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Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

bighospitality.co.uk

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Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#61

Post by Mikeb85 »

dfxm12 wrote: post #23
Kaibeezy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. I'll guess (can't access the original report) that it's something like "expressly designated vegan version of main course items". For example, this from the Guardian: ... the owner of I Am Doner, a pair of kebab shops in Leeds and Harrogate, said his vegan kebab routinely outsold chicken, halloumi and falafel. Made from seitan, a meat substitute derived from wheat gluten, the “voner” kebab sometimes outsells th…

Falafel themselves might or might not be vegan (I've seen recipes that contain eggs, and some that don't), but it would almost certainly be served with a yogurt-based sauce.

Can't speak for every kebab shop but here it's typically served with hummus, tahini and sometimes an eggplant spread.

Edit - also the traditional way to make falafel is vegan as it originated as a fasting food for Middle Eastern Christians (traditional fasting rules dictate no animal products).

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#62

Post by mytailorisrich »

criddell wrote: post #57
mytailorisrich wrote: post #45

Vegan and vegetarian are absolute terms. The only meaning of "semi-vegetarian" or "semi-vegan" is that you're not either. "Semi-vegan" is a particularly nonsensical term.

There's no reason for them to be absolute, is there? If I eat one non-vegan meal every 20 meals, then I think it's reasonable to say my diet is 95% vegan.

> There's no reason for them to be absolute, is there?

Well, yes there is since that's the very definition of "vegan" and "vegetarian".

If I drink only at weekends, am I a semi-teetotaller? That's ridiculous.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#63

Post by dfxm12 »

strict9 wrote: post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

I guess I'm lucky to have grown up in an area where restaurants almost always had some vegan options just as a matter of course. Tomato pie vs pepperoni pizza, pasta places with spaghetti so good, it doesn't matter if you get pomodoro or carbonara, dry fried szechuan string beans that sounds like "just a side" but eats like a meal, tacos with chicken, pork or veggies.

Veg/vegan food was always just food to me, so all this hub bub about it is bizarre to me.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#64

Post by erikpukinskis »

Fogest wrote: post #24
Kaibeezy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. I'll guess (can't access the original report) that it's something like "expressly designated vegan version of main course items". For example, this from the Guardian: ... the owner of I Am Doner, a pair of kebab shops in Leeds and Harrogate, said his vegan kebab routinely outsold chicken, halloumi and falafel. Made from seitan, a meat substitute derived from wheat gluten, the “voner” kebab sometimes outsells th…

It depends, many places I've been you can get a falafel based meal to be made vegan, but typically they will include sauces not vegan, thus they are vegetarian meals by default. Not hard to swap the sauce to make it vegan though.

I don’t know about “typical”... the traditional sauce to put on falafel is tahini sauce which is vegan.

Some Greek places put yogurt instead of tahini which is not vegan, but I wouldn’t call that typical. I would call it a “too common aberration” and “a reason not to eat Greek falafel”.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#65

Post by glitchc »

I love these doubling and quadrupling statistical figures that are absolutely meaningless when placed outside the context of the percentage of the whole.

"We quadrupled subscriptions last night" is true when going from 400 million to 1.6 billion and also true when going from 1 to 4.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#66

Post by [deleted] »

Iv wrote: post #44
strict9 wrote: post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

For me that's a mix of ethical and environmental concerns. I agree that there is a point in the belief that it is unethical to kill animals. That's not the most unethical thing that is happening in the world, there are a lot of things to argue about, but in general, I agree that in an ideal world, we should not do that. The environmental concerns, I only buy half-heartedly. I don't really believe that land-owners wil…

[deleted]

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#67

Post by erikpukinskis »

dfxm12 wrote: post #23
Kaibeezy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. I'll guess (can't access the original report) that it's something like "expressly designated vegan version of main course items". For example, this from the Guardian: ... the owner of I Am Doner, a pair of kebab shops in Leeds and Harrogate, said his vegan kebab routinely outsold chicken, halloumi and falafel. Made from seitan, a meat substitute derived from wheat gluten, the “voner” kebab sometimes outsells th…

Falafel themselves might or might not be vegan (I've seen recipes that contain eggs, and some that don't), but it would almost certainly be served with a yogurt-based sauce.

Falafel shouldn’t have any egg in it if made properly.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#68

Post by Mikeb85 »

As interesting as this is, it's just the takeaway sector.

As someone in the higher-end restaurant sector, I certainly haven't seen increased demand for vegan options. It also doesn't help that many vegans are very price sensitive, not to mention have a disproportionate amount of other dietary restrictions.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#69

Post by schnevets »

strict9 wrote: post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

To me, it's less about new products and more about people's tastes. People are eating very different things now because of new popularity in some cuisines (Indian, Thai, and Mexican come to mind) and the popularity of "superfoods" (Avocado, Acai berry... ever notice there are never any animal-based superfoods?).

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#70

Post by glitchc »

wUabkSG6L5Bfa5 wrote: post #22
tobr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. I think this is a virtuous cycle. Even if only a small percentage of people are vegans, you only need one vegan in a group of people to pick a place that offers vegan food. Vegan food is also a safe bet for the larger group of vegetarians. That means more places want to offer some good vegan options, which in turn makes more people try vegan food, and makes it easier to be a vegan. I’m not a vegan nor a vegeta…

Nassim Taleb makes precisely this argument about the power of stubborn minorities. Which I think is 99% great. Though I think the medium term equilibrium is just that more establishments will need to do better than a half-ass salad for a vegan offering. Which is 100% great.

Stubborn minorities also lead to the "Tyranny of the Minority" and cause widespread anger among the silent majority of moderates who do not foist their preferences onto others. It leads to reduced freedoms all across society.

https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/02/the-tyranny-of-the-minor...

It's one of the root causes leading to the rise of populists like Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/trump-electoral-c...

In short, be careful what you wish for.

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