‘The Most Important Restaurants of the Decade’ ∞

December 19, 2019

I’m a sucker for lists like this, and I love seeing such strong representation for places that love vegetables. And two especially stood out on Food & Wine’s list:

Vedge, Philadelphia, 2011

The expressions “plant-based” and “vegetable-focused” feel borderline cliché at this point, but that wasn’t always true, especially not in the elevated dining space, where patrons historically expect steep checks to include showy meats, or at the very least caviar. At Vedge, husband-wife chef team Kate Jacoby and Rich Landau made it dangerously easy to justify spending lots of money on vegetables—with surprising dishes like a giant wood-roasted carrot that easily rivals any steak, broccolini “carbonara” made with Israeli couscous, and a luxurious rutabaga fondue. Jacoby and Landau, who helped pioneer this new mode of plant-based dining back in the ‘90s with Horizons, cracked a new level of visibility with the critical success of Vedge. —Maria Yagoda, Digital Restaurant Editor

Vedge is the restaurant I want to eat at most. It’s a bright star in the vegan sky, and it may be *the* North Star for people looking to think about vegetables in a different way.

Superiority Burger, New York City, 2015

Brooks Headley had a laser-focused mission, succeeded wildly at it, and made the restaurant world a better place. Six years ago, he was an award-winning pastry chef who would make veggie burgers just for kicks. Then he did a veggie-burger pop-up, which eventually became a six-seat East Village institution with groups of people always eating outside. It’s not like Headley invented plant-based fast food, but he’s the best at it, and he’s influenced so many other concepts in the past few years. The Superiority staff never stops churning out experimental vegan hits, like their Italian hoagie, cold pizza salad, and tahini ranch romaine salad. Last year, Headley thought it’d be cool to get intensely into focaccia and sell it only on Fridays. May this place stay open for a thousand years. —R.G.

And Superiority is just special in every single way. I adore so many parts. Weekly-repeated specials, daily specials, small menu, and a constant focus on seasonal things. All those combine to make for a unique experience every time I’ve visited, and I’m grateful for it.

It makes sense that Sqirl and LocoL are on the list too. All are ambitious and interesting in their own ways.

I hope in the next few weeks we see more lists that help contextualize America’s invigorated interest in vegetables and fresh eating more.

‘The Blue Whale’s Heart Beats at Extremes’ ∞

December 4, 2019

Ed Yong for The Atlantic:

For the first time, scientists recorded a cardiogram from the largest animal that has ever lived.

The heart of a blue whale, diving off the coast of California, has just contracted. The beat took about two seconds to finish, and pushed dozens of gallons of blood through the arteries of the largest animal that lives or has ever lived. According to Jeremy Goldbogen of Stanford University, the first person to attach a heart monitor to a blue whale at sea, the creature’s organ constantly swings between extremes of speed. During a dive, it can conserve oxygen by slowing down to just two beats a minute. If you’re reading this piece at an average speed, that’s roughly one beat at the end of every paragraph. (Ba-bum.)

That (Ba-bum) is a beautiful way to connect with the natural world through writing. I love this.

‘What can Twitter tell us about our neighborhood’s health?’ ∞

December 4, 2019

H. Claire Brown for the New Food Economy:

Those connections yielded a finding the researchers called “intriguing”: Higher-income neighborhoods—defined in this study as the proportion of people making more than $75,000 a year—tended to tweet less positively about food, whether healthy or unhealthy.

Tweets from lower-income neighborhoods—those where a higher proportion of people made less than $75,000 a year—tended to show something different. “A lot of people like to talk about food and have strong opinions about food,” Vydiswaran says. This led to a new hypothesis to explore, that “food may be an isolated source of enjoyment in otherwise difficult lives.”

The researchers also made a curious discovery: Neighborhoods with more young people were less likely to tweet positively about unhealthy foods. This seemingly counterintuitive finding could auger well for future research.

‘The Origins of the Vegans: 1944–46’ ∞

December 1, 2019

John Davis for VegSource on how the term ‘vegan’ came to be:

The idea of living entirely on plants has been around for a very long time, it was just the word ‘vegan’ that was new in 1944. During the 19th century there were endless debates between those who added eggs and dairy produce to their plants, and those who did not. From 1847, the word ‘vegetarian’ was used by both, with or without various appendages.

