The http://www.mw.com/cgibin/dictionary?bookDictionary&vaVegan&x0&y0 MerriamWebster dictionary defines vegan as:
  a strict vegetarian who consumes no animal food or dairy products; also : one who abstains from using animal products (as leather)

 Vegan Basics 
For information on being vegan, eating advice, recipes and a listing of almost every American vegan product on the market (not limited to food) you may find http://vivausa.org/veganbasics/Vegan%20Basics%20guide.pdf Vegan Basics (Guide)(PDF file) useful.  Its designed for any person who is curious of the vegan lifestyle and offers a comprehensive list of foods that are vegan and accidentally vegan (products which were not intended to be vegan but are vegan by their ingredients). It was project that Users/PeteHernandez worked on at http://www.vivausa.org Viva!USA.

 Vegan Restaurant Options 
  Bicycle Bakery  Two women from Davis own this local vegan bakery. They have walnutpineapple carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting (all vegan!), a double chocolate cake, gluten free brownie pies, gluten free peanut butter cookies, regular pb cookies, gluten free cranberry oat bars, and probably other stuff. Its all vegan, almost all organic, and as local as possible. I dont think they have a storefront yet, but they sell to other cafes as well as do all kinds of special orders. I got a vegan (of course) birthday cake with beautiful frosting and edible flowers on top for cheaper than safeway could pump out a generic one!
  Butterfly Vegan  A cottage food operation in Davis which makes vegan, lowfat and healthy cookies, cakes, and pies with glutenfree options. All their baked stuff is refinedsugar free and diabeticfriendly. They can cater your parties. They offer free samples!

  Burgers and Brew  They have tofu and portabello burgers on their menu, and both are very tasty. They probably cook them on the meat grill, but its a great place to go with mixed company (veg & nonveg).
        Last time I went, I was told by the waiter there were no vegan options on the menu.  Can anyone confirm? RyaneLogsdon
  Cenarios Pizza  Confirmed dough was vegan.  Pineapple, fresh tomatoes, and artichoke pizza is a vegan delight!
  Chipotle  The tofubased Sofritas is vegan. Its pretty damn good.
  CREAM  Has an assortment of vegan cookie options
  Davis Food Coop  Has many vegan deli items, including sushi, tamales, samosas, burritos, salads, and you can substitute hummus for cheese in some  sandwiches and dips. For those who dont eat honey, I would read the ingredients on Coop items. I remember seeing a salad dressing at the salad bar marked as vegan that has honey, so be sure to be aware when getting Coop made stuff. .
  Davis Noodle City  Has quite the abundance of vegan options; and they confirmed with me that their noodles are rice noodles, not egg noodles. A vegan favorite. Make sure to tell the server that you dont want your food made with chicken stock. They are happy to accommodate.
    I was told by my server that their noodles are egg noodles, so you might want to ask for yourself.
  Delta of Venus  They have a huge selection of wonderful vegan food, including sandwiches, omelettes, and even Caribbean dinner options.
  Ding How  Has an entire vegetarian menu, most items on it are vegan but make sure to ask, and ask for no egg.
  Ikedas  Their tamales are vegan and some of their pies. Many other spreads and fresh produce are vegan.
  Kathmandu Kitchen  Has a vegan platter (The Vegan Thali) on their menu.
  Let Them Eat Cake  Has one vegan cupcake flavor available on Mondays and another on Fridays
  Manna  has a few vegan dishes (someone should confirm): e.g., veggie tofu teriyaki and the bibimbap ordered with tofu
  Monticello Seasonal Cuisine  If the seasonal menu does not feature any vegan options that week, just let your server know and the kitchen will prepare something special for you.
  Namaste Nepal  Has a vegan thali (platter) on their dinein menu (menu on their website is the more limited takeout menu)
  Natural Food Works, Farmers Kitchen Cafe  Has various vegan options. Try their bioregional salad. The Rosas Black Bean Soup is yummy, and the tacos are great.
  Rajas  Has a number of vegan dishes, just ask if youre not sure.  The dinner menu includes a vegan section and they have started to explicitly label some of their lunch buffet dishes as vegan.  Apparently the owner, Taranbir, is a vegan.
  Red 88 Noodle Bar  Has a vegan soup bowl that could easily feed two! Delicious veggies, tofu and glass noodles. I havent actually asked and verified all the ingredients, however.
  Sams Mediterranean  Their falafel sandwich is excellent. Fried food isnt good for you, but their falafel and fries sure are tasty. The tahini sauce is veg. The dolmas are amazing too.
  Stones Cafe & Catering  Stones has confirmed that their veggie patty is vegan.
  Sunrise Restaurant  Allegedly, the entire vegetarian menu is already vegan. Also has blended pearl teas with option to use soy or coconut milk. The vegetarian sandwich must be ordered without mayo to be vegan.
  Tako Korean BBQ Tacos doesnt list any vegan options on its menu, but (according to Yelp reviews of the Sacramento location) many dishes can be made vegan.
  Taqueria Davis  They have a vegan burrito with veggie rice, grilled vegetables, guacamole, pico de gallo, and your choice of beans.
  Taqueria Guadalajara  The manager says that they have changed their recipes for rice and beans to make them vegetarian. They have removed chorizo from the beans and use vegetable stock in the beans. The guacamole is dairyfree as well.
  Thai Recipes  Thai Restaurant with a big vegetarian section. None of the veg items have fish sauce and are by default vegan (assuming they have no milk eggs or cheese).
  Yolo Berry Yogurt  Always has a nondairy sorbet option
  Woodstocks Pizza  Their pizza sauce doesnt have cheese in it. When ordering a cheeseless pizza be sure to ask for extra sauce its free and makes it extra good. They will also substitute anything you want for no extra charge.
  UC Davis Dining Commons  All items on their menu are marked blue for vegan. Cuarto Dining Commons also has an exceptional salad bar and lots of fun vegan options. The Dining Commons also offer vegan Coconut Bliss ice cream on request. If you dont see it in the ice cream freezer, then ask an employee for some. All Dining Commons also offer a vegan corner, complete with nutritional yeast, an organic seed mixture and lots of veganfriendly dips and spreads!


