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Vegan Field Report: Stagecoach Country Music Festival Indio, CA
9May 3rd, 2011vegan eventshey everyone, time for another festival field report. this one by jacquelyn drayton comes to us from stagecoach—you know, the big country music festival that happens every year in indio, CA. check it:
I travel A LOT for work, so a country music festival in the middle of the desert was the last place I thought I would be able to find anything remotely vegan. But like an angel that fell from heaven, Texifornia Tamale Company appeared. Thrilled that I wouldn’t have to dine on a warm apple and smushed vegan protein bar at the bottom of my purse for dinner for a second night in a row I hopped in line!
They had beef (blech) and two vegan options. The “Tamale dog” and vegan chili.
I opted for the tamale dog which is a faux sausage wrapped in a tamale smothered in vegan chili which set me back about 9 dollars. Not to bad for a place where a simple slice of pizza will cost you about the same…
I don’t know what type of mock meat they used for the sausage but it was delicious SO flavorful and hearty. A spicy sausage link stuffed with fennel and hot peppers, wrapped in a soft flaky corn tamale.
The vegan chili was fantastic. Kidney beans, mushrooms, carrots, corn, onions and hunks of tomatoes with a smoky spicy kick.
I covered my dog in zesty salsa verde and jalapenos and inhaled the thing! My omnivore companion loved it and could not believe it was vegan.
The festival was much too busy and packed to find out where I can get another fix of my vegan tamale dog. But I sure hope to run into the Texifornia Tamale stand soon! I will be dreaming about them for weeks!
Tags: field report, indio, palm springs, stagecoach, tamale
9 responses to “Vegan Field Report: Stagecoach Country Music Festival Indio, CA” 
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I have to say that I’ve never tasted better tamales than Whole Foods’ Vegetable Tamales! Just perfect, and with no gluten! Hope they have some when we go back to shop for the 4th of July!
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YUM!! I had the pleasure of having vegan tamales at my bf’s friends house (they made a few when they found out I was vegan) they were so good that everyone started eating mine!
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Gauri Radha गौरी राधा May 3rd, 2011 at 09:39
The tamale and the chili both look good.
At my local WF, the vegetable tamale in the deli case is never marked as vegan or placed in the special vegan section, which is expanding due to the whole meatless Mondays thing. But when they check the ingredients for me, it’s always turned out to be totally vegan (and quite delicious too.) -
Jolly Rodger May 3rd, 2011 at 11:43
That link is to a wrong company, they’re from Lake Arrowhead:
http://twitter.com/texiforniatamal
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texifornia-Tamales/294420578696
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Hi Quarry Girl!
This is Micki, I’m one of the owner’s of Texifornia Tamales. Thank you so much for a wonderful review! We jumped up and down. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. And, yes, it is vegan all the way, we make it ourselves! 🙂 We really care about food and love to play with new ideas. Maybe we’ll have something new next year! Thanks again.
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Hi, All,
Glad you loved these; we worked hard to create something special. Plus, we just LOVE asking vegans the one pertinent question: “Really, how long has it been since you’ve had a great chili dog?”
To answer your question regarding the meat we used for the sausage, it was a product NOT of our own creation but THE one that, after sampling dozens, we thing shines above all others. It was the Italian sausage from the Field Roast Grain Meat Co. The do a couple of others as well, including an apple-sage sausage that we liked even better (but that didn’t work as well in our Tamale Dogs) and a Chipotle that we thought was going to be great, but which turned out to be more heat than flavor. We HIGHLY recommend their line to omnivores and vegetarians alike! (The rest of the Tamale Dog with Vegan Chili is made from scratch using local and/or organic ingredients wherever humanly possible).
Again, thanks for the shout out and the 9 bucks. We greatly appreciate both (they should be cheaper at the restaurant, as we don’t have to pay a 40% commission on top). We’re going to be opening the doors of our restaurant to the public in the coming weeks, so if you’re in the Lake Arrowhead area, give us a call and we’ll make sure we’ve got some of these ready for you. 909.336.1200.
Thanks,
jeff, micki and skye
The Texifornia Tamale Company -
thanks for the awesome review. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked two festivals with texifornia now including coachella and stagecoach. They are an awesome group that puts out a quality vegan product. if you ever see one of our their booths ANYWHERE take the oppertunity to try some of their delicious food.
thanks again,
=Matt=
Fritz May 3rd, 2011 at 06:59