Friends and Food

Didn't do much cooking this weekend, but I did plenty of eating. On Friday, my friend Misti joined me at "Brooks Uncorked," a wine tasting at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The annual event features 80 wines from around the world, a silent auction, and a lot of fancy food (most of which, unfortunately, was not vegan).

It was a swanky affair, so Misti and I glammed ourselves up.



Now, I don't know how many of the red wines I tasted were actually vegan. I'm a "don't ask, don't tell" vegan when it comes to sampling wines. At events like this, most people don't even realize some wine is processed with non-vegan ingredients like albumen. So asking does no good. Basically, I'll drink it until I find out it's not vegan...either from stumbling over the info online or in a magazine. As far as I know, the albumen and/or isinglass doesn't actually make into the wine anyway. I'm probably a bad vegan for thinking like this.

As for the food, I could only eat the veggie sushi, the tasty three-bean salad (green beans, black beans, and a edamame), and some sort of citrusy white rice dish (it was kind of gross).



Unfortunately, no one told me there was going to be a whole roasted pig, complete with a terror-stricken face, in the center of the food area. I only glanced once, but it was too late. I'm totally scared from that moment. I don't understand how anyone in their right mind can eat something that has a face...that's just crazy and sad and gross.

Saturday was much more vegan-friendly! I met up with some folks from my veggie society, Food Awareness, for lunch at Java, Juice & Jazz (the new vegan soul food place that I keep raving about). Steph from Poopie Bitch was there with her sister and adorable nephew, and she may have pictures on her blog too.

Their menu changes daily, and Saturday's entree offering was vegan soft tacos made with seasoned TVP, guac, homemade salsa, black olives, and lettuce on spinach tortillas. The dish was served with chips and three dipping sauces - vegan cheese dip, salsa, and guac. So far, this has been my fave entree at Java.



After lunch, we were all groaning about how full we were when our waiter came by and offered dessert - crumbled vegan cookies topped with bananas, strawberries, and mint chocolate sauce!!!!



There was no way I could turn that down, no matter how full I was. Most people at our table split their dessert with someone else. But I came alone, and I'm not much for sharing food (I'm a pig, what can I say?). I ate the entire dessert by myself and spent the rest of the day miserably full.