Toward more compassionate eating, one bite at a time

Wherever you fall on the animal products-eating continuum, I think we can all agree that animal agriculture in this country is Fucked (with a capital F). I mean, just take a look at the video of male chicks being ground up alive that's been making its way around the Internet. No, really, go take a look. If you eat eggs, you should see where they come from.

Late last year I got into a tremendously ugly online dispute with a vegan acquaintance. I called her out for saying that by going vegan she "became civilized," suggesting that her arrogance was probably doing her cause more harm than good. She, not surprisingly, did not take kindly to that comment, replying in part "The ridicule that I face for exercising compassion, care and responsibility in a very real, tangible way, is a small price to pay for having the opportunity to make the truth more visible. I realize that it turns you off. But I'm not here to turn people like you on."

You can imagine where it went from there.

I have wrestled with this issue a lot. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think that veganism is ridiculous or extreme; I think it's a perfectly reasonable way to excuse oneself from participating in an unnecessarily cruel and harmful (in a variety of ways) system of food production. I am totally sympathetic toward veganism. The problem, of course, is that my sympathy is misplaced; it belongs with the animals who are the victims of this whole fucked-up system. And I sure do continue to eat animal products.

Because I really do try to understand other people's points of view, I tried to think about the fight for animal rights as I think about feminism. Would I say it would be enough if women achieved mostly equal rights? No, of course not. Would I say that feminists can live their lives however they want but that they should shut up about sexism and not point out oppression and privilege to other people? Hell no. Then why should I expect any different from animal rights activists?

In fall 2007, I taught Women's & Gender Studies 201, Women in American Culture. Now, you will never, ever hear me say anything along the lines of "I'm a feminist, but I'm not one of those feminists." I most certainly am one of "those" feminists, plenty pissed and plenty radical. It probably goes without saying that I want to get the feminist word out to as many folks as possible. However, I knew that in a classroom full of young college students, most of whom knew nothing of feminism but stereotypes, my righteous indignation was not going to do anything but turn people off. I made it clear from the start that we were going to be discussing controversial issues and that they were going be introduced to ideas that were totally new them, and that, by virtue of the fact that I was in the process of getting a master's degree in Women's & Gender Studies, I had certain opinions on these matters. But I had no interest in converting my students into feminists; setting out with that goal would have either turned the entire semester into a futile ideological battle or resulted in a class full of students parroting my own opinions back to me. Rather, I wanted them to take each new idea and think about it. Argue with each other about it. Critique it. Assess how it applied - or didn't apply - to their own lives.

At the end of the semester, did I have a class full of feminists? Of course not. But did I have a class with more feminist tendencies and better critical thinking skills who were more likely to look favorably on women's rights issues? Absolutely.

This approach is sorely lacking when it comes to vegetarianism and veganism. It's almost always presented as an all-or-nothing proposition; you either eschew all animal products or you are a barbaric asshole. Yes, if everyone became vegan, that would eliminate food-related animal cruelty and environmental problems, and that would be great. But that's not going to happen. What realistically could happen is that people could reduce their intake of animal products, which would not eliminate food-related animal cruelty and environmental problems, but could reduce them drastically. Do animal rights advocates want to be righteously indignant and dismissed as ridiculous extremists, or do they want to moderate their views - or at least their rhetoric - and spur people to move in the right direction?

Here are my suggestions for people who are bothered by the way food animals are treated and the environmental ramifications of animal-eating but who aren't ready to take the vegetarian/vegan plunge:

1. Educate yourself. Will you think twice about eating eggs after watching that video? Maybe, maybe not, but you ought to at least know the truth about where your food comes from. There's a ton of information out there about all aspects of animal agriculture.
2. Choose meat alternatives when possible. If you're craving a steak, no portobello mushroom cap is going to satisfy that craving. But if you're craving chili, could you use a meat substitute or more beans and veggies instead? When mixed with other stuff, Quorn Crumbles are almost indistinguishable from ground beef.
3. Similarly, choose dairy alternatives when possible. I can't image life without cheese, but I find that Silk creamer in my coffee instead of half-and-half is just fine. Any little change you can make like this is a step in the right direction.
4. If you are going to buy animal products, try to buy them locally. Animal products from small local farms are generally more humanely produced, better for the environment, and good for the local economy. Depending on where you live, your farmers markets and/or grocery stores may carry locally-produced meat, eggs, and dairy products. In Louisville, ValuMarket is a good source for this stuff.
5. When dining out, try a meatless option. Do you find yourself dismissing meatless entrees because you're afraid they won't be filling, or just because you're in the habit of ordering meat? Why not give one a try? Vegetarian/vegan entrees are very often high in creativity and flavor, and filling too.
6. When choosing seafood, do it responsibly. Check the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch or the Blue Ocean Institute's FishPhone to make sure the seafood you choose is sustainable. (I mean, seriously, FishPhone. Don't you want to use it based on its name alone?)
7. Beware of organics. The organic label has been co-opted by industrial agriculture and means almost nothing. Do your research before you pluck an organic animal product off the shelf and assume you've made a good choice. The Cornucopia Institute's Organic Dairy Report will give you the low-down on your favorite organic dairy products. It turns out that Horizon, which is always on prominent display in the Kroger natural foods cooler, is one of the most ethically deficient dairy brands on the market.
8. Experiment with vegetarian/vegan foods. Be adventurous. Try some seitan or tempeh or tofu. Find a tasty-sounding recipe and give it a try. You may hate it, but then again, you may be very pleasantly surprised.
9. Commit to several vegetarian/vegan meals a week. Can you make a meatless meal a couple times a week? Maybe even a meal with no animal products at all? Try it; I bet it will be easier than you think.

