Exploring Veganism Away from Home (Part I)

Things have been quiet on this here wee blog over the past week and a half. I'd been busy preparing for a bit of a trip and today find myself on day 9 of my trip to Pennsylvania / New Jersey. Staying with my spectacular vegan-friendly omni host (aka "the boy") has been a treat. Numerous trips to a grocery store chain called "Acme" which invariably elicited memories of many a childhood Saturday morning watching Bugs Bunny cartoons, as well as visiting my first Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market left us with so many wonderful things to eat--many of them new to my host.

His favourites, revealing his ol' sweet tooth, were the vanilla ice cream Tofutti Cuties we picked up at Trader Joe's and the vegan cornbread and chocolate-topped peanut butter fudge we picked up at Whole Foods (as well as the vanilla Silk soy milk we found there). Aside from stocking my vegetable-aversive sweetie's fridge and fruit bowl with raw produce (romaine, heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, radishes, corn on the cob, cucumbers, apples, bananas, avocados, pineapple, grapes, red onion, fresh ginger and more), we also picked up whole grain pita and bread, nuts and an assortment of fun things ranging from both Trader Joe's horseradish and kalamata olive hummus (each one incredible, in my opinion--one of the things I will miss most about Pennsylvania is the omnipresence of horseradish) to habanero pepper sauce, Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese, Yves Veggie PizzaPepperoni Slices, Gimme Lean sausage and "everything bagel" chips. Oh, and Yellow Tail shiraz, which to my consternation is less than half the price here (even with the exchange rate) that it is back home in Canada.

So the very basic foundation for my trip involving feeding myself and the spreading of vegan goodliness in the form of delicious grub definitely started on the home-front. Aside from munching on various things (nuts, pretzels, fruit, soy yogurt, et al.), we ended up eating pita pizzas with anything from "pepperoni" and "sausage" to olives, sweet or hot pickled peppers, red onion, spinach, et al. topped with "mozzarella", Schezuan tofu vegetable stir-fry, salads, sandwiches, pita wedges w/ hummus, veggie burgers and we went out twice (and I hope to bump this up to three times today with a return jaunt into Philly today to try a sandwich at Govinda's--the boy wants to try a vegan Philly cheesesteak sandwich). I'll be blogging some more about other vegan-related things concerning my trip--eating out, non-food purchases, my vegan "firsts"--once I'm back at yonder place I should call "home". Call me easy, but my handful of days here have left me itching to transplant myself. I'll have much to ponder on the long bus ride home.