I’m pretty sure half the reason people look at us strangely when we say “Oh, I’m vegan” is because they think our food is shit. So when people give me that look, I generally just say “Yeah, all the food’s great and I’ve never felt better” so I DON’T CRASH TACKLE THEM FOR THEIR IGNORANCE.

Why? Let’s explore some of the reasons.

1. “Dinner is meat and potatoes. You don’t eat meat, so you must just eat potatoes. BORING.” Not only is this how most omnivores think of vegan/vegetarianism, it’s how some VEGANS/VEGETARIANS think of it. This isn’t just dangerous for your tastebuds, but could have serious repercussions for your health. And, worst of all, it makes everyone think that a vegan/vegetarian diet makes you sick, pale, and dead. Not good for the cause.
2. “I used to be vegan, but I kept on getting sick, so now I eat eggs/dairy/meat again”. This is tied to the one above. EVERY omnivore has a story of about someone they knew / someone that someone they know knew / etc who went vegan but got all pale and sick and then ditched the diet and got better.
   
   If a vegan diet is making you feel ill, look at what you’re eating and think if some changes (like, I don’t know, eating more than potatoes). If you’re unsure, see a doctor, or research online (especially on vegan / vegetarian forums and ask people what they do), or invest in a good cookbook. Just FYI.
3. “I went vegan not just so I wouldn’t eat animals but so I could be healthier!” NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Vegan food is lumped with “health food” all too often as it is; we don’t need our soldiers on the ground doing the same! We want people to imagine sumptuous vegans FEASTS, just dripping with (non-animal) fat, smothered in any kind of sauce you can imagine, and followed by the most insanely delicious dessert in the world.
   
   Instead, they imagine us munching carrots and celery. Probably in a cage.
   
   
4. “Oh, I’m vegetarian, but I eat fish/chicken”. This is something I will post about properly at a later date, but it essentially say 1) I’m a hypocrite; and 2) Humans can’t survive without some sort of meat in their diet. Suckers.
   
   *sigh* 

Sound familiar?

But what’s worse? Our own lack of standards when it comes to vegan food.

My partner, Matt, and I recently went to a popular dessert restaurant (cafe?) because they’ve started offering a vegan special every week. This is the first week they’ve done it, and the dessert was a tofu cheesecake.

Matt actually talked to the owner about having at least one vegan option (that isn’t soy ice cream) on the menu and gave him recipes and everything. But apparently the guy decided to go out on his own.

And that’s all very well and good because chefs are chefs and they like to do things off their own back. But they’re forgetting one important thing: vegan and omnivorous ingredients are rather different, and they’re going to act in different ways when you’re making something from them. If you’re a vegan chef, you can probably go into something blind using vegan ingredients because you’re familiar with them and know how they work. If you’re an omnivorous chef, you can do the same thing with omnivorous ingredients. But vice versa? Probably not.

What was it like? It was essentially a hunk of tofu that he’d mixed coffee (to disguise the taste of the tofu) and chocolate into. Yum yum yum.

And, because it was a hunk of tofu, it was probably the most filling thing I’ve ever eaten.

The ridiculous thing is that if he’d been trying to invent a new omnivorous dessert and had come up with that, there’s no way it would’ve been served in the restauraunt. But because it’s vegan, he makes excuses for the less-than-satisfactory result.

I was discussing this (obviously, because we were eating it at the same time) with Matt and he said most vegans would consider it excellent.

WHAT?!

My parents said if they could change anything about my and my sister’s upbringing, it would be to raise us on bread and water, because we have rather high culinary standards. And I’ve gone from having high culinary standards as an omnivore to having high culinary standards (possibly even higher standards, in fact) as a vegan, mainly owing to Matt being an amazing cook / baker.

But apparently most vegans don’t eat as well as we do. And they do the same as omnivores do: they make excuses.

“Oh, of course it won’t taste as good, but for what it is, it’s great!” “Yeah, but I’m not eating animal products, so I don’t mind so much that it doesn’t taste good.”

You know what? VEGAN FOOD CAN BE JUST AS GOOD, AND OFTEN EVEN BETTER, THAN OMNIVORE FOOD.

If you’re familiar with Panera Bread (in the USA), they have a cream of chicken and wild rice soup which, as an omnivore, was my favourite soup. Matt made a perfect vegan version of it, and even better because it didn’t have any of the chemical crap that’s in the original. The best brownies and cookies I’ve ever had have been vegan. The best mac-and-cheese I’ve ever had has been vegan.

There is no reason to make excuses for vegan food, because we know how amazing it can be.

Well, maybe there’s one.

So, you go to a place where you know you can buy vegan cake. Not only do you know that it’s vegan, but you know that it’s absolutely the worst cake you’ve ever eaten. But, despite this, you buy it anyway, and eat it (or at least attempt to).

Really, you know you shouldn’t, because you shouldn’t continue to buy something and essentially tell the owners “I love your cake it’s delicious you shouldn’t change it at all :D”, and you’d like to hope that if people stopped buying their cake, they’d improve it and potentially make it edible.

But, especially in a place like Brisbane (where we live), and I’m sure in many other smaller cities, or perhaps even some big cities, if you don’t support vegan businesses, they won’t improve their products or prices, they’ll just go out of business.

The big bad world tells us “You’re going against the grain, so you’ll take what you’re given and you’ll deal with it.”

So this is the knife edge on which we walk: we can either take what we’re given and accept that it’s crap and probably isn’t going to change, or we can have standards and end up with few, or no, options.

And when it comes to omnivorous restaurants, sometimes we have to take the hit in quality, because otherwise we’d have no options there.

Really, all we can do is harness the spirit of the vegan community: gently make suggestions to improve the quality of food at vegan restaurants, but support them through the change, and let the know how good things are when they change.

With omnivore restaurants, we can be more heavy-handed because they’re going to get business anyway. Rally friends, make them go there and eat the vegan option, make sure the restaurant knows there’s a demand for it, but then tell them that it wasn’t very nice and offer suggestions for improving it.

Or just eat at home.