I Think I'm Turning Vegan-ese

A Korean-American foodie's journey to veganism.

I wish I could say that becoming vegan was a quick transformation for me and that I became a vegan in one decisive move.  I have read so many stories of the kind.  It sounds so easy and I am envious.   While becoming a vegan is inevitable for me, it is at great personal sacrifice.  As unpopular as it may sound, I do not think meat tastes gross.  I think it is delicious.  My passion is to cook, and therefore to eat.  My friends and family did not think I could become a vegan, sheerly based on my love for cooking.

Nevertheless, veganism is my destiny.  Everything I do, everything I read, leads me down this path.  It is manifesting itself.  I wish it could be a swift change,  but instead it is more like an archaeological dig, slowly and carefully chipping away, then dusting, revealing itself in stages.  I no longer try to force it, or advance it more quickly.  I am just trying to live in the now and accept myself without judgment.  It is a struggle, but it feels more organic to just let it happen.

So, here is my long and sordid story.

DEER ANTLERS AND BEAR PAWS

I dabbled with vegetarianism and veganism when I was 13 through college.  At that time, it was less a matter of animal cruelty, and more motivated by an aversion to the questionable dishes my immigrant Korean mother would prepare.  Permanently seared into my memory is the intense smell and visual of my mother cooking deer antlers, first shaving, then poaching and then cracking them open to access the crystallized bone marrow.  She served the marrow crystals to my father in Cognac to help lower his blood pressure.  On another occasion, I opened a pot at home and found what I swear looked like a bear ‘s paw.  While probably illegal and close to impossible to procure, never put anything past a Korean mom.

A FALSE START: BACK ON BACON

I abstained from meat until my early 20’s, finally succumbing and indulging, AT WILL.  While I always loved to cook from a very young age, it was in my 20’s that my passion for food was really ignited.  I wanted to become a great cook.  And this time around on the meat, I was not going to be a food pussy.  I wanted to try and taste everything.  I would read cookbooks and cooking magazines from cover-to-cover, like they were novels. They were more riveting and captivating than any love story. Nothing would be off limits and I would not fear food or be squeamish to trying anything.  It was a culinary renaissance.

...AND THEN THERE WAS THOMAS KELLER.

In my early 30’s, I discovered Thomas Keller and it was then that my ideas of food and life began to change.  Thomas Keller is famed for his Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry, and subsequently Per Se, Bouchon and Ad Hoc.  Thomas Keller, recipient of 3 Michelin Stars, is touted as the best chef in the world.  He is my idol and inspiration, not so much for his cooking abilities, but more so about his philosophy towards food, family and the world.  He cast a light onto my life and changed me forever.

He once spoke about putting rabbit on his menu, during the early years of French Laundry.  When the rabbits arrived, they were alive.  He was most definitely expecting them to be ready for cooking.  It occurred to him that he should kill and prepare the rabbits himself, so as not be removed from knowing the life of the animal.  It was a difficult and emotional experience.  It makes me cringe recounting the story now.  The outcome was somewhat of enlightenment.  He could no longer separate the live, cuddly animal from the dead meat he prepared.  He truly valued the life of that rabbit, not so much that he would not kill it, but I digress...

Thomas Keller is well known for using every part of the animal, from brain to snout, hooves to bones, innards to outers, creating heavenly and exquisite fare.  Keller’s intention was to honor the life of the rabbits, and all animals, by never wasting any part of it, even wanting to crawl into the oven with the rabbit to ensure that the sacrifice of its life was not for... not.

Keller also writes about being mindful and present when cooking.  To burn a loaf of bread not only dishonors the farmer who grew and harvested the grain, but also the people involved in processing, packaging and delivery, and anyone who had a hand in bringing it to you, not to mention a waste to the environment.  Keller also discussed the importance in high quality, organic meat, of animals treated kindly and humanely.  He stressed how important it is to respect any life you take and prepare it with reverence and mindfulness.  It is hard not to roll my eyes at this philosophy in hindsight.  The best way to honor a life is to let it live!  Nevertheless, Keller was a crucial inspiration for me to head towards veganism.

THE END OF NON-ORGANIC MEAT

At this point, I had been living with the nagging desire to stop eating meat.  I didn’t know how to start.  No one thought I could do it.  My entire life revolved around food, cooking and eating.  I would have regular “Iron Chef” parties at my house.  At that time, I had a decadent and giant kitchen.  I would invite 20 people over, and each hour one or two people would make a course for the entire party.  This would go one for many hours and people loved showcasing meat, me being the worst offender.

So, how did I begin down that path toward veganism?  Keller brought on the initial change.  I decided to give up any meat that was not Step-4 certified organic, humanely raised.  Dairy and eggs were harder when you went out to eat, but at home, certified organic.  Since wild (vs. farm raised) fish cannot be organic, it was the only non-organic meat I was consuming.

VEAL STOCK.  YES, YOU JUST READ THAT.

