Here is another article I originally wrote for a different site when I was living in Wilmington a few years ago...

Vegan and vegetarian grocery shopping in Wilmington, North Carolina is much easier than one might think.

Coming from a major city in the vegan-friendly Pacific Northwest, I was concerned about the challenges I might face when attempting to find vegan and vegetarian groceries in a smaller Southern town. To my surprise, with just a bit of research I was able to find everything I need right here in Wilmington. From Vegenaise to Smart Dogs to Tofurkey, you can find everything you need without having to drive hours away for our nearest Whole Foods.

Here are a few of the best places in Wilmington to fill up your vegan or vegetarian kitchen with everything you need.

Tidal Creek Food Co-op   www.tidalcreek.coop

5329 Oleander Drive - 910.799.2667

Hours: Daily, 8:00am to 9:00pm

Tidal Creek is perhaps the most popular place in town for organic, all natural, vegan/vegetarian and healthy groceries. Dedicated to providing GMO- and hydrogenated oil-free products and focused on purchasing from small, local growers and ethically-minded companies, this is a great one-stop shop for just about all of your natural foods shopping – with lots of vegetarian and vegan options.

Tidal Creek has a great bulk foods section where you can stock up on beans, rice, flours, candy, nuts, snack foods, peanut butter and more and has a certified organic produce section. They also offer a salad bar, sandwiches and wraps for quick meals on the go with plenty of vegetarian and vegan items to choose from.

An added bonus with Tidal Creek is the opportunity to join the Co-op and support the community, while receiving discounts on special Owner Appreciation Days and an owner’s only savings shopping list. 

Check out their website for a calendar of in-store classes and events and a wellness directory listing local practitioners and resources for everything from holistic healthcare providers to natural living products.

Lovey’s Natural Foods & Café   Loveysmarket.com

1319 Military Cutoff Road, Suite H (Landfall Shopping Center) - 910.509.0331

Hours: Monday through Friday - 9am-7pm

            Saturday – 9am-6pm

            Sunday – 11am-5pm

Aside from having a great market full of vegan and vegetarian grocery options, lots of options for buying pantry goods in bulk, a juice bar and a hot and cold food bar with café seating, Lovey’s website is a wonderful resource for everything from recipes to health information.

In a single visit to their website you can use a number of health calculators, research specific health conditions, learn about herbs and supplements and research alternative therapies.  After determining your ideal weight, your body mass index, estimated calories burned and your target heart rate, you can also take a number of health assessments and get some great recipes with an entire section devoted to vegetarian dishes. There are several vegan options and the vegetarian recipes can be easily adapted to meet the needs of vegans as well.

While you are there, also check out their calendar for in-store events and classes.




The Fresh Market     thefreshmarket.com

1060 International Drive – 910.256.3524

Hours: Monday through Saturday – 9am-9pm

            Sunday – 10am-8pm

The Fresh Market has a great produce section, but also offers many other options for the vegan or vegetarian panty, including specialty items, pastas and sauces, rice, beans, baking mixes, coffee and much more.

They also offer in-store classes and events and have tons of recipes on their website. While most of the recipes are not vegan, there are plenty of vegetarian options that can be customized for vegans as well.

Riverfront Farmer’s Market   http://www.wilmingtonfarmers.com/

North Water Street (on the Wilmington Riverfront)

Hours: Saturday 8am-1:00pm (April through November)

The Riverfront Farmer’s Market is a great place to find in-season vegetables and fruits, eggs and cheese (for the non-vegans), nuts, herbs, berries, jams and jellies and a number of other locally harvested items. Convenient parking is available (follow the signs) and this is a great way to spend a Saturday morning!



Now that natural living and vegan and/or vegetarian diets have become increasingly more popular, most larger chain stores are also stocking their shelves with more options. The following stores now carry many of the more common items that are vegan or vegetarian, with the added bonus of also carrying organics. Some of the items that can be found at these grocers include products by Lightlife, Boca burger, Smart Life and Morningstar.

Check out their websites for locations and hours of operation for the store nearest you.

Lowes Foods   www.lowesfoods.com

Harris Teeter  www.harristeeter.com

Food lion   www.foodlion.com

For those items that you just can’t find at our local stores, online resources for vegans and vegetarians are plentiful and convenient. There are lots of options online and a simple search will provide pages of resources, but here are a few of the online stores I patronize to get you started:

Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe  http://www.cosmosveganshoppe.com

Vegan Essentials  veganessentials.com

The Vegetarian Site   thevegetariansite.com

Food Fight!   foodfightgrocery.com

I loved living in Wilmington, NC. Yes, it was a little challenging to maintain a plant-based diet when I wasn't cooking at home, but where there is a will, there is a way, and these are some of the options I found while living there.

