A gripping and grueling look at eating meat, and the timely debut of El Cantaro Mexican Vegan.

Last week an almost-underground eating society gathered at Unity Church of Monterey Bay over vegan “sausage and cheese” balls, cashew-cream dips, tasty lil’ mini pizzas with arrowroot flour-and-canola-oil cheese, milk-free macaroons, dynamite walnut-tomato chutneys and raw bok choy salad. 


The Monterey VegHeads (236-5518), a Meetup group of nearly 200 locals who meet to potluck, hike, eat at Julia’s Vegetarian Restaurant (656-9533) and swap strategies, are quasi-underground not by desire, but because vegetarians – and vegans especially – are often marginalized by a deep-seated societal obsession with meat. Like founder Bob Lucius says, “When I moved here I thought I was the only vegan. I needed community. In a non-plant-eating world it can be hard to sustain.”


Last Wednesday they gathered with other members of the public to soak up a presentation from composer, Zen Dharma master and former U.C. Berkeley Professor Will Tuttle called “Planting Peace: Words and Music For A New World.” 


“We’re helping awaken the species,” Tuttle said, “so we can celebrate the abundance of the planet rather than devastate it.”


First he awoke ears and imaginations. Taking to the piano bench beneath a banner with a Jimi Hendrix quote – “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace” – Tuttle summoned something beautiful, a lilting, swirling and at-times thundering original that first came to him as he pondered a mouse he caught in his house, set it on the piano, and started playing. After the song, he brought his hands together in a silent and small bow forward, stood, walked over to the microphone and spoke of something ugly. 


“How many have looked behind the curtain of our food systems?” he asked. A lot of hands flashed up. “How many were too afraid?” Three more hands.


He has looked, and looked hard. His book World Peace Diet – an increasingly translated bestseller on Amazon – takes 332 pages (or 13.5 hours by audio book) to look at eating animals through a range of filters, including anthropology, psychology, ethics, theology, economics, gender inequity, geopolitics, cycles of violence and health risks. 


“I always thought, ‘Someone’s going to do a book that brings together all the effects,’” he said. “Health, environment and cruelty are big, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg.”


The person to harness the heinousness would be him.


“It’s all in there,” he said. “If you look deeply enough into the eyes of an elephant, it’s in there too.”


The analysis is complex at times – Tuttle, who has a doctorate in education, dives into everything from the reductionism of science to the metaphysics of food – but the logic and underlying message are simple: Take a quick peek at how much eating meat affects us and it’s powerfully plain how little there is to recommend it. And it’s not just because an appetite for animals leads to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Or that it costs more. Or that it is driving mass extinction, fishery collapse and overnight deforestation of jungles that took millions of years to evolve. Or because it contributes more to climate change than any other industry. Or because a billion people starve as water and grain that could sustain them easily is used to fatten animals. It’s because of one piercing number and the immeasurable weight it brings with it: We slaughter 75 million animals a day in this country alone – and that’s a conservative number, for land animals only – feeding all sorts of derivative damages to the people and communities where the killing happens.


Still, moving away from that daily steak proves impossible for many, and Tuttle gets into the inherited norms that generate the meat magnetism, too.


“You have to let go of the fear of being judged,” he said. “To leave that meal and go off by yourself – we’re trained to think we’ll die without the tribe! People think, ‘I’m not giving up my cheese. Forget it.’ Even when you tell them what happens with cows.”


Finding blood on your hands and plate isn’t pleasant. Remembering reductions can take place gradually and incrementally is a huge help. So is Tuttle’s aim to provide tools, not intolerance.


“There’s power in this understanding,” he said. “Vegan values are our values. It’s like remembering a song that was always singing in our hearts.”


Tuttle’s profound piano helps there. As famous mythologist Joseph Campbell has observed: “When playing the piano, he works from his Buddha-nature, floating, not trying, beyond mistakes.”


