Meat Eater to Vegan and Back Again.

How That Happened and My General Musings About Food!

This doesn’t happen to me often, but I wrote most of this already, didn’t save it and then lost it. Gutting.

Better luck this time, eh?!

Recently I wrote a blog about Vegan Aberdeen and in it, I mentioned that I was vegan but I’m not anymore. I was hoping to not just sell Aberdeen’s vegan restaurants to vegans but also encourage fellow meat eaters to give vegan food a chance. I thought that making it clear that I was a meat eater again now would help with that. Sometimes people are interested in my dietary ‘journey’ (sorry for using that word), but it’s often an awkward conversation for both parties. Conversations about diet can be divisive and inflammatory depending on who you’re talking to. I normally try to cut the conversation short because a) I don’t want to be boring and b) I don’t want to get myself in trouble. So, I’m going to try and get it all out here.

Phase 1: Teens to early 20s.

Right, so the first part’s easy. My parents eat meat, so I grew up eating meat. Simple. But, at some point during my teens I decided that eating something dead was gross and I stopped. Although, to be fair, it was probably a little more gradual than that. I just don’t remember.

Then, I booked a trip to hike along the Great Wall of China (not all of it, obviously). What has a trip to China got to do with any of this I hear you ask?! Well, this was back in 2006 and vegetarianism/veganism was less of ‘a thing’. I was worried that I wouldn’t find enough to eat alongside all the hiking, so I made a conscious decision to start eating meat again. I don’t think it was quite as easy as that, I think there was a mental barrier, but it was definitely the right decision. I remember the vegetarians in the party didn’t get the quantity or variety of food that the rest of us did. It all looked pretty difficult and depressing. Then when I got back from China I just kept going!

It’s funny because people always assume I’m veggie or vegan because, apparently I give off that vibe. Don’t ask me what that means, I don’t know! I’ve learned that a lot of prejudgements are based around what you eat. On my first day as a volunteer conservation warden on a Hebridean island I walked into the office to meet all the conservation farmers clutching my ham sandwich for lunch. I later learned that their opinion of me changed in that moment. They thought I was just another young conservationist coming along with big ideas and big opinions on how they should manage their land (I think they’d been burned before!) and just that ham sandwich made them slightly more open minded towards me. It gave me an ‘in’. I also found out that on a small island with very little new blood coming in it also made me more attractive! Who’d have thought a ham sandwich could do all that! Being vegetarian or vegan (or even assumed to be one) can lead to lots of assumptions about your character.

Phase 2: Late 20s in Aberystwyth University.

I’d just finished a year and a half working in conservation and went to do a degree in Zoology with Microbiology in Aberystwyth. At some point I started to feel a bit hypocritical. I was all about the environment and I said all the right things but I felt like I wasn’t doing anything to back those words up! The first thing I addressed was palm oil. I’m not going to go into it here but, essentially, I found out that broadly palm oil = bad! So, I cut it out. I started reading every label of every item I bought and I soon got used to what I could and couldn’t buy. Then, I read a lot of stuff about how going vegan was better for the environment and that ultimately it was more sustainable (not to mention better for animal welfare), so I went vegan. I say vegan, but I really became a plant-based eater. I still used leather because I thought that was better than using a plastic alternative, I still used natural wool because synthetic fibres are a big ocean pollutant and I was never really that bothered about bees making honey for me! I was also fairly relaxed in that if someone kindly made me a meal but had accidentally added a little butter into the mix, I would just graciously accept the food. I also distinctly remember my friend dropping a sausage on the beach and making moves to throw it away because it had sand on it. I had a quick moral conversation in my head about how I didn’t buy the sausage or ask someone to buy it for me, and how it was just going to go to waste so I brushed it off and ate it!

Anyway, I was originally meant to go vegan for a month to try it out and that turned into a year and a bit. I actually found it pretty easy. I quickly got used to it and it didn’t take me long to stop missing certain items of food, like cheese. It was probably made easier by the fact that there was a wave of people going vegan at the same time.

So that ticked along nicely until I developed a chronic illness in my final year of undergrad. To cut a long story short it just got to a point where it was more important for me to look after my body and just eat food rather than put restrictions on what that food was. I’d held some pretty classic plant-based opinions in that I thought anybody could go vegan, that everybody should and that it was pretty much a cure all (I’m face palming just admitting that). I lost count of the amount of times people told me to try going vegan or drink more water to help with my illness. I appreciate people don’t know what to say and they’re just trying to help but I now realise just how ableist those values are. Not everyone can go vegan. I was wrong and it is not that simple!

