The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Sandwiches

I am a meat lover. I am wary of vegetarians and I am especially wary of vegans. I agree that meat production in America is not ideal and sometimes unethical but I do my best to avoid fast food places and to purchase organic meat products when I am grocery shopping. When I was in middle school, my parents made me watch a documentary on meat production in America. I was totally horrified when I saw footage of cows stuck in crowded stalls and cows being slaughtered. After I saw the movie, I decided to become a vegetarian. The next day, I made a salad for lunch and my mom made me a vegetarian meal for dinner. My mom went grocery shopping to purchase soy milk and other vegetarian friendly foods. The next afternoon, I felt weak. After school, I went home and I had my first taste of not Asian soy milk and I threw up. It was gross and I hadn't had enough protein over the past two days. I was a vegetarian for less than 48 hours.

My eighteenth and nineteenth sandwiches were both vegan sandwiches. The first sandwich was Plum Vegan's Jamaican Tempeh Wrap. The fresh spinach leaves and onions were very tasty and the tangerines were delightful. But tempeh, which is a soy based meat substitute, is not my jam. The texture is unappealing and the taste was hard to figure out at first and then just gross. I think Plum Vegan did its best using only vegan products but it only served to affirm my assumptions about vegan food (inferior)... and it was kinda greasy.

The second vegan sandwich was Sage Cafe's Purple Haze sandwich. The sandwich had seitan, which is a wheat based meat substitute. I prefer seitan to tempeh because it straight up just tastes less foul. The sandwich also had tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. I do not really like eggplant that much so that was not very great. The peppers were quite tasty and the tomato didn't seem quite ripe. I think that I am pretty picky about tomatoes and I prefer cherry tomatoes to the standard heirloom tomato. Overall, I guess the sandwich was not unpleasant and the quinoa was quite tasty.

I'd like to clarify that I don't hate on vegetables or the occasional vegan meal. I love fresh summer salads and quinoa. But I don't enjoy vegetarian/vegan food that has substitute meat/protein. You can't fool the carnivore inside of me.

- Rose

Plum Vegan Bistro

1429 12th Ave E

Seattle, WA

Sage Cafe

324 15th Ave E

Seattle, WA