March 30th 2008
Don’t forget! Tomorrow is the last day of the Grand Opening at Buddha Hut, Worcester’s newest all-vegan Chinese restaurant. You’ll get 10% off your order and some free pound cake.
I’ll be going there with a bunch of people for dinner at 7. See you there!
March 28th 2008
Mike just posted a challenge to all the vegetarians in Worcester: Hand out at least one leaflet about factory-farming to a student before the end of the spring semester. I’m in. Are you in?
Just last fall semester, Mike Benedetti, Duck Osborne and I gave out a kilo-leaflet (that’s 1,000 leaflets) at 5 of the colleges in Worcester. And it was a buckets of fun. We got tons of good conversations and positive responses, even though the subject matter can be a little depressing. We gave out leaflets from Vegan Outreach, we used the “Why Vegan?” (download the pdf) and the “Even if you like meat” (download the pdf) pamphlets.
Anyway, here’s Mike’s challenge [via WorcesterActivist]:
Worcester Vegan Challenge
by Mike Benedetti, Eileen Botti, Rachel Hamilton, Artur Janc, Cody Rank, Jaclyn Marie Kateri Snow Sargent, Allison Vasallo, and Drew Wilson
We challenge every self-proclaimed vegetarian and vegan in the city to hand out one (1) booklet about factory farming to a college student this semester.
Last semester, along with our friends, we handed out more than 1,000 booklets about the cruelties of modern animal agriculture to local students. It was time well-spent, both because of the many positive comments we received and because if only 1% of those students make a change in diet, thousands of animals will be spared needless suffering.
On one of our last days leafleting in 2007, a local vegan came to join us when we had only a single booklet left. We were surprised at what a positive experience it was to get a new person involved even in such a small way.
We’d like to see this positivity repeated hundreds of times in Spring 2008. If you’d like to leaflet with “Team Worcester,” or just pick up a free Vegan Outreach booklet to hand out on your own, please contact us: info@vegworcester.com or 305-393-3250.
We wish you a happy and cruelty-free Spring!
Post a comment below if you join in!
March 27th 2008
In the style section of today’s New York Times there’s an article on Casa Diablo, a vegan strip club in Portland, Oregon: The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore. FYI there aren’t any nudie-pictures in the article but there are on their myspace page.
From the New York Times:
TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs. Johnny Diablo decided to open a business to combine both. At his Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club, soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas; the dancers wear pleather, not leather. Many are vegans or vegetarians themselves.
via Boing-boing
March 27th 2008
The Colombian–a paper in Washington state–published an interesting article about vegetarian potlucks: Potlucks supply moral support for local vegetarians.
There are vegan potlucks in Worcester pretty regularly. (In fact, there was one today that I missed!) But for people who aren’t yet confident cooks, there’s also a monthly vegan meet-up that brings new vegetarians, veg veterans and just the veg-curious together to visit local veg-friendly restaurants. The next meet-up is scheduled for Sunday, April 6 at 1:00 PM at the Moe’s on 3 Stafford Street. Don’t be shy, check it out!
March 25th 2008
My friend Eileen is applying for a job teaching vegan cooking lessons in New York City as a part of the Cancer Project. As part of her application she recorded this video of herself making some soba noodle stir fry. The ingredients and a recipe are below. In Worcester you can definitely find all of these ingredients at the Living Earth at 232 Chandler Street. They’re open Monday through Friday from 9am to 9pm. On Saturdays they close at 7pm and on Sunday they close at 6pm.
Yield: Approx. 6 cups
March 24th 2008
I recently posted a long-winded review of Buddha Hut, the new all-vegan Chinese restaurant in Worcester. I mentioned that there’ll be 10% taken off your order during the Grand Opening on Monday, March 31. But rumor has it that all of this week Buddha Hut is offering 10% off your order and some free pound cake.
So if you can manage to eat there 10 times before March 31, that adds up to one 100% free meal and probably an entire free pound cake. Quick, post that baby on slickdeals.
March 23rd 2008
Yesterday was a blast! The Stone Soup community center on 4 King Street had a Pizza Taste-Off fund raiser. There were dozens of pizzas from local pizzerias and people from the community. I even entered a couple of pizzas myself. Each person got a couple of tickets to use as votes for the best pizza. I got a couple of votes, but I didn’t even come close to winning.
Lots of vegan pizzas - Stone Soup Pizza Taste-Off
I made a deep dish vegan pepperoni and soy-cheese pie and a thin-crust vegan pepperoni one. I didn’t win the competition, but my pizzas were gone only a few minutes after I put them down. I’ll consider that a success.
My vegan pepperoni pizzas and some other vegan ones - Stone Soup Pizza Taste-Off
About half of the pizzas were vegan and there was plenty of food to go around. Rachel’s rosemary, olive oil, and soy-cheese pizza was amazing. Randa of Worcester’s own vegan bakery–Barely Legal Baked Goods–made a few cheese-less pies and even a desert pizza with chocolate and fruit. Jon Martin entered a little late with a vegan cheese and spinach pizza. But it was Allison who made it into the final cut with her vegan Italian Alfredo and artichoke pizza.
