Tofu My Life

Vegetarian Restaurant Timeline

christineloman — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:33:44 +0000

Check out our timeline of vegetarian restaurants and culture over at Dipity!

Vegetarian Pamphlets in IC Dinning Halls

christineloman — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:31:26 +0000

A few weeks ago while eating lunch in IC’s Towers Dinning Hall, the sustainability club had a table set up. Besides providing our campus with free water bottles (which delightfully took part in), they had an array of pamphlets on display. One such pamphlet struck a cord in my once vegetarian heart: Vegetarianism 101.

The little booklet has facts about the different types of vegetarians, famous vegetarians and tips on how to transition from carnivore to herbivore. There’s also a list of vegetarian options on campus, listing delicious foods like Pad Thai, Caribbean Vegetable Patty, Moroccan Couscous and Black Bean Chalupa.

So if you’re meandering around Towers, do yourself a favor and pick up this pamphlet. Lots of fun info that pertains directly to you!

Long Time No Blog

christineloman — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:28:37 +0000

Dear reader,
Sorry about the general lack of blog posts lately, things got a little busy. Please look forward to the promise of an upcoming post about vegan milkshakes.
In the meantime, Sam and I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving, and as always we’re interested in what you were– and weren’t– eating. Bearing that in mind, check out our new poll below.

View This Poll

Vegetarian Hot Spots Mash-up

christineloman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:27:52 +0000

While we’ve spoken about the vegan and vegetarian hotspots we enjoy in Ithaca before, this week we decided to give you a more visual representation of these spots. With links to restaurants, the Farmer’s Market and GreenStar, our mash-up gives an opportunity to better explore the myriad of vegetarian options Ithaca has to offer.

View Vegetarian Hotspots in Ithaca, NY in a larger map

View Larger Map

Vegetarianism and Teenagers

christineloman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:22:37 +0000

A new article, “When Teens Announce They’re Vegetarian,” from the LA Times takes a look at the trend of vegetarianism in teenagers. Unsurprisingly, a higher percentage of teens are vegetarians than almost any other age group. The article also addresses the link between teen girls, vegetarianism and eating disorders. According to the article, vegetarian teens are more likely to have eating disorders. To check out the article in its entirety, click here.

Hanging Up the Vegetarian Hat

christineloman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:43:16 +0000

Today is November 1. And while this day may seem innocuous, it marks the end of Vegetarian Awareness Month. In honor of this, I present to you, faithful reader, a list of the top three things I have learned as a vegetarian.

1. Vegetarianism is more than a diet, it’s a lifestyle. It requires a commitment not only to not eating meat but also to eating the right foods. Which brings me to my second point…

2. It isn’t easy… I won’t lie– being a vegetarian has not been easy. I’m a picky eater and cutting out the majority of my protein choices has been difficult. I’d like to think that the vegetarian substitutes I’ve chosen have enabled me to be healthy, but it’s more than likely that at times, I’ve been more a “carbatarian” than a vegetarian.

3. But it’s worth it. At the same time, I felt better about the food choices I was making as a vegetarian. There’s a slight amount of self-righteousness involved in not eating meat, a sort of “I’m healthy because I’m not enabling the practices of the meat industry.” Eating less meat means eating more fruits and vegetables which, in my limited knowledge of nutrition, translates to being healthier. At the very least. for me it meant cutting out a lot of fried food.

The point, I suppose, is that like Sam before me, I too am ending my journey into the land of tofu. If this seems like a cop out, it is; but I’m going to be honest, and I’m going to eat meat. This does not, however, mean that I have given up on the culture of vegetarianism or its relation to Ithaca. A lasting lesson I have learned from this experiment is that we are too quick to eat meat, that eating vegetarian meals doesn’t have to be difficult. And so, I too tender my vegetarian resignation. Tonight will be my last meat-free meal of this experiment, although I do believe that being a vegetarian for the past seven weeks has opened my eyes.

