Reviewin' shit, vol. 1: Cafe Natasha's Tuesday night hummus bar

Cost: $8 (Lisa says it's $8 -- I thought it was $10)

Where: Cafe Natasha's at 3200 S. Grand Blvd in south city.

Review: This is one of the better regular vegan friendly eating extravaganzas in the city. (Okay, I was having trouble coming up with that right noun, and extravaganza might be a little, well, extravagant, but I'm too lazy to use a thesaurus right now. So deal.)

There is a bit of irony here though. The hummus on this hummus bar kind of sucks. It's bland; nothing but empty calories. But everything else on this buffet does not suck. Not only that, but each time I have gone there everything on it was vegan!

Natasha's has the best falafel in the city. Al-Tarboush on the Delmar Loop is good, but Natasha's is slightly better (not to mention a much cleaner establishment; not even the cute Lebanese chicks in Al-Tarboush make up for the roaches you share your table with). The falafel here is seriously amazing. It's a little spicy though -- I like that but some of you don't. It's not super spicy but it is noticeable. Fair warning.

There are also some awesome sides. They have a sauted mushroom side that is really impressive. It's hard to describe what it tastes like -- sort of like a curry I guess -- but it's really good. They also have seared garlic chucks (I've never seen garlic cooked like this before, but it works), sauted peppers, and as many thin pita pieces as you want.

I've had this three times, and my impressive is overall quite favorable. The service is a little slow at times, but really friendly and overall not bad. The atmosphere is busy, but not rushed -- pretty much quintessential South Grand.

My suggestion for improvement (this is where I come off as the complaining asshole who is compensating for his small penis) would be (if anyone actually read this blog) to either change the name to a falafel bar or make the hummus good. They seriously need a new hummus recipe. And the music they occasionally have in there is not entertaining or contributing to the ambiance; it's annoying and makes it where you can't even talk to the person next to you.

All in all though, I don't have much in the way of complaints. I like this place, the staff and the owner (named, oddly enough, Natasha) are great, the atmosphere is awesome, and the food is, on the whole, quite good.

Overall grade: B+

TLDR version: it's pretty good and you should probably try it. The falafel is awesome, as are some of the other sides; the hummus, not so much.

This week in stuff (linkz)

Okay, I should probably do a regular weekly segment of some sort, where I link you, the unwashed masses (and in some cases I mean that literally), to cool stuff, both veggie and not veggie related.

Here is a cool article on the cultural change possibly coming about in this country regarding people going veggie. I hope this keeps up.

Here's an article I found about McDonald's food not being biodegradable. I'm fucking serious; it's literally not biodegradable. Okay, now I'm not one of those health nut vegans (here's proof: I love these things), but Sweet Baby Jesus, I like what I put in my body to at least be able to return to the Earth!

I should try to promote the St. Louis Vegetarian Meetup page; there's been a lot of cool stuff going on there lately. Recently, I've met some really cool people there. If you have not checked it out then you probably should.

And in the shameless self-promotion department, here is a somewhat pathetic attempt at comedy writing by your's truly. If you know anything about college football hopefully you can appreciate this. If not, perhaps you will find it amusing anyway. Or pathetic. Whichever doesn't get me laid.

I miss Vegifide

Two years ago, or there about, marked the beginning of the end of the greatest online vegetarian community there ever was. That place was Vegifide.com. Vegifide exemplified everything that was good and bad about vegetarians – from selfless compassion and logically-derived moral positions, to smug self-righteousness and espousals of batshit insane conspiracy theories. People didn’t always get along on that site. We argued, and sometimes things got heated. We also shared ideas, recipes, offered support to each other, and fostered true, genuine friendships. It was a true community. Now people don’t always get along in a community, but in a way that’s what makes it good – that freedom of interaction allows for conflict, but also allows for genuine and honest interaction.

If it weren’t for Vegifide, I very likely never would have gone vegan. Communicating with so many vegetarians made it impossible for me to continue to ignore the truths of animal cruelty endemic in the dairy and egg industries. Several aspiring vegetarians also joined that site and participated to get information and support. This is one reason that the community was so great – we shared information that allowed people to take steps forward on the path of vegetarianism at all different levels. Vegifide, on the whole, influenced a lot of people for the better.

Vegifide also had a HUGE St. Louis presence. I have met some of my best friends from there, people who I hang out with drinking, eating meals, watching football, etc, to this day. (I also met the person who ripped my heart out from there. Can’t win ‘em all I guess!) I don’t want to give the impression that this was only a St. Louis thing – it just so happens that a disproportionate amount of people were from here. Users from all over, from the Pacific Northwest to the UK, were active members of this community.

Vegifide still exists. Technically. I don’t have an account there; I was kicked off, along with several other prominent members in an incident that I won’t get in to too much, other than to say that some users, including me, took exception to some actions taken by the owner. We (the banished members) have our side of the story, and I’m sure the guy that runs (ran?) Vegifide has his. I feel pretty strongly that I was not in the wrong in this situation, and to the owner’s credit, he did offer a full, unconditional and (what I took to be) sincere apology for his actions regarding the mass banning. He welcomed us all back; none of us took him up on it. And it was too late anyway; the damage had been done.

From then on, Vegifide died a very slow, very ugly death. In the following months users steadily stopped coming to the site. The banned users made their “home” on another site (that’s now pretty much dead as well). It was never the same. No vegetarian site that I know of, before or since, has compared to Vegifide. There’s Volentia, and VeggieBoards, but neither are even in the same league.