Before giving up non-organic meat, I was obsessed with cooking out of the French Laundry Cookbook.  My favorite dish was Yabba Dabba Do.  It required a veal stock that took 4 days to make, yielding 8 cups.  I would actually take my vacation days off work to make veal stock.  

I was disheartened by the idea that I would never again cook with veal stock.  But, I could no longer find a way to reconcile it in my mind after reading Diet For a New America.  All the glimpses I had heard about veal, and what I had long suspected but compartmentalized, were confirmed.  I was apoplectic.  I could spit leather.  A convert for life.

Yes, I was still cooking humanely raised and certified organic meat, but there was nothing that could drive me back to the arms of golden veal stock. Shortly after abstaining from veal, I met some friends for dinner at Craft, Top Chef’s Tom Collichio’s restaurant in Century City.  The menu was eclectic with southern influences, one of the side dishes being butter beans!  There was also “milk-fed veal”.  When the young waiter arrived, I asked him about this dish.  He said the baby calves are strictly fed milk their entire lives.  I asked him if that was to supposed to take the edge off of being cruelly imprisoned, tortured then prematurely murdered.  My comments were met with smirks and uncomfortable chuckles by my dinner companions.  Most would be horrified, but everyone who knows me, knows that I irreverent, emphatic and irrepressible.

CRUELTY-FREE AND THE END OF LEATHER AND WOOL

Shortly thereafter, I began working at Paramount Vantage, the specialty film division, as a movie trailer editor.  The first two weeks were spent watching all the movies coming up on the docket: An Inconvenient Truth, Year of Dog, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Babel, Black Snake Moan, Son of Rambow, Foot Fist Way, Into the Wild, A Mighty Heart, The Kite Runner and Arctic Tale.  Needless to say, it was a sobering two weeks and I was emotionally wrecked.  Perhaps this made me more vulnerable and impressionable.  It seemed like a channel had been opened in my mind and spirit.  After watching Year of the Dog, a dark comedy about an unremarkable secretary who finds meaning and a higher power in becoming vegan and an animal activist, I would never be the same.  The images of rows of rabbits imprisoned in head stocks, waiting to be tested with cosmetics...

From that point on, I would only use cruelty-free cosmetics.  I gathered all of my leather and suede, most of my wool, any cashmere, mohair and began to jettison them.  If there was anyone who ever admired a certain leather clothing item or accessory of mine, I gave it to them.  This was like a dagger in my heart.  These leather pants were like butter and fit me like I was the cow’s body from which it was skinned.  (I know, gross.)  Gone and good riddens.  As an avid knitter, I also had to jettison my stock piles of amazing wool and cashmere.  I was quite popular among my friends at the time.

So, I got rid of just about everything.  But, I did keep some dress shoes, especially the Stuart Weitzmans, Rene Caovillas and specialty shoes.  I also kept my on-the-road-to-groadie Uggs, some belts and a few wool sweaters and coats, because sometimes a girl needs to dress like a lady and I loathe being cold.  And, who really wants those disgusting Uggs?!  I always have to compartmentalize when I put them on, but feel like I am honoring the life of the animal sacrificed each time I wear any of it.  I do still wear silk.  I know that is forboden to die-hards, but I have not yet read the compelling information to take me across that bridge.

I was getting pretty heavy into the environment at this time too.  People found me to be extreme, but I was and still am mild in the broad spectrum.  And, everything I do is extreme, so that meant nothing to me.

MOTHERHOOD

It was an interesting opportunity to raise my daughter, Gia, with a completely different philosophy around food.  Like a typical, neurotic, West LA mom, I made all of my baby food, of course using organic, fair-trade, local produce.  Pretty much anything my daughter ate at home was fresh and minimally, if at all, processed.  Little did I know the golem I was creating.  Now, at the age of 4, this girl will not eat canned, frozen or processed food.

Two years into motherhood, I wanted to take the next step in my vegan journey.  I decided that I would watch every movie and read every book, until I could no longer abide.  I had already read Diet for a New America.  I then watched: Future of Food, Fast Food Nation, Supersize Me, Food Matters and Food, Inc.  I then read Omnivore’s Dilemma and Animal Factory.  (I am too scared to watch Earthlings.)  There was no going back at that point.  I had drank the Kool Aid and was moving off the grid.

My biggest surprise was learning about the environmental impact of raising meat and the devastating demise of the farming industry.  This on top of the insanity of mass-producing meat?!  As I mentioned earlier, I was already heading toward Defcon 2 on the environment.  This only re-ignited my passion for the environment and for animals.

From this point on, I gave up all meat, dairy, eggs and honey.  I spent the first 6 months really hungry and weak.  It was an adjustment, especially since I was cooking a completely different set of food for my husband and daughter.  Sometimes, I just didn’t have it in me to make a great meal for myself.  I ate a whole lot of PB&J.

I was most afraid to give up cheese.  Oh, how I loved cheese!  Now, years past?  Not such a big deal.  Cheese?  Meh.  It wasn’t anything at all.  I miss baked goods, so butter and eggs are the two long-lost lovers that I can’t stop thinking about.  We’re like ships passing in the night.  

