Twin Cities Veg Fest 2018
Twin Cities Veg Fest took place at Harriet Island Regional Park this year, and I love the new spot! There were more vendors than ever, and everything was comfortably spread out. Since it was around 90 degrees out, any cold options were the foods of choice.
For me, this included The Bucket in the photo above. Crepe and Spoon created this magical concoction that had a crepe as the base, then a scoop of chocolate ice cream, and it was all topped off with marshmallows, pretzels, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, potato chips, and sprinkles. Because of the heat of the day and the heat from the crepe, the ice cream melted quickly but it was still delicious, of course.
This Pumpkin Tart from Sweet Root was amazingly refreshing because it was nearly frozen when we bought it. Sarah’s Pastry Tarts sold out quickly, but we were able to bring home some Zucchini Cheddar Biscuits, which I warm up in the microwave then top with vegan butter.
These Wingz? traveled from Chicago to sling these heavenly wings, and I’m glad they did. The buffalo sauce is on point, and the heat gets you right at the end. I preferred the sweet and tangy bbq sauce, personally, and I could eat these any time of day. The base is seitan, and I like that they do orders of three so it’s not too much and leaves you room to have other food, it’s easily shared, and each order was only $5.
I tried boiled peanuts for the first time thanks to Tooties. I wasn’t a fan of the plain boiled peanuts, but I’m officially in love with the Cajun. If you like a little heat and you like peanuts, then you’ll probably like these. You can order on their website and they’ll ship some to you.
There were nine food trucks at Veg Fest, and three of them are always vegan: Reverie, The Herbivorous Butcher, and The J. Mobile. Reverie brought back the Berbere BBQ Sandwich from their restaurant days, which pleased many people I know. It’s their house made mock duck with green pepper and onions in bbq sauce and garlic aioli. We also got to try their Strawberry Shortcake which was surprisingly light and not too sweet – perfect for such a hot day. To find out where to catch them next, check out the Where’s the Truck? page on their website.
Fro Yo Soul was there with their frozen yogurt truck, and they offer a few vegan flavors. The premise behind this one is self serve: you pick out a dish, dispense your own frozen yogurt, choose your toppings, and then you pay by weight. Yet another refreshing option!
Vegan East cupcakes are one of my most favorite things in the world, and they offered four-packs of gluten and non-gluten cupcakes. You can’t go wrong with the Double Chocolate pictured below, and the pack also included Fall Spice, Chocolate Salted Caramel, and Funfetti. Mark your calendar because their new location in Uptown opens October 1! I’m closer to their White Bear Lake location, so that’s my go-to spot. If you’ve never had their cinnamon rolls, they’re crazy good, and you can also enjoy their goodies at a few other spots around town.
Of course we can’t forget the Chicken Fried Steak Doubles Down by The Herbivorous Butcher. This monster of a sandwich is enough to feed at least four people, and we also served up a limited quantity of cheese curds. It was fun to see people also getting cheese curds from Radical Eats, but I held off on those since I’ve had them before and I didn’t want to get in the way of others enjoying them.
On the way out, I stopped at Prairie Vegan Pies to snag a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie to go. I have almond-based ReddiWip that I picked up at Hy-Vee, so I topped it with that before devouring it. Megan had a pop up at The Herbivorous Butcher not long ago, and I tried the Chocolate Silk Pie which was also amazingly decadent. Sometimes I find that pie crust leaves a bitter aftertaste, but hers doesn’t, and I love that the pies are small so it’s perfect for two people to share.
I sampled Nogurt, a new vegan yogurt that has a sunflower base. I’m not usually a yogurt person because of the texture, but this one wasn’t too thick and I enjoyed it. J. Selby’s passed out free chocolate chip cookies, so I couldn’t turn that down, and I snagged a bbq sandwich from Wide World of Foods. Trio Plant Based has its grand opening scheduled for September 30, and they served up cute little bowls of vegan SpaghettiOs topped with potato chips. And finally, an horchata popsicle from Saint Pops was a must.
There was so much more I wanted to eat, but I just couldn’t fit it all in.The fest seemed to go well overall, with a great turnout, and a beautiful location. I hope they keep it at the same spot next year!