As I said, Vegifide still exists, but only technically. There was a “hiatus” that lasted several months, and a few months ago the site came back online. I went there today. The last five posts on that site were all trying to sell term papers. That right, the most active current members of Vegifide are spammers for online papermills catering to stupid and unethical college kids. Yeah, the house is still standing, but the yard is completely overgrown, most of the windows have been busted out by kids throwing rocks, and the only people living there are squatters with a heroin addiction. This isn’t the kind of dignified death Vegifide deserves.

My friend Carl has flirted with the idea of helping create a new site, but he has these silly little trivial distractions like a wife, kids, and a mortgage that apparently are more important to him. (Some people just can’t get their priorities straight!) I would love to be involved with something new like that, recruit the old members of Vegifide (the ones I liked at least), and “get the band back together.” I want to recapture what probably can never be recaptured. So I will keep looking. And hoping. But I’m not really expecting anything.

I won’t lie: in the months that passed aftervthe mass banning, watching Vegifide die gave me a certain sense of cruel satisfaction. “Yeah, that motherfucker deserves it,” was my attitude. That was petty of me; again, if it weren’t for Vegifide I might not be vegan right now. I truly believe that Vegifide made the world a better place, as it helped lots of people transition to vegetarianism or veganism. Therefore, considering this, in my opinion the creation of Vegifide was an act of animal rights activism much greater than anything I have ever done. That place was special. And I miss it.

When the schadenfreude wears off, all that’s left is regret.

Chili recipe (finally)

The leaves are starting to fall, and soon they will start changing colors. The air is starting to have that really nice chill, and the hint of woodsmoke is in the air. Saturdays are spent drinking copious amounts of beer and watching college football, wondering if being an LSU fan is really worth the ulcer it's giving me. It's fall; it's time for chili.

I've had a few requests to put my recipe for chili up here. I also need to make an entry since apparently I am the only author for what is already a half assed blog. [/passive aggressive jab at the other authors] I should really put more recipes here anyway, as cooking is something I love. The problem with me giving recipes though, as I have expressed before, is that it's hard to convey exactly what I do! I usually just make stuff, and I've been making this chili for a long time (12 years at least), and in that time I have tweaked and altered things, and what you read here is the product of over a decade of tweaking, altering, experimenting and learning. While making chili the past couple of times I have measured stuff out, and made a point to remember how much of everything I use. As far as I know this is the first time that I have actually written this down.

What you need:

• Two medium onions, diced
• One large green bell pepper, diced
• One head (that's right, a whole head) of garlic, minced
• 12 oz of mushrooms, diced
• Several tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Red pepper flakes, however much you think you can handle
• Chili powder, 5-6 tablespoons
• Brown sugar, 4 tablespoons
• Salt, not too much (you can always add salt; you can't take it out)
• Large can of crushed tomatoes
• Large can of diced tomatoes
• Three cans of beans (I used one each of black, red and navy)
• A beer

Get a nice sturdy pot and heat up enough olive oil to cover the bottom. Use a medium-high heat. Saute the onions and bell pepper together with the red pepper flakes (yes, right at the beginning) for a few minutes until the onion starts to get a little translucent. Then add the garlic; you don't add it at the start because you don't want it to burn. After another couple of minutes throw in your mushrooms.

When the mushrooms are completely moist deglaze with the beer. Just pour it all in there. Add the dry ingredients, stir well, and bring the whole thing to a boil. Let it boil for a minute or two. Stir to make sure nothing sticks.

Add tomatoes and beans. If you prefer you can cook your own beans beforehand and use them instead. If you do I will need to add a couple of cups of water too though. Bring it up to a boil and then put the heat on medium low, or whatever setting you need to use to make it simmer. (Different stoves behave differently.)

Now this is going to take a while. I mean like three hours or so, enough time to let the chemical composition of the tomatoes change. If you have tasted the chili before that point, it won't be that good. It won't taste bad, but it won't taste anything like it will after it's cooked for a few hours. While it simmers you are going to need to give this a stir every 15 minutes or so, or stuff will stick to the bottom and burn. If you feel a little sticking to the bottom of the pan, no big deal. Just do your best to use your stirring utensil of choice to scrape the bottom.

You probably won't need to, but if you think it's getting too thick you can add some water. Don't add any more than a cup at a time, as you don't want to cool it down too much, and also don't want it to get too watery.

When it's cooked a while you can taste it and see if it needs anything. (All chili powders are not created equal; sometimes I need to add a little more.)

Okay, this is my chili. It's good. You should make it.

Drunken ramblings

Drinking alone, it's almost 1:30 in the morning, and I'm a little drunk. Only a little. It's okay that I'm drinking alone since a) I have been diagnosed with depression and 2) I have a family history of alcoholism. Self medication eff tee double-you bitches! Seriously it's fine though; I'm a fucking LSU graduate, so my liver can take it. They give you extra credit for getting drunk. Hell, I think the first time I puked outside a bar they gave me two credit hours -- and that's graduate hours*!

I came in having no flippin clue what I was gonna write about. I just need to do something since 1) there are a few people that actually follow this blog for some God-forsaken reason and b) I post regularly on SB Nation where I link this blog, which is a network of thinking-man's blogs dedicated to... yeah sports. (And I like to have a fairly recent post on there.)

Sports? But you're vegan. Yes I am. I'm not a stereotypical vegan. I am sort of a guy's guy. I like the three Bs: Beer, boobs and baseball. Some people have this conceptualization of vegans as a bunch of tree hugging hippies. That's not really me. I guess I'm a bundle of contradictions. But this isn't about me -- it's about veganism going mainstream. Though I am an overeducated nerd, I'm also a "normal guy" in many respects. For some reason that seems to go against the typical conceptualization of the vegan -- the peace sign giving, yoga doing, kumbaya singing, tree hugging, slightly effeminate guy that's "in touch with his feelings." Sorry, but that's not me. Hell, to be honest, I'm not even a typical vegan animal lover! My knees don't go weak when I see that rescued baby goat at the communal farm, or your sister's ferret, or whatever.

