https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/1401891/160279476950795968
The San Francisco Veg Society is really vibrant now--lots going on and even some people younger than me! In fact I was sitting next to a young man from India and commented over my huge plate of food that as a kid I was told to eat everything on my plate because the children in India were starving. He said, "Yes, and I was one of those kids. I'm here because you ate everything on your plate."
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.
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:
Here's what I wrote to the organization when I registered for the event:
Dear Janny~
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.”
She said, "No, and I'm a vegan but didn't order any vegan. Are you a vegan?"
I told her I was and just sent a follow-up message.
But the reason I bring this up is that I read in today's paper that Peet is ending its upcharge for plant-based milk, a surcharge I knew nothing about. Paul McCartney had written a letter to Eric Lauterbach, president and CEO of Peet’s Coffee about the surcharge, saying he was surprised that Peet's was charging more for plant-based milked because "your company is committed to reducing methane emissions and water waste, yet cow's milk significantly contributes to them." .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZvBocihNSM
Got this off
at 8:21 am this morning:
Bio: I love the
Chronicle and will be checking things out at the SF Chronicle's Restaurant
Night!
After reading “Sales
booming for egg alternatives” and “Ag subsidies are a good place for cutting
government waste,” I wonder why the SF
Chronicle’s Food Section continues to
feature eggs even in its vegetarian recipes, discriminating against the
much-maligned minority that’s--pardon the V-word—vegan!
Yes, as the article
on egg alternatives points out, there are egg substitutes like Just Egg; I’ve enjoyed scrambled eggs with them that
the carnivores with me thought tasted
just like eggs. But since I’ve been
doing volunteer work for the environment and animal welfare with every bite,
I’ve discovered that if I Google “vegan cookies” or “vegan potato omelet” or
precede any dish I like with “vegan,” recipes pop up. There are a lot of delicious egg-free,
plant-based dishes that Food and Wine ignores.
I have my ticket for the Chronicle’s Restaurant Night, but I
fear that the minority group I belong to will see still more discrimination
against us and the causes we believe in.
Ironically, it's through information we’ve gotten from the SF
Chronicle’s reports on climate chaos and the treatment of animals in factory
farms that we've taken up a plant-based diet--something the Food and Wine
Section ignores.
I got this
off to the Chronicle a 9:49 March 6, 2025
Bio: For most of my life I was unaware that cakes,
cookies, cornbread, and even omelets
could be made without eggs, but they can--and at the risk of sounding preachy
(yes, I know)--they should be.
https://www.noracooks.com/the-best-vegan-cornbread/
https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-chocolate-cake/
I thank the
SF Chronicle for printing Gene Baur’s
“Ag subsidies are a good place for cutting government waste” while I wonder
why the SF Chronicle’s Food Section
doesn’t connect with informational reports. We read of the shortage of eggs,
the cruel treatment of factory farmed animals including birds, and the high
cost of factory farming to the environment and to the taxpayer. But even the vegetarian page of the Food
Section rarely has a recipe without
eggs. Many readers may be unaware, as I was for
decades, that cakes and cookies can be delicious without eggs, and
that’s true even of omelets. The best
potato omelet I ever had was in Madrid’s B13 Bar, and it was totally free of
eggs, contradicting that adage that “you can’t have a revolution without
breaking eggs.”
We read that Nevada, to deal with its egg
shortage caused by the bird flu resulting in the killing of millions of birds,
has rescinded its law requiring less horrific treatment of factory-farmed
animals in terms of space. In 2018’s
Prop 12, California voters supported a “Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals
Act” 63% to 37%.
Could the Food Section offer egg-free plant-based recipes to help consumers while also doing something good for the environment, animal welfare, and us concerned citizens and consumers?
I'm concerned about what identifying the cult killers as vegan is doing to the already negative view of vegans.
I found this in a Farhad Manjoo opinion piece in the NYTimes.
One survey found that vegans are viewed more
negatively than atheists and immigrants, and are only slightly more tolerated
than drug addicts.
https://www.sfgate.com/best/vote/#/gallery?group=506913
I was waiting for the #38 Geary at the corner of Geary and Divisadero, when one of three teenage boys asked me, "Could you spare five dollars so I can get a hamburger."
I was keeping my five dollar bills for servers who take pictures of us at the table because I don't think that's part of their job description, and I want to reward them. But I really didn't need the five dollars that day--no eating out plans--so I gave him the five dollars. Then it occurred to me that I didn't want him to get a hamburger.
"Oh, my goodness! I forgot! I don't want you to get a hamburger. They're the worst thing for animals and the environment. Please get something else."
"He can get a salad," one of the other boys said. "or a veggie burger."
He asked me, "Are you a vegan?"
"Yes," I said.
"Now I hate you."
"Then give me back my five dollars."
I couldn't believe I was losing an opportunity to give him a little lesson.
He said, "We need meat for our bodies."
"That's what a lot of people believe," I said. I could have said so much more. I should carry around a flyer showing how animals are treated every day of their lives.
I really failed to rise to this occasion!
The #38 bus was soon there.
