Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Serious Eats isn't exactly a site for "the average consumer" - nor should it try to be. I still have trouble understanding why wanting to eat food that is raised humanely and doesn't require the ingestion of chemicals, hormones, or antibiotics is somehow "yuppie" or "hipster". It's food, not a damn rock concert or a pair of designer jeans.

We used Champion juicers in school and I am planning to buy one soon - they're great, and (for a juicer) pretty easy to clean.

Almond milk is one of the best dairy substitutes around - to me it has a much nicer flavor than soy, and better body than rice milk. Try it in baking, where the vanilla flavor will shine!

I pretty much only use a chef's knife and a paring knife, so I just keep them in knife guards in a drawer.

A fun budget night could include a rock show at Rickshaw Stop, Bottom Of The Hill, or Hemlock Tavern (the latter is also just a fun bar). If you can beat the crowds, House of Nankeen in SF for genius Chinese food is a classic for a reason. If you want a true weird new-agey Bay Area experience, go to Café Gratitude in Berkeley for admittedly delicious mostly-raw food served in an over-the-top environment (their key lime pie is amazing). Brunch at Boogaloo in SF is really tasty but can get super-crowded on weekends (go early). Also if you are a music lover, don't miss a stop at Aquarius Records, one of the best shops on the planet. Great coffee around there as well. Good luck!

Blue cheese, eggplant, cilantro. I have gotten over so many other dislikes, but these three remain.

@eggyzhe: I'm no tofu-obsessive, but it's so versatile that I think you're right to hold out hope - I'm sure there's a way to prepare it that you'd like. (Personally I am a much bigger fan of tempeh than tofu, though.)

I think you've hit the nail on the head - cabbage rolls would be perfect because of the big leaves that aren't packed too closely. Maybe you could make the filling spicy Thai-style in honor of your cabbage?

@climbighak - I wasn't finger-pointing, simply mentioning that meat-eaters can be just as "proselytizing" as vegans, in my experience. I'm actually only about 95% veg at this point, but the idea that people are somehow infringing on others' rights by making personal dietary choices simply doesn't make sense to me. @mildlyinterested is right - it's all about acceptance and understanding.

@jwalz - True. And yet, as I have said before and will say again, I have never experienced diet-related zealotry to the degree that I have experienced it in meat-eaters telling me that I should be eating meat, that my choice not to eat meat is stupid, that my life will be shortened due to lack of protein, that for this, that, or the other reason my vegetarianism is spiritually or physiologically incorrect.

@sailordave - Not true. There's no way an analogy between dietary choice and musical taste can work in this situation. There are simply food lovers who eat meat (and very likely, have a whole host of other foods they don't prefer, like we all do), and there are food lovers who do not.

The laws governing milk in NYC provide for a shorter time-window because milk delivered to stores/homes in the city is more likely to be left unrefrigerated for a period of time during the delivery process. Because this period of unrefrigeration shortens milk's shelf life, the standard date in NYC is several days shorter than for other areas.

Boy was I surprised when, studying abroad in Italy at 20, I asked for a "martini" at the bar, and was served a glass of vermouth!

If I'm out somewhere fantastic with a friend, I'm going to want him/her to try whatever delicious thing I'm tasting - that way, we can talk about it. If I went out with a bunch of people and they all wanted to try my food, that might be a different story, unless we'd all agreed ahead of time to do a family-style thing. Germ-wise, though, I could care less: it says something that my favorite food to go out for is Ethiopian!

Jamie Oliver?