Veganism to me seems like the most natural ethical position one can take. Animals are sentient beings -- capable of subjective perception. Let's be honest; cows and bulls are pretty fucking stupid. But that doesn't mean we should consume them and treat them as biological machines.

Going off on some animal rights rant is not my style, but at the same time I won't apologize for being a supporter of animals rights. And that's kind of my drunken, rambling, and very likely hard-to-follow point. I am a (sort of) "normal" guy, and I'm an unapologetic vegan. Honestly, I am the future hope of veganism and animal rights. No, I don't mean me specifically; I'm not a narcissist. What I mean is the mainstreaming of the vegan lifestyle and being a reasonable advocate of animal rights.

We need more normal vegans. If a more animal friendly perspective is to be ever be truly mainstream, then people that have mainstream tendencies will need to vegan. Moreover, this needs to become more and more normalized. It needs to be regular. I want to live in a world where being vegan doesn't mean that I am a weirdo, but rather a world where veganism is widely diffused among people that love boobs, beer and baseball, or that love NASCAR, hip hop, heavy metal, comic books, strip clubs, science fiction, model airplanes, S&M, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, motorcycles, classic cars... you get the point.

I don't know if any of this makes any sense or not. If it doesn't I plead drunkenness.

I wrote this listening to Murs. Murs is vegan, and he is an incredibly talented hip hop artist. This is what I am talking about. Veganism is becoming more and more mainstream and normal.

Some of my fellow vegans on the granola-crunching persuasion might find the idea of veganism becoming more mainstream as being somewhat strange, and on an intuitive level they might find it undesirable. Sorry, but you are just gonna have to put up with my beer drinking, boob loving, sports watching ass. No offense, but I have just as much of a right to be vegan as you do.

This post probably have a zillion typos. It's okay -- again: I'm drunk.

*Gregatron is a proud product of the Huey P. Long School of Government. (No, LSU's political science department is not actually called that, though I think we can agree that it should be.)

Vegetarian cognitive dissonance

Something bugs me about a lot of vegetarians, particularly those who are less empirically and more spiritually inclined. This is the tendency to emphasize how "natural" vegetarianism is. It seems like people will often use any argument that seems to support their point of view, even if the facts behind it are dubious, particularly when reality doesn't really go along with their immediate point.

(This illustrates a pretty good example of what I am talking about.)

Most evolutionary scientists believe that humans evolved eating a relatively large amount of meat. Most anatomical biologists believe that we are best suited to a primarily omnivorous diet. This is likely responsible for the development of the human brain, and explains why our species is so intelligent. So, against the claims of many vegetarians, the scientific community emphasizes the important of meat in the evolution and development of our species.

So it turns out that eating meat is pretty "natural" after all. Which brings us to this important question: so fucking what?

I think it says something about the insecurity of a position when you feel the need to something as being natural in order for it to be right. People use nature to make all kinds of messed up arguments. This includes arguments against homosexuality, interracial dating, and yes, vegetarian diets! And they are all stupid. Something being natural does not make it moral, and something being not natural does not make it morally wrong.

I am vegan for ethical reasons. I don't give a damn what my predecessors did. If evolutionary scientists discovered that humanity evolution took shape partially because among our proto-human ancestors the strong males raped females and killed weaker males, this would not justify rape and murder!

I guess people can believe whatever they want. If they want to think eating meat is something that is fundamentally unnatural, or that God, Jesus, Moses, the Prophet Mohammad, Abraham, Buddha, Vishnu, the Great Sky Spirit, Thor, Zeus, the Great Cthulhu, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or L. Ron Hubbard disprove, well I guess that's their right. The thing is, I am vegan for moral reasons, and I don't need some illogical existential justification to validate it.

And I don't give a damn what this guy thinks about it.

Best vegetarian places to eat in St. Louis

Yeah, it's been months. I have been telling myself this blog was over. Then some nice person just commented to me that she enjoyed this blog, and requested more. That feels kind of nice. I have some time on my hands, so what the hell.

I have been struggling with depression over the past year. It's been really difficult for me to function in my day to day life. Frankly, life has really sucked for me lately, and that is more than anything why I have not been blogging. It simply got overwhelming. I think I might be pulling out of it, but I hesitate to say that as every time I think things are going better life drops another anvil on my head. Meh, okay -- enough whining.

First off, I did end up winning that chili contest. I think I deserved to as well. I have been making the same chili for about twelve or so years, so I pretty much have the process down pat. Perhaps I will provide a recipe or something sometime when I am feeling recipe-ey. But I don't now. So deal.

Over the past few months I have been pestering vegetarians in St. Louis to tell me their favorite places to eat in the area. I had them do a top five ranking and awarded "points" accordingly. There were a lot of places that were mentioned, but the winner by a pretty wide margin was Meskerem.

Meskerem is an Ethiopian place on South Grand, and their food is quite simply wonderful. If you go I strongly suggest you get the vegetarian combo. On their menu they specify that it feeds one person. This is wrong -- this thing easily feeds two hungry people. I have taken a lot of dates here, and they have all been impressed with the food, and it's pretty damn cheap for a large dinner for too -- talk about a win-win! Don't ask me to tell you anything about what they serve -- I just remember various colors, consistencies and flavors, and that should be all that is expected of Mississippi trailer trash like me.

