Vegan MoFo Post #21!
Getting one more post in before the MoFo craziness is over! I am super sad it’s ending this year. I’m not sure what was different, but I made a big effort to read and comment on other blogs as much as I could while traveling so perhaps I just felt even more connected to the power of MoFo!
I am sitting on Long Island as I write this, which is where this whole crazy road trip begin. I cannot believe it’s over, what a crazy summer! This is the last post in my Vegan Nom Noms Does America series (for now).
Before we start, if you are here from MoFo and want to keep in touch when it’s not MoFo time, do follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest! Even though it’s not MoFo anymore, I’ll still be blogging away from Berlin, Germany so expect more European adventures and beyond, some serious blogging of cookbook adventures (so much eating out, must detox) and more to come! Now on with the food!
As soon as I arrived, hungry after endless DC area traffic, my friend Pat swooped me into a place called Smiley’s Cafe, in Manyunk which has Greek food. I got the Falafel Platter and it was awesome. I got falafel balls, hummus, grape leaves and a big salad with pitas and tahini sauce. I ate it all up and then wiped up all the salad dressing tahini goodness with the pita bread.
The next day for lunch we went to Couch Tomato Cafe and Bistro in Manyunk where I got this awesome Vegan Personal Pizza with Daiya. I got pineapple, mushrooms and fresh arugula on top. Super yummy!
Since I am super super obsessed with Ethiopian food still, I met another friend that night at Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant in West Philly. I got this Veggie Combo and it was soooo good! I love Ethiopian food so much!
I had suuuuper good timing and visited during the Manyunk StrEAT Food Festival, which was a stone’s throw from my friend’s door. No public transportation was even necessary, which solved that “Oops I drank too much beer and have to pee, but we’re outside with tons of people around and no bathrooms” problem! I got this Green Curry Quinoa with Roasted Vegetable Medley Wrap thing with veggies that was pretty good, but HUGE. I topped it with Sriracha. It was from a food truck called Foo Truck, no really.
I also got some Smoked Cinnamon Ice Cream from Little Baby’s Ice Cream that had a stand at the festival, but also has a brick and mortar shop. They had lots of other non-dairy flavors, but they were all sold out when I got there. I wasn’t a huge fan of the smoked cinnamon, just because I’m not a huge cinnamon person, but it’s my fault that I waited so long to get ice cream.
The best part of the food festival though was that they had a beer garden. For $10 you got this punch card that allowed you 12 little cups of craft beers from any of the stands in the garden. The best past was that many people couldn’t handle those 12 little beers and we apparently looked like we could so three different people gave us their half used cards!!! You know what that means…FREE BEER! Hellzzz yes. I got my pumpkin beer and IPA fix here! I also re-learned that I quite like pale ales as they are hoppy, but not overwhelmingly so.
My original plan was to eat dinner from the food festival, but when it approached the closing time and all the stalls with vegan stuff had sold out of the vegan stuff, it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. I popped in to Han Dynasty, which was right in front of me at the time and had tofu on the menu so I went for it. Funnily enough, I saw that Laughfrodisiac blogged about this very place the day after I ate there. Psychic MoFo connection, amiright?! I got the Hot Sauce Style Tofu, but had them add broccoli to it. I kinda wish I got some of the stuff on Laughfrodisiac’s post though! They were super friendly and knew what vegan was as she said, win! 
This ended up being the most expensive lunch I ever had, as I ate and then came out to realize I had a $50 parking ticket. I am still pretty sad about it and a bit mad at Philly. That said, this was the Jerk Chicken Caesar Salad and Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Aioli from HipCityVeg , a Philly vegan standby with several locations throughout the city.
And that was Philly and with it, MoFo for 2014! I must say I am impressed with myself for managing to MoFo while sightseeing, driving many 7+ hour days in the car, working and hanging out with friends. It must be a new all time productivity record!
As always, for more check out the Posts by Location page, Recipe Index and don’t be shy and follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook! Check the Veg Travel Gear and Resources for your own travel adventures as well!
See you soon!
I love it! So glad you enjoyed the Philly noms. That stinks about the ticket but at least you got to HCV before you left; that was a must!
Damn the man! But yes, it was a pretty yummy lunch! So cool I ended up being there for that food fest, thanks for showing me around!
I really enjoyed your MoFo theme! It was really cool watching you travel around! You might have broken a productivity record with all you had going on. Great job! 🙂
I can’t believe I’ve never been to Philadelphia. It’s super high up my list so hopefully I’ll make it there soon. I’ve loved your MoFo theme, it’s been super fun to read.
Aww thank you! Yours has also been super awesome to read as you were one step ahead of me! Still drooling over Via 313 and gotta try the Treeline again.