Forums: January 2011 Kickstart Forum: Vegan choices in your state
Created on: 12/31/10 04:06 PM Views: 1934 Replies: 8
vegankitty Joined: 12/29/10 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 109	Vegan choices in your state Posted Friday, December 31, 2010 at 4:06 PM So people, share your thoughts about how difficult it is to be a vegan in your state! I live in the beautiful state of Colorado and I find it relatively easy. When I eat out, if I am in doubt, I order a huge salad. Talking to your server usually helps. I understand that you cannot really control when you are eating out, as someone rightly mentioned but since I cook at home 80% of the time, it is easy. Also finding fresh organic fruits, veggies, greens is quite easy as well as other vegan stuff like almond milk for my chai, oatmeal, quinoa, barley and other grains which we might not have encountered while pursuing omnivorous choices. I would like to know what other people have to say about this and share your experiences! Thanks!! It is easy to be mankind, Difficult to be human Striving to become human!
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dollgirl Joined: 12/28/09 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 135	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Friday, December 31, 2010 at 4:38 PM When I lived in LA it was easy to not only find restaurants but places that were vegan friendly shopping. Now that I am in central Ca it is a whole different story. Agriculture everywhere & the only good way to get Good organic or veggies/fruits period is through a CSA or sometimes the farmers market. Sheesh even Trader Joes is a let down with what it stocks. But there are a lot of "vegetarians" up here that hmm eat meat. lol So they are catered too? It's made my journey a bit more difficult, but probably better in the long run. Since now I have a nice garden and can cook a feast on bean, rice & greens alone.. lol www
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Bugsmom Joined: 09/13/10 Posts: 2087	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 12:12 PM CT is fairly easy to be veg in. Veg restaurants aren't everywhere but most restaurants will discuss things and do what they can. One time, I looked over the menu and salad bar and picked some from here and some from there and made a decent meal totally vegetarian (at the time) by using this side dish and those salad bar items and a couple things I knew they had for other entrees cobbled together. Oh, and there's a Mexican restaurant in the area (part of a chain) that has a nice vegetarian section on the menu - easy enough to tell them to just leave off the cheese! But, what we've found is that we just feel better eating at home and planning social events around tea/herbal tea/coffee and dessert (and we offer to bring a dessert as well or just host the get together ourselves) We're also fortunate to be nearby to a co-op market that is vegetarian and mostly organic (they clearly mark what stuff is conventional and what is organic, no guessing) and as local as possible (obviously, no avocadoes are local to CT). I can buy all sorts of grains, beans, lentils, etc. in bulk quantities (that is, I can buy a cup of French lentils or I can buy 2 lbs of French lentils, my choice scooped from the bin into my own re-usable container) which helps keep cost down - I don't have to buy a lb or whatever of some new thing to see if I like it. For instance, I just bought 1 cup of red lentils to see if we liked them. We do! So now I buy several cups worth when I shop (every other week). Black beans (our go to option) we buy in 25 lb sacks through the co-op from their distributor. --Deb R
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berrymarymac Joined: 01/01/11 Posts: 7	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 5:43 PM I'm in a small town in Tennessee and the vegan options at restaurants include salad bars. My mom is a pescatarian and the options are hard here too. If we go the Knoxville or other major towns, vegan options are more available. I go to school in Georgia and grew up near Atlanta, so coming home is weird since I am used to Ethiopian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Vegetarian, Indian, etc restaurants. But the produce is amazing here. So I can't really complain.
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tofreak Joined: 12/30/10 Posts: 13	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Saturday, January 1, 2011 at 6:38 PM Small towner here, its not easy. I love our local farmers market(when in season) but other than that I have Krogers. Walmart produce (thumbs down). But I get sooooo excited when Im able to go to Louisville KY, to Wholefoods.....awwwwww Produce Haven. Such a variety. Wish I could live closer. Reguardless of price, I always p/u foods I cant find in my hometown. My cart gets full.
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peasandrice Joined: 12/29/10 Posts: 77	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Monday, January 3, 2011 at 12:08 AM berrymarymac wrote: I'm in a small town in Tennessee and the vegan options at restaurants include salad bars. My mom is a pescatarian and the options are hard here too. If we go the Knoxville or other major towns, vegan options are more available. I go to school in Georgia and grew up near Atlanta, so coming home is weird since I am used to Ethiopian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Vegetarian, Indian, etc restaurants. But the produce is amazing here. So I can't really complain. I also live in a small town in TN! It's not the most vegan friendly area. I remember when I first moved here I ordered a "veggie sampler" which consisted of like 5 veggie side dishes with a chunk of pork in each one... I was horrified! Knoxville does have some good places like Tomato Head, although it's too far away for me to go there much. I usually go to Sitar, a Taste of Thai and the Plum Tree. There are probably a lot of other good places, but I haven't tried them yet. What are your favorites?
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soon2BVeg Joined: 08/24/10 Posts: 225	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Monday, January 3, 2011 at 10:40 AM I live in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and work in Bucks County...not all that far from Philly, but soooo much difference. My two sons live together in an apartment in the city and we love to go down there and dine ... so many choices; and Philadelphia has one of the premier vegan restaurants in the country (Horizons, near the famed South Street). But out here in meat-packing country, it's quite different. I am descended from the Pennsylvania Duth, and boy, do the Dutchies love their meat. I have a meat packing plant just down the road from me, and another one just a bit farther away than that. If I ask for vegetarian or vegan at most local restaurants, they look at me as if I have two heads. It isn't much better where I work, which is surprising, since it's a town that prides itself on its "artsiness." Not too much further away is a new vegan restaurant; it's called Sprig and Vine, in New Hope, PA. It's a pretty good haul to get there from my home on a weekend, though; and it is fairly pricey. We only go on special occasions. We moved out there to have more land, so we do have a beautiful summer garden. My goal is to follow Elliot Coleman's advice and have a year-round harvest, but we have too much to do before we can tackle that. I have a full complement of cookbooks and have become very good at adapting omni recipes to veg, so as long as we cook at home, we are golden. We have a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's within a do-able drive; and there is an Asian market called Assi not too far away that has every Asian thing available that you can think of. I think there are Moroccan and Hispanic markets too; but haven't ventured there as yet. Don't make a New Year's Resolution...make a Decision!
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turtlekaren Joined: 01/03/11 Posts: 13	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Monday, January 3, 2011 at 8:13 PM Here in Maryland, there are a few decent vegan choices - centered around either Baltimore (Yabba Pot, Zias, and Liquid Earth) or Montgomery County, Maryland (Great Sage, Yuan Fu, and Vegetable Garden). We just went to Great Sage yesterday and it was amazing! I live in a rural community outside Baltimore (Westminster), though, so we have to drive at least a half hour to get to any of them (or any whole-foods type grocery stores). But, we have great farmer's markets out here in the summer, and one local bakery (Starry Night) has a couple of vegan options, and another local coffee shop (Birdies) we are getting them to get us cookies!
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cch22 Joined: 09/08/10 Location: New York State Posts: 1001	RE: Vegan choices in your state Posted Monday, January 3, 2011 at 8:24 PM I guess it is easy..beans, rice, tofu.. as long as I count on what i make, i can do it. The hard part comes in when i can't get the yummy summertime veggies all year round.. i miss the watermelon, fresh corn, vine ripe tomatoes, apricots.. and the list goes on in the winter for NY. If i had to count on resturants it would be more difficult. We have a vegan resturant & store about 40 min away.. THere is a new indian resturant in town.. i have looked at the menu. it includes tofu for any dish..that should do the trick.
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