So there you are. I am pretty comfortable in saying that Meskerem is one of the best places to eat if you are vegetarian in St. Louis, and from the sample I have it's rated the best by far. I think they are deserving of this. The service is also good -- they have this nice and cute waitress that looks like Joan Cusack. She's a sweetheart, not to mention a great server. Be sure to tip her well if you go!

Second on the list was Lemon Grass. This is a Vietnamese place, also on South Grand. They have this one dish there that I think is simply amazing: sesame tofu. It's very delicious, and certainly very bad for you -- battered and deep fried tofu covered in a thick, calorie laden brown sesame sauce, garlic, and a little broccoli (so you can pretend it's not as bad for you as it is).

Battered and deep fried tofu. Mmmmm*gargle*gargle*drool*

Any drawbacks? Yeah. The service sucks. And I don't mean a little. It's bad. Every time I have eaten there the service is as slow as it is rude. Fairly recently I took a date there, and she had leftovers. She asked the server for a little rice to take home with her. He said, "no." Now this server KNEW I was a regular; I go there and get sesame tofu take out all the time. (I like to go right to sleep after eating it -- it helps me keep my girlish figure.) Well, safe to say his tip suffered after that -- I am usually a good tipper but that shit is uncalled for. If you won't take care of your regular customers -- well that's just bad business.

Other honorable mentions in my little poll: Pi -- the pizza place on the Delmar Loop. I once had a take out vegan pizza from there. In my opinion it was okay, but generally speaking vegan cheese sucks. Sweet Art was also a favorite among StL veggies.I have never actually been here, but I probably should have been. They have a lot of vegan stuff, from sandwiches to pastries. Finally, rounding out the places I will mention is Foundation Grounds. They usually have a few vegan items in display. They cupcakes are usually wonderful. The pastries are hit or miss. The coffee is fantastic, and the people that work there are great.

So there you have it. A post. I did it. Take that life.

Announcement:: Vegan chili and cake contest

Check it out: link.

I think I might have to enter this. Hope to see some of you there!

Thought on the nature of our relationships with animals

Sometimes I am somewhat disappointed by what I see as a lack of intellectual vigor and critical thinking within the AR community. It seems that many of us become trapped into certain ways of thinking, and never move on from there. And to be perfectly frank about it, some of the people that shout the loudest are among the least intelligent of us. I think it is time to have an intellectual reawakening in the AR movement, where ideas are shared and discussed in thoughtful ways yielding productive dialogue.

Among one of the general misconceptions made by many advocates of animal rights is the assumption that all relationships between humans and animals are zero-sum games. First, what is a zero-sum game (ZSG)? In layman’s terms, a ZSG refers to a situation where, in the course of an interactive relationship, there are winners and losers. Think of this like a home poker game. If there are five players, and I win $50, then the sum of the losses of the other players are $50. If there is a winner then there must be losers.

ZSG easily lend themselves to exploitation, so it’s not surprising that many advocates of animal rights buy into this notion. They assume that all relationships where humans interact with animals are exploitive in nature.

The thing is, not all relationships, or even most relationships are ZSGs. This has been born out with the idea of trade. Centuries ago, the dominant idea was that trade was good for one country (the exploiter) and hence, bad for another (the exploitee). This notion, known as mercantilism, helped usher in the brutal practice of imperialism. Since then, economists (starting with Adam Smith) noted that trade could be, and often is, good for all parties involved. A simple example: if I have a field that grows wheat very well, and you have a field that grows corn very well, it makes no sense for me to grow any corn on my field or for you to grow any wheat on yours. Instead, we should each specialize in what we grow best, and maximize output, and trade with each other. We will have more overall if we do that. This is known as a positive-sum game (PSG). Note that not all positive-sum relationships have to be mutually beneficial, but PSGs are necessary but not sufficient for a mutually beneficial relationship. There are three types of PSGs involving two sets of actors: one where one party wins and another loses, another where one wins and the other yields little to no benefit but is not harmed, and the last where all parties involved win (mutually beneficial PSGs).

Can our relationships with animals be mutually beneficial PSGs? Yes, I believe they can. Many of us have such relationships in the form of having pets. (Some more radical advocates of AR believe that even pets are a form of exploitation, but I would argue that is an extreme position in the AR community.) This is a mutually beneficial relationship in that we provide food, shelter, and health care to an animal to degree that he would not receive in the wild. In turn, we receive companionship (and, as is the case with my cat, a hell of a lot of amusement). This is a win-win relationship, hence it is a PSG.

ZSG relationships include, most notably, factory farming for both dairy and meat. I think this clearly extends to “free range” animal agriculture as well. (One could even argue, that given the health problems associated with meat and dairy consumption, this is actually a negative-sum relationship which harms both parties.) Animal testing for cosmetic or medical purposes also is a ZSG. This would extend to the production of most dairy and the production of most eggs as well (even the “humane” alternatives).

Mutually beneficial PSGs include pets (which I do not morally consider ownership), and some traditional and, in the west somewhat rare instances of production of animal products. This includes one unusual example of a woman who has rescued chickens, who she feeds and provides shelter. In turn, she consumes the eggs. Let’s say she were to sell some of these eggs. Does that make this an exploitive relationship? I would argue it does not based on the logic I discussed above – just because someone benefits from a relationship does not mean the other party necessarily loses.

