Where’s the veggie beef?

I just left Sacramento VegFest 2012, and I’m still hungry. I assumed a “celebration of raw, vegetarian and vegan cuisines” would overflow with food options, so I skipped breakfast and purposely arrived at Del Paso Boulevard’s Artisan Building ready to chow down.

An adorable woman dressed as a carrot took my $3 admission, and I squeezed into the crowded festival. I browsed health-industry vendors and scored a copy of Low Funds: Family Friendly Vegan Meals on the Cheap, a Xeroxed cookbook by Never Felt Better Vegan Shop owners Jen and Shawn Fosnight. I contemplated a Sacramento Vegan Society “Compassion is Sexy” T-shirt before deciding I was too hungry to shop. Bring on the food!

The only place in the room selling consumables, however, was the Nacheez booth: $2 bought a small paper boat of tortilla chips ladled with the locally made cashew-based cheese substitute, which I devoured in seconds. Licking my fingers, I pushed my way into the adjacent auditorium.

I immediately saw signs for The Green Boheme and Azna Gluten Free. Now we’re talking! Or hopefully, eating.

Green Boheme’s table sported decorative kale leaves and menus, but no food. A cheery representative suggested I walk to the cafe to eat. It was only a few doors down, but hadn’t I just paid to enter this building for a food festival?

The next table sat empty. Perhaps that’s where Sugar Plum Vegan was supposed to be. The cafe announced its VegFest boycott two days earlier on Facebook, prompted by the participation of two meat-centered catering companies: Ambrosia Fine Food and Mama Kim Cooks. I read the companies’ menus online and found pages of descriptions of tri-tip, salmon filets, and herb-roasted chicken breasts with hardly a vegetarian entree. I understood Sugar Plum’s reservations, but its food was sorely missed.

Azna offered none of its signature baked goods, but only a $6 lasagna plate. The ice-cold portion was smaller than the smallest piece of cake at an office birthday party. I ate it in four bites, with three more for a teensy cube of brownie and a miniature slice of garlic bread. (All delicious.)

The controversial Mama Kim’s also had food, along with an intimidating line that stretched halfway around the auditorium. Two harried cooks dished up falafel appetizers as fast as hungry patrons could grab them.

I headed to a cooking demonstration by Chef AJ, author of Unprocessed. The crowd filled every available seat and some of the stage floor. AJ was endearing, not only because her fantastic sugar-free truffles kept me from spiraling into hungry crabbiness, but because she sang songs and joked while she cooked. For an hour, VegFest transcended the merely educational and became fun.

Vegetarianism is often perceived as a practice of sacrificing pleasure for cold, ethical righteousness. A festival could subvert that stereotype by making plant-based eating a delicious celebration. VegFest was a good place to acquire recipes and learn about plant-based diets, but with slim food options, no entertainment, and a shaky commitment to representing truly vegetarian businesses, there’s room to improve. VegFest crowds proved Sacramentans are enthusiastic about vegetarian cuisine. Next time, let’s make sure there’s plenty to go around.