What I Failed to Say on Vegan Thanksgiving

When I gave Millennium's Thanksgiving menu, I completely forgot about other vegan ones:

Thanksgiving Dinner at Pena Pachamama Chef Jillian Love  Thursday, November 23rd,  5-10 pm

Pena Pachamama Restaurant and Chef Jillian Love Present  Cornucopia Thanksgiving Dinner Raw and Vegan Fusion Menu By Chef Jillian Love *All Gluten Free, No Refined Sugar* First Course Garden Greens, Shaved Fennel, Persian Cucumber, Pomegranate Pods, Black Sesame, Spiced Walnuts, Raspberry Vinaigrette Second Course Holiday Spiced Sweet Potato Soup  Third Course Spinach Stuffed Shiitake Mushrooms with Sage Cream & Garlic Aioli Cherry Chipotle Cranberry Chutney Pumpkin Cornbread Stuffing Rosemary Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes Lemon Garlic Green Beans with Onion Crisps  Fourth Course Holiday Spiced Persimmon Pie with GingerSnap Crust Maple Cashew Cream or Cinnamon Apple Berry Pie with Macaroon Crust Dark Chocolate Sauce Cocktails Wine * Margaritas * Sangria Strawberry lime virgin margaritas *cocktails are additional cost $55 Adults $25 Kids 12 and under $25 "Sweets and Tunes" - Just Dessert, Coffee/Tea and Music 8:30PM Dinner Served from 5-10pm Live music 8pm - 10pm Get your dinner ticket in advance Tickets ~ please call the restaurant to reserve your table ~ Pena Pachamama Restaurant 1630 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 646-0018

 Also, there are regular Wednesday night vegan dinners at the Opera Plaza:

Wellness Central Vegan Dinner and Talk Wednesday's,  6-8 pm

Here is the schedule of speakers thru the end of the year . . . Nov. 29  Michael Stutz, JD, Respect for All Sentient Life Dec.  6   Christine E. Dickinson, PhD, "Social Conditioning as a Deterrent to Plant-Based Living" Dec. 13    Vegan Holiday Treats! How-to Dec. 20  Vegan Holiday Banquet and Gift Exchange (ticket-only event) Enjoy a DELICIOUS vegan dinner, planned by Patricia, a CERTIFIED Nutrition Consultant. ALL vegan, ALL health-supporting!  Enjoy dinner in the ambiance of a premier downtown location, pleasant socializing with like-minded people and fine table music. Cost:  $15 Location: Opera Plaza Community Room, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco. Take the elevator to the mezzanine, then follow the sign down the hall to the right.

Black Vegans!

This is just a place-keeper for the New York Times article on black vegans in today's newspaper.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/dining/black-vegan-cooking.html

How Friends Respond to Information that's Unpleasant on the Subject of Animals

One of the finest people I know told me, with some indignation, that a guest who knew she ate dairy products started telling her about all the horrors the animals undergo.

I don't think her point was that she was going to eat less dairy.

I think her point was that that woman was obnoxious.

It's so unpleasant to hear about what animals undergo so that people can enjoy dairy products.

It must be even less pleasant for the animals.

Millennium's Thanksgiving Menu Should Change Stereotype

  

Tara Duggan deserves credit for including vegan options in her  pre-Thanksgiving article on pick up and delivery (November 17).  (I wish Michael Bauer would let us know about vegan options in every review of restaurants he writes.  I think one reason for the negative stereotype of vegan dining is that people go too often to meat-heavy restaurants where their vegan friend can find only a side order of green beans or a salad with two or three key ingredients omitted.)

But Duggan gave Whole Foods' roasted cauliflower as a main course, and I can't say that was the pièce de résistance  at our Thanksgiving table, and neither was tofu, as Keith Fisher-Paulson  expected  it to be at the home of his friend who "as part of his midlife crisis...turned vegan." (letter to the editor, November 22 )

 My family ate at Millennium this year, where  our three-course meal was preceded by marinated crimini mushrooms, French lentil & pomegranate salad, herbed corn bread, and pumpkin butter. 

The three courses included sweet & bitter greens with shaved fennel, watermelon radish, satsuma mandarin, citrus & ginger vinaigrette, Mediterranean carrot bisque with pistachio herb relish, and   maple glazed roasted orange Kobocha squash with creamy cashew wild rice and Meyer lemon risotto,

 For dessert we had pecan caramel chocolate pie.

A portion of what we paid for this lavish meal went to the Native American Rights Fund.

Let's be thankful for a way of eating that is kind to animals and the planet.  

Turkey with Sign "Eat Pork."

I saw a blow-up turkey similar to this one yesterday morning when I was returning from the Y.

I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow so I don't have to depend on the what I borrow from the Internet--too blurry!

I guess the people making these jokes are not vegan!

The Day after Thanksgiving Day, I Hope the Dawn of Enlightenment Has Come

The sun hasn't risen yet, but I can't wait to show the contrast between "pushing a hunk of tofu around my plate" and what we were doing at Millennium yesterday, when we celebrated Thanksgiving.

First  what Kevin Fisher-Paulson wrote on Wednesday:

Here's what we were pushing around our plate:  (I have no idea why the popcorn is on the plate.)

Kevin Fisher-Paulson's Stereo-type of Vegans

I just got off this e-mail responding to my son's aunt and uncle, whom I like very much and will eat vegan with on December 18 while they eat meat.

Hi!  

As of now, I could make it any day except Monday, December 18.

Thanksgiving at your church sounds nice.  Suzy, Kathy, and I are going to the Millennium in Oakland, and I really like that place, where I've never seen tofu even though it may be in one of the dishes. 

But it's fun to make things beyond tofu, which I noticed in a newspaper column is what columnist Kevin Fisher-Paulson imagines Thanksgiving will be like at the home of his friend.  He writes, "As part of his midlife crisis, Mr. Sasb has turned vegan, and despite all my assurances that the turkey himself was a strict vegetarian, so certainly the meat would be vegan, it is likely that I will be pushing a hunk of tofu around my plate tomorrow."  That's such an old joke that a BINGO  board game doesn't even bother to incorporate it.

Kevin Fisher-Paulson is a gay father, and I imagine he's heard a lot of bad jokes about gays in his lifetime, maybe even one attributing "becoming gay"  to a midlife crisis.  

I'll attach the BINGO game because it's funny and a good summary of what we vegans get to hear!

Love and Happy Thanksgiving,

Tina