Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

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pash
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Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by pash »

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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by TheBigChuckbowski »

So, yes, I’ve “eaten” at some of these famous restaurants. There was the meal at the Golden Ox steakhouse (baked potato), Stroud’s fried chicken (rolls) and Arthur Bryant’s barbecue, where, searching for vegetarian options on the menu, skipping over the lard-bathed French fries, pausing to consider the coleslaw, I ordered the safest option (a mug of Budweiser).

After three days of this, starving, I went alone to the nearest Chinese restaurant I could find, where I feasted on a steaming plate of meatless mapo tofu.
He can't be serious. He went to a steakhouse, fried chicken place, and barbecue place expecting a vegetarian meal? Surely, even New York steakhouses aren't known for their vegetarian options.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by bobbyhawks »

I feel like he makes some perfectly valid points, but then when I dissect what he says a little bit, it comes across as petty. I don't think anyone would try to claim that KC is on par with NYC in many food categories, and he is certainly correct that we do not embrace fresh and local produce in the way we should considering proximity to farmland.

I would guess the most common vegetable in KC is far and away the potato. While bacon is a common ingredient, to say that it comes standard is a bit of hyperbole. Just like you have to know where to go in NYC to get quality stuff, you have to know where to go in KC. KC is more spread out, and there are fewer people requiring such quality, so it is easy to see how being a vegan or vegetarian is difficult. Just as NYC has many more options when it comes to veggie-themed dishes, it has many more options of places where you can eat fried monstrosities and sketchy meat. There are, shall we say, a lot more options for everything. If he wanted to come out and say KC is a mediocre food town, that would be one thing. But it sounds like he is insinuating KC is some hick backwater that hasn't caught on to the coastal awareness of how amazing vegans are yet.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by shinatoo »

Kansas City is not New York, LA or San Francisco. That's some real insightful reporting &
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by kclofter »

The article was a bit condescending to KC and tended to reinforce stereotypes (cowtown).
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by bbqboy »

sorry, to paraphrase bobby knight, if meat is inevitable, lay back and enjoy it.
You guys are too thin skinned/sensitive about this.
Revel in your status as #1 meat destination in the world. Have giant neon cows, pigs, and chickens.Don't try to be something you're not; be the best at being
the center of meat decedance-
thumbing your nose at foo foo vegatiarians. Believe me, sometimes I feel like airlifting some Town Topic burgers and LC's burnt ends into all too healthy hip and politically correct Southern Oregon.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by aknowledgeableperson »

Methinks vegans who live in the KC area know where to go out to eat and stick to what they want. Over the years my wife has worked with prople from India who do not eat meat and they did not seem to have a problem finding places and they have lived in the area for over 30 years.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by chingon »

bbqboy wrote:sorry, to paraphrase bobby knight, if meat is inevitable, lay back and enjoy it.
You guys are too thin skinned/sensitive about this.
Revel in your status as #1 meat destination in the world. Have giant neon cows, pigs, and chickens.Don't try to be something you're not; be the best at being
thumbing your nose at foo foo vegatiarians. Believe me, sometimes I feel like airlifting some Town Topic burgers and LC's burnt ends into all too healthy hip and politically correct Southern Oregon.
I totally agree.

However, I think I must be going to an entirely different "southern Oregon" than yours, because the one I've been to is a gun-toting, off-roading, cultural backwater populated with rednecks, elk hunters, unhealthy drinkers and tweakers, tragically unhip woodsmen, and the kind of people who refer to Eugene and Portland derisively as the "People's Republic of..."

I've experienced nothing healthy, hip or politically correct south of Roseburg.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by bbqboy »

Come to Ashland and I'll show you around. :) 8)
local guy's blog.
http://bloggingashland.wordpress.com/20 ... t-entries/
:oops:
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by chingon »

Also, the article seems pretty fair to me. And I think vegetarianism is funny (as in silly) and I find veganism offensively stupid and self righteous, especially as espoused by places like FUD that purport to condemn meat-eating while simultaneously attempting to replicate it. Its like condemning the sexualization of adolescence while selliing catholic schoolgirl stripper costumes.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by chaglang »

Considering he didn't mention consulting any local vegans or vegetarians, it was a fairly lazy piece with a bit of a Stranger In A Strange Land vibe. And the "in KC, green is garnish" observation from the Fud lady was gratuitous. Shouldn't she be helping him find places to eat?