I wrote this article a few years ago (before moving to Seattle), but it looks like this is still a pretty accurate list of what is available around Wilmington.

Side Note: Tidal Creek Food Co-Op and Mellow Mushroom were my fave spots for vegan goodness while I lived there.

Okay, here you go:


To my knowledge (and believe me, I’ve looked!), there are no vegan or vegetarian restaurants anywhere near Wilmington, North Carolina. However, this doesn’t mean that all of us living in this beautiful part of the Cape Fear region are destined to dine at home and forego the fun and convenience of dining out with our friends and family.

Before I moved to Wilmington, I did a number of Internet searches for vegan restaurants and natural foods stores, and - while I did find a few helpful resources online – I immediately recognized that being vegan in Wilmington could be a challenge.

Of course, eating at home isn’t a problem – generally speaking, vegans and vegetarians can find most of the groceries they need for a healthy, varied diet even when living in a small, not-so-vegan-friendly town.  Grocery shopping for foods that are natural, vegan, organic, gluten-free and the like is also much easier now that knowledge of, and partaking in, healthier living has become much more popular.

However, finding a quick, prepared meal on the go or a dine-in restaurant for an evening out can be considerably more difficult.

After living in Wilmington for a year, I have been fortunate to find that there actually are many more options than one would assume from the lack of local comprehensive vegan and/or vegetarian resources online. I hope this article will assist vegans and vegetarians living in the Wilmington area to find and enjoy some of the many yummy options available to us.

Here is a partial listing of restaurants and delis that offer vegan and vegetarian options, or that have menu items that can be made vegan and/or vegetarian.

 

Flaming Amy’s Burrito Barn   (www.flamingamysburritobarn.com)

402 Oleander Drive - 910.799.2919

Menu available online

Dine in, take out and catering available

Vegetarian and vegan options

Tidal Creek Food Co-op   (www.tidalcreek.coop)

5329 Oleander Drive - 910.799.2667

Salad bar, sandwiches and wraps at in-store café or for take out

Vegetarian and vegan options

Lovey’s Natural Foods & Café   (Loveysmarket.com)

1319 Military Cutoff Road, Suite H (Landfall Shopping Center) - 910.509.0331

Food bar with hot and cold options, juice bar, café seating or take out

Vegetarian and vegan options

India Mahal    (http://indiamahalrestaurant.com/)

4610 Maple Avenue - 910.799.2089

Menu available online

Vegetarian and vegan options

Nikki’s Fresh Gourmet  (www.menupix.com/wilmington/restaurants.php?id=650214#)

16 S. Front Street – 910.772.9151

Menu available online  

Vegetarian and vegan options

Organic Art Cuisine

4606 Maple Avenue - 910.799.1700  (no website yet)

Organic take out and catering is their specialty, but they also have a small dining area for lunch and dinner.

Yosake Downtown Sushi Lounge   (Yosake.com)

33 S. Front Street - 910.763.3172

Menu available online

Vegetarian and vegan options

Underground Food & Spirits   (www.undergroundwilmington.com)

103 Market Street – 910.763.9686

Menu available online

Live music

Build your own burritos and a vegetarian sandwich that can be made vegan.

Double Happiness   (www.dinewilmingtononline.com/menus/double_happiness.php)

4403 Wrightsville Avenue – 910.763.9686

Menu available online  

Vegetarian and vegan options

Dine in and take out

(They make their own tofu!)

Hell’s Kitchen (www.hellskitchenbar.com)

118 Princess Street - 910.763.4133

Menu available online

Banyan Asian Café

5001-A Market Street (at the Ramada Inn) - (910) 790-8597

 

Indochine   (http://www.indochinewilmington.com/)

7 Wayne Drive - 910.251.9229

Menu available online

Vegetarian and vegan options

 

Big Thai

1001 N. 4th Street - 910.763.3035

Vegetarian and vegan options

Mellow Mushroom  (www.mellowmushroom.com)

4311 Oleander Drive – 910. 452.3773

Menu available online

Vegetarian options on menu that can be made vegan

(They have tempeh!)

Hiro Japanese Steak and Seafood House  (Hirojapanesesteakhouse.com)

222 Old Eastwood Road (University Landing Shopping Center) - 910.794.1570

Menu available online  

Menu has vegetarian section

 

Tango du Chat (Tangoduchat.com)

123 Princess Street – 910.762.8723

Menu available online

Vegetarian and vegan options

Pita Delite  (pitadelite.com)

317 S. College Road – 910.392.0028

Menu available online

Vegetarian options on menu that can be made vegan

Sumo Express Japanese Cuisine  (Sumoexpress.com)

125 S. Kerr Avenue, Suite 4 – 910.392.9444

Menu available online

Vegetarian options on menu

The George on the Riverwalk  (thegeorgeontheriverwalk.com)

128 S. Water Street - 910.763.2052

Menu available online

Vegetarian options that can be made vegan

(They offer dock and dine!)