I think it’s important to understand the difference between a ZSG and a PSG in order properly categorize exploitive versus non-exploitive relationships. Doing this allows us to move beyond absurd and offensive views many less intelligent AR advocates express. (I have actually seen an idiot compare a person riding horses from a family farm to human slavery!) This “test” gives us a logical guideline by which to go beyond making arguments based on emotion and vitriol to making arguments based on sound, logical reasoning.

Vegetarian dating

For most of my twenties I was married to a very nice woman. After about six years of marriage (and another two in a relationship before that), it just wasn’t working. I’m not going to get into the specifics, but rest assured that there is nothing in the way of animosity or resentment against her. She really is a nice person, and we still talk sometimes. I wish her all the best, and genuinely hope she has a happy life.

After our relationship ended I swore to myself I would not seriously date another meat eater. Not eating animals is simply that important to me. I don’t think people that meat eaters are bad people, but I’m not going to compromise this. The disadvantage here is obvious: it limits my options. But I have to stay true to myself, and my values.

After my marriage I got into a very serious relationship with a vegan girl. I’m not going to go into spill-my-guts details here, but I will just say that it ended with my being very hurt, and wound up propelling me into a months-long legitimate depressive episode where I could barely function. I am now, thankfully, on the other side of that chapter of my life. However, unlike with my divorce, there is a lot of resentment and animosity here (on my part at least).

So over the past several months I have been doing a lot of dating. As I was married during most of the “prime” dating years of my twenties, this is something completely new to me. And now that I am “on the market” I am playing by rules where I won’t seriously date anyone who is not at least a pescetarian. I will casually date (and have done so, semi-rarely) some girls that eat meat, though honestly it does make me a little uncomfortable when eating out, but I deal. So, I have never had a “normal” dating life, and I realize I probably never will, and I am totally okay with that. Regardless, the whole process has led me to learn a lot about myself.

So anyway, here are some observations about veggie dating (and dating in general I guess):

It is much easier to guys to be picky about dating based on eating habits than women. The reason? Basic dating economics: more chicks are vegetarians. I see female friends of mine that have a lot of trouble finding a veggie guy, and simply cannot be as picky as me. I am in a hell of a lot better position than they are, so I certainly can’t judge them.

Some people are just fucking mean. Sometimes there is simply nothing there between two people – there is no spark. Sometimes there is the unfortunate “one-sided” spark where one person feels something but not the other. Unfortunately, this happened to me a few months ago, with me being the sparkee. The other person obviously didn’t feel anything. How do I know? She cut off all contact. All of it. No goodbye, no “I’m sorry but there just isn’t anything there,” nothing. While this was far from a life altering event, in the midst of my depression it was not a reassuring experience.

People are going to get hurt. Dating is a blood sport, metaphorically speaking. I am reminded of a common theme in the best TV show ever, The Wire: “it’s all in the game.” Meaning, there are some inherent dangers in the endeavor. You are probably going to get hurt in some way shape or form, and unfortunately you are probably going to hurt somebody, no matter how hard you try not to. There are certain precautions you can put in place. The main one is simply honesty. Be honest with her and (perhaps more difficultly) yourself. If there is nothing there, tell her. However, hurt will still happen, just hopefully not as much than if you were not deceptive. I have put in a conscientious effort to not hurt anyone, and I have failed. Now I have not devastated anyone the way I was devastated, but my hands aren’t clean either, no matter how hard I tried to keep them so. You can’t make yourself feel too guilty about it though. It’s really part of the game. The best you can do is to treat other people with consideration and respect.

Confident guys are more successful at dating. A lot of guys think the assholes get all the girls, and this is not necessarily the case. I have seen lots of self proclaimed “nice guys” complain about how all the nice girls date jerks. I have noticed this to an extent, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the asshole factor chicks go for. It’s confidence. In college I was too shy, awkward and introverted to be very successful at dating. I was scared at getting shot down. After college I took comfort in the safety of relationships to shield myself from what I thought was the harshness of the cutthroat world of dating. Since then I have developed a lot of confidence. I am not scared to ask a girl out. I am not ashamed when I get turned down – it happens. I will kiss a girl if I like her, or at least try to.

Overall, being single is not bad. There are pitfalls sure. Again, someone will get hurt, and while hurting people is not okay, it’s important to realize that it’s part of what you sign up for. I’m not going to get too much into my own situation because this blog is more about vegetarianism in St. Louis than bullshit details and journal entries.

Anyway, I hoped someone finds this perspective on dating from the perspective of a straight vegan male useful, enlightening, interesting, or at least good for a laugh.

Another recipe

French Freedom Onion Soup

Why “freedom”? Because fuck those freedom hating French, that’s why – whenever America wants to liberate a country it’s those pesky French that have a problem with it. Anyway – we kicked their commie asses in doublya-doublya two, so… yeah. Soup this good deserves an AMERICAN name!

Here is what I do to make it:

Peel and thinly slice 3 lbs of yellow onions, and sauté in a mixture of margarine (I use Earth Balance) and extra virgin olive oil. I use probably about 4-5 tablespoons total – that might feel fatty but this is traditionally a fatty soup. Caramelize the onions on medium-high heat – this might take a bit of time, so be patient.

I added about 6 cloves of chopped garlic when the onions start getting a nice brownish color, and let them cook for a couple of minutes.

Then I deglazed with 2/3rd cups of white wine. I like to use Three Buck Chuck, but whatever you want to use is fine. Turn the heat up to high and add some fresh cracked black pepper. Then I added 5 cups of veggie broth, which I had warmed up on the side with a couple of bayleaves.

Bring this up to a simmer, and cover on low heat. Let it cook for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Add salt to taste (though I didn’t need any).

Put it in the fridge and serve it for that rad girl that is coming over for dinner tomorrow night. :)

What, this blog still exists?

