VEGANesp
Well, the first annual Atlanta Veg Fest was today and we were there all day. We joined the organizing committee about a month or so before the event to coordinate the volunteers. It was a wonderful experience to be part of the fest, and meet so many awesome people. Brett, who organizes ATL Vegan Drinks every month was also on the committee and decided to it on the same night as sort of an after party. Sauced, who has hosted four Vegan Drinks events prior to this one, worked up an awesome menu for us and served the entrees and desserts buffet-style. Very nice. Chef Ria does an amazing job and it’s fantastic that both of her restaurants (Sauced and Ria’s Bluebird) are vegan friendly. The menu tonight started off with passed appetizers of biscuits with scuppernong jam (apparently, scuppernongs are a kind of grape native to the southeast – who knew?) and a nori-wrapped tofu “scallop”. Both were delish and were gobbled so fast, we neglected to take photos. By hey. We gave you a pic of the menu so it’s ok.
The first course (brought to the tables, not served buffet) was a smoked portabella with arugula, pomegranate and crispy shallots. So super yum. Seth doesn’t like mushrooms, so I got his. Bonus. There was also a soup – African squash with Fuji apple compote – it was so good. Slightly sweet, but not too much and very rich. The weather was cool, so it was nice to have a small bowl of soup to shake off the chill. The buffet consisted of three, items: a mushroom stew with crowder peas, sweet potato gnocchi with greens and haikuri turnips, and cornbread dressing with sage gravy. And more biscuits! Everything was mouthwateringly good. For those outside the Southeastern US, dressing is what most other people call stuffing, only it’s cooked in a shallow baking dish and cut into squares. Cornbread is very popular in dressing and you always top it with gravy.
Dessert was also a buffet, which was pretty cool. (and oops – I thought I took a pic, but apparently not.) I was so stuffed by this point I didn’t get my own plate (I know, I know) but I tasted almost everything on Seth’s plate. A pecan pie (served warm!), peanut butter crisps with bittersweet chocolate (oh my God these were amazing) and a grapefruit & lavender consume. I skipped the grapefruit since it’s really my least favorite fruit. OK. I hate grapefruit. Anyway, the rest was so tasty it was ridiculous. Oh, and somehow there was enough food leftover that we got to get take out containers and get a little bit to take home with us. I may or may not have snagged a few of those chocolate squares…
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