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How vegan are you?


michaelhobson
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You order a boca burger at a restaurant, are you concerned about the bread  

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I don't really like asking the waiter a million questions before ordering, especially if the restaurant is really busy.

 

If it's something that they make in their kitchen, like the sauce in a tofu dish, or bread if they bake it themselves, then I will ask what's in it and verify that there are no eggs/milk/chicken stock/whatever in it. If it's something that they don't prepare on premises but that I'm 98% sure is vegan (like a burger bun) I don't send the waiter off to do research... I just don't worry about it.

 

Sometimes when I ask questions in a restaurant, they are obviously annoyed and would rather I go find myself somewhere else to eat. Other times, I've had the chef come out to my table with a printed list of ingredients in his hand, asking a bunch of questions about veganism.

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Sometimes when I ask questions in a restaurant, they are obviously annoyed and would rather I go find myself somewhere else to eat. Other times, I've had the chef come out to my table with a printed list of ingredients in his hand, asking a bunch of questions about veganism.

 

Was the chef annoyed, or interested?

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Sometimes when I ask questions in a restaurant, they are obviously annoyed and would rather I go find myself somewhere else to eat. Other times, I've had the chef come out to my table with a printed list of ingredients in his hand, asking a bunch of questions about veganism.

 

Was the chef annoyed, or interested?

Very interested. He gave me a business card (I didn't know chefs had those?) and told me to let him know what sort of things to make, and he'd make something not on the menu for me the next time. That was one awesome chef.

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Sometimes when I ask questions in a restaurant, they are obviously annoyed and would rather I go find myself somewhere else to eat. Other times, I've had the chef come out to my table with a printed list of ingredients in his hand, asking a bunch of questions about veganism.

 

Was the chef annoyed, or interested?

Very interested. He gave me a business card (I didn't know chefs had those?) and told me to let him know what sort of things to make, and he'd make something not on the menu for me the next time. That was one awesome chef.

 

He probably thought you were a hottie.

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Sometimes when I ask questions in a restaurant, they are obviously annoyed and would rather I go find myself somewhere else to eat. Other times, I've had the chef come out to my table with a printed list of ingredients in his hand, asking a bunch of questions about veganism.

 

Was the chef annoyed, or interested?

Very interested. He gave me a business card (I didn't know chefs had those?) and told me to let him know what sort of things to make, and he'd make something not on the menu for me the next time. That was one awesome chef.

 

That's awesome though to see someone interested like that, you don't get enough people like that in a lot of areas of America.

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I consider my self very vegan. My ideology is very strict. However I have never found the need to be super crazy anal about everything. I try to avoid sketchy restaurants. However, if I hear from a reliable source (i.e. loveliberate) that a certain place is vegan I will trust that without asking. I have noticed though that asking questions is never usually a big deal. However I dont ask if something is "vegan" because 50% of the time you will get a dead stare. I usually just know what to ask, for example if I go to a mexican restaurant I will ask if the beans have LARD in them or if the rice is cooked in Chicken Broth. Simple questions like this can quickly establish whether things are more than likely vegan. Here in Portland I am lucky enough to have a very knowledgeable staff to help out. Most people in the Portland metro area atleast have relatively decent understanding of veganism. I almost always frequent restaurants that advertise being vegan friendly but there are a few such as CHA! CHA! CHA! which has really good mexican food in which I heard about through word of mouth.

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It sometimes depends on the crowd I am with. If I am with people whom I am not worried about "converting" I will make sure to ask the waiter or just go ahead and order something I know for sure is vegan. However, if there is someone with me whom is considering becoming vegan, I don't want to make it appear as if you have to constantly be on your toes and have your world revolve around whether or not this or that is vegan, so I will just go with it if it is likely to be vegan, or just order something I know for sure is vegan; I will not likely go through the asking, though.

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I can understand where folks are coming from but I see the issue differently.

 

I see asking about food at restaraunts as a form of activism because: A) You can educate folks on veganism & B) It's a way to show that there is a demand for vegan options. Every time you ask about this kind of stuff, you're making it easier for everyone who comes after you!

