If you’re in the market for a vegan backpack, you’ll be happy to know that
there’s a wide variety of stylish vegan backpacks available in the USA, Canada,
and Europe.
The French company Arsayo offers unisex
backpacks in three colors. They are designed in Paris and made from cork
material produced in Portugal.
Backpack from Doshi
Doshi, an American company, makes a wide
variety of backpacks for men and women.
The American company Gosbags
offers backpacks in various colors.
Amp up Taco Tuesday in your household with these vegan recipes for Tacos al Pastor and Tofu con Rajas Poblanos. Both offer up layers of flavor with pepper-based marinades and hearty vegan ingredients. Chef Carlos does it again with more Mexican meals!
The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to
Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA
and Canada.
Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found
here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
To support the updating of this online restaurant guide,
please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate
Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide (Note: Due to
the COVID-19 pandemic many are doing take-out
and/or delivery now):
Bistro
Vonish, 701 E. 53rd St., Austin, TX 78751
Find this food truck at the corner of 53rd & Martin
behind Tapehead Electronics and enjoy your meal sitting at picnic tables
nearby. Menu items include sandwiches, tacos, mac & cheese, soups, sides,
small plates, and desserts. You can text or call to place your order and then
come and pick it up.
Chez Zac Pizzeria, 8
Avenue Duluth E., Montreal, QC H2W 1G6 Canada
Enjoy a wide variety of vegan pizzas. Many unique toppings
and combinations are available including pesto, artichokes, and zucchini. Pies
can be made gluten-free.
Chicago
Not Dogs, 4332 30th St., San Diego, CA 92104
Chicago Not Dogs offers 100% vegan Chicago-style hot dogs
as well as Italian “beaf” and “sassage” sandwiches made with house-made seitan.
All sandwiches are served with freshly cut fries and a variety of toppings. The
restaurant also provides a cooperative sales space for vegan merchants with
products such as chocolates, cookies, and vegan food supplies.
Dirty
Vegan, 317 Oak St., Sandpoint, ID 83864
This vegan food truck serves dishes including a Greek
Salad with Falafel, a Jackfruit Buffalo Sandwich, Jamaican Jerk Jackfruit
Tacos, Fettuccine Alfredo, Green Thai Curry, and more. You’ll find outdoor
seating nearby.
Eureka
Plant-Based Foods, 396 South Main St., Phillipsburg, NJ 08865
Craving some classic deli foods like cheesesteaks,
paninis, sub sandwiches, or mac n’ cheese? Eureka plant-based foods has it all!
Everything they sell is made in-house from scratch. Their selection of soy-milk
cheeses and their wide variety of seitan-based meats are available to buy, or
you can find them in one of Eureka’s many vegan meal options. Try out a
classic, like their “Eureka Club” sandwich, or something unique, like their “Oh
Henry” sandwich (vegan egg salad, cheddar, and bacon on a Kaiser roll).
Hippie
Hibachi, 1235 Chattahoochee Ave. NW, Atlanta, GA 30018
Located in the Chattahoochee Food Works, a food hall in
ATL’s Upper Westside with multiple restaurant stalls with indoor and covered
outdoor seating in addition to a 13-acre green space to enjoy your meal. Serves
flavor-packed, all-vegan traditional Japanese hibachi-style bowls (in
eco-friendly packaging). Each meal features teriyaki grilled protein — from a
choice including Impossible, tofu, and soy-free options like mushroom and
shrimp made from konjac root — alongside vegetables, fried rice, yum yum sauce,
and sesame, with optional vegan egg and a selection of sauces. Free of gluten
and tree nuts.
OrVeganic,
16200 Hawthorne Blvd. #E, Lawndale, CA 90260
Mouth-watering options include the Billy Jack Bow, which
is a blend of adzuki beans, black beans, navy beans, green lentils, and Indian
moong dal slow cooked with black pepper corns and local farmers market
vegetables. The dish is then topped with their heirloom Oaxacan salsa,
jackfruit, raw avocado seed guacamole cabbage, crushed corn tortilla chips, and
drizzled with chardonnay cheddar cheese Mealk dressing plus sprinkled red
pepper flakes. It is served with (3) three ingredient corn tortillas. Another
sample dish is Kettle Ballz, which consists of organic oat groat, buckwheat groat,
amaranth groat, organic fresh roasted peanut, heirloom jungle raised peanut,
medjool date, sunflower seed, hemp seed, chia seed, organic fresh-tapped maple,
organic Ceylon cinnamon, organic real vanilla extract, and Himalayan pink sea
salt.
Planta
Queen, 15 W. 27th St., New York, NY 10001
Planta Queen offers a plant-based menu that promotes
environmental sustainability. Their menu features Asian-inspired cuisine such
as vegan sushi, dumplings, fried rice, and noodles. Their brunch menu includes
sticky buns, French toast, truffled omelets, and endless mimosas. Soft serve
made with coconut and oat milks is available for dessert.
Put
Me in Coach, 4939 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Put Me in Coach offers a vegan spin on the classic
American sports bar. With a founding concept of community and inclusivity, the
restaurant hopes to bring people together using both delicious comfort food and
sports. Everything is plant-based, from their cocktails to their tacos to their
burgers. Order some chili cheese fries on their outdoor patio while watching a
football game with friends. Or, head over on the weekend to get brunch and
enjoy some French toast topped with fresh berries.
