Posts tagged vegan

Last night I met up with my sister-in-law at Cafe Green, the more souped up “restaurant-y” version of Java Green - the veggie lunch place I’ve started to frequent during my many (MANY) DC trips. I’ve been wanting to eat there for a while, but it was a tad outside walking distance from the hotel I usually stay at while in DC. With the hours I typically work when I’m in DC, I’m always too lazy to make it up. Since my usual digs were sold out, I scored a spot that happened to be near Cafe Green. Finally! After all this time.

First things first. It’s always lovely to be able to go to a restaurant where I can order everything and anything off the menu. Though I’ve cheated a bit with dairy recently (damn you Ari and your bagel and cream cheese!), I’m still 90% vegan and on my way to making a more permanent change. That being said, onto the review:

Mac and Cheese

As expected, I was skeptical of anything vegan that says “cheese.” While daiya cheese has been decent, any mac and cheese version I’ve thought tasted just strange. I was actually pleasantly surprised with Cafe Green’s take on it. It was creamy without the strange taste. The closest thing I’ve had that resembles cheese in both taste and texture. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the scallions added a good kick.

Lemony Sauteed Kale

Kale is one of those greens that I eat occasionally, because apparently it’s awesome for you and has important things like iron, calcium, fiber, etc., but I’m not in love with the taste. It’s a little bitter and I feel like I have to chew it for five minutes. The Lemony Sauteed Kale at least got rid of that issue, and as much as I like lemon, it was a little overpowering here.

Cornbread

You can tell the light changed and it was now dark when this photo was taken because it’s so blurry. That’s because it took literally 45 minutes for this to come out (the service was painfully slow there, my biggest complaint). Anyway, this was something that the first bite was “eh” but as you keep at it, and add a crap of Earth Balance to it, you are pretty sure it’s tasty. It actually tasted like it had Matzo Meal in it - which who knows, maybe it did. Wasn’t the best thing in the world, but it hit the spot.

Overall

I’d go back just because I barely made a dent in the menu and I’m curious what else they got. Overall it was a mixed bag. I’ll go again, but will make sure that I have a good year to eat because I was definitely there for 2.5 hours (which was fine because I had great company!), but if alone would have been irritating.

Below is a review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals” that I just posted on Goodreads:

When I first became mostly vegan (I still use the “mostly” qualifier because I occasionally partake in dairy), I swore I wouldn’t become one of “those” types of vegan/vegetarians. You know the type, the one that forces a holier than thou opinion that what you are putting in your mouth is murder, and thus makes you a horrible person for doing so. I was of the mindset that just as no one could have an opinion of my decision to forgo eating animals, I was in no place to judge.

After reading “Eating Animals,” while still in no place to judge, I am in a place to offer some casual, albeit unsolicited, advice on what are exactly the ramifications of eating animals. I’m never going to tell you what you should eat, but I CAN ask you to educate yourself on how you are nourishing your body, and how that impacts your health, the environment and animals.

I want everyone I know to read this book. I want them to learn, like I just did, that when eating one of the 99% of animals that are factory farmed, they are literally eating shit. That their ability to be helped by antibiotics is ever decreasing because the animals they eat are pumped full of them not even to make dinner more enjoyable, but simply to make it cheaper.

The book covers on all this and more. It goes into detail on what pigs, chicken, fish and beef endure to make it to the dinner table. As someone who is not considered an animal lover (except for my cat of course), the torture/slaughter part didn’t resonate with me until I read this book. It’s not easy to read, but I resigned myself to push through - because if animals have to endure what they do to service the appetite of millions, certainly I can read about it. My apathy toward animals and how it really shouldn’t impact my vegetarianism was punctuated an analogy Foer makes at the beginning of the book. How, in this country, did dogs and cats escape our forks, but pigs, chickens, turkeys did not? How did that relativism come to be?

Foer acknowledges the complexity of forgoing meat in our culture. He addresses the nuances of how food is not only nourishment and sustenance, but the foundation of family interaction, culture, and perception of success. He offers a case and examples of the good that family farmers contribute and that it is something to work toward, which I think avoids alienating the contingency who would go into reading this book with skepticism and a preconceived belief that their eating habits and practices wouldn’t change.

Anyone who reads this book would be hard pressed to come out of it thinking that their meat is the exception to factory farming, no matter the quality of the grocery store or five-star restaurant. It’s impossible. This book drove home this fact into a real-life scenario when I was at dinner last night with colleagues and clients, though at a lovely place, the food that surrounded us consisted of animals that are so far from their original genetics and purpose that they can no longer reproduce naturally or even stand up on their own. That I wanted not to change their minds and behaviors, but to have a dialogue about the facts so they can decide on how to eat in an informed matter.

One of the things that most resonated with me was an elaborate discussion of Thanksgiving, a holiday incredibly important to my family, and the culture of our feast on that day. This discussion drove home the fact that for my Thanksgiving this year, I’m going to prepare several meatless options for not just myself, but for my family to underscore that this tradition can be preserved without the slaughter, shit, antibiotics and environmental toll. This book gave me permission to speak up more about the facts of eating meat.

I am more convinced than ever that I will never eat meat again and am continuing to strive to completely eliminate dairy. If, after reading this book, now knowing what you know, you still choose to not change even a little of your eating habits (even establishing Meatless Mondays makes a difference), then so be it. But for the sake of your health, the environment and your morality, you owe it to yourself and loved ones to read this book with an open mind. It’s never too late and you are never too stubborn to change, if you have the will to do so.