VegBang.com

Heather Mills, who is the former wife of Paul McCartney, has recently purchased a restaurant in East Sussex, England.  The good news?  The new restaurant will cater entirely to vegetarians.  In fact, Mills plans to serve only what she calls “plant based” foods.

The new restaurant is slated to open in July and will include a number of meat substitute meals.  In fact, Mills has reportedly stated that her new restaurant will be quite appealing to meat-eaters as well as to vegans.

“What is definitely going to shock people is the meat replacements,” she is reported as saying.  “They have a real meat taste to them.”

To open the restaurant, Mills purchased The Big Fish Café, which is located in Hove, for 155,000 pounds.  Her new restaurant, however, will be called V-Bites and will ultimately include an ice rink right outside of the restaurant.

To help promote the new restaurant as well as to encourage vegetarianism, Mills recently participated in a food festival in Brighton. Here, she demonstrated how to create a variety of vegetarian dishes, including meat-free “chicken” curry and “beef” stir-fry.

Are you a baseball fan who is looking for a great baseball park where you can enjoy a vegetarian meal?  If so, you will be happy to know that there are plenty of parks out there that offer yummy vegetarian options.  In fact, PETA has recently compiled a list of the top 10 parks for vegetarians.  These include:

· Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)
· AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants)
· Coors Field (Colorado Rockies)
· Turner Field (Atlanta Braves)
· Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros)
· PETCO Park (San Diego Padres)
· Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers)
· U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox)
· Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)
· Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)
· Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)

Honorable mention was also given to the following parks:

· Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers)
· Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays)
· Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals)
· PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates)
· Dolphin Stadium (Florida Marlins)
· Nationals Park (Washington Nationals)
· Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland Athletics)

Vegetarians in India have won a small victory in terms of having their beliefs respected.  Apparently, vegetarians in India do not eat vegetables that grow under the ground, such as potatoes and carrots.  So, out of respect for their special dietary needs, five airlines in Taiwan have started to remove these and other root vegetables from their in-flight vegetarian menus. They will, however, be adding more uncooked vegetables to their menus as part of the change. 

The airlines that have made these changes include:

· China Airlines
· EVA Airway
· Mandarin Airlines
· TransAsia Airways
· Uni Air

Unfortunately, the move to remove root vegetables from their in-flight menus has met with some opposition from Taiwanese passengers, however, as they already feel their menu options are far too limited.  The biggest concern is the fact that ginger is also considered to be a root vegetable and it is difficult to achieve traditional Taiwanese flavors without the use of this spice.

The changes to the airline menus were actually imposed by International Air Transport Association, which is trying to help ensure passengers do not accidentally ingest foods that are against their personal or religious beliefs.  But, creating a menu to please everyone has been difficult because the rules for vegetarianism are different among various cultures.  Taiwanese, for example, do not eat garlic or onions, while some also steer clear of mushrooms. 

The good news is that vegetarianism has become so popular that coming up with great menu choices has become a serious issue.  Hopefully, the move toward vegetarianism will continue to grow even stronger!