This Guy Knows What I'm Talking About

Woo, got my first anti-vegan rant comment today. It's like a rite of passage for blogs, no? I should throw it a quinceanera or something.

Anyway it was in reference to my post about how veganism expanded my culinary horizons. I was wondering if others had that experience too, and then I read a quote from Mark Bittman,

"I wasn’t a vegetarian when I started writing [How to Cook Everything Vegetarian], and I’m not one now. But I have a far greater appreciation for the non-carnivorous world, an appreciation that doesn't feel like a compromise but rather as if I've expanded my culinary universe. In the world of cooking, the available plants are more numerous and arguably more interesting than the available animals, and they're produced and consumed at far less cost to personal health, the environment, and the economy."

Sounds a little familiar to something I recently wrote.

This confirms my theory that Mark Bittman is far more awesome than Michael Pollan. My husband and I were recently lamenting the Pollanites who interpret his message "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." as "Eat a salad alongside your grass-fed beef." 

Because Pollan approaches food more in theory and principle, but doesn't get as much into practical application, it's easy to loosely interpret his ideas for your own convenience. But Bittman explicitly encourages far more meat-free meals, having written a vegetarian cook book, and himself following a "vegan before 6:00" diet.

Obviously I think vegan all day long is the way to go, but the fact that he even invokes the word "vegan" makes a big statement. And you don't have to take my word for it. Vegansaurus loves this guy too.