Here's link to the interview with Tony Bourdain on Salon.com.
The quote is,
"Certainly the vegan meal I had in Berkeley was soul-destroying, and just frightening."
He goes on to say a bit more about vegans -
"They're rude! People's choice to become vegan, from people I've spoken to, seems motivated by fear. Like, "it's possibly toxic, or ungroovy, or poisonous, or loaded with chemicals or some kind of harmful things that'll make me less healthy." I certainly don't see that as a good reason to do anything, certainly not a good reason to be rude to your host.How can you travel? Before you've even left home, you've already decided, "I reject most of the world's bounty and the expression of their hopes and dreams and culture." Some nice, possibly impoverished Vietnamese rice farmer is nice enough to offer you the one chicken he can kill a month, or a week, and you say, "Sorry, I can't"? It just seems antihuman. It's antisocial.
And for anyone who says that everyone should eat like that -- it completely ignores the fact that, well, we can't afford to. We've got hungry people in this world. Go stay with the Bushmen for a week. Ninety-eight percent of their diet is meat. [Chuckles darkly.] That would be a funny reality show."
I agree it would be rude to not accept food from someone who offers it in the spirit of hospitality and friendship, on the other hand there have been, and are, some really cool vegans who practice veganism in the spirit of compassion and non-violence. I hope he isn't saying all people who's cultures or religious beliefs cause them to follow a vegan diet are rude. The point about starving Bushmen eating meat is sort of misguided since we could feed a lot of people a plant-based diet using the land we use today to feed cows...but that's another story.
In any event I think poking fun at self-righteous, humorless, holier-than-thou vegans (or anyone else who fits that mold) is always a good thing. Tony Bourdain is funny, seems real, and you have to love his spirit of adventure.