[a bunch of personal crap I deleted]

I never meant this blog to be a personal sounding board, but I also never intended to go months without posting on it. Oh well, I blame the chemical reactions in my brain that were a response to life changing events, maybe not all of them bad (buying a house, for example). I met some awesome people in the past several months. Some of it was through dating, some just randomly. I am moving on with my life now, and hope to blog more. Getting out of depression is hard. I hope it's not as hard to find out who I am now. I have heard the Japanese think that depression is a transformative experience. I can definitely see that.

I want to post a recipe to it has at least the pretence of relevance for this blog. Both my omni mom and Cokaru both loved this, and will testify to its beef stewedness. I just make this recipe up in my head, tried it, then wrote down what I did on my Facebook page. I was really happy with the results.

“Beef” (seitan) stew:

2 medium small onions, largely diced
3 carrots, chopped
3 small celery stalks I needed to use before they went bad, chopped
9 small red potatoes, chopped

^^ saute all this until the onions start to caramelize

Add in half a head of minced garlic, half a standard bag of frozen sweet peas, and the "beef" -- the equivalent of a standard (9oz?) package of seitan (though mine is homemade, so I eyeballed it. I use the recipe from The Veganomicon, which they also use here). Chop it up into chunks.

Deglaze with a bottle of Schlafly Oatmeal Stout. Add in several sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped and three bayleaves. Add some red pepper flakes, and the equivalent of a standard container of veggie broth (though I use Better than Bullion)

Bring it up to a boil, then simmer covered while you type what you just did on Facebook.

Get up to go stir it, tasting it to make sure it doesn't suck. I added an arrowroot slurry to thicken it up a bit.

5 Hour Energy

So lately I have been on a bit of a 5 Hour Energy kick. I have been drinking a few a week, and extolling the virtues about them to anyone that will listen. I have a fairly impressive collection of the empty bottles of the stuff at my work, to the point where my students comment on them. One told me that I am drinking way too much caffeine, to which I replied “No, these things mainly give you energy by giving you lots of B vitamins.”

Well, I noticed that today I have a lot of energy. It feels just like I took one of those energy shots. Instead this morning I took a B vitamin supplement I got at Trader Joe’s. I try not to be a mindless consumer in general, so I did a bit of investigating on this 5 Hour Energy thing, and the claims of the company, as well as my own beliefs on it. Turns out I was really just buying into the company’s bullshit.

Do B vitamins give you energy? Yes and no. Turns out they unlock the ability of your body to metabolizing carbs. And as a vegan, I sometimes don’t get enough B vitamins, especially B 12, which omnis and l/o veggies don’t have as much of a problem with. Well, I can tell you that I do have lots more energy after taking B 12 supplement – pretty much the same way I feel after the 5 Hour Energy.

So, is the 5 Hour Energy a scam? I won’t go that far. Let’s just say the stuff is a really expensive B vitamin supplement. You will better off just drinking a cup of coffee with a B vitamin pill from Trader Joe’s or something. I am just posting this since it seems that a lot of vegans who (like me) might be running a little low on the B 12 can feel a very real effect from 5 Hour Energy, and be convinced that stuff is some sort of magical elixir. I just wish I had figured this out sooner. I could have saved some money.

Hello. New Blogger

Hi,

This is Carol and Gregatron asked me to become part of this blog's family. So, without any major fanfare, I'm going to warn you to be cautious about Chex Cereal.

The reason this has come up is that I've never had this snack called puppy chow. I've been intrigued by it so I bought some Chex Mix with the idea that it was vegan per some vegan blogs. Well, my friend mentioned that it wasn't vegan. We both emailed the company and these are the responses that we have recieved:

from Corporate.Response@genmills.com
to hellomyavocado
date Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:21 PM
subject Your Response From "General Mills" - 2009/11/04-0790 ZJAG
mailed-by genmills.com
hide details 12:21 PM
Dear Valued Consumer:

Thank you for contacting us concerning Corn Chex cereal. We appreciate the opportunity to address this matter.
The vitamin D3 we use is animal based. It comes from lanolin, which is made from sheep's wool.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Gold
Consumer Services

>Original Message From: hellomyavocado
>
>Originated by Consumer To Whom This May Concern: Thank you for taking the time to consider this message. I am a vegan and it's recently been discussed between myself and some friends that we were uncertain as to whether or not any of your Chex Mix cereals are vegan or not. Our main concern is the source of vitamin D as D3 is animal-derived while D2 isn't. Could you please let me know which source you use for your D? It would be much appreciated. Thanks, Carol Baylor. 001600027558:Corn Chex 14 Oz

The email she got back was:

Dear Valued Consumer:

Thank you for contacting us concerning Corn Chex cereal.
The vitamin D in all General Mills products is from mineral source.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Gwyn Walters
Consumer Services

>Original Message From: xxx@gmail.com
>
>Originated by Consumer Is the vitamin D in your corn or rice Chex derived from animal sources? Also/if so, would you consider making your rice Chex vegan, without any animal products? Rice Chex was my favorite cereal before I saw the "vitamin D" in the products list, where it doesn't specify the vegan form of D2. I know that most ingredients lists that include "Vitamin D" mean it could be either form or a mixture of the two, and couldn't be guaranteed to be vegan sourced.

So, my answer was more specific. Knowing this, I'm inclined to believe mine is the more correct answer. On top of that, if the answers conflict, err on the side of the it's not vegan.

Word has it that Crispix isn't vegan either. I don't know first hand but my friend had apparently emailed the company a few years back.