Despite all of my extreme views, I never proselytized.  It was personal and I did not expect anyone to live by my code.  Most times, when people would ask about my conversion, I would be met with hostility and would be proselytized to.  People would tell me how humans were the dominant species on the planet, therefore had the right to use any and all of the resources however we saw fit.  My Korean mother told me I would die if I didn’t eat meat.  Gee, if our roles were reversed, I do not think I would be met with the same level of acceptance.

For goodness sakes, I still cook meat for my mom, sisters, husband, daughter and friends, upon their emphatic insistence.  I feel like I am pretty tolerant and try to just focus on myself.  I do believe that I have reached a lot of people this way.  I am not preaching, judgmental or hostile.  People usually engage me into this conversation.  I never bring it up.

MY DAUGHTER IS AN OMNIVORE, AND I LOVE HER.

I had decided to cook some steaks as a reward for my husband after his 75-mile bike race in Big Bear.  I purchased two high-end rib-eye steaks from McCall’s in Silver Lake.  This was certified organic, Angus beef, marinated with olive oil, French sea salt with freshly ground Tellicherry Black Peppercorns.  It was Gia’s first steak.   Upon her first taste, Gia said, “I love steak.  I want to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner”.  When I went to Whole Foods to get another steak a week later, Gia said, “No, don’t buy it at Whole Foods, go to McCalls!”.  So yes, she eats meat, as does my husband.  There is nothing that would ever make my husband give up meat.  His family thinks I am a freak show, and maybe that’s a good thing.  My sister-in-law in Arkansas asked me what vegan meant.  When I told her, she said, “Gross”, in between cigarette puffs and extra large bites of mashed potatoes and gravy.  I knew I was on the right track.

My daughter knows I do not eat any meat besides fish.  She likes to talk about it and tell people about it.  After watching Tinkerbell The Great Fairy Rescue, she asked why the scientist father was catching butterflies and pinning them on his wall and why he wanted to do the same with Tinkerbell.  I told her that some people think it is ok to hurt animals and bugs.  I told her I did not agree and that is why I don’t eat any meat but fish, but want to give that up too.

Gia: “I want to be a vegan too”.

Mom: “Sure, it’s your choice”.

(A brief moment of silence.)

Gia: “Is bacon meat?”

Mom: ‘Yes, bacon is meat.”

Gia: “Is chicken skin meat?”

Mom: “Yes, chicken skin is meat?”

Gia: “Never mind.”

This kind of dialogue goes on pretty regularly between us.  I am guessing she will turn to vegetarianism and maybe even veganism.  While I love animals, this girl is completely obsessed with caring for, protecting and rescuing animals.  On our trip to Animal Acres, she let giant Turkey Lurkey eat all of our blueberries.  The entire container!  It was like $8.  He was actually holding her hostage, in the nicest of ways.  She was vigorously petting his sides and every time she tried to stop, he would peck her, and that’s after he ate our vegan lunch.

Gia asked me once why Cruella deVille was trying to capture all those puppies.  I long decided to tell Gia the truth in the kindest of ways, in an age appropriate way.  I told her she wanted their fur to make a giant coat for herself.

Gia: “Those puppies would be very cold.”

Mom: “Those puppies would be dead.”

This is when I explained about which animals can be shaved and which ones have to be murdered so people may wear their skin.  I also explained that the ones who are shaved are generally not treated very well either.  I told her this is why I do not wear leather, suede, fur, minimal wool and have cloth seats in my car for heaven’s sakes.  Needless to say, Gia does not wear leather or animal products.  Both of our cosmetic lines are vegan and cruelty-free.

Gia is being raised with a completely different philosophy than I ever was, towards the planet, animals and the world around us.  These issues were not on my mom’s radar.  They were... petty in the grand scheme of her daily life in Korea.  She said she and the other girls in the village would hide in the hay stacks so the soldiers would not rape them.  They had so little food and clean water that they really could not afford to say no to what they could find.  Maybe this is why my meat abstinence would make her bristle, that is was a choice only a privileged life could be afforded.  In modern colloquiallism, these are rich-West LA-girl problems.

Now that I am 41 and my mom is 70, she is coming around.  She is making only fish based dishes for me and doesn’t question my intentions anymore.  She has accepted them and seems to enjoy re-inventing her old Korean dishes.  My mother has come a long way from her voo-doo bear-paw-rattlesnake-powder-deer-antler-blood-crystal ways.

 THE FINAL BREAK-UP WITH THE BAD RELATIONSHIP.

A huge coup for me?  I stopped drinking my nemesis, Diet Coke, in one swift move.  I read that the dye came from bugs!  In the same article, I learned that coating on shiny candies, like Skittles and jelly beans, was made from secretions of the Lac Bug.  Done and done.  Honey was never a big issue for me, so a no brainer in abstaining, but it can be hard to get around in cooking and baking.  Agave is just not the same, but alas, who really wants to eat bee vomit anyways?

