(OT) Any vegans out there?

[eXodus]

Re: Re: Re: Re: good luck, but beware...

Sorry if I wasn't clear: I was interested in a critique from someone who had tried the dish. Some specifics:

-Sesame oil instead of olive oil? Too low a burning point; won't work. The olive oil imparts a mild flavor; if you want, you could use a flavorless oil with a high burning point.
-Napa cabbage instead of kale? Unnecessary: the simmering seems to blunt the kale's bitter edge and imparts a deep sweetness to it; and the texture of the kale stands up quite well to the dish in a way that I doubt napa cabbage would do (although it's an interesting suggestion).
-Vinegar? Never! The tamari is somewhat acidic, and the garlic, pepper, and ginger provide the bite that kale needs. Vinegar would horribly clash with the dish.
-Miso would be interesting; I've never tried miso and peanut together, but maybe it would be good.
-Pressing and/or batterfrying the tofu would change the texture in a way that I don't like. As it is, the tofu is soft and succulent in the dish; this would make it crispy. I could see how some people would like it that way, but others wouldn't.

Trust me when I say I'm a cooking snob, too; I've got a batch of vanilla custard cooling on the stove now, waiting to be turned into ice cream, and when I'm done with the message I'm going to make up a batch of caramel sauce. I'd be interested in your thoughts if anyone gives the recipe a try, any feedback they have after tasting how things actually work together.

As for being able to spice and season meat, emericol: that in no way contradicts my message, which you may wish to reread. I was talking about how most meat dishes are seasoned, not about their potential.

Daniel

not only am i a culinary snob but a professional chef with over 10 years of experience in french, italian, greek, spanish, thai, japanese and mexican cuisines who has worked along side james beard award winners and culinary olympic gold medal teachers. not to mention i am very modest about my skills.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

point well made. and since times have changed and my little canine beasties no longer need to crack open bones for survival i think it is time addie and pixie become vegan.

they may be a little upset though. i know my dogs. they are gonna pull out the 'but we are carnivores for love of doG' argument.

dogs will say the darndest things sometimes.

Dogs can in fact go safely vegitarian. There is no widelty produced cat food that can do the same though I know one couple with healthy vegitartian cats. They work at it and use a suplement powder they have to mail order though.

Kahuna burger

 

[eXodus]

Dogs can in fact go safely vegitarian. There is no widelty produced cat food that can do the same though I know one couple with healthy vegitartian cats. They work at it and use a suplement powder they have to mail order though.

Kahuna burger

that is one of the stupidest things i have ever read in my life. seriously.

cats are CARNIVORES. there is no argument to possibly be made about it. EVER.

this couple obviously should not even have a pet if they are going to go against it's basic evolutionary needs to consume flesh.

sheer and utter ignorance.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

cats are CARNIVORES. there is no argument to possibly be made about it. EVER.

this couple obviously should not even have a pet if they are going to go against it's basic evolutionary needs to consume flesh.

sheer and utter ignorance.

I hate to break it to you, but almost everyone who owns a pet goes against its basic evolutionary needs. It can considered good pet ownership in fact. You should not have a pet if you endanger or harm the animal whether or not you are going against those needs.

The most basic of all evolutionary needs is to reproduce. Its the whole point of evolution. And yet, with few exceptions, preventing that from happening is a hallmark of responsible pet ownership. We do it for our own convinience as individuals and a society. Now if a pet owner decided that the way thay wanted to impose this change was by performing a home abortion on their dog or cat each time it became clear she was pregnant, that would be irresponsible pet ownership. If a pet owner decided they wanted their cats to be vegitarian and did it by feeding them a vegitarian dog food and malnurishing it, that would also be irresponsible pet ownership. But neither would be irresponsible due to "going against a basic evolutionary need" it would because they were damaging their pet's health.

Thats leaving aside the fact that my cat (and many others) doesn't ever "consume flesh". She comsumes a dry kibble that she likes very much. Her lifestyle wouldn't be impacted in the slightest if I switched her over to the diet my friends use. It was strongly impacted by my decision to spay her. So the idea that this says anything about a persons qualifications to own a pet... I'd say brings your qualifications for the same strongly into question.

Kahuna Burger

 

[eXodus]

firstly think about a little use of spellcheck. nothing like having words spelled correctly to make even stupid ideas sound not so much so.


there are no vegetarian cat foods available because the basic nutritional needs for felines is that of high high amounts of protein and fat.

cats do not have any molars for crushing of nuts, berries, etc. their digestional tracts are very long for their size. this is for taking in animal proteins and processing them correctly. yes, even your kibble.

i think HUMANS are allowed to treat their own bodies in any which way that they see fit.

but it is simply irresponsible to try to change the evolutionary design of your pets. why do people feel the need to try to put their morality and sensibilites on their pets?

cats eat other creatures. there is not a cat around who would not kill and eat a mouse, bird, insect or other creature if they could. it is what makes them cats.

mailing away for some silly protein mixture to try to make your cat as politically and socially aware as you are is simply absurd.