The Half-Ass Vegan -- Volume I -- "Chicken" Salad Wraps

Okay, this is me actually trying to follow through on shit. It’s a lazy Saturday morning. I have some college football game I don’t really care that much about going on in the background, an LSU game later today (I’m an LSU alum – Geaux Tigers!), leftover gumbo in the fridge, and a somewhat-clean kitchen. I’m set! So now it’s time to make a post.

This is the first installment on the Half-Ass Vegan – where I give quick and easy guides to make something that’s fast and easy, but also tastes good and isn’t that bad for you. (I’m Southern though, so my definition of something being, or not being, “that bad for you” might vary depending on your area of geographic origin, level of common sense, or both. Remember, you are reading something written by a guy that remembers pork rinds fondly.)

Okay, this post is about my chopped “chicken” salad wraps. When people think “chicken salad” they usually think of something creamy and “mayonnaise.” That’s not this recipe. This is more of a salad, with chopped up fake chicken on it, wrapped in a tortilla.

What you need:
Large tortillas
A Boca chicken patty (cooked)
Your favorite kind of leafy stuff (I like baby greens)
Red onions
Cherry or grape tomatoes
Your favorite salad dressing

Okay, at this point you probably know how to make this. You come in from work, and pop the Boca patty in the toaster oven, and you let it cook while you take a shower, and then commit mild acts of animal cruelty on your cat for attacking the toilet paper again while you were gone all day and then trying to destroy your best tie after you got home.

Okay, the patty is done. Fire up your gas range and cook the tortilla right on the burner. That’s right – right on that sum’bitch. Throw it on a plate, and pile on greens, and however much diced onion you want. I usually put on four or so little tomatoes, quartered. I then dice half of a Boca patty, and put it on top. Then you just pour on your dressing, wrap it up and eat it. After that, you have another half of a Boca patty, so you can make another one.

After you are done, and are tired from a long day of working, plus you have just eaten, you will get drowsy. Don’t fight it. Go to sleep. Hell, go to bed! I do it – it’s the secret to keeping my girlish figure.

OMGZ -- an actual entry!!!!11one (I'm going to try to do better guys)

Okay, this blog is not exactly active – that much is obvious. That said, I think that there is still some potential here, and it’s not necessarily time to consign this project to the Failed Blog Graveyard. At least not yet.

“Really, Greg? No updates in a month?” Yeah, that’s not good, I realize. A lot had been going on. Some of it’s personal stuff – making the last couple of updates were really tough because of some stuff going on in my personal life. That happens. Honestly, doing this a little more would probably have been good for me to work through some stuff. But I didn’t. Alas. Also, my computer broke. Maybe I should say “my” computer – it’s really a work computer. I’m lucky enough to have a job that affords me the luxury of use of a pretty nice computer I can take home. But lately I’ve been stuck using the piece of crap I used to write my dissertation in 2005 and 2006. Okay, maybe “piece of crap” is a bit harsh, but I gotta tell ya: half a gig of RAM just doesn’t do what it used to. Well, I got a reasonably functional computer again (one I had loaned to someone), so I don’t have any excuses in that regard anymore.

This is never going to be the Vegan Dad blog (great blog -- go there NOW if you haven't seen it yet), or anything like that. I know this. But I can do better. And I will.

In other events: it seems like Vegifide, the vegetarian social networking site with a lot of St. Louis members, isn’t with us anymore. The site has been down for a while. As of writing this, it says it’s “on hiatus” when attempting to go there. Those of you that follow this blog (all two of you) probably are aware of “The Incident” (of which I was a major character) that happened there about a year ago. I won’t get into it other than to say that many long time users of the site were banned (some for literally no reason), and the common consensus among many of us that used to be on the site is that The Incident was what lead to a drastic downfall in traffic from Vegifide. I’m going to say that I was personally wronged, but I will say that several people were.

So why is this a bad thing? Well, to be honest I do feel a bit of Schadenfreude, but that is admittedly a petty (if natural) reaction. Vegifide did a lot for me personally. I met a lot of truly amazing people on that site – people that remain close, personal, actual face-to-face (irl – omgz!) friends. Also, the people I communicated with, and the info presented on Vegifide is a big part of the reason I went vegan. I won’t give Vegifide actual credit for me going vegan (that would be silly), but it certainly was influential in helping me make what I feel was one of the best personal decisions I have ever made. Finally, the site owner who did the “purging” issued an unconditional apology for his actions. I’m not talking a half-ass “I’m sorry if you think I went too far” b.s. apology, but a full on, 100%, “I fucked up and I’m sorry” apology, where he asked everyone to come back. Most of us didn’t. In fact, I don’t think any of us came back, but at least he made an effort to make amends, and that is worth something in my opinion.

I don’t want to write a premature obituary for Vegifide. Maybe they will come back, and be bigger than ever. But considering the lack of traffic, and the fact that the site has been down well over a month now, I don’t really see that happening. But hey, I’ve been wrong before.

Regarding this blog: I am going to try to make a concerted effort to keep this more active. So I’m going to start a series on this blog, called the Half-Ass Vegan. This will be where I share quick, easy, tasty, and not insanely unhealthy meals, and how to make them. I already have a few ideas, so really all it will take is me actually getting off my lazy ass at least once a week or so. I should be able to manage that.

BBQ sandwich -- quick and easy meal

This is for Cokaru, who's always looking for quick and easy stuff to make after getting home from work. I know what that's like. After working all day you don't really wanna cook for a long time. Well, this is something you can make in ten minutes, it's really good, and not all that bad for you -- a little fatty, but much better than pretty much any drive thru (which as a vegan is not an option for me anyhow).

