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Vegan Friendly Cities (is yours?)


ronnie kray
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is the city you live in vegan or vegetarian friendly? like with lots of restaurants with vegan options, or supermarkets with a large vegetarian selection?

 

mine is NOT! there is only one vegetarian restaurant (lacto-ovo) across the border. it's called El Quint Sol (The Fifth Sun) and hey, it's better than nothing. and at the local supermarket the vegetarian section (boca burgers and the like) is about one fridge in the frozen food section. but of course i get by with purchasing a lots of pastas and fruits/vegetables in the produce.

 

i've been to and lived in other cities in texas, like austin or houston, that have much more veggie friendly restaurants and organic supermarkets, like whole foods. once i saw that, it made me realize how bad i have it in this bordertown.

 

but what about your town?

Edited by ronnie kray
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When I'm in St. Louis, there's Whole Foods, Wild Oats and Trader Joe's, as well as several local health food stores. There's even an all-vegan soul food restaurant that my friends and I are regulars at, called Eternity.

 

In Columbia, Mo., where I go to school, the chain grocery stores have large organic foods sections. And there are a lot of local health stores, as well. Also a great, great vegetarian restaurant within five minutes walking distance of my apartment, called Main Squeeze.

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No prob Brenden. Anyway, I think Rob called that thread "Trader Joe's Egg" or something like that.

 

PLEASE PLEASE EVERYBODY SIGN THAT PETITION, AND ALSO THE ONE THAT IS TRYING TO GET LEGISLATIVE PROTECION FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF CHICKENS, which are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act (not that that Act has meant any meaningful protection for the animals that are supposed to be protected under it!!!!! )

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PLEASE BOTCOTT TRADER JOE"S UNTIL it agrees to stop selling eggs from cahed hens.

 

The Humane Society of the US has a campaign aginst Trader Joe's right now.

 

See Rob's post about this - cannot remember where it is or what it is called though, but it is somewhere.

 

 

I met Josh Balk from HSUS at the Richmond Vegetarian Festival, he is the Outreach Coordinator for the HSUS Factory Farming Campaign and is working on the Trader Joe's issue. He seems like a really cool guy and lifts weights. We spent a while talking about vegan bodybuilding and he has emailed me for diet and training advice. He wants to get as big as me

 

Okay, about my city! It is pretty decent for vegans. We have a Vegan Chinese Restaurant with an all you can eat buffet and a big health food store. I have been to more veg friendly cities, but I have everything I need here.

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Not many selections in my city but since there are more vegans where I am at I hear of different places and what they can do since they are open to vegans. A pizza place will actually put on soy cheese you bring in, and their crust and sauce are vegan. We have a chinese place that has plenty of vegan options. There is a natural foods store and the grocery stores around here can sustain a vegan really well. But as Ronnie pointed out Austin has many more vegan places to eat, and it does. I was down there a few weeks ago and was constantly full...good times. I want to go down there for another food safari if I can.

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Hey Michael,

 

Was the Josh Balk from HSUS vegan or vegetarian?

 

I thought you would come down on me for asking everybody to support a "welfarist" type of campaign headed by a welfarist animal protecion group. But the truth is, people are not going to stop eating eggs tomorrow, so until that happens, Trader Joe's should boycott caged hen eggs NOW! Meanwhile, we can continue with vegan campaigning so soon, hopefully, there will be no demand for ANY type of eggs.

 

But I was just wondering if the people that work for HSUS (an animal welfare organization) are mostly veg*n. Did your conversation with Balk reveal any insight into this "burning" question of mine?

 

Do you think he will join this forum? Had he heard of it before?

 

DO TELL!!!!!

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Hey Michael,

 

Was the Josh Balk from HSUS vegan or vegetarian?

 

I am happy to report that Josh is in fact VEGAN! Yeah! It's the only reason I bothered to listen to his welfare speech really. I didn't ask about others at HSUS.

 

I thought you would come down on me for asking everybody to support a "welfarist" type of campaign headed by a welfarist animal protecion group. But the truth is, people are not going to stop eating eggs tomorrow, so until that happens, Trader Joe's should boycott caged hen eggs NOW! Meanwhile, we can continue with vegan campaigning so soon, hopefully, there will be no demand for ANY type of eggs.

 

I'm in a good mood today. Also, I met Erik Marcus at the festival, author of Meat Market. His book has given me a bit of insight about meat-eaters needing to take responsibility for the meat industry and needing their support to dismantle industrialized farming. Really, why are we vegans responsible for the meat industry? The people eating the meat need to wake up and take responsibility for their actions.

 

But I was just wondering if the people that work for HSUS (an animal welfare organization) are mostly veg*n. Did your conversation with Balk reveal any insight into this "burning" question of mine?

