Vegan

Here are 10 high-performing "he-man" vegan athletes. Carl Lewis Track star: Went vegan in 1990; won the 1991 World Championships in Athletics. Tim Bradley Boxer: Fighting Manny Pacquiao on June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mac Danzig Mixed martial artist (UFC): Ultimate Fighter 6 winner, 2007. Scott Jurek Ultramarathoner: Winner of multiple endurance runs; in 2010, set U.S. record for 24-hour distance run. Billy Simmons Bodybuilder: Won Mr. Natural Universe in 2009.

I found it surprisingly easy to eat out as a vegan after my recent transition to meat-and-dairy free eating. Below are some of my favorite spots. In this city, Horizons Restaurant, 611 S. 7th St., 215-923-6117, is vegan heaven (that is, they have both a vegan menu and a liquor license). Landau's love of the Caribbean is in evidence in his Hearts of Palm Cakes, with their fluffy interior and crispy exterior, and spicy-sweet Jamaican BBQ Seitan. Both are legendary among his loyal clientele.

DEAR Vance Lehmkuhl, Thank you for bringing tears of joy to my eyes after reading about the oldest religious practice on earth, eating from the holy garden (OpEd, Aug. 8). In my heart, I know that until we cherish every living creature as if part of our family, we will not reach the highest ideals of humankind. Looking holistically at a world full of suffering, famine and environmental ruin, it appears that grave mistakes have been made and time for repair is at hand.

SINCE SUSHI, by its very name, is all about the rice, that's the bulk of this recipe. Once you have "sushi rice" ready, you can make many varieties, though we'll focus on nori rolls, the most well-known format in this country.   Optimally you should use Japanese rice, found at specialty stores, but short-grain rice works, too. Avoid long-grain varieties; they aren't sticky enough. Here's a basic, but versatile, recipe. The vinegar mixture can be adjusted to taste.   VEGAN SUSHI   3 cups rice 6 cups water 1/4 cup rice vinegar 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt Several sheets of nori (seaweed paper)

THERE IS, of course, nothing radical about asking people to eat their veggies (Stu Bykofsky, "Lioness in winter," May 31). But PETA demonizes those who produce animal protein and natural fibers like wool, fur and leather. PETA's vegan food and fiber policy, of course, can't support 6 billion people on a finite planet. It is not sustainable and would result in enormous waste and pollution. Thus, beyond being nonsensical, it is radical. PETA is earning a reputation as a sort of vegan cult preying on kids, not a source of solid nutrition advice.

Five months ago, I went from lapsed vegetarian to full-blown vegan, and somehow, by cutting my caloric options in half, gained five pounds. I'd always associated vegans with teeny-tiny hippie chicks in dreadlocks and yoga pants, arranging kombu in a pressure cooker before leaving for a job at the co-op. Obviously, times have changed. These days, going vegan requires almost no planning and, better yet, no dreadlocks. With the spread of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and the mainstreaming of the health-food ethos, delicious vegan choices are so plentiful that maintaining a "teeny-tiny" vegan physique is as tough as maintaining an omnivorous one. In addition to Horizons, the city's terrific vegan restaurant, nowadays I can grab a mock tuna sandwich at the Reading Terminal, vegan dim sum in Chinatown - and even vegan summer rolls in the suburbs.

JUST YOU wait, you naysayers. Now he's officially declared - and once Dennis Kucinich is president, things are gonna be very different around here. The only vegan candidate in the race (and the only vegan in Congress), Dennis the "Peace Candidate" will, indeed, prevail! As the inevitable hypocrisies of the other candidates are exposed, his meat-free wisdom will come clear. He'll turn our government around, abolishing the military/industrial complex and replacing it with organic take-out restaurants.

BETTER LATE than never, spring has sprung (or at least it's starting to). Let's turn off the furnace, open the door, put the top down and go explore the world around us. If we get hungry, no prob - there are plentiful plant-based offerings all around Philly. In fact, as it warms up, we'll take a quick spin around Philly and through the suburbs, touching base with some of our less Center City-centric friends to see what's up in their neighborhoods. Starting in Jersey (sun rises in the east, right?

IF ROB KATZ tells you that his mother is "a creative genius," that "everything she touches turns to magic," you might chalk it up to his being a devoted son. But when his mother is Bobbi Katz, creator of Bobbi's Best Hummus, you realize that he's just sharing facts. The company's line of hummus and vegan-friendly spreads is exceptionally good, and I'm not just saying that because I was swayed by the subliminal message on the containers: "Your Favorite Hummus. " Or am I? What else, other than the incredible taste, explains the loyalty this product inspires?

"I THINK IT'S awesome how Philly's become such a vegan-friendly place," said Kate Jacoby, likely one of the two people in town most responsible for that happening. With her husband, Rich Landau, Jacoby was co-owner of Horizons, a trailblazing vegan restaurant at 7th and Kater streets that closed a year ago this weekend. From its origins in 1994 as a natural-foods juice stand in Willow Grove, Horizons evolved over the years and in 2006 moved into Philadelphia, forever altering the local conversation about vegan dining.