PESCETARIANISM

So, here I am at an impass.  Fish is the final frontier.  2011 was supposed to be my last year eating any fish.  I still struggle with this.  I want something bold to bring me over this threshold, like I have done so many other times in the past.  I want to get on with it and be full vegan.  Alas, here we are in 2012 and I am still eating salmon, shellfish and smaller fish like sardines, anchovies, etc.  I love it so much.  I probably eat fish once a week.

I do admit to indulging in a special non-vegan dessert here of there or a special meat meal on a rare occasion.  See, I am not Defcon 5.  I am NO radical.  But, I am passionate and sincere in my commitment towards animals and the environment.  It’s such a conundrum.  I want to STOP ALL ANIMAL DERIVATIVES, but I just have not gotten there in my process.  This is where I just need to be patient and let it unfold.  Breath in.  Breathe out.  Serenity now.

I read an article in the LA Times about Tal Ronnen, the chef who catered a vegan wedding for Ellen Degeneris and Portia de Rossi.  Steve Wynn asked Tal to make vegan dishes at all 22 of his restaurants in Las Vegas.  Former Mc. Donald’s executives asked for his help in launching a healthful fast-food restaurants.  And, if you are still reading this epic blog, you will find this excerpt from the LA Times interesting.  It spoke to me on so many levels.  I too want to help the vegan movement forward and align with Tal’s philosophies.

“...But here's the real secret behind his ascension to first-name-only status as a vegan rock-star chef: He thinks like a meat eater.

"So many people tell me, 'I could be a vegan if it weren't for bacon,' and I tell them, 'Be a "vegan" who eats bacon,'"...

Wha? Isn't that sacrilegious?

Ronnen sighs. "Real militant vegans hate when I say that. But if you are cutting back on the amount of meat that you eat, you're still doing something great for your health, for the planet and for the animal."

He's part of a new breed of vegans and vegetarians who are taking the movement back from those militants brandishing bumper stickers that admonish us not to eat anything with a face. Ronnen and others like him, including author Kathy Freston, urge the masses to "lean into" vegetarianism and veganism by simply embracing a vegetarian or vegan meal a few times a week. If they have a rallying cry, it just might be "Meatless Mondays."

Their target audience is meat eaters who are intrigued by going vegan or vegetarian, but are afraid to give up meat (especially bacon) because they fear they'll spend the rest of their lives looking at a plate of rabbit food. And Ronnen doesn't blame them.

"I just can't do the 'throw some vegetables and a starch on a plate' thing," he says. "That's the problem with most vegan dishes. It's a portobello mushroom cap, or a pasta primavera, and when you're finished with dinner you have to hit the drive-through. You have to give people something that will satisfy them. And that's a protein-based plate."

The classically trained chef believes it's his mission to inspire chefs across the country to take on that challenge. "If I could get one point across, it would be this: Being a vegan is not about depriving yourself. If you sit around eating lettuce and carrots all day because that's what you think vegans are doing, you're doing it wrong."

This relatively simple approach — designing a vegan menu with the protein front and center, not just paying it lip service — is nonetheless revolutionary in the food world. And Ronnen takes it several steps beyond: He is leading the way in transforming vegan fare into haute cuisine.

"We're just beginning to see what is possible with vegan food, and Tal is at the forefront of that movement," says Bon Appétit restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton. "Tal is an artist. He is just beginning to open a window onto the possibilities of what vegan food can look like."

It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment when the vegan movement started to change. Freston, the blond dynamo at its forefront and author of the new book "Veganist," credits a perfect storm. The eco-friendly movement took notice of the environmental costs of eating meat. The economic slide and rising food costs nudged beef, chicken and pork closer to the "luxury" side of the ledger. Add in the health benefits and celebrity-and-beauty quotient — the gossip mags breathlessly announcing that "Glee" star Lea Michele's sleek new body could be attributed to a vegan diet, for example — and it was on.

But the movement can go only so far without taste. And that's where Ronnen comes in. "This is about delicious food," said Wynn, who recently adopted a vegan lifestyle for health reasons, lost 30 pounds and called for the menu makeovers at his restaurants so he would always have something to eat.

Revamping the Wynn menus has not just been good for the boss. It's been good for business: Wynn says they've been a hit with customers, and are creating a new niche market for those who want more than greasy, fatty food options or a buffet.

Ronnen became a vegetarian as a teenager to impress a girl, and then went vegan for humanitarian and health reasons. A graduate of New York's Natural Gourmet Institute, Ronnen pays homage to French culinary roots by taking those classic elements and playing with the layered flavors and textures until he finds a vegan alternative. "I love that challenge, trying to come up with something vegan that is as good or better."

Although the fanfare surrounding Ronnen has been a boon for his business — his cookbook, "The Conscious Cook," became a New York Times bestseller and was repeatedly named one of the best cookbooks of 2009...