Here’s how the word came to be:

The group would also have discussed the rather clumsy name ‘Non-Dairy Produce Group’, and begun the process of looking for something better. The initial informal name change was to replace ‘Non-Dairy Produce Group’ with just ‘Non-Dairy Vegetarians’, possibly agreed at a meeting, or maybe just unilaterally by Watson later that month. In his 2nd Vegan News (February 1945 p.2) Watson reported: Before the appearance of our first issue [November 24, 1944], Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Henderson suggested the word “Allvega”, with “Allvegan” as the magazine title. It was from this that the word Vegan was taken, and recently Mr. and Mrs. Henderson have written stating that they prefer the shorter version. There is no way of knowing how they were initially pronouncing these words. ‘Vega’ was the name of a London vegetarian restaurant at that time, which might have provided some inspiration. It is possible that the Hendersons’ suggestions were made at an Attic Club meeting, though neither they nor Watson ever mentioned that, or he might have received their ideas later by post (probably from Fay, signing as both). By “recently” in the above quote from February 1945, Watson is saying that the Hendersons gave their support during the three months after the publication of the first Vegan News.

And I love that our history of the word gets wrapped in the telling of a story at a funeral:

Another view of the origin of the word vegan emerged at Donald Watson’s funeral in 2005: Speaking at Donald’s funeral, Janet [his only child] mentioned a day that Dorothy and Donald both attended a dance. During the event the two started discussing the founding of a new society; and Dorothy came up with the word vegan as a possible name for it, on the basis that its letters are the beginning and conclusion of vegetarian.

‘Beloved Berlin Currywurst Stand Delivers a Bite of History’ ∞

December 1, 2019

Christopher F. Schuetze writes a beautiful piece for the NYTimes about Konnopke’s which is a small Currywurst stand in Berlin. This essay is filled with so many interesting bits about their life in-and-out of communist Berlin throughout time, but just check out this little zinger:

“I like to call it the golden West,” Ms. Ziervogel said sarcastically during an interview in her garden, where in the early years she grew tomatoes for ketchup that was unavailable in the communist state. […]

But the biggest challenge came in 1990 with the reunification of East and West Germany. Not just because of a new set of suppliers, taxes and rules, but because a new universe of customers expected a different set of offerings.

Konnopke’s started selling French fries. The currywurst, which used to be served with a bun and a hot mug of broth, is now cut up and served on a paper plate. (A tiny plastic fork is provided.)

As someone who has never worked in a kitchen or run a restaurant, stories like this feel like they’re written with gold. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to survive and thrive in Berlin through all of that time, and — of course — I love seeing they have a vegan option now.

‘Can Netflix’s Vegan Documentaries Convince Me To Quit Meat?’ ∞

December 1, 2019

For Refinery 29, Jazmin Kopotsha writes honestly about the experience of a carnivore watching vegan documentaries:

I’m embarrassed to say that my stumbling upon [Cowspiracy] and guilting myself into watching it more than five years after the rest of the world is an accurate (and disappointing) metaphor for my approach to veganism. I know it’ll make a big difference to the planet. I know there are both health and sustainability benefits. But like many of us with memories rooted in the smell of roast turkey for Christmas dinner, burned burgers on the barbecue over summer and late night McNuggets/KFC/kebabs, I’m reluctant (and lazy) to make such a huge change to a part of my lifestyle that I really enjoy. There. I said it. I’m sorry.

The whole piece offers an interesting perspective on some of the vegan-focused documentaries on Netflix.

I don’t think anything has been better for veganism than the combination of documentaries and Netflix. I bet it has inspired more people to try vegan food than anything that has ever come before.

