Portland-It's a bit stupid, a bit naive, and frankly, doesn't match one of the main points of this article, but I have to say that what caught my attention was the damn hamburger.

I came to Portland for a few days to taste the large number of vegan restaurants that the city hyped up, and I usually tried to be vegetarian: bring a cloth messenger bag and a nylon belt, and throw away the Northwest leather work boots canvas Chuck Taylor that usually rains. Si et al

Gimmick? Kind of, I guess. But I am not trying to prove a point-just to try to do things differently for a period of time. See how it feels. 

Soon after I arrived, local vegetarian writer Waz Wu explained that since she came here from New York City in 2016, the city's scene has matured.

"After moving here, I found a lot of vegetarian junk food, a lot of fried food," she said. "In the past two years or so, I am very happy to see Portland expand its business. There is nothing wrong with using vegan meat or cheese substitutes, but now many places are very focused on using vegetables as vegetables."

make sense. Why should we be euphemistic? In addition to burgers and legume chickens, legume-based chickens are good training rounds (according to reports, after selling 1,300 pounds of vegan orange chicken in one day, Panda Express is expanding the experiment to 10 State), but if we are turning to a more plant-based chicken future, let us adults, abandon the magic of meat eating, and face the fact: vegetables are vegetables. right?

It’s a small slider at the Belmont Fermented Beer Bar, and Seattleites might recognize the tender pucks from Dick: butter bread, pickles and chopped onions, a special kind of mustard (just what you want All-American mustard, but with some extra flair, as if its turmeric or vinegar is specially made), a cheese made from coconut and a meatloaf that was originally pea protein.

I took a bite and couldn't believe how I felt. Some professional food tasters may sneer at my feelings about pea protein pie, but it doesn't matter. I don’t pretend to be a foodie, nor keep up with the latest simulated meat technology, so I was shocked that the party was late: the vegetarian cracked the code.

The days to come will bring other pleasant surprises, but more complicated, vegetables as vegetable varieties: in the Smooth Republic, delicious slow-cooked mushrooms and custom tortillas; a very satisfying plate of dosa (like Crepes, but made with a fermented rice and lentil batter) and black-eyed peas from The Sudra Kema; Mama Dut’s semi-spicy jackfruit banh mi. I approached it with great skepticism, but in the end it was very Happy.

The pea pie slider may have caught my attention, but the jackfruit banh mi is more sticky in my mind: the crispy skin and light center of fresh baguette; the mellow jackfruit, earthy and plant, just like the heart of artichoke; The umami of the creamy vegetarian sauce. As a recent Yelp commenter tweeted: "This kind of place makes me think I can become a vegetarian!"

This may be characteristic of the entire town-my vegetarian trip in Portland was not a deprivation.

"The most successful vegetarian restaurants are attracting omnivores. The omnivorous restaurants that offer vegan food are doing very well." — Waz Wu, Portland Vegetarian Writer

For most omnivorous cuisines, there seems to be a high-quality vegan analogue: Mitate's sushi, Epif's slimy empanadas, and even Buddy's Steaks' cheese steak (cheese steak? Yes, cheese steak) . Do you want to eat Wall Street snacks? you are right. Do you want an industrial-style restaurant with exposed plumbing, iMinimalist decorations, and double-digit prices for each menu item? complete.

Even more impressive is that ambitious omnivorous restaurants seem to be taking their vegetarian options seriously. "The most successful vegetarian restaurants are attracting omnivores," Wu said. "And the omnivorous restaurants that offer vegan food are doing well."

Anthony Bourdain's famous rant-"Vegetarians and their Hezbollah-like splittists, vegans... are all good and decent enemies in the human spirit"-is not true here.

Seattle vegetarians have known this for a long time. Some people in my circle talk about Portland as if it is a food city: they keep lists, trade tips, and even worry about how to filter my travel recommendations.

"I'll leave it there," a friend of a friend wrote in an email after recommending 17 vegetarian restaurants-and what to order at each restaurant-and some of the most not with us anymore. A brief obituary of love. (His partner then listed 50 locations, divided into two categories: "tried" and "want.")

"Portland has a lot of great vegetarian options," a friend of a friend wrote. "It really dwarfs Seattle."

I started to understand what the fuss was about.

But people living deep in Portland’s vegetarian circle say that its reputation as a vegetarian city in the United States may be a bit of an exaggeration—perhaps its relatively small population (about 650,000) makes the density and popularity of its vegetarian community seem like More intensive comparison.

Emiko Badillo, who co-founded the now iconic vegetarian grocery store Food Fight! As early as 2003, he said that vegetarianism has matured and is growing in Los Angeles, Oakland, California and other places. (In 2020, some vegan news media listed Chicago, New York, and even Dallas and Houston as the top 10 vegan cities at the end of the year instead of Portland.)

"Even my hometown of San Antonio is exploding, vegetarian," Badillo said. "So by default, this is mainly black and Chicano-dominated vegetarian food, which is really great."

It’s also great: Badillo, Wu and others pointed out that Portland’s colorful vegetarian restaurant chefs have recently proliferated-Mama Dut (Vietnam), Dirty Lettuce (Southern), Plant Based Papi (tacos, macaroni and cheese, other comforts) Food)-to help break the common misunderstanding that vegetarianism belongs to white people.

"Living in a city like Portland and participating in vegetarianism, both of which are predominantly white, is a huge struggle for me," Badillo said. In 2013, she co-founded Portland Vegans of Color, but she said that the core group has never exceeded six people.

"But looking at the current situation, there are so many vegetarian restaurants led by BIPOC that have opened, and more and more black and brown customers are entering our store, which has given me more life," she said. "This is really the driving factor that I still like to be here."

