Just in case you were thinking that veganism is for sissies or emaciated women who hang around the bulk bins in Whole Foods market weighing out Goji Berries – think AGAIN! Thug Kitchen takes all the stigma out of being vegan and packs a powerful punch with it’s straight-from-the-hip tone, and (AVOID if you are offended by cursing or the F-word), louche verbiage. But it’s a lot of fun and authors, Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, pack an exciting punch in their new, stunningly photographed book.
Sophie: What turned you both vegan?
MD: I just never felt good about eating animal products since I was little kid. It was all just too fucking confusing for me. How am I supposed to relate to Wilbur and then eat him for dinner? I couldn’t compartmentalize like that.
MH: Before being vegan, I never really felt healthy and had indigestion so bad I took medication. When I cut meat and eventually dairy out of my diet, my indigestion disappeared almost overnight. After going plant-based I felt such a drastic improvement in my body, mood, and overall well-being that I never fucking looked back.
Sophie :A lot of people get the giving up meat thing, but have a hard time with dairy. Why do you think it’s important to go the whole hog? (excuse the pun)
MD/MH:Of course we think it’s important but we all need to cut each other some slack. Going vegan can be a process, you don’t need to give up everything overnight. It’s way fucking easier if you just adapt a little at a time and you’re so much more likely to stick with it longterm. Just be patient with yourself and with others figuring it out. There’s no right way to become vegan so be supportive and not shitty.
Sophie: If someone is allergic to soy, how should they load up on veggie protein?
MD/MH:Don’t get us wrong, we love tofu but there’s no way that fucker is a cornerstone of our diet. We keep it simple and get most of our protein from beans. They are cheap, easy to cook with, and good with fucking everything. Also there are plenty of great non-soy protein powders now if you are living that smoothie like. We like hemp and pea protein the best.
Sophie: Your book Thug Kitchen is such a mega success – why?
MD/MH:If we had to guess we would say it’s because everyone wants to take better care of themselves but too often feel excluded from the conversation. A lot of cookbooks focus on presenting this perfect person, with a perfect lifestyle, and endless amounts of money showing you how to adopt a plant-based diet. Regular people live on a budget and can’t spend all fucking day cooking their dinner because they have a job. In our book we tried to show that you don’t have to be rich, perfect, or humorless asshole to give a fuck about what you eat.
Sophie: You are on a dessert island for a year – you can take 3 foods with you – what are they??
MD/MH: Assuming we had endless supplies of them probably fresh garlic, spinach, and garbanzo beans. You can always make something with those fuckers.
Sophie: If there was one thing you could do to make the world a more decent place, what would it be?
MD/MH: Man, if we could we would give everyone a pill or something that would make them more empathic. We would do that shit in a heartbeat because that seems to be the root of 99% of our problems. We would all be kinder to each other and kinder to animals if we could start thinking about others. So yeah, we’d love to create an anti-asshole pill.
Pick up a copy of best-seller, Thug Kitchen right now!