It's his behind-the-scenes role as a guide and a teacher that excites Ronnen most. Trying to make a seafood stew? Sautéed oyster mushrooms can offer up a texture similar to the seafood that shares their name. The flaky texture of a crab cake is easily reproduced, he says, using fresh hearts of palm braised in seaweed. Looking for a smoky seafood flavor? Toast sheets of nori, grind them up and use it as a dusting or flavor accent. Eggless pasta is one of his specialties. He reaches for Gardein protein — he is a consultant for the popular vegan line of meat substitutes — whenever a dish calls for chicken or beef.

But what about butter and cream? No problem, Ronnen says. He uses an olive oil spread for butter, and a silky "cream" made of cashews that have been soaked overnight and then pulverized until the texture reaches luxurious. Truly, it's hard to tell the difference.

Ronnen believes it's his mission to help move the vegan movement forward. He volunteered to work his way across the Cordon Bleu culinary program's campuses, offering demos and tutorials. It's a calculated bid to encourage new culinary students to think vegan before they head out into the nation's kitchens.

So this is where I stand on my mission to become a vegan.  I just want to do less harm and the best I can today.

my favorite vegan things:

Soba Noodles with Trader Joe’s Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette

Trader Joe’s Tofu Vietnamese Spring Roll with Peanut Sauce

Bay Cities Tomato Basil Baguette

Trader Giotto’s Bruschetta (next to the hummus in cold section, not in the jar)

Wayfare Cheddar Sauce

O Soy Yogurt

Helen Cutler, 41, Editor, Los Angeles, CA

Leia Mais…

food shouldn't make you sick or feel bad

My mom told me that when I found out meat was an animal when I was around 6 years old, I was never the same. From that point on, my beef consumption was minimal to none. And, luckily, I've always hated fish or anything seafood, with a violent passion. Violent in that if I tasted it on accident, it would induce a serious gagging reflex and sometimes vomit. So, I've always eaten a primarily vegetarian diet. Except for chicken, which I ate sparingly and in phases. Dairy, on the other hand, didn't have the same affect on me, given that it didn't require killing an animal. It was a huge part of my diet until a little over a year ago. Throughout my life, I've consumed ice cream and ranch dressing in frighteningly large quantities.

As I grew a little older, and became more aware of how food made my body feel, I started to think that there was something wrong with eating dairy. It just didn't feel right anymore. Cheese especially began to make my stomach ache and made me so lethargic after eating it. So, I've known for maybe 5-7 years that I would eventually be vegan. I knew it was something I wanted and that it would happen because it just made sense. I've read enough about nutrition and the human body throughout my life to know that a plant based diet has been scientifically proven, over and over, to be the key to a healthy and disease-free life. I also just knew how I felt after eating a plant based meal vs. a meat based, cheesy meal. There was always a world of difference. So why did it take me so long to make the decision and take the leap? Human behavior is to blame, I suppose. Habit, fear of change? Probably both. Also, I've never in my life been able to be on a 'diet'. The psychological implications of certain foods being off-limits or a restriction of how much I could eat just made me obsess about it, resulting in failure. I didn't want to do this until I knew I could be successful. It was very important to me and I didn't want to try and fail over and over again and create negative associations.

So one random day in October of 2009, I was sitting at my desk at work feeling a bit 'stuck' and frustrated with where I was in my life and how I felt. In response to the frustration, I knew something needed to change. Right then and there I decided try to go full-fledged vegetarian for a week. It was tough for about 3 days, but that went away quickly. Then, I came across Cynthia Morgan's blog on Facebook. She posted an article about dairy substitutes, explaining that the biggest hurdle for people when making the decision or transition to becoming vegan is giving up dairy. It was definitely the missing puzzle piece for me, so I kept reading. That day I printed out the article and went to Whole Foods and bought all of the products on her list and started experimenting and looking up vegan recipes. My biggest fear with becoming vegan had always been that I'd feel deprived and, well, hungry. So you're saying that I can still eat everything I ate before, I just need to substitute the dairy or meat ingredients? Ding, ding, ding! I had seen the light. I finally figured out how to make it happen, and be successful at it. As soon as you make the decision to be vegan, the knowledge and tools just start flooding in. I posted a couple of questions on Facebook asking for good recipes, etc. and I continue to receive great info.

A big surprise to me since becoming vegan has been how interested others are about it. People often have a lot of questions and seem to be starving for knowledge about the subject. One of the best feelings in the world was when a co-worker came to me in tears, saying that she had heard I was vegan and needed advice on how to help her husband, who had just had a massive heart attack, cut down on his red meat consumption.

The question I get most often is, what is the biggest change you've noticed since becoming vegan? My answer is simple, but big. I never get sick or feel bad from eating. After thinking about what that really means, I realized that feeling sick or getting sick after eating had become an accepted, normal reaction from food before I became vegan. Sick as in, stomach aches, feeling heavy, lethargic and daily digestion problems, etc. Your body and mind are sustained through food. Your body and mind should be energized through food. Food shouldn't make you sick or feel bad. Ever. It's as simple as that.

