Course One: Persian cucumber salad with wood ear mushrooms
Course Two: Dim sum sampler plate (4 items)
Course Three: Khao mun gai (Thai chik’n & garlic turmeric rice)
Course Four: Goji berry osmanthus jelly
Served with hot tea

 The food was really good at the SFVS's dinner at Imperial Gardens in the Portola District, but I'm afraid I'll always associate this outing on March 16 with the police alert I saw when driving Eva and Mo-Shuet from Maxine's house back to the Sunset afterwards.  More on that in another blog spot.

I had hoped that these good friends would realize how good food could be without any dead or suffering animals.  I was grateful that the "meeting" part of this SFVS gathering seemed no more than acknowledging Menny Ly, the creator of the menu, who spoke briefly.  

 

I know the usual thing is to give the link, but I need a picture, and I haven't yet made it to Venganza in Oakland.  It's open only at night.

But here's a link:  https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/taqueria-la-venganza-review-18649548.php

 I'm a little bit worried about the headline it leads to:  

Can you change Mexican food in the Bay Area? This taqueria is on a mission

By Cesar HernandezFeb 17, 2024
A lot of people don't want to change Mexican food!  Did they want to be sure to leave "vegan" out of the headline the way they did for the vegan cookie that won Best chocolate chip in the Bay Area and the study with 23 sets of twins that showed better health results for the twins on the vegan diet?  To be fair, I should acknowledge that the headline on the full page of Food and Wine section DOES use the V word:  "Bold vegan vision of Mexican food."

The Lunar New Year Banquet the San Francisco Vegan Society sponsored was good but a bit rushed.  This year I managed to host some friends.  In the past I always waited too long, so they were always sold out.  

I tried to make a montage of photos of the food, but after I selected 10 plates, only one was selected. 

Here's Christy Griffin, our president, telling about upcoming events.  We have Earth Day in April, Pride in June, our World Veg Fest in October and various eat-outs (I always seem to miss) in between the big events.

 

 https://theweek.com/speedreads/644193/bill-clinton-vegan-recycled-cookie-recipe-not

Today Teresa's hairdresser, whose parents are from the same village in Portugal as Mary's parents, joined us at the Farm Shop in Larkspur, and she brought cookies from a recipe Bill Clinton had shared--obviously before he became a vegan in 2010.  This contradiction to elude the public I later found online either.

Before I got on the ferry for Larkspur, I was happy to find Reems open because they were closed when I was there the Monday before last with Ruth and Melanie, and they make the cookie that won the SF Chronicle's blind taste test for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie in the Bay Area.  I got three, not knowing we'd have a fourth.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/best-chocolate-chip-cookie-18459775.php

I'm a few weeks behind, but I wanted to share what I served when I simplified the dishes for my January 6th Epiphany gathering earlier this month.  I didn't want to spoil people's new year's resolutions by serving a lot of desserts, but because about 50 people were coming, I wanted to have only finger food.   A couple of friends brought food too--almost all of it vegan.  (My nice new neighbors don't know I'm an advocate for a plant-based diet, but their donuts were very pretty.)  Shehla brought samosas.  

Lynn brought chocolate-covered peanut butter balls/bites.  

Jan brought vegan  coffee cake she'd gotten from I don't remember where.

 
 

 What's missing in these very vegan-positive features?

The vegan cookie won a blind test among 28 cookies.  The Stanford study showed that in twenty-two sets of identical twins, it was the twins getting the vegan diet that showed the most improvement.  But There's no caption or hint of this in the headline or in the captions.  

   I just sent a message to Caleb Pershan, whose cover article "Cookies put to the taste test/Of 23 chocolate chip treats, we pick the top 10 in the Bay Area" filled the Food + Wine section of the SF Chronicle.

I

Vegan cookies?

Yahoo/Sent

• Fri, Dec 22 at 8:45 AM

  
  
• Dear Cabel Pershan,

  
  

  Please let me know if you included cookies free of dairy and eggs in the big spread in the SF Chronicle December 17.  

  
  

  Because we now know that for animal welfare and the environment, a movement towards plant-based is very important, I think for ethical reasons, periodicals like the SF Chronicle should always include plant-based food items.    

  
  

  Unfortunately, even "Modern Vegetarian" had chocolate chip cookies asking for butter and eggs.  

  
  

  I make chocolate chip cookies regularly, and non-vegan friends devour them enthusiastically.  

  
  

  Hopefully,

  Tina Martin

Then, as I was taking a picture of the spread, I caught the word "vegan"   It turns out that the chocolate chip halawa cookie from Reem's California scored in first place out of 23 chocolate chip cookies tested.  But even though the article identifies it as vegan,  the caption doesn't. If it had, it would alerted readers to the fact that vegan can be delicious.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/best-chocolate-chip-cookie-18459775.php