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Japan Vegan: Trials and Tribulations

Benjamin Jones — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:08:40 +0000

Before coming to Japan this time around I knew I would have to make compromises. Compromises about what I would eat in order to keep myself healthy and be able to ride my bike around and enjoy the place.

I didn’t think too much about it before coming because I knew it would be practically impossible to predict what I would have to do before I actually got here.

I knew there was a special style of Japanese cooking practiced mainly by Buddhist monks and things, but I didn’t know if it would be accessible. I knew they were lots of naturally vegan things in Japan, but I also knew there would be less options away from the big cities.

Well, it turns out the monks that don’t eat meat and such are part of an older sect that really only hangs out around Kyoto, quite far from here. Furthermore, I was right about having less choice.

I am also burdened by knowing more about things.

For example, the last time I was in Japan I didn’t know that pretty much every soup base for everything had a fish base or used dashi, which is a little bit fish.

I also didn’t know that eggs were in the batter for tenpura or that even the most vegetable-type curries would have something like chicken or pork consume.

I also knew that if I ate nothing but rice I would quickly suffer from it and not be able to do much. So, I had to make compromises. Compromises like:
- Vegetable udon may have some tiny amount of fish in it, but oh well,
- This pasta may have a small amount of parmesan on it, but oh well,
- XYZ might not be exactly like I would want it, but I would rather not starve.

Most of these compromises are things that you can’t do much about. If you ask for a recommendation for what udon doesn’t have fish in it, you will end up with udon with a fish base and a chunk of naruto (which is fish) anyway. If you ask for something without cheese, you’ll get parmesan. If you ask for vegetable curry they’ll think you mean just with more vegetables and not with just vegetables.

This is probably because cooks don’t really get it, and you can’t expect them to. Especially in Japan, where cheese and milk is sort of a foreign idea, “cheese” isn’t really the same thing as we might normally think of it. Cheese might just be swiss cheese or something, and if you ask them about the parmesan you’ll get a “O RLY, you meant that, too?” sort of answer.

So, while I tend to play safe on veganism in the U.S., while I am here I am playing safe on keeping my body functioning healthily so I can do my research and ride my bike. Veganism is considerably easier when cooking for myself, and I’ll have more on that in the next few days, .

The Best Thing About Vegan Burgers…

Benjamin Jones — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:41:55 +0000

I’ve been hassled a bit about posting so I figured it was time to get one of my recent thoughts off my chest about the subtle benefits of a vegan lifestyle. Last year, I talked a bit about my love affair with the George Foreman grill, and while I was using it today to cook up some more of those tasty Gardenburgers, I had a revelation: there’s no dripping fat!

This is probably a revelation I and many other vegans have had before, but I think it’s worth stepping back for at least a short moment to think about. The grill in question has always been advertised as the “lean, mean, fat-reducing grilling machine” or something like that, with the comercials highlighting how the fat would just pour off of your steaks as you grilled them to a juicy perfection.

No, I went vegetarian more than four years ago so I never had the experience of cooking meat on a Foreman grill but if anybody has pan fried a piece of steak you’ll know how much fat drips out of these things. That’s exactly why the Foreman grills home with those gross little grease catching trays for the fat to slide into.

Veggie burgers? No grease at all. Just flip one on the surface and nothing drips off. There may be a bit of steam but nothing that smells funny or isn’t soluble in water. Sure, it may be a small thing, but today I was riding my bicycle (indoors) and thinking “I’m so glad I’m not still putting that crap in my body.”

Happy eating!

Vegan Bike Racing with OrganicAthlete

Benjamin Jones — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:47:05 +0000

Yesterday I went to a bike race in Medford, NJ, which is fairly close to my home when I’m not at college. I was excited to race, but when I looked through all the riders that had pre-registered, I was double-excited to see someone from a so-called “TeamVegan.”

“What is this?” I wondered. So, during the pre-race warm ups I spun around the course, keeping my eyes peeled until I bumped into a nice fellow named Ed. Ed is a vegan and a member of the team, and told me a bit about OrganicAthlete. It seems like a really neat organization, and a good way to promote veganism as a healthy diet.

Now, I don’t think I’ll be joining this season because I’ve not been on top of my cycling training, but I’ll definitely think about it next year…However, I’d never heard of this and I thought some of the other athletes out there might be interested!

In the end, I had a horrible race. I just haven’t been riding enough and when I got boxed in during a quick part I couldn’t get out and bridge the gap to the main pack alone and ended up dropping out. Ed, on the other hand, who is obviously a smarter and stronger racer than me looked like he had a pretty good ride!