When I travel with non-vegans, my adoration of food-based sight seeing is often a point of curiosity. For me, the first step of travel research is looking up the restaurants and grocery stores. That being said, I love visiting Whole Foods while traveling to see what different products that I've been lusting after are available, as well as discovering entirely new products that I had no idea existed. The Whole Foods in Portland is a favorite of mine, as is the one on Halstead in Chicago where I first had Teese cheese.Fortunately for me, the Whole Foods in Om
aha, despite being smack dab in the middle of the Midwest (some call it beef country, I call it soy country), boasts an impressive array of goods, in addition to the friendly service you generally find at Whole Foods. The Omaha Whole Foods has a stock including:
-Chicago Dairy Baked Goods
-Rice and Soy Soyatoo Whip
-Teese Cheese
-Field Roast's line of products
-Road's End Instant Mashed Potato Line (Chreesy is the best!)
-Vegan chocolate mousse
-In-house vegan featuring Teese Cheese and Seitan Sausage for ridiculously cheap ($8 on days with a pizza special)
-Vegan pressed sandwiches featuring Field Roast deli slices and hazelnut cutlets
-In house vegan cookies
-Vegan House
Caesar Dressing
-Salsas made with grapes and apples (in different salsas, not together)
-Ricera: a rice-based, non-dairy yogurt
...among other things. Every time I go to Whole Foods, I am grateful for the plethora of items available to me. It is rare that I want to anything, and if I am wanting, it is never an essential. From a fabulous bulk section to wonderful, beautiful produce to every frozen good I could want, my Whole Foods, though not in California or New York, more than meets my needs.
Despite a strangely persevering belief that it is simply impossible to be vegan in Nebraska, I have somehow managed to survive as a vegan for over three years, vegetarian for several before. There are resources available, and they are becoming more readily so. However, since moving to Omaha, and having access to Whole Foods, I can finally grocery shop at a single location. On a vegan, cross country road trip, Omaha's Whole Foods can definitely be considered for some familiar vegan stockpiling.
PS-
If you are on a vegan cross country trip and you choose not to go to Whole Foods, here are some local places you could stop at in Nebraska for supplies:
Open Harvest (Lincoln, NE—amazing deli, seriously fantastic, try the baked tofu)
Red Clover (Lincoln, NE— right down the strip mall from Taj Mahal, an Indian restaurant with a two page vegan menu)
Jane's Health Market (Omaha, NE—they have Go Max Go bars, a vegan health staple)
In addition, there was not one, but two kinds of vegan queso, Nacho Mom's and Food For Lovers. I've mentioned Food For Lovers queso before, so it shouldn't be too surprising to discover that I bought four jars. That's just how I roll. I also purchased Chocolate Pirate's Booty, which I have yet to try.
There was also a case of frozen vegan taquitos. I didn't get any because I knew my chances of getting them home intact in the approximately seven hours that it takes to drive back to Omaha from Tulsa were slim but I really wanted them, almost as badly as I want a vegan taquito case at my local Whole Foods. Get on that, Omaha.
