I Went to Taste of Health and All I Got Were These Cocoa Nibs

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Posted by : Guest Blogger, Mon, Oct 06 2008

I've always been concerned with what I eat and I try to choose local and organic when possible. Even though I'm not vegetarian, I do eat a lot of vegan and vegetarian meals, so I was curious about the Taste of Health Food Festival that took place recently in Vancouver.

When I looked at the website, I got excited. Isa Chandra Moskowitz would be appearing! If you don't know her, she's the punk rock vegan queen who started the theppk.com and author of some of my favourite cookbooks, including, Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. My hopes were high.

I went on opening night, which was free admission for the exhibit hall. The Vancouver Cycling Coalition was outside the venue ready to greet cyclists with valet parking. Inside there were tables set up in the lobby with various cookbooks for sale alongside various non-profit organizations.

I found a lot of useful information at the Vancouver Humane Society display about misleading labels on egg cartons. What did I learn? Watch out for labels like "Omega-3," "farm fresh," "natural" or "vegetarian feed," as these eggs all come from battery-caged hens. But even free-range, free-run and organic labelled eggs are not the best eggs when you have animal welfare on the brain. Only the Certified Organic label means the chickens are cage-free, have access to the outdoors and have most space per bird and that only these farms are being audited for animal welfare. You can learn more at chickenout.ca.

Inside the exhibit hall was the usual trade show set up with vendors hawking all kinds of wares from vegan taquitos to hemp milk. The hall was only half full of vendors and only the booths giving away free food seemed to have the most buzz. I did get to try some hemp seeds (tasty!) and some maple sugar (divine!) and I purchased a bag of raw cocoa nibs.

I didn't get to see any chefs, attend any demonstrations or meet Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Overall, the event fell flat for me. But at least I got some of those cocoa nibs. Now that has the potential to be exciting!