Apart from it just being easier when I was really poorly, the other reason I swung from vegan straight back to eating meat (without stopping at vegetarian first) was that, for me, the dairy/egg industry has the same, if not larger ethical question marks than the meat industry…so my opinions are fairly black and white. I either choose to use animals or I don’t. I understand that people are vegetarian for lots of complex reasons though so it’s highly personal. You do you!

Phase 3: Early 30s at the University of Chester and Aberdeen.

Anyway, my chronic illness improved to a point where I was well enough to go and do my MSc in Chester. I wasn’t vegan anymore and I felt a lot of ex-vegan guilt! I felt like I wasn’t doing enough for the environment and I felt a bit hypocritical, so I started to adopt different eco-friendly habits. Eventually, that culminated in me going ‘plastic-free’ for a month and by coincidence that meant I ate vegan most of the time anyway. If I bought cheese or meat it was local and I’d get it wrapped in my little beeswax wraps. After my ‘plastic free’, almost ‘zero-waste’ month was up I relaxed a bit but a lot of the habits I’d formed were already ingrained so I kept them up until I moved to Aberdeen to start my PhD.

Aberdeen is a much bigger city than Chester and I had to re-learn where I could buy grains etc… in bulk. It was tough and it was absolutely a lifestyle…as in I spent so much time sourcing and buying goods that were as waste-free/vegan/local as possible that it was pretty all consuming. If it was vegan it was often wrapped in plastic or contained ‘exotic’ produce, if it was local it was often meat or dairy, or it was in something non-recyclable/reusable, and similarly if it was waste-free it was often non-vegan, or least flown into the UK from some far off land. I started to find it really stressful.

It got to the point where I’d end up standing in a shop going through some sort of moral dilemma over whether to buy something. I’d be making all these hard decisions to go without stuff, or to save up to buy more eco-friendly versions of things, or buying things I didn’t really fancy eating but at least they fit into this system of rules I’d laid out for myself. Then I’d get to the till and notice folk who’d bagged their bananas in plastic or loaded the conveyer belt with meat and single use plates for a summer BBQ and I’d just feel heavy looking at it all. I’d wonder what the point was of me trying so hard and I’d feel angry about it! I distinctly remember having a little cry down the phone to my mum on a train platform once because it was so hot and I was so thirsty but neither the cafes, shops nor toilets were open so I couldn’t refill my water bottle. There was however a vending machine with bottles of water inside. I just couldn’t bring myself to use it.

For me, it was just unsustainable. I was cutting a lot of things out of my diet, being ‘eco’ dominated my thoughts and I just wasn’t happy.

It took a certain transition period but I’ve now totally chilled out. I obviously still try to make eco-conscious decisions but if I want a pepperoni pizza I have it, if I’ve forgotten my reusable cup I still get the odd takeaway coffee in a single use cup, if I buy a fast fashion t-shirt which was made in China because I love it then I try not to have an existential crisis over it. I feel so much healthier and happier and sourcing a new environmental alternative is now a joy not a chore. If you could put my diet into a triangle I’d say that now I eat mostly vegetarian, then vegan (partly because I’m really shit at cooking meat), then meals with meat. It works for me and I think that works for my body. I think the only time I feel self-conscious about my eco credentials is when I go to a vegan cafe. I have this moment where I look myself up and down and notice my leather boots and bag or my lack of reusable cup because I’m scared of pre-judgement! It’s irrational, I know!

I just think that as normal folk on the street we need to be kind to each other and do the little things that we can to make the world a better place…without beating ourselves or others up. I don’t think that being an eco-martyr like I was, was really helping anyone!

I’d just say if you’re thinking about going vegan or vegetarian or plastic free then you go for it. Good on you. If you want to stop being vegan for whatever reason, then you do you. If you want to start having vegetarian Monday or meat free lunches, whatever, it’s all good. Maybe, like me, you’ll go through a few of those things before you settle and maybe I still have a few changes in me yet!

Vegan Aberdeen (by a Non-Vegan).

Firstly, I say vegan, but, I guess I really mean plant-based.

Secondly, I say ‘non-vegan’, but I was a plant-based eater once, I’m just not anymore.

