Cuisine for the Highly Compassionate

This past Friday, more than 500 people headed down to the Japanese Gardens in Long Beach, CA to feast and frolic at Animal Acres 5^th annual Compassionate Cuisine Event.  Animal Acres throws this event every year in celebration of International Vegetarian Day.  Yay!  Compassionate Cuisine is a music, art, and food extravaganza that is a great way to introduce friends and family to the delectable world of vegan food and open their eyes to looming issues concerning farm animals.

                                                        

The Japanese Gardens are absolutely beautiful!  Imagine a magically lit path circling Japanese ponds with little wooden bridges, hidden paths, and bonsai trees… oh, it was lovely.  And to top it off, these magically lit paths were lined with delicious vegan food galore.  Including Chef Tanya’s amazing Chimichurri Fajitas!

 

Hundreds of folks lined the paths eating and socializing and drinking giant bottles of beer!  It was sooo nice to see so many Native Foods Café customers having a great time.  We got to meet the Virtually Vegan Sisters... And one of them even brought Chef Tanya a present!

 

Hi-five for that!

 

There were a lot of newcomers to the vegan world and Native Foods Cafe, which is always a lot of fun!  Seeing people's faces when they try cuisine they never would have thought of trying, or were a little bit scared to try, and the reaction of "Wow, this is REALLY good!  What is this again?"  One guy told us he always avoided seitan because of the name alone... Bah!  Chef Tanya explained to him the ancient Asian origins of seitan and how you should embrace seitan rather than run from it.  

The Chimichurri Fajitas were so popular that we ran out!  And we brought a lot of fajitas I tell you.  This was a fun AND delicious event and we can't wait to celebrate again with Animal Acres next year.

Comments

[Elise]

I had a blast at the event. Your food was amazing!

[Ana]

Yes! Thank you to Chef Tanya and the Native Foodists that came to the event and for featuring me!

I'm Ana, "Eco-vegan" of the Virtually Vegan Sisters blog and artist behind Merry Blues Art.

I hope Chef Tanya liked the gift and I cannot wait to try the new reuben sandwich! Yum! :)

[Native Foods]

Woo-hoo! It was so much fun! Those Chimichurri Fajitas are available in full platter form at all locations, with beans, rice, avocado.. the whole sha-bang! Thanks Ana and Elise! Oh, and Ana, Chef Tanya loved your gift. We heart your etsy store, especially the multi-lingual calendar. SO COOL!!!