Today the DOG and I went uptown to the Taste of Health food festival in Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. This very nice man, dressed quite snappily as a peapod, was on hand to hand out literature on becoming a vegetarian. He was kind enough to pose for a photo, and good-natured enough to agree to accommodate me when I told him to “Say peas!” as I snapped the shot. “Peeeeas!” he said, proudly.
Within minutes, I fell deeply in love, based purely on physical appearance, with a very fetching slice of carob-fudge pie, which then became One with the Universe of my Body. As I ate it, I could be heard exclaiming, over and over again, “Yummm”, which I now realize may have sounded to passersby almost like “Ommm”. But really, it was so lovely that I would have gladly chanted for the chance to eat it.
We made the rounds of many food tables, stopping to sample (with toothpicks! no fingers, thank you!) the ridiculously delicious treats from May Wah, and to get full-size food from Veggie Works World (based in New Jersey) and Tsampa, a Tibetan restaurant that I’ve wanted to try for quite some time.
Here is the view that we enjoyed while eating our food:
The arrow in the first photo indicates where Hayley, the dog, would eventually plop herself down. Later we learned that Hayley is now 90% vegetarian. (Taxi, for the record, was left at home. “Vegetarians are a bunch of pussies,” he said as we left the apartment this afternoon.)
Here is a view of the food that we ate:
The DOG had the rollups, which included grilled seitan. The bite that I had was delicious. I had the Tibetan food served on a notably non-biodegradable disposable plate.
It was at this point that, observing the people gathering under a tent for one of many lectures and seeing someone lying on a mat in a corner somewhere getting a massage or an energy re-alignment, and fearing the threat of random yoga, I summed up my feelings about the event: “Krishna. Yoga. Fuck you. I’m here for the food!”
So I put the DOG’s money where my mouth was and proved it by sitting here a little later:
and eating this: 
Yes, that would be mock beef and faux prawns. Krish(na)-kebabs, I thought.
What’s more, we even got to bring the fun home, courtesy of Whole Foods, which gave out party-favor bags to everyone who wanted one. We both wanted one. We were told that each bag contained identical items, but when we got home we saw that there were differences in variety, which thrilled me more than it should have. Here is our impressive bounty (everything is from Whole Foods with the exception of the two packs of lentils, which were handed out by a representative of that company):
With all this good stuff, we will soon have our own private foodfest called “Om Sweet Om”.
P.S. Yes, the blue wrapper is empty. It used to house a Tofutti Ipsy-Pipsy (!) “mocolate” bar. (Tofutti doesn’t call it “mocolate”. I do.)