Veg Blog

by Mike Benedetti, Eileen Botti, Rachel Hamilton, Artur Janc, Cody Rank, Jaclyn Marie Kateri Snow Sargent, Allison Vasallo, and Drew Wilson We challenge every self-proclaimed vegetarian and vegan in the city to hand out one (1) booklet about factory farming to a college student this semester. Last semester, along with our friends, we handed out more than 1,000 booklets about the cruelties of modern animal agriculture to local students. It was time well-spent, both because of the many positive comments we received and because if only 1% of those students make a change in diet, thousands of animals will be spared needless suffering. On one of our last days leafleting in 2007, a local vegan came to join us when we had only a single booklet left. We were surprised at what a positive experience it was to get a new person involved even in such a small way. We'd like to see this positivity repeated hundreds of times in Spring 2008. If you'd like to leaflet with "Team Worcester," or just pick up a free Vegan Outreach booklet to hand out on your own, please contact us: info@vegworcester.com or 305-393-3250. We wish you a happy and cruelty-free Spring!

Woah! There's a new vegan Chinese restaurant opening in Worcester! Buddha Hut has great food, a quaint atmosphere, it's inexpensive, and it's in a pretty good location. Definitely worth a visit! Buddha Hut 415 Chandler Street phone: 508-459-0367 Monday-Thursday: 11am - 9pm Friday-Saturday: 11am-10pm Closed Sundays

My Review

With vegetarian mock-meat entrées like kung pao chicken, sesame beef, and heavenly chicken, even the most meat-loving among us will be able find something they like. Add some fried chicken drumsticks, spring rolls or wonton soup as an appetizer and you've got yourself a solid meal. This all-vegetarian restaurant is a nice place to grab a quick lunch or sit down with the family for a nice dinner.

Entrées are reasonably priced at around $7 or $8, but with appetizers and drinks your meal will likely come out closer to $10. If you're really pinching pennies, try their lunch specials. The portions are the same size, but only costs 5 bucks. Each lunch special comes with rice, a spring roll and a fried wonton. Hard to beat for 5 bucks!In addition to the deep-fried goodness of their mock-meat dishes, they also have a good selection of fancy-pants fruit smoothies. I was impressed by the strawberry and coconut milk smoothie. It made for a nice desert.

The people behind Buddha Hut are the same folks who created Quan Yin, one of Central Mass' top veg restaurants. Quan Yin is located at 56 Hamilton St in Worcester and has a similar menu, but slightly cheaper prices and a different atmosphere. Buddha Hut is larger and more geared towards formal dining than Quan Yin. Despite the similarities, the two restaurants don't see each other as competitors. I'm certainly of the opinion that there is room enough for both places here in the heart of Massachusetts. Give it a try! The grand opening is on March 31. You'll get 10% off your order and you'll even get some free pound cake to boot! The place will be open everyday until then, but they're still working out some kinks. When I went on Friday, they were processing credit cards by hand and they're still figuring out how to efficiently accommodate big parties (8+). Anyway, hope to see you at the grand opening! Join the grand opening event on facebook.

Buddha Hut Grand Opening March 31 2008 Woah! There’s a new vegan Chinese restaurant opening in Worcester! Buddha Hut has great food, a quaint atmosphere, it’s inexpensive, and it’s in a pretty good location. Definitely worth a visit! Come out for the Grand Opening on Monday March 31, 2008. Buddha Hut 415 Chandler Street phone: 508-459-0367 Regular hours: Monday-Thursday: 11am - 9pm Friday-Saturday: 11am-10pm Closed Sundays

Several of us have been posting vegetarian/vegan-type stuff to Worcester Activist, so all of this will now appear at a group blog here: Link.

Letter: Jail not cooperating with vegetarians - [Worcester News For All To Learn] This is totally lame. I'm going to call Guy W. Glodis to ask if he'll help this vegetarian inmate out. I'll post a phone number or email address as soon as I find one.

Photo: zenera (Flickr) At Step It Up I was pleased to meet Christina Triplett of the Worcester Vegan Society. She told me one of the WVS’s projects is making Worcester a foie gras-free city. Chicago went so far as to ban foie gras sales, with mixed results. According to the WVS’s materials, only 2 restaurants in Worcester serve the stuff: Block 5 (which uses it to garnish steak) and Bocado (which serves it on a sandwich). What’s more, they have the same chef! So making Worcester foie gras-free would be no more complicated than one man tweaking his menus. Wolfgang Puck recently removed foie gras from his offerings, and in a statement said:

Our guests are interested in the same environmental issues that have long concerned us—sustainable farming and fishing, humane treatment of farm animals and reducing the amount of hormones, antibiotics, preservatives and pesticides in the food we eat.

YouTube video of Wolfgang Puck

So Drew Wilson was on WCCA TV13 talking about the WPI "no battery eggs" campaign, and since it was posted to the web it was picked up by noted vegan activist Erik Marcus, who praised it to the heavens on his podcast Erik's Diner:

This thing's really worth watching, because this is a young college activist who, I would imagine, has very little experience being on TV, but he was magnificent! You gotta watch this guy!

Download the podcast (mp3)