First off, let me tell you that I'm a friendly vegan! I'm not judgmental, and I truly believe that it's not my business to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat. I grew up in the South, greatly enjoying chicken-fried steak and barbecued ribs, and every kind of cheesy thing I could get my hands on. I loved meat; never thought about it. Until I thought about it. After a few years of transitioning, I've been vegan for seven years. And it seems I'm not alone.
I went out to dinner last night with friends and came home fairly hungry. If you don't count the bread I tried not to eat too much of and the olives from my martini, or the little side dish of steamed vegetables, there wasn't much I could call a meal. I scanned the menu for anything that I could eat, but all I saw was lobster, lamb, fish, steak, chicken, veal, pork, and pastas that had any combination of the aforementioned meats with cheese or cream. Nothing for me but the dreaded Grilled Vegetable Plate.
I would SO love a hearty dish with a center of the plate protein, with some TLC from the chef -- i.e. sauces and garnishes -- to make it just as fulfilling as the meat and dairy dishes. I would pay good money for it! And I know a lot of other people would too -- and not just vegan people.
Eating vegan(ish) or vegetarian is mainstream now, and growing ever more so. Oprah, Ellen and Martha each devoted shows to eating vegan. "Good Morning America," "Extra" and "Dr. Oz" have also dedicated segments to the growing popularity of eating less meat and more plant-based food, and you will find in just about every major magazine or newspaper, there are features about the ever increasing vegan trend. Natalie Portman, Tobey McGuire, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Mike Tyson, Bill Clinton, Larry Page, Biz Stone, Ricky Williams and Tony Gonzales are all vegan (or veganish!); these folks are the trendsetters -- actors, athletes, business and thought leaders.
I realize that vegan is not how the majority of people eat, and restaurants are in the business of giving their customers what they want, but the trend is quite assuredly moving toward reducing and replacing meat. In fact, I've noticed that when I can finagle something interesting from the chef (assuming the waiter bothers to approach him with the request) that is both hearty and healthy, nine out of ten times most of the people at the table will say, "I'll have what she's having."
Whether it's because someone wants a break from animal protein three meals a day every day, or they are concerned with their health or weight, or they want to be conscious eaters for the environment, a vegan option is extremely appealing when presented well.
The problem is, restaurants are generally not presenting them well. A plate of vegetables situated next to a baked potato is okay in a pinch, but I wouldn't want to pay a lot for it, nor would I return to that restaurant for it. I would choose another place that everyone would be happy, where my husband could get fish and I could get something plant-based (and not just pasta with tomato sauce ... too many carbs, and boring).
A meal that looks like what everyone else is enjoying would be so, so gratifying and appreciated! And there are so many ways to make a meal with a vegetarian protein using Gardein (looks and tastes like different meats, high protein, low fat and is available through distributors like Sysco and US Foods ), seitan (wheat protein ... made into cutlets or strips), lentils, beans, tofu, chickpeas, tempeh or other high-protein meat alternatives. And on a business note, the profit margin is greater as plant-based protein is cheaper than animal protein, and is how many other cultures get protein.
Check out these stunning statistics on the where the food trend is going:
Number of Vegetarians/Vegans and Trends in Vegetarian/Vegan Eating
- In a 2010 study from marketing firm Context Marketing that included 600 respondents, they found that 21 percent said "vegetarian" is important or very important to them. Fourteen percent said "vegan" is important or very important to them.
- The average American ate 14 pounds less meat (including poultry) per year in 2009 (208 pounds per person) than in 2006 (222 pounds per person).
- In feedback surveys among college students at campuses that Bon Appétit Management Co. (which manages more than 4,000 corporate, college and university accounts)
oversees, in 2005-2006 an average of 8 percent said that they were vegetarian. The 2009-2010 survey, however, had very different results: 12 percent identified themselves as vegetarian.
Vegetarian/Vegan Trends in Dining Out
- According to a January 2011 USA Today article on marketing trends for 2011, 47 percent of Americans are trying to reduce their meat consumption.
