I read a rather funny description of flying as a vegan in Monday's New York Times.  The article was authored by Wayne Pacelle, of the US Humane Society and let me tell you, I can relate!  Pacelle talks about his travails trying to get peanut butter through security -- "The security agent insisted that my carry-on food product was a cream, and therefore a forbidden substance. A rather strange discussion ensued in which I tried to explain that peanut butter was a solid with a “creamy” consistency. Creamy was, in this case, an adjective. And the peanut butter should not be thrown in the trash."

Although Pacelle doesn't offer tips for getting through air travel, he does mention he is occasionally served Biscoff cookies onboard certain airlines (but doesn't tell us which ones) and says they taste great and are a safe choice for vegans.  If you're curious, you can find them here at Amazon.  (Note: the Biscoff with Chocolate, the Sinful Biscoff, the Snowflake Wrapped Biscoff, and the Nutcracker Wrapped Biscoff all contain milk, and are therefore not suitable for vegans.)

Our strategy is to bring our own vegan goodies.  We tend to keep a few vegan protein bars in the house, and always have nuts on hand, so that covers any spur of the moment activities.  If we have time to plan ahead, Jane makes sure to bring us things that travel well.  Often we'll bring a travel container of hummus, some vegan pretzels, and fruit.  And if I'm really lucky, Jane will bake some goodies ahead of time (banana nut muffins or brownies), and we'll have those too.

Although there wasn't a lot to the article, we do share Pacelle's dream of one day being able to walk through every airport and find wholesome vegan fare that is easily accessible.

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Jane's mom is here for a visit, so we took a quick trip down to Palm Desert (a resort town in the California desert) this weekend. The weather was excellent there. (Unfortunately, it was in the 90's here this weekend too, so we could have just stayed home!) But we enjoyed the usual tourist treats: swimming at the hotel pool, gambling at one of the Indian casinos, and we visited the Living Desert, a zoo and arboretum.

Jane and I haven't made up our minds how we feel about zoos. On one hand, most of the zoos we've frequented in the last decade or so have been involved in significant animal conservation, and the animal habitats are carefully designed. On the other hand, it's not the animals native habitat, and the aviaries are particularly troubling to us. But this is fodder for another post. So back to Palm Desert...

As vegans, we know that eating on the road can often be challenging. We've learned to Native Foods close to the hotel we were staying at. We'd heard lots of great things about Native Foods, but aren't close to any of their locations. So we knew we would be stopping there on this trip.

We loved it! Our meals were fantastic. Jane and her mom shared the Baja Surf Tacos. They were quite tasty. The black beans were a little bland, but were much improved with the home-made hot sauce (warning: it's HOT).

I ordered the Portobello Sausage Burger. The sausage was sliced seitan. It was one of the best vegan burgers I've ever had. The service was good, friendly and solicitous. The prices were right and the food was delicious. It's not fine dining, but the restaurant has a nice ambiance and outdoor eating.

We didn't have any dessert or additional sides. Jane later regretted that as she'd split a lunch with her mom and our dinner at the casino left a lot to be desired, especially from the vegan perspective!

The rest of our meals on this trip were unremarkable. Thankfully, the hotel room had a mini fridge so we were able to stock up on some vegan snacks. But we really could have used a Starbuck's Vegan Brownie, or some other vegan dessert!!!

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Friday morning Jane and I loaded up the car for a long weekend trip to Arizona. Our primary reason for the trip was to visit a younger cousin who's away at college in Prescott. We also decided to visit Sedona since it's been nine years since we were there last. It was a beautiful autumn weekend in the Southwest.

But enough about our trip, let's talk food - since that's what this post and this blog are all about!

This trip required a bit more forethought than usual because we knew that food would be an issue. So, prior to our departure, Jane went out and got some goodies to take along. We had: grapes, apples and tangerines; there were also Triscuits and pretzels, and dried apricots. Sounds like overkill, but these wound up saving us from scrounging for more than one breakfast/lunch.

Before we took off on Friday morning Jane also prepared our lunch for the day: hummus in pita, and some carrot sticks to crunch on. I love Jane's hummus, but the sandwiches suffered a bit sitting in a car for a few hours before we ate them. They tasted just fine, but the were practically falling apart, what a mess! Good thing we brought along some wipes!

I'm not going to detail all our meals, or the restaurants we ate at. Suffice it to say, that eating out vegan style can be a bit of a challenge. One meal we even wound up inadvertently eating cheese. The menu detailed the items in a dish, no cheese mentioned. The plate showed up, the restaurant was dark and we didn't identify the cheese until the meal was half eaten. Bummer.

I'm sure we're not the first vegans this has happened to, and it served as a reminder to ask about what we're ordering.

But the most important thing we learned on this trip is that Taco Bell is a vegan's friend. The black bean burrito without cheese is a yummy vegan meal. We had three in three days.

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