Just so we’re up to speed, the definition of a vegan according to the Oxford Learners Dictionary is, ‘a person who does not eat any animal products such as meat, milk or eggs or use animal products like leather or wool’. Plant-based is a term used more specifically to describe diet. I’m going to use vegan and plant-based interchangeably throughout this blog, just for ease. People become vegan for lots of reasons such as animal welfare, sustainability or health…and people stop being vegan for lots of reasons too.

Often plant-based food is sold to vegans by other vegans and I wanted to put it out there in my blog title that I’m a meat eater, I love vegan food and I’d love for other meat eaters to love it too! I’m not going to go into my diet and the many transitions it’s been through here but there is a second post talking about that for those that are interested. I’m also not going to sell the vegan ethos to you as a) that would be deeply hypocritical and b) there’s plenty of information out there to sift through if that’s something you’re interested in. What I do want to do is tell you about all the great vegan food within Aberdeen, and maybe inspire you to try something different, especially if you’d normally steer clear of plant-based meals.

Roots

Let’s start with Roots Plant Based Catering. Roots has several different faces, and I must admit I’ve only sampled Roots@The Beach. BUT I’m super keen to try out Roots Takeaway, Roots Butchery and Roots@Home at some point!

Roots@The Beach is featured in the pictures above and is stationed on the Beach Boulevard close to Footdee. As it’s a bright green food truck it’s not too hard to find. The truck is open Friday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm. I went with my pal Alysha for a late lunch a while ago but I didn’t write down what I had (good work Amy!). I just remember it was some sort of chick’aint burger with some form of delightful plant-based milkshake and Alysha had special Korean BBQ pulled ‘pork’ tacos and a coffee. We both really enjoyed our meals and weeks later I’m still thinking about it…even if I can’t quite recall exactly what it was! For both the burger and the milkshake I’d say that they hit the flavour and texture points of animal products really well. I think one of the things that often puts committed meat eaters off trying vegan alternatives is the misconception that it’s all too ‘health foody’, it’s bland or that fake meat is a poor cousin to real meat (so why would you bother). Both of the things I ate from Roots@The Beach were a bit naughty, very flavourful and great animal product substitutes. I follow @rootscatering_UK on Instagram and it seems that they’re quite flexible with the menu, changing things up regularly and keeping it fresh. Its such a cool little spot, especially as the winter sun goes down.

I’ve not tried Roots Takeaway yet, but I keep thinking about it. I really need to try it out soon! They do deliveries Wednesday to Sunday, 4pm to 9pm and they serve different types of burgers, fried chickn’, loaded fries, drinks and dessert. They deliver all around Aberdeen City, but if you’re not sure if you’ll be in their delivery radius they have a handy little map on their website.

Finally, Roots Butchery and Roots@Home are not available yet but I’ll condense the information on their website so you don’t have to look yourself! Roots Butchery will provide plant-based butchery products such as Seitan Bacn’ and Fajita Chickn’ Strips. I believe you’ll need to pick up these bits and pieces from 99 Bar and Kitchen on Back Wynd, but as I said, it’s not quite ready yet so maybe follow them on Instagram and watch that space. Roots@Home is described as “chef prepared plant-based food delivered to your door’. This is offline for now, as in I don’t know any more about it. I also don’t know how this will be different to Roots takeaway…but I’m sure it’ll be great.

Bio-Café

I’m somewhat reluctant to say this but I was actually a little dubious about Bio-Café before I ate from there…twice. It’s healthy, as in it has cakes that are gluten free, dairy free and without added sugar plus it’s Deliveroo options are limited to things like ‘vegan nourish bowls’. It’s not that I don’t like healthy food, it’s just I’d rather make it at home than spend money on it and quite frankly if I’m going to eat cake then I’m going to eat CAKE!

The first thing I had from Bio-Café was one of those vegan nourish bowls with a vegan ‘snickers’ on the side. The bowl was fresh, colourful and made me feel like I was doing something really great for my body. The ‘snickers’, which was rich and naughty, definitely went some way to balancing out that feeling!

Although this wasn’t the kind of thing I’d buy myself very often it did make me want to try Bio-Café again. The daily Instagram pictures from their account @biocafe_aberdeen encouraged me to try it again ASAP! From what I can gather the menu, or at least elements of it change regularly. I went during a WFH day and ordered a beetroot latte (solely because of the colour, let’s be honest), a savoury waffle with chickpeas, mushrooms and avocado AND some Matcha cheesecake. The waffle was straight up incredible, the latte’s colour did not disappoint (and it tasted much better than I expected), and the Matcha cheesecake was understated but pleasant. It is worth bearing in mind that vegan cheesecake is nothing like ‘real’ cheesecake though. It’s an entity of it’s own!

