Taste of Health 2010/ Bandidas Taqeria

This year was the first opportunity I'd had to visit Earthsave Canada's Annual Taste of Health Festival, & I was suuuuper stoked to go! Waking up at 7am, my girlfriend Tiffany & I got ready together & headed to the ferry. Arriving in Vancouver at 10:30am, we decided we wanted breakfast before heading to the Festival.

We took the bus & the skytrain, making our way to Bandidas Taqeria on Commercial Drive. They're a vegetarian restaurant that is focused on environment, sustainability, buying locally grown foods, & re-using anything they can. Looking around, all of the chairs & tables are beautifully mismatched, & we were served water in mason jars. The restaurant was packed when we arrived, & we got the last table available. Shortly after, a huge line-up formed outside. This, to me, is a sign of an amazing restaurant! :D

Above is the photo of Tiffany's brunch. She tucked into two 'Laura May' tacos & two 'Ronny Russell' tacos.  To the left is my lunch: I ordered 'The Hicks Benny', veganized <3 Served on a corn muffin, with guacamole, salsa, tomatillo, butternut squash & tofu scramble to replace the egg, & a 'Hollandaise' sauce. Roasted yams & potatoes accompanied it, along with a side of pinto beans covered in Daiya mozzarella. OH EM GEE. I wish I could eat this all day everyday for the rest of my LIFE!! Bandidas is amazing, & we definitely plan to be back!

A short bus ride & 21 blocks of walking later, we finally found Taste of Health! Set up in the Vancouver Masonic Centre, there were booths everywhere, with companies offering their products for sample & sale. We enjoyed many treats! :)

My girlfriend Katie was preparing samples of these delicious vegan treats for Sprout Inc. We sampled a Chocolate Mint Mousse, Pumpkin Pie, & something that tasted like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. lovelovelove!! These were incredible!! Our favourite was the pumpkin pie <3

Almond Yoga was also set up, & they were serving raw almond yogurt, in plain & vanilla. Our sweet tooths desired samples of the vanilla. Smooth, creamy & delicate in flavour, this was a nice treat. They were selling it for about the same cost as dairy yogurt, too.

For filling out a survey on what we thought of the yogurt, the ladies were offering free Sweet Yam Sticky Buns. Deciding to share one, Tiff & I savoured our gooey, chewy sticky buns, enjoying every bite. Click here for the recipe! I can't wait to whip up a batch!

There were many other booths that we visited, but the last was Earthsave's. They were offering a gift pack if you signed up for a membership. Because we are both students, our annual membership was only $12, & everything in our gift pack was more than worth it! A BPA-free glass water bottle with cloth bag & ice pack, 4 homemade walnut brownies (which were freakin' amazing!!), a vegan recipe book, & several pamphlets & newsletters packed with information & recipes. So excited to be members of Earthsave! We're looking forward to potlucks, dine-outs, & other events that will connect us to fellow veggies :)

peace, love, food <3
Char, xo