Vegan Munchies

Tony B. I LOVE him. In the way that I can love a potty-mouthed, carnivorous, hilarious, chef-writer.

I have seen every episode of No Reservations on Travel Channel. The picture is from one of my favorites when he went to a spa in Iceland and had a relaxing volcanic mud bath. He absolutely hated Iceland where, apparently, everyone is obsessed with spiritual and physical purity. TOO pure for Uncle Tony who doesn’t leave home without a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of hard something.

So somehow I stumbled on to a post on Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen, and she had posted an excerpt from Bourdain’s book in which he lashes out at vegetarians in his signiture prickling way.

“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold. Oh, I’ll accommodate them, I’ll rummage around for something to feed them, for a ‘vegetarian plate’, if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine.” From Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain, p. 70.

She proceeded to post an excerpt from a magazine by a “good guy” author in response to “bad boy’s” passage.

“As for the vegetarian waiters who are allegedly ‘brought down by even the rumor of a cold,’ well, if there’s a literary society somewhere that hands out awards for the most ridiculous writing, I hope it bestows an award upon Bourdain. He clearly deserves it.” Jack Rosenberger

And to show up the “ignorant” and unimaginative Bourdain, she threw a vegan party. Pictures and narrative here

Everybody happy!

I just thought it was funny that many vegetarians/vegans have overreacted to Bourdain’s book. I haven’t read it, but I’m completely familiar with his attitude about certain foods and lifestyles. Of course he’s ignorant about the wonders of vegetarian food. Just like I am ignorant about the wonders of bacon and philly cheese steak sandwiches. Most people can only talk about what they are interested in and their own experiences. I would read his book, and I would especially read it based on this passage. Tony is extrememly cool and articulate. He is a Cancer like me. He comes off as a bad ass, but he’s definitely not out to stomp all over the little vegans’ hopes and dreams of finally being “understood” in the culinary world. And if it’s one thing he understands, it’s decadence. Pure enjoyment. The partaking in anything and everything that makes one feel goooood. Sex, drugs, food. I have a feeling he’s lived his entire life this way. I bet it’s caught up to him a few times, but he’s learned from it in the end. Or not. But he’s not about to change or deprive himself. If you’re someone who views their lifestyle as deprived, but for a good cause, then you probably won’t appreciate Bourdain. I don’t take a lot of things seriously, and I definitely don’t take Bourdain seriously. He is funny and smart as hell. He is a total man. He has a dream job. He’s not hurting anyone with this book. Maybe just vegetarian pride. That’s their problem. WHATEVER.

I’m not an activist. I’m not brave enough to just go up to anyone and say, “Hey! Listen to what I have to say about things even though you probably don’t care and I don’t really care what you think about things either!” Maybe I should learn to be more outspoken and aggressive in articulating my opinions and philosophies on certain things, but I’m really a “to each his/her own” kind of girl.

UPDATE:

This problem is worse than I thought. The vegan A. Bourdain backlash of doom is everywhere on the internets. How annoying! Just shut up and keep cookin’!

However, I think this person made some good points, having received a scathing comment from an overtly carnivorous Bourdain fan. Bourdain’s recipes are suddenly cropping up around town in veganized versions, and more ubiquitous, are the anti-Bourdain rants on vegetarian blogs. Apparently one dude felt the need to defend Uncle Tony’s pride and honor. The blogger who recieved the hostile message responded, saying-

“It’s funny to me how Anthony Bourdain seems to inspire such a following of devoted dudes ready to annihilate any hippie in their path who dares to say anything negative about him..Is it his lanky, stunted-into-skinniness by cigarettes and too many years of consuming diseased duck liver physique that gets them all hot and bothered? Or is it just the thought of his crispy-fried-pork-skin breath kissing away their fears of broccoli and dark leafy greens that really gets them going?”

Hahaha.

It seems the book has galvanized a small colony of Bourdainiacs man-crushing hardcore and feeling the need to go around putting their meatlovin’ two cents in. Contrary to what some believe, I hardly think the book intended this side effect, and I have to say that despite my love for Tony’s antics I do disagree with the spreading of negativity towards any lifestyle. But helloo many many veggie people are just as guilty for spreading the anti-love to those not like themselves. Dumb dumb dumb. End of discussion :]