Stay Tuned!

christineloman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:11:58 +0000

As I wrote earlier, I’ve been talking to many many many people who are vegetarians in Ithaca. There’s more out there then you think. And where do they go? The consensus I’ve found is that most vegetarians and vegans travel to the Green Star Co-op in search of good veggie eats (plus organic foods). They feel that Green Star is much better then Wegmans, in both selection and quality. So, off Christine and I go! This week we’ll be venturing to Green Star and reporting on the goods, so stay tuned!

Upcoming Vegetarian Events

christineloman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:42:31 +0000

Even though October (Vegetarian Month) is coming to a close, there are still many vegetarian events coming up in the Ithaca area. Just perusing the evens on the Ithaca Journal website, I found there is an upcoming vegetarian dinner in near-by Vestal, NY as well as two different cooking classes in both Binghamton and Johnson City. So keep your eyes open for more vegetarian events to come! If you are interested in more vegetarian cooking ideas, check out the Moosewood Restaurant. Right next to the counter is a whole bookshelf full of Moosewood cookbooks. It’s an investment well worth it!

Forgive Me, I am Weak

christineloman — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:06:28 +0000

So. As those of you readers outside of the lovely Ithaca College campus may not know, since Wednesday we’ve been on fall break. What does this mean for my semester long vegetarian bonanza? I cheated.

Here’s the thing, I’ve instated a new rule: if I’m outside of the Ithaca area code (14850) I’m released of my vegetarian obligations. Lame, I know, but you could tell from the title that this one was coming.My theory is/was that going vegetarian wouldn’t be as practical at home, although it’s not necessarily easy here either, because I would have less access to a variety of vegetarian options. Also, I’d kind of like to eat turkey at Thanksgiving, and in November I’m going to my grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary in Florida, and I’d really like to eat meat for that. Yes, these are rambling rationalizations. But rest assured, I haven’t cheated according to the new rules yet and I don’t intend to.

In other news, I recently read an article at VegNews.com about a state senator from Maryland, Jamie Raskin, who gave up meat in order to become greener. He tried vegetarianism for a week, and now he’s stuck with it. The interesting thing about this interview is that Senator Raskin raises some interesting points about how eating meat is assimilated into American culture. In his interview with the site, Senator Raskin says “eating meat is… ubiquitously reinforced in our culture.” And he’s right.

As much as we acknowledge the health and environmental benefits of vegetarianism, it’s yet to go completely mainstream. Major restaurant chains still don’t offer veggie options, and a lot of people view vegetarians as weird. An example of this: for those of you who watch the show Grey’s Anatomy (spoiler alert) in this week’s episode there was a bit about vegetarianism that I found pretty interesting, you can find it here. Basically, Callie’s conservative Catholic father tells her he accepts her sexuality and then adds, jokingly, “She’s not a vegetarian, is she? Because I don’t know how much more I can take.”I get that the comment was made in jest, but it is, I would argue, an indicative feeling of main stream society towards vegetarians: vegetarians are weird.

What about you, reader? Does society think vegetarians are weird? Do you?

What kind of Vegetarian are you?

christineloman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:27:58 +0000

I had never realized how loose the definition is of vegetarian was until Christine and I started this blog. I find myself constantly asking people if they are a vegetarian. When a conversation turns to food and meat I try to find a way to nonchalantly squeeze in the question “Soooo, are you a vegetarian?”. Of course, I didn’t realize the question that should follow would be “So, what kind of vegetarian?”. Some people that I’ve spoken to are the traditional version of vegetarian (if you can call it that), where they don’t eat meat or fish, but they eat dairy. However, a lot of people blend the line between vegan and vegetarian. Some vegetarians don’t eat meat, fish or eggs. And there are the rogue vegetarians who don’t eat meat or eggs but they eat fish. I don’t totally understand this particular approach. Fish have a face, same as a chicken or a cow. But to each his own.

How about you Ithacan reader? What kind of vegetarian are you? What made you decide to be that particular type of vegetarian?