I finally finished my talkie (low-tech video--motion pictures or pictures not quite in motion) to answer the question "What do vegans eat?" with concrete examples from my own plates in 2018.
What
do vegans eat? I want to answer this
question by showing you some of the delicious dishes I enjoyed this past year,
2018.
Here's my answer, month by month.
In January, we had take out we got on New Year's Eve from The Loving Hut on Irving Street in SF to begin the year well! I also show food
at Nicole's--what she prepared and the two almond cakes I brought--both free of
milk and dairy. Golden-Globe related
dishes...Pacific Catch on (9th Avenue in SF), Gracias Madre on Mission near 18th, and Chew
and View, a group of Francophiles and soi-disant Francophones who get together
once a month--chewing good food and viewing something in French.
February: Bursa
on West Portal Avenue, lunch at Ana
Luengo's, The
SuperBowl at La Torres
tapas
at Paula's (quite a few), desserts
at Ananda Fuara on Market Street near the Civic Center on Valentine's Day (for some reason I omitted the dinner at Millennium on Valentine's Day Eve), the Chinese banquet the SF Veg Society had at Enjoy Restaurant to
celebrate the new year and the 50th anniversary of the SFVS, a dish at the Farmshop in Larkspur, where they will prepare you a meat-and-dairy-free dish if you ask, Whole
Food shopping, Ratatouille
at a French restaurant in Albany, where they also have Mr. Dewie's Cashew Ice
cream parlor and vegan is the default and only the Rocky Road has dairy.
March: food for the post-Oscar dinner: ice cream & pizza from "The Florida Project," and other food from movies
labeled, food for our meeting of CARA, California Alliance for
Retired Americans, from Fuzio at Embarcadero 1, Pacific Catch again--an appetizer. (I usually have the Teriyaki Luau bowl, which I showed in January), The
Pierre Cost Dining Room at City College of SF, and Truly Mediterranean.
April
(NOT the cruelest month when it comes to eating good food) a dish I made with collard greens without the ham and lard, pastries at Café Enchanté on Geary Boulevard in the Outer Richmond of SF, an unidentified dish free of meat and diary --chick peas and
beets? Sauerkraut I made for two friends. (I like the Field Roast apple-sage sausage even though I don't usually
feel the need for meat-like food.) Humus and avocado at the Farm Shop in Larkspur, two
dishes at Wellness Central served the night we watched "The End of
Meat" documentary--made in Germany, the US, and the United Kingdom--which envisions a future where meat consumption
belongs to the past. One of a series of food demonstrations at SF's Civic Center for Earth
Day--a fruit tart by Jullian Love, who showed that plant-based is the best way
we can eat for the planet even in terms of taste! Desserts Libby, a devoted vegan
friend, served at the memorial for her beloved husband--and
no one missed the egg and dairy. Another
dish from Wellness Central's Wednesday night dinner, where there's ample food, and at the Asian Coalition dinner, where vegan choices are few. (I hope in the future that this worthy organization will offer more
dishes that can be enjoyed without causing suffering to animals and degrading the environmental Dennis
Johnson's piano recital and dishes Kathy served us at her home in Pleasant Hill.
May: Home
roasted veggies...The Faculty Retirement party at CCSF...our dishes at June McKay's home...at Maven in the Haight Ashbury...Cookies I baked for my brother--free of eggs
and dairy--the Slanted Door...Food at the Diversity and Social Justice dinner
at CCSF --Appetizers KQED had for the volunteers, most of which were good for
the environment and kind to animals...Lovejoy's Tea Room, where you can get
vegan sandwiches and other taste treats...Shizen, named in 2016 the best
Japanese restaurant, not even specifying vegan...Almond cake and tortilla de
patatas I made for my son when he visited from NYC...A cookie in
Healdsburg...Bursa...Gracias Madre...an OWL meeting, at Chew and View
again! At my sister Suzy's home in
Oakland...At .Precita Park Cafe, and once again at Wellness Central.
KQED
Blueberry muffins at Whole Foods are available every month of the year...
June A dish I
found this at the cafeteria when I visited my brother at Highland Hospital in
Oakland,
a dish at LaVier Latin Fusion,
a Mexican restaurant in San Rafael, where when we celebrated friend Sandy's birthday, Cybelle's
Front Room on 9th near Judah June 9, where the San Francisco Veg Society had
the best-tasting meeting I've ever gone
to. The manager's daughter is a vegan
who wanted to be able to enjoy everything she'd ever enjoyed before she gave up
meat and dairy, so she made sure that Equally scrumptious taste sensations were
available. There's a multi-paged menu!
Marnee
Thai, delicious
dishes at friend Erika's house, Shizen
once again, this time for the birthday of a Japanese American friend Tom's birthday, Mexican
wedding cookies, available commercially, Food
for Chew and View once again , potato,
onion, and apple-sage sausage dish, romaine
salad June 25
what
I made for family-- Kathy and Suzy.
