I treated generous friends to Casa Borinquina's combination plate at Saluhall yesterday.  It was kind of a challenging situation because I wanted them to get a particular dish at this  Puerto Rican stall that's part of IKEA.  It worked out great because I pretended it was as if I were hosting at my own home and serving them what I'd made!  I got the dishes ordered and paid for, and while I was getting tea on another floor, the buzzer alerted my guests, who then brought the food to the table!  It takes a village!  They are all meat-eaters, and they loved the plant-based dishes.  I don't usually eat substitute meat dishes, but this really is delicious.  Except for one guest, who took some of her food home, we all cleared our plate, and they kept commenting on how good it was.

These generous friends gave two of us each a box of cookies, which I suspect were not vegan.  They're wonderful people, but they aren't clear on the concept.  Of course, plant-based is a cause for me, not something based on an allergy, so I could have eaten the cookies myself instead of giving them away.  I like to support plant-based dishes by giving people items that are plant-based.  They already know how good products with eggs and milk are.  But they don't seem aware of the abuse of animals--both cows and hens-- on  factory farms that provide milk and eggs.

I gave the beautiful cookies to a neighbor.

Ireland is very vegan-friendly.

When I asked the very friendly man at Killarney Bakery, "Do you have any pastry that's vegan?" he said, "Everything is vegan except these" and showed us about three items!
 

Proposition Chicken's "fake" chicken menu item is actually crispy BBQ tofu. They also offer fried and "flipped" (rotisserie-style) chicken options. Their menu also includes sandwiches (with the "fake" chicken option), salads, entrees, and various wings and strips. 

This is what I found online after I noticed that a place called Proposition Chicken was 

replacing the vegan-friendly Lemonade on West Portal.
 

 

When: Tuesday, May 13th, 2025, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Where: Deb Colloquium and Sky Deck, 5th Floor, Cotchett Law Center, UC Law San Francisco, 333 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102

 

This special evening will feature:

• A screening of Bread & Roses, a short film that Hand in Hand produced with our members about our work to bring dignity and respect to domestic workers
• Reflections from community members
• Delicious food
• Photobooth and artwork displays
• A fundraising moment to support HIH’s work
• A space for connection, joy, and inspiration

Here's what I wrote to the organization when I registered for the event:

Dear Janny~

I'm looking forward to Hand in Hand's 15th anniversary on May 13th.  We should be there for our domestic workers just as they've been here for us!

One request:  Please have some plant-based dishes for those of us who want to do volunteer work for animal welfare and for the environment with every bite!

Many thanks!

Tina

 Here's what JOnathan sent me--regarding Mother's Day and the vegan restaurant I'd suggested:

https://sf.eater.com/2025/4/14/24408301/beachn-closing-san-francisco-vegan-restaurant

La Mediterranee is a good choice for gatherings, as it was for Transit Riders' 15th anniversary.    La Mediterranee even has a whole-page vegan menu on Fillmore Street.  
 

 

Over 148 million birds have been ordered euthanized in the US because of the bird flu, and I can’t help thinking that’s a mercy killing when I consider the way egg-producing birds are treated when they’re alive.  “Cage free” really doesn’t mean what our Dick and Jane primers depicted on family farms. 

The SF Chronicle, in the past two weeks, has given egg-free recipes for pastry, as if egg-free pastry were a revelation, something really hard to find.  I hate to use the V-word because I recently found out—in a NYTimes article defending vegans-- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/opinion/vegan-food.html  —that vegans are viewed more negatively than atheists and immigrants, and are only slightly more tolerated than drug addicts.

But if you want to get an egg-free version of whatever you crave, all you have to do is Google vegan cornbread, vegan chocolate cake, vegan whatever-you-crave, and recipes will come up.  You can even make vegan “egg” salad—surprisingly good—and the best potato omelet I ever had was an egg-free omelet in Madrid! A French omnivore with me agreed.   That belies the adage that “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs,” used to justify violence and killing in a revolution. 

Too bad that the food industry surveys find that “vegan” is the least appealing label that can be applied to food—worse than “diet” and “sugar-free.”