I make vegan meals all the time for people and they are blown away at how good everything is. Meat and dairy replacements are so good these days. They really make them to taste like the real thing. I love the fake chicken for tacos/nachos (add preservative free taco seasoning, grilled onions, garlic and peppers) and Tofutti cream cheese. Whole Foods has a plethora of vegan products.They even carry homemade vegan chocolate cake in their bakery if you want a treat. Restaurants have proven to be very accommodating as well. If you call ahead, most will have a chef who will make you a vegan entrée.

I have no question that I will be vegan for the rest of my life. It’s really not hard once you make the commitment. It just takes some added effort at the beginning, like any change would.

Happy eating! 

Hilary Bailey, 31, Kansas City, MO, Advertising Account Executive/Yoga Instructor 

my favorite vegan things:

All Recipes: a helpful website that includes tons of vegan recipes with ratings.

Skinny Bitch: great book with information on veganism.

Vegan on the Cheap: wonderful cookbook.

Turtle Mountain: Purely Decadent Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Leia Mais…

the slow road

The story has been told that a piece of beef was the first solid food my little paws reached for. And up until about 10 years ago, I didn’t think a meal was complete without a big, honkin’ piece of cooked flesh. I honestly thought that in order to survive, one had to consume animal protein. That is what we have been programmed to believe. However, this is clearly a myth proliferated by ______ (fill in the blank with any industry driven by profits from meat and dairy consumption). This “myth” has been countered by science. Not a bunch of hemp-wearing, kumbaya-singing, paint-splashing, hippies. Science. In fact, the ‘protein myth’ should be referred to as the ‘protein scam’ because not only do you not need animal protein, it is unhealthy and dangerous. But this essay is not about that. I’ll leave that up to the China Study. This is about my long, ever-winding, sometimes backtracking, still-in-progress, road to veganism.

If you would have told me eight years ago that I would ever utter that previous sentence, I would have laughed at you and then snapped-into-a-Slim-Jim just to spite you. I grew up on meat in central Oklahoma in the 80’s and 90’s. Bologna, salami, hot dogs, pork chops, KFC, steak, jerky, nuggets, burgers, chili, Spam, you name it. I don’t recall hearing the word “vegetarian” until at least high school and “vegan” was just another word with the same meaning…Crazy-ass, tree-hugging, hand-holding , weirdos. You get the picture. Eating meat was “normal” and everyone else was cuckoo. 


The first time I actually met (and liked) a vegetarian was my best friend in graduate school (and still to this day – Hi Leslie!). I remember interrogating her FBI-style on many occasions about this lifestyle choice. I was shocked to learn she made this decision sometime in high school (High school! The biggest decision I made in high school was what to wear on a daily basis). Leslie would entertain my litany of questions with the patience of saint. And I, being the tried and true devil’s advocate that I am, would pose every argument possible. She never budged. I never budged…or so I thought. 


With all of my questions and all of her answers, it was a question she asked me that started turning the wheels in my meat-loving brain. “What about Connley?” she asked. Connley, you should know, is my family’s golden retriever. He’s pretty much the most amazing creature on earth. While he doesn’t have the equivalent of a primate insula or prefrontal cortex, I swear he has the ability to process emotion and possesses interoceptive awareness (but that’s all beyond the scope of this essay). What about Connley? Hmmm. Now that was a humdinger. How could I love him so much and anthropomorphize his every act and not do the same for all animals? How entirely different is a canine from a primate from a bovine and so on? Yes, I know the phylogenetic differences, but really…What difference do a few sub-branches make? Well, this was a mental pickle I wasn’t ready to examine. Not just yet. And so the interrogation sessions stopped, and life went on.

Back in that first year of graduate school, I spent a lot of time driving back and forth from Kansas to Oklahoma on good ol’ I-35, a.k.a. the industrialized cattle drive. I would see the herds on the side of the road. See (and smell) those big rigs covered in holes and filled with cattle. I watched the calves play in the pastures on the side of the highway, swishing their tails. I watched the bulls graze and the cows drink from the ponds month after month. One day, as I passed one of the stinky 18-wheelers on I-35, I ventured to gaze into one of the holes that covered the trailer. And there it was, a big brownish-black sparkling eye. Not all too different from the chocolatey-brown eyes of Connley. I made the connection. That day I vowed to never eat beef again. And while I was at it, pigs too. I was too far gone to compartmentalize specific mammals. So that day in March of 2004 I decided to not eat mammals anymore. I didn’t tell anyone. This wasn’t a conscience choice, I just didn’t. It seemed natural and like the right thing to do so why would I bore anyone with this inane information. Or maybe I didn’t believe I would stick with it. In any case, that’s what I did.