July Wellness
Central when a group of high school students came with Acumeal, a vegan
startup--July 4, a cake I got from
the Wholesome Bakery on Divisadero Street for Frida Kahlo's 111th
birthday along Frida Kahlo Way July 6, vegan
cookies at Simple Pleasures Cafe on Balboa Street
Cybelle's
pesto linguine, prep
for enchilada pie, salad
with enchilada pie, food at
a retirement dinner for a dear friend and former CCSF colleague , a dish at Cha-Ya on Valencia Street between 18th and 19th St. in Sf, at
another dear friend's 70th birthday
party, also his son's 35th, breakfast
at Stanford Inn, a beautiful eco- resort in Mendocino
August A dish on the menu at Masala, an Indian restaurant in the inner Sunset, my at-home effort at stuffing peppers from Farm Fresh to You, returning to the enchilada pie, what they offered at the AFT 2121 retiree meeting, some of which was vegan, an incredible pot luck for the birthday of vegan at Grape in the
Fog in Pacifica--one beautiful dish after another! a chocolate cake I made with fudge-like frosting. (This is a good one for the kids--like US!) Two of the dishes they offer at the
Imperial Tea Court in the Ferry Building, once
again Chew and View. (More chance to view what we chew!) I thank Jana for the
clever name.) Back
to Cybelle's, a gathering in August of people planning for the Global Climate Action march in
September. The fact that almost everything was plant-based shows the growing
awareness of how diet affects our planet.
I'm not even sure the feta was from an animal.
September A tee-shirt a member of the San Francisco Veg Society was wearing at the Climate
march on September 8th. It's hard
to see the list, but I hope I've shown some of the answers to "What do vegans eat?" At
the Palomino Restaurant, at
the Farm Shop in Larkspur, st
SFSU's dining room where they practice the culinary arts, Ananda
Fuara, back
to Cybelle's, Chew
and View again, at
Kathy's in Pleasant Hill, and then New York, where my visit coincided with their
"Eat for the planet week"! Spring Natural Kitchen on Columbus, By
Chloe, Le
Botaniste, Pure
Kitchen, Seasoned
Vegan, Avant
Garden, where there were a lot of delicious dishes, but it was too dark
to take pictures without a flash, and flash didn't do justice to the dishes (They look like creatures from outer space.)
At
Diana's in Brooklyn!
October
2018 At
Jajaja, a place you can find right off the subway--at the very top of the stairs. Someone really nice at PS Kitchen told me about this place as well as two others. Oaxaca TaquerÃa, where they have signs
advocating for a plant-based diet for the good of the planet and the welfare of
animals as well as our own heath, Amsterdam
Cafe, where I found Avocado Toast a good
choice for breakfast, Lighthouse
Outpost, PS
Kitchen again, and an African America Vegan Starter Guide I picked up, a lasagna I made for Mothers Out Front and other planat-based dishes
there, a pumpkin drink at Cybelle's Yes, I keep
going back. I want to try all three
pages of their dishes. The ice cream at the shop across from Cybelle's on 9th Avenue, cookies and pastry at Java Cafe on Ocean, Mel's
Diner on Geary Blvd, an event the San Francisco Veg Society sponsored at Google Space for us to hear
Steve Blake, when food came from
Enjoy Restaurant and Cybelle's, Ananda
Fuara, what
I made for friends (David and Steve, Beth,) when they had us over for a
movie,--vegan nachos, Chaiya Thai on Claremont, Wellness
Central, Greens
at Fort Mason, the
Farmshop in Larkspur, Ananda
Fuara again. Then the World Veg Fest, where they had demonstrations of food all day long. I show a vegan take on traditional Filipino
dishes and ice cream made from cashews instead of long-suffering
cows!
Ripple
Milk, Wellness
Central, and the ice cream shop right across the street from Cybelle's on 9th Avenue--12 flavors!
November
began really well with close friends in
Arizona. We had pizza at Whole
Foods in Phoenix Arizona and several delicious dishes at True Food Kitchen in Phoenix, Arizona,
cornbread
and a chocolate cake Katherine and I made and Barry's wonderful chili as well
as a delicious coffee cake Jeanne made in Bisbee and brought up for us on Election Day. A
delicious vegan dish by Ana Luengo at a Spanish poetry reading at SFSU, Bursa
on West Portal, at
Bill and Tom's, at
Starbelly in the Castro, an
early Thanksgiving dinner at Wellness Central, at
Thai Idea, Jeremy Fox' kind-to-animals and the environment Thanksgiving dinner. When
friends came over for leftovers the next day, they too brought Jeremy Fox's
dinner--very copious! At
Cha-ya on Valencia, take
Out or eat in at Lemonade.
December
2018 a dish at Chouquet's on Fillmore and Jackson Street --They'll make you a warm
entree if you ask, but it's not on the menu. Shanta preparing dishes at the SF Public Library. I went from there to the gala sponsored by the Factory
Farming Awareness Coalition , which served food from several restaurants in the
Bay Area.. Dishes at
Encuentro in Oakland, back
to Chouquet's, at
the Presidio Social Club, what
I made for my tech help and friend Efren, Chaiya
Thai Restaurant on Clarement near West Portal Tunnel, secret
ingredients for vegan pesto, incredible
chocolates--like truffles--made by Libby, mushroom stroganoff I made, appetizers, take
out from Indian Oven and chili and salad, and finally a toast to family and friends and food that tastes great and does good!
