People tend to confuse vegan with vegetarian.
Vegetarians avoid meats of all kinds while vegans avoid all animal products including meat, dairy, honey – basically anything that comes from an animal.
But veganism is also a philosophy for many.
Being vegan means different things to people; for some, it’s about healthier lifestyle choices, for others, it’s about protecting animals.
For Marieta Jamett, 49, it’s the latter. After working at a leading meat processing company, she learnt the unsettling truth about animal cruelty at these facilities.
“For me, [being] vegan is about eating cruelty-free. When I worked at a meat processor, I saw some things that shifted my mindset and when I became a bit more knowledgeable and started connecting with animals, I decided to become vegan,” she told The Ridge.
The Dirty Vegan is a food truck that travels across the Greater Vancouver Area to serve a vegan-friendly comfort food diet.
Vegan comfort food
Vegan and comfort food sounds like an oxymoron. But, for Jamett they are two sides of the same coin.
“I like burgers and I found that [finding] a vegan burger was always a compromise. I either had to drive far into Vancouver to get something vegan or get it from a place that sells meat but also sells vegan burgers because they have to,” she shared.
Her food truck has been a part of Haney Farmers Market in Maple Ridge and will be at the Pitt Meadows Food Truck Spot this Saturday for the first time.
“Ridge-Meadows community has been very welcoming which is why I keep coming back. I’m invited to the Maple Ridge Night Festival as one of the five food trucks and I’m hoping to become a regular part of the community,” the business owner said.
Her kitchen is based in Langley but she operates from different locations like Mission, Maple Ridge and now Pitt Meadows.
Jamett recommends trying the Miso mushroom gravy poutine and to come to her food truck with an open mind. She will also have a special surprise item on the menu.
Another local find
Paliotti’s Westside is a family-run Maple Ridge eatery that has a wide variety of vegan options. Think Italian, Chinese and more.
Roberta Paliotti is the restaurant owner and her decision to add a vegan menu was based on several reasons.
She decided to stop consuming meat after watching the animal cruelty on TV.
Fleshing out various recipes at home, she and her husband Dino decided to have a vegan night at their restaurant.
“What started out as something small turned into a huge thing. After sharing it on social media, we were triple booked because people were really excited that we were doing this,” Paliotti said.
What makes them unique is their variety of vegan desserts such as brownies, cheesecakes and more.
They make everything in-house, from vegan chicken to steaks and ravioli.
Her goal is to create non-vegan into vegan foods because she believes, “If foods can be delicious without animal products then why not [consume] them?”
