Finding tasty vegan food at restaurants is rarely a problem, especially in Worcester. These days nearly every restaurant has good veg options on their menu. Last Spring VegWorcester printed a large number of veg dining guides and distributed them to curious Worcesterites. We are now on the third annual printing of the Guide to Vegetarian Dining in Worcester. Want to help? Look through our online listing at VegWorcester.com/restaurants and see if there are any good spots missing. Send any tips to info@VegWorcester.com or comment below.

2009 Edition: A Huge Success

Last year’s print edition featured 26 listings and a handful of events. We distributed a total of 8,000 copies–5,000 full color copies and 3,000 black and white copies.  These guides are a great tool for showing Worcesterites that being vegan is an easy way to help animals and the reduce our ecological impact. It’s also a great way to send some love to local biz that feature vegan items on their menus.

Over the course of a year, we handed out the 8k guides while tabling at community events, at shows, on college campuses, in Worcester highschools, at our vegan feed-in’s, and at lots of other events. You can download a pdf of last year’s guide.

Going bigger, going bolder

This year we’re going bigger with the guide. To start, we’re going to double our color printing to 10,000 copies. That means that as we get closer to publishing it, we’re going to need to ask more of y’all to step up and volunteer to distribute it. Look out for more details soon.

Post your tips!

So if you know any solid, veg-friendly restaurants, cafes, bakeries or other spots in the Worcester area, post them here. Or send an email to info@VegWorcester.com.

Tomorrow is going to be a sunny summer day, so come join VegWorcester in Elm Park for some free vegan ice cream.

This Saturday, June 19 at noon in Elm Park, VegWorcester is giving away free samples of So Delicious soy ice cream and Coconut Bliss ice cream in Elm Park.

Why are we giving out free vegan ice cream?

Here at VegWorcester, we like to focus on positive, up-beat outreach activities. Through our regular vegan feed-ins we show Worcesterites that choosing vegan foods is an easy way to challenge factory farming. In Worcester it’s so easy to find tasty vegan foods at any supermarket or at many local restaurants.

Cows’ milk is for cows

Milk is for babies. And cows’ milk is for calves, not humans. Not only is dairy associated with a long list of health issues, it’s far from humane. Earlier this year Mercy for Animals released an undercover investigations into an Ohio dairy farm, where they documented the kind of animal cruelty that is routine on factory farms. The video showed cows with bloody open wounds, prolapsed uteruses, pus-filled infections, and swollen joints, apparently left to suffer without veterinary care.

Just like in the meat industry, cows on dairy farms are forced to endure stressful conditions, a life of cruelty, and eventually a brutal death. The ties between meat and dairy are closer than you may think; When their exhausted bodies can no longer provide enough milk, they are sent to slaughter and ground up for hamburgers. For every cow who produces dairy for human consumption, dozens of her calves who are sold off to veal operations. It’s cruel, but more importantly there are plenty of alternatives.

Where to get So Delicious vegan ice cream in the Worcester area:

• Living Earth – 232 Chandler St, Worcester (map)
• All the Stop & Shops (store locator)
• All the Shaw’s (store locator)
• Nutrition Source – 245 W Boylston, West Boylston (map)
• Other locations in Mass.

Where to get Coconut Bliss:

• Living Earth – 232 Chandler St, Worcester (map)
• Framingham Whole Foods – 575 Worcester Rd, Framingham, MA (map)
• Artichoke Food Coop. Call ahead (508-752-3533), they aren’t very good at having things stocked reliably – 800 Main Street, Worcester (map)
• Other locations in Mass

Come out to Elm Park tomorrow at noon and grab some free vegan ice cream. If you want to help out and you can come out an hour early, call 315-834-2655. We could use a hand.

Apparently Price Chopper now offers vegan cookies. Do you know what the story is? I plan to call the manager on Monday to see if I can find out if this is a company-wide thing, or just at the Price Chopper near Webster Square. In any case, you should stop by and give them a try. This weekend they had chocolate chip, peanut butter and chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar cookie, macadamia nut, and one with everything in it. They’re good!

Do you know what the story is?

Good news! The Artichoke Food Coop (800 Main Street, Worcester) has now restocked their vegan yummies. Back in July I announced on the VegWorcester blog that the Artichoke had begun stocking vegan cheese and marshmallows. Well, they sold out pretty quickly and have now refined their ordering a little bit. In addition to the standard veg options like produce, fruit, rice, beans, tofu, veggie burgers, tempeh, and so on, you’ll find a variety of new vegan specialty items on their shelves.

From this week forward you can pick up the following vegan products at the coop:

• Teese and Dandies from Chicago Soy Dairy - Soy cheese and skeleton-free marshmallows. They have two flavors of Teese: Cheddar & Mozzarella.
• Nayonnaise/Vegenaise – Vegan mayo. Great for potato salad.
• Coconut Bliss – Rich ice cream made from coconut milk.
• Better than Sour Cream – Soy-based sour cream. Put it on your baked potatoes.
• Barely Legal Treats – Every week there are new freshly-baked vegan sweets. Cupcakes, cookies, muffins, scones, etc. All vegan, all organic, all fair-trade, all awesome.

