Natural Products Expo West 2011

Who: VN Editorial Assistant Anna Peraino and the entire VN team

What: Natural Products Expo West 2011

Where: Anaheim, Calif.

When: March 11-13, 2011

Why: To find out about this year's best new vegan products, of course!

The Scoop: I had heard what I thought were tall tales of the food, beverage, and natural product Mecca that is Expo West, but to be quite honest, I didn't believe it. Boy, was I wrong. Imagine a grocery store multiplied by 50, filled with hundreds of thousands of people, and throw in millions of skillets, slow cookers, and toothpicks, and you have Expo West. The booths were massive (So Delicious' booth was not only two stories tall but also had a Nintendio Wii), the food and drinks were never-ending (think vegan quesadillas, pizza, 10 kinds of peanut butter, and Gardein galore in just one section of one of the 50 football field-long aisles), and the people were everywhere (The Spork Girls! Jillian Michaels! Fabio!).

So Delicious' two-story booth: one of many behemoths

Most of the VegNews team flew down on Thursday afternoon, and the weekend only got crazier from there. The days were filled with taste testing new products (chocolate walnut brownie ice cream, pizza, and orange sugar-covered marshmallow Dandies were three of the thousands), picking our 2011 Best of Show winners (want to know who we picked? Make sure to check out our May+June issue!), and catching up with friends. The craziness didn't stop there: with dinners at Native Foods Café (my burger consisted of a heap of seitan, Daiya cheddar cheese, tempeh bacon, BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, and fried pickle chips) and The Veggie Grill, it seemed like we never stopped eating. Well, to be fair, we didn't.

Native Food Café's Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger. Be jealous.

I'd like to sign off saying it was all fun and tasting spoons, but I'd be lying. A blackout at our hotel (waking up to a room full of lights at 4am? Jarring) and a two and a half-hour delay on our way home were definitely both unexpected (and quite unwelcome), but all in all, it was an awesome and completely exhausting weekend. Want more Expo West dish? Check out our Facebook album for pics, stories, and finds!

Seed, Spork Sisters, and the 59th Annual Maggie Awards

Who: VN Publisher Joseph Connelly and VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland
What: One fine day in LA
Where: Venice, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles, Calif.
When: May 7, 2010
Why: The trophies were waiting

The Scoop: Colleen and I have been on the road pretty much non-stop since early February—publishing duties keep us busy, y'know. Why not jam as much into this 48-hour SoCal trip as possible?

Thursday night was Forks Over Knives; today began with chopsticks at Venice's stylish Seed Restaurant. The baby of Love, Eric author Eric Lechasseur and his wife Sanae Suzuki, this quaint and cozy restaurant not far from Muscle Beach serves such a dazzling selection of fresh macrobiotic fare that one visit won't do it justice. We'll be back. Thanks, Eric!

Seed's Saisai Donburi Macro Bowl

Just around the corner from Seed is Eko Zone, a spacious, well-lit vegan shop run by the lovely threesome of Dana Riley, Bill, and the one who does the real work, the photogenic Kosmo. If you ever need to pick up a copy of VegNews, they sell it here!

Eko Zone's Dana, Bill, and the white-and-fluffy Kosmo

Since I had just seen Chef Tanya Petrovna at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down six days ago, we stopped at the Westwood location of her Native Foods to see if she was around. She wasn't, so we settled for a non-macro Boogie Bar.

Native Food's cookbook and Boogie Bar

A last-minute invite by the dynamic duo that is the Goldberg sisters, had us "rushing" from Venice to West Hollywood through legendary LA traffic. Heather and Jenny, the insanely adorable owners of Spork Foods have opened a fashionable loft studio where they teach cooking classes, film their VegNews TV segments, and actually spin vinyl! I was in heaven. Heather and Jenny are raising veganism to a new level, which is a good thing, don't you think?

The chic, hip Spork Foods loft

Heather and Jenny Goldberg

Next up was a pit stop at "Sunset Grill," aka the West Hollywood Veggie Grill on Sunset Boulevard (Colleen's first visit). We bumped into a young man cautiously eyeing the menu; sensing apprehension, VegNews offered to buy him his very first veggie burger (the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin', for those who appreciate detail). Wouldn't you know that our new friend, Tamon George, is actually a professional football player (defensive back) for the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders and was the number nine overall pick in the 2009 CFL draft? Later, his lovely Persia White-look-alike girlfriend Sarah Fontenot joined us. Of course, she's beautiful and a budding silver screen actress. If this story isn't sappy enough, the handsome couple met when they were five years old! Another order of Sweetheart Fries, please.

All the way from Saskatchewan: Tamon George and Sarah Fontenot

A quick change into evening wear and we were off to the big show: The 59th annual Maggie Awards, the "Oscars of the Magazine Industry." VegNews picked up two (including Best Lifestyle Magazine for the third year in a row), and had the pleasure of sitting with Madeleine Buckingham, publisher of fellow San Francisco magazine Mother Jones. Madeleine and MJ were the evening's big winners, taking home four Maggies, which translates into bragging rights for our table, as seen here:

Mother Jones' Claudia Smukler and Madeleine Buckingham with VegNews' Joe and Colleen

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Living the VegNews Dream

Who: The whole VN team + la vegan-entrepreneur crème de la soy crème
What: Birthdays and bubbly by the pool
When: March 15, 2008
Where: Candy Cane Inn, Anaheim, Calif.
Why: Because we’ll take any excuse to celebrate two of our favorite VN ladies!

