Are you an observer of Meatless Monday, a flexitarian, or otherwise reducing your meat consumption? If so, you apparently are not alone! Seattle Times news librarian Gene Balk recently analyzed Seattle’s consumer spending habits and the availability of meat-free cuisine by neighborhood, determining that Wallingford ranks first in the city for its love of veggies. Yep. We eat our five daily servings here in the ‘hood, out-munching runners-up Fremont, Ballard, Greenlake and Queen Anne.
A stroll along 45th Street with vegetarian main courses in mind reveals some tasty temptations. From the strictly vegetarian like Sutra and Jhanjay to the many restaurants that simply offer some tasty choices – Golden Olive, Chutney’s, Tilth, and Satay come to mind – there is something for everyone who wants to dine low on the food chain. And of course there is Mighty O nearby, supplying us with vegan donuts. Yum!
Reading that there is such a concentration of veggie-eaters in our neighborhood got me to wondering why my fellow Wallingfordians purchase veggies at higher rates than others across the city. So how about it neighbors? Is it for health reasons? Cost? Environment? Or do you just love the food itself?
And if you have a favorite veggie dish to recommend, please do! Personally, I’d drop everything for one of Sutra’s mung bean crepes with wild foraged mushrooms. I am tempted to literally lick my plate whenever I eat there!
Do you chicken farmers eat the chickens, or eat only eggs and dispose of the carcasses some other way? I assume the Times analysis didn’t account for local livestock, where Wallingford would also be competitive.
“Vegetarian” is in practice more ambiguous than it sounds, and you could probably pick out a dozen distinct variations. By conventional definition it allows cheese and eggs, but by a somewhat weak rationale; someone who adds chicken or fish to that but still won’t eat mammalian flesh follows a dietary restriction that’s essentially similar. I was very pleased to eat wild hog last time I was in Texas, but I wouldn’t think of eating grocery store chicken.
For the purposes of the Times analysis, vegetarian means “not eating dead animal flesh”, which shouldn’t be terribly ambiguous. There are a number of goofy definitions for people who do eat meat but want to call themselves vegetarians anyway.
It’s interesting that Wallingford is number one, considering that it’s greatly outpaced by the number of specifically vegetarian/vegan eateries in the U-District and Capitol Hill.
The methodology of this study is unclear. Is he counting how much of the average food budget is spent on meat and fish purchases IN the neighborhood? If so–where is there to buy meat and fish in Wallingford besides the QFC? (certainly not the phantom Bill the Butcher). I prefer not to get meat there, but buy it at the Whole Foods, at PCC, at University seafood, U district farmers market, etc.–all outside Wallingford.
I’m willing to believe Wallingford is very veggie-heavy, but not based on this “analysis”
The Times analysis is really the fraction of food money spent on meat – it doesn’t concern itself with the definition of the term, nor does it show the existence of a single vegetarian on the neighborhood. If you ask your neighbors why they don’t eat so much meat, you’ll get all kinds of answers which in turn define all kinds of specific diets. I wouldn’t expect large numbers of them to conform to a specific plant-based diet for, for example, religious or cultural reasons.
The real nearly-religious widely practiced diet around here is the one where there must be meat every day. Breaking away from that is the radical step, and from there it’s just details.
I bet University Seafood particularly blackens the reputation of the University District as a vegetarian haven, with people coming in from other neighborhoods to spend big money on meat there.
This made me think of the Almost Live sketch Cops in Wallingford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhx2GKqOdHo
great local comedy show circa from the 90s!
Julia’s in Wallingford has many delicious vegetarian dishes. It’s a place where my extended family can find something for everyone.
I had some fantastic vegetarian dishes at Joule in their new location on Stone Way the other night.
This speaking as a 19-year vegetarian.