Usually, I like sticking to cheese that has a pretty mild/tame flavour. I’ve seen some cheeses that have blueberries, and other odd things in them. While I’m not quite at that stage of trying new things, I did want to try branching out from my usual Daiya (and now Violife) cheese and see if I could be satisfied with a wilder flavour.
Enter: Main Vegan Deli’s Smoked Applewood Cheese Wedge.
I decided to go with Main Vegan Deli because I remembered liking their cheese sample at one of the Vegandale festivals I went to, so I thought they would be a safer choice. (Instead of picking a completely new company) Also, their cheese is made out of cashews, and I haven’t tried very many cashew based cheeses, so I figured two birds.
Now, this cheese definitely has a… let’s say ‘bold’ flavour. Upon first taste test (done cold, right out of the fridge), it had the texture of soft tofu, and didn’t really have much of a taste, until you got to the red dust that was along one side. Once you got there, that’s when the flavour became apparent. It’s kind of hard to describe the flavour, but one thing I can say for sure, is that it made the back of my throat tingle after swallowing it.
I found out later, that it apparently has whisky in it, so I’m not sure if that would’ve been that flavour (I’m pretty sensitive to alcohol’s), or if it was something else, but it definitely didn’t make it fun to swallow.
That said, I had my (non-vegan) friend try it as well, and they absolutely loved it! They said, and I quote, “It’s as close as you can get without dairy. It melted the same and tasted great on burgers and sandwiches.”
I also tried it in a cold sandwich, and it was definitely better when not eating alone, although I couldn’t tell if that was because it was disguised with other flavours or not. And, it still tingled my throat. I didn’t get a chance to try it melted, although I did smell it melted, and similar to a few other things, the flavour just seemed to intensify when it was heated.
I figured since I didn’t really like the flavour, I probably wasn’t gonna like it with an intensified flavour.
While this cheese wasn’t my cup of tea, I would still say it was good, and if you’re someone who looks for bold flavoured cheeses, I’d definitely recommend you try it out!
Another good thing about this wedge, is that it was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be! It’s actually the size I thought the Violife Parm Wedge was going to be. Since I tried the Violife wedge first, I had lowered my expectations on size when I bought this one, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! Especially because it was listed at $15.
If I had ended up liking the flavour, I would’ve been over the moon at how big of a wedge it came with. I ended up giving it to my friend, who was really happy with it’s size. Though they did agree with me that $15 still seemed a bit too steep. We both thought if it was closer to $10-12 it would’ve been better.
Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here, when I say ‘big’, I don’t mean it was ‘big’, I mean it was bigger than the Violife wedge, but was still relatively small. The whole wedge was roughly the size of my hand.
The wedge went from the tip of my middle finger, to my wrist, making it about 6 inches long. It was also about 2 inches wide (pointer to ring finger).
Definitely not big enough to be $15 in my eyes. But! I want to say thank-you to Main Vegan Deli for not making it ridiculously small.
If their other cheeses are the same size, I definitely can’t wait to try one of their tamer flavours!
Have you tried Main Vegan Deli’s Applewood Smoked Wedge? Let me know what you think about it in the comments below!
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I hope you all had a relaxing break and are ready to get back to it.
This year, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of jumping right into a brand new article on the first day, I thought instead, I could do a post that would show you what’s to come.
I figured this would be good for two reasons:
It gives you guys adequate time to get excited for what’s to come, and
It gives me an extra week to get some posts scheduled.
I’m (mostly) kidding on that second point. But, I have been doing lots of research in my time off from posting and, apparently, people like to feel like insiders, and like to see teasers of what’s coming up, so they can build the anticipation for the thing, have time to prepare, etc.
And while my blog doesn’t put out heart-stopping excitement, I still thought it might be cool to try out.
So, below, you’ll see some previews of posts to come.
Enjoy! (And get ready)
Puddles (PHSH Effect #19, Coming Apr. 4th)
Make It Count (Unlearning Series Fic #9, Coming May 9th)
Lens Flares (PHSH Effect #21, Coming July 25th)
Vegan Fast Food: KFC (Coming Aug. 22nd)
Curses (Coming Oct. 14th)
Who Gives a Crap Review (Coming Mar. 28th)
The Long One (A SPN x Marvel crossover, Coming Sept. 2nd)
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Alright, since we’re getting into the warmer weather now (thank God), I thought what better food to review then an ice-cream sandwich? Might as well help you out with your summer treat shopping before it gets too hot to think.
