Paris Vegan Day

Yesterday was Paris Vegan day. I don't know where to start writing about it - it was such a cool day with cooking demos, conferences, a vegan brunch, loads of other vegan food and products around to taste and buy and stands from just about every vegan and/or animal rights group out there. It felt to me like finding an oasis in a desert. And so many people turned up. By the time I left they were on a one-out-one-in policy. The highlight for me (and probably many others) was being able to meet vegan authors and bloggers whose food I cook regularly and whose words have made me laugh, informed me and inspired me over the years. And, crazy stuff, they were all such lovely people!

I met and spoke with Isa Chandra Moskowitz (author of Vegan With a Vengence my first vegan cookbook) and Terry Hope Romero (who wrote my favourite vegan cookbook Veganomicon with Isa). They did a cookery demonstration of buckwheat blinis and creamy mushroom filling together and, true to form, were hilarious! Terry did a demonstration on her own too - OMG yummy empanadas (note to self: must get Viva Vegan!).

I met Dynise Balcavage, author of the Urban Vegan blog and the book of the same name. Wow Dynise was such a nice person. So friendly and funny. I ended up taking photos with her camera of her demonstration so that she had pictures to blog. I hope I didn't mess them up! She made a vegan Philly cheese steak sandwich and a to-die-for chocolate mousse with Cointreau - I actually tried a little of this and it was amazingly rich, smooth and tasty (photo above). Oh and Dynise speaks good French - she did her whole demo in French I was so impressed.

I also met Melisser Elliot of The Urban Housewife who has just published her first book - The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life. She did a talk about vegan travelling and was well funny. I think her "if in doubt falafel" motto will stay with me forever! She too was funny and nice and was sporting some mean tattoos. I bought her book and have started reading it - it's a good read, funny and informative, don't hesitate to get it if you are considering going vegan (and probably if you already are too - I am and I'm loving it).

I met loads of other people too whose names I didn't get but who were all there to spread the message and to talk vegan.

It actually feels weird writing this post because... well I am not one to name-drop and here I am name-dropping. But I repeat everyone I met was so friendly, natural and funny I didn't feel like I was talking to vegan superstars at all. They are all doing such good work getting the vegan message out there and (take my word for it) making going vegan easy, delicious and fun. I come away from Paris Vegan Day very happy. I feel committed to living this lifestyle and supporting those who put the word out. I feel grateful to Deborah Pivain of The Gentle Gourmet (a vegan B&B in Paris) for organising such a great day.

I am going to end this post, which is short on photos because, well, I didn't get any good ones for me (hope I got some good ones for Dynise) with a link to the film Earthlings which you can watch online. It's an amazing documentary, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, all about how we humans treat animals. Inform yourselves!