see also Vegetarian Options vegetarian restaurants

 Free Vegan Food 
  Free soy milk and cookies at the MU/Quad tables from 12:30 to 1:30 on finals days (in 2007, December 1015), given just to take a load off of stressedout students!
  The Seventh Day Adventists and guests have a free vegan/vegetarian options vegetarian meal on Saturdays (the Sabbath Day), where each one brings a dish or something to share with others.

 Vegan on the Cheap/ Fast Food Vegan
  Coffee House  Depending on the day, you can find reasonably priced vegan dishes.  For a list of their daily hot food items (vegan items are marked accordingly) click http://www.coffeehouse.ucdavis.edu/hotfood.cfm Here.
  InNOut  You can order a Veggie Burger, simply a burger without their meat and cheese.  Make sure to ask for no special sauce if you order it animal style. as the spread contains mayo.  Ive confirmed the buns as vegan with the company.

     Asking for something animal style will also get you cheese on it. You can ask for something animal style without cheese or special sauce which will get you just grilled onions (which are cooked on the grill where the patties are, essentially in meat juice, not recd) but you will be charged for animal style.
  Sunrise Restaurant Has a 2.50 Vegetarian sandwich (#8) which you can ask as vegan by simply subtracting the mayo, similarly with Fluffy Donuts (ask for tofu).
  Taco Bell  You can order any item off the menu and have them replace the beef with beans, free of charge. You can also order the item fresco style which means replacing the cheese with a vegan pico de gallo salsa. Adding guacamole is also delicious and highly recommended.
  Subway  You can order a veggie delight on Italian bread with no cheese and just vegetables.  Also these individual items do not contain animalderived ingredients: all vegetables, oil, vinegar, mustard and sweet onion sauce. The wheat bread and deli roll contain honey. Also note that their veggie max patty contains egg whites.

 Vegan shopping in Davis 
  Davis Food Coop  By far is the most vegan friendly store for groceries, cosmetics and household products.
  Whole Foods Market  Good selection. Offers some products that the Coop does not.
  Ethnic Markets  Sell various soy, gluten, and legume based products.
  International Food Market  Has soy products Dhanraj Nutrela that can be cooked up to be faux meats, great if youre low on cash! Only 1.19 a box, ask the owner to order more if theyre out, as this is a high demand item.
  Local produce, dips, sauces, etc. can be bought at the Farmers Market, Ikedas, and Pedrick Produce.
  Mainstream Supermarkets like Safeway and SaveMart have small but substantial natural food sections in which you can buy soy products.