Honestly, after starting off a little unsure I’m now totally converted. I’m just looking forward to my next WFH day so I can sneak off at lunch to try something else that’s slightly out of the norm for me.

(Just as a little update Bio-Café has just now extended their Deliveroo menu)

Biff’s

So, Biff’s was a bit of a surprise, as in I didn’t know it existed until my boyfriend picked them out from Deliveroo. This was also a surprise as he’s a pretty committed meat and dairy eater! From what I can gather Biff’s originated in London but is collaborating with BrewDog to reach a larger audience. Biff’s is all about serving the classic junk food; burgers, fries and ‘wingz’, and they do it well. They only soft launched in Aberdeen a couple of months ago so they’re definitely worth hitting up and showing some support. Deliveroo just happens to be my food delivery company of choice but I believe they’re also available on Just Eat.

Bonobo

Bonobo was one of the first places I visited when I moved to Aberdeen a couple of years ago. I have no memory of what I ate because it was during the height of wasp season and Bonobo has a delightful terrace garden area which was attracting a lot of them. I strongly dislike wasps at the best of times, but I dislike them even more when I’m trapped inside with them. I sat there quietly panicking until mercifully it was time to leave.

Two years later I’m over the wasp trauma and thought it was time to try out Bonobo again! Like Bio-Café I’d put this in the category of ‘healthier’ vegan cafes and likewise it also keeps it’s menu fresh, changing it regularly. They have a great Instagram page (@bonobotribe) which makes me feel hungry ALL the time. When I went the other week they were only open for takeaways but I believe they’ve just spruced up their outside area so I think you can eat there now. I made a snap decision of ‘seitan sandwich’ because it all looked so good and I didn’t know what to have. I also grabbed an oat milk chai tea latte which was delightful. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but the sandwich was really, really flavourful and definitely hit the spot. I’m looking forward to going back soon.

Foodstory

Everybody in Aberdeen knows Foodstory and everybody loves it! Foodstory isn’t a strictly vegan café but their meals are largely plant-based. There’s a lot going on with Foodstory, there’s a great café (obviously), they run yoga and craft classes, they have a zero waste style store upstairs selling shampoo bars and loose grains, they run reggae nights (I learned that I’m way to uncool for these) and they now have an online shop and delivery service. It’s worth checking out their website…especially as a fair few of things I’ve just listed will be running differently due to COVID.

My favourite time to visit Foodstory is Sunday brunch as they do vegan pancakes. On Sunday they only make pancakes and they are fantastic. You have lots of different toppings options and of course Foodstory has all the relevant vegan milks for you to have a fancy coffee to go with it.

Notable Mentions

Nope, notable mentions is not the name of a vegan café but I wanted to mention a couple of non-vegan restaurants and café’s that I think have some great vegan options.

Firstly, Contour Café. I haven’t been to Contour Café on The Green since the COVID palaver started, but I believe it’s open. They do a stunning vegan sausage cob (or bap or roll…whatever your persuasion is!), which is the perfect breakfast. They also have a range of plant-based milks.

Secondly, BrewDog. We’ve already established that they’re collaborating with Biff’s but they also have their own great vegan food options. Actually, out a whole menu of meat options I always choose the vegan…which I think says a lot about how good they are.

Thirdly Refillosophy. Refillosophy on Albyn Grove in the West End is a store full of eco-friendly goodies that aim to help you live a life with less single-use plastic. The main reason I wanted to go to Refillosophy was the vegan doughnuts I kept seeing on their Instagram page! Refillosophy sells many, many baked goods by The Vegan Bay Baker who is based down in Newburgh. I had a Biscoff Brioche, a caramel doughnut and I got 2 vegan butteries for my partner. He didn’t believe that they were vegan…and I think that says all you need to know!

Finally, @plantbasedaberdeen, it’s not a store but an Instagram account. @plantbasedaberdeen is a great way to stay on top of all things vegan/plant-based in Aberdeen. So, go check it out.

And that’s it, that’s your lot. If you are vegan then I hope I’ve mentioned somewhere you haven’t tried yet and if you’re not vegan then I hope I’ve encouraged you to try something new. Now go out and eat!