Ruby Tuesday

Menu online at www.rubytuesday.com

Various locations – visit site for addresses and phone numbers

Salad bar and vegetarian burger

Dine in and take out

This is a little random to add to this blog, but it does fall under the "Cheap" part of Cheap Vegan Chick, and it's just laying around in one of my writing folders now that the website it was published on has been closed. So here you go, my Seattle friends!


For more than 100 years Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has offered a truly unique experience for visitors and residents on Seattle’s waterfront. Joe Standley first opened the shop in 1899 as Standley’s Free Museum, later renaming it Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and filling it with unique, international finds that can still be seen today.

Through his trading and relationships with explorers, native people, trappers, prospectors and travelers, Standley was able to acquire rare items from around the world. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has always been family owned and operated, and Joe’s descendants continue to acquire odd little tidbits and display them for the world to see.

There is no admission fee, and there never has been. Anyone is free to come in to gaze at the hundreds of natural wonders, cultural artifacts and oddities that fill the walls and hang from the ceiling. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop holds so many historical displays and unique objects that it has outgrown its location on Pier 54 and has expanded to include a second location, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop Too on Pier 55.

You will definitely want to stop in at both locations or else you might miss some of the one-of-a-kind bits and pieces you won’t see anywhere else in the world. From blowguns to ancient artifacts to Northwest native art, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has something to fit the fancy of every family member.

Many celebrities have visited the shop to take a peek at the shrunken heads – including one that the shop reports is the smallest shrunken head in the world – and museums around the world have acquired artifacts from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop for their displays. 

There are skeletons, lots of animal specimens vegans may or may not want to see, a grain of rice with the entire Lord’s Prayer engraved on it, a merman of questionable authenticity, and hundreds of other distinctive items to gawk at.  

One of their most famous displays is Sylvester, a 130 pound, amazingly preserved mummy who lived during the old west and was found naked with a fatal gunshot wound in the Gila Bend Desert. He isn’t their only mummy, but he is the most popular. You can even buy a Sylvester bobble head to keep you company of the way home, or a postcard with his likeness to send off to an oddity-loving friend.

There are also mechanical displays that tell fortunes and show old time scenes, viewing machines that display historic photos, and even a penny squishing machine for an inexpensive souvenir option. But, of course, souvenir options are everywhere you turn, with shelf after shelf of Seattle souvenirs, Northwest art, truly tacky tchotchkes, personalized items, objects from around the world, t-shirts and other completely random things you never knew you needed.

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop Too are located at Piers 54 and 55 on Alaskan Way on the Seattle waterfront. During the summer, the shop is open from 9:00am to 9:30pm everyday. Winter hours are from 9:00am to 9:00pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 10:00am-6:00pm the rest of the week.

While you are there, don’t forget to ask about meeting times and tickets for the Spooked in Seattle Ghost Tours led by actual ghost hunters.

I was recently contacted by Greg Murray from the law firm Feinstein, Doyle, Payne & Kravec, LLC regarding a class action lawsuit against Kashi Company.

Apparently our friends over at Kashi were allegedly labeling products as "All Natural" or with "Nothing Artificial" when that might not have been entirely true.

From what I've read, it looks like there are roughly 100 Kashi products (everything from waffles to pasta) that may have had synthetic ingredients, while being labeled all natural.

You might be interested in reading this post over at Living Maxwell to learn more about some of the potentially hazardous ingredients Kashi is accused of including in their foods.

If you purchased any of the following products from Kashi between August 24, 2007 and May 1, 2014, you may be eligible to submit a claim:

• Protein Bars
• Granola Bars
• Waffles
• Cereal
• Granola
• Oatmeal
• Crackers
• Cookies
• Microwavable Dinners
• Pizza
• Pasta

Now, Feinstein, Doyle, Payne & Kravec LLC is specifically involved in a settlement in California, so if you purchased Kashi products in California during that time period, the following posting (supplied by Mr. Murray) is for you:

---
IF YOU BOUGHT KASHI PRODUCTS IN CALIFORNIA, YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO CLAIM MONEY IN A CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT. Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC has reached a class action settlement in Astiana, et al. v. Kashi Company. This lawsuit claims that certain Kashi Products were improperly labeled, marketed, supplied, and sold as “All Natural” and/or “Nothing Artificial” even though they contained one or more allegedly synthetic ingredients.

You may be entitled to compensation for your purchases if you are a California resident who purchased, on or after August 24, 2007 through May 1, 2014, certain Kashi Products that were labeled “All Natural” or “Nothing Artificial” but contained allegedly synthetic ingredients.

In order to receive a payment, you must file a claim. THE DEADLINE TO FILE A CLAIM IS MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014. You may file a claim at: http://www.naturalclasssettlement.com/
---

If you live outside of California, you may want to check out what is going on in your state.