This was actually one of the first vegan ice-creams I tried. I remember back before I went vegan and my brother brought these home, excited he found an ice-cream that me and my family could eat, without us being there to help! He was pretty proud of himself, and it wasn’t too long before he started buying the boxes in two’s – and those would maybe last a week. Sometimes, I went to have one, only to discover that there was only one left – and no one else in my family had gotten to them!
Perhaps the best part of that story? My brother isn’t even vegan – and he devoured them like that for a few summers!
One thing that’s cool about the Tofutti company, is that they make all kinds of different tofu-based products, which makes their cream cheeses, ice-cream and others perfect for people who can’t/won’t eat dairy.
Specifically speaking about these vanilla sandwiches, they come 8 to a box, each individually wrapped in paper and are pretty small. I like that they ran with the small-ness of them and decided to call them Cuties, but practically speaking, if it’s 40C and you need a good cool down snack, you’d need to eat two.
The chocolate cookie is nice and soft, which I like. I’d take soft cookies over hard any day – but one sort of con about their softness, is that sometimes when you unwrap the sandwich, bits of the cookie sticks to the wrapper. It’s no problem to lick the extra off when you’re at home, but if you were to bring these to a summer BBQ or get together, it’d be sad to see it go to waste.
The ice-cream itself is actually pretty surprising when you remember that it’s made out of tofu. It doesn’t taste like you’re eating tofu, it just tastes like ice-cream. (I was equally amazed when my friend Blair made chocolate ice-cream out of sweet potato!) It’s not overly vanilla-y and is pretty ‘plain’ as far as ice-cream flavours though – you won’t find any crazy chunks or chips in this. It’s simple, yet satisfying.
There’s not really too much else to say about it – I’d love to rave about how amazing it is, but that would be lying. It’s great if you want a simple ice-cream treat that you don’t need to scoop into a bowl – and I’m betting it would pack nicely in a lunch bag – but I can’t give it a glowing review.
It’s good for what it is, but I’ve had other ice-cream flavours that I like better, simply because they aren’t as simple. I still definitely eat them, but I would say these are like giving nooch a glowing review. It’s good for what it is, and it’s great to have on hand, but you can’t exactly praise it. It just kind of… is.
I would dare even say they’re a summer staple. Great to have, but doesn’t pack as much punch as say, a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. I recommend you try them, since you won’t be disappointed, but you won’t exactly be jumping for joy, either.
In keeping with the cold-outside/winter is coming weather, I decided I’d go ahead and do a review of a classic cold weather food: soup!
If you saw my Surprising Vegan Soup collage, then you’ll hopefully have stocked up on some delicious soup to keep you going long after the holidays are over.
This is also going to be the last Product Review of 2018! (They will continue to go up on the 13th of every month)
Okay, without further ado, here’s the Habitant Garden Style Vegetable soup review.
The first thing I want to address is how f*cking big of a can of soup this is. Seriously. They’re 796ml – that’s easily enough for two bowls of soup. (Maybe even three) Why does Habitant only make such giant cans of soup? They’re usually located on the bottom-er shelves in the soup aisle because they’re so friggin’ big. I don’t know why exactly they make cans of soup for giants, but I’m 100% here for it. I like that this can offers a lot of soup, especially because it’s pretty cheap. You get a lot of soup-per-dollar.
One thing I don’t like about this soup isn’t even related to taste – it’s that there’s no tab on the top to open it. Look, I understand that not every can needs a pull open tab, but (especially because the can is so big) having the tab on the top would make it much easier to open without taking the entire top off, so you can close the lid back down and save it for later, instead of having to pour it out into a container. It’s not that big of a deal – I remember back before those easy-open tabs weren’t even a thing – it’s just something to keep in mind.
In terms of cooking, it’s really easy. Just open, heat on a stove (or in the microwave if you do that sort of thing) and serve. Very simple process. Even people who can’t cook can do it. This also bodes well if you’re really sick and would like something easy and fast to make, so… two birds?
Now, for the actual taste, it’s… soup. If you read my Amy’s Alphabet soup review, you’ll know that I’m not really that big of a fan of soup – I don’t know what it is, I just prefer my meals to be solid.
I don’t hate soup, I just would rather eat say… a sandwich instead. Soup is weird though, you’ve gotta admit that. It’s closer to a beverage then a meal. They should start selling soups in juice containers. That would also make it easier to save some of them for later, so there you go. Take note Soup World.
