Solano Avenue Albany Has Vegan Treats

Visiting our friend Fran, after lunch at the Rendez-vous Cafe, where they held the polenta on my ratatouille so it could be vegan and substituted fries,

we walked along Solano and saw quite a few vegan treats.  It's exciting to have so many flavors of cashew ice cream and signs that specify vegan!!!!  I even spotted a Afro-Vegan cookbook at the spice store! 

Where's the Milk?

I just made Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for my Chew and View group, and reading the ingredients I saw nothing that wasn't vegan.  Yet, after listing all the ingredients, the label says "Contains wheat and milk ingredients."  Where?

The Disappearance of Kielbasa Vegan Sausage

This morning not only was there no Tofurky Kielbasa vegan sausage at Lucky, but I found out that there wouldn't be any in the near future. 

I just sent this message to the Tofurky company:

I love your Kielbasa.  It's by far my favorite of your products.  I had planned to take some to non-vegan friends who like sauerkraut, but I found out at the Lucky Supermarket at Lakeshore Shopping Center  in SF that it's been discontinued because it was too hard to get it from the distributor.  What's this all about?  I want it back!

Califa Farms Offers Vegan Yogurt

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/califia-farms-debuts-vegan-drinkable-yogurt/?utm_source=Green+Monster+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=7fafe7a1aa-NEWSLETTER_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbf62ddf34-7fafe7a1aa-107079357

Something Vegan, Something Not

A lovely friend I adore read my offer to bring the amuses-gueules to our Francophile/Francophone group and responded, "I would also prefer to contribute amuses-gueules. Tina, maybe you bring something vegan and I bring something not?"

Oh, how I wish people didn't think they had to offer something NOT vegan!

This is how I responded--only to her, not to the whole group:

You're always so thoughtful, but I have a fear:  If people think of what I'm bringing as vegan, they won't like it.  If they think there has to be an alternative, that's evidence that vegan stuff isn't good enough.

I went to a dinner party and offered to bring the ice cream and cake--both were vegan.  The hostess (Talat Jabbar) told me that we would not let the guests know it was vegan, and we didn't.  They loved the ice cream, and they loved the cake.  They had seconds.  There was a non-vegan dessert too, but the vegan one went faster.

But I'll bet if they had known it was vegan, it would have colored their taste.  They might even have avoided it in the first place, and if they'd tried it, they would have detected some under-taste that wasn't very pleasant.

My diet really isn't about me.  I can eat anything.   It's about  getting people to think outside the box--the box being the cages and the confined spaces  cows and other animals are kept in--causing them suffering and posing environmental problems.

I plan to make an almond cake and buy cinnamon rolls and fruit.  I'll also bring either Miyoko's chive cheese or the kind of cream cheese you brought last time--but I'll bet if anyone sees the words "Tofu" or "vegan" on the box, they'll avoid it or detect a taste they wouldn't detect if they hadn't seen those words.  

It's so important for us to enjoy our food.  It's one of the great joys of life.  

That's what I think of you too, that you're one of the great joys of life.

I hope you'll understand my concerns.  

Je t'embrasse (comme j'embrasse  le régime végétalien)

Tina

Leah Garchik's Response

Here's what Leah Garchik wrote in response to what I sent her yesterday:

Thanks, Tina. I am sympathetic, have been a vegetarian for 49 years.  But I think it’s wrong to try to impose one’s beliefs on others.  (I know, you make a good moral case for proselytizing; but I’d rather keep my notions on what I eat to myself.)

Leah Garchik

My Response on Eating Responsibly as Described in Today's Leah Garchik Column

Dear Leah,

I read about Jamie Jobb and "the complications of buying ice cream" in your column today, and I'm not quite sure what eating "responsibly" means if it doesn't include animal welfare.

My sister became a vegetarian in 1972, and my mother and her partner soon joined her in that diet.  My son made the  decision in 1987, but I continued to eat meat because I figured we all had to die, so the animals could frolic around freely until it was their turn to die and land on my plate.

Then in 2001, I saw pictures of factory farming, and I stopped eating meat.

But I continued with dairy and eggs and  thought that vegans were nuts until I learned that, as the label on the package said, "Dairy=Cruelty."

I now know what's done to cows to get them to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally produce, how they're artificially inseminated, how they respond when separated from their calves, how they're confined...