If nothing else, lets hope this brings more awareness to consumers regarding the unregulated use of terms like "All Natural" and results in more companies properly labeling their products.

The deadline for the California settlement is approaching quickly, so thank you, Greg Murray, for helping spread the word and let folks know about this!

My latest gift from Monique (my neighbor who is the specialty produce buyer for Produce Available in Oxnard) were these little mini mangoes. How cute are they?

They taste just like their big brothers and sisters, but are pretty darn cute -- if you are looking for something a little different to serve.

I couldn't find a quarter to use as a size comparison, but I did have a nickel, so here you go:

Produce Available sells mostly to stores and such, but they do sell to walk-in, cash customers if you are ever interested in picking up some locally grown produce right from the distributor.

They have the normal stuff too -- I have been particularly loving the avocados she brings us -- but they also have some of this stuff that is more difficult to find in stores.

Me neither. Well, until my neighbor brought these over for me to try.

This is one of the big bonuses of living next door to the specialty produce buyer for a local produce company: I get to try some very cool stuff!

Monique -- my neighbor -- has brought over arugula flowers, caviar limes, lettuces and more, but these ice cream beans were one of the most unique foods I have ever tried.

The part you eat is the fluffy, white pulp wrapped around the pods. This tasty fruit is popular in Central America and South America, is used in local herbalism practices and is an important ingredient in cachiri (an alcoholic drink).

The pulp is surprisingly fluffy, and eating it is like having a sweet, slightly vanilla-ish cloud rolling around on your tongue. Pretty cool.

If you would like to try ice cream beans, keep an eye out for them at farmers markets and specialty food shops, since they aren't a common sight in chain grocery stores.

If you live in the 805, you can stop by Produce Available in Oxnard to pick some up.

Veganism isn’t just a quirky fad that caters to the health-conscious, overly conscientious or environmentally aware segment of the general population. With famous personalities such as Bill Clinton, Natalie Portman, and Ellen DeGeneres providing a mainstream face to the vegan movement, people have been increasingly curious about the health benefits of adopting a vegan diet. Indeed, according to Google Trends, the greater public’s interest in a vegan diet is higher than ever before.

Surprisingly, bingo has also endured as a legitimate form of entertainment mainly due to the rise of online bingo websites that appeal to a younger, technologically savvier generation of players. Indeed, online bingo has evolved into a mobile game and social media outlet for players all over the world. As a matter of fact, one of the most recognizable faces and voices in the realm of online bingo is none other than resident Bingogodz caller Brian Blessed, a resolute animal-lover and avowed vegetarian who has occasionally dabbled with a full vegan diet.

The familiar template of bingo cards has also been appropriated by numerous sectors outside of the traditional, land-based bingo halls. Not to be outdone, Brian Vander Veen (a vegan, naturally) created what he calls a Defensive Carnist Bingo card. Each square in the card contains a cliché and/or misconception from defensive omnivores about their food choices and/or ethics. And much like in old-school bingo, players must fill in five spots (up/down, left/right or diagonally) for a win. It’s also a free way (there are image and text-only versions available online) to poke a little fun and satirize the many ridiculous things people say to vegans. In fact, there are so many fallacies and funny stuff directed at vegans that Vander Veen had enough material for another Defensive Omnivore Bingo card over at Easy Vegan.

Clearly, vegans have a sense of humor to handle all of the misguided perceptions carelessly thrown at their way.

Hi Facebook Friends!

This is just a quick note to let you know why I haven't been posting directly on Facebook -- and to apologize for not responding to messages!

I have been locked out of my page for more than a month and can't seem to convince them that I am really me. So I have not been able to post directly to my Cheap Vegan Chick Facebook page or respond to messages sent to me via Facebook.

Fortunately, I had previously set things up so that posts to this blog automatically post to FB, so at least those are still showing up.

While I continue to try to get back on my page, you can still like the page, find posts and coupon links there and so on. If you have a question for me or would like to contact me, you can do so through Twitter or by emailing me at AJ @ CheapVeganChick.com.

I apologize for the inconvenience and hope to be able to directly connect with you through Facebook again soon!

V and I went on a little road trip this last weekend to visit some family. We go on lots of these short road trips and are always seeing big trucks with advertisements for meat or junk food, so I got pretty excited when I saw this O.N.E. coconut water truck heading down the highway!

It was just nice to see a healthy advert for once -- so I had to share it with y'all!

I finally made it to SoCal after one heck of a road trip. It's great to finally be here, but things are still not going quite as planned, which means it will likely be another week before I will be able to get back to posting regularly. In the meantime, I will try to post vegan deals and vegan coupons when I can, but thanks for your patience as I work to get settled in and back to my normal routine!