A few months later, Leslie and I were talking and I must have referred to “not eating mammals” in the conversation; she was taken aback. “Oh yeah, I didn’t tell you?” I queried. “Yep. No more mammals, “I answered my own question. She knowingly half-smiled; best not to make a big deal of it, lest I change my mind.  And so years went by. There were hard days when I really craved meat. I slipped a couple of times; always under the influence of alcohol. A bite of a medium-rare filet at a wedding. A bite of a Sonic burger at 2am. But those “slips” solidified my decision. That steak tasted like a rusty piece of iron. That burger tasted like grainy, salted, tendons. Bleck. Living in Kansas and spending a lot of time in Oklahoma was often trying… “Yes, I eat seafood and poultry…No, chickens aren’t mammals…Sorry, Mema, I can’t eat that gravy you made with beef fat…” But most of the time, it was pretty easy.

Fast forward to May 2009 when I moved to L.A. Enter Cynthia; a friend of Leslie’s that she insisted I connect with upon my move out west. Cynthia was a vision. Further, she was delightful and smart and spiritual and just lovely. And she didn’t eat animals. Or eggs. Or milk. Or cheese!!! Oh boy. Here we go again… But this time, I wasn’t so contrary. I was willing to listen to the ins-and-outs, pros-and-cons. Plus, in L.A., things were easier on the meat front. There were restaurants, full-on restaurants (not just a menu), that didn’t serve meat. Further, there were restaurants that didn’t even serve animal products whatsoever (Hi Real Food Daily!) Dairy-free ranch dressing?!?! Impossible you say? Contraire, Mon Frère. It’s true and it’s delish. But this didn’t stop me from eating regular ranch altogether. It just opened a tiny little doorway in my mind about the possibilities.

September (and the eve of my 30^th birthday) brought new leanings. Birds. They’re pretty special too. Why had I neglected them? They’re cute. They have cognitions. They have social order. Fine! No more chicken, no more turkey. Ugh. And I didn’t even get to have a last farewell feast of KFC. It’s like the movie ‘Wizard of Oz’ when the curtain is lifted and the wizard is just a dumpy old man. You can never see him as the all-powerful, wonderful wizard again because you know he is just the dumpy old man. This is how it’s been for me. Once I have knowledge, information, or an emotional tie, I can’t go back. Not even to gnaw on a greasy, original recipe, bird leg for one last self-indulgent time. And down the path I went. A few months ago, shortly after Easter (and my favorite holiday food – deviled eggs), I saw the video “Meet your Meat”. There goes eggs. And kinda milk…but cheese. I’m going to put you in a little box for now. I’m going to continue justifying your consumption with vegetarian/Kosher (i.e., no animal rennet), organic cheese. For now.

See, I’m not perfect. Especially since I’ve continued eating seafood (ah sushi, how I love thee) all this time. That is until now. Two weeks ago I had a delicious crabcake for dinner in downtown La Jolla (where I now live). It was fantastic going down, but not-so-great coming up six hours later. Yep, I had food poisoning. Gut-wrenching, exploding, dry-heaving, food poisoning. I was sick for three days. In the midst of a cold sweat, and writhing in pain in my bed I thought, “This isn’t normal. Food shouldn’t do this to you.” I made another connection. Fish are animals too. I’ve sat on this thought for a couple of weeks. And today, another moving installation pushed that thought out from behind the curtain: the movie Earthlings (available to watch for free online). Today marks my decision to eliminate seafood and thus the last remaining animal in my culinary repertoire. 10.10.10. The official day I can call myself a vegetarian. Still dabbling in dairy…But the wheels, they are a turning. This is my road to veganism. However slow and roundabout it may be, this is my journey. What’s yours?

-- Danyale McCurdy, Ph.D., 31, San Diego, CA. Clinical Psychologist.

my favorite vegan things:

stella mccartney

veg sandiego

uncleeddies vegan cookies

golden retriever foundation

urban decay
pureology

Leia Mais…

choosing vegan, to honor everything i believe in

Last month I finally chose to walk the vegan road. I use the word ‘finally’ because I feel it has been a slow and gradual progression over the last 15 years.

In 1995 I read the book Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond and was introduced to the fact that humans are the only other animal that drink another animal’s milk. This totally grossed me out and my thoughts immediately drifted to how disturbing and incorrect it is for humans to suck on cow teets. Just because someone has packaged it up in a bottle or carton makes no difference. It’s still milk that has been squeezed from a cow, and in my opinion should only be used for one thing … feeding baby cows. So my milk drinking days ended abruptly. For some odd reason though, I didn’t put cheese in the same category. Strange, I know.

Over the next five years my taste for meat declined. Correction, not so much the taste of it, but more so the flesh component. Have you ever bitten in to a piece of meat and visualized biting in to the arm, leg or torso of an animal, and that the chewy bits of meat is too closely associated with chewing your way through the flesh of that animal? Those type of visualizations also grossed me out and ended my meat eating days, with exception to mince meat in lasagna, spaghetti bolognese and carpaccio (the paper thin raw beef), as these styles of meat required no tough chewing and melted in my mouth.

