NYC Vegetarian Food Fest

This past weekend was the Third Annual NYC Vegetarian Food Fest held at the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th Street. Outside was the most exciting event of all, the Cinnamon Snail Vegan Food Truck which was parked right outside of the venue and the line to their truck was nearly as long as the line to the entrance.

Hubby(the told dude with sunglasses) waiting in line to taste a delicious Seitan Burger

Luckily... and I mean real lucky, my husband and I had VIP passes to get in. I would not have had the patience to wait out in the cold to get into the then really hot vegetarian food fest.

Cinnamon Snail Menu

So here's my take on the food trends happening... gluten free and vegan are the biggest things to hit the food world since sliced bread- that's the good news. The sad news is that most of the gluten free products I saw at the fest were DESSERTS! So at every corner there was someone else trying to promote their GF product in the form of chocolate chip cookies.... and almost everyone had that one on the menu. Some originality please.

Looks delicious!

On the interesting front, there was a vendor there trying to promote her artisinal cheeses made from cashews. It was an interesting taste... but a little too salty to compensate for the lack of cheese. Otherwise, it would have been divine on a little cracker.

Another vendor was promoting his RAW vegan ice cream made from coconut. Coconut is in... that's for sure. It's actually a great product with high fiber, the only downside is if you don't like the taste of coconut - it's definitely pronounced. I happened to like it. I am rooting for this Raw Ice Cream because their factory is in Long Beach, NY and they got hit really hard from Hurricane Sandy.

So here are some of the pictures from todays outing. Please comment if you have questions. Would love to hear your thought on Gluten Free sugary desserts and the foods trends you notice.Also, there was a vendor selling fake crab meat... what do you think of the fake meat market for vegans?? I mean if you are vegetarian, what are your reasons for becoming vegetarian? Why would you want to eat a product that tastes like meat if you made a conscious decision not to eat meat?? I am on the fence about that one. I don't crave meat... so don't have the thirst for it, but I suppose if you are vegan and you do crave the taste of meat... maybe you should eat it. Just saying.... What are your thoughts about that too?

Konjac is a Japanese root vegetable used to make fake fish meats