IF I SAY "vegan rock star," Chrissie Hynde or Moby or Jason Mraz might come to mind. You wouldn't immediately think of T. Colin Campbell, 79, professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University. But Campbell's half-century of research in nutrition, hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and a key role in the world's most comprehensive study of health and nutrition, the "China Study," have surely made him a rock star in the plant-eating world. He summarized that groundbreaking study (which the New York Times called "the Grand Prix of epidemiology")

TV COOKING shows, am I right? They're everywhere, with red meat literal and metaphoric. Front-burner flare-ups and meltdowns, knife-edge competitions, violent outbursts, fireworks, car chases - you name it. Their "green" counterparts tend to be nonviolent, collaborative, animal-free, veggie-rich and . . . well, not exactly everywhere. And they don't have car chases. Which, on second thought, neither do the mainstream ones. Point is, however they might have languished in obscurity, plant-based shows are stepping into the limelight.

BETTER LATE than never, spring has sprung (or at least it's starting to). Let's turn off the furnace, open the door, put the top down and go explore the world around us. If we get hungry, no prob - there are plentiful plant-based offerings all around Philly. In fact, as it warms up, we'll take a quick spin around Philly and through the suburbs, touching base with some of our less Center City-centric friends to see what's up in their neighborhoods. Starting in Jersey (sun rises in the east, right?

IF ROB KATZ tells you that his mother is "a creative genius," that "everything she touches turns to magic," you might chalk it up to his being a devoted son. But when his mother is Bobbi Katz, creator of Bobbi's Best Hummus, you realize that he's just sharing facts. The company's line of hummus and vegan-friendly spreads is exceptionally good, and I'm not just saying that because I was swayed by the subliminal message on the containers: "Your Favorite Hummus. " Or am I? What else, other than the incredible taste, explains the loyalty this product inspires?

"OH, MY GOD, I couldn't live without cheese!" Ever heard those words, or maybe uttered them yourself? I sure have. Back when I, a longtime vegetarian, decided to go vegan, the prospect of life without cheese yawned as a desolate, ascetic slog of eternity without such rich, gooey gustatory pleasure. What a martyr to cross the line into that bleak, barren world! A couple of dairy-free months later, I was already puzzling at such grandiosity. Cheese? Really? I didn't know then how casomorphins, a dairy component that's concentrated in cheese, act as opioids - that is, they confer a mild but habit-forming euphoria.

I SAW AN ad the other day pushing bacon as an ideal Valentine's Day gift, and I had to laugh. It's like saying, "Here, sweetheart, I want you to die sooner!" OK, I know this holiday is not about eating "right. " It's about something bigger, and that something is love. Love and chocolate. Dark chocolate is the treat that loves you back. Healthwise, you can have your chocolate cake and eat it, too, especially if you mix it with - don't laugh - fruits and veggies. It's not a new idea.

Food marketers can toil in the trenches for years before cinching the kind of deal that basically fell into Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby's laps. The food/housewares giant Williams-Sonoma has three sauces branded with the name Vedge, the couple's upscale vegan restaurant in Center City. They are to go on sale this week ($14.95) at more than 150 stores in the United States and the Middle East, and starting Jan. 17 on its website. The arrangement began simply. In the spring, a Williams-Sonoma executive visiting Philadelphia had a good meal at Vedge and called, said Shannon Gomes, a Williams-Sonoma spokeswoman.

I MAY NOT BE the first to notice this, but, geez, what a year, huh? I mean for veg dining in Philly, of course. Long a pioneer in this area (hey, without us there would have been no American Vegetarian Society back in 1850), our town is really moving into the big leagues. This year saw the opening of four noteworthy plant-based businesses, each carving a slightly different niche in a different neighborhood. HipCityVeg has taken Rittenhouse Square by storm (superstorm?) with its mix of burgers, salads and green smoothies.

THERE'S A saying about not giving a man a fish for one meal but instead teaching him to fish, so he eats for . . . well, as long as there are still fish to catch. As V for Veg eschews the gifting of animals (not really ours to gift), here's a better idea: Help your gift recipients learn to cook healthy and flavorful animal-free meals. Our 2012 holiday-gift tip is to pick a special person or two, get them a lovely cookbook - AND make one of the recipes, delivered along with the book (the dollar store has cute holiday tins)

Growing up in West Chester, in a family of Italian cooks, Christine Sheller appreciated the love that went into the meals she and her siblings ate, even if she sometimes rolled her eyes at the endless foodfest in the kitchen. "Saturday at 5 a.m., you'd be lying in bed and the smell of garlic would be wafting upstairs. It did not appeal," she recalls with a smile. These days, Sheller, 39, a graphic designer living in Philadelphia's Blue Bell Hill neighborhood, has embraced her family's culinary legacy - with one significant change.