 

[Azlan]

Thats leaving aside the fact that my cat (and many others) doesn't ever "consume flesh".

Our cat consumes flesh. Bird and squirrel flesh, to be exact. Oh, we provide him safe and nutritious catfood, but he eats only half of what we set out for him. Even the little bell my wife has put on his collar seems not to have hindered him much from acquiring and enjoying his supplemental diet of freshly killed meat.

We began to realize this supplemental diet of his when, one day, as I was getting ready to leave for work, I found a dead squirrel near our back patio. It was obvious the squirrel had been bitten and clawed to death. When I came home from work, I saw the squirrel's head was gone -- chewed off, evidently. I meant to take the squirrel's headless carcass and go bury it, but I got busy doing something else. The next morning, I found nothing was left of the squirrel except for its tail. We noticed our cat had not eaten hardly any of the cat food we set out for him, those couple of days.

Since then, we've ocassionally found a dead bird in our backyard. Or, rather, the bird's feathers and other remains.

No doubt about it: cats are predators, no matter how much we try to domesticate them.

 

[Kichwas]

I respect other peoples way of eating, ect, but i agree with the theory "stay fit and healthy until you are dead" I'm going to eat foods I like, and taste good, and enjoy life, rather then eat something that i don't like.

That's why I've been a vegitarian for 19 years. Only animal products I eat are milk based, honey, and the like - things built to be food for -somebody-. Don't east eggs though unless they're very diluted such as in a cake. Give me headaches otherwise.

I've known Vegans who wouldn't eat sugar as some sort of protest on the worker's rights of ants... I never could get the logic of that one.

One note on Asian foods for the Vegan types: They tend to have -more- not less chemicals in their foods. There are no real controls on corporations in asia, and very little tradition of social consciouness about challenging authority. As such there's very little awareness of what is -actually, scientifically- the truth in their foods.

When stuff gets over here and you see it in an Asian marekt... the English language nutrition label is sometimes in dramatic disagreement with the Asian language original packaging...

 

[Kichwas]

Meat ...
Not to mention how great it tastes.

That's a matter of opinion. Not every vegitarian or vegan secretly desires or misses the taste of meat. I would have been a vegitarian sooner, but for the first thirteen years of my life they force fed me the disgusting stuff...

In the last year, I had to have food physically stuffed into my mouth and watched to make sure I would chew and swallow. Then circumstance allowed me to move elsewhere.

Am told now that when she was pregnant my mother had constant cravings for granola, and as a baby eating my first solid foods I would usually spit out the meats...

Originally posted by Kahuna Burger
A random note - people tend to accuse vegies of prosteletizing or trying to change human nature or whathaveyou... I've very rarely seen this. A few humorous bumper stickers, vegans who ask that meat dishes not be brough to potlucks held at their houses. However, I've seen A LOT of non vegetarians attack vegetarianism as an option. It ties in with a tendancy I've seen in other areas to react strongly against someone who does without that which you cannot or will not. I find it interesting...

See my note above about being force fed...
Not once in my life have I ever gotten on a meat eater's case for their choice, but I've seen and been victim to what you mention above countless times.

 

[Kichwas]

Yeah, but if you think about it, you could see how Chickens could be vegetables...if you think about it...

Okay, have a few beers first, then think about it...

I've known people who were smarter than chickens, but not many...

The logic of food groups sometimes really makes me wonder.

Why is an egg considered dairy? Most of the cows I'd had the pleasure to encounter were not much on egg laying... Yet because of this oddity of classifying food not by what it is, but by what companies sell it to us, I get asked all the time why I don't eat eggs even though I drink milk...

Like there was some kind of logical connection in there.

Find me a milk producing chicken, or an egg laying cow, and I'll concede the issue.

 

[Kichwas]

I would also suggest that you look into taking some cooking classes.

IME, the biggest drawback of vegan/vegetarian food is that it tends towards blandness. One of the biggest advantages of meat is that when it cooks, the protiens and fats break down in such a way to easily create flavor.

With non-meat based dishes, the ability to infuse flavor is more difficult (but not impossible)

That's an interesting observation. I always thought the exact opposite.

Early vegetarian experiences with me were with my father. When I got to visit him we'd eat Chinese, Indian, or some other spicy concoction. Then I'd go home to meat and potatos were the spiciest thing I got to eat was the black pepper in the spagetti.

For someone considering vegetarianism, I would stronger suggest checking the menu on Thai, Chinese, and Indian dishes. Also almost every Italian pasta dish can have tofu switched in for the meat with results that will please even the meat eaters. At family functions now we always run out of the vegi spagetti before the meat one, even when none of the vegitarians but me shows up. Works for lassagna (sp?) and other dishes as well.

Another note on that: Walnuts go great in spagetti, and turn the tofu purple which is bound to win over the kids in the group.

I have no idea how a vegan would address my above advice, because I don't know the exact rules of veganism. But I'm sure there are many things in those particular ethnicities of food that would appeal.