Month: June 2007

100% Vegan Shopping In Atlanta

Saturday evening was the grand opening party for the brick & mortar version of Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe. And wow, a lot of people were there! And some nummy foods. I got my fingers on a brownie and a chocolate mint cupcake and both were delicious.

Here’s a big hint to anyone who feels like buying me stuff….go here. Everything is vegan. No need to fret over ingredients. Everything is acceptable! Shoes, purses, make-up, food, etc. All of it. And it’s conveniently located, well, here.

I had to pick up a few things while I was there. I just HAD to. A cute little English Retreads rubber purse, Lesser Evil peanut butter & chocolate popcorn (it’s way gone), smoked cheddar style Sheese, a Beauty Without Cruelty eyeshadow duo, and a couple of bath product samples. It has been my first experience with Sheese and it’s really good. It’s the first cheese substitute I’ve had that mimics a hard cheese pretty well. It’s a little crumbly and apparently it doesn’t melt. But I ate it sliced on sammiches, sliced on tortilla chips and just sliced and I was happy with it all three ways. As much as we all appreciate Vegan Gourmet, I don’t think anyone really considers cutting off a chunk and eating it plain. Ew.

my haul from cosmo's vegan shoppe

links for 2007-06-27

The last day

I guess I’d better finish up this travel business before I forget what we did. We had the morning of the last day free in Tel Aviv. I got breakfast, messed with the internets and then headed out to buy some shoes. There were a couple of styles of shoes I saw women wearing that I wanted to try and find. I didn’t find the exact ones, but even better I found a TOGO outlet. The shoes were almost all synthetic, I found two pair I liked, and they were only $29.99 shekels each. To give you an idea, it’s about 4 shekels to the dollar. I guess I found the Israeli Payless or something.

So, I got back to the hotel mid-morning, put on my bathing suit and headed out for one last walk on the beach for about an hour. We were on our own for lunch, so I figured I’d just go to Ben Yahuda St. and get a falafel. Instead I stumbled across a vegan cafe! I posted a little review on 43places. So I had a tasty shwarma and ice cream. Then I had to quickly shower and pack up my stuff so it was ready for the plane.

Our last day we spent first at the Joseph Bau museum. He was an artist that was a Holocaust survivor. So was his wife. And, his daughters have only learned in the last few years, he was a document forger for Mossad.  His art just about always found the humor in its subjects.

Next we went to old Jaffa and walked around a bit. We had a nice view of Tel Aviv. After that, we had an hour in the souk for shopping. Most of us were through with shopping so eventually we all seemed to gather in this one cafe until it was time to head out for dinner.

Dinner was Moroccan food at Maganda Restaurant. Many bowls of salads arrived and they were the best we’d had yet. While the others had meat on a stick, I had a stuffed bell pepper, green beans in tomatoes, mushrooms and a dolmas. It was okay, but didn’t quite live up to the vibrant salads. Except the dolmas. That was the best one I’d ever had. I need to try making them myself when I’m feeling like working really hard for my food. Dessert was watermelon and baklava. Since meat was served, I knew there would be no dairy in the baklava. So I tried a piece, even though it had honey in it. It was good, but having now made vegan baklava, I can say that the honey isn’t a necessary ingredient.

So that was it. Off to the airport where you learn what security is really all about. I’m surprised they even let planes land in Israel that come from the U.S. Our security is such a joke. Anyway, after what seemed like about 10 minutes, I managed to convince them to allow me to continue through to the other 3 or 4 layers of security to get on the plane. And after a 13 hour flight, I was back in Atlanta.