Stop by and give some of these new products a whirl. The Dandies are great for making smores over a Fall campfire. The Teese is perfect for pizzas. And Barely Legal cupcakes are best eaten by the dozen.

A word to the wise, you might want to call before stopping by: 508-752-3533. It is an all-volunteer cooperative, so sometimes things come up and the volunteer ditches his or her shift early or entirely forgets to come in.

Here’s the list:

Binh An
Binh An on Green Street always keeps its East Asian produce well-stocked. It’s a good place to pick up some bamboo shoots, bok choy and various kinds of cabbages. Also, you’re probably not going to find a cheaper source of tofu anywhere in Worcester. For only a dollar you can get two or three blocks of fresh tofu made locally in Cambridge.

Family 88
Family 88 on Main Street has the standard offerings of an Asian grocery, but it is also the best place in town to pick up exotic fruits like durian or star-fruit. But be careful of the durian! Many people love it in smoothies, but its claim to fame is that it smells like dirty socks (we warned you). Fresh durian smells so bad that it is banned on public transportation in Thailand and other South Asian countries.

India Foods & Gifts
Located on Route 9 in Shrewsbury, this is an outstanding source of curry mixes, Indian seasonings, bulk spices and those TV-dinner style curry meals that only cost a couple bucks. If you’re there on the right day, you can even get homemade vegetable samosas for only 75 cents each. (Photos)

Mekong Market
If you’re not satisfied with veg chicken, mock beef, or any of the other standard vegetarian meats, stop in at Mekong Market on Main Street. Where else can you find vegetarian crawfish with little soy eyeballs looking right back up at you? There’s mock duck in a can for a dollar and you can often find vegetarian shrimp on the shelf.

You can read the entire article online, but WoMag always looks better in print. So try to pick up a copy somewhere around town.

What do you think? What are your fav Asian markets around town?

The Artichoke Food Coop is now offering Teese and Dandies from Chicago Soy Dairy–the best vegan cheese and marshmallows available. The Artichoke is not only the first place in Worcester to offer these goodies. It is not only the first place in Central Massachusetts. The Artichoke is the first place in the entire state of Massachusetts to sell Teese and Dandies.

Chicago Soy Dairy offers 3 flavors of Teese. But until the Artichokes see how it sells, they are only stocking the Cheddar. If it sells well, you can expect them to add Mozzarella and possibly others.

Dandies are the yummy little vegan marshmallows. They don’t contain any gelatin, so you’re not eating a skeleton. Gelatin is often made from the scraps on the floor of slaughterhouses: animal bones, skin, and hooves. Yuck!

Dandies, on the other hand, are really tasty and are just like marshmallows you would find at Big Y or Stop and Shop. You can make s’mores with them, vegan rice crispy treats, or just eat them plain.

If you haven’t tried these two yummy products yet, go out and pick some up asap. I made grilled cheese last night, then roasted marshmallow over a fire. Delicious.

Celebrate!

A couple weeks ago, I heard a rumor about them, but when I stopped by the Big Y I didn’t actually find them myself. I asked the woman behind the deli counter about them. She had ordered one batch to see how they sold. Apparently they were popular because by the time I got there they were all gone! She told me they would re-order more and they now appear to be back on the shelf.

I wonder if this is a company-wide change or just this store adding more veg options. If you shop at a different Big Y, check out their deli section. Comment below with what you find.

If you do visit a Big Y and don’t find any, be bold. Ask the person behind the counter if they’ll order them for you. More vegan options means more people eating vegan. That, in turn, means fewer animals abused and killed in factory farms and significantly less greenhouse gases heating up our planet.

Have you tried these sandwiches? I’d love to hear a review.

Thank for the photos, Agent Beckx!

Worcester’s farmers markets
Here’s what I love about Worcester: It has a lot of interesting things, but you have to do a little looking to find them. Did you know that Worcester has 6 or more weekly farmers markets? Each one offers fresh, organic produce and yummy baked goods. And you can’t beat the prices when you’re buying directly from the producer.

The Main South Farmers Market
Of them all, the Main South farmers market really stands out. 2009 is its second year and this weekly event will definitely be the most interesting farmers market in Worcester. What sets it apart from the others is that it has more of a festival tone to it. Yeah, you can buy your groceries there, but it’s also a weekly celebration of sustainability and Massachusetts foods. There’s live music, cooking classes, yummy vegan treats, and some nifty educational-type things.

When is it?
The Main South farmers market starts June 6 and lasts 22 weeks–that’s all the way through October.

Where is it?
It takes place at the corner of Main Street and Benefit Street, right across the street from the Artichoke food coop.

Are you going to be there?

Thanks for all the help, Cody.

Comment below if you want to order copies of the guide to distribute.

The Telegram & Gazette is reporting that the Super 88 that was planned for downtown Worcester is “no-go” on Go/No-Go test.

That’s too bad! The Super 88s in Boston are neat Asian markets with tons of mock meats and weird veg things. You can even get vegetarian duck in a can:

But lucky for you, there are already some quality Asian markets in Worcester. If weird mock-meats are your idea of a good time, check out Mekong Market at 747 Main Street in Worcester (map), where you can pick up a bag of frozen veg. shrimp complete with nice little soy-based eyes that look up at you.