Are you new to vegan/vegetarian cooking or baking? Not sure how to respond to your non-veg family and friends about vegetarianism? Want to share vegan foods with your non-veg family & friends?

Bay Area Veg offers two great opportunities to learn more - attend an upcoming Vegan Food Party or one of our below market rate cooking and baking classes.

There are 2 Vegan Food Parties this month. On Sat, Feb 3rd in Pacifica, hosted by Alex, and Sunday Feb 11th in SF.

Our cooking and baking classes by instructors Alex Bury and Christine Dickson are sponsored by Bay Area Vegetarians to provide the skills and inspiration necessary to eat with compassion, save money, and treat yourself to delicious foods! Recipes, personal instruction, and samples are provided in each class.

Wed Feb 7 - New Vegetarian Cooking Class: Soul Food Cooking
Fried "Chicken", Black-eyed peas, Greens, Cornbread, Baked Yams.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR NEW VEG*N COOKING CLASS - If you bring a new person (not vegetarian) to this class, you'll both attend for the price of one! So please bring all your meat-eating friends to this awesome class.

"Alex was great. The chocolate mousse was amazing. My nonveg friend liked the foods."

Sun Feb 25 - Vegan Baking Class: Coffee Shop Dessert Series
Biscotti, Scones, and Coffee Cake

Sat. Mar 24 - Vegan Baking Class: European Dessert Series
Chocolate Hazelnut Torte, Hungarian Bundt Cake, Italian Cookies

"I enjoyed your class and meeting you. I just wanted to thank you again. I've been a vegetarian for over 18 years and was almost vegan, after your class, now I know I can go vegan all the way. Keep up the great work!"

Space is limited so sign-up today! For more information & registration:

 

Bay Area Veg started and ended the first month of 2007 with veg leafleting. What else happened? Read all about it in the January Outreach Roundup

There are 2 new activities launching this month in SF:

Singles Veg Leafleting, 2/13, hosted by Alex (as in Alexandra, not Alexander)

Typically singles events seem to be dominated by men. Yet advocacy events seem to draw more women. So it will be interesting to see the sum of advocacy plus singles.

Sundaes & Advocacy (Letter Writing Party), 2/18, hosted by Dana

Enjoy a fabulous vegan sundae at MaggieMudd and let your voice count. Letters to newspaper editors, legislators and businesses can effect change.

Please support these new events with your participation. And, if you're looking for an opportunity to introduce your non-veg friends to vegan cooking, check out this month's New Veg*n Cooking Class (you can bring a non-veg guest for free!)

Help us plan more activities in your community by volunteering to organize one. It's a great way to meet like-minded folks and support veg*nism in the SF Bay Area. For more information:

 

"This question comes up from time to time at our house. We're vegan (except for cat food). When we have family or friends over for an extended stay and they want to bring their own dairy or meat, what is my best response to this? Can I keep my vegan household and my family and friends happy at the same time?"

What a great question! Explain to your family & friends that your household is vegan, and you'd love to share some of your favorite dishes with them (either home-cooked or your favorite veg restaurants). And for your guests' non-vegan tendencies, well, leave information in strategic, subtle places that they can "accidentally" stumble upon, like "Why Vegan" or "Meet Your Meat" running on your computer when they go to check their email. But if they start to look murderously at your companion chicken, point them in the direction of the nearest Denny's and give them some Tic Tacs to eat before they come back home.

Remember, if you are a non-smoker who didn't allow cigarettes in or near your house, your family would respect that. You have every right to set the rules in your own home, especially since you'll still provide them with great food--you're not asking them to starve. Don't apologize for your vegan policy, be proud of it and assume they will respect it!

What would you say? Feel free to chime in with your own experiences in our blog.

ASK CAT when you've got a question about vegetarianism or vegetarian living or simply want a veg perspective. Please include at least your first name and city with your query.

