No, but I used to work for Burger King corporate. Our beef was from Argentina. So was McDonalds. We wouldn’t buy dairy cows - don’t taste right.
Yeah, if I were offered a vegan taco I’d expect beans, possibly rice, and a bunch of veggies (lettuce, tomato, diced onion, possibly peppers) on a tortilla. Possibly salsa. Maybe some vegan protein, but I’d be perfectly happy with beans filling the meat role.
My condolences to the OP.
If I may ask, how is a corn tortilla not considered vegan?
I once had an ear of corn as a pet. Those things are smart! Trained it to do tricks.
Some tortillas are traditionally made with lard (pig fat), but over the last few decades, other substitutes have been used successfully like vegetable shortening, etc. Maybe the OP’s wife believes that all tortillas are made that way. shrug
I stand corrected on my nutritional argument, but my offense at the culinary travesty remains nonetheless. Black walnuts just don’t have the flavor profile that I associate with “tacos.” I’m expecting savory, with a lot of chilis, corn or flour torritilla, and cheese. They make vegan noncheese. (I wouldn’t eat it, but there it is.) I think the OP’s main issue is the mental association you make when you hear a food called one thing, but what you see on your plate is just not it at all. What he was served was a vegan wrap. I’m sure it was delicious. But the ingredients he listed do not comprise “tacos” by any definition.
Corn tortillas aren’t made with any type of fat. Flour tortillas are made with fat.
We call this the “Pizza Problem” at my house. There are so many different definitions of “pizza” and it depends so much on where you grew up and what kind of pizza you grew up eating. If you’re used to thin-crust New York style, and you don’t realize that you’re at a restaurant that serves Chicago deep dish, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s the cognitive dissonance between what you expected and what you got. Even if it’s excellent Chicago deep dish, if that’s not what you were expecting when you sat down to eat, it’s not going to taste good. Same thing with tacos that don’t conform to the eater’s idea of what a taco should taste like.
We try to be very careful about defining what we’re going to eat. If we’re going out for pizza, I make sure we both know which restaurant we’re going to and that we’re both happy with that kind of pizza tonight. Because all kinds of pizza are good (well, assuming it’s well made pizza) as long as you know that’s what you’re going to eat. If my husband’s making chili, he specifies that it’s Texas chili (beef only, no beans). If we’re having fish tacos (which are excellent), we specify that so neither of us expect traditional ground beef tacos. And so on. It saves a lot of frustration.
Oh, whatEVER (what? are you a TA working towards your PHD by correcting petty spelling and grammatical errors on papers? :rolleyes:) Spagetti, spaghetti, regardless you know damn good and well that if someone asked you over to eat some you’d assume the meal consisted of BOTH the pasta we all know and love as “spaghetti” AND some sort of tomato-based sause, with or without MEAT.
I have my own pet peeves in this area. The one which springs to mind is the use of the term “chalupa” to describe a deep fried corn shell wrapped around a glob of meat. If I want what I know as a “chalupa”, I have to order a “tostada”. Where I come from (Texas) a “chalupa” is the dish you create by putting stuff ON a tostada (a flat, crisp corn shell). 
And yes, a “TACO” is defined by the wrapping, be it crisp or soft, NOT what’s in it. As I said, a way of presenting the fillings (perhaps containing would have been a better word).
Regardless, there ARE definitions of “vegan” which do not include the whole socio-political realm of total rejection of any animal expolitation/use and simply address the DIETARY funtion of the term.
As I pointed out, the term has been claimed by those holding those views to designate ONLY those who adhere to their strict definition. But there are plenty who use it and understand it as meaning simply, “not EATING/DRINKING anything derived from animals”.
When I take something to a potluck and label it “vegan” I mean (and everyone understands) that it contains no ingredients derived from or involving animals (meat, animal milk or cheese, eggs, honey, refined sugar, geletin, etc…) Whether or not I wore silk or leather while cooking it or have pets or wool rugs in my home has NEVER entered into the (non-existent) discussion. 
Cites:
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=vegan
"•S: (n) vegan (a strict vegetarian; someone who eats no animal or dairy products at all) "
http://www.permatopia.com/dictionary.html
"vegan: diets that do not include animal products such as meat, dairy and eggs. Widespread adoption of vegan diets in the wealthy, urbanized parts of the world would reduce the demand for feeding grains to animals, which would reduce energy and water consumption. Vegan diets are a part of any practical “Powerdown” strategy to reduce consumption of petroleum, natural gas, soils and other finite resources.
http://www.blackvegetarians.org/transition/definitions.htm
“vegan: (pronounced vee-gun) eats vegetables, grains, fruits, nuts and seeds; ethical vegans do not wear clothes made from animals, including wool, leather, fur and silk.”
