BiteClub

Every day, I learn something.

Sometimes it’s stuff like don’t mix Red Wine with Tequila shots and Tuaca.

Sometimes it’s stuff like look both ways before you cross the street. Especially in London.

Or, maybe something like the sky is blue because of the Tyndall effect, but more commonly known to physicists as Rayleigh scattering -- the amount of light scattered is inversely proportional to the fourth power of wavelength for sufficiently small particles.

Well, today I learned some things about Vegan foods and most importantly the difference between Vegetarian and Vegan choices. The whole mentality that is behind a true Vegan is phenomenal.

You see, food is a major part of life. At least mine. I could definitely use a trip to the Gym I’ve belonged to for years. They’ve changed my private locker code so many times which will definitely make it hard for me to extract my 15 bottles of Cab Sav from it when the time comes.

Anyway, we choose what we eat. Yeah, and...?

I learned today that there are many reasons people choose to be Vegan versus Vegetarian.

Some of those reasons are listed below:

Health and Nutrition - VegNews
Animal Rights - Humane Society or PETA
Global Warming and Air Pollution - NRDC or Circle of Life
Protecting Oceans and Waterways - Surfrider Foundation
Eliminating Land Destruction and Reducing Waste - World Rainforest Info

All of these things seem like good things to me.

So what’s a Vegan?

A vegan, is a vegetarian who chooses for ethical, environmental, economic or health reasons (or some combination thereof), to adopt a diet limiting, or eliminating entirely, animal products. Since the widespread adoption of vegetarian diets in the 1960’s, there’s been a whole lotta labeling goin’ on – lacto, ovo, lacto-ovo… Essentially, a vegetarian doesn’t eat poultry, red meat or fish, although they likely consume animal by-products such as dairy or eggs.

Vegans, are vegetarians who are even more particular about what they eat – or don’t eat. Vegans do not eat any animal by-products including honey or gelatin. Some vegans are also careful to avoid using any products derived from animals including certain cosmetics, wool, leather or silk. Choosing a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is a decision arrived at from many different paths, and defined in many different ways.

It has long been falsely assumed that a vegan or vegetarian diet does not provide adequate protein or nutrition – this is simply not the case. A vegan or vegetarian diet is based on eating a variety of healthful foods that provide a balanced diet. While vegetarian diets provide significant advantages to reducing some of the most serious health concerns facing developed nations – heart disease, diabetes – vegan diets can be the healthiest of all, reducing risk of a broad range of health concerns.

Another major health concern is the need to adopt an organic diet – the level of environmental pollutants found in our bodies due to pesticides, power production and other first world advancements can cause severe health issues.  Check out this group: OCA

OK, back to the story.  So we roll into a Vegan restaurant today for lunch (which is where I learned about this stuff) and took a look at the menu. And, I was nursing a bit of a hangover due to the Tequila party we were at the night before in Beverly Hills. There were some cool sounding items like Pizza, Gyros, Tacos, Burgers, Sandwiches and Burritos. After reading the menu to see what these things were made of, I read ingredients like Tempeh, Seitan, Quinoa, and Gomasio. Now, I’m not going to explain what those things are, you can look them up. But, I will tell you I felt like I wasn’t going to enjoy my meal so I had to over-order.

Started with the Tomato-Lentil Soup (OK, I know that), then a Surf Burger (sauteed and grilled tempeh, lettuce, carrot, red onion, vegan mayo), then a Greek Gyro (steamed veggies, quinoa, creamy garlic lemon sauce, peppered seitan, hummus and grilled flatbread) and Thai Sticks (sauteed and grilled tempeh satay served with peanut sauce).

The food was f*#@in’ great!!! The flavor was excellent (oh, I threw some of Rossy’s Fuego sauce on it, I travel with it now) to spice it just a bit, but it really didn’t need it.

My point with this whole rant is: Learn something new every day. Try stuff. If you haven’t learned just how good tasting and totally satisfying Vegan food choices can be, learn it! And, you’ll be helping the world be a better place just by having an awesome meal!

Now, I'll still take up anyone who wants to meet me at Fleming's or Bandera, but we all have to start somewhere.

BTW – It wasn’t cheap.

Marcos out.