Friday, January 18, 2008

The Hungry Vegan: first impressions

My Hungry Vegan order showed up today, right on time. The box was sitting on my front porch when I arrived home after a day away.



I opened it and found a styrofoam cooler with sealed bags inside, along with two ice packs, which were still mostly frozen.



On top of the bags was a letter listing the food items enclosed and some notes about the food.



I lay all the items out on the table so i could look at them.


There were two soups (lentil and carrot bisque), eight meal items (including a quick bread), and two desserts. The carrot bisque soup bag was not sealed all the way and therefore when I took it out it dripped a few drops. The pie was pretty smashed - I wonder why they thought that would travel well! I went ahead and heated the bisque, along with a potato-rosemary-olive-sun-dried tomato mix, for dinner:



The food was good. What I ate actually reminded me of meals I make myself when I am paying a bit of attention and even actually following a recipe. And it was filling enough. I think two people could have had the soup. I haven't tried anything else yet.

My first impression is that there could be better quality control. That soup should not have leaked. All seals should be tested - surely there is a way to do that. And the pie might have done better packed differently, or left out altogether. I do think this is a good option to have available, especially if you do not want to cook (or can't) and don't live near good delivery places. The shipping cost is rather high outside the regional area, so it also makes more sense for people inside that area than for people like me, but the cost of the food is quite reasonable and sometimes we can justify the shipping expense.

13 comments:

peacebro said...

Check out VeggieBrothers.com
for a nice vegan online experience as well, without the leaks.

www.veggiebrothers.com

Not to take away what hungry vegan is doing, its all good.

Judith Lautner said...

Thanks, Peacebro! I definitely will check that one out, too. This is great, getting these alternatives.

I will soon post my more complete impressions about the hungry vegan here - I want to eat it all up first.

Anonymous said...

I have been using Hungry-Vegan.com for about a month now, and I love it! The food is so delicious, and unlike veggiebrothers.com, it's 100% organic, even down to the spices. And, H-V doesn't try to imitate carnivorous diets with vegan meat substitutions, (although I see how that might be appealing if you're just getting started with veganism and still miss the meat). It's just really good, healthy food.

Judith Lautner said...

Good points, Nance! I hadn't thought about these features specifically.

veggivet said...

I've been a subscriber to the hungry vegan for 3 months now. For the most part, the food is good and seems fresh. Of course, some meals have been better than others. I've only had one leaky package, and now the food comes in sturdy platic pint containers. This service has simplified my life as I don't have any time to cook for myself. Thank you Hungry Vegan!

Judith Lautner said...

Hi Michael,

I am happy to hear about the plastic containers. What do you do with them when you are done? Reuse? Recycle? Same with the styrofoam cooler?

veggivet said...

Yes, I recycle the plastic containers after my dogs lick out any residue, and the same goes for the styrofoam container. I donate the gel packs to local businesses that need them for shipping.

Unknown said...

What is the website for the Hungry Vegan? I tried http://www.hungry-vegan.com/ and I kept getting an error.

thanks
Susan

Judith Lautner said...

Hi SUsan,

I'm embarrassed that I didn't include the web address in that post - I did have it in a former post. It is http://www.hungryvegan.com. Or it was once. Unfortunately, I see that the page is no longer functioning! I expect it has gone under. The place-saver page links to this one: http://www.myspace.com/georgiewong
But I know that isn't the person who used to operate The Hungry Vegan.

I did another search and found this:
http://ro-ro.facebook.com/pages/The-Hungry-Vegan/6816228740 - which confirms that the website, at least for a while, was indeed hungry-vegan as you thought, but yeah, dead dead dead. And I could not see how to contact this person to confirm.

veggivet said...

The Hungry Vegan, unfortunately, is no longer in business. I've ordered from veggiebrothers a couple of times. Selections don't change very much, though. Good news is there's a dancing vegan nearby where I get most of my food now. www.thedancingvegan.com

Judith Lautner said...

Thanks, veggivet. I'm sorry to hear about The Hungry Vegan and happy for you that you live close to the dancing vegan. I guess mailed delivery services are pretty risky right now.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about hungry vegan closing. I hope we can consider turning to www.veggiebroters.com
as i know they are needing support as well. I do know they have laucnhed new orgainic roasted butterneut squash soup rencently, and soon a organic bbq tofu dish and next month a veggie chickn pot pie. And their shipping rates are reasonalbe now, even to the west coast.

Judith Lautner said...

Hi anonymous. I went back to veggiebrothers to place an order but I still could not really justify shipping. I ordered about $45 worth of food and it would have cost about $35 in shipping, including the special handling charge for western states. So yes, it's better but I'm still waiting for them to set up an operation closer to California!