Saturday, July 11, 2009

Dilly Dallying 'Round Town

We don't have any plans to go away this summer..bah! So many things going on with work and family that we simply haven't had time to plan anything. However, I've been having a great time on the other side of the river in Boston in my free time. One evening two weeks ago when it wasn't raining (!), I took the red line across the river to the super big and ritzy Whole Foods on Cambridge Street. My regular Whole Foods is pretty big and gorgeous but not quite as nice as this one. Now, I know that many people know what a Whole Foods looks like but I thought I'd take some pictures for some of my European friends who haven't been able to check one out. They are certainly an experience!

The Red Line drops me off at the Charles train stop...

It's about a 7-8 minute walk to the Charles River Plaza Whole Foods..'cuse the crappy picture quality..only had my cell phone camera on me.


Veggie grilling anyone?!

Their deli bar is a veggie dream...


The floral department is integrated with the beauty products section..I could spend hours there!


Yes, please..
I heart Pacifica..by far my favorite vegan non-edible products! Thanks to Katie aka the Chocolate-Covered Vegan, I know know about the Mexican Chocolate scent. I also love the Hawaiian Guava and Tibetan Mountain Temple..ahhhhh!

You are now entering the bakery zone..zeroing in on vegan bakery products...

Located target! Yum...


Moving on to the produce department to seek the elusive dragon fruit. I read about it in my new vegan ice cream book, The Vegan Scoop. My local WF doesn't have it. Supposedly tastes like a cross between strawberries and kiwi. The very friendly produce team gave me a sample. Hum..strawberries and kiwi are not exactly how I'd describe it..it was, well, rather bland and not sweet. Maybe it wasn't ripe. Grrr...doesn't it look dragonish?! Or maybe like a porcupine?


The produce worker who gave me a sample told me that lychees are related to dragon fruit and personally, he prefers lychees. He gave me a sample. Lychees look exactly like dragon fruit minus the thorny thingies. And so much better tasting!


A Pure bar sample smorgasbord! Thanks again to the Chocolate-Covered Vegan for letting me know that Clif is discontinuing my favorite vegan bar, Nectar..we've been on a search for a suitable replacement. Pure won't be it (must be chocolate, folks..there are no compromises on that) but the cranberry orange flavor is really good. I would buy it regardless of its zero chocolate content and that's saying something =)


Mission accomplished..I left Whole Foods, with a dent in my credit card and Sweet and Sara vegan marshmallows packed in my bag. Onwards to Newbury Comics, our local discount and very fun music store chain. This was worth a shot...Tofu is so going to win, I just know it!



Later at the Harvard Bookstore, I plunked myself down to drool over some lovely vegan reading. Ani's Raw Food Desserts..healthy and sweet..my heart was beating extra fast...


Shellyfish has blogged about this book quite a bit and I know it will be mine soon. But not today because it's $35 and my credit card is still too hot from Whole Foods to touch...


And finally, have I been living in a cave for a few years? How did I miss Babycakes, the vegan cupcakery in NYC? So checking it out next month when I visit my sister in NYC...


And last but not least, a trip to Fiore's Bakery in Jamaica Plain..it's not all vegan but it's got enough vegan offerings to warrant many return trips!






My lunch..I forgot the name but it was so delicious..I ate half, wrapped the other half up to eat at home for a yummilicious leftover session later in the day!

So much to tell you soon about converting my entire family to veganism this past week! Okay, just for a day but hey, I cannot believe my dad ate a tofu-based lasagna and loved it. Yeah, okay, so he didn't actually know it was tofu or vegan but if you can't convince them with the facts, appeal to their taste buds! Long Live Passive Aggressive Vegan Conversions!! Lol!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was fun - got to pretend I was hanging with Amanda day! There are so many books I want it's obscene...it's so hard because so many of the vegan books & cookbooks I'd like aren't translated into French - so that means I need to order them from the US and well shipping, that hurts!
The Reinhart book is expensive, but I must admit for me it was money well spent because i don't have any other bread baking books, and it's taught me alot!

Amanda said...

I will get that book soon but until the budget affords, I'll live vicariously through you!

For the Love of Guava said...

mwhahaa... you made grocery shopping positively glamorous!! I can totally imagine us lost in the great back extensive & expensive depths of whole foods... teehee..eating vegan lavender cupcakes and discussing our favorite gilmore girl quote of coursE!

spiceislandvegan said...

That dragon fruit is called rambutan in Indonesia. I grew up with it. Yum! I love it that more and more unusual tropical fruit is now coming to US.

I just bought Vegan Table and Vegan Brunch cookbooks. I am nuts about cookbooks and need more shelf to contain all of them.

Debbie