As I said, I was not primarily an “ethical vegan” but a dietary one.
P.S. obviously, some of the above post was directed to the general discussion and other posters, and some directly to the poster I replied to.
Sorry…I should have split it up.
p.p.s. while I’m at it, I might as well add that I take a wee bit of offense at the suggestion that I would eat everything BUT veal and still call myself a vegan…for the years I was one, I didn’t consume ANYTHING from animals, including gelatin capsules. Even now, I no longer call myself a vegetarian, because I DO sometimes enjoy me some salmon or tuna or halibut. As I said, full disclosure. I know there is a term for what I have become ("pescavore vegetarian) but I refuse to use it. Fact is, I am no longer a vegetarian in any meaningful sense of the word, so I don’t use it any more, even though I still don’t eat any other form of meat. But fish IS “meat”.
Re’ the dairy cows to hamburger issue, it is something I have heard from multiple sources for a long time, but even if it is not the case, and they end up as pet food or are just killed due to poor production, it is an issue ethical vegetarians consider important. Even though I have never been PRIMARILY an ethical vegetarian/vegan, I do seek to avoid condoning animal cruelty and/or slaughter in general.
http://www.dawnwatch.com/dairy.htm
“In the United States, a huge proportion of hamburger meat, estimated between 20 and 40 percent and as high as 75% in New York state, comes from dairy cows.”
“About 17-18% of US ground beef comes from dairy cows.”
“Dairy cows’ bodies are turned into soup, companion animal food, or low-grade hamburger meat because their bodies are too “spent” to be used for anything else.”
And this fun one:
http://dairybeef.ucdavis.edu/home.htm
"Are You In the Dairy Industry?
Why should this matter to you?
Dairy cows represent a major source of beef. Cows marketed to slaughter can represent up to 15% of a dairy’s income. In the Western states alone, over 800,000 head (worth about $500 million) are marketed to slaughter every year. "
This is so true. Outside of SE Michigan, no one even knows what a “Detroit style” pizza is (look it up, it’s a real style!). FWIW, I grew up on Little Caesar’s and Domino’s (both are SE Michigan companies, and neither makes Detroit style).
Now even at high-end Italian places with their real brick ovens, it’s just slop on a saltine. Pizza (in my vocabulary) has bread as its base, not a damned cracker.
Oh, and here in Mexico? The best pizza is served at the Sam’s Club cafeteria. You know, unless you’re one of those nut-jobs that don’t know the true definition of pizza. 
There was a place in Austin we used to go, Conan’s, which served the BEST, Chicago style, deep dish pizza I’ve ever had. This was back when I was not yet a vegetarian and we always got the “Barbarian”, with tons of meat. 
Nowadays, I appreciate a lot less bread/crust and no meat, but it’s all about defining your terms and expectations, right?
I get that expecting a deep dish “pizza” and getting instead a thin crust version would REALLY put one out. :mad:
Ooh, where do you find this paragon of cheeziness? (And is it actually vegan?) My dairy-allergic son LOVES his grilled-“cheese” sandwiches, and I’d love to just eat them also when I make them, but I can’t tolerate the texture when that stuff is heated.
Oh, of course. Production animals do not retire to live out lovely lives in sunny green pastures sharing their wisdom with the calves. It is very expensive to maintain a cow if it no longer has a ‘useful life.’ I’m just saying they are more likely to end up as dogfood than hamburger.
Sorry, I think that I used the wrong smilie.
This thread started with a problem that the OP has with his wife calling something a “taco”, but the title doesn’t refer to his wife – it refers to “Vegans”.
You commented that the word “vegan” has been “completely co-opted”. Clearly, there’s an issue with the use of words. Nitpicking two spelling errors was just an extension of fighting the apparent abuse.
Also, I think that if the OP had considered the meal to be a lot tastier than a taco, then I doubt he would have started this thread, unless he was really, really craving a taco. Often (for me, anyway), it doesn’t really matter what the food is called, as long as it is tasty. Over the years, I’ve tried many so-called abominations and I’ve noticed that I like some of them.
Of course, the issue of using the same name to refer to something different is not unique to veganism. Would anyone here like a martini?