Veg

[King Bob]

They could try the parody defense, but it's a crapshoot.

[Drunk Monk]

McDharma's (now just Dharma's) of Santa Cruz went down this exact same road already. I hope to get to McCharlie's before the inevitable cease & desist...

Viva la Resistancia!

[Drunk Monk]

NOOOOOOOO!

40-year-old mid-Market vegetarian restaurant Ananda Fuara is closing permanently on Sunday

Image: Kevin Y. via Yelp
By Joe Kukura - Published on January 31, 2023.
San FranciscoCivic Center
One of San Francisco's oldest surviving vegetarian restaurants, Ananda Fuara, just celebrated its 40th anniversary this past December. But not even two months later, that celebration is turning sadder, as Ananda Fuara announced last week that they will close permanently, with this Sunday, February 5 as their final day at their longtime Market and Hayes Street home.

pic.twitter.com/n307zrQnvu
— Ananda Fuara (@AnandaFuara) January 27, 2023

 
“It is with great difficulty that we announce the closing of Ananda Fuara permanently on Feb. 5th,” the restaurant announced both on Twitter and their website. “In the future it is possible there may be an opportunity to return in a different form and place but for now we are closing. If you’re able, please stop by so we can express our gratitude for your patronage.”
“We have had the honor and opportunity to be of service to San Francisco and the Bay Area for 40 years and many of you have been faithful customers for much of that time,” their statement continues. “But whether you came for the first time yesterday, or dined with us first in 1982, we greatly appreciate your business and we hope you too will have fond memories of our light-filled little blue eatery.”

[b]
Image: Andrew H. via Yelp[/b]
 
The restaurant says the name “Ananda Fuara” means “fountain of delight,” which they say was given to them by the late Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy, whose picture appears all over the restaurant. But in San Francisco, Anada Fuara was more synonymous with their vegetarian meatloaf “neatloaf,” avocado toast before it became a craze, and waitstaff clad in saris.

[b]I
[/b][b]Image: Jen N. via Yelp[/b]
 
And so it’s the end of a good long run for Ananda Fuara, which opened in 1982. But it’s not the oldest surviving vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. Fort Mason's Greens has been around even longer, having opened in 1979.

I've eaten here so many times. It was my go-to place when I worked BGC. Sometimes, back in the AFS days, I would hit it up on the way to the Warfield. This makes me so sad. Their neatloaf was the bomb.

[Drunk Monk]

You’ve Tried Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” Ice Cream; Now, Here’s Bobby Weir’s Jack Straw Berry” [Photos]
Andrew O'Brien | Wednesday, September 20th, 2023
Photos: (left) Matt Busch via Bob Weir Instagram – "Jack Straw Berry" container; (right) Jay Blakesberg – Bob Weir

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The Grateful Dead and Ben & Jerry’s have shared space in the hearts, minds, and stomachs of music and ice cream fans alike since 1987, when the launch of “Cherry Garcia” opened the floodgates for decades worth of artist-branded frozen treats with far-reaching activism tie-ins. On Tuesday, in celebration of a Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros show as part of the Ben & Jerry’s Concerts on the Green series at Shelburne Museum in the ice cream moguls’ native Vermont, a new prototype flavor entered the chat: a Weir-endorsed, non-dairy “Jack Straw Berry.”
Per a representative from Weir’s camp, Ben & Jerry’s made five pints of the custom “Jack Straw Berry” blend loosely based on ideas provided by Bobby and his wife, Natascha Weir. A photo of the container posted on Weir’s Instagram refers to the flavor as a “Strawberry Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert with Strawberry Pieces, Pretzel Swirls & Marshmallow Swirls.” On the back of the container, the Ben & Jerry’s crew gave its lyrical regards to the visiting musician: “We can share the strawberries / We can share the vegan cream / We can keep on groovin’ along / ‘Cause Bobby’s helping us live the dream.”
The countless people who have enjoyed that flavor in the decades since owe a debt of gratitude not to Ben nor Jerry but to Jane Williamson, the Grateful Dead fan who posted a note at her local Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop in Maine and subsequently followed up with a postcard sent directly to the company’s Burlington, VT headquarters in the late 1980s. The note read, “Dear Ben & Jerry’s: We’re great fans of the Grateful Dead and we’re great fans of your ice cream. Why don’t you make a cherry flavor and call it Cherry Garcia? You know it will sell because Dead paraphernalia always sells. We are talking good business sense here, plus it will be a real hoot for the fans.”
The suggestion was made anonymously and for a time, the company was unsure of who sent them this million-dollar idea. When they eventually connected the dots and found out it was Williamson, they invited her to a shareholders’ meeting as a guest of honor, where she received a standing ovation along with a year’s supply of ice cream.

