trust + veg*n foods: hidden dairy & eggs at SF Chinese veg restaurants

[Guest guest]

When we eat out at restaurants, a big factor is trust, especially for vegan food where it's not always obvious if a dish has eggs, dairy, or other miscellaneous bits of animal secretions or excretions. The following examples explain why we've cut back from eating dinner out 6-8 times a month at our favorite veg restaurants to at most 1 or 2 times a month now. Hopefully by sharing these experiences, we can help prevent someone else from having the same unwelcome surprises that we had. Shangri-La Vegetarian Restaurant in SF We've eaten there for several years, and have been personally told by the owner which dishes are vegan. So imagine our shock to find one of our favorite dishes, Pie Pa Tofu Balls (small round balls of tofu deep fried) served with an intact and very conspicuous piece of egg shell protruding from it. The waitress re-confirmed that the dish is vegan (does not contain eggs), took it back to the cook, who explained the egg shell had "fallen in" while making another dish ... So .. we requested a different dish in lieu of that one ... After a few months, we hesitantly returned to eating at the restaurant.... Fast forward a few months to July ...We're there with some friends, and decide to ask again about Pie Pa Tofu Balls. This time, the same waitress, tells us they are made with EGGS. We have not been back to the restaurant since then ... In fact, this was the impetus for deciding not to eat out at all for an entire month because we were so disgusted with the local food scene (not trusting restaurants, lack of service at other veg restaurants, etc). Bok Choy Garden in SF If you think Bok Choy Garden is vegan, which is what their printed "to go" menu says , please note it is not ..... at least not this week. This was our second visit since its ownership change in November last year. We had previously been told that one of our favorite dishes, the tofu cheese rolls, were vegan. When we ordered them this time, we asked, "does it contain dairy?" The waitress said it was vegetarian, no eggs. "Does it contain dairy? Milk?" She said it had vegetarian cheese. Our vegan atennae went to full alert. This was different than what we'd been told under the previous ownership, and supposedly they had given the recipes to the new management. We asked to see the packaging .... she obligingly brought out a huge package of shredded mozzarella cheese made from cow's milk ... not even soy cheese with casein (which we suspected) but cheese made from cow's milk and most likely rennet (made from the stomach lining of baby calves) We tried to explain to her that she cannot call the restaurant vegan if they are serving cheese. She said she would buy a different cheese, but I don't think she understood us when we tried to explain that most soy cheezes also contain casein. So, if you're looking to avoid dairy, beware the tofu cheese rolls. She said that is the only dish where cheese is used. Zante's Pizza & Indian Food in SF While we're on the topic of trust, I'll also throw Zante's in; this was a couple of years ago..... They have a "vegan" pizza on the menu. After many conversations, we were finally told the crust in the vegan pizza has milk in it. When we told them that's not vegan, the same person suddenly remembered to explain that their vegan pizza has a different crust than the regular pizza. Caveat emptor. ( Sadly Panhandle Pizza in SF -- which was using the vegan Follow Your Heart cheese -- has closed .. for good, it appears ... )

Anyways, after Shangri-La and this most recent experience at Bok Choy Garden, I think I can safely say that Chris & I won't be so eager to return to eating out so much ... We've been doing a lot more cooking at home and it's actually been quite enjoyable. Made a delicious corn chowder soup today.

 

 

Tammy

 

 

 

 

Bay Area Vegetarianswww.BayAreaVeg.org