This self-published book is a bit of a mixed bag. There has been a lot of thought put into it but, in the process of explaining the author's theories, they've forgotten that brevity makes a book like this readable and enjoyable. It could really have done with a strong editor to tighten things up. The…
Continue reading βLet's eat banana peel!
I'm an indifferent cook, and mostly-vegan. But I like to be adventurous in my eating habits, when I can. So I decided to follow and then adapt this intriguing recipe for "banana peel bacon". OK. But Why? Food waste is a big issue. People throw away lots of perfectly edible food. They also discard tonnes…
Continue reading β(Mostly) Vegan
I've been a vegetarian for 21 years. And, last year, I became (mostly) vegan. Because my bum kept falling off. I'd been getting frequent stomach cramps and "gastrointestinal distress" which culminated in a nice man from the NHS shoving a camera up me to see if my guts were rotten. They were not (aside from…
Continue reading βIs Synthetarianism Compatible With Veganism?
Lab grown meat is nearly here. To be fair, it has been "nearly" here for a long long long long long time. But with the imminent arrival of lab-grown meat, it is time to investigate Synthetarianism. A diet of Synthetic food. I haven't eaten meat for... oh... 20 years now. I live with a carnivore…
Continue reading βUse-cases wanted! Adding dietary requirements to Schema.org/Person
I want Schema.org to add dietary requirements to the Person specification. And I need your help! Background Schema.org is a metadata standard. You can include it on webpages to create structured, machine-readable data. Here's a sample way of representing a Person: { "@context": "https://schema.org/", "@type": "Person", "name": "Albert Einstein", "hasOccupation": [ { "@type": "Occupation", "name":…
Continue reading βPerhaps the meat lobby has a point...?
I've been a vegetarian for half my life and I have been blogging about crappy vegetarian labelling for a decade. Usually it's a rant about how a seemingly innocuous dish has hidden bone jelly in it - but today I experience the reverse situation. So, I was in the "veggie snacks" aisle of my local…
Continue reading βReview: ε°ι³³θ Ώ (Vegan "Chicken" Drumsticks)
I'm a sucker for weird veggie-friendly foods! I especially love discovering what other countries and cultures do to replicate their meaty dishes in veggie friendly formats. So I was delighted to find a local store to me selling all manner of Chinese meat-substitutes - including these amazing looking "Chicken" Drumsticks! I ordered a bunch and…
Continue reading βSynthetarianism
Synthetic meat is coming soon! Actually, it has been coming soon for a long long long long long time. There are many interesting social aspects to this future. Is lab-grown meat kosher or halal? Would eating human-meat be cannibalism? Is it vegetarian? But, most importantly, what do we call people with a dietary preference for…
Continue reading βMake your hackday vegan
I go to lots of conferences, unconferences, hackdays, and tech events. As a vegetarian, I'm used to being relegated to second-class when it comes to event catering. If I'm lucky, I get some cheese sandwiches mingled with a plate of meaty snacks. That's why I was overjoyed at ODF Plugfest Rome when the organisers made…
Continue reading βA Vegetarian in Beijing
I was incredibly fortunate that my new employer sent me to a conference in China recently. I can't discuss what I did out there - but I can report on all the delicious food I ate! (NB - I paid for all meals myself!) Being veggie in Beijing was relatively easy. I had a stock…
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