AdvertisementAccording to Ben & Jerry’s website, the company wanted to make sure that Jerry was into the idea before spreading the new flavor far and wide, so they sent the first eight pints they made straight to Garcia, who eventually gave Cherry Garcia his blessing. As he responded to the ice cream makers through his publicist, “As long as they don’t name a motor oil after me, it’s fine with me.”

If that was enough to spark an ice cream craze last time around, Weir’s speedy support of the flavor should carry some weight here. You can also always drop Ben & Jerry’s a line via the company’s “Contact Us” page to let them know you’d like to share some “Jack Straw Berry,” ‘cus Bob done shared all of his. They’ve been known to listen to customer suggestions in the past…
So, we’d like to be the first to throw our support behind an official “Jack Straw Berry” release benefitting one of the many Dead-related charities. In the words of Jane Williamson, the Cherry Garcia visionary, “You know it will sell because Dead paraphernalia always sells. We’re talking good business sense here, plus it will be a real hoot for the fans.” Yep. All of that. We won’t rest until we can enjoy a Jack Straw Berry and Cherry Garcia sundae from sea to shining sea. Ball’s in your court, Ben & Jerry’s.

[Drunk Monk]

Just gonna leave this here...

3D-printed vegan salmon hits the European market 
Catherine Boudreau


Top image: Revo Foods' 3D printed vegan salmon. Bottom image: A Wild Pacific king salmon fillet. 
Thomas Barwick/Getty

• Revo Foods is the first company to sell 3D-printed vegan salmon fillets, now available in Europe.
  
• Some $400 million has poured into startups making seafood from plants and fish cells.
  
• Entrepreneurs said alternative seafood could reduce overfishing and microplastic pollution. 
  

The market for 3D-printed products includes homes, furniture, and footwear. Now we can add salmon to the list, at least in Europe.
The foodtech startup Revo Foods in September became the first company to sell 3D-printed vegan salmon filets in select grocery stores in Vienna, Austria, and opened an online shop that ships the product to most European countries this month.
"It flakes very nicely into layers just like salmon," Robin Simsa, the CEO of Revo Foods, told Insider. "It also has a similar taste, but like any meat alternative, it's not 100% the same."
This marks a milestone for the nascent alternative-seafood industry, which is testing an array of ingredients and technologies to make products that don't harm ocean ecosystems. Some startups are developing plant-based options, while others are growing fish cells in a lab. For its part, Revo Foods' 3D printer layers "mycoprotein" made from mushroom roots with plant-based fats to mimic the texture of real salmon.
Investors have poured upward of $400 million into the alternative-seafood startups in recent years — including $7 million in Revo Foods. But no company is making massive amounts of it yet. And the biggest question remains largely untested: Will people buy it?
Over the past several weeks, Simsa said Revo Foods' vegan salmon has sold out within hours of hitting store shelves. But many of the comments below a YouTube promotional video were critical of the premium price and the idea of printing food.
Revo Foods sells 130 grams, or about 4 ½ ounces, of its vegan salmon for 7 euros, or about $7.
"Why would I eat fake salmon that's more expensive than real salmon?" one commenter asked. Another said they'd rather be in a nuclear apocalypse than eat the vegan filets. The reactions were more positive on Instagram, however.
Simsa said the price will drop as Revo Foods automates more steps in the process outside of 3D printing and produces larger volumes. He acknowledged that people are skeptical of the technology but said it isn't unlike other industrial machinery that already makes chocolate and snacks. Barilla is already selling 3D-printed pasta.
There's also the sustainability angle.
Salmon is considered one of the healthiest things to eat and fish in general have a much lower carbon footprint than beef, a well-known contributor to the climate crisis because of methane emissions from cattle and the vast amount of land required to raise them.
Still, around one-third of global fish stocks are overexploited, according to the United Nations. And fishing nets are a major source of ocean microplastics, which scientists say are increasingly being found in humans.
"Ultimately, people want to be excited about a product. We have to capture their imaginations," Christopher Bryson, the CEO of New School Foods, told Insider. His startup is developing its own plant-based whole salmon filet using a novel freezing technology and has raised $12 million.
"If people made decisions based on health and the planet, we'd all already only be eating tofu," Bryson said.