I write this post torn between a heavy heart and gleeful triumph. I have nothing against vegetarians, vegans, locavores, macrobioticians and so on. I like to eat well, eat healthy and support my community while not putting undue strain on our earth. However, I often find that people who have adopted such aforementioned diets do so with a sort of smugness that makes me want to write off tofu forever. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up eating tofu and brown rice, sprinkling nutritional yeast on my salad, composting my waste and the like. But I really just want to slap a ham hock upside the face of people who tell me that they don’t eat meat for health reasons as they puff their cigarette. This isn’t a rant against smokers, but don’t tell me that your body is a temple and it’s so pure blah bah…

Anyway, that’s the background to this next part. So, I ate a vegan cupcake on Friday. It had lovely, rose-colored frosting, with a flavor so subtle I couldn’t tell what it was. Raspberry? Two tiny almond slices perched atop the creamy (yes, creamy!) mauve cloud, making the cupcakes small little works of art. The cake part was moist and springy; cider vinegar, I hear, is used a lot in vegan baking to achieve those results without eggs. N. told me they were made by a friend who got the recipe from, oh, who is that edgy, punky vegan chef from Brooklyn? I wouldn’t pay much attention to something like that I had to look it up. It turns out she is one Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Intrigued by her tasty cupcake recipe, I thought, this woman must be on to something. I found some more recipes of hers in the NY Times Archives. The Spicy Peanut Stew with Ginger and Tomatoes sounded marvelous and perfect for the veggie friends coming over the next night.
I’m going to level with you. I thought it was rotten. Really. I tasted it and couldn’t believe how bored I was. So, frantic to salvage it, I added coconut milk. With the peanut butter, perhaps this was overkill, but it lent a velvetiness to the broth which, at this point, was its only redeeming factor. I wouldn’t waste your shallots; why use them if you’re going to cover them up with peanut butter? Shallots deserve a more delicate treatment. Also, I would sub lime juice for lemon, it seems more appropriate here. Anyway, the veggie girls loved it so you can get the recipe through the link above.

I think the issue is that I have little tolerance for people who don't like this or that, I can't eat this, I'm allergic to that, it'll go straight to my thighs etc. Food is life and the more of it you can eat and enjoy, the happier you'll be. Sure, the vegan cupcakes were good and I even like that tofu fake cream cheese spread. But I also love the rich golden yolk of a fresh egg and fancy high-fat content butter and the delicate yet somehow assertive punch of thinly sliced proscuitto and smooth, mouth feel of triple cream cheese. I could keep on but you get my point......

Score one for the omnivores!