Product Lines
 Gardein is a popular, acclaimed brand of vegan meat substitutes available at Safeway, Save Mart, Target, Nugget, Davis Food CoOp, and Whole Foods Market.

 Vegan recipes/cookbooks 
  The http://www.amazon.com/VeganomiconUltimateIsaChandraMoskowitz/dp/156924264X/refsr_1_1?ieUTF8&sbooks&qid1199727549&sr11 Veganomicon is the newest cookbook from the writers of http://www.amazon.com/VeganCupcakesTakeOverWorld/dp/1569242739/refpd_sim_b_img_3 Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and they are the best cookbooks on the market.
  The Blossoming Lotus
  Friendly Foods
  How It All Vegan Great beginner book as it utilizes products that are easily available.
  http://www.veganchef.com Vegan Chef  try the chocolate tofu cheesecake one...its amazingly good.  Users/JessicaElb
  Vegan with a Vengeance make sure and check out the website too! http://www.theppk.com Users/DanielleLee
  I Am Grateful Recipe Book Excellent recipes for Vegan/raw foodies http://cafegratitude.com/  Users/Myabrn
  http://www.joyofveganbaking.com The Joy of Vegan Baking and http://www.vegantable.com The Vegan Table by Colleen PatrickGoudreau  Users/AsmaMaryamMohseni

 Vegan BumOuts 
  Davis Food Coop  The empanadas at the coop are not vegan; they have butter in the crust.
  Natural Food Works  All the glutenfree bread we make isnt vegan, most contain egg whites. And be careful, the Gluten Free pizza dough contains gelatin (for a binding agent) so its not vegetarian. I work here, so the info is reliable. But do try the Vegan Tamales...they are YUMMY! Users/JessicaElb
  Sophias  Most of their dishes have fish sauce, so be sure to ask/make sure that there is no fish sauce in the dish.
  Quickly  Their milk teas are made with nondairy creamer (which ironically, contains dairy) not soymilk, which their menu advertises
  Bistro 33  Veggie burger patty has cheese in it.
  Davis Noodle City  xAll of their noodles are egg noodles.x They have Egg and Rice noodles ~Daubert
 Vegan advice 
http://vivausa.org/veganbasics/Vegan%20Basics%20guide.pdf Vegan Basics (Guide) has a ton of helpful advice for beginning vegans.

Products to be mindful of:
 Food 
  eggs
  dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
  honey (bees)
  gelatin (from animal bone)
    avoid jello, starburst, skittles, sour cream, marshmallows, Extra Polar Ice gum, some gummy bears
      Skittles from the Czech Republic and Starburst from England do not contain gelatin.
      Supposedly Skittles are now both glutenfree and gelatinfree (but check the packaging, it states so at the end of the ingredients, this is a relatively new thing) and http://www.marscandykills.com/ supposedly Mars Inc. tests on animals, which isnt very vegan.
    note: most camera film is made from gelatin.
  nougat (contains egg white)
  Marzipan  some marzipans are made with egg whites, some are not, check the ingredients.
  lipase (from calves, lambs, or kidsa enzyme used in food processing)
  A lot of wine and beer is not vegan  anyone know about hard alcohol?
     almost all cheap and imported beers and wines are filtered with isinglass (derived from fish) or bone char. Some are even processed with small amounts of eggs, cream, and milk. a list of vegan alcohol can be found at http://www.veganporn.com/booze.pl vegan porn
 http://www.barnivore.com/ Barnivore is the ultimate vegan alcohol resource!
  White flour and white sugar supposedly the calcium carbonate used to bleach these products can derive from animal bones. Can anyone provide a primary source to confirm or deny this claim?
  Chocolate  yes its true. apparently the refined sugar in it is made using a process involving animal bone charcoal.
  Sugar  some brands of refined cane sugar are made with a process using animal bone charcoal to scrub it clean of impurities, color, flavors, and minerals. C&H used to be vegan (as of 2001), but not Imperial. All sugar derived from sugar beets is vegan (not filtered with bone char). This is also true of common Brown sugar which is <i>indeed</i> white sugar before the brown (molasses) is added back in, according to my FST 10 professor.
    The This is also true in the last sentence is ambiguous. Im guessing that brown sugar has been filtered with bone char, but it isnt clear due to the position of the sentence.
  Watch out for casein. Always read ingredients! Its a milk protein and they slip it into vegetarian cheeses. The only vegetarian cheese that is really vegan is Tofutti. There are also some vegan cheeses such as Daiya but just make sure to check.
    Vegan gourmet cheese is also completely vegan (made by Follow Your Heart, the people that make Vegenaise).

