Vegan Schmegan

I've been thinking a lot about vegan food lately.  I've had a few friends and acquaintances over the years who were vegan, but I've never had to worry about feeding them.  Recently, however, I spent a couple of years working with a guy who was vegan, and noticed he was more or less resigned to having nothing to eat at the staff morning teas because no one would ever think of bringing food that didn't involve an animal of some description.

I started trying to think of things I could bring or make to help him have some options, and developed a bit of a habit of trying to work out if something was vegan - or if I could adapt a recipe to make it vegan.  It's a bit habit forming, and after he left I still found myself looking for the vegan alternative.

Like most smug jerks who never had a religious, ethical or health based diet to worry about, in the past I'd always dismissed the word "vegan" on something as being a bit of niche marketing.  Vegans are, after all, a group of people who just chose not to eat something.  There's no pressing need to cater to what amounts to a whim, right?

Now that I'm actively avoiding dairy products, I've seen the light and fully understand the wonder that is the "vegan" designation on food.

You see, if something is labelled "vegan" you know instantly that it won't have any sneaky dairy products in it anywhere.  Anyone who is allergic, intolerant or just plain "avoidant" of dairy knows that it's perfectly safe and they don't have to ask any questions.

The same goes for anyone who's allergic (etc) to eggs, honey, fish or shellfish.  It also covers anyone who is on a religious diet and can't eat animal products that aren't Halal or Kosher - and Buddhists, Hindus, Janists and any other religious groups that have controls around the consumption of animal products also know it's safe to eat.

That one word, "vegan", has more than half a dozen collateral benefactors.

It turns out that there were actually a few staff members who, although not vegan, had problems with milk or eggs.  They would also have great difficulty finding something to eat at the staff morning teas, and often didn't bother coming because of that.  When the vegan guy was around, though, these people came out of the woodwork because they knew they could eat whatever he brought to share (and he was a pretty good cook).

This makes me wonder why more food providers don't jump on the vegan bandwagon.  By offering a range of vegan products, you actually cater for a bunch of different interest groups - not just vegans.  You don't actively have to think about all of the different allergens and cultural groups involved, you just make it vegan and it will work for a variety of people.

Plus, vegans have a deep and abiding love for anyone who will feed them, so they make a point of buying stuff from them.

So, I started looking for vegan options to help out a friend, and now I'm looking at them because I actually benefit from them myself - and so do a bunch of other people.

I do have to report an interesting side-effect of thinking about vegan food, however - I sometimes forget that I'm not actually vegan.  I'll be looking at something for myself, to see if it has any dairy in it, and think "Oh, it's got eggs in it", before remembering that I actually don't have any issues with eggs (at least, not at the moment).

And, while I'm talking vegan things - I actually spent a night out at a restaurant the other evening and it did such a good job of catering for vegans that I went vegan the whole night.  It was fantastic.  It was a brilliant example of what could be done if you just gave it a bit of thought.  If I was vegan, I could consider this a good restaurant to visit with a decent range of options.