Changing your eating habits is hard. Food is primal and necessary. Most of us grow up eating animal products and not questioning it, and I would be a liar if I said I didn't miss meat. I miss my mama's pot roast, meat loaf, and chicken and dumplings. I miss hamburgers and pulled pork sandwiches and the turkey-artichoke panini from Panera. And I am far from perfect; I have meat slip-ups from time to time. Most often at parties (because food is social) and when I'm sick (because food is comforting). I also have a lot of work to do on my dairy consumption; I happen to like soy ice cream quite a lot, but it doesn't replace frozen custard. Still, I'm trying. I'm trying to eat with more compassion toward animals and the environment. Do you want to, too?

Eggplant Boursin Panini

We stopped frequenting Ramsi's some time ago, after a few too many experiences of mediocre food and bad service. But that doesn't mean I don't still love their Eggplant Boursin Panini:

Lightly breaded eggplant, tomato sauce, and a trio of cheeses, served on homemade Cuban bread.

When we brought home some eggplants from the farmers market last week, Neil suggested eggplant Parmesan, but that felt like too much work and too much time with the oven on. So I decided to try my hand at recreating my beloved panini instead. The results were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Anyone looking for ways to use up their eggplant harvest should give this one a try!

1 eggplant (depending on size, of course, but one average eggplant provided enough for four sandwiches and a few snack slices for us)
Italian breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1 package Boursin (it won't require nearly the whole package, but use however much you want)
1 ball mozzarella, sliced thickly (ours yielded four slices and a chunk for snacking)
Shredded Parmesan to taste
Some sort of chunky tomato sauce business (we used Kroger brand bruschetta topping and it was pretty good)
Whatever bread/bun/roll you fancy (no Cuban bread to be found at Kroger, so we went with their sub rolls, which worked surprisingly well)

Skin and slice eggplant, then dip slices into egg and dredge in breadcrumbs. Fry in oil (or bake, if you want to be healthier about it) until golden. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the roll, and follow with mozzarella slices, eggplant, and a sprinkling of Parmesan. Spread a layer of Boursin on the top of the roll (the inside of the top of the roll, that is). Stick the whole thing in your panini press press or George Foreman (what we used), or, if you don't have any such thing, just pop it in the oven until the cheese is melty and the bread is toasty.

I wish I had a photo of this for you, but unfortunately, the ones we took did not really do the deliciousness justice. Just trust me when I promise you that it is fantastic.

Notes:
1. Depending on what kind of bread you use, the quantities might vary a little bit. Since we used oblong sub rolls, each sandwich used four slices of eggplant stacked two high, and a slice of mozzarella on each eggplant stack. But that's just how it worked out for us. This is bound to turn out delicious no matter how you do it, so don't worry too much about the details.
2. I think I've more or less given up on sweating eggplant. The only difference I can tell is that when I do it, even though I rinse it off afterward, the eggplant ends up way too salty. It's also a pain in the ass. The hell with it, I say!
3. Boursin is freaking expensive, around $6 for 5.2 oz at Kroger. Although it's kind of central to the Eggplant Boursin Panini, feel free to skip it or mess around with other cheeses if you don't want to spend that much. (Or, if you happen to be going up to Jungle Jim's, get it there. It's always much cheaper even at regular price, and we once found it on sale there for $1.99.)

Enjoy!

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Sesame Street

Yesterday I told Neil that I'd like to learn to make cheese. And I would. In fact, I think becoming an artisanal cheesemaker would be a pretty swell career move. Unfortunately, neither of us know much of anything about making cheese, and we realized that what we do know is what we gleaned years and years ago from this video:




Oh man, I used to love that video. (Though not as much as I loved the one about how crayons are made.) But does anyone else find it a little troubling that those dudes have such large and unrestrained beards and hair styles and are bending over the cheese like that? You can't tell me they didn't get hair in that cheese. Ick.

But I digress. Cheesemaking. I'm going to try it! Though I'm not sure how or when. I'll keep you posted!