 Products 
  elastin (from cows, in skin care products)
  hyaluronic (from animal umbilical cords, skin care oils)
  musk oil (from muskdeer, beavers, muskrats, etcfragrance obtained by whipping genitals)
  premarin (taken from pregnant horses, an estrogen supplement)
  For those of you who are concerned about vegan beauty products, http://www.mymakeupmirror.com/MakeupWithoutCruelty.html this site provides a fairly comprehensive and accurate list (though not all Aubrey Organics products are vegan anymore, bummer)

 Famous Davis Vegans 
  Users/PeteHernandez
  Users/CristinaDeptula (but I am very open to eating whatever others cook for me when I am a guest, regardless of their dietary preferences.)
  Jordan Steiner
  Users/JesseMiller
  Users/CandiceWang
  Users/KatieDelwiche
  Users/JessicaElb
  Users/MariahMontanez
  Users/NicholineLee (not really famous)
  Users/EricRedpath  As an employee of Delta of Venus, he is one of the reasons why they stay so Vegan friendly. (Even though Eric isnt actually a friendly person. He is just Vegan friendly.)
  Users/DanielleLee
  users/ScottWeintraub
  http://fennelfiles.com A vegan mom living in Davis blogs about food and life.
  Users/AprilAries  Not famous, but working on infamous.
  Users/NilliGrutman  Davis Veg Society president.
  Users/ShilpaSiva (not really really famous)
  Users/MiranPark  definitely infamous, but maybe a little famous for her vegan cupcakes and cookies.
  Users/BonnieStewart  she just cant bear to support factory farms with her dollars.
  Jay Erker  makes great pancakes
  Users/ConstantiaOomen (once an itsy bitsy famous in the Netherlands, now living in Davis with her also vegan husband)
  Users/JosephKaplan  Kaplan Real Estate

Check out http://www.vivausa.org VivaUSA! an animal rights organization based out of Davis!

 Vegan Poems 

Sweet, Sweet Appetizer by Users/MichaelGiardina
Primal rage is the strangest vegan salad.
It’s nothing extraordinary, slightly superstitious, and
indefinable by meatloving company who fear the ingredients.
So, my guilt intensifies, so slick with sweat, afraid
The tofu will slip from their grasp when they squeeze.
The food falling crashes through salad forests, echoes
through the lawn, and police reports are filed when my brush rustles.
They think I have tried to kill them, so I run northwest on a curve
Hoping they won’t follow the trail of turmeric root.
But I am a creature of many senses, trying to cut them off,
force them out to the more and better. These are my opportunities
for attack, striking before they understand.
It’s primordial survival, instinct. I don’t need to think for this
quiet military action of my eye spying telltale trouble.
My backpack is filled with veggies, dangerous weapons that
Demand retreat. Unfortunately my guests were not fast enough
to overtake the unknown enemy, to retreat. I fire.
He tried the gluten. This time he fires. Twice into the brush.
Man down. He misses, for I am so full of sunlight that I blind.
They always leave badly wounded, muscles aching, soul singed,
heart thumping, surprised to hear that I had secretly sautéed
a few jumbo shrimp into that tasty little mix.
Sweet danger, unknown variety of disturbing weeds.
  I dont quite get your poem. It even seems antivegan.  Users/JackHaskel
   Bummer! For poems that are even easier to understand, try http://journals.aol.com/justus3121/CollegeBound/entries/295 Steins, Susie Asado

Id be open to adding some recipes or food recommendations  have a few of those and Im sure others do too.  Users/CristinaDeptula

