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We’re still recoverying from tabling at SF Pride this past weekend. For us, it’s two twelve-hour days, back to back, as we setup, staff, and takedown the booth each day. As my PETA shirt says, we’re POWERED BY TOFU 
Held on 6/24 & 6/25, organizers estimate over a million extra people decend on San Francisco. It’s the largest event in Northern California, and second largest in the entire state (after the Rose Bowl/Rose Bowl Parade). With our plant-powered volunteer crew, we were able to distribute thousands of pieces of literature to promote vegetarianism, vegan cooking, and raise awareness of factory farming.
Over the years, we’ve fine tuned the display. Several of the posters are from my original tabling set-up back in the 1990s, using photographs from The Animals Voice Magazine, with newer ones from PETA. This year we had 3 battery hen cages stacked. This is literally and figuratively a show stopper for people walking by.
PETA was even there this year. Mike B and his posse have been traveling around to many of the Gay Pride events.
It’s a blast as always, but the weather (and wind) were especially kind to us this year. If you’ve been to Pride, you’ll know the Civic Center area can behave like a huge wind tunnel and it can literally blow and bowl a booth over. For now here’s some photos and we’ll hopefully put together a podcast in the next week or so covering the event.
We owe a special thank you to the 11 volunteers from BAVeg who helped us this weekend, Sun Flour Baking for mini vegan cookie samples, and the other non-profits who prepared and generously made available their materials with us: Vegan Outreach, PCRM, PETA, Compassion over Killing, United Poultry Concerns, HSUS, and Farm Sanctuary.
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I think I’m ready to share my vegan pizza secret. It’s pretty simple, because that’s my cooking style.
Here go:
one premade corn meal pizza crust (I use Vicolo brand, a SF company). It’s about 9″ diameter.
with a thin layer of sauce
I don’t quite measure, but here’s a rough estimate – 2 tbsp organic tomato paste mixed with 2 garlic cloves, crushed and 1 tbsp of “Italian” seasoning (bought this in the bulk section at Rainbow Grocery). Mix all together, and add more Italian seasoning if it looks too skimpy. I’ll occasionally add a tiny bit of water to the paste mix. (Even after making 2 pizzas, usually have some paste left over; I just refrigerate it and use it on the next pizza or meal needing tomato sauce.)
and then followed by a variety of toppings with any fake cheese on top
My favorite pizza toppings
sliced red onion
chopped red pepper
spinach (lots, because it goes small when cooked)
mushrooms
and sometimes I’ll also add olives or corn
For the fake cheese, the only brand that melts is Follow Your Heart. The pizza is good with or without the cheeze, and definitely less fat without it! But sometimes I’m splurging on taste and calories and I’ll just throw it on there.
I have taken many pictures of pizzas I’ve made over the years and they always look more appetizing in real edibility tests than they do in pictures, so I’ll not include a photo this time.
Anyways, at $2 for the crust, and $3-4 for the assorted toppings, it’s pretty pricey for a homemade meal but it’s using a lot of already prepared/processed ingredients. But it’s still cheaper than having a vegan pizza delivered from the local restaurant and it’s a Spare the Air day, so no carbon fumes were used in the delivery of this pizza.
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Hot off the presses!
ORDER NOW
Our 2006 book edition of the popular online Ultimate Guide is now available!
Called “VEGETARIAN BAY AREA: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE”.
- 88 packed pages
- 90+ local veg and vegan restaurants
- 70+ natural food stores
- 200+ veg/vegan friendly restaurants
- Quick reference San Francisco Map
- Indexed by Location as well as Alphabetically
- Covers the entire Bay Area and beyond
- Recommendations – Best Places to dine
- Tips For Ordering Vegan at Non-Veg Restaurants
- Hours, Parking, Transit information
It’s your essential travel companion to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Price is $5 + SH. All proceeds go to BAVeg outreach & education programs .
It made its debut at Haight Street Fair on Sunday, and will be available also at SF Pride this coming weekend. We will only be printing in small batches to insure that it’s always current.
Order online here.
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When we went to Animal Place for our tour last month, Kim mentioned two little piglets. Apparently they were being used in a lab exercise by vet students. Afterwards, they were going to auction. But, a student contacted Animal Place for help, and two of the piglets were rescued.
During our visit, Kim didn’t know if they would be able to rescue the other piglets. Well, good news came to me yesterday — the other six piglets used at the school are also safe and went to Farm Sanctuary.
I had to share the photo of Chester and Claire that Kim sent. Aren’t they adorable! This certainly gives new meaning to that phrase:
Did your food have a face?
