Beware Bacheeso's vegan breakfast/Asian veg restaurant claims

February 17, 2003

A few weeks back someone posted on this list serve that Bacheeso's in

Berkeley (Dwight/San Pablo) had a vegan breakfast dish which was

vegetables and tofu. When B. first opened I went in and discovered

that there were no options for vegans. So based on this recent update

and recommendation I finally this morning went in and tried this

" Vegan Delight " as it's listed on the menu. The plate came with sour

cream on some of the potatoes and vegetables. The bread (no choices

for other breads) tasted like it was made with milk. I called the

waiter over and inquired about the sour cream and informed the waiter

that by definition " vegan " means no dairy. He told me that yes indeed

it was dairy, that it was " not vegan " and that they " only put it on

the potatoes " . He then just walked away obviously completely

disinterested in my concern. I didn't even have a chance to inquire

regarding my suspicion about the bread (which I could have been

mistaken, but don't think so).

This is a restaurant that I definitely will not be going back to.

Vegan choices, especially for breakfast are difficult to find. I have

tried a number of " tofu scramble " offerings from numerous

restaurant/cafes in Berkeley/Oakland over many years. So far my

favorites are at Westside Cafe in West Berkeley on 9th St. and Mimosa

Cafe in Oakland near the Grand Lake Theater (though I think M. is

still only open on weekends for " brunch " ).

On another note for those of you new to vegetarianism/veganism. Be

extremely careful when eating in Thai or Vietnamese restaurants

(Chinese too for that matter) even when they list dishes under the

heading " Vegetarian " . In many, many cases these dishes come with fish

based sauces. Make sure you inquire every time as it's very

misleading. Even after many years I'm still quite amazed at how often

this proves to be the case. Always inquire and request (demand?) that

your dish be prepared without fish or oyster sauce, and just hope

that they are being honest with you.

Happy munching,

Steven

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