Maryland Vegan Restaurant Week (actually weeks) is August 6th
through 29th this year. What a terrific time to support local veggie
restaurants! For details on all the restaurants participating and special
events see: https://www.mdveganeats.com/
The Vegetarian Resource Group has a graphic called Burrito on My Plate,
which shows viewers the water footprint of a vegan versus a meat-based burrito.
It takes 225 gallons of water to make a vegan burrito without tofu and 253
gallons of water to make a vegan burrito with tofu. In comparison, it takes 541
gallons of water to make a beef burrito.
Are you
searching for a non-leather vegan wallet? The following companies in the USA,
Canada, Europe, and Australia all offer a variety of wallets for men and women.
USA
Couch sells a variety of wallets for men and women.
The
Vegetarian Resource Group received an email asking for our assistance in
finding out ingredient information on an item at the quick casual chain, Ruby
Tuesday:
“I
am a lacto-vegetarian who is researching what my friends and I can eat at Ruby
Tuesday…I cannot determine the ingredients in the Brioche Bun that Ruby
Tuesday serves. Ruby Tuesday does not list the ingredients, and I have been
having trouble getting ingredient information from them…Could you check to
see that the Brioche Bun does not contain any eggs or animal rennet? Thanks in
advance for your help.”
In
July 2021, this is how The VRG responded.
As
far as the bun, we used Ruby’s tool
on their website. First, I randomly picked a store.
Then
after clicking “Go,” on the dropdown menu titled Set Your Preferences that
appeared, we chose “Food Allergy or Restrictions?” From the displayed icons, we
selected two restrictions: “no egg, no milk.” That generated menu options by categorywithout egg or milk. (You could unrestrict
one or both of them if you wanted, but you’d get many more items.)
Since
I included both as restrictions, we can also get a better idea (although not
conclusive) on the bun’s vegan status.
When
you click on “Breads and Buns” you’ll see the brioche bun. Note that there’s
one on the left referred to as “Buttered” although it’s clarified below the
name to be “buttered with liquid margarine.” The second listing on the right is
for a plain bun.
Click on the little “i” to the right of
“Brioche Bun,” (to the far right on the screen), and you’ll see the
ingredients:
Ingredients
Brioche Bun (unbuttered) [Unbleached Enriched Flour
(Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate,
Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Sugar, Margarine (Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated
Soybean Oil, Water, Salt, Mono- and Diglycerides (plant), Artificial Flavor,
Colored with Annatto, Calcium Disodium EDTA [Preservative], Vitamin A Palmitate
Added), Yeast, Contains 2% or less of each of the following: Wheat Gluten,
Salt, Yellow Corn Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Dextrose, Calcium Sulfate, Dough
Conditioners (Contains one or more of the following: Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate,
Calcium Stearoyl Lactylate (plant), Monoglycerides (plant), Mono- And
Diglycerides (plant), Distilled Monoglycerides (plant), Calcium Peroxide,
Calcium Iodate, DATEM, Ethoxylated Mono- and Diglycerides (plant), Enzymes,
Ascorbic Acid), Colored With Annatto Extract, and Turmeric Oleoresin, Glaze
(Water, Sunflower Oil, Vegetable Proteins, Wheat Maltodextrins, Wheat Dextrose,
Corn Starch), Calcium Propionate (To Retard Spoilage) ], Liquid Margarine [Beta
Carotene, Calcium Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Liquid Soybean Oil, Natural &
Artificial Flavors, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Sodium Benzoate,
Soy Lecithin, Vegetable Mono & Diglycerades, Vitamin A Palmitate, Water ]
This
statement is very good in that it identifies many plant sources in cases where
it could be different (like an animal source). Not many statements from other
chains do this.
Vegans
should note that the natural flavors in the liquid margarine are likely dairy
(not specified). You’d have to inquire with the company if you wanted to know
for sure.
To check if Ruby Tuesday called the bun “vegan,” and get more indirect information about the natural flavors, we reset the tool and tried again. This time we entered no restrictions. However, under the drop-down menu “Select Lifestyle Options,” we chose “vegan.”
The
VRG also checked the tiny box next to the statement: “Show me only what I can
eat.”
This
time, no breads and buns were listed as vegan options.
Incidentally,
restricting milk and eggs and selecting vegan also showed no
breads and buns that fit that category.
Even
though the liquid margarine used for buttering contains natural flavors which
are probably dairy-derived while the bun itself does not contain them, and the
plain bun isn’t buttered, the plain bun still wasn’t listed as “vegan” when we
used the website tool.
The
artificial flavor in the plain bun’s margarine (as a bun ingredient; see
statement above) is probably not dairy-derived but it could be. It is most
likely synthetic and derived from petroleum-derived ingredients. Because of the
range of possibilities regarding artificial butter flavor, The VRG is unable to
say definitively, based on the tool and ingredient statement, whether the plain
Brioche bun is vegan.
The
enzymes listed in the bun are likely plant-based or microbial fermentation
products. Here’s a general reference.
Sugar
source is unknown.
Readers
looking for more information about any items at Ruby Tuesday should directly
contact the chain.
The
contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including
Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice.
Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We
often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It
is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have
different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about
whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or
confirmation on your own.
The following online stores offer vegan baby and toddler shoes.
Clamfeet: Offers adorable baby shoes and matching shoes for mothers. They have an eco canvas exterior, organic cotton lining, and rubberized grip sole. They are washable. https://clamfeet.com/
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
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