OUTSIDE THE BOX
Supply and demand?!
I recently learned firsthand (again) that demand doesn’t necessarily determine supply. To be precise, I attended a business dinner with my boss and some colleagues which left me not only with question marks written all over my face, but also with a gaping hole in my vegan stomach. While most supermarkets and food shops in Germany now have quite a large range of plant-based food on offer, restaurants offering traditional German cuisine seem to have not yet gotten the memo about this alternative but growing food offensive known as veganism (which, by the way, protects not only animals, but also people).
menus
While my colleagues helped themselves from the selection of meat joints, steaks and burgers that overflowed from the 20 pages of the restaurant’s menu, I had to put on my reading glasses just to find all of two dishes which displayed an exceedingly creative approach towards meatless food. While the positively thrilling vegetable bake and the mixed salad sounded incredibly tempting – and were presumably the brainchild of a food expert hired specifically to come up with such exceptional ideas – I found myself inspired not to order food, but to protest by ordering nothing but a glass of wine and a double brandy.
we become more every day…
The looks of pity from my colleagues as they were tucking into their food spoke volumes – but only until I changed the topic of conversation to the global increase in heart disease. Having survived the ordeal with my colleagues, I said goodbye and couldn’t suppress a smile as I headed over to the Oktoberfest tent, where I did end up getting my hands on some well-earned food to fill my stomach after all. The seitan burger was a poem, the baked potato waffles with mushroom ragout were a gift from the heavens, and the vegan curry sausage with crispy onions was soon all that was left over. In short – there are more and more of us vegans every day… and perhaps, soon, supply will determine demand?!
