Vegan Mofo - Recent Eating Out part 1

I have no pictures for this post. Sorry!

My husband and I went to a wedding for his golf partner (and best friend)'s oldest daughter. It was a lovely drive to Simsbury with the fall colors starting to wash the landscape in orange, red and yellow. The reception was at a lovely location, right near a river and heavily wooded. The building was beautiful and very new apparently and they set it up very elegantly. Of course the bride looked lovely as did the attendees but you all do not care much about that, so lets get down to the good stuff... the food!

The reception started at noon and they had a lovely hor dorves spread set out. I started with a flute of Mimosa and waited patiently for my turn up to the table. It turns out they did have good things but by the time I got there the pickings were slim. I enjoyed cantelope, watermelon, carrots, yellow bell pepper and one celery stick. Everything else was quite contaminated either by the placement, who puts grapes on TOP of cheese, or by the guests scooping the dip out and dripping on the veggies.

No worries though, I did get enough in my belly to make walking after all those mimosa's possible.

Once it was time to sit down at our table I was very disappointed. The salad plat was already at the table and each one was adorned with a skewer of poor little shrimps stabbed through the belly and onto a half of a lemon. My husband took it off my plate for me before I sat down. He is such a considerate man sometime! Of course I refused to touch the salad after it had been that close to the shellfish. Who knows how many times they had fallen over and lay in the greens. Instead I ate a whole wheat onion roll and a half, after sharing with LB.

When dinner arrived I was optimistic. It could have been our hosts assuring me that they had planned a vegetarian option or all the champagne. Of course I asked the coordinator for a plate with no animal products, including dairy. One waitress tried to bring me out a plate with mashed potatoes while she was there. Oddly enough their "Of course our vegetarian plates are vegan." comment died a quick death when I asked how they made the potatoes. After that they brought me out a plate and my optimism faltered.

Now picture a very large, very shallow bowl with an inch or two rim in a crisp white ceramic. Inside this huge plate was a stack of vegetables and a drizzle of balsamic sauce with a sprig of rosemary just to look festive. At the top of the stack was a small portobella mushroom that had been roasted or grilled, it was very flavorful but small. Under that was a slice of red bell pepper, about the same diameter as the mushroom, maybe 2 inches. Under that was some not very carmelized onions, again about the same size as the bell pepper slice. Under that layer was some zucchini, three half slices that were possibly a quarter of an inch before roasting. After that was a round of cooked spinach. Of course there was the sauce drizzled about and one tiny sweet pepper looking decorative.

Mind you while this was very tasty, everyone around me had three peices of flesh plus more mashed potatoes than I had veggies. When I finished my 'meal' I was starving. Luckily the mother of the bride convinced them to bring me out another plate but it was even less than the first as it was missing the spinach and the sauce. Needless to say I was disappointed. I continued to drink my calories, since I had nothing else available.

Dessert time found them cutting the cake and serving up crepes. Neither of which I could eat. So instead I smoked an organic cigar with my hubby and we danced outside. Once the reception was over we headed to the hotel where Angel had hung out all day, enjoying their never ending hot water and her books.

She and I ran to Subway and got sandwiches and chips. Mine was gone in a matter of moments I was so hungry. I should have gotten the 12 inch just because! After that I wandered downstairs to the after party, enjoyed the company and a few more drinks. The restaurant and bar did have food so I ordered some. The bruschetta was tasty but the bread was so thick and stale that it was almost impossible to eat. If it had been half the size in width it would have been perfect. Then I ordered their stir fry. It came an hour later with veggies, rice pasta and a very odd sauce. I did not enjoy it but I ate all I could, mostly picking out the veggies and swirlling up the naked noodles around the edges.

All in all, I did not quite enjoy myself. Sunday we drove Angel to the airport and hung out waiting for her plane. My lunch? half a bag of rice crackers.

Not a very healthy weekend. I have more eating out to share but this tragedy of dining deserves its own post. I will give you a hint though, Monday I had to travel into the city for work. So I indulged in lunch a Candle 79!