 

Do you think he will join this forum? Had he heard of it before?

 

DO TELL!!!!!

 

I don't know if Josh will join the forum, I gave him one of Rob's cards. I know he has read my training log on Vegan Fitness and we have exchanged a few emails. I'm hoping he will be at the Charlottesville festival next weekend. If he is, I'll hook him up with a Vegan Bodybuilding t-shirt. If he's not, maybe I'll send him one. I think it would be cool to start getting our positive VB&F message out in to the bigger organizations.

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I didn't think my city was particularly friendly compared to other places I've lived (Oregon, Vermont, and Atlanta, GA) and other places I've visited a lot (San Diego, Austin) but now that I've actually been looking for vegan groceries and restaurants, I found out it's not too bad.

 

I'm way out in the SUV-BBQ-and-steakhouse hell of the Houston suburbs, so the majority of the vegetarian-type restaurants and all of the Whole Foods markets are at least a half hour drive away from me. I've found a limited selection of organic produce and health food store stuff at a couple of the local grocery stores and some very yummy vegan food at my favorite asian restaurant, so far. I'll keep searching, and keep begging Whole Foods to open a store in the suburbs.

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There is a meditarian joint, a chinese place, a thai place and a couple of mexican restaraunts that I am able to eat at.

 

Some of the grocery stores have a fairly decent selection of natural and organic foods.

 

When I am at my parents house there are places up the wazoo.

 

I also live only 45 minutes away from Chicago and there are alot of vegan restaraunts and grocery stores there when I have the time to get down there.

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madcat is right, Portland is awesome if you're a veg. There are tons of places that cater specifically to vegetarians/vegans, and practically everywhere is at least accomodating. For instance, I went to this little hole in the wall Mexican place in NW just a week or two ago, and, not knowing what to expect at all (I was w/ a friend and we had a gift certificate) I was thrilled to find that even a tiny place like that offered soy taco meat! Yum! That's Portland for you!

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if anybody happens to visit these texas cities, here are (just a few) places i would reccommend.

 

in austin:

Mother's Cafe& Garden - all vegetarian restaurant. the staff is friendly and happy to make the entrees vegan. great indoor/outdoor ambience. the BBQ tofu is awesome.

 

Mr. Natural - i love this place. great vegetarian and vegan versions of Tex-Mex food classics. try the Milanesa Plate.

 

West Lynn Cafe - nice atmosphere, good food. great place to take a vegetarian date.

 

in houston:

 

Tien Ren - i believe it is owned by Buddhists and has delicious vegan entries. also has an all you can eat buffet!

 

Niko Niko's - very popular greek restaurant for almost 25 years. great vegetarian selection which they are happy to make vegan. the Eggplant Boat is very filling.

 

Hunan Village (3311 S. Shepherd) - not completely vegetarian restaurant, but has about 40 vegetarian selections on the menu. i suggest (my favorite) menu item # VD2 - General Tso's Vegetarian "Chicken".

 

these are just off the top of my head. there are scores of other choices. i was surprised to find out PETA voted houston one of the top 10 vegetarian friendly cities in the usa. we're not all cowboys down here.

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I'm in Baltimore, Maryland and it's actually not too bad here. There is an all-vegan place within walking distance of me (I'm about to head there as soon as I finish this post). Just a few blocks away is a an omni restaurant that has labeled vegetarian and vegan dishes (and vegan desserts, which is great--had a lemon ginger parfait there last night). Not much further is a nearly all veggie place with labeled vegan dishes. There's an all veggie food co-op. These are all in my neighborhood or very close.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tien Ren - i believe it is owned by Buddhists and has delicious vegan entries. also has an all you can eat buffet!

 

Thanks for the suggestion. This place is super-deluxe yummy, I tried it for the first time tonight. The buffet is just at lunch and on the weekends, so I actually had to choose something from the menu. That was difficult, since everything looked SOOOOO good!

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Manchester in the UK. We have Unicorn, the all vegan grocery, The Basement cafe, run by vegan volunteers and several more veggie cafes and loads of health food shops with vegan goodies

 

small world! i was one of those volunteers! i worked there for about 5months before moving up to edinburgh. i usually always worked thursdays - you would remember me maybe as i am so tall

 

unicorn is the greatest place in the world

 

jonathan

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My hometown, Orlando Florida, has a vegan hot dog dude who has a cart downtown. There's a couple of vegetarian only restaurants, even Disney World is very vegan friendly. If you go to any of their restaurants, and tell them you're vegan, they'll let you see the list of ingredients in their food. Also, there's a group called Vegetarians of Central Florida that is pretty active

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