bear in the woodlands

[Guest guest]

>say, why does the punk mouse have to be the villian!!!

>sheeesh!!!

>

>fraggle

 

well, if it is a Hollywood version ... because they ran out of Black guys

or Japanese to play the bad guy.

 

and it is troo. Crass told me to say so. ha-ha. which, given the thread

makes me wonder, how is their outdoor organic toilet getting on?

 

talking about my usual subject matter ...

 

can i fervently un-recommend Woodlands vegetarian restaurant in Wembley.

 

how crap can you get. i cant believe these guys. the worst eating

experience i have had in years! incredible unvegan friendly.

 

you know, it has to be said, that there is something about the old guys

that work in Indian restaurants that make them them the most stupid,

tricky, hard headed - all together difficult peple to deal with.

 

i always joked that you go into a Indian veg restaurant and ask them what

is vegan and despite going through thel ist of what you wont eat get

served up something else that is dairy. say no milk, you; get ghee. say

no milk, no ghee; you get yoghurt. say so milk, no ghee, no yoghurt; you

get butter ... and so it goes on.

 

and *even* in this case where i went right through the list, the guy

still brought out a dish that i had specifically asked " is this vegan

.... does this have no dairy " offered it to a friend and then told them

it had a little milk in it. along with the yoghurt on the side ... and

then he gets into this big argument and lists alternatives like matir

panir instead!!! [ it is cheese ]. no kind of apology or humility or

understanding at all.

 

i am sorry to say but the guy was a total f*ck and if i was with another

vegan would have ended up walking out after having half eated what was

there and making a big scene.

 

what i dont understand is that he must have gone through this scene a

hundred times as i am sure that i was not the first vegan to step in

there. i wonder how many more he had poisoned before?

 

i have to say, this is a really Indian problem. i dont get it with any

other ethnic restaurants. what is it all about? part of the bartering

culture ... part of the arrogance of plain vegetarians ... or hindus

thinking that they know more about what vegetarianism is about than us

white boys ... [ i'll quote Gandhi to prove that i am not being racially

prejudiced. this is nothing to do with racial prejudice just customer

service and respect for others. i lived within a gujerati community for a

year solid ].

 

for example, i find Italian chef are great, i have had them come out show

really concern and make something extra special. frech might think that

you are nuts but do something with flair [ i can live with parisian

disdain, it is quite cool if they deliver as well ]. chinese, unless they

are buddhist, forget it, they just dont want to know. [ eat anything with

wings except airplanes, anything with legs except tables ] bengali. you

get what is there and they do it the same way year in year out for life [

overcoocked, oily too much salt but pure veg ]. but indian guys i find

really hard headed about his ...

 

i guess i could have a bitch at the Hari Krishnas, and Hindus in general,

for wittering on about holy cows and then drowning themselves in factory

milk products as soon as they get to the West. i did trya nd analyse this

situation a little to realise that a) milk products are like steak to

them is to working classes here - a symbol of wealth and status like

being fat with added religious symbolism all tied up with mother

psychology; and b) cooking and waiting is a low caste thing and the folk

that are doing have a problem with their perceived status.

 

there are no pop star chefs to aspire to and being " in service " is

something that they seem to have a gripe about, very low caste, but many

of the old Indian guys in catering over here are over qualified for the

job but stuck in their economic migrancy mode having lost everything in

East Africa when Amin chucked them out ... [ historical note; majority of

vegetarian Indians in the West are Gujeratis [ Patels ] and came via East

Africa. personally, i have had better experience with Keralans where

apparently 60 % or people are vegatarian ... these Woodlands guys were

from Madras ].

 

if anyone else has any idea about this, i would be glad to hear them. but

i am plain sick of it. if i am paying to eat, i want what i want and a

nice experience to boot.

 

and what i did learn was this ...

 

if a vegetarian restaurant does not have clearly marked vegan options

*forget it*.

 

they have problems with vegans.

 

john

[Guest guest]

vegan-network, demo <jallan@f...> wrote:

> >say, why does the punk mouse have to be the villian!!!

> >sheeesh!!!

> >

> >fraggle

> >

> how crap can you get. i cant believe these guys. the worst eating

> experience i have had in years! incredible unvegan friendly.

>

> you know, it has to be said, that there is something about the old

guys

> that work in Indian restaurants that make them them the most

stupid,

> tricky, hard headed - all together difficult peple to deal with.

 

My record for extreme vegan unfriendliness (and i'm not the only

person to have experienced this) goes to Black Bos veggie restaurant

in Edinburgh. Hardline cowsuckers are impossible to beat, regardless

of race.

 

There's an old Indian guy and woman who take turns to cook in my

favourite eating place - the Wee Curry Shop in Glasgow, whole place

kitchen and all the size of a living room - and the food is

wonderful; always 3 vegan options, 1 veggie and the dead baby sheep

and hen based dishes for the local barbarians.

 

Other older Indian guy i met recently was the owner of Annapurna, a

gujerati veggie restaurant in Edinburgh - his family, who do

everything, were very vegan-helpful, even if the sons who wait at

table confess to letting mother down as meat-eaters ...

 

Something I've found from Annapurna, and other veggie Indian

restaurants, is that it's been the proprietor's wife who's been the

driving force, largely for religious reasons (i've found this too

with chinese buddhist places in far east). The rest of the family

might not care as much.

 

Curiously, there seems to be more momentum behind - at least in the

west - muslim veganism than hindu. I'm surprised, based on my

experiences in islamic countries, but pleasantly so. Perhaps there's

too much complacency and sense of spiritual superiority amongst

hindu vegetarians, as inheritors of such a long glorious tradition.

Having seen cows eating amidst the rubbish heaps of indian cities,

it might be complacency about health too!

 

For some perspective, the %age of western food, and other products,

hat doesn't have animal ingredients is alarmingly small - even the

fruit gets coated in shellac, dairy products commonly in bread and

animal fats in innocent looking biscuits. Western culture has

perfected with all animal products what Indians have with 1 or 2

 

 

having said that, this one is new to me:

 

" Silver Foil (Varak): normally used on Indian sweets, fruits and

paan, it is made by beating silver sheets between fresh cow and

buffalo intestines while they are still warm. Microscopic

examinations show fragments of intestines embedded in the foil. "

 

 

 

;-jey