‘New study shows the EAT-Lancet diet is unaffordable for at least 1.6 billion people’ ∞

December 1, 2019

H. Claire Brown for the New Food Economy:

Earlier this year, a groundbreaking study from the EAT-Lancet Commission outlined a climate-friendly path to feeding 10 billion people “within planetary boundaries.” Its recommendations included limiting meat consumption to about an ounce per day, or roughly two chicken nuggets, and bulking up on low-impact foods like beans. […]

A new study from researchers at Tufts University and the International Food Policy Research Institute adds a wrinkle to the debate: the diet recommended by the EAT-Lancet commission is simply unaffordable for an estimated 1.58 billion people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

To get these numbers, the researchers cross-referenced local income data with the retail prices of 744 foods in 159 countries. They based their model on the lowest-cost diet that conformed to the recommendations made in the report and found that following the EAT-Lancet diet would cost a median of $2.84 per day globally. It was also about 60 percent more expensive than a diet that met minimum nutritional requirements, largely because it includes high-cost meat and dairy. 

Our future is largely tied to diet and the related agricultural effects. I have no idea what the answer is, but I’m glad the discussion is happening passionately. It needs to if we’re going to actually figure out how to eat our way out of this climate mess.

‘Vegan Man Sues Burger King, Claiming It Cooks Impossible Whopper Next to Meat’ ∞

December 1, 2019

Abdi Latif Dahir for the NYTimes:

Burger King’s beef-free Whopper may not be so meatless after all — at least according to one vegan customer.

That’s the argument being made in a lawsuit filed on Monday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in which the plaintiff, Phillip Williams, claims that the fast food chain failed to disclose that its plant-based Impossible Whoppers are cooked on the same grills as beef products.

I’m not sure what the end goal is here. If it’s for clearer labeling, I’m with it. If it’s for Burger King to have to install separate broilers for cooking the Impossible, I’m not.

Veganism is about the larger end-goal of saving lives. And most kitchens don’t have room for vegan and non-vegan grills. If lawsuits like this make chains less likely to carry vegan options, more animals will be harmed — and that’s incredibly disappointing.

‘How conventional soy farming starves honey bees’ ∞

December 1, 2019

Jessica Fu writing for the New Food Economy:

A significant, multi-year study […] provides new evidence that commodity crop production can be detrimental to honey bees, putting colonies at risk by depleting their access to food. […]

Now, by examining the health of honey bees in Iowa soy fields, scientists have showed precisely how damaging that lack of variation can be. Soy is one of the U.S.’s most highly produced and exported foods.

In 2018, farmers harvested 4.54 billion bushels of the crop (for reference, a bushel of soy weighs 60 pounds), with the Midwest contributing to the vast majority of this output. The industry’s rise, however, has come at the cost of traditional habitat: In Iowa, the second-largest soy producing state, the expansion of farmland has driven a steep decline in native tallgrass prairie. That, in turn, has depleted both the quantity and variety of food sources available to honey bees, according to the new research[.] […]

Typically, bees are supposed to produce honey for their colony from spring through fall in order to have enough food to survive the winter. What the researchers found, however, was that colonies adjacent to soy farms were turning to food stores for sustenance as early as August, and that by mid-October, all of them had wiped out the gains that they had made in the spring and summer. That’s like clearing out your fridge and pantry right before a power outage—and it means those hives would be far less likely to survive.

Ninety-eight percent of soy that is grown in the US is used for animal feed. One percent is grown for human consumption.

‘The Secrets of Shopping Vegan at 99 Cents Only Stores’ ∞

December 1, 2019

Giorgina Paiella wrote a nice guide for Tenderly about how to shop vegan at 99 Cent stores. This part here is worth highlighting:

Santa Barbara County has an abundance of high-end grocery stores, but I love the 99 because it provides a deeply discounted option for those otherwise unable to afford the more expensive markets, or for those who don’t want to overpay for quality products. Corporations aren’t the answer to our deeply broken food system (no ethical consumption under capitalism!) and we need more robust social programs that eliminate these inequalities to begin with, but these discount retailers provide affordable access to fresh food for people on a budget and those living in food deserts.

I would add that the main reason this is can be a necessity for many people is that vegetable crops for humans are essentially not subsidized while crops to fatten animals for slaughter are. And for many areas, 99 Cent stores are becoming the only option for groceries.

✏️ by C. W. Moss