From the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival: Perelandra Natural Food Center's Veggie Burger

I was so excited to see a veggie burger for sale at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival this year – last year I sampled a lot of delicious food, but I have to admit that I am biased and I was therefore disappointed that there were no veggie burgers amongst the options. So that’s another improvement in this year’s festival over last year’s!



The lovely folks from Perelandria Natural Food Center had a table set up with samples of yummy banana bread and information about their store. I eagerly stepped up to purchase a veggie burger – they were cooking them right there behind the table, and so many people were ordering them that there was a ten minute wait. No surprise, people love veggie burgers! ☺



My friend Sasha ordered one too, and when they were ready we fought our way through the increasingly-crowded room to some empty chairs by the stage area where a band was playing some amusing songs…



Even though we’d been stuffing our faces with free samples for the past hour, I was still hungry enough for a whole veggie burger, and this one looked delicious. The coleslaw was fresh and crunchy, and there was some kind of spicy sauce on it as well that gave the whole thing a nice kick. The patty itself (seitan and lentils) was tasty, and nice and crispy on the outside, but just fell apart too much. “My god, it’s everywhere!” Sasha exclaimed as she attempted to eat it. Luckily, I’d saved a fork from another vendor’s free samples earlier.


moments before the whole thing fell apart in my hands

The bun was a yummy ciabatta roll which tasted great but was a bit too chewy to eat a burger on (you know the type of bread I’m talking about – not the crispy, flakey kind, but the kind that’s so chewy you have to play tug of war with it in your teeth!). Nonetheless, I still enjoyed my burger and felt quite full afterwards. And like almost everything at the festival, it was happily clearly-marked as "all vegan!" on the sign at the booth.

If I lived in Brooklyn I’m sure I would love to shop at Perelandra (they gave us fliers about their brick and mortar store, which advertise a large “climate controlled” bulk room! Maybe I should make a special trip to Brooklyn just for that…)

Read my full review of this year’s NYC Vegetarian Food Festival here.

Cost: $5
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3       Bun: 3      Toppings: 4

Veggie burger sampled at the 2nd NYC Vegetarian Food Festival in Manhattan
Perelandra Nautral Food Center store located at:
175 Remsen Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.855.6068

YumVeggieBurger review #80

2012 NYC Vegetarian Food Festival

Here's my recap of the 2nd NYC Vegetarian Food Festival which I attended two weekends ago:


The line was much shorter than last year's! And moved much faster!


My good friend, fellow vegetarian, and soon-to-be roommate Sasha joined me for the adventure.

Inside, the event was much more spread out than last year (yay, bigger venue!). It was still pretty crowded when we arrived though, and the more popular tables were already hard to get to with so many people clustering around them.


Let the food-sampling begin! Even though I make this kind of daiya quesadilla at home all the time I had to have a slice...


Free snacks? Don't mind if I do... (I saved these in my purse and they made an excellent dinner later, by the way)


Probably the most popular booth: Sweet & Sara! I happily purchased some vegan marshmallow peeps. They are just too good.


more samples - mmm kale.


This stuff was really delicious!


And I finally got to try that Faux Gras stuff everyone has been blogging about! I have to say, I thought it was going to be gross, just because fois gras always sounded gross, so wouldn't a vegan imitation have to be gross too? But nope, it was really tasty!


Love this picture of the little kid enjoying vegan ice cream :)

By the time we left, the place was about as crowded as I remembered it being last year (so crowded it was hard to walk around or see anything!). I was starting to feel claustrophobic, so I was glad we'd arrived earlier this year and gotten to see and sample everything.

Was it worth the $5 ticket? (last year it was free) I'd say yes - I felt like I got my $5 worth of free samples, not to mention some cool coupons, etc. And having the chance to try samples of things I wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to was great.


And there was a veggie burger this year! Naturally I had to try it... stay tuned for the full review ;)

Vegetarian Food Festival

Hey, what are you doing this weekend?
Are you going to the New York City Vegetarian Food Festival? I am!

I went last year, and it was crazy crowded but I'm still glad I went. This year the festival has a bigger venue and is two days long, so I am hopeful that they have worked out some of the kinks and the whole thing will be even better! You can read my recap of last year's festival here.



p.s. yes, it's been awhile since I posted a new burger review - my real job (which I LOVE) has kind of dominated my life for the past month, but more veggie burger updates are to come in the near future, never fear! :)