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I was thinking the exact same thing. I actually never assume bread is vegan and don't eat it until I can check the "package" if it had one, or talk to someone at a restaurant who made it.

 

Most of the bread I've ever seen is non-vegan and so much of it has so many ingredients, even if it is vegan I want to stay away from it.

 

But there are vegan breads out there in stores and at restaurants. Dave's Killer Bread and other local companies in the NW make vegan bread specifically. It's great to see bread with only a few ingredients too.

 

I'm sure it's available everywhere, I'd just check the label or talk to someone before eating the bread.

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I keep meaning to ask - why do folks assume that bread is vegan? Much and probably most of the bread I've seen has had some non-vegan thing in it. Whey is common and many breads also contain eggs or "egg-wash"...

 

 

This really depends on what kind of bread we are talking about. I would say about 60-70% of store bought sliced bread is not vegan. However, alot of the bread found in restaurants such as Bageutte and Ciabatta type breads are usually never made with those ingredients. Actually any stop at a bakery would show that most freshly baked breads are vegan. As far as egg wash is concerned that is an issue but is quite easy to spot. Egg Wash gives breads a distinct look that is impossible to miss.

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I see asking about food at restaraunts as a form of activism because: A) You can educate folks on veganism & B) It's a way to show that there is a demand for vegan options. Every time you ask about this kind of stuff, you're making it easier for everyone who comes after you!

I agree with this, mostly. I ask some questions, but I like to ask just a couple questions..... not so many questions that they start thinking vegans are just a pain in the butt and close their mind to the whole thing.

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After I first went vegan I always asked about bread and I always found the bread to not be vegan unless it was high quality bread at an italian restaurant that gets fresh bread daily from a local bakery...most bread isn't like that and it virtually never vegan. Its not that hard to get something also so just don't get something with bread. Mostly all breads have cysteine and you've gotta call a billion people on the phone before you find out if its vegan sourced or not and it normally isn't. I've even been to "vegan" restaurants that have had non-vegan bread and when I found out(before I ate it) I gave the chefs an earful and they said its vegan enough for most people(this was some craphole in Michigan)

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Hm, never heard of cysteine until today. I would have to agree that if cysteine is the only problem, it is probably "vegan enough for most people". The poll would seem to support that idea. I take more of a Vegan Outreach practical approach to veganism, rather than a personal purity approach. I don't have issue with people being as vegan as possible. But, on the activist front I think the personal purity approach is fairly destructive to the cause.

 

I guess I should have read the entire article posted on here recently about human hair in food. When I googled "cysteine vegan bread", I found that article:

 

The problem for a would-be vegan like me is that traditionally L-Cysteine is produced from feathers, pig bristles and sometimes even human hair. These days L-Cysteine can also be produced synthetically but apparently human hair remains one of the richest sources of this amino acid – it makes up about 14% of your hair - and there is a small industry in China making the additive from hair clippings.

 

I also found a letter from Quiznos stating that their bread, except the cheese bread of course, is 100% free of animal products including the cysteine which is vegan.

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I definitely was under the impression that bread was usually vegan. I know that the store-bought stuff with all of the preservatives often aren't, but I do stay away from those. In the store, obviously I look at the ingredients. I actually never eat sandwich bread at restaurants unless it's labled as a vegan sandwich (it's pretty hard to get vegan sandwiches at a standard restaurant). But if I get fresh bread before a meal, I have eaten it because I have been under the impression that the standard recipe for fresh bread is vegan.

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I tend to leave the cysteine/sugar thing alone when trying to promote veganism to non vegans...the only people I tell about it are people who have been vegan for a while or people I know have the heart to stay vegan

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I tend to leave the cysteine/sugar thing alone when trying to promote veganism to non vegans...the only people I tell about it are people who have been vegan for a while or people I know have the heart to stay vegan

 

That's because you're smart like that.

 

On the sugar front, again I don't think most vegans care much about it, including those fine folks over at Panda Veg.

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Oddly enough I've got a friend over there that said they use beet sugar...this person also didn't know most sugar wasn't vegan either. I guess it may be cheaper to use beet sugar over cane sugar if its purchased in bulk...chances are Panda Veg doesn't give a rats ass so I'm assuming they use it for cost

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