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From an activist perspective, we are trendsetters, educators, and pioneers if we can get a mixed restaurant to prepare a vegan dish. We are showing them that there is an economic demand for compassionate and cruelty free foods. And, we are making it easier for the next person who walks through their doors and wants to eat vegan food.
But, from a dining perspective, is it really reasonable to think that any restaurant that primarily peddles animal flesh (and cruelty) can prepare a vegan dish? Are we asking for too much?
Read more! »
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I thought I would put many hours spent eating at Shangri-La Vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco to productive use by sharing why this restaurant is one of my favorite places to dine, hopefully useful to someone who hasn’t dined there before, or wants some suggestions for recommended dishes.
These are my favorite dishes:
Read more! »
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Well, I’m well into my third month of commuting by car via Highway 1 from Montara through Moss Beach through El Granada through Half Moon Bay to the windy 92 to 280.
With a mixture of carpooling and telecommuting, it’s manageable – but just barely.
Physically we’ve been cut-off from a direct route to Pacifica and San Francisco and beyond. But the barrier goes further than that. Psychologically, leaving the coast is a huge effort since the one-way-in-one-way-out road for all can be a traffic nightmare if too many people leave at once or (even worse) there is some type of traffic incident or accident that impedes traffic.
Heck, even the stoplight at Main St and 92 in HMB impedes traffic. From existing at Bunker Hill Road to getting home from Montara took nearly an hour today. This is maybe 15 miles or so .. and the only impediment is a few stoplights along the way — no accidents, no oil spills, no whales on the beaches …
I am counting the days until Hwy 1/Devil’s Slide is open again. I want my life back!! And my nap on the return bus ride home.
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This event is an example of how education and advocacy make wonderful partners. We are organizing a benefit cooking class to show how easy and simple it is to make vegan foods. All proceeds benefit our local library to purchase books related to vegetarianism and animal rights.
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Delight everyone in your family with a Professional Chef’s Secrets for Delicious and Cholesterol-free Vegetarian Summer foods
When: 7/9/06 Sunday, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Where: 104 Hilton Way, Pacifica (10 min south of SF). Free parking.
Cost: $20-$30+ donation per adult or $10-15+ donation per student.
The class, taught by Chef Alex Bury, will feature Basil Pesto, Potato Salad with Leeks, BBQ, and Chocolate Strawberries.
Free recipes and samples will be provided.
All labor and profits are being donated to the Pacifica Library to purchase books and other materials for this well-loved public library. Additional donations for our library benefit are gratefully accepted and tax-deductible.
For class registration or more information, click here
You are welcome to print a flyer to share with a friend, or post where allowed.
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We had dinner in SF a couple of weeks ago at Cha Ya. This is the restaurant’s second and largest restaurant. Of course, given the size of the restaurant in its original location in Berkeley, it doesn’t take much to beat it by size. In terms of quality and consistency of food and service, they’ve done an outstanding job.
One of our dining companions made an interesting observation about the sushi at Cha Ya. It had some ingredients that were more exotic than what you’d find at vegan sushi at any Japanese place. But if you compared apples to apples, eating vegan sushi at a vegan restaurant is more expensive than a mixed restaurant.
A small cucumber roll cut into 6 pieces costs $3.70 at Cha Ya. Five minutes away from my SF office is a mixed Japanese restaurant. It costs $2.50 for a small cucumber roll cut into 6 pieces. Neither place uses organic ingredients, both use white rice.
So, relatively speaking, sushi costs 48% more at Cha Ya, at least for this one cucumber roll. I could not really find much else in common between the two to compare. Eating at an all vegan restaurant is still uncommon enough to be a special occasion, and that’s exactly what Cha Ya delivers with it’s huge menu, which is pretty overwhelming in the available combinations to choose from.
It’s easier to pick at a mixed restaurant when you’ve got only a few choices. But it’s more satisfying to my soul to eat at an all vegan restaurant .. especially one that proudly proclaims on its menu that everything is all vegan.
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Animal Place is a special place in the hearts of many people here in the Bay Area and across the United States. It is a sanctuary for animals located in Vacaville, CA, about a 45 minute drive north of San Francisco.
Pigs, cows, sheep, rabbits, goats, dogs, people and probably a few other types of critters I haven’t mentioned call Animal Place “home”.
I organized a tour for my local group last weekend. On Saturday, a couple dozen of us met at Animal Place for a farm tour, followed by a Vegan Food Party (our version of a “potluck”; doesn’t VFP sound much better!).
Our group split into two groups, and Kim Sturla, director and co-founder of Animal Place, led my group. This is probably my fourth visit to Animal Place in three years. Surprisingly, I learned that for most people on the tour, it was their first visit.
On this visit, the chickens and the pigs really stood out for me.
Read more! »