More music to meatless ears: El Cantaro Vegan Mexican Restaurant (646-5465) has quietly opened on Foam between Lighthouse Avenue and Cannery Row, a block toward the water from Amir’s Grill and Bar in New Monterey. (Don’t swamp them all at once. They’re just getting started.)


From the menu that reads “fresh Mexican homemade cooking – healthy, flavorful and we’ll even please the meat eaters” come bean-vegetable-jalapeño-mole sweet tamales ($2.75), crispy potato tacos with non-dairy sour cream, salsa fresca and lettuce (four for $7.75) and “mega” mushroom quesadillas ($7.25) with the meltiest cheese without milk that young mom-and-pop owners Luvia Cruz and Ivan Sandin can find.


Their Seventh-day Adventist faith helped inspire the business, but so did personal health and general happiness.


“I have more energy, and feel more clear-minded,” Cruz says. “Every time I’d eat meat I’d feel bloated. Now I’m just satisfied.”


Hopefully consideration of multidimensional wellness – plus all the psychological, environmental and societal health consequences – help more people reduce their meat consumption. Otherwise we’ll be faced with an unsavory irony: Our society’s willingness to marginalize the plant-based eaters among us will marginalize the whole species in the worst possible way. 


QUICKBITES


• As of this week,Dory Ford, Esteban Jimenez and the Aquaterra Culinary team give A Taste of Monterey (646-5446) a whole new flavor. Read up on the cheeses and fresh plates on the blog (www.mcweekly.com/edible), or subscribe to the foodie newsletter (www.mcweekly.com/subscribe).


• Rappa’s (372-7562) on the Wharf just brought in a new Executive Chef Alfonso Martinez from the acclaimed Mustards Grill in Napa Valley. Try the pot stock cioppino. The oyster bar ($1.35/pop) is bumping too.


• Marion Lopez was a Salinas nightlife legend for nearly half a century, founding Marion’s Place (424-8145), a community institution long on Latino dance energy and community generosity. Expect his nuclear and greater family to remember him fondly – and continue his entertainment legacy.


• Monterey’s Planning Commission has recommended two food cart proposals to its City Council for MST Transit plaza across from Trader Joe’s: a taco cart from the family behind Lopez Restaurante and Cantina (324-4260) and a hot dog cart from N.Y. native Mike Miele, a fixture at the Tuesday farmers market. The CC could decide as early as Tuesday, June 4. 


• The Street Food Fest (372-5863, no admission) returns to Monterey County Fairgrounds noon-6pm Saturday, June 1, pledging more food trucks and drink stations to put the brakes on egregious lines of last year. Live bands too.


• South County all-star Taqueria Hidalgo (679-2384) has a new outpost in Salinas (444-0870). Que rico.


• Montrio Bistro (648-8880) bustle: 5:30-8:30pm Wednesday, June 5, it hosts a pop-up shop (for Rising International Fair Trade craft goods with Chef Tony Baker appetizers. July 8 a neat special dinner pays homage to its firehouse home with a reception, four-course dinner and drink inspired by Monterey’s American, French and Italian culture and local firefighting storytelling. 


• New Twisted Roots (594-8282) is holding its first winemaker’s dinner, “Pizza on the Patio,” Saturday, June 8 – three hours of brick fired gourmet pizzas by Contemporary Catering and signature wines ($55). 


• Indy Dinner Series (750-9579) welcomes back Santa Cruz vendors and chefs for another blockbuster and affordable dinner ($25) Thursday, June 6, with Monterey Bay Derby Dames rolling the food to tables.


• The 135th BevMo! (250-0621) opens in the Carmel Rancho Shopping Center Friday, May 31, with 9,380 square feet.


• They grow up so fast: The Monterey Sports Center (646-3730) turns 21 with drawings and refreshments 11am-2pm Saturday, June 1.


• Will Tuttle: “Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘Violence anywhere hurts everyone, everywhere.’ I believe when we show compassion and kindness anywhere it blesses everyone everywhere.”