It's the little things in life...

What could be more exciting for a vegan than getting $50 worth of goods for $25 at The Body Shop ( http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/ )? How about discovering that at last there is something vegan I can actually eat at the mall food court?

In this case, it's a cupcake.

Granted, a chocolate cream cupcake that just happens to be gloriously vegan is not the most filling of lunches, but then I have been accustomed to ignoring the mall food court since I went vegetarian several years ago. Sadly the one eatery I used to enjoy lunch at was called Desert Moon, a TexMex place that even bragged about its vegetarian menu by posting the list for all to see. Now it is a greasy, fat-filled Taco Bell. That was the last time I bought anything to eat at my mall's food court.

But now, to my greatest joy, as of a month ago, Sweetz Bakery has arrived, with all sorts of custom made treats, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, AND they also do custom orders. I have no doubt my exuberance convinced the young lady working the stall that I was strange, to say the least. No one who chooses the whole animal kingdom to dine from can possibly understand how thrilling it is for a vegan in THIS part of Virginia to find ANYTHING with the label vegan attached. I devoured this sweet cupcake with such joy (think of the scene in JULIE AND JULIA, when Julia Child had her first taste of that fish in France, and you will understand what I felt!). I thanked my husband profusely for pointing out this treasure in our mall when he wandered to the food court to get himself a snack. Had he not walked by, I would STILL not know of this wonderful veggie oasis in the least likeliest of places.

GET A LIFE, you may be thinking. I say, take your joy whereever you can get it in this gloomy, oil-soaked, deficit-rising, animal-exploiting world. I am not only happy for my own selfish wants when I see places like Sweetz Bakery pop up in shopping malls--I am happy for the animals whose lives are saved because more eateries are recognizing there are millions of us who choose NOT to eat animals and desire guilt-free treats to sooth our sweet teeth. If only Dunkin Donuts could comprehend this, and give us some good vegan doughnuts. But that is a complaint for another blog.

To paraphrase a famous French queen, "let em eat vegan cupcakes!" : )

The Hoppy Vegan