Vegan Chicago: Chicago VeganMania Recap

Chicago VeganMania was this past weekend and, man, was it fun! Over 2,500 people came to the festival which is huge for its third year. Damn near 100 volunteers helped make this event possible so thank you to them, the organizers, the vendors, the performers, and the speakers. It was sort of crowded in the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, but the more the merrier. I only went for a bit, but it's always nice to see fellow vegans and vegetarians enjoying themselves.

This is mostly a picture post, so below are some snapshots of the event:

Chicago Soydairy samples

Herbivore Clothing Company booth

I love animals and broccoli coloring book! Hell yeah.

Be a vegan rockstar!

♥

Vegan Chicago: Restaurant Review of Ian's Pizza

Ian's Pizza has several locations. One is here in Chicago while the others are in Milwaukee and Madison, WI. I love this place because it is one of the few places one can get a vegan pizza without going to a vegan restaurant specifically (they even deliver seasonally!). Other places I know of that carry vegan pizza are Mista, Moonshine, Pie Hole Pizza Joint, Piece, and Pick-Me-Up Cafe. These places all have vegan cheese and some carry vegan "meats" to top.

Ian's is known for their odd variety of pizzas like mac 'n cheese pizza and lasagna pizza. For vegan options at Ian's, there are a slew of veggies such as artichoke hearts, onions, spinach, basil, portobello mushrooms, button mushrooms, roasted red peppers, sliced tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, kalamata olives, pico de gallo, and pineapple. Other toppings include french fries and pasta noodles (penne, lasagna, macaroni). Ian's proudly carries local Chicago vegan companies, Chicago Soydairy and Upton's Naturals. They have Upton's Italian-style, chicken-style, and soy-pepperoni style seitans. They also carry CSD's mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Lastly, Ian's has a build-your-own salad option with all of the said veggies above.

For the pizza we ordered, we got the Italian-style seitan, mozzarella cheese, basil, onions, artichoke hearts, and button mushrooms. This was really good! The crust was a bit try for me, but I added some homemade giardiniera. Ian's is a great place to either sit down and get a pie or take it to go. I also love that they support local vegan companies!


This week is World Vegan Week. Ian's is having a special in honor: Chili Cheese Fries. Everyone in Chicago should go out and get an order to support vegan week and this great pizza joint for their continued vegan options!

Recap: The Chicago Vegan Chef Showdown

This weekend was the Chicago Vegan Chef Showdown. All proceeds from this event went to Mercy For Animals life-saving work to help promote veganism and reduce the suffering of farmed animals in the United States. Each team or contestant had to use Upton's Naturals seitan (any one of their varieties) in their dish as they were hosting this event. The event was held at the Funky Buddha Lounge here in Chicago on July 23rd. The turnout was incredible! Over 200 people showed up to support the competitors, MFA, and Upton's Naturals. Vegan Miss competed with one of my favorites, my deep dish vegan pizza. My friends and I spent the whole day before making pizza after pizza; in total, fourteen! So much pizza! We had quite the assembly line after a while going on in the kitchen. ;]

Though Vegan Miss did not place, two of MFA's great volunteers, Meagen and Blythe, won third with their cheeze and seitan ravioli's. A company called the Rootsy Vegan won first place with their jerk seitan which was really good. Dishes of the day were a "beef" curry with raita and rice, seitan tacos with a mango salsa, empanadas (won second, very tasty - indeed!), corn bread muffins with seitan and a glaze, seitan and pasta, and others. Kelly Peloza of the Vegan Cookie Connoisseur and Seitan Beats Your Meat was competing too - right next to VM! Congratulations to all the winners and great job to all contestants! We all worked really hard.

I very much enjoyed this event and the preparations I had to make ahead of time. We made business cards, a sign, a new blog layout, and did a little antique shopping to decorate the table. Alas, there was to be a flier with the recipe instructions, but time became an issue and it was never printed.

Many, many thanks to Chicago Soydairy for helping this blog doll out with a massive amount of Teese mozzarella. Could not have done it without them! 


Photo Credit: Louis McGill