Tuesday, November 30, 2010

My MoFo Finale: A Vegan Convert! (Not quite)

Okay, I don’t really need a vegan conversion, but I do want to stomp out some unfounded badmouthing of vegans. If you’ve been reading for a while, you may remember a post from last August which was spurred by this tweet:

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Taste of Belgium is a local waffle shop with a location in our city market, Findlay Market, as well as other fairs, farmers’ markets, etc., and a location at the Columbus city market and The Ohio State University.

Honestly, I don’t know if they ever went for the t-shirts, but they did something better.

Seriously better.

Get ready, you’re not gonna believe this.

They veganized their waffle recipe and now you can get vegan Belgian waffles. This started just in time for World Vegan Day and the waffles are available at Park + Vine.

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Wow. This makes me ridiculously happy. Not only did dropping the anti-vegan message put this unfunny joke into context (maybe they’re seeing local vegans as a lost customer?) but it shows with a little thought how easy it is to make a compassionate, delicious, waffle. I bought a four-pack.

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Vegan waffles, no big deal, right? Wrong. I make waffles and moffles at home, but this is something different from what you’d put syrup on and eat for breakfast. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but Belgian waffles are dense and sweet, with sticky caramelized sugar on their crisp exterior. The inside is sweet, warm, and soft like a heavy doughnut. I ate more than my fill of Belgian waffles as a student in Belgium 9 years ago, and since then this is the closest I’ve come. My heart is warmed to think that after getting a little upset at their tweet, I get a good waffle. It’s what we all want, right?

This concludes my first-ever MoFo, and probably the last time I will challenge myself to post every day for a month. Maybe next year I can see if Cincinnati has any local vegan foods that aren’t desserts or produce.

13 comments:

  1. That's awesome! I love their turn around!

    I'll miss your daily posts. This was a fun blogventure!

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  2. winner! and i second what Amanda says! love their turn around! a complete 180!! i love how you wrote
    "....easy it is to make a compassionate..."
    that line really made me smile, because thats exactly what they did!! that took guts and compassion on their end.

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  3. So cool! It's hard to say what their original intent was with the unfunny T-shirt slogan...maybe they meant that even vegans would cheat for one of their waffles...or something.

    But it scarcely matters now! Good for them, taking the Belgian Waffle plunge into veganism...and good for you too! They sound delicious! I've had Belgian waffles a few times, and they are totally addictive, even for a (supposedly) un-sweet-tooth person like me. :D

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  4. Oh, and I wanted to say congrats for making to the MoFo Roundup yesterday! Thanks for all the great MoFo posts and food!

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  5. I mean today...you're on the roundup today! Lol, it was yesterday's post that got on today's round up. :D

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  6. Ooo, how fun; I'm so happy for you! What was the response on twitter when they posted that? I will look back at your other post. Have you told them you were thankful for the vegan gesture? I actually see that T-shirt as being very flattering toward veganism in a way!

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  7. this story makes me so happy. thanks for sharing!

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  8. I remember that post. That is totally awesome that they did a turn around like that. I can just taste that waffle now by the way you described it. I agree with Shen, Cincinnati has all he best stuff!

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  9. That's awesome that they have vegan Belgian waffles now. It's kind of weird that they made that tweet and now they have vegan waffles...go figure. You did a great job with Vegan MoFo this year! I had fun but am glad to be taking a break.

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  10. ooh, mmmmmmmmm! so fantastical that they have vegan BELGIAN waffles, Jessica! i wish more places around here would wise up. perhaps i can convince them. w00t! blogging every day wore me out - i am excited to take a little break and go back to posting every now and again. you rocked MoFo this year, Jessica - i enjoyed reading all of your crazy delicious posts and drooling over all the tasty eats!

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  11. I love that they came around but it was sad that they needed to go there in the first place. Especially given that waffles are not tough to veganize.

    I hear you on the not mofo'ing next year. Having it in Novemeber made it much tougher than October (like last year).

    I hope you are having a restful week now that mofo is over,
    Ali

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