Allison’s Alfredo Pizza - Stone Soup Pizza Taste-Off
Cody made a vegan Thai chicken pizza. I didn’t get any of that one, so I can’t explain what that means. It went fast, which means it must have been good!
Cody’s vegan Thai Pizza - Stone Soup Pizza Taste-Off
Craig Houston also made a ton of pizzas on behalf of Stone Soup. He was the big winner today, taking first place.
Craig waving a knife around - Stone Soup Pizza Taste-Off
For desert, some neighborhood kids had a bake sale to benefit the the Stone Soup Learning Cooperative. I’m glad I got one of the mini Boston creme donuts that Becky made before they ran out.
Bake Sale for the Learning Coop - Stone Soup Pizza Taste-Off
March 22nd 2008
Woah! There’s a new vegan Chinese restaurant opening in Worcester! Buddha Hut has great food, a quaint atmosphere, it’s inexpensive, and it’s in a pretty good location. Definitely worth a visit!
Buddha Hut
415 Chandler Street
phone: 508-459-0367
Monday-Thursday: 11am - 9pm
Friday-Saturday: 11am-10pm
Closed Sundays
With vegetarian mock-meat entrées like kung pao chicken, sesame beef, and heavenly chicken, even the most meat-loving among us will be able find something they like. Add some fried chicken drumsticks, spring rolls or wonton soup as an appetizer and you’ve got yourself a solid meal. This all-vegetarian restaurant is a nice place to grab a quick lunch or sit down with the family for a nice dinner.
Entrées are reasonably priced at around $7 or $8, but with appetizers and drinks your meal will likely come out closer to $10. If you’re really pinching pennies, try their lunch specials. The portions are the same size, but only costs 5 bucks. Each lunch special comes with rice, a spring roll and a fried wonton. Hard to beat for 5 bucks!In addition to the deep-fried goodness of their mock-meat dishes, they also have a good selection of fancy-pants fruit smoothies. I was impressed by the strawberry and coconut milk smoothie. It made for a nice desert.
The people behind Buddha Hut are the same folks who created Quan Yin, one of Central Mass’ top veg restaurants. Quan Yin is located at 56 Hamilton St in Worcester and has a similar menu, but slightly cheaper prices and a different atmosphere. Buddha Hut is larger and more geared towards formal dining than Quan Yin. Despite the similarities, the two restaurants don’t see each other as competitors. I’m certainly of the opinion that there is room enough for both places here in the heart of Massachusetts.
Give it a try! The grand opening is on March 31. You’ll get 10% off your order and you’ll even get some free pound cake to boot! The place will be open everyday until then, but they’re still working out some kinks. When I went on Friday, they were processing credit cards by hand and they’re still figuring out how to efficiently accommodate big parties (8+). Anyway, hope to see you at the grand opening!
Join the grand opening event on facebook.
March 20th 2008
SuperVegan just blogged about a Dunkin’ Donuts down in NYC adding soymilk. I only recently started drinking coffee, but this is exciting! Looks like they might be testing the market before they launch it nationally.
Andrea from SuperVegan says that Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Jon Luther has offered to add soymilk to some locations based on customer requests. I wonder if we could get Worcester Dunkin’ Donuts to add soymilk. Starbucks has been offering soymilk for a long time already. Maybe they just need a little nudge? You could send them a quick note about it.
In the meantime, Worcester has a few independent coffee shops that already offer soymilk. Try the Bean Counter on 113 Highland Street. They also have offer great vegan cookies and cakes!
March 18th 2008
Have you seen the Snow Ghost Community Show? It’s totally weird. Nothing compares to it. The episode that aired this past weekend featured two vegans sharing some homemade dishes and vegan cooking.
Rachel (of Unapologetic Optimist fame) and Allison brought along some some tasty-looking vegan goodies and talked about vegan cooking with hosts Mike Benedetti and Bruce Russell. If you haven’t seen the Snow Ghost Community Show before, it’s weird as heck. But its weirdness is what makes it so funny. Snow Ghost (slave name: Bruce) has a sense of humor unlike anyone else. He weaves together long pauses, strange puns, and bouts of mumbling to create a hilarious weekend talk show. My favorite part: When co-host and straight-man Mike asks for Snow Ghost’s final thought, Mike waits a few seconds but when Bruce doesn’t respond, Mike clarifies that he wants Bruce to actually say his final thought out loud, not just think it. Great stuff!
Besides Snow Ghost’s major burn on Allison’s cupcakes, the hosts both seem generally impressed by the veg food. They all chow down on some fried pot stickers, vegan mac ‘n cheese, cupcakes, and some chocolate pudding too.
Anyway, here’s the video.
