Plan B Forum

As some here may recall, the 4th of July is also my daughter's birthday...

This year, we didn't go out of town, and the weather is (as usual for the 4th of July in 'frisco) crap, and my daughter decided that rather than trying to do a barbecue somewhere in the area where it's actually warm and sunny, she just wanted to have just a small group of relatives and friends together at a local restaurant...

I thought this was a splendid idea, ( a lot less work than dragging everything for a barbecue 20 miles down the peninsula ) until I found out what restaurant she had picked...

Alfred's Steakhouse it ain't...

It's a vegan (or as they refer to it "plant based") Mexican place, that serves their dishes with a big side order of hippy-dippy/New Age philosophy....

Gracias Madre

https://www.gracias-madre.com/

This is from their "About" page:

Gracias Madre is truly an expression of who we are – it represents our deep love of and reverence for food, our commitment to health and sustainability, our unconditional love for our multicultural family and community, our devotion to the Earth and the divine feminine, and our commitment to raising consciousness on the planet.

My immediate reaction after reading that, (well, second reaction after I stopped laughing) was to ask, "Is this a restaurant, or some kind of New Age Pagan Church? Are we going to have to take our shoes off and sit on the floor?"

I was then reminded that it wasn't my birthday...(I replied that I didn't need to be reminded of that; I could tell by virtue of the fact that the restaurant didn't have the word "Steakhouse" at the end of its name...)

(BTW, in my book, beef is perfectly "sustainable"... big cows replace themselves with little cows; 'nuff said)

More hilarity ensued when I got to the menu...

Did you know that some loonie has actually concluded that they could make something out of coconut and call it "bacon"? (Yeah, they'll make something that tastes like real bacon out of coconut the same time they make something out of lentils that tastes like chocolate cake...)

I was thinking, well it's a Mexican place, so at least I ought to be able to get a couple of chile rellenos...

Until I was reminded that "vegan" also means no cheese...

They do have something they call "cashew cheese"...

I love cashews, but as "cheese"? (I guess if you've convinced yourself that you can make bacon out of coconut, you're capable of believing pretty much anything...)

Oh well, it's only one meal...

The good news is they've got a full bar...

As a special birthday gift, I've promised my daughter that I won't strike up a conversation with the owner or any of the employees...

As a special birthday gift, I've promised my daughter that I won't strike up a conversation with the owner or any of the employees...

Very wise, LJ, very wise.

Nothing is better than a well prepared kale and bean curd casserole, topped in avocado sauce.

It's a real rib sticker.

Some vegan preparations are delectable, as is likely to be the case in a chef owned place in your neck of the woods. Open your mind and expand your palate - it’s quite literally good for your heart to cut out some of the beef from your diet.

Happy Birthday to your eco-conscious, tenderhearted daughter!

Have a couple organic margaritas and then order a Wall Dorf salad and tell them you heard somewhere that they will pay for it.

"I'm sorry Sir, we're right out of Waldorfs."

Well someone had to say it.

In my experience vegetarian food is at its best when it’s not trying to be non-veg. Setting your palette up for something you are not actually eating is a recipe for failure.

It could surprise you. Just go enjoy the family time and happy birthday Tati!

LJ ... show your daughter and her vegan friends this —



-"BB"-

You have my deepest sympathy, Lord Jim.

My gawd, not even cheese?

WTF?

These people are certifiable.

To put things in perspective:

I visited my older daughter on Father's Day and she was wearing her MAGA cap, blasting good old boy music on the car stereo on our way to COSTCO.

It was pretty much what I expected, but at least they made a good Bloody Mary...

I visited my older daughter on Father's Day and she was wearing her MAGA cap...

Dale, I think I prefer having to deal with this Hippy Phase to dealing with that...

Lord Jim wrote:
Gracias Madre is truly an expression of who we are – it represents our deep love of and reverence for food, our commitment to health and sustainability, our unconditional love for our multicultural family and community, our devotion to the Earth and the divine feminine, and our commitment to raising consciousness on the planet.

aka You're going to get stung...

Dale, I think I prefer having to deal with this Hippy Phase to dealing with that...

Oh well.

Her younger sister is more middle of the road, easy going and not so trumpish.