I don’t want to knock this soup – especially because it’s one of the few that aren’t marketed as being vegan that we can eat – but there’s honestly not too much to it. It tastes exactly how you would expect it to: like vegetables in some broth. It’s not overly salty like I’ve had in some other soups, and it doesn’t taste too watery either. It’s well balanced in terms of it’s flavours, and it has little grains of I think rice (or really tiny pasta shapes) in it as well. That helps fill you up better then soups that don’t have pasta/rice in them, in my opinion.
Other then that, I don’t really have too much to say about this product. It has vegetables in it (so it’s good for you!), is very easy to make, and comes in one of the biggest cans of soup I’ve ever seen. It’s a triple threat!
All in all, I’d recommend you check out/try this product. It won’t exactly blow you away with how amazing it is, but it doesn’t suck. And, especially if you have a hard time finding specifically labelled vegan products where you are, this can I’ve seen pretty much in every store I’ve been in. So it should also be easy to find.
Alright, now that it’s summer, I figured it’s time to start getting into some summer-y products. First up, this amazing ice-cream.
This is one of those products I love a lot and it’s hard to tell if I love it just because it’s amazing, or because (of my allergies) I had to go years without it. (Or eating sh*tty versions) This ice-cream though is like heaven in your mouth, I swear. If you haven’t tried it yet, what are you even doing with your life?
If you’ve ever seen my Instagram page, you know how much I love this stuff. I buy it more then I probably should. It’s amazing.
It’s got peanut butter, and cookie bits in it. What’s not to love? It’s also versatile. While I often just eat it straight out of the tub with a spoon, it’s also great for banana splits, in a cone, this thing:
And pretty much anything else you’d need/want ice-cream for.
The only downside to this ice-cream is that it’s so rich you can’t eat the whole tub. (… Well, you can but you won’t feel so hot after) It’s the perfect example of how too much of a good thing can go bad. You’ll love every second of it, until about an hour after you’ve polished off the tub, then, well, you might regret it a little. (But you’ll probably do it again anyway).
There’s not too much else to say about this ice-cream, it’s smooth and crunchy, and hits the spot after a long day in the heat. Or, after any day, really. Also, if you’re still not convinced, just look at it:
How could you look at that and think, ‘nah’.
I’d also like to take a moment to thank the Ice Cream Gods that Ben and Jerry’s decided to make some vegan ice-cream. I’m one very happy consumer knowing this product exists.
It’s hands down the best ice-cream I’ve ever had. So, y’know… go try it for yourself.
Hands down my favourite vegan gravy. This stuff? If they sold it in juice containers, I would drink it. I’m not even kidding, it’s that good.
Road’s End makes two other gravy flavours, Shiitake Mushroom and Delicious Golden, but the Savoury Herb is the best. They also make mac n cheese, but that is not good. I don’t want to be mean, but it tasted…. I don’t know, cardboard-y? Maybe they put too much nooch in it or something, it’s just bad. Their thing is definitely not mac n cheese.
But that’s okay, because this gravy makes up for it. Moral of that little bit is, don’t buy their mac n cheese. (Sorry if you like it)
This gravy, man, I don’t even know where to start.
The herbs offer that nice refreshing taste herbs do when you eat it, and it doesn’t taste ‘heavy’ like other gravies, it’s pretty light but is delicious too. You could use a whole pack, to say, make some poutine, and you wouldn’t feel bad because it doesn’t give you that gross too full feeling.
I honestly don’t even have the words to describe how good it is. It’s hard to describe because I just want to keep saying ‘it’s good’ but that’s not really a review.
Almost like when I reviewed the Famous Burger in my Vegan Festival Review – too good for words to properly explain if you haven’t tasted it.
Just – go out and get some.
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As you may of heard, there was a vegan food and drink festival Aug. 19th this year in Toronto, and I was lucky enough to be able to go. It was my first ever vegan festival, and I was definitely blown away. I’m already working on my game plan for next year’s event.
One of my favourite things: Getting to order whatever I wanted from any vendor. That alone was enough to make me want to go back.
I don’t know how many of you have allergies, but being allergic to dairy, (whey) there is a hell of a lot of food in this world I can’t eat. And deciding to go vegan didn’t exactly broaden my food spectrum. So, being able to go to a public event without having to research/bring my own/call ahead/ask what was in every dish before ordering was absolutely fantastic. I swear, I was like a kid in a candy store. I wanted to try everything there just because I could. That itself blew my mind. It was so… I don’t know – nice, I guess would be the word – to not have to worry about what I could/couldn’t eat. The only ‘worrying’ I did about the food was whether or not I’d have enough time to try everything.