20050313 20:12:54 nbsp Just as Vegetarians endure going through mainstream menus and foodlistings to figure out what they can eat, Vegans have to go through Vegetarian menus to figure out what they can eat.  I am sympathetic to a seperate Vegan list, provided it really focused on what options Vegans have in Davis.  At the outset it would seem to be a pretty small list, but I think some vegans are very creative and perhaps could share some of that creativity here. Users/JaimeRaba

20050313 20:18:17 nbsp Try the Delta of Venus  they have some wonderful tofu dishes and sandwiches. Also the samosas and the empanadas at the CoOp are vegan, and you can substitute hummus for cheese in some sandwiches and dips. And theres a wonderful product called the Egg Replacer available at the CoOp, which I would get even if I were not vegan since its powdered and in a cardboard box. Theres no risk that it will make a huge mess all over the sidewalk if my shopping bag were to break while I carried it home on my bike, as real eggs could.  Users/CristinaDeptula

20050323 04:34:55 nbsp at least someones being productive. i take back 10% of the mean things ive ever said about vegans. Users/ArlenAbraham

20050516 03:46:55 nbsp Hey guys. I used to live in Mountain View, where a small little vegan restaurant existed that served mimicked beef, pork, and pretty much every other meat. The consistency of the sweet and sour pork was amazingly close to real pork, a little chewie but soft... some grislelike material on the inside. The beef was long and slender like broccoli beef. Ive heard people say this is made from tofu, others from gluten. Could someone explain how they make these tasty fake meats. Is it possible to make them at home in your own kitchen? Id love to try.Users/MichaelGiardina
  Your descriptions sound very much like Gluten (Seitan). Ive never bought any really good gluten products in Davis, but I suspect they can be found at the Davis Food Coop. SF Market in Sac has a wide variety of gluten products that are ultrayummy. Most are in cans (labeled curried gluten, vegetarian mock abalone, vegetarian mock duck). I suspect they have some fresher products, but Im not certain. As for making them at home, do you mean cook with them, or make them from scratch? If the latter, unlike paneer cheese and tofu, I suspect its quite a time consuming and specialized process. But I dont know that for a fact ...
  While Im not vegan, my Users/LeonaScanlan sister was for many years, and I picked up some knowledge of nonmeat foods from her...  Fake meats are made from either seitan or bean curd, which tofu is made from.  Ive never made seitan myself, but Ive eaten homemade.  Its kinda weird, but I dont think its too difficult.  http://vegweb.com/recipes/subs/4539.shtml Heres a recipe from a Veggie website that looks promising. Also, bulgar wheat is a good substitute for ground beaf in dishes like chili.  It cooks like rice, but is larger and has a more substantial texture...  Let me know if you make the seitan and it turns out well!  Users/SummerSong ss
   Wow, thats an amazingly simple and inexpensive recipe! Ill have to try it sometime. I also found for how to make gluten based http://www.veganmania.com/pages/seitan.htm fake chicken and steak. I dont know the quality of these recipes though they make use of Nutritional Yeast and Braggs Liquid Aminos. I dont mean to knock these products, but I doubt theyre ingredients in what you ate at the Mountainview Restaurant. Users/CraigBrozinsky
     No way!  Braggs and Nutritional Yeast (also called Brewers Yeast) are two staples in any vegans dietwell, any that I know, anyway!  Brewers Yeast is seriously yummy on rice, veggies, and popcorn, and animalsat least the cats and dogs Ive knownreally like it too.  I once left a bag of Brewers yeast on the counter, and my two kittens tore into it and ate it upits just that tasty!  Hmmm... Is yeast alive?  Does that mean it isnt vegan?   Users/SummerSong ss
                  Even though yeast is alive, its not animal so it is vegan.  In the same way that flax and vegetables are alive (also vegan).  So go yeast!   Users/BobbyGray
      Yeah, my bad I was assuming MG was referring to an Asian restaurant, but there was nothing really to base that on. The Asian restaurants where Ive eaten gluten didnt have a Vegan feel as much as a substituteglutenformeat feel. They didnt even have a brown rice option. As such, I really didnt expect them to embrace vegan products such as Braggs, Nutritional Yeast, etc. While Im writing, can anyone recommend a good vegan cookbook? Ive become allergic to Soy, and cant enjoy many of the tasty vegan recipes I used to like.Users/CraigBrozinsky
  Im going to bet Seitan is what I was talking about. Ill have to take a look at SFMarket to see what they have. Somehow I didnt imagine it being in a can... but who am I to judge? Any other Seitan tips? Man, I feel like im quoting the bible or an orbital track.
    I eat it straight out of the can, but theyre really good when added to stir fries. I should mention that the ones I mentioned above wouldnt fool anyone into thinking theyre meat theyre sizable cubes that have a pretty big moisture content, so theyre kind of halfway betwen meat and tofu texture. Braising or grilling might make them more meat like if thats what youre looking for. Alternatively, there must be fresher products that are already meat like in texture. Please comment here if you find them!
  For fake steak strips try Soy Strips from the bulk bins at the coop. Theyll take on whatever flavor you give them and they are awesome!!! I like them in burritos, fajitas, and sandwiches so far. Users/JackHaskel
    Where are these bulk bins? Im only familiar with the salsa and the tofu bins. Users/MichaelGiardina
     Pretty much the entire left side of the store (as you come in) are bulk bins. The soy strips are near the dehydrated soups and chocolate chips in one of the vertical dispensers opposite the rice cakes.
     Oh, so you have to cook them, boil them, etc?
       yes