Well, you can read all about this on your own.  Information is rampant--and I don't mean the junk science or hyperbole.

But...here's what I'd like to relate to  Jamie Jobb and your other readers:  Vegan ice cream is readily available, and it's delicious.

I'll be serving it at a Post-Oscar gathering to discuss the movies of 2017 and eat the food that was in them.  Do you remember how Tonya in I, Tonya wanted Dove Bars but got Eskimo Pies instead?  There are vegan Eskimo Pies.  In The Florida Project ice cream was big too, so we'll have our choice of several Ben and Jerry flavors, and there are a lot of other brands, so that cow the children see on the safari can live in peace!

 Here's the Post-Oscar menu so far--all of it free of meat, eggs, and dairy:

a peach for Call Me by Your Name (no special embellishments)

mushrooms , toast we can crunch on to annoy whoever is sitting next to us for Phantom Thread  

Keylime pie for The Shape of Water

Sandwiches and lemonade for The Post

Eskimo Pies instead of Dove Bars for I, Tonya

Froot Loops for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Booze and tea for Churchill

Water for Dunkirk

Pizza (CyBelle's has a vegan pizza with cashew cheese and vegan chicken)  and ice cream for The Florida Project

What do they eat in Lady Bird?  (I know they smoke pot.)  They have leftovers.  I could bring all the leftovers out of the fridge because I can see that the food eaten in movies is a bit heavy on junk food.

Tina

SFVS's 11-Course Banquet at Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant

Chinese New Year banquet at Enjoy Restaurant  Saturday, February 17, 2018   5:30 PM to 7:30 PM  Enjoy Restaurant  839 Kearny Street  San Francisco, CA 94108

Dear SFVS members and friends: Come celebrate the San Francisco Vegetarian Society's 50th anniversary and the Year of the Dog with us at a Chinese New Year banquet on Sat. Feb. 17, 2018, at 5:30pm for an eleven-course vegan meal at Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. All members and their friends and family are welcome. Here's our menu: 1.Steamed dumplings 2. Veggie shark fin soup  3. Lettuce Wrapped w/shredded mushroom, soy chicken & more 4. Taro, soy and pumpkin in coconut sauce 5. Eggplant w/sea bass 6. Stir-fried pea sprouts 7. Braised spareribs w/daikon 8. Bean curd rolls w/vegetables 9. Fresh mushrooms w/fried soft tofu & broccoli 10. Green vegetables vermicelli noodles  11. Spinach & pine nuts fried rice

SFVS's 50th Anniversary Banquet

Thanks to the organization of Janet Tom, SFPL librarian extraordinare, and Patly and Greg Rorbach, who head the board of the San Francisco Vegetarian Society, the SFVS had a well-attended banquet in Chinatown to celebrate our (I like to say our) fiftieth anniversary.  It was extra fun that it was in Chinatown (even though I'd thought earlier "Why not the Enjoy on Kirkham?").

There was so much interest that people had to be turned away.

Three people told Patly they'd heard about out through KQED.  This is what was online, written by Kelly O'Mara.

Enjoy Restaurant (Chinatown): If you’re looking for a vegetarian start to your Year of the Dog, then enjoy Enjoy. This year, the San Francisco Vegetarian Society will also be celebrating its 50th anniversary with an 11-course vegan meal for the Chinese New Year. Tickets are $30 per person and must be bought by Feb. 10. That includes dishes like spinach and pine nuts fried rice, steamed dumplings, and lettuce wrapped with shredded mushroom and soy chicken.

Two Questions that Have Been Nagging at Me

• Katie Cantrell <info@ffacoalition.org>
 
• Today at 11:52 AM

To

• tina_martin@sbcglobal.net

Message body

Hi Tina,

Thanks for your questions. I wish I had better answers for you... 

The Eating Animals film is still coming out, and last I read it was acquired by Sundance Selects. But you're right, I haven't heard anything about it since that announcement back in September. We are likely going to partner with Farm Forward to help promote the film and potentially arrange to have it screened in schools, so I'll let you know once I hear more.

I've never seen any photos of the food displays at COP23, nor have I heard anyone discussing the expanded veg options. Hopefully they followed through, it's inconceivable (though not surprising) that they could serve so much meat at a climate summit.

All the best,

Katie