A Vegan Downfall

Blame this!

I became a strict vegetarian when I left home at the age of 19. By the time I had gained my degree and moved to London, I had made the transition to vegan. This is when I started eating out too. In those days Cranks [a hugely popular vegetarian chain that I think has since folded], Indian food or spaghetti aglio, olio e pepperonciono from the local Italian were my dining staples.

I had been living in London, eating nothing at all animal for about a year, when my parents drove up from Bristol to take me out for my Birthday lunch in Covent Garden. When my mother arrived she was carrying a tin. She breathlessly exclaimed "granny made you a vegan Birthday cake". My eyes opened so wide, they were almost the size of saucers. "Wow", I think I managed to reply, otherwise struck mute by both awe and incredulity. My mother continued to explain that they'd gone to the effort of sourcing special vegan margarine and special vegan chocolate in order to bake the mouthwatering creation I could see before my eyes.

Eventually, I managed to speak again. "What did granny do for the eggs?", I asked. My mother looked at me, a frown was forming on her brow, she faltered. I could see, by looking into her eyes, that her brain had burst into overdrive as she struggled with how to break the news to me. "Oh", she exclaimed as nonchantly as she could muster, "aren't eggs vegan?"!!

Not only did I not want to disappoint my dear grandmother, I wanted more than anything to eat some of that delicious-looking cake. Hence my fall from total veganism began. I did remain a vegetarian for several years after that, but that's another story.



PS. We've been having a vegan theme week here on Becks & Posh in honour of my hosting IMBB#19 "I can't Believe I ate Vegan". I will be rounding up the entries, in stages, next week, but in the meantime, if you can't wait, many of the Vegan posts from food bloggers around the world can be found under this Technorati Tag here.

Archive Alert! On this date in 2004 we were enjoying a night out at Olive in San Francisco's Tenderloin district which I plan to re-review for the my alphabetical series 'A to Zed' on SFist soon. We were there a few weeks ago and it was much better than last year's review would have you believe.

IMBB # 19 | Vegan

A Vegan Downfall