20060420 10:13:09 nbsp Actually the empanadas at the coop are NOT vegan; they have butter in the crust. Theyve been carrying vegan tamales, and the samosas as well as a variety of the salads (and usually half of the lunch buffet) are vegan. Also if youre looking for a butter substitute, go and get Earth Balance. Doesnt even taste like a substitute. Users/EmmaCoats(vegan by association)

20060812 16:52:05 nbsp If the Hot Food Line at the CoHo doesnt have a vegan option, our black beans, refried beans, tortillas, and spanish rice have all been confirmed vegan.  Once you take the cheese out, our vegetarian burritos are also vegan by default.  In addition, during the school year, our salad bar (duh) is an option, and the tofu salad was just recently changed to use veganaise instead of mayonaise.  No word on the bread in the sandwiches or the bagels yet, but I will look into them. Users/TaylorMoseley

20061220 13:39:11 nbsp Im not sure if its worth its own section, but I have questions about specific items at restaurants being vegan. Most pizza can be done vegan without cheese, but some place sneak cheezy bits into the sauce. Anyone know where its ok? And do any pizza places offer soy or vegan cheezes? Does anyone have any other questions about the veganality of items that a restaurant employee, owner, or regular customer could answer? users/ScottWeintraub

20070210 18:50:29 nbsp Cenarios makes vegan pizza if you ask them to. They take out the cheese and fool around with the veggie pizza. Users/VictoriaGimpelevich

20090116 12:25:09 nbsp Most days, the Coffee House Bakery has a vegan treat for sale. Its usually one of their jam Bozo Bars or peanut butter rice krispie treats, but sometimes they have vegan fudge bars. Yum! (The fudge bars contain coconut, so if thats one of your foods to avoid, be aware.) Users/LizPhillips

20090603 20:55:25 nbsp how about the veg burrito (no cheese or sour cream of course) at Del Taco... and I think that the Guad is now making their rice with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.  Users/NicoletteD

20100207 19:20:52 nbsp John Natsoulas Gallery Cafe now has vegan potato knishes/rustic pies. They have a cornstarch glaze, not egg. They also offer delicious glutenfree/vegan chocolate chip cookies, as well as raspberryspelt vegan scones.  Users/RuthFankushen

20100805 20:18:35 nbsp Davis Noodle City is listed under Vegan Restaurant Options as having rice noodles, and its also listed under Vegan BumOuts as having only egg noodles. Someone should find out the solution to this contradiction next time he/she visits DNC. Users/TheShah

20100805 22:51:39 nbsp This page is Glines status Users/StevenDaubert
  ? Users/TheShah SS

20120728 02:25:08 nbsp I am a hardcore meat eater. Yet, my girlfriend dragged me to this place in Elk Grove called Loving Hut  an all vegan restaurant. Ive got to say, I was quite impressed. The food was quite delicious. There is a location off of Stockton Boulevard, too.  Users/CecilioPadilla
