my favorite is curried quorn salad with grapes and celery but I think the quorn roast does a better job than chicken in most chicken salads.

Hill, you mention vegan but I wasn't sure--are you one?

I did vegan for three months. I wasn't a particularly inventive one, and I hate tofu and resent meat substitutes, so it was never going to be more than an experiment. But I am glad I did it.

We hang out with a vegan couple sometimes, and they do stuff like take us to raw food restaurants which is incredibly traumatic if you're me, because the menu's a big old lying tease. But even here in West LA their eating out options are reasonably circumscribed. I can't imagine trying to work that way--I didn't eat out during my foray into veganism.

Sometimes we go to vegan places, and sometimes they come with us to sushi or Indian. But I'm glad I have little in the way of dietary restrictions (my migraine triggers are fairly easy to avoid). I don't have a healthy enough appetite as it is. Couldn't handle cutting down opportunities to eat beyond my sheer laziness.

Ah, children of the quorn, unite.

I'm not vegan. Vegetarian, and I don't eat eggs, but I'm not terribly careful about the egg thing when it comes to baked goods and other prepared foods. Anything I bake myself has no eggs, though. (The egg thing is halfway for animal issues, and halfway because the last time I ate eggs, I got food poisoning, so just looking at them makes me feel sick now. But at that point, I'd been thinking about giving up eggs anyway.)

I will try anything. In general I don't like fish unless it's raw or smoked and I don't care for lobster, shrimp or crab except for ceremonial purposes. I'll do clam chowder and raw oysters but mussels are just icky. I didn't like brains the one time I had them but I adore blood sausage. I think I'll pretty much eat anything else.

Not a vegetarian, but I really like Smart Dogs. Taste like real hot dogs to me, but without the fat and nitrates and stuff. Curious among those who like veggie hot dogs any brand/style preferences?

I do hate the taste of eggs something awful, but to me they're the miracle ingredient.

Your vegetarian stance is a...I want to say humanitarian, but your use of animal issues works better...one? I know it's old news that you're vegetarian, but I don't think I've ever been nosy about it before--how long have you been vegetarian?

I have a friend that's been pescatarian since birth (once someone slipped her bacon, but that's been it) and wasn't even eating much fish anymore. My brain processes vegetarian and other dietary positions just fine as choices, but the idea of never having eaten meat is strange to me. Much of her resistance at this point is the acclimation her body would have to do to get used to meat, and, well, I can't blame her for that. Stomachs are cruel things even when you're not shocking them like that.

I recently picked up some Gardenburger riblets because a carnivorous friend of my vegan mom said they were the one veggie food she kept eating after breaking up with her veggie boyfriend. They are still in the freezer, but I look forward to trying them. I will have to check out the Morningstar Farms buffalo wings, though an awful lot of Morningstar stuff is full of cornstarch.

Eta: Smart Dogs are my favorite veggie hot dog, though trader joe's veggie corn dogs are of the yum

Not a vegetarian, but I really like Smart Dogs. Taste like real hot dogs to me, but without the fat and nitrates and stuff. Curious among those who like veggie hot dogs any brand/style preferences?

For ones to make in the microwave, I like Smart Dogs. For the grill, the absolute best are the "Grill-Ready" Smart Dogs. (I think they may have been renamed Smart Franks.) Same brand, but a different recipe -- more gluten, less soy -- and they get really nicely charred and crispy on the grill.

Your vegetarian stance is a...I want to say humanitarian, but your use of animal issues works better...one? I know it's old news that you're vegetarian, but I don't think I've ever been nosy about it before--how long have you been vegetarian?

Right. The way I generally explain it when people ask is that I don't think it's right to kill animals for food when I can easily survive without it. I've been vegetarian since I was 13.

They are still in the freezer, but I look forward to trying them.

Not sure how strong your microwave is, but when I make them, I generally go for a bit less time than the package says. If they're in there for too long, even like ten seconds too long, the ribs get rubbery and the sauce congeals. But once you figure out the right timing, yum.