Tuesday 30 November 2010

Vegan MoFo Day 30 - Paris Vegan Day

I've just been in Paris for Paris Vegan Day which was amazing but I am glad to be back home in time to write a proper final MoFo Post. There's no way I can write about everything we did (& by that I mean ate!) in one blog post but that just means I'll be back blogging sooner rather than later!

Paris Vegan Day is organised by an non-profit organisation made up from people in the local vegan community including people from The Gentle Gourmet B&B & VG-Zone. As soon as I arrived I was impressed by the size of it, in the basement there were stands with information on animal rights issues, the ground floor had cooking demo's, debates & stalls selling food & on the upper lever were talks, free samples & stalls selling clothes, cosmetics, beauty products & of course, more food.

The first thing we did was head upstairs towards the area where you could buy and sample exciting vegan products. I immediately honed in on the Vegusto stall as I've tried their No-Muh-Chas melty cheese before and it's seriously good. They had a huge selection & I came home with some fondue, 2 tubes of melty cheese, parmesan snack cheese & 2 blocks of cheese, Walnut & Mildly Aromatic.

I also picked up some of their seitan which I can't wait to try.


I ate some of both block cheeses for lunch today & they were really good - the closest thing I've tried to a real hard cheese. I think the Walnut is my favourite.

I was also really excited to see the Roots of Compassion stand, they have a great range of products including Go Max Bars & Vantastic Foods chocolate, I was a bit sad to see that they didn't have any of their t-shirts or hoodies for sale as I really like their stuff but I managed to keep myself happy with this selection of chocolatey snacks.


2 Jokers bars, 1 Buccaneer bar, Carte Blanche biscuits & a bar of Fruit & Nut chocolate.

Next we headed over to the Wheaty stand, I can get their products in the UK but there are a lot that I hadn't tried.


We munched on many sausage samples before I decided to buy the Hot Dogs & the Grill Sausages. We also spotted this seitan kebab & decided we'd HAVE to head back there later for lunch.

Next up was Isa's cooking demo, we headed down there a bit early to get good seats & whilst we were waiting we found a stall selling delicious vegan cupcakes...

...I went for chocolate mint. I love the little V on top of the cake!

Isa had Terry up there with her & they were both super cute & really funny AND Isa managed to make blini's look easy - I'll definitely be making them round Christmas time now. We saw Terry's demo later on in the afternoon but I sadly didn't get any decent photos - she made empinadas which smelt delicious and they're another recipe I'll be making soon. I had no idea that with both of these recipes can actually be made in advance & re-heated when you want to eat them - awesome!

Smelling all this delicious food made us hungry so we headed upstairs for the previously mentioned Wheaty kebab!


Unfortunately by the time we got to the stand they'd run outa salad stuff but that was okay because they still had the best bits - seitan & bread!

I then decided it was time for something sweet & headed over to The Gentle Gourmet table where I picked up this crazy delicious brownie to munch on whilst watching my friend Melisser do her talk about vegan travel & her book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life.


It was more cakey than fudgey & it pretty much melted in my mouth, delicious.

After watching Melisser's talk & then Terry's cooking demo I decided it was time for more dessert & I'd just spotted The Gentle Gourmet people selling waffles so I headed straight over, unfortunately they'd just sold out but they were perfectly happy to make us another 5 for our group.


These came with whipped cream which everyone else loved but as a cream hater I had mine plain, it was delicious but it would've been even more awesome if they'd had chocolate spread!

We had a fantastic day, everyone we met was super friendly & the food was great. The event seemed really well organised & after tasting their food I can't wait to go & stay at The Gentle Gourmet B&B. I was also so excited that something like this was happening in a city famous for it's love of fur & foie gras - I hope Paris will be famous one day for it's amazing vegan friendliness instead. Next time I'll be writing about our non vegan day eats!

22 comments:

  1. Looks like a blast! I had to bail Sunday morning so I missed all of the fun. Wish I could have tried some of those fake meats and see Isa and Terry of course. I found those Vegan croissants at the Paris Loving Hut. Good stuff!

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  2. Everything looks sooooo awesome.
    xx

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  3. Hey, I work with the CheapOair travel blog (cheapoair.typepad.com) and we're interested in having you guest blog for us. Please contact me if you're interested. Thanks! Aldo.

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  4. So cool you went there! The people who organized the PVD (Deborah, Caroline, Alexandre and Laura) did the catering for my wedding in August which happened in Paris because that's where I am from. But as it happens my husband is from East Sussex so we live in Brighton and we've been reading your blog to find good places to eat in the area :)

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  5. Oh my god! So much tasty food in one place. That kebab looks too good. I used to love the filthy meat ones pre-veg, eek.

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  6. Oooh awesome! And you have Schakalode! I don't know how you feel about white chocolate, but last summer I tried their white chocolate with shredded coconut, and it was seriously amazing.

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  7. Wow It sounds so good!
    That kebab loooks scarily real
    I'd love that fruit and nut!

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  8. That looks like an amazing day with great food

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  9. Oh and we stayed at the Gentle Gourmet on our wedding night and it was lush! Deborah turned up with an amazing breakfast the next morning even tho they had worked like crazy the night before in the kitchen :)

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  10. Wowsers... that looks amazing! I with they had Vegan Days and Vegan Fayres here like they do over there. We have OK ones, but nothing like that.

    Also, how much do I want to go to Paris and stay at that B&B! I must hurry up and win that lottery... possibly I should actually buy a ticket first. ;)

    I can't wait to see what else you were eating. I was in Paris about 13 years ago as a vegetarian (not yet vegan) and even then as a veggo things were pretty slim pickings. It is great to see how much things have changed.

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  11. I was so sorry to miss V day. With the move & all, I just couldn't afford do come back up to Paris, though I wish I could have. Looks like so much fun!

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  12. Wow, so much amazing food! This looks like an amazing day!

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  13. Wish I could have gone.I looks like it was a lot of fun.
    Thanks for all the pictures.

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  14. Ohhhhh! So much envy! I went to Paris for the first time in March and fell in love. I found such awesome tofu sausages and vegan snacks there, though nothing like the freshly baked desserts you had here. Also... cream-haters unite! :P

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  15. Jo Jo - if you manage to use your Tofutti voucher (Miso for Breakfast give-away)in the UK can you let me know please.
    xx

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  16. Come see my blog...;) you won!

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  17. did you already tried all these amazing stuff??? you must to tell us!!! hahaha

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  18. Vegan in Brighton where are you?
    We miss you.
    Please come back with some posts soon.
    x

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  19. I'm so jealous! I would have loved to go.

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  20. Thanks Claudine! I've been slacking since MoFo but I promise i'll be back with a new post really soon.

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