Vegan MoFo: Philadelphia

The next leg of our journey took us to a cute, small town in Pennsylvania, amidst Amish country. We actually stayed with a blogging friend (from my family/homeschool blog) I'd never "met." It was a great experience, and I loved her as much as I knew I already did. I think I may have freaked her out after she came over here and read my vegan story. (She knew I was vegan but maybe didn't realize how deeply and for how long.)

She was incredibly gracious and accomodating. (And she's weird herself, anyway because she doesn't like vegetables or fruits so we're kind of even. Right, Annette? ;) ) She sent me a dozen emails beforehand, checking and rechecking ingredients, to make sure she fed us "correctly." We had oatmeal for breakfast, pb&j's and carrots and apples for lunch, and spaghetti with sauce and black beans + salad for supper. She did great! She had even made vegan fudge for us, using this recipe.

Onto Philadelphia...I love Philadelphia!

And I love it when I see signs like this one.

I saw the all-vegan Blackbird Pizzeria on Happy Cow but was bummed because it appeared to be closed during lunch. We just happened to wander upon it as we were looking for something else, and it was open. (From what I understand, it's now located in the spot Gianna's Grill was formerly located.) It has a bit of a "hole in the wall" type atmosphere (but seemingly clean). The employees were all very friendly and helpful.

They had several pizzas ready to order by the slice, or you can place a special order, as well. It was sooo exciting. Maybe this was only my second all-vegan pizza place (also Cruzers in L.A.) I've ever been to?


My oldest son immediately zoomed in on the potato pizza. It was so intriguing and delicious. I've never had anything like it. I really want to try this at home. We all loved it.

We also ordered pepperoni, cheese, and a vegetable type.

I'm probably not the best reviewer because I'm excited enough just to be eating at the place with "All Items are Vegan" written on the wall, that my taste buds may or may not be thinking clearly. I'm pretty certain this was a great place, though. (Ryan says yes, it was.) I can, of course, make a vegan pizza any ol' day, but I have never made a crust so fluffy and crispy at the same time. And I just walked up to a counter and ordered it, ate, and left my dirty dishes behind...I love vacation. Definitely 10 thumbs up from the whole family.

They have many other items on their menu: sandwiches, garlic bread, etc.

They also sell desserts. I knew just by looking at them, they had to be from Vegan Treats, and I was right. Leave it to my funny 10 year old to pick out the kooky pretzel brownie. We all kind of shared everything.


So...I so wanted to love all of these because I always drool over the Vegan Treats pics. They were fine, but I didn't moan, "These are sooo good," with a mouthful of food, like a might if they really blew me away. I think this is why I only thought they were fine: I prefer my desserts chilled. Especially if the frosting isn't overly sweet. I'm not a huge cake-at-room-temperature person. I know that when you chill chake, it can dry it out, which is why they don't do it. It just feels like these luscious looking frostings would taste better chilled. My favorite part of all of these was the brownie at the bottom of the pretzel concoction. It was good!


There were, however, 3 other little mouths that weren't as discriminating as mine. And that's all that really matters. I felt very happy for them since they only get desserts a few times a year at restaurants, during our trips and travels.

We walked around the area surrounding Blackbird in South Philly (fun area but maybe not so kid-friendly; we had to avert their eyes away from a few different stores). We also made it to see The Liberty Bell.

Just because our hotel was so close, and we knew the route, we decided we might as well go back to Blackbird. We thought it seemed necessary to order a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich while we were in town. However, they had just used their last two pieces of bread when we walked in. Therefore...we ordered pizza again. Apparently, we were subconsciously fine with that since we plowed through it with no problem.

Tomorrow night, I might insist on a raw dinner in NYC to balance things out a bit.

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I'm behind on blog reading and replying because it's harder to comment while on my phone. And I'm often needed in the car to open packages, locate missing Leapster cartridges & blankies, etc., and watch out for exits. I'll get caught up soon. I appreciate all of your trip well-wishes, and I enjoyed all of your Vegan Essential entry comments. (I will get your extra entries posted soon, as well.) Vegan MoFo has been fun, and I don't want to miss out on the "party" one bit.