- A 2009 issue of Nation's Restaurant News suggested adding vegetarian/vegan options to the menu as one of its top strategies for improving business. The publication noted that vegetarian food is generally less expensive for restaurants to procure, and mentioned the "veto vote," the tendency for families with one or more vegetarians to bypass any restaurant that serves no meat-free fare.
Let me just leave you with this: I often dine out in Santa Barbara, and my favorite restaurant is Lucky's Steakhouse. They make a mean martini and have a fantastic wine list, and the ambiance is festive and fun. They now feature a tofu dish, right alongside the steak, chicken and fish on the menu. A few friends and I had requested something other than the dreaded Grilled Vegetable Plate for so long, they finally relented. Not happily, at first, but they did it. They took one of their fish dishes and simply swapped out the fish for tofu, grilled it over braised spinach and a sweet miso sauce.
I usually start with a chopped salad of three kinds of lettuce, chickpeas, onions and avocado. We get a side of sweet potato fries to share. I asked the manager how the dish was doing, and he said, "I'm shocked, but it's flying out the door!" His customers are not vegan. Not even vegetarian or pescetarian. But everyone these days, it seems, wants to lighten up on meat a bit. And so they come to the steakhouse for the ambience and a good drink, and they enjoy a hearty protein-centered, plant-based meal, and everyone wins! The other restaurants, we simply don't consider anymore because we want everyone -- veg or carnivore -- to be happy!
Here's a little starter guide:
- Instead of milk or cream, use almond, soy or cashew cream
- Instead of butter, use Earth Balance (you would not know the difference)
- Instead of chicken broth, use vegetable broth
- Instead of chicken, use Gardein, seitan or tofu
- Instead of ground beef, use Smart Ground meatless crumbles or lentils
- Instead of cheese, use Daiya or Teese non-dairy cheese
Ellen Kanner: Meatless Monday: The Doctor is In
Kathy Freston: Eating Vegan on the Cheap
Mindy Pennybacker: My GM-Free, Vegan Lunch With Chef Vikram Garg
Kathy Freston: The Steps to Becoming a Veganist
Veganism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aimee Teegarden kicks vegetarian diet up one notch now '99% vegan'
Where's the Tofu? AAA Inspectors Select their Favorite Places for Vegetarian ...
Any more than killing hundreds of insects, rodents, game animals, birds, ETC through the pesticides, shooting, trapping, threshing ETC necessary to raise, harvest and transport crops vis-a-vis killing a singular animal for use of it's organic material?
How do you add a byline to your screen name? I can't figure it out.
Thanks - Mark
One time this guy at the Chinese restaurant assured me that the tofu-vegetable soup was "vegetarian", because it was just made with chicken broth; there was no actual chicken flesh in it. Yeah, right, I'm sure the chicken just took a bath in the water, then went along its merry little way.
Your chicken bath reminds of the old Koala Tea of Mersey joke. ;-)
Vegans certainly are not made defensive by the meat diet...
they are not the one's with the bad diet.
Veggies aren't the ones who feel guilty about what they eat...
they are not the deniers
Nothing needs be said, meaters just consider our very existance
to be a reproach to their less conscientious choices.
It's that simple. We've seen it repeatedly.
Veggies very existance stands as an indictment to meaters.
Own it.
I think you're right that vegans can sometimes be vocally judgemental in a way omnivores aren't. That said, even though I'm no longer vegan, or even vegetarian, I'll still order the occasional vegan meal (when I can't be assured that the animal products are humanely sourced - not that the vegan meal is perfect either), and the conversation always pauses for a couple of seconds. No one ever says anything, but the look in people's eyes is generally one of uncomprehending pity, like the occasional meatless meal is going to kill anyone. (Of course, I don't exactly move in the most cosmopolitan of circles, and for most people I know, "meal" simply MEANS "meat/starch/two veg", or whatever.)
Whether you're vegan, vegetarian, or conscientious omnivore, you still stick out like a sore thumb in a culture where people largely don't give a cr@p where their food comes from.
Oh, by the way, isn't it cute how as soon as it was clear that BF was getting completely owned in the discussion of the JPII article, comments were closed, with a final sally from the author? That happens every time, doesn't it?
