Vegan at Qwest Field

I'm posting this because before I went to the Packers-Seahawks game I was trying to figure out if there were any vegan food option in Qwest Field. I searched online and came up with a bunch of articles about vegan options now being available at Safeco, but nothing about Qwest.

I know I am not the only football fan who happens to be vegan. I can think of a few more that I know, so someone, somewhere, has probably wondered about vegan food during Seahawks games.

So, this is what I experienced:

I had a veggie sausage from a food cart. Now there are a lot of vegans who wouldn't do that for many reasons. It's cooked on the same grill as meat sausages and the same tools were used. The chances of cross-contamination were 100%. But this is how I see it: I live in the real world. I know much of the food I eat is made on equipment also used to produce milk and fish items. I know when I go out to eat, I am taking the word of the person who prepares my food that it is indeed vegan.

Have I ever ordered a veggie version of something knowing it probably wasn't vegan? Yes. The first thing that comes to mind is the veggie brat I had a Lambeau last year. I am almost certain it was a Boca Brat. It looked like a Boca Brat and tasted like one. Boca Brats are not vegan (milk powder), but I was in a situation where it was the best choice for where I was. (And it looks like it will be the last Boca Brat I will ever have at Lambeau; Boca discontinued them.)

Being vegan is important to me, but I know that it is virtually impossible to leave your home, eat out at a variety of restaurants, and buy prepared food and still be 100% vegan. So, I do the best I can. And sometimes that means looking the other way. Again, to some vegans, that is sacrilege. And if any of them decide to post that I am an animal killer or a bad vegan, I will delete your post. This little blog is my personal domain.

Okay, so I had a veggie sausage from a food cart. I didn't do a lot of investigating or asking of questions, I just jumped in, eyes closed. I saw the package of sausages. The label was gone, so all I saw was plastic, but I could tell they were not Bocas. By the look of the packaging, they were probably Tofurkey sausages, and they are vegan. Was the bun vegan? I don't know. That's part of that whole, "look the other way" thing.

I stopped at the first cart I saw serving veggie sausages because I figured there wouldn't be many. I was wrong. Almost all of them had a veggie sausage, but only one of the carts listed a brand: Field Roast. This makes sense since they are based in Seattle and they are vegan. And damn good.

Another option is to walk over to Uwajimaya. It is just a few blocks from Qwest Field. They have a food court with several vegan options and there is a fully stocked grocery store.

Inside Qwest field? Well, I was out of luck. They have SuperPretzels. According to PeTA, the supermarket freezer version of SuperPretzels are vegan, so I could assume the ballpark version is. PeTA says the same thing about Cracker Jacks and those are plentiful at Qwest. I had some fries and a whole lot of beer.

After the game, I was going to grab a Field Roast sausage for the drive home, but the food cart was out of almost everything. I did grab a bag of kettlecorn. I love kettlecorn and assumed it was made with butter. But after checking the ingredients list, I saw it had no animal products.... So I ate far too much of it in the car.

So, while I may not be the best vegan in the world, I consider myself to be a realistic one. And if you are a vegan and heading to Qwest for a football or soccer game, there are just enough options to get by.

I didn't try carrying in my own food, but another vegan friend told me that she was able to take sushi to a Sounders (soccer) game. The main rule was that it had to be in a container with a clear lid.