Dear MacKenzie Chung Fegan,

The picture of the Agrodolce Provisions' rigatoni marinara with stracciatella looked really good, and I know you need to appeal to readers who don't connect what we eat with animal welfare and the environment, but is there some way to encourage restaurants to have a plant-based version of what they otherwise just remove, offering no substitute?  

I think you've already run an article on bringing our own food into a restaurant, and my immediate thought was, "Of course we shouldn't!"  I sympathize with restaurants, which, like newspapers, are trying to survive.

But I'm really tempted to bring a plant-based stracciatella into Agrodolce Provisions and other such places to show them that there really are other possibilities, and people who do connect what we eat with the planet and all living things on it shouldn't be punished by having something removed and nothing added.

What do you think?

An occasional (on the occasions when there's something plant-based) reader and someone who respects you,

Tina Martin