 

Add 3 parts compassion, 1 part coffee, 2 parts advocacy, and you've got the recipe for an activist like Chef, PETA staffer, and BAVeg volunteer Alex Bury.

Read more about Alex in this month's Community Profile.

If you've got an interesting veg perspective that you'd like to share, please let us know.

 

Cafe Gratitude is scheduled to open its 4th restaurant in San Rafael on February 12th. Since Pizza Plaza entered the Top Ten at its current #1 slot, the accolades continue to pour in for the Bay Area's first and only all vegetarian pizzeria. "This is the BEST pizza I've ever had vegan, or not!!! My favorite is the Hawaiian so far. But they have really good faux chicken too!" And "Fantastic Pizza. Majority of the menu is vegan. Tried 4 different pizza and they were all good. Favorite was probably the Hawaiian."

Read more reviews about Pizza Plaza in the Ultimate Guide.

For regular updates, check out our Guide News Blog

With more than 1,000 reviews in the Ultimate Guide, these vegetarian restaurants are ranked the best. Agree or Disagree about the Top Ten? Then say something about it, with an Ultimate Guide review.

Top Ten Vegetarian Restaurants - based on 1000+ reviews

1) Pizza Plaza, Oakland - 4.78
2) Vegetarian House, San Jose - 4.5
3) Cha-Ya, Berkeley - 4.41
4) Good Karma, San Jose - 4.38
5) The Manzanita Restaurant, Oakland - 4.38
6) Garden Fresh, Mtn View - 4.32
7) Tofoo Com Chay, San Jose - 4.29
8) New World Vegetarian, Oakland - 4.24
9) Millennium, SF - 4.18
10) Medicine New-Shojin Eatstation, SF - 4.18 (New entry)

How to review a restaurant in the Ultimate Guide

 

The joy and the hassle of feeding carnivores. Ugh. It's important to do, because serving a great vegan meal is one of the best outreach tactics I know of. But it's so darn hard! It's hard because the meat-eater is bound is determined to not like what you make. If they can convince themselves that veg food is icky, then nobody will blame them for staying with their cruelty-to-animals diet.

I think the most important thing to remember in these situations is that you are NOT cooking for yourself. You can't. You need to make and serve something that you may not find very appetizing.

Tofu-Spinach Lasagna
Garlic Bread Spread
Chocolate Mousse or Chocolate Mousse Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie

On Wednesday evening, Feb 7th, Chef Alex Bury will be teaching a cooking class for new vegetarians and vegans featuring Veggie Soul Food. If you bring a new (non-veg) person with you, you can both attend for the price of one ($10)!

 

02/02 Vegan Restaurant and Bar Night - SF
02/03 KFC Cruelty Protest - San Jose
02/03 Vegan Food Party & Vegan Career Discussion - Pacifica
02/07 New Veg*n Cooking Class: Soul Food with Chef Alex Bury - SF
02/08 Leafleting Veg Info & Lunch - SF
02/10 Vegetarian House Dinner - San Jose
02/11 Vegan Food Party with Vegan Outreach's Jack Norris - SF
02/11 Jack Norris on Veganism: Does it Spread Itself? - SF
02/13 Singles Veg Leafleting - SF
02/13 Happy Bamboo dinner - San Jose
02/15 Marin Vegan Food & Fellowship Dinner - San Anselmo
02/17 KFC Cruelty Protest - Palo Alto
02/18 KFC Cruelty Protest - SF
02/18 Sundaes and Advocacy (Letter Writing Party) - SF
02/20 Letter Writing Party - Berkeley
02/25 Vegan Baking Class - SF
02/28 Veganauts: Mission to Sushi - SF

03/03 KFC Cruelty Protest - San Jose
03/04 Book Discussion: Vegan Freaks - Oakland

Outlook users can use the 'calendar' icon link ()to add this event to their calendar.

For latest news and events for Bay Area Vegetarians, check out the News Blog and Event Calendar. We don't always announce it, but event photos are added periodically to the gallery, too.