In the long run having him in town might net some good national press for the city.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by IraGlacialis »

Those on the coasts have it better. Like many of my brethren, I have instinctively gravitated to cuisine from faraway places where meat is a luxury not all can afford. In New York this meant frequenting terrific Indian, Thai, Ethiopian, Lebanese and Venezuelan restaurants.
I'm sorry but that in itself sounds downright culturally condescending in a "magical foreigner" manner (reminds me of our "Demonizing Agrarianism" thread). In the case of Indian, it is due to religious reasons, but for the rest, meat is prized and used often.
And of course KC won't have as many of those option because we aren't a damn port city nor do we have an international terminal to get ton of trans-oceanic/equatorial immigrants. And while it would be good to up the ante on the fresh produce level (from veggie to meats) and even have some more vegetarian options, this area's culinary heritage deals with meats, so it would make sense that many of our most famous places be meat-dominated. That doesn't mean we don't have substantial (not just several) vegetarian and vegan options like this guy seems to imply if he actually tried to look.

My mom is a semi-vegetarian (milk, eggs, and anything that is not of the Eastern Zodiac is fair game) for religious reasons, and she has had no trouble eating out. And of course she is not going to eat at a steak or BBQ place unless it is with company, and she will still adapt to the situation. Hell, I am in the middle of the Ozarks, and my Indian friends (many of whom are strict vegetarians) have no issue adapting and finding options, which are even more limited, and less on the fresh side, here.
Being a vegan, going to a meat restaurant, and complaining about the options is like going to a rural area, crossing the fence in to a ranch, and complaining that there are cow patties all of the place.
chaglang wrote: In the long run having him in town might net some good national press for the city.
Or it will simply enhance our reputation as "Fly-Over Cowtown" with the willfully ignorant.

BTW: Link no longer works.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by ColumbusParkian »

Thought you all might find this interesting:

http://www.yelp.com/topic/kansas-city-t ... -challenge
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by KCPowercat »

Had a couple friends go vegan and they have found plenty of options....obviously not to the extent you could find in NYC....shocker.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by pash »

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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by kboish »

Just noticed that as well...somebody didn't take daddy's threat of banishment for misbehavior seriously...thought we were getting a bureau chief, not some rich kid with a chip on his shoulder.

Though I will say I think there is a plenty extensive variety of vegetarian fare here, I will agree with what some have previously stated.. we should relish our rightfully known mantle of a meat loving bbq town.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by pash »

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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by chaglang »

pash wrote:Sarah Baker Hansen of the Omaha World-Herald writes:
I emailed Sulzberger after I read his story. I pointed out the vegetarian menu at McFosters, and told him that I didn't think the vegetarian life in Omaha was as barren as his story made it seem.

He wrote me back, saying that he didn't consider McFosters vegetarian because it serves meat. For him, that means it's “just a restaurant with a lot of great vegetarian options.” (For the record, McFosters serves just eight dishes with chicken, fish or seafood. It's menu includes more than 50 meatless choices between appetizers, salads, sandwiches and entrees.)

He says the point of his story was not to say that Omaha and Kansas City were barren. He said he notes a number of restaurants where he'd had good meals and that the big cities of the region have gotten a lot better, but there are significantly fewer options in the Midwest than in much of the country, particularly “if you travel outside the major metros.”
That's asinine. If the point of the article was that he was a hungry vegetarian in the Midwest, wouldn't "just a restaurant with a lot of great vegetarian options" be a good thing?

If you travel outside NYC, the vegetarian food option is often Subway. There's not a heck of a lot of difference between rural Missouri and upstate NY.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by TheBigChuckbowski »

chaglang wrote:There's not a heck of a lot of difference between rural Missouri and upstate NY.
Funny. I traveled upstate NY with a guy who grew up in the Ozarks and he said the exact same thing.
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Re: Sulzberger: A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance in KC

Post by earthling »

However parts of upstate NY have foodie cultures that embrace local sources. The Ozarks tend to be content with packaged foods and fast food restaurants - the saltier the better. Northern MO has a bit more tendency to embrace local foods than S MO.

The whole vegan thing though is a bizarre cult. If our pre-human ancestors didn't eat meat, there would likely be no homo sapiens.
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