"You don't eat meat?"
...looong pause with even greater incredulity....
"OMG~ you eat hamburger?"
There's no conspiracy. When vegans do become more "mainstream" in an area then restaurants will be looking to sell to them. They just want to pay the rent. If enough stay away from restaurants that won't change to meet their customer base, they'll go out of business. Many years ago I was trying to grab a vegetarian dinner in Texas (I think I was traveling around Houston) and I literally couldn't find a restaurant with a veg entree. They were catering to their return customers. I was out of my element. I had to make do.
My personal experience (not pretending to refer to any studies) meat eaters go out to eat more often, A LOT more often. And when I say personal, I mean me. My diet has changed over my life and I can put my eating-out graph against my vegetarian graph and they're going to be pretty close. So, if I'm a restaurant owner trying to make a buck, I'm going to cater to my customers, particularly my regular customers.
I can certainly open a vegan or vegetarian restaurant, and make them my regulars. There are several in my area, in fact, so clearly some restaurants have decided on that route.
They're not ignoring non meat eaters. They're ignoring non-customers.
Restaurants are low-margin businesses with a high failure rate, so unless a place is located where there are LOTS of vegan/vegetarians, adding vegan dishes that hardly anybody will order makes no financial sense. Most restaurants also don't cater to people like me who only want to eat grass-fed beef and conscientiously produced eggs and dairy, but I'm happy to say that in some more "enlightened" areas of the country, where there are increasing numbers of such customers, more restaurants ARE catering to us because we're reaching "critical mass." However, until even more people have the same expectations, I don't anticipate finding this kind of food in the "average" restaurant, so I'm not sure why vegans expect to find their very minority diet catered to at any restaurant other than those aimed at them. There's a reason there are Kosher restaurants in NYC and not, say, Podunk, Montana.
The vegan "food" we are going to get (because of our "trendsetters"? ugh, please) is going to be highly processed pap, because it has been for years (think Morningstar Farms and Boca burger)
The REAL trend is for REAL FOOD- including unprocessed, clean, whole, raw dairy and grass fed pastured small farm-local meats- and grass roots healthy people with an education and experience in the holistic healing field are the trend-setters, not Hollywood party-goers.
We are all for eating more clean, organic, healthy vegetables and fruits, patronizing /supporting farmers markets (offering wonderful eggs, meats, dairy, local cheeses...), but veganism is likely always to stay just were it always has- as a passing fad, as the choice of a few, not the many. I don't know where this author goes out to dinner , I've yet to see a place (home or out) in 40 years that doesn't offer salads, vegetable dishes, casseroles, grains/ bean dishes ... along with our healthy high quality protein from local farm meat and dairy.
the non-meat eating group is going to grow and grow and grow.
Be VERY careful when consuming soy. It is largely a GMO crop and in it's unfermented state can be detrimental to your health. In addition Hexane (gasoline) is often used to extract the protein from soy. It is not automatically a health food.
secondly, many vegans only eat non-gmo soy
You may have omni friends who say it is great, my guess is that behind your back they say something very different, but it is possible they like it. I know no one other than a very few vegans who can stand it.
Absolutely, thank you for pointing that out. Some meat free options still may have eggs and milk, which definitely aren't vegan, but which still are meat free. I would LOVE to see the meat free options at places like Burger King and Subway become completely vegan, but I am still happy to see meat free options on the menus. I think that it goes to show that they are supplying a demand for meat free food. Hopefully soon they will adopt completely vegan options, but I still do appreciate major fast food chains that make a step towards offering meat free options.
vegan dishes on the menu for vegans.
I went on a cruise and the menu on a daily basis had
vegan cusine.
I do agree with Kathy that while you can usually find something vegan everywhere, I will not return to a place where my options are nothing but side orders and no real meal.
Restaurants are a business, and they need to evolve with the times. This is no trend or fad, it is a fantastic way of life that becomes more popular every day.
They took extra care to make us happy and well served with a heaping plate of mesquite grilled vegies (not on the menu) and a caesar salad fit for a king. They loved us and definitely wanted to take extra good care of us.