Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Vegan Experiment. All or Nothing Vegan?


Today I made a conscious decision that I will be mostly vegan. For most things food and drink related I am an “all or nothing” kind of gal. Before last weekend I thought I had been doing fairly well with my vegan diet (5 months and counting). I’ve consciously cheated here or there, either when out of town or when drinking.Which leads me to the issue at heart; I swear I did not know that most beer and wine is not vegan.

A very helpful, friendly (insert mild sarcasm here) server at Dickson Wine Bar on U St pointed this out after Chaosgal and I inquired about the vegan food options. How could I miss this? Chaosgal and I decided that night that we would "pretend" we did not hear this disclosure.

That night (while tipsy from non-vegan wine) I frantically surfed the internet. Sure enough. Through the filtering process, before bottling, a wine may be put through a number of different things, including isinglass (from fish bladder,) gelatin, egg whites, and sea shells. I also reread The Kind Diet. Note to Alicia Silverstone: You failed to mention the non-veganism of alcohol!!

Today, while happily browsing through the aisles of Whole Foods wine department I decided I find too much joy from the process of choosing a good bottle of wine. There are vegan options out there. But let me tell you, they are not easy to find. I will make my vegan wine transition slowly. I have discovered a very helpful website www.barnivore.com. Maybe, one day, I will decide to go all out. Until then, CHEERS!... and Chaosgal, please rename my blog entries “Mostly Vegan”.