Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Serious Eats is currently doing a month-long feature, The Vegan Experience. One of its writers is eating and cooking vegan for a month, publishing his daily food log and thoughts, as well as creating recipes.

http://www.seriouseats.com/tags/all/The%20Vegan%20Experience

I think the feature (like most of Serious Eats) is well-written and honest; I believe the site has reviewed a couple PPK cookbooks before? I'm curious over the author's newbie experiences and what his takeaway will be (plus the reader comments/debates are always fun to peruse). I'm also excited over his recipes, since he used to work for America's Test Kitchen (I nurse a not-so-secret crush on Chris Kimball). Today's recipe, Coconut Lentil Soup with Cilantro-Habañero Gremolata, looks pretty delicious.

where does the blog start? i wanna read from day 1.

when i click on page 2 at the bottom it brings up an empty page :-(

i totally disagree with that statement.

there are lots and lots of really delicious fake meats. i find the less concerned they are with looking or tasting like meat the better they are.
i have no desire to eat something that tastes like meat. the fake meat is a flavor unto it's own that is delicious by itself.

of course it depends on the type of fake meat. there is also some really gross ones out there. i personally dont like Tofurky stuff

actually there is very little i agree with in that whole fake meats blog post.

the funny thing is i hardly ever eat the fake meats stuff.

The coconut-lentil soup does look tasty. That chilaquiles recipe looks pretty good too, although I don't see what the problem would be with, say, tofu. And it's too early in the morning for reading the comments, why did I read the comments.

I've never heard of toasted oatmeal before, I'm totally gonna try that.

I don't understand why, at the beginning, he felt compelled to make some guacamole with cheese in it, and then made another one with crab meat, just for his guests. I can just see him being like, well I made you this delectable blue-cheese guac, but I can't have any because I'm VEGAN right now, it's so hard. He says it's about not pushing veganism on other people...but c'mon, it's not really proselytizing to make vegan guacamole, guacamole is usually vegan.

ive never heard of guacamole with blue cheese or crab in it!

thanks for the link, not sure what's up wtih my computer

I don't think it's your computer, I had the blank page too, I just tried a few different ways of searching 'cause I'm cussed like that! :)

ETA: Tagged with 'the vegan experience' was how I found the other posts.

He's a food writer, and he was making the guacamole for a food story on the site. I think it was less about pleasing his guests, and more about remaining true to the site's usual food options. Personally, I don't think anything belongs in guacamole beyond avocado, lime, and salt. I might allow tomato, onion, or cilantro. Maybe.

i really want some guacamole now

stupid non-guacamole carrying work place :-(

Eh.

I like his day 11 post, where he says that his diet has become more varied now that he's vegan, while he expected it to be more limited and restrictive. This conforms to the experience of most people who go vegan I guess, at least it was like this for me, but it shows that he is genuinely open to the experience. He is enjoying himself enormously and says he will continue to eat more vegan, even though he won't give up animal products. I think this series of his is a good thing for veganism, showing some die hard omnis what it's like and busting prejudices.

I agree - he is very open-minded and I'm finding it really interesting seeing him go through all the same realizations I did when I went vegan, even though he isn't doing it for the same reasons.

seriously.
i read seriouseats every-other day anyways, and this kenji dude has theeee most annoying tone. he's acting as like everything he's experiencing is a revelation when it just reads like a regurgitation of what every other vegan says (at some point) about being vegan. ESPECIALLY THE ONE ABOUT BROADENING HIS HORIZONS. now that your vegan you know what quinoa is. amazing. except for this guy is falafel?? AND FROM MAOZ?! gimme a break. and stop mentioning, or alluding to, in almost every post, and sometimes more then once, how many vegetables you eat. and that post about not talking about nutrition was soooo irksome. wow, i hate this guy.

Nice one.

However, falafel - homemade by a native Jordanian/Iranian/etc.- IS a revelation. Yum.

