Bay Area Vegetarians, Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA and Animal Place are organizing a World Farm Animals Day event in San Mateo.

It will include cooking demos with Chef Alex Bury, presentations by lauren Ornelas and Kim Sturla, and food sampling. If you're a business with vegan food samples, please contact us to participate.

Please help our educational outreach by bringing a non-veg friend to this event. Volunteers are also welcome.

Also, please help distribute and post flyers to the general community to raise awareness of factory farming and vegetarianism. Flyers can be found here.

 

We've got several great events this month, in particular:

1) Vegan Outreach and Education - volunteers welcome!

We're staffing veg information booths at Power to the Peaceful in SF's Golden Gate Park as well as Solano Stroll, a popular Solano Avenue street fair spanning Berkeley & Albany. Informed & enthusiastic volunteers are welcome. Please see below for volunteer openings:

2) Baking Class in Mill Valley with Christine Dickson

September’s Vegan Baking Class will teach you the secrets of baking two fantastic vegan banana breads, Christine's traditional favorite, and a wonderful low-fat version. These classes are getting rave reviews:

"“I wanted to thank you for the class yesterday. Dessert has been an area that is most difficult because, as you know, the really sinfully delicious ones contain vast amounts of butter, cream, eggs, etc. After we tasted the cookies and cake at class we knew we found something special. We took a piece of the cake to our teenage daughter and she gave it an A+.”

Early registration is recommended.

 

Representatives Thomas Petri (R, WI) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) are proposing a new federal law that may impact many of the activities that Bay Area Vegetarians does to raise awareness of factory farming and promote vegetarianism. Their proposed bill will "provide the Department of Justice the necessary authority to apprehend, prosecute, and convict individuals committing animal enterprise terror."

In essense, it will become a crime if an "animal enterprise" industry (such as factory farms, fur farms and circuses) suffers a profit loss due to activities such as consumer boycotts, media campaigns and whistleblowing. You can read more about this issue, and how to voice your opinion to our elected representatives, at SuperVegan.com

 

There are currently 973 reviews in the Ultimate Guide. To celebrate the approaching milestone of 1000 reviews, we will be giving away a few "Vegetarian Bay Area: The Ultimate Guide" books. Central to this contest is posting a review in the Ultimate Guide. Here's how we'll be giving away the books:

Book #1: randomly selected review submitted by 9/15
Book #2: randomly selected review submitted between 9/16 and 9/30
Book #3: 1000th review
Book #4: Editor's choice - favorite review ever submitted

 

In food news, San Mateo's Vegetarian Gourmet is closing its kitchen on Sept 5th. It will be sorely missed as there are very few veg*n restaurants on the Peninsula.

For regular updates, check out our Guide News blog

With over 950 reviews in the Ultimate Guide, these vegetarian restaurants are ranked the best.

Recent reviews have caused a shuffle among the top 5 with new entry Vegetarian House vaulting into the top spot, and longtime favorite Good Karma dropping to 6th. BayLeaf Cafe drops out of the TT.

Top Ten Vegetarian Restaurants (*)

1. Vegetarian House, San Jose - 4.5 (New entry)
2. The Manzanita Restaurant, Oakland - 4.43
3. Cha-Ya, Berkeley - 4.37
4. New World Vegetarian, Oakland - 4.36
5. Tofoo Com Chay, San Jose - 4.36
6. Good Karma, San Jose - 4.33
7. Garden Fresh, Mtn View - 4.29
8. Shangri-La, SF - 4.29
9. Vegetarian Gourmet, San Mateo - 4.25
10. Saturn Cafe, Santa Cruz - 4.25

Agree or Disagree about the Top Ten? Then say something about it, with an Ultimate Guide review.

How to review a restaurant in the Ultimate Guide

 

If your dog tasted like pork, would you eat him? Most meat-eaters would answer “No way! That’s gross, dude!” But really, what’s the difference between pork loin and poodle loin?

Chef Alex Bury shares her favorite pig-friendly recipes.

Favorite pre-made pig substitutes
Cruelty-free bacon
BLT’s
BBQ sandwiches
Baked five-spice seasoned tofu
Mu-shu “pork” without the dead pig
Soy foods: Tofu vs. Tempeh

 

09/02 Vegan Redwoods Retreat - Gourmet Camping - Pescadero
09/07 Adopt a College leafletting - Academy of Arts University, SF
09/08 Fun Fur Protest - San Francisco Opera, 301 Van Ness Avenue
09/09 Outreach at Power to the Peaceful - SF (Golden Gate Park)
09/09 South Bay Dinner - San Jose
09/10 Outreach at Solano Avenue Stroll - Albany/Berkeley
09/12 Peninsula Dinner - Palo Alto
09/16 KFC Cruelty Protest - Palo Alto
09/16 KFC Cruelty Protest - SF
09/17 Effective Communication for Veg*n Advocacy, Family & Friends SF
09/17 Letter Writing Party - Palo Alto
09/19 Letter Writing Party - Berkeley
09/21 Veganauts: Mission to Utopia - San Francisco
09/23 Vegan Baking Class - Mill Valley
09/23 Marin Shakespeare and Vegan Food Party Picnic - San Rafael
09/25 Marin Vegan Food & Fellowship Dinner - San Rafael

10/01 World Farm Animals Day - San Mateo PHS & SPCA
10/07 Grass-and-Lake Vegan Food Party - Lake Temescal (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.