On top of that, I was amazed to see just how many people showed up! I mean, I know probably not every single person there was vegan, but it was still amazing to see. There were so many people! There were some lines that were so long they were impossible to get around. I loved seeing how many turned out, even though it meant waiting in giant lines.
Alright, now onto what you all came here for: the food.
Globally Local’s Famous Burger
This is supposed to be a vegan Big Mac. Now, I’ve never had a real Big Mac, so I can’t compare the two. All I can say about this is: Oh. My. God.
There aren’t enough words in the English language for me to describe to you how incredible this burger was. Hands down the best thing I tried at the festival. The patties themselves were actually pretty underwhelming – they were super thin and I feel like the only thing they added to the burger was texture. Not to be mean, but it seemed like they use those really terrible thin, cardboard-y vegan frozen burgers you used to buy before you discovered there was better options.
But the sauce!
Again, never having the real Big Mac sauce, I can’t tell you if it was close to the real thing or not. The sauce to me, tasted similar to warm ranch dressing. I loved it. If they sold the sauce in a bottle like salad dressing, I’d probably drink it. (Yes, it’s that good)
This burger was also messy. And, while I tend to stay away from eating foods that are too messy (I hate getting my hands all goopy with sauces), I didn’t really mind licking this off my fingers. I had the sauce smeared on my face and dripping out of my palms and I did not care at all. It was pure indulgence and I couldn’t have been happier.
My only regret is not getting two.
Sweet Teeth’s Cookie Monster Ice-Cream
The best dessert I tried. No contest.
Before the ice-cream melted enough to spoon out of the container, the spoon slipped and cookie crumbs went flying, since the cookie dough wasn’t soft. I believe it was their vanilla ice-cream that was dyed blue, but I’m not sure. (I can’t remember)
The worst part about this ice-cream was the size of the pint. It’s the same size as the Ben and Jerry’s vegan ice-creams – waaaay too small. (But considering I ate the whole thing, perhaps they do that on purpose)
I got to their booth later on (closer to when the festival was over at 7pm), they were sold out of almost everything else, but boy am I glad I got some of this.
I already miss it.
Rescue Dog’s Fat Mac
This. Just… this.
Like the Big Mac, there aren’t enough words. If it wasn’t swamped with so many onions, I would’ve liked it better, but it was still good. (Most of the onions fell off when I picked it up anyway)
This not-dog is made out of flax. Yeah, you read that right: flax. I don’t know how they do it, but boy am I glad they do. It has a great texture; it’s closer to a sausage texture than a hot dog, in that it has that nice hard bite/shell and then the squishy, juicy inside. And the sauce – same as the Famous Burger – it is amazing. It actually tastes similar to the burgers, I think they might even use the same one. (Though I can’t say for sure)
Either way, I’m not complaining. Best not-dog I’ve had, ever.
Also, apparently Good Rebel sells their dogs in packs of 6, so there may be a homemade replica of this in the future.
V Eats Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
This was the first thing I tried at the festival, and man am I glad I picked it. It’s amazing.
These guys came all the way up from Dallas, Texas. The ‘chicken’ they used was actually oyster mushrooms. This was the first oyster mushroom dish I’ve ever had, and it was good. To me, it didn’t taste like chicken – didn’t have that distinctive ‘chicken’ taste, like it does when I make seitan, but it didn’t need to. The sandwich was good all on its own. They could’ve said this was a buffalo mushroom sandwich, and I would’ve been just as happy to eat it. It was also a bit spicy, I feel like if they used a bit more lettuce or something to cut through the spice it would’ve been better.
This one was also messy, but worth it. They filled it with so much stuff that when you took a bite, it would squish out the back. Totally something you need to eat with napkins, but it’s definitely worth getting. If you’re in Dallas, or see these guys at another festival, I highly recommend getting this sandwich.
Bald Baker’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie and Brownie Bite
The cookie was super thick and really soft. It also has peanuts in it that help give it a crunch. The brownie was super soft too and was just amazing. And… it was the last one they had. (Sorry!) I didn’t even try the free sample first, I just saw it was the last one and bought it.
Once again, my only disappointment was that it was the only one they had.
Sweet Olenka’s Cookies N Cream Bar
This was good.
Chocolate, cookies and ice-cream, what more could you want?
