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This
adorable travel guide and cookbook could be a convenient manual
for traveling vegans. Unfortunately, it's a little light on
the guide part and heavy on the recipe part, making Vegan
A Go-Go more a tiny cookbook that one could carry around
while couch-surfing than a traveling vegan survival manual.
However, with the large amount of couch-surfing vegetarians
and vegans out in the world, Vegan A Go-Go is certainly
a creative means for them to help out with the cooking without
resorting to the usual humdrum hummus and organic veggies.
Author
Sarah Kramer started her journey doing a home-made vegan cookbook
for friends and family one holiday season. People's reactions
led her to write what many consider the vegan bible, the humorously
titled How It All Vegan! , followed by The Garden
of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan, all of which are geared
towards, in her own words, the "lazy vegan."
The book
itself is barely larger than a passport and, in fact, has
a cute travel-themed design. Even with the trim size, the
recipes are easy to read and have a handy graphic coding system,
keying readers into quick and easy recipes or notes on whether
or not a dish will travel well. The majority of the recipes
use ingredients that are readily found in "meatville," as
Kramer calls non-vegan-friendly towns, and Kramer also provides
suitable substitutions for some ingredients, like sesame seeds
for hemp seeds. Many of the recipes are compiled from two
of Kramer's previous books, and there is a graphic that denotes
new recipes. The older recipes have tips and stories from
cooks who have made them.
There
are some crazy recipes that many will be anxious to try, like
the Tomato Soup Spice Cake, which uses little more than flour,
sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and a can of condensed tomato soup;
and Nutty Broccoli, which is basically broccoli and peanut
butter. The entrees are a little more elaborate but still
suitable for inexperienced cooks, and most of them use easy-to-find
ingredients. There is the usual veggie curry and dragon bowl,
but there are a few more creative and original recipes like
Punk-kin Pasta, a pasta with a thick, savory pumpkin sauce.
The "survival
manual" is 15 pages of tips that only the least experienced
vegan or vegetarian traveler would not already be aware of—bring
food, do some research, go to ethnic restaurants. Tips telling
travelers to bring extra underwear and don't forget aspirin
are silly and insulting. The dull, simplistic suggestions
make the book seem like the "survival manual" portion wasn't
very well thought out.
Despite
the naïve survival guide, Vegan A Go-Go is for already
practicing vegans, not for new recruits. In this book Kramer
assumes you already know the challenges of being a vegan and
don't need to be told about keeping your diet varied and getting
enough protein. Its handy size will excite traveling vegan
cooks, but others will wish there was more info on how to
survive traveling as a vegan besides the obvious. But a good
vegan cookbook is hard to come by, and Vegan A Go-Go
with its fun aesthetic and varied recipes is a welcome addition.
(November,
2008)
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