Celebrating Hubby's Birthday & Vegan Offerings at 2023 Disney's California Adventure Food & Wine Festival

Hubby recently celebrated his 46th birthday over the weekend and requested that we spend a day at the Disney's California Adventure Food & Wine Festival which occured from March 3rd-April 25th. In addition to me and hubby, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew also hung out with us at the theme park.

 Prior to going to the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, I went online to the website of one of my favorite vegan Dinsey social media accounts "The Happiest Vegan on Earth" to find our what vegan items were available at the festival. 

Welcome to Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival sign

Upon arriving at Disney California Adventure, I got a tasting passport which is a booklet containing a lsit of all the food offerings available during the festival. In the tasting passort book, vegan options are referred to as plant-based and eating optiions were either a small tasting sie portion of a meal or for extra, one could pay for a full entree/ size.

The first place we stopped at was Avocado Time who had a Al Pastor Taco with Impossible Pork, grilled pineapple, and avocado-tomatillo sauce.

The restaurant at the Food & Wine Festival with the most vegan options (a full vegan menu!) was Paradise Garden Grill. The first item we sampled at Paradise Grill was Gyro Fries with Impossible ground beef, cauliflower cheese sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, tzatzki, and pita bread.

The second item we sampled at Paradise Grill was Bulgogi Fried Rice with Impossible beef, kimchi,vegan egg, pickled cucumber, green onions, and seasame seeds.

The third item we sampled at Paradise Grill was vegan mac and cheese.

The last item we sampled at Paradise Grill was a peach-blueberry cobbler with a oatmeal crust.

 After enjoing all of the vegan food options at the Food & Wine Festival, I was a little sad that these dishes would are only available until April 25th. Hopefully, some of the dishes I highlighted above will become permanent additions at Calfornia Adventure restaurants in which case I'd definitely return again to get a bigger entree' size of my favorite items which were the Bulgogi Fried Rice and the Impossible Gyro Fries.

Scenes from my first ALA Annual

Life has been so hectic lately I'm glad I have a chance to catch up and write about all the fun I've been having at my new job. Although I've been working at my new job since April, I've been blessed to be able to represent my library on a professional level at the highest conference for librarians, the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas from June 28-July1. 

Although me and Den have been to Vegas more times that we can count, it was a totally difference experience going there for a conference. The first day at the conference was busy because I hard to register as well as figure out where all the sessions I wanted to attend were located.

Me at ALA Annual Conference

The registration line at ALA Annual

 In addition to the sessions I went to regarding librarianship, technology and other library related topics, I got to meet a lot of cool people I've admired over the years such \as Bill Barnes author of my favorite library comic Unshelved, Naomi House, creator of the I Need A Library Job (inalj) blog and.actor/author Erik LaSalle! I also met tons of other awesome librarians from around the country and made new professional contacts.

 Unshelved author Bill Barnes and me 

Me and INALJ creator Naomi House

Me and actor/author Erik Lasalle

Banned Book booth

Ice Yeti and me at Minus 5 Ice Bar

After the conference, I was super hungry so me and Den went in search of a new vegan restaurant to try. We decided to go to Veggie House in Chinatown right down the street from Ronald's Donuts and I'm so glad we decided to stop there to eat. Below is a vegan tuna sandwich I had when we went there.

Vegan tuna sandwich from Veggie House Restaurant

We also did something different this time when it came to breakfast and instead of getting donuts, we went to yet another new restaurant called Sunrise Coffee. We went there for breakfast twice and both times I was really impressed by their vegan food. Below is a pic of the tofurky 'wich which was filled with tofurky, tomato, daiya, avocado and lettuce. I was super yummy and we'll definitely go back there again in the future.

Tofurky wich from Sunrise Coffee

I really enjoyed my time at the ALA Annual Conference and super excited that I applied for and have been given the opportunity to attend another library related conference on behalf of the library at the 2014 ARSL (Association for Rural and Small Libraries) Conference in Tacoma, Washington from September 3-6!