Tuesday, August 30, 2011

vida vegan conference ::
photo essay

Cool old theater sign
I have returned from my excellent adventure in Portland, a bit jet-lagged, but definitely energized by my experience at the Vida Vegan Blogging Conference. The event was probably the best-organized conference I've ever attended, thanks to 3 smart vegan cookies: JessMichele and Janessa. I gave one workshop, "Extreme Food Writing Makeover," which was a blast. I also participated in a panel discussion on "Reality, Identity and Blogging."



Powell's, the mother of all bookstores. I could have spent a week in here,
Attending the conference was like living in Vegan Utopia for a long weekend. For one thing, I didn't have to question any of the food I was eating. Plus, I didn't have to "translate" any words/concepts from omni to vegan. It was a given that the burgers, ice cream and cheese were plant-based. Perhaps Julie Hasson said it best, "It's refreshing being around a bunch of people who like kale." 'Nuff said. I'll let the photos do the talking.


Thursday nite happy hour at Vendetta. L2R: me, Terry Hope Romero, Julie Hasson, Allison of Allison's Gourmet

Finally got to meet my long-lost daughter, Amber Shea Ford



After all these years of reading each others' blogs, I finally met Bianca, of Vegan Crunk.

The next day, we had lunch at Julie's adorable food cart, Native Bowl. It's featured in an article I wrote on food carts in this month's VegNews. Check it out. 
I ordered the Alberta Bowl, a little sweet, a little spicy, totally satisfying.




What would a trip to Portland be without VooDoo Donuts? Vegan, of course, You have to sin a little, right?

Tempeh ribs from the Homegrown Smoker.  You have to try them.



Typical conference breakfast: Soy Delicious Coconut Greek Yogurt (will hit stores soon!), raw chia pudding, fruit, tofu scramble, biscuits and bean gravy, coffee with Vanilla So Delicious Coconut Creamer


On Friday night, VegNews hosted a champagne and cupcake reception,


Saturday night, I attended the GalaRama which benefitted Woodstock Farm Sanctuary. Here I am. flexing with vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke.

The Galarama menu was diverse: pizza, raw rolls and these lovely burgers....

And a sundae bar complete with vegan marshmallow topping, chocolate sauce, caramel, peanut butter topping, nuts and of course maraschino cherries.

At the Gala with my VFFs, wearing our LBDs, clockwise: Julie Hasson, Gail Davies of So Delicious and vegan cookbook goddess Bryanna  Clark Grogan.


The mother of all schwag bags. I had to check my luggage – and I never check luggage.


Filming an episode of EverydayDish TV in Julie's adorable kitchen.


 I'm gonna' miss my friends in Portland, including Zelda, Julie's daughter's puppy.


Isa and me sending kisses from Portlandia. Hope to see you at the next conference!



13 comments:

karen said...

That looks like an awesome time!! I'm dying to get out to Portland. what perfect trip to go on.

Millie said...

nice photos and I love your new blog background.

Vegiegail said...

I truly treasure the time we spent together with all of our VFFs at Vida Vegan Con. Thanks for sharing all these wonderful photos! I hope we are all together again soon.

Oh, look! There's my friend, Millie commenting just above me. Hi Millie! I wish you could have been there with us!

pickygourmet said...

That looks like it was amazing fun! And how nice it would be to be able to grab whatever you wanted to eat for days at a time without researching, asking for modifications, and all. Not that I don't like cooking my own, but sometimes it would be nice to go to a restaurant where I had more than a couple of choices.

Bianca said...

Yes!!! I was so glad to finally meet you! YOU ARE AWESOME! AND SO IS PORTLAND!

MeShell said...

I'm loving all these pictures. (I did not take nearly enough this weekend) I can't wait for the next one!

Chef Amber Shea said...

It was so wonderful to finally meet you, Dynise! I only wish we'd had more downtime in which to chat. Maybe one of these days I'll make it up to Philly!

This whole weekend was pretty magical. I'm already in the throes of PDX-withdrawals.

Theresa said...

Oh, this looks like so much fun!

Nadia said...

The conference and your writing workshop sound great! It's amazing to meet so many people on the same wave as you are :)

Hannah said...

Although it was far too brief, I'm so happy we could finally meet up in person! You're even kinder and lovelier than I had imagined, and trust me, I don't just dole out compliments like that without meaning them. :)

T said...

This looks so amazing! All my favorite vegan super-heroes in one place. Must have been a great energy booster!

Johanna said...

Portland is so great, and so big, it's hard to see everything, even in the 2 weeks I spent there (I did buy Urban Vegan at Powell's). Thanks for the pics.

Bryanna Clark Grogan said...

Brought back some great recent memories, Dynise. I'm just getting around to recording mine now. It was so wonderful to spend time with you-- the time is so brief at these things. It just doesn't seem fair that we don't all live near each other! I took notes st your workshop and I really am censoring my exclamation points. (it's hard, though)