BEA Day 2

Before I talk about my second day in NYC, I'm going to jump ahead a couple of days and say what I've been doing. I forgot to ask the relevant people permission to use their names in this blog, so please forgive my liberal use of initials here.

Our wonderful coworker J has been helping the other intern (K) and I get acclimated. On Thursday, she took us to a vegan potluck held in somebody's apartment. K came over to my place and we cooked vegetarian chili in my landlord's kitchen. My landlord and his other tenant hung out for a while and it was like a little party. And K knows how to cook--the chili was delicious!

The potluck was fun. It was interesting to see the type of people that showed up; they were all a little alternative, which was fun. In the places where I have lived, there's always that one person who dresses differently and stands out as being super alternative. In this group, my t-shirt and jeans stood out. The best dish there was the host's samosa scramble, which was made with Trader Joe's Samosa Burgers (I must find these) and scrambled tofu. It sounds weird, but it was to die for. And she just made it up on a whim when she'd been eating a burger that morning and was trying to decide what to make. I wish I could be that creative with food.

The next day J took us to a boutique that was having some kind of promotion involving vegan desserts. The food was good, but the boutique was too expensive for me.

Today, we went on a home and garden tour. I had never been inside a townhouse before, but I just expected them to be kind of tiny and run down. I was completely shocked at how much room there are in those places, and how beautifully you can decorate them. I can't even describe how nice the insides of some of these homes were. Some were based on the antique feel of the homes, and some were super-modern. And all these people managed to do wonderful things with the very small spaces they had for gardening. I've decided that when I am rich, I am going to live like this.

After the tour, we went to a Middle Eastern restaurant for baba ghanoush and vegan pizza. I've never had baba ghanoush before--it was very tasty.

Now back to New York... Friday was actually the first day of the show. My main task for the VRG was to pass out free copies of the Vegetarian Journal. Two non-Baltimore members of the VRG showed up to help out--I'll call them L and D. L is a physician with a nutrition degree who lives in NYC. D is a former dietetic intern who just finished the last of her schooling to become a nutritionist. They were both very interesting to talk to.

One of the cool things about the BEA is the fact that a lot of the publishers bring their authors along to promote new books. There were some really famous people there--Julie Andrews and Neil Gaiman are two who come to mind. Most of the books given out are not yet in stores; some of them haven't even finished being proofed by the editors or having covers designed. It's pretty neat to see the in-progress version of a book. I got one of these coverless books from fantasy author Holly Black: her short story collection The Poison Eaters and Other Stories. I also got Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz (who told me she "could always tell" when someone was a vampire fan on a day when I could not have looked less like one--I think the fact that I was getting her book was the clue) and Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr (who has awesome purple highlights in her hair).

I did some walking (the convention was huge! I was glad that I had been warned to wear comfortable shoes), but wasn't really sure what to do with myself that first day. Apart from meeting the authors, I had the most fun just sitting and chatting at the booth. The most interesting business-related thing that happened that day was when we were approached by a representative of a major bookstore chain, who are starting a new vegan section in their stores. When I hear names like Barnes and Noble or Borders I always just see a logo in my head and think that everything that goes on there just works like machinery--you publish a book and it goes in the store. It was really cool to see the people working behind the names and find out how they decide to put books in their stores.

After the show was over we went to a tiny Middle Eastern place for falafal, which I had never had before. The sandwich was a little difficult to eat, but I loved it. I fear that it is going to be very difficult to go back to rural Ohio and not have all of these ethnic foods so easily available after this experience. After the falafal we walked to a vegan ice cream parlor, which makes its ice cream out of nuts--I think it was cashew. It was the most dairy-like vegan ice cream I have ever had. It was so creamy, and they even had soft serve! I can't remember the name of this one either, but I promise I'll come back and list all the names after I ask someone.

After another day full of walking, we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.