I think it's super interesting, though, to see someone go through the whole gamut of revelations about things that are just accepted to us. It's easy to forget that not everyone knows it actually is super easy to eat enough protein or whatever.

I think he's doing a really good job of condensing the going vegan experience and making it seem not too scary. I've been enjoying reading them.

I've been enjoying reading them too. Also - I made the eggplant mayo and it was super easy to make and insanely delicious!

i really like the first three posts (i haven't read any more than that) - he is spot on with a lot of things, if you ask me. and it's funny.

I like it, too. Still not sure why anyone wouldn't?

I can't stand his stance on alternative proteins, but otherwise I've enjoyed the series. He seems to think that vegans, like, invented these proteins because they missed meat so much? Or something? Maybe I'm too sensitive. It's just a trend I've noticed in food people ("foodies"), friends and otherwise, who can't talk shiitake on vegans in public anymore because they have vegan friends but still want a way to bag on vegans, so they displace their vegan hatred and defensiveness onto alternative proteins, manufactured food products, and "junk food vegans". It's driving me nuts.

I kind of know what you mean. It's awesome that the Serious Eats editor isn't afraid of tofu like every other non-vegetarian I've met (I felt proud when Paula Deen enjoyed Jeff Mauro's Thai tofu dish on "Next Food Network Star"), but I don't get why he was so against seitan. Even looking through his explanations in the comments, I still don't see what's so horrible about homemade seitan. I understand a meat-eater with a refined palate not wanting to eat seitan, but otherwise it's a satisfying addition to dishes that would otherwise contain meat. I mean, I can use stuff like mushrooms and tofu as "meat replacers," but sometimes I want something different. I don't feel bad about seitan. The accusation of veg*ns desperately trying to replace meat always comes up, and I don't really know what to say. If we all ate rabbit food, a lot of people who are considering veg*nism may find it harder to transition to a life without meat.

Also, often times I feel like I'm not a "good" vegan if I consume stuff that's not terribly healthy. Like, all vegans should eat mostly salads and steamed veggies because that's the responsible thing to do, and all vegans should be lumped into a category where baking without WW flour and eating fried foods smothered in Daiya are crimes. I get the environmental issues and the logic behind connecting that with veganism, but I want to eat what I choose while still trying to use good ingredients. My top priority as a vegan is not eating an animal that was intentionally slaughtered, and second are health and environment in a tie.

I just read the whole series thus far in one go (yeah boring Sat night/Sun morn) and I have mixed feelings. What I didn't like is some bad assumptions propagated, for example, he stated that hardly any chocolate is vegan. I don't have any trouble finding vegan chocolate and not sure why he would say that, and I never saw it corrected. Some things were corrected or clarified in comments, but not everyone will read comments. He tried to make a point about vegan processed food possibly being worse environmentally than meat production which was just claptrap. Several times he stated that no one would start a vegan diet for health reasons.

However I was grateful he addressed the protein myth, and I hope that will open the eyes of some of his meat eating regular readers. And I also appreciated his account of the experience of having the word veg*n color people's expectations and opinions before trying something. Overall there's something annoying about his tone/approach but I will continue to read about the experiment because I'm curious about any ultimate conclusions he might draw.

I disagree about the seitan, but I pretty much agree about fake meats, only from a culinary standpoint (not from an environmental or practical one.) Fake meats have their place, but when I see one in a cookbook my first instinct is to burn that cookbook. I have no problem with people eating fake meats for any number of reasons (convenience, some people do like the taste..etc) but pouring a carefully prepared sauce over a hexane ridden chunk of soy protein is just sacrilegious. And so I appreciate that this author is calling it out, even though I feel that seitan shouldn't be included in that. I really want vegan cuisine to be taken seriously, and when recipes are calling for a frozen bag of soy chunks or whatever, it never will be. I've stopped using soy protein in my recipes over the years because of this.

I haven't read the whole series admittedly, so I didn't see the chocolate thing. But I think he's got a unique voice and perspective that will benefit vegan cooking. And I don't think he was overboard with the health stuff, he fried a lot!