Local goodies

I have been frustrated the last couple of weeks that Neil has had to teach on Saturday mornings, preventing us from going to the Bardstown Road Farmers Market. Yesterday I did some research and found that there's one on Sunday afternoons at Rainbow Blossom! (Just right for Lisa Lazybones. ;) It's open from 12:00 to 4:00 and they even take debit/credit. Hooray!

This market isn't as big as the one on Bardstown Road, but the selection is still ample. Pictured above is our booty. Why yes, this pescatarian will eat beef, if it's locally produced! Those patties were from Dutch Creek Farm, the same place we get our eggs from, which is not even an hour outside Louisville.

Dinner tonight was cheeseburgers made with that meat and topped (of course) with slices of tomato. We also had corn on the cob and a peach for dessert. And it was fantastic, all of it. Good god. Everything was so much more flavorful than it would have been if we had gotten from Kroger, and we got the added satisfaction of knowing that we supported local farmers and did something environmentally sound.

As a (suburban) child of the 1980s, even though I grew up knowing intellectually that produce comes from farms, in practice I didn't really think much about it coming from anywhere besides the grocery store. I also never had any concept of seasonality, since at the grocery store most things are available year-round, whether they should be or not. Produce was just one more static grocery item to buy, like cereal and soap and canned goods. Having spent most of my life feeling so utterly divorced from the origins of my food, every time I eat something local, it feels a little magical. This stuff was grown in the soil of the state I live in. It was not produced in some huge industrial operation across the country or across the world and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to reach me, cosmetically perfect and perfectly flavorless. (I can't lie; the peach we ate tonight was ugly. I never would have bought it at the store. But it was also the best peach I've eaten in years.) No, this food is part of my geography, and, by virtue of the fact that it grows here, is meant for me to eat it. Not to get too precious or self-righteous or ridiculous, but it kind of makes my soul happy to eat this way.

So go! To the farmers markets, and to the restaurants that serve local food! Enjoy the bounty of these waning days of summer. Re-remember or discover for the first time what produce is supposed to taste like. You won't be sorry.

A Few From the Archives

Just because I haven't been blogging at Blog Tartare, that doesn't mean I haven't been writing about food. Here are a few entries from elsewhere:

Gratin!
The Best Cheese Ever
Fake Meat Lessons Learned
Kalamity Katie's Border Benedict (sort of)

Hopefully those will tide you over until my next entry. :)

Here a blog, there a blog

Over a delicious dinner at the Dragon King's Daughter tonight, Neil and I discussed how we had each become as sophisticated as we are (which admittedly is not all that sophisticated) about food and beverage. Since I grew up in Shelbyville (which has a real lack of good restaurants, a few exceptions notwithstanding) and was raised by people who aren't particularly adventurous eaters or enthusiastic drinkers, I didn't really start learning about this stuff until I was around 22. We talked about the friends who turned us on to different ethnic cuisines, to beer, to wine. In the midst of this conversation, Neil expressed his disappointment that I had more or less discontinued Blog Tartare. "You really had something with that," he said.

"I did?"

"Yeah. You love to write, and you love to eat and cook."

These things are true. I recently started blogging over at Squarespace and have been using a Blog Tartare category there for my food entries. And that's nice. But I do sort of miss Blog Tartare. I miss its cute background. And I think it has a lot of potential as a food blog, as opposed to mixing my food entries in with other stuff in a regular blog. And Neil and I have certain projects in mind (finding the best banana split in the Louisville area, eating our way up and down Bardstown Road, etc.) that really deserve to be done on Blog Tartare. Now that I'm a full-time freelance writer (whoa!) I have more time for blogging, which also helps.

So... here I am again. Hopefully for the foreseeable future. Welcome back!

Oops.

I kind of forgot to update you on the end of our 30 Days of Not Dining Out, didn't I? We made it through most of the month, but things kind of fell apart during the last week or so. Still, two very important lessons were learned, and I feel that periodic restaurant bans will continue to serve us well in the future.

Lesson 1: Cooking is fun, especially when I do weekly grocery shopping and have food and recipes ready to go. I found it surprisingly relaxing to come home from work and cook dinner.

Lesson 2: I really prefer taking my lunch. A little bit of extra effort in the morning means I get to spend more of my lunch hour relaxing instead of fighting traffic on Bardstown Road. And it is of course cheaper and generally healthier. I even enjoy taking PB&J. How nice to open my desk drawer and have lunch ready for me whenever I'm ready for it!

In other news, I'm not sure what to do with Blog Tartare at this point. I love it (especially its background). But I don't keep up with updating it as well as I should, and I have too many other things going on elsewhere on the Interwebs. So I've started blogging about food - and everything else - over at volvita.com. You may wish to check me out there. One thing I might do is just cross-post the food-related entries over here. We shall see. But in the meantime you should come see me over there!