Why are there so many colorful chefs opening vegetarian restaurants now? Badillo thinks this is quite obvious: "In the recent decolonization movement, various methods have had a lot of momentum, and dietary traditions are an important part of it. This is what is happening worldwide. Of course. , Vegetarianism will also be affected."

Thuy Pham of Mama Dut is one of them. She immigrated to the United States when she was a child in 1982 and eventually became a hairstylist-when COVID-19 shut down that company, she made vegan pork belly with her daughter on an Instagram live broadcast. Her DM ignited people who wanted to buy it. "I actually searched on Google,'How do you start a food business?'" Pham said with a smile. "It said I need a commissary kitchen, so I searched on Google,'What is a commissary kitchen?'"

One thing led to another, and Mama Dut is now working in a second location.

Like Badillo, Pham talked about the importance of white people in American vegetarianism—and saw this change. "Vegan food was not invented by white Europeans," she said. "Flour, vegetarian meat, lentils and root vegetables-these things come from China, Africa, India, Latin America. But more and more cultural vegans and vegans of color are appearing. It's so beautiful."

This month, New York City elected Eric Adams—a black and former Brooklyn chairman—as its first vegetarian mayor.

Between vegetarian meals, I cruised in Portland and visited other attractions: the great Mississippi Records, where you can find all the albums you don’t know you need (Ethiopian jazz, Australian garage rock, dedicated to Miami and Eastern Sound Soul Compilation Los Angeles); Portland's large and excellent Japanese garden complex (somehow, I will not be troubled by English, French or Chinese gardens, but I am totally a fool of Japanese gardens); McMenagh The new bloody Bond movie at the Baghdad Theatre in Mins (please hold butter).

As I walked through the city, I paid more attention to the restaurant signs than usual. I kept seeing advertisements of "plant-based" food: not vegetarian, but plant-based food.

"I think this is a way of marketing," Pham said. "For many people,'vegetarian' has become a four-letter word."

The analysis tracked some surprising numbers. In 1999, a Gallup poll calculated that 6% of the American population was considered vegetarian. How many people were identified as vegetarians in 2018, the last time Gallup asked? Five percent. Over the past 20 years, as well as the transformation of countless celebrities, this number has hardly changed. (Between 2012 and 2018, the number of self-identified vegans increased from 2% to 3%.)

At the same time, the plant-based food industry has become a rocket ship. Together with Panda Express, Starbucks, Jack in the Box, A&W, McDonald’s, Long John Silver and other fast food chains, vegetarian and vegan menu items are being tested. Burger King of Spain, this land made of ham, became meatless in October. For example, in the first quarter of 2020, Beyond Meat reported a 141% year-on-year increase in net revenue.

For Pham, the conclusion is obvious. Many people have not become vegetarians-they just eat like them.

"I saw a lot of omnivores come to Mama Dut and say,'I am an omnivorous animal, but I like your food,'" she said. "As vegetarians, we need to stop humiliating omnivores and let them start their journey just like us."

But "plant-based" has caused ambivalence among some old-school vegetarians like Badilo-for them, there is a difference between being a vegetarian and eating like a person. When she went from what she called "vulgar and unconcerned about punk" to a vegetarian (in Austin, Texas in 1997), it brought a series of moral and political influences: against animal testing; against capitalism Exploitation of people, animals and land; suitable for independent, low-impact DIY life.

Badillo and her partner Chad Miller have started a food war! Soon after moving to Portland, part of the reason was that they were tired of squinting at the labels on the aisles of multiple grocery stores to keep their pantry vegan. What if vegans can shop in a store and everything on the shelf is a fair game? They began to purchase simulated meat from the Asian market and imported snacks such as skittles without gelatin from Egypt. Their rent is $600 per month. 

"This is the situation in Portland at the time," Badillo said. "Before Portland really becomes a thing or vegetarianism becomes mainstream, you can seize the opportunity."

In 2007, the food war! Collaboration with a vegetarian clothing store (Herbivore), a vegetarian tattoo shop (Scapegoat, which avoids inks containing animal products such as gelatin and bone charcoal), and a vegetarian bakery (Sweetpea, which makes great pie-like pastries) , Open the media began to call Buckman community a "vegetarian mini shopping center."

"As Portland has become an increasingly popular tourist destination, the'vegetarian mini shopping center' has also become more and more popular," Badillo said. Around that time, the large food groups that Badillo avoided (Unilever, Nestlé, etc.) began snapping up small vegetarian businesses and selling “plant-based” products.

"The development of Portland and the development of vegetarianism are so similar, which always surprises me," she said. Both are significantly more obvious-and both have lost some of the low-level, DIY principles and budgets that were their defining characteristics. They are more "plant-based".

"Honestly, I don't even know what'plant-based' means, except maybe it's a way for people to become vegetarians without politics and responsibility?" Badillo said. "This level of vegetarianism is not the norm now-we are just getting old,'these kids-now' vegetarians, you know? But I'm trying to understand and appreciate certain aspects of vegetarianism mainstreaming. All this It's all very bittersweet, just like everything."

Like most things, vegetarianism becomes more complicated the longer you look at it.

On the train home, I considered what vegetarianism is not: not asceticism (at least not in Portland), not necessarily moralism (exploitative bastards also sell dairy-free mayonnaise), absolutely not The property of dull white hippies. In a sea of ​​so many vegetarian options—it is undeniable that there is enough cash to eat a lot of food outside—this does not feel like such a big struggle. I have no conversion experience, but I also don't crave fried chicken. In fact, when buying train lunch a few hours ago, I instinctively looked for falafel instead of deli sandwich.

Maybe this is what the change looks like.

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