Post Punk Kitchen Forum

This pretty much made my morning, so thanks! (Also: the correct answer is, "Yes. Yes, I absolutely want cows to be extinct. How clever of you to have seen through my little ploy ABOUT 'compassion.' MWAHAHAHAHA!"There certainly is, and it was made by the PPK's very own hoveringdog!

Food/Cooking/Romance memoir author clearly does not understand the point of veganism and then goes on to talk about how she served bacon, cream, and some other non-vegan thing to her vegan boyfriend of the time and he didn't know better.

This is just complete bullcrap. Borderline starvation aside, I would refuse to participate next time if only because that miserable excuse for a "dinner" reinforced all sorts of mainstream stereotypes about how difficult, alienating, and essentially joyless it is to be vegan. You just know your colleagues went home that night clucking about how "poor Ashley can't eat anything," how sorry they felt for you, and how they could never survive on that kind of diet, etc., etc. And of course they're absolutely right, because no one could survive for long on 4 spears of steamed asparagus, 6 broccoli florets, and half a tomato. Fortunately, that's not all that vegans eat, but they have no way of knowing that because the only vegan "meal" they've ever seen was apparently catered for a (not very hungry) rabbit. Way to go, Ruth's Chris! And what the hell kind of incomprehensibly stupid forking name is that for a restaurant, anyway?!

My steakhouse work dinner was actually okay. My boss called ahead and they made me a flatbread with artichokes, red onion, asparagus, and olive tapenade. You know what sucks, though? I wasn't hungry because I snacked like crazy in anticipation of being served a lettuce leaf, but since my meal was made specially off-the-menu, everyone watched to see if I'd finish it, and I felt like the guy who was treating us would be offended if I didn't. That just adds a whole new layer of complexity to the already uncomfortable conundrum of being the weird vegan.

I am so glad they didn't bring a vegan dessert (last time it was Rice Dream and a carob cookie...I do not want either), and I felt bad so I choked it down.

I certainly could have much worse things to complain about than too much food, though.

I love these! So true of pretty much every conversation I haven't wanted to partake in.

It is funny, the place we are going for our group holiday luncheon has a portabello sandwich (they also have a portobello burger, meaning beef topped with a portobello mushroom, my husband accidentally ordered that once). The sandwich comes with a side salad but all other sandwiches come with fries. The place also has hummus so usually I get a portabello sandwich, hummus on the side and fries. I think they have a couple other dishes that are veganizable but I like that one. So I'll be happy and 'normalish'.

My biggest vegan pet peeve is when I tell people that I have 3 goat companions and they ask "What do you do with them" or "Wow you must love getting fresh goat milk" Honestly I sometimes want to ask them back what do you do with your dog or cat???? do you like getting fresh dog milk?? Its the most annoying thing in the world how animals that are traditionaly used for agriculture are only seen as that by the majority of the population, not adorable creatures who come running to the gate when every they see you or call to you when you go inside. (and obviously I do not get fresh goat milk because I do not plan on breeding my goats, and if I did the milk would be for the babies)

Personally, I don't mind domesticated animals going extinct. 10 000 000 000s fewer sentient beings suffering means much more to me than 5 more species on this planet.

So I missed my work holiday party, but the Monday after I got to "pick" my gift. I guess what they did was sort of a lottery system where you'd pick a random card with a picture of your gift, and if you wanted something else, you could try one more time, but you were stuck with the second option. I got a 4-pack of fancy hot sauce and a gift card to Moe's on my first draw, and I figured that was the best I was going to get. I didn't find out until I got home that all four of the hot sauces "may contain fish ingredients." Someday, I'm going to remember to check the ingredients list before I get home.

People do similar for birds too. They find out you have a bird friend or see a Molly photo and immediately go into how tasty birds are and how she would only be a "bite." They think that this is funny and clever and then expect you to admire their puppy photos.

This made giggle.

I completely agree. These animals exist only because people domesticated, bred, and continue to breed them. I don't think the world would be worse off if there were no more dairy cows. Do the onmis know that animals are going extinct all the time? Funny how that doesn't seem to bug the "what about the cows?" types.

just tell them their puppy looks delicious.

This is well covered material in this thread, but I would like to express my annoyance from last night.

I walked into my holiday work party yesterday evening and it was announced loudly "Our vegan is here"! To all the folks from the other branch who had never met me, as well as everyone's spouses, I was thus labeled. The vegan. Not the backpacker, cook, thrift store-maven, baker, drink-maker, PTA, massage therapist, practical-joker, thru-hiker, runner, esthetician, live-show-enjoying, garage-sale going, or any other descriptors that hint at the well-rounded and kick-ass chica I am. Just that label that freaks most people out.

And then, hardly anyone ate the cashew based (read: time consuming) artichoke/spinach dip I brought. (Note to self...always bring dessert)! I still enjoyed myself, but as most of you have probably been there yourselves, you can understand how I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes and sighing out loud.

I would probably answer something like: "Vegan? That's the drawer you put me in, because you don't have enough mental capacity to consider each person individually?"

ETA: Perhaps there's a different word in English for it. Here the word "drawer" is used.

We'd probably say "box," but the point is the same.

I am still laughing about this 10 minutes later.

Thank you!

I made a potluck dish yesterday that not many people ate. I was happy, though, because it meant I got to finish it off for lunch just now! At pretty much any event involving the Navy and kids, any food that isn't beige will be roundly ignored. (I made a wild rice, brown rice and quinoa pilaf with dried cranberries, scallions, pecans, apples, celery, and a citrus-agave-cumin vinaigrette. I didn't think it was that far out there. Apparently it was.)

I bring stuff I want to eat and take back home, but this keeps back firing. My coworkers will try anything, and they seem to enjoy my stuff. Now I need to top my wildly successful tofu scramble with something, but what?

Wait, you have a tofu scramble recipe that even omnivores like? Send it to me, please!

VWaV made extra lemony and with potatoes.

I think I've just got strangely adventurous coworkers. They all took miserly tablespoons of it to be polite then all went back for more and then the pan was empty. It was a breakfast potluck.

It probably helps that I regularly ply them with pie, muffins, quick breads, cookies, and brownies, so they trust I make good stuff.

You thru-hiked?? Me too! (Appalachian Trail 2010) My brother did and he's doing the PCT this year.

Also, if we end up having a holiday party (almost no word beyond casual in passing mention once), I'm grateful that the person who is in charge of organizing is a vegetarian who knows that I"m vegan and understands what that means.

In keeping with the holiday party theme...

I find it frustrating that people who are always excited for my baked goods, which are often modified to suit everyone's tastes or dietary restrictions, who let me know that they can't be bothered to slightly modify their potluck dish to make it acceptable for vegans. By modify I mean simple things, like leaving the cheese in a dish to the side of the otherwise-vegan salad, or using veggie broth in the otherwise-vegan soup. I don't think it's reasonable to expect every omni to find a sub for every non-vegan ingredient, but when they tell me "I know I could leave the cheese off, but I don't want to dirty another dish," it just seems crappy to me.

the other evening i went to an outdoor festive Christmas thingy that had a few vendors selling stuff. one of them had 1-kilogram bags of chocolate for a very reasonable price, so i jumped at it. only problem was it was hard to see in the orangey artificial light, so the vendor had trouble distinguishing which bags were dark chocolate (he told me they made theirs dairy-free), but we eventually determined which one was the darkest. tonight i opened the bag to try some, and i taste milk protein/fat. dammit.