VEGAN WITH A VENGENCE
Isa Chandra Moskowitz interviewed by Claudette Vaughan

Two of the most mouth watering, delicious, cheap and animal free vegan cookbooks have been written by this nifty and zany women. Her manner and style suits all types of different vegans and both are designed to show us the sassy and fun style of a vegan cook who knows exactly what she’s talking about. “Vegan With A Vengeance” and “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World” are testaments to terrific and tempting vegan cooking. We at the Abolitionist wouldn’t be without them.

Abolitionist: Are you as much as a vegan punk as your grandmother was?

Isa: My grandmother was more punk then me. When I was a teenager my friends and I were shooting water at each other with the hose in front of her house. She came home early from her job at the synagogue and was like, "Give me that!" all angry like. Then she shot us with water. So punk. Also, when she found change on the floor in my room she would pick it up and keep it and tell us if we really cared about it we wouldn't have left it on the floor.

Abolitionist: Why did you go vegan in the first place Isa and what does it mean to you now?

Isa: Because I loved animals. I just couldn't believe that people could reconciliate loving their dog or cat and eating a cow or a pig. I didn't even need all the vegan propoganda to tell me that it was wrong, it just seemed obvious to me. But reading books like Diet for a New America and Animal Liberation helped me to understand some of the larger implications of eating meat and dairy.

Abolitionist: Are we going to be able to decorate and make those terrific cupcakes identical to the way you make them?

Isa: We were pretty simple in our decorating, so I think that if you are patient and follow our directions you should have no problem. We have a flickr photo group that's dedicated to user images of the cupcakes, and people seem to be doing pretty good, so far.

Abolitionist: Name 5 of your favs please.

Isa: That's a tough one. This list can change on any given day but let's see: Coconut Lime, S'mores, The Golden Vanillas with Blueberry Mousse, Chocolate with Chocolate Mousse and Chai Lattes. Please don't tell the others!

Abolitionist: What helpful advise from your own experiences would you give to others on making the transition over from veg to vegan or meat eater to vegan?

Isa: Everyone who is successful with it takes a different approach. For me it was a slow transition. I was vegan for 3 years as a teenager but vegetarian in my early twenties. In my later twenties I transitioned back to vegan by not being hard on myself. If you have tried going vegan but had a hard time with it I would say it doesn't have to be all or nothing. If you feel like there is some dairy thing that you can't live without then have that one thing until you are ready to give it up. For a long time I ate vegan except for a few cheeses I felt like I couldn't give up. I didn't care what people said, or if they thought it was pointless to eat vegan except for a few items, because I knew it was my way of making the change.

For some people, they are able to just quit dairy and call it a day. Kudos to them, it just wasn't my way. But my general advice would be to keep informed, remember why you want to do it and don't let your ethics be defeated by the challenges you might face. Finding vegan friends doesn't hurt, either. Either online or through a more formal group.

Abolitionist: Tell us all about post punk kitchen.

Isa: That's a cooking show that my girl Terry Hope and I started doing in my kitchen in 2003 for Brooklyn and Manhattan public access TV. It's on hiatus right now but we hope to soon make our triumphant return, this time in an internet format. We cook food, have bands play and make dumb jokes and bat our eyelashes.

Abolitionist: How's Fizzle, the cat who features prominently in Vegan with a Vengeance.

Isa: Fizzle is awesome. He is just a big bundle of fluff and love. He reminds me why I am vegan every day. Right now he is writing his third cookbook, doing a lot of sleeping and perfecting the art of knocking glasses off of various furniture. We can't have glass glasses, they have to be plastic. Also, he loves nutritional yeast and we have to keep that under lock and key. I also have another cat, Avocado, but she is a lot more dignified and doesn't really care about the fame aspect of a cat's life. She's more into sitting on laps and staring at stuff that isn't really there.

Abolitionist: Are we winning the vegan wars Isa?

Isa: Well, there are more vegans now then there ever have been but there is also more meat eating then there ever has been. I think that the best thing we can do is get the vegan lifestyle out there in a positive light and make it a socially acceptable choice and not the butt of jokes for sit-coms and conservative radio hosts. I think that more and more people are recognising the harm of animal agriculture, whether it be for ethical or environmental or health reasons. That is definitely a good first step. We need to have more vegan bake sales, not just for animal rights causes, but for everything. We need to reach out to other political communities and show solidarity and interconnectedness. We need to change the meat and potatoes paradigm, and just because someone eats a vegan cupcake and doesn't go vegan immediately doesn't mean we've lost. I think that even having someone go from thinking that vegan food is inadequate to thinking that it is awesome is a small victory.

Abolitionist: Are there any impossibly hard-to-find ingredients in any of the books at all?

Isa: There are some things that you would have to go to a health food store or Asian grocery or what have you to get, but we will mention that in the recipe. We try to keep everything as supermarket-friendly as possible. But I don't want to exclude recipes that might have, say, agar agar, if that will give the best possible outcome. Usually, though, everything you need for a nice healthy vegan kitchen will be easily accessible and affordable.

Abolitionist: In your own words why are (and we believe they are too) your two vegan cookbooks unique amongst the rest of vegan cookbooks out there?

Isa: Probably because we're funny. I think a lot of people see vegans as humorless. But I don't want to start a rap type war where I'm dissing other vegan cookbooks because no doubt it will end with someone getting shot. I love other vegan cookbooks.