Being vegan is really hard when you keep getting offered meat everywhere you go. It's hard when you pass a place that sells meat. See, at home I can control it by not having any meat on hand to cook with. I'm very good at home.



For example, today I made a sandwich for lunch out of the new tofurkey smoked fake turkey coldcuts that they sell over at Trader Joes.

That shit's actually pretty tasty, especially with a little avocado, mustard, cheddar cheese. Although that's not vegan either. So I'm finishing up what I have at home. It's actually better, the tofurkey, than the Good Deli shit they've been selling over at TJs. I swear, I've been eating that nasty crap for years, but for some reason I actually like it. I even cook freakin' omlettes with that rubbery pseudo flesh.

Back in the old days fake meat was more important to me. I guess I used to eat healthier too. Shit like beans all the time, kale, collard greens, brown rice, barley. Fuckin' hippie shit. No more! Actually that's exactly how I want to eat again. But no! All I see now is pizza with five kinds of meat, meatball sandwiches, pastrami, fried chicken, al pastor tacos, beef pho, etc, etc.

I used to even seek out stores that sold fake meat. Now I barely even know where to find it. There was Rainbow foods in SF for the dehydrated little rabbit turd TVP pieces. Some Buddhist vegetarian grocery store in Oakland had all kinds of that stuff. And there was a place in Alhambra that was pretty impressive too. It was somewhere between Fremont and Atlantic on Valley. I think it's gone now, but I guess I haven't even gone back to check. So where do you go to buy fake meat nowadays?

Ok, I just checked. There's some place in El Monte called Mighty Star Foods. They have a website at vegeonline.com. Ok, so I will go there and get back to you. Looks pretty good. Here's a picture of the vegetarian spirulina ham. I used to always buy these fake ham loaves and cut off slices for everything! Sandwiches, split pea soup, eggs, quiche, french frisee aux lardons (yeah, the lardons...) Ok, so this will be a return to form for me.



In our society, when you want to do the right thing it can be really tough. I might want to not drive, but it's pretty hard to get around without a car. I might not want to eat meat, but it's pretty hard when everywhere I go there is delicious meat being practically shoved down my throat! Same with vegetables, but the reverse. It's so much trouble to keep going out and buying them when you can just not eat them and not even think about it. But then you go somewhere like Israel, and it's like vegetables importuning you - eat, eat! Ok, so did I impress you with that word? Probably not.

Rather than go fully vegan, I think the best goal is to cook more at home and refuse some of the nastier-looking meat that people keep getting me to eat. The only other issue is how to not get all bloated with gas when I eat all that fibrous vegetable shit. Maybe it's time to go back to that old standby - Beano!