In case you were wondering

Anti-Valentine's Day was a blast, as always. There's no way around that, since I have great friends, and great friends make for fun parties. Mom did call this morning to ask, among other things, whether I'd celebrate AVD this year, and, upon hearing that I already did, asked, in not so many words, whether people had had enough to eat, given that there were no, you know, animal products.

It's kind of funny that mom thinks I'd starve my guests (particularly given the food situation at my parties, including last night's). Actually, one of the guests confessed that she'd eaten a bit before coming, since she wasn't sure about the whole vegan thing (she understood afterward that that was not a good strategy). That's not how it works: when vegans go to parties, they should eat ahead of time, because there might not be much for them to eat. At vegan parties, everyone (but celiacs) can eat.

Last night, there were quite a few "I can't believe that's vegan!" comments (and one "I don't know what any of this is, but it's all really good"). By no means did I set out to make a statement, i.e. prove that vegan food could be good. I mean, if I'm serving food, it better be good, and the food I'm serving these days happens to be vegan. If it leaves people in awe of what one can do without animal products, that's great, but my guiding principle is to create a fun party environment--in part through tasty food. That said, I'm quite happy, after the fact, to have gotten people to appreciate how good vegan food can be.

The food did mostly turn out well, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures. The falafel came out a bit dry, but it was tasty (and the tahini sauce [really, Blogger? you don't recognize "tahini"? really?] mitigated the dryness). The pea dumplings were no worse for containing tofu "ricotta"; the kabocha dumplings came out okay, but next year there will be more kabocha and less miso (same amount of ginger). Chef Chloe's black bean sliders were phenomenal, and went well with both sauces in the recipe, but I think the spicy mango sauce scared people. Which foods really fly off the platters tend to surprise me, and this year it was the endive boats and the edemame (how easy is edemame?) Spring rolls were good (new ingredient: jicama) and involtini were good (new filling: the one actually specified in the cookbook; new kitchen tool: mandolin to get the eggplant slices 1/4 inch thick--huge difference). The ube balls were a huge hit (totally improvised!), although I should have rolled them smaller. I thought the brownie bites were very tasty, but they did not fly (one mistake was using extra dark cocoa powder--makes them look kind of burnt). The green tea and azuki ice cream was really, really tasty.

Every year, there's one menu item that makes me thing, "why am I doing this? It is so not worth it." This year, I don't know why I messed with trying to make bread. The mini-pitas turned out okay--and the whole wheat slider buns had a good flavor, even though they didn't rise--but they were both unnecessary. There's really no reason to serve bread of any sort at a party, even with sliders and falafel.

Some years, that menu item--the one that you don't ever want to make again--is a huge hit, and you're stuck making it. Actually, dumplings have traditionally been a bigger hit, but they were funny looking this year so they didn't really fly. But I digress. Last year, it was the Roquefort grapes. In fact, this year, several people brought up last year's grapes (mercifully, I didn't feel the need to make them again, since they contain Roquefort). But now I feel like I need to find a vegan ingredient that will simulate the pungency of Roquefort, and then I'll make the grapes again.

It's also funny to think about, now, how different people's everyday eating habits are. I'm glad I didn't think about it before the party, as it might have stressed me out. It occurred to me, as it does hours before every party, that the food might turn out disastrous, but it really didn't occur to me that, provided the food would turn out alright, one guest or another--perhaps a friend of a friend, etc.--wouldn't like it because it wasn't what they knew, what they were used to. In other words, the thought of cooking for the Susans of the world didn't cross my mind. That said, people--including my friends and their friends--do have vastly different eating habits. The friend who'd eaten a bit beforehand had brought along her neighbor, who was a vegan. One friend, who had previously been a vegetarian, started eating poultry recently, upon getting married. Her husband said something at one point that reminded me how different my food world is from what might be standard.

A., to Allen: When I was at your house the other day--was it yesterday? Whenever I came by to get the soy milk...
Paul: It's a sign of the times. You went around the corner to see if your neighbors had a cup of soy milk.
Allen: Well, she knew we had it--it wasn't a random request.

But still. It is a sign of the times.