Super bowl weekend is rolling around again and the pizza will roll right along with it. I’m not going to quote numbers of pizzas but it’s truly astronomical. Unfortunately for a vegan diet a lot of my old favorite toppings are no longer an option. My most sorely missed ingredient is the thick and gooey cheese topping. I never realized the cheese has a dual purpose. It of course has a wonder taste and texture than harmonizes with the pizza crust but also serves as an insulator.
I didn’t want to give up pizza but I hated vegan cheeses. I ordered my pizza simply as desired without cheese. A little extra sauce and a generous portion of vegetables and I had a n enjoyable slice. I soon realized the wonderful second function of cheese. It keeps the pizza hot! A no cheese pizza is after the first slice a luke warm to cold combination of dough sauce and toppings. Keeping the pizza in a hot oven isn’t very energy efficient and often will dry the pizza out.
On a current ski vacation I asked for a vegan pizza without cheese, the waiter said but we use vegan cheese. I’m not sure why I caved but I said sure let’s try. It was delicious, and my pizza stayed warm throughout the meal.
The next day I had to go back and find out what brand of cheese this was?? The son of the restaurant owner delightfully said yeah we get that question all the time. He went into the kitchen to bring out the package to show me. To my surprise or perhaps shock it was normal cheese, an Emmentaler cheese made in Austria. After learning this fact I was going to scrap this post but its actually an important lesson to learn or teach. Many restaurants don’t know even when asked what they are truly serving you.
I personally went vegan to help solve my issue with animal proteins causing inflammation. Restaurants think milk products are avoided because of lactose intolerance. Each of these need to be accepted and recognized. I unfortunately am both and now at least I had an explanation as to why my stomach was so distressed the following morning.
I returned to the topic of the cheese with the owner the next day and said they really needed to take this cheese off their special vegan menu. This brought up an interesting topic which has concerned and confused me before. The labeling of products especially vegan and vegetarian the labeling can be confusing due to their similarities.
The restaurant knew the vegan label its become standard on food packaging in Europe for some time now. The example labels above are quite large and the type is evidently clear that these are different.
Instead of reading all the ingredients you trust the labeling. Unfortunately I have also confused the labeling because I looked at the leafy V instead of the printed words.
Why would a cheese ever have a vegetarian label is beyond me! Are there cheeses made with meat?
I will go into labeling and how to read them more specifically when they relate to topic. It’s important to know not only how much we eat but what we eat. At home it’s easier on the road it’s about trust. However when non plant based restaurants serve you and you are plant based for health reasons it’s best to ask to see the label.