyed Blossom on Carmine. I still dream about that seitan!

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  7. This was fun to read. I live in Northampton and think it's great for vegan food. It's also a great place to live. I moved here for the people and the beautiful surroundings.

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  8. Okay I am creepily stalking your past posts, but so happy you went to Northampton! It's my old college town (Smith College rep!) and the home of my heart/adopted home/favorite place ever. *Cue wave of homesickness/nostalgia*

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    1. Haha, creeper! I loved Northampton and I'm totally jealous that you went to Smith!

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