Gracias Madre, where I went with Jeanne Tillemans and Tomi Cunningham shortly after it opened, with Vilma and Bill in 2013, with Jonathan for Mother's Day 2022, with these friends and most recently with Kathie Piccagli for her 80th birthday, is closing because of the "deterioration" in the neighborhood.  

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/gracias-madre-vegan-mexican-restaurant-closes-sf-location-over-deteriorated-city-conditions/#:~:text=Business-,Vegan%20Mexican%20restaurant%20Gracias%20Madre%20closes,say%20San%20Francisco%20has%20'deteriorated'&text=SAN%20FRANCISCO%20%E2%80%93%20After%2016%20years,Gracias%20Madre%20closed%20this%20week.

 

  Vegan Greek dinner with Mamma Mia

My newly-growing cucumbers, gift of Tom Shiosaka,  provided part of last night's Greek salad for our dinner to go along with a viewing of  the 2008 movie Mamma Mia.

I forgot to take a picture of the pilaf, and Erika brought a delicious carrot salad.

 

 I haven't yet tried the plant-based fish fillets I bought at Trader Joe's this morning, so this post may be more of vegan dilemma than vegan bliss.  I'm sort of in charge of planning the birthday lunch for a birthday group, and the person we're honoring (a wonderful guy) suggested dim sum at the Hong Kong Lounge on Geary Street.  I know it will be heavily meat, seafood, and eggy, which is unfortunate since there are restaurants that specialize in vegan dim sum.  But I don't think I have the "right" to choose a vegan place when no one has asked me to.  A few months ago, a member of our group did suggest that I choose the restaurant for her birthday because we so often eat at places with not many options for me.    That's when we ate at Wildseed.  Here's a montage of photos of what everyone could eat there followed by the 12-course Lunar New Year dinner the SF Veg Society had at Enjoy this year.  

Just to show how little some parts of  the world have evolved, I noticed in today's Food Section of the SF Chronicle (which reports regularly on climate catastrophe) these two headlines:  “a rare registered Jamon carver" and “Hot pot spot serves meat on a Ferris wheel.”  

 I don't know anything about this prisoner, but I am upset to learn that prisons don't accommodate vegan diets--just vegetarian ones.  That seems to be true of The San Francisco Chronicle's Food and Wine section too.  This is true in spite of the fact that vegan diets are much kinder to the environment than diets with animals or animal products and of course they're better in alleviating the suffering of animals in factory farms.  

Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, presiding over Tuesday's hearing, told Bankman-Fried's attorneys that she would not overrule Kaplan's rulings about access to computers, but that she would see if she could get the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to provide medications and a diet more closely aligned to the defendant's vegan preferences.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sam-bankman-fried-living-bread-water-jail-wont-abide-vegan-diet-lawyer-rcna101231

Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn said she doesn’t think the prison can offer vegan, only vegetarian, and she said she would look into the situation right away. Bankman-Fried is currently held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

I'm now listening to The Vegan by Andrew Lipstein on audio.  I saw a review from the Los Angeles Times (Stuart Miller) that ends like this:  "Herschel is the book’s only fully fleshed out character, and since he’s not only tough to stomach but an empty soul, “The Vegan,” for all its flavorful scenes, ultimately leaves you wishing for a little more red meat."

Unfortunate.

 

How wonderful to find this on our way from Manny's to the 16th Street BART station!  Volunteers for Food Not Bombs were feeding people what looked like a great meal.  I asked, "Anything vegan?" and they said, "It's all vegan!"  It's so wonderful when a good cause doesn't sabotage another!
 

 

Good news!  The next Climate Summit or Climate Change Conference COP 28 (November 30 to December 12) will serve mostly vegan food! 

https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/cop-28-uae-un-climate-summit-serve-mostly-vegan-food-leaked-controvers/

  A few years ago--maybe it was in Copenhagen?--they showed what each food selection did in terms of  the "weight" of the carbon footprint.  Here's something I cut and pasted from the article:

It comes after a pivotal study in Nature Food https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w last month outlined the significant impact of animal agriculture on climate change. It found that vegan diets can cut planet-heating emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% when compared to meat-heavy diets. Similarly, a 2021 report https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00358-x in the same journal revealed that global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based food are twice as high as those from plant-based food.

I'm sorry to say that the delegate representing the host country is sitting beside a bottle of water--not his own water bottle.  But, hey, let's celebrate what we can!