It was super frozen though – I’m guessing because it was so hot, they had their freezer cranked up so they didn’t melt, I couldn’t bite into it, it was so hard. I didn’t mind waiting for it to soften though, I ate all the cookie crumbs off from the chocolate shell.
And then, when I got down to the end of it, the whole bottom of my chocolate shell fell off. Luckily, it landed on a napkin, and not on the ground.
This again, wasn’t really anything special: vanilla ice cream and chocolate, but on a hot day it definitely hit the spot.
Flying Colours Food’s Chocolate Hazelnut and Walnut Caramel Spread
The chocolate hazelnut spread was my favourite between the two. I’d assume it tastes close to Nutella, but I’ve never had real Nutella, so I can’t say for sure. I didn’t really like the walnut one, I’m not sure why. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t… I don’t know, special, I guess. I think I might’ve just been more excited to try other foods, so this one was kind of ‘meh’.
I’ll definitely be looking for the chocolate one in stores though.
Panago’s Mediterranean Pizza
This one, I’m sorry to say was nothing special. It just tastes like take-out pizza with Daiya on it. If you’ve ever had Pizza Nova or PizzaPizza pizza, you know what this tastes like.
I am proud to say though, this pizza had black olives on it (I hate olives), but they actually weren’t too bad with the other flavours. I’m not committing to anything, but I wouldn’t mind getting this pizza again.
I checked out their website, and I’m glad to report they are very accommodating to vegans. All their crusts are vegan, and they say you can sub out any cheese on any other pizza with Daiya, and do the same with their meatless pepperoni. I’m definitely going to try some of their other pizzas.
The Spicy Ethiopian’s Tikel Goman
This reminded me of stew. It was good, for sure, but if I had a choice between this and the Famous Burger, well…
The dough-y bread (sorry, I don’t know what to call it, it’s like a very thin pancake) was very squishy. I didn’t like the texture of it in my hand, especially having to pick up the stew (more squish) with it and then put it in my mouth. I probably would’ve liked it better if I ate it with a fork.
Again, not bad, but not the greatest. It was essentially potatoes, carrots and bread. Nothing I’ve never had before. This was probably my least favourite dish.
I also tried two cheeses that I didn’t get a picture of. The first was from this new place, West Junction. This was my first ever cashew-based cheese, and I was pleasantly surprised.
I don’t know why, but I’ve been putting off trying nut-based cheeses for some reason, but I’m definitely glad I tried West Junction’s. They had cut their mozzarella up into cubes and I tried it in what I believe they said was their salad dressing. It was covered in oil, some spices and had an olive on the side. It was good, definitely milder than Daiya (I’m starting to think that they’re the most… potent vegan cheese), and the consistency kind of reminded me of tofu. I think the oil on it gave it a weird, slippery texture, but I’ll definitely buy this when it becomes available for purchase to do a proper review of it. (Not covered in oil)
The other was my second nut-based cheese from Main Vegan Deli. They were selling cheese and deli slice items (like grilled cheese and other sandwich types), but I got there after they were packing up, so I didn’t get to try anything off the menu. They were nice enough to let me try a cube of what I think was their cheddar (it was orange) cheese. This one and the West Junction one tasted pretty similar, this one was less slippery, but still that soft, tofu consistency. I guess that’s just the texture of nut cheeses? Again, it was good, but I’ll definitely have to track them down to try it again, perhaps in a dish.
If you missed this one, there is another festival coming up Sept.8th-10th, VegFest. This one has more vendors, and some of the same ones, so if you missed getting to try anyone from this event, you’ll get a second chance to check them out. VegFest is free admission, but you’ll still need to buy food and drinks from the vendors. I haven’t decided yet if I’m gonna go to this one, I might just save up for next year’s Food and Drink festival.
All in all, this festival was a lot of fun. I definitely enjoyed trying all the different types of food, and seeing all the people who showed up. If you’re able to, I definitely suggest checking it out. I can’t wait until next year’s!
Like this review? Check out more here! I post NEW product reviews on the 13th of each month!
Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!
Puddles (PHSH Effect #19, Coming Apr. 4th)
Make It Count (Unlearning Series Fic #9, Coming May 9th)
Lens Flares (PHSH Effect #21, Coming July 25th)
Vegan Fast Food: KFC (Coming Aug. 22nd)
Curses (Coming Oct. 14th)
Who Gives a Crap Review (Coming Mar. 28th)
The Long One (A SPN x Marvel crossover, Coming Sept. 2nd)