The Scoop: It’s a tough life we have, we VegNews peons: traveling extreme distances only to be taken to a poolside suite; then, after a night of being force-fed at Native Foods, getting dragged out of bed to sample hundreds of vegan treats and personal products—at one point, we were even commanded to bring some samples home with us. Talk about a hostile work environment!

Okay, so maybe it was a little more like the ultimate vegan fantasy, and a little less like arduous labor, but, after nine hours of boothing and sleuthing, our feet were seriously sore. And, because it was Jenny and Katie’s birthdays, we were not ready to call it a night. Enter our hero, VN Publisher Joseph Connelly, who brought us delicious Vietnamese take-out from the nearby and newly opened Thuyen Vien, a specially made, giant Native Foods chocolate birthday cake with vanilla frosting, and several pints of Maggie Mudd Tarmac and Memphis Mudd Pie vegan ice-cream. Joining in the festivities were longtime friends of VegNews, and standout entrepreneurs, Vegan Essentials husband and wife team Courtney Ernster and Ryan Wilson, as well as the always entertaining Chicago Soy Dairy gents—producers of the first "ice-cream" made in an all-vegan facility. Later on, after heartfelt card-giving and candle-blowing, we dipped our tired, happy bodies into the glowing hot tub, and popped some Champagne. It’s tough work, but hey, somebody’s gotta do it.

Hollywood Hills Book launch Party

Who: VN Publisher Joseph Connelly, VN Managing Editor Aurelia d'Andrea, and a gaggle of glamorous, compassionate people
What: A launch party for Gene Baur's new book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Food Animals
Where: The Baur family home in the Hollywood Hills
When: March 15, 2008
Why: To support our fellow vegans

The Scoop: Joe and I nipped out from our Expo West duties for a few hours so we could lend our support to Gene Baur, co-founder of Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY, and Orland, Calif., who was having his official book launch party at his folks' home in the Hollywood Hills. Due to co-pilot malfunction, we got a little lost on the way up, but knew we were getting close when Joe's Prius passed a string of parked cars plastered with "Go Veg!" stickers.

Inside the modest mid-century home high in the hills above Los Angeles, the vegan glitterati mingled over glasses of organic wine and small plates from the buffet catered by Tanya Petrovna of Native Foods. The juicy tomato skewers were divine! Here and there, a familiar face surfaced in the crowd. Hey! Do I know him? Oh, wait: that's James Cromwell of Babe fame, and no, I don't know him. But I do know her—that's Skinny Bitch herself, Rory Freedman. I love her! And there's another vegan author, the funny, glamorous Karen Dawn. (Read more about her and her latest book, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, in the current issue of VegNews.) And where can I get a coat like hers? (See Karen in said manteau above, pictured beside Emily Deschanel.)



After thoughtful speeches by Loretta Swit and Farm Sanctuary's Samantha Ragsdale, Gene took the podium for a few inspiring moments to talk about the way farmed animals have changed his outlook on life, deepened his compassion, and set the course of his life's work. A compelling, charismatic speaker, Gene had the crowd enraptured. It was a memorable evening made more so by the genuine feelings of empathy and compassion generated by this altruistic bunch of do-gooders. Being part of the vegan community is pretty freakin' awesome!

Native Foods Night Out

Who: VN Staff
What: Kick-off dinner at Natural Products Expo West
Where: Native Foods in Costa Mesa
When: March 13, 2008
Why: Pass up an opportunity to hit Native Foods? We think not.

The Scoop: Every March, the VN clan hits Anaheim in full force for the world’s largest natural products show—three jam-packed days of schmoozing, product testing, and giving out copies of the magazine. To kick-off the weekend, we always hit one of our favorite vegan restaurants: Native Foods. With four locations (and a fifth coming soon), there's nothing quite like a meal at Native. It was a balmy March evening in Orange County, and our party dined al fresco around a large table complete with a fire pit in the middle. We started with Native’s signature appetizers: “Save the Chicken” Wings (housemade seitan deep-fried in a coconut batter with a side of Ranch dressing), Native Seasoned Fries, and Native Nachos (tortilla chips smothered with black beans, soy taco meat, salsa, guacamole, corn, and soy cheese). For the record, we could eat Native’s (un)chicken wings all day, every day. Having spent all afternoon traveling, we were absolutely famished and inhaled the appetizers. We then ordered individual entrées; everything from Katie’s Philly Peppersteak Sandwich (seasoned seitan with sautéed onions and peppers on an organic French roll) to Jenny’s Gandhi Bowl (Jasmine and brown rice loaded with steamed veggies, blackened tempeh, and a curry sauce) to Colleen’s Mad Cowboy (baked potato topped with barbecue tempeh, grilled vegetables, and Native’s famous Ranch dressing—affectionately named after former cattle-rancher-turned-vegan-activist Howard Lyman). We were all in veggie heaven eating this flavorful, innovative, delicious food. We couldn’t leave without dabbling in a few desserts: the Elephant Chocolate Cake (with cinnamon peanut butter icing), the Key Lime Parfait, and the Native Cheesecake. We were especially fortunate that Ms. Tanya Petrovna, founder of Native Foods, joined us for a while. She even had us taste-test her new coconut-battered oyster mushrooms (which were amazing). And VN has some exclusive scoop! One of our favorite veg boutiques, Humanitaire (located in a very stylish space next to Native Foods in Costa Mesa), is opening up location #2 in the rear of Native Food’s Westwood location. Nothing makes us happier than when veg businesses expand and multiply. Yeah!