Hanoi Jane Sutherland and I recently found ourselves wondering on air what a vegan might eat were he or she be either drunk or hung-over.
For Hanoi, a Jimmy's mince and cheese pie from the Two-Four on the way home from a night on the razzle dazzle is just the ticket. For me, a great big chicken and lamb kebab from the Turkish takeaway is just what the doctor ordered when saddled with a belly full of booze.
A great venue for this in Dunedin was a restaurant that wisely stayed open in the wee hours, seducing the staggering masses along the main drag with the aromas emanating from the rotisseries.
It was manned by a kid of about eight years old who was the spitting image of his father and who took great delight in taunting his much older customers with jibes about their inebriated circumstances as the old man chuckled away in the background. He showed great spirit for a lad who was mixing it with a bunch of drunks at two in the morning!
Hanoi and I both agree some delightfully greasy KFC is the ideal alcohol soaker the next day when the mouth is dry, the head is thumping and the body is craving as much greasy fare as humanly possible.
But what, we wondered, would satisfy the same worldly cravings for a vegan? We have a nutritionist we're going to speak to later this week on The Country Early Edition to find the answer. After all, this is a massively pressing matter.
Have a listen to Dom's interview with nutritionist Mikki Williden in the audio clip below:