The main reason I don't post more recipes is that I don't know how much a given ingredient I use when I make something. I just know -- the instincts I have for cooking don't necessarily communicate well. I pretty much cook on intuition and by "eyeballing" stuff.

Well this time I decided to measure stuff (mostly) so I could post how to make my BBQ sandwiches. My omni mom raves over these. And I don't blame her. They're really good!

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Half a small onion, diced
3/4 cup of TVP, frozen Boca crumbles, seitan, Match, or your favorite meat substitute (tofu or tempeh won't work though)
Your favorite barbecue sauce
Extra virgin olive oil -- 4 or so tablespoons
Red pepper flakes (to taste -- optional)

Heat up your oil in a pan on medium heat. Add your onion, and let that fry up for a minute or so before adding the garlic and the red pepper flakes. When the onion starts to caramelize then you can add in the meat substitute (I usually use Boca crumbles, but Match "pork" works really well, as does seitan). Cook this up for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. After it get good and heated through, add your barbecue sauce to taste. Some people like it "wetter" than others, so eyeball it, until it looks right to you. (Be careful, as there will likely be a little hot splatter, as the barbecue sauce and oil don't like each other very much.)

Stir this around for a minute or so until it's good and hot. Then add it to your favorite bread, add some pickles, crack open a Schlafly Kolsh, get some Ritz crackers to scoop up the inevitable spillover, and relish the fact that the Cardinals just acquired John Smoltz!

The bar is high for Vick

So I’m sitting here watching the press conference formally announcing Michael Vick’s signing with the Eagles. I’m a bit torn on this – on one hand I want to maintain some degree of open mindedness that he can redeem himself on some level. On the other hand, what he did to animals is quite simply beyond the pale. He not only established and financed “Bad Newz Kennels,” but he even physically killed dogs himself (by hanging, choking, and electrocution).

I am in an interesting position here – when I was a middle school teacher in Mississippi, I taught in a poor, mostly black area. I knew kids – good kids – who were raised in a culture that thought dog fighting was acceptable. I would try to tell them how horrible it was, and they would tell me “but the dogs want to fight!” Even though Vick grew up in the mid-Atlantic (as opposed to the deep South), the culture of dog fighting is, in many ways, quite similar. I like to think this gives me a little perspective on this whole situation.

I want to be clear: I am NOT excusing Vick’s behavior. I am not even trying to explain it (as I can’t pretend to know all the pressures affecting his behavior). What I am saying is that his actions should not be viewed in complete isolation.

I do believe Vick can redeem himself. But the bar is high for him

What will he do to help animals? He is saying in the press conference right now that he will try to “help as much as I hurt” (I’m paraphrasing). How? Will he simply donate money to SPCA and other animal welfare organizations? Or will he step up and do more?

One thing Vick could do is go to areas where dog fighting is prevalent, go into the schools, and talk to the kids about how cruel and evil dog fighting is. He could try to greatly reduce dog fighting by trying to undermine its support among an entire generation of youths. Like it or not, Vick is looked up to by a lot of young kids, especially in the black community. He is in a unique position to act as a huge positive force for change.

Could Michael Vick eliminate dog fighting? No. Could he put forth a great amount of effort to try to counteract some of the evil he has done? Yes. Could this effort have a positive effect? Yeah, I think so.

The big question is “will he?” I honestly hope so, and I hope his effort will be genuine. I hope he is humble in the process, and that in a few years he will not act like his debt is paid, and he doesn’t have to do anything anymore. I hope he will not toot his own horn, insisting on animal shelters paid for with his donations be named after him, eventually leveraging his horrible past into cynical self aggrandizement.

I’m hopeful. And I’m keeping an open mind. But I’m not optimistic.

Cracked-dot-com dismantles my childhood

I spent the larger part of this morning laughing my ass off. This is why.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-20-stupidest-gi-joe-vehicles-ever/

http://www.cracked.com/article_17666_5-cobra-commander-terror-plots-that-might-actually-work.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_17474_7-most-pathetic-gi-joe-characters.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_17400_8-shittiest-transformer-disguises.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_16954_5-reasons-megatron-should-have-fired-starscream-years-ago.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_15287_10-most-disastrous-saturday-morning-cartoon-adaptations.html

Review: Full Circle brand soymilk

I have been neglecting this blog. As the great screamo band Grade sang (err... screeched?) "life gets in the way of living." Eh, no excuses. I'm a little bummed that the Cards just traded their best minor league prospect for two months of the pretty good (but by no means great) Matt Holliday. I'm also much more bummed about other things much more substantive in my life right now... but I won't get into that.

Soymilk has come a long way. Once upon a time, long before my vegan days (back when I was still omni), a vegan friend of mine told me "soymilk tastes like Maalox." He was right. The stuff was borderline undrinkable back then. Since those days of the mid-90s, most soymilk manages to avoid being completely disgusting. Silk is decent, but not great. None of the other brands had managed to stand out to me. They were all good enough to have with a bowl of cereal, but nothing I would want to enjoy for its own sake.

That is until I had Full Circle soymilk. This stuff is amazing. This is the only soymilk that actually reminds me somewhat of the real thing. It is smooth, somewhat sweet, but not too sweet (like Silk vanilla). It also, somehow, manages to not have that strange back-of-the-tongue bitterness every other soymilk seems to have in spades. I don't know how they did it -- the stuff is vegan, but it doesn't taste vegan.

Full Circle is an organic food company that sells exclusively to several grocery chains around the U.S., and one of those chains is out very own Schnuck's. You should try it. I'm super cereal.