Flexing Vegan

I’m rolling out a new series of restaurant reviews called Flexing Vegan. In it, I’m going to review eateries around London with vegan only menus, committing on them as an eater who loves meat and other animal-based foods but can no longer see the point of eating so much of it so often.

I’ve had the notion to start a vegan review series in mind for quite a while. However, I waited until February to kick it off because I didn’t want folks thinking I was hopping on this year’s especially crowded Veganuary bandwagon. Rather, I hope people will notice along with me that beyond foodie fads and fading New Year’s resolutions there’s a longterm trend toward plant-based dining and that it can be far healthier, considerably more ethical and sometimes even yummier than conventional western eating habits.

I dabbled in veganism when I was much younger and was a fairly committed vegetarian around that same time (in my early 20s and only for a short spell). I was essentially a ‘bread-atarian’ though and did not keep balanced diet. This was the early 90s; I was living in Athens, Georgia going to university.

Back then, Athens was a fairly progressive town (extremely so compared to the rest of Georgia) but still a small enclave unto itself somewhat cut off from the rest of the world (in a way most places were before the onset of the digital age we now live in). Quality plant-based options were harder to come by there and then and maintaining a healthy diet without relying on animal products took considerably more effort than I was willing to commit and much more money than I actually could afford. Eventually my habits shifted back to eating meat.

I should add here that around that same time I moved to Mozambique for a short stint to work as a volunteer educator in a poor, rural community. While there, I ate what was available and never turned away food offered by locals. So I ate meat and fish. That said, sourcing enough protein (and even enough fat) could sometimes be a challenge in such an impoverished place. So I ate as much meat and fish as I could get my hands on.

Fast forward to 2018, with me living in London, bouncing around the world and writing a lot about food. Plant-based everything is much easier to come by and often very tasty. One of the best meals I ate last year was at Onion Maiden, a vegan restaurant in Pittsburgh. One of my most satisfying cheeseburger experiences of 2018 was had at Halo Burger, a completely vegan burger joint in Brixton. On the flip side of that, I travelled to Kobe, Japan for a story about its famous beef, resulting in some of the most delicious ‘research’ I’ve ever conducted in my life. I also had some of the world’s most amazing BBQ at Sam Jones BBQ while touring North Carolina. Having tried such extraordinary meat, and being aware that there are adequate alternatives to ordinary animal products, how can and why should I ever go back to downing animal flesh just because it’s there?

So this year, I want to honour that flexitarian thought and let it loose with a series regular blog posts about places where I’ve eaten wholly vegan meals. I don’t think I’ll ever be put off meat, dairy and eggs for good (nor do I think that is what I ultimately want). But let’s see what happens. I’ll be back soon with my first Flexing Vegan review.