Greens restaurant has superb vegetarian cooking pioneered by Deborah Madison. I would be happy to go back there anytime.

https://greensrestaurant.com/about/

"veganism" is the latest dietary fad dating to "macrobiotic" which disappeared in its most pure for as its adherents died off of malnutrition.


yrs,
rubato

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a195 ... instagram/

Vegans aren’t dying of malnutrition.

rubato--I've been to Greens a number o times when I used to travel to San Francisco a lot (and I had a vegetarian colleague). Well prepared vegetarian dishes can be delicious, the dishes there certainly were.

Jim--sorry your experience wasn't all that good; I would have guessed that most Mexican dishes could be made vegan without losing too much in the way of taste, but a place with a good bloody mary can't be all bad. Did you try the coconut bacon? That could be interesting. As for cashew cheese, I would think the nut "milks" would have a pretty high fat content and could be fermented, probably even aged. I think it could have been worth a try; after all, we can get cheeses from a lot of other milks than just cow's milk.

Have it your way... the paradigm burger is here.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/14/impossi ... uture.html

Vegans are now rejecting all plant foods which depend on pollination by bees because it involves the enslavement of bees. I had a carpool partner who objected both to my beehive (now gone) and the hummingbird feeder.

Vegan Diets Are Actually Increasing Malnutrition in Wealthy Countries
CHRIS ELLIOTT, CHEN SITU & CLAIRE MCEVOY, THE CONVERSATION
14 DEC 2018

Hidden hunger affects over two billion people, globally. The cause is a chronic lack of essential micronutrients in the diet, such as vitamins and minerals.

The effects of these nutritional deficiencies may not be seen immediately, but the consequences can be severe. They include lower resistance to disease, mental impairment and even death.

While many of the cases of hidden hunger are found in developing countries, this phenomenon is also a growing public health concern in developed countries.

For example, iodine deficiency is the most common cause of preventable mental impairment and the UK ranks seventh among the ten most iodine-deficient nations.

And data from the US shows that more than one in four children lacks calcium, magnesium or vitamin A, and more than one in two children are deficient in vitamin D and E.

There are several causes of hidden hunger in developed countries. The consumption of cheap, energy dense, nutritionally poor and heavily processed foods, particularly by poorer members of society, is a major factor.

Even when fresh produce is consumed, there appears to be fewer micronutrients available than was once the case.

This is due to issues such as soil health, caused by poor agricultural management and climate change.
Growing trend of veganism

The rapidly growing trend of veganism is likely to become another major contributor to hidden hunger in the developed world. According to the Vegan Society, the number of people switching to a vegan diet in the UK has risen more than fourfold in the last decade.

A study commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group revealed that nearly 5 percent of the US population are vegetarian and about half of these are vegan.

Eating a plant-based diet may lower the risk of chronic disease and is good for the environment, but poorly planned vegan diets that do not replace the critical nutrients found in meat, can lead to serious micronutrient deficiencies.

Bone health is a concern for long-term vegans. Vegans are consistently reported to have lower intakes of calcium and vitamin D, with resultant lower blood levels of vitamin D and lower bone mineral density reported worldwide.

Fracture rates are also nearly a third higher among vegans compared with the general population.

Omega 3 and iodine levels are also lower compared with meat eaters, as are vitamin B12 levels.

Vitamin B12 is most often obtained from animal foods, and higher rates of deficiency have been found in vegans compared with other vegetarians and meat eaters.

The symptoms can be serious and include extreme tiredness and weakness, poor digestion and developmental delays in young children. Untreated, vitamin B12 deficiency can cause irreversible nerve damage.

While getting less than the optimal amount of B12 is quite common in pregnant women and in less-developed countries, the reported frequencies of deficiencies among vegetarians and vegans in developed countries vary greatly in severity between age groups.

Even low levels of vitamin B12, but not enough to be classed as deficient, may be bad for your health and increase your risk of heart disease.

yrs,
rubato

Thanks for posting that article rube...

I know at least one person I'm going to be sharing it with...

Interesting piece on Science Friday (NPR) today about the water and GHG cost of meat and vegetables. Because a lot of vegetables these days are flown from source to market, you might not be quite as virtuous as you think with a vegetarian diet. Ruminant meats (beef and sheep) are the worst principally because the methane production in the gut is actually around 20 times worse as a IR absorber as the same weight of CO2. If you are going to eat meat, pork and chicken are the way to go. They are often pretty local, so there is not a lot of transport cost, sometimes. Calories for calorie and GHG for GHG, asparagus flown from CA to the east coast is as bad for the environment as your average steak.