We went to the Vegetarian Food Festival in Toronto a couple of weeks ago and sampled a lot of great food.  We almost forgot about it completely as we were hell-bent on getting back to the Hall since forever.  This summer we stayed in the city for both the August long weekend and Labour day and that never happens.

But we don’t regret staying in town, not a bit.  My work colleague, the Lovely Mary, reminded me about the veggie food fair so thankfully we decided to stay in the city once again to enjoy the culinary delights of this annual event.  How could we not go?  We are vegetarians after all and it is an annual event that’s claimed to be the largest vegetarian fair in North America.  A veritable variety of vegetarian victuals!  A mighty meatless Mecca, it did not disappoint.

The event has really changed over the years since the first time we went.  In those days it was nigh impossible to find protein substitutes that didn’t taste like sawdust or required large amounts of liquids to keep the food down, and it was more of a fringe event.

Not any more.  We tried a little bit of everything and I have to say that the grilled meatless sausages were out of this world:  moist, they had the consistency of the real thing without the gristle that used to make my tongue want to curl up and die.  You could slap one of these babies into a bun or slice, sauté and toss it into our newly home made tomato sauce, pour it onto some spaghettini and create a nicely balanced protein enriched meal.  Out of this world, I tell you.

The vegan cupcakes were a treat too – fluffy, not too dense and sweet, but not tongue-curling sweet.

For lunch we ate both Chinese and Indian.  The King’s Cafe delighted us with their mango soy fritters, veggie duck with plum sauce and veggie chicken with ginger sauce.  Govinda’s chana masala, pakora and samosas were complimented with a new version of The Higher Taste, a Hare Krishna cookbook handed out with every meal.  The food was as delicious as it sounds and I thought that the cookbook bonus was nice, since I’ve had that same book since I became a vegetarian.  The earlier version that I have had a recipe for a sweet and sour stir fry that made me feel like I knew how to cook.  You can buy it through Amazon; it’s small but useful and has some new recipes.  I can’t wait to try the Tom Yum Sweet and Sour Soup.