My fascination for food, health and wellbeing led me to study a 3 year Diploma of Nutrition and it was during those classes that I was exposed to the horrifying documentaries about chickens in battery farms, their ghastly diet, abnormally unhealthy living conditions and outrageous cruelty and suffering. Add to that, the accounts of negative health effects that the consumption of these chickens and eggs were having on the human population. I was so appalled by this information that I have never eaten a piece of chicken since, but somehow I remained an egg eater, as long as they were the biodynamic organic free-range variety.

As time went by and my love of food and good nutrition grew, so did my love and respect for mother earth. Each day I was inspired to learn a little more about the “truth” of the type of world we live in, how my choices can have an effect on the future of the world based on the simple fact that every time I buy a product I am saying to that company, ‘keep on doing what you are doing.’ I am supporting everything that company does: every source of raw material, every packaging solution, every environmental standard that they are undertaking, every form of employee relations and every marketing choice.

When creating Be Genki, the range of bath, body and home care products, I was adamant that the brand had to be certifiably “animal cruelty free”, not containing any animal derived ingredients and certainly not allowing any of the products or ingredients to be tested on animals. Yet, I still was consuming eggs, cheese and a portion of meat once every few months. Hmmm… I wasn’t wanting to use animal products in my skincare products but was happy to eat them. Interesting inconsistency don’t you think?!

Being an advocate for holistic health and wellbeing, and possessing the inclination to think about what consequence my choices are having on my life, my loved ones’ lives, the community, the planet, and future beliefs, standards and ideals, choosing vegan seemed like the natural thing to do that would honor everything that I believe in, (that is, to help improve my awareness, consciousness and communion with mother earth.)


The tipping point for making the choice, however, was watching the short clip VEGAN For the People. For the Planet. For the Animals. Quite simply, the short film clip makes sense. Choosing to be vegan not only nurtures myself, but my loved ones, future generations and the world in which we share. Oh… and I look and feel so much healthier since making the change. Love those extra perks!


Sam Sample, 31, Las Vegas, NV. Founder of Be Genki, skin care line.


my favorite vegan things:
Raw Vegan Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce 
Red Velvet Cafe, Las Vegas, NV  
Rainbow's End Cafe, Las Vegas, NV 
(Special thank you to Diary of a Vegan.)

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veganism on a dare

Before totally committing to becoming a vegan back in 1990, I'd tried being a vegetarian a couple of years earlier after reading The Jungle, Upton Sinclair's 1906 expose on the meat-packing industry and the conditions of the wage slave immigrants that worked in that industry and going out with a gal who was a vegetarian. 

As the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day approached in 1990, there were more and more magazines and articles on what a meat based diet does to the environment and I read up on this quite a bit. At the same time, I was going through an early mid-life crisis: I was 28 years old and had no real idea of where my life was going, but I wanted to affect a change in my life in some capacity. So now equipped with information about how being a vegetarian could actually change the world (or a small segment of it - one step at a time) I decided I was going to not be a slave to my meat craving palate and commit to making this change. 

When I first became a vegetarian, my long time friend Joel (who was also my roommate at the time) asked me why I didn't just go the vegan route instead of just being a vegetarian, and as I had already read some of why being a vegan is even more environmentally helpful (the dairy and egg industry with their factory farms and the horrid conditions they subject animals to) I took his "dare" and went from meat eater to vegan almost overnight (I was maybe a vegetarian for a couple of weeks before becoming a vegan).

If I can be a vegan for 20 years now after being a meat eater for 28 years, anyone can do the same and not have a poorer eating quality of life and not have health deficiencies as a result.

When I first became a vegan and would go out to eat and upon getting a dish, that I requested to have no dairy or cheese, arrive with dairy ingredients, I would go into a crazy scene that I know embarrassed people I was with (just as I did in my former life as a meat eater when I got vegetables when I requested none. I was a dumb not so young angry white guy. It took me several years to get over my dumb angry side, but I've come to the conclusion that being angry is counterproductive to why I became a vegan.

Boca veggie burgers, smart dogs, tofurkey lunch slices and sausages (seriously most people who try these faux meat substitutes are really surprised how good they are and how much they taste like the "real" thing - and these are eaten by vegans such as myself for their protein and because I did like the texture of meat), and or colorful vegetables (raw or stir fried alone or with tofu) and fruits.

This essay has been brought to you by tree hugger and comic book lover (is that a dichotomy?), Ralph, on behalf of Mother Earth, and wants to thank everyone who read this essay and for even entertaining the thought of making more of your eating choices vegetarian / vegan. Just as earth has survived for millions of years without us in the past, so too can it survive without us in the future unless everyone remembers that everything is interconnected and our choices effect not only us, but where we live and will live in the 

future.

Ralph Mathieu, Las Vegas, NV Alternate Reality Comics. blog: http://ichliebecomics.blogspot.com/

My favorite vegan things:

Diet For A New America (book) 

Vegas Veg (an online site with lots of resources for Las Vegas vegetarians & vegans)

Komols (Thai & vegetarian restaurant in Vegas)

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