# In Which I pit a Vegan (tame) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 5, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692 "2005-11-05T20:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/81 "2005-11-07T21:06:54Z")
> [@Stonebow](#): > > Are there very many veggie Epicureans out there? You know, people that love to cook and eat, who are very hedonistic in their food experience? As an avowed omnivore, I confess that i have a hard time reconciling the dietary restrictions we’ve discussed and someone truly enjoying food. Me, and my becoming ovo-lacto vegetarian helped make me into the epicure that I am. In college, when my housemates were making the college basics, I found that I had a lot more variety in what I could eat if I branched out beyond the traditional American standards - minus the meat. (An issue of Saveur Magazine in the last year or two compared today’s American kitchens with those of a decade ago, showing how many cuisines and ingredients we take for granted today were extremely rare back then. My husband remarked that I was cooking that way a decade ago and earlier.) I got vegetarian - and omnivore, I still cook meat for people - cookbooks that covered cuisines from around the world. I grabbed obscure ingredients in food co-ops, Asian supermarkets, and the farmer’s market. I bought spices by the ounce cheaply to make a spice rack that would just astonish visitors, and could name dishes that each was used in - my roommates once tried to stump me, being dubious that I actually used all of them. I hosted dinner parties for friends and wowed people. I hand-made things like samosas, wontons, and croissants while my roommates made mac-n-cheese and endless variations on sauteed chicken breasts. I cook using sense memory of various foods that I no longer eat, running recipes through my head to determine what they might taste like, and supplement that with smelling the food during the cooking process to adjust the seasonings - it’s rare that I ask my husband to taste something for seasoning, and even rarer that it requires adjustment. I regularly break a “cardinal rule” of cooking that says you should cook a recipe exactly by the book once before tampering with it. I have at least 50 cookbooks in my kitchen bookrack, and that’s after weeding a fair number out, plus I also pick up cooking magazines faster than I can read them if I don’t watch out. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/82 "2005-11-07T22:40:23Z")
I’m not thinking clearly enough to find a good list of vegetarian-only fine dining restaurants. I know Asheville has the excellent [Laughing Seed](http://www.laughingseed.com/index.php?page=1&clicked=hdhome) (their East-West Quesadillas are a personal favorite). New York has [The Zen Palate](http://www.zenpalate.com/menu.php). Olympia’s [Urban Onion](http://www.naturalchoice.net/review/urban.htm) is semi-vegetarian. And there are many more places that do fancy vegetarian stuff in addition to their other fancy menus. I’m learning now to make good vegetarian green curry. The secrets seem to include using full-fat coconut milk, among other things. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/83 "2005-11-07T22:58:03Z")
> [@holmes](#): > > Some chocolate contains wheat. Not to mention dairy, if it’s milk chocolate. That obviously wouldn’t be vegan. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/84 "2005-11-07T23:16:26Z")
You could try giving her some of this [http://www.vnews.com/07032005/2445803.htm](http://www.vnews.com/07032005/2445803.htm) For sugar, get hold of Indian Jaggery. It is worth having even for non-vegans as it adds a ritcher flavour than refined brown sugar. ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/85 "2005-11-08T07:50:25Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Yeast itself - there is a health regimine for chronic yeast infection sufferers that precludes ‘fermented’ foods from breads, cheeses, vinegars, pickles and the like. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how does that make any sense at all? Baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is _totally unrelated_ to Candida, the group that causes infections. I’m confused (or they are). mischievous ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/86 "2005-11-08T09:24:46Z")
> [@mischievous](#): > > I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how does that make any sense at all? Baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is _totally unrelated_ to Candida, the group that causes infections. I’m confused (or they are). > > mischievous Vinegar, cheeses and pickles contain no yeast. I think it has something to do with other elements of the food related to fermentation. However, since fermentation is waste products built up by organisms, I can’t see how this would help and invading parasite. I’ve heard of this though, too. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/87 "2005-11-08T13:53:31Z")
> [@Stonebow](#): > > Silly question, but as there are so many vegetarians and vegans in this thread, I thought I’d ask. > > Are there very many veggie Epicureans out there? You know, people that love to cook and eat, who are very hedonistic in their food experience? As an avowed omnivore, I confess that i have a hard time reconciling the dietary restrictions we’ve discussed and someone truly enjoying food. Yes, I dated one for a few years. She was a vegan chef who ran her own catering business. We would travel a day in any direction for a good restaurant, and dining usually included a tour of the kitchen and lots of chatting with the restaurant’s chef. It was a lot of fun. Since most restaurants don’t prepare vegan food (other than salads), she would usually speak to them in advance to insure that they had somehing for her. She would usually give them a recipe or two after dinner. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692/88 "2005-11-08T14:05:38Z")
> [@mischievous](#): > > I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how does that make any sense at all? Baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is _totally unrelated_ to Candida, the group that causes infections. I’m confused (or they are). > > mischievous heh … we are talking a food fad here m’kay? you expect it to be reasonable? [This](http://chetday.com/candida.html) is more or less the original concept - note that a little way down he calls avoiding yeast in general an old wives tale … [This](http://www.nutritioninstitute.com/yeast_info.html) person takes it even further by recommending avoidance of vinegars/malts and foods that are ‘antibacterial’ [don’t ask me, i am just reporting what is out there] [yet another site](http://www.womentowomen.com/LIBsystemicyeast.asp) To put it simplistically, yesat crowds out bacteria, making it easier for yeast to grow - hence if you eat bread, you are providing a carbohydrate that will up your blood sugar, which in the absense of proper bacteria allows candida to grow … and we all know the propensity of people to read one little detail and add to their exercise regimine by jumping to conclusions … Hey, I was somehow subscribed to a raw foods mailing list for a year, it is amazing what they would post about - sort of like a train wreck, I couldnmt figure out how to unsub since i never subbed …but it was infinitely amusing. I think it folded because one day i just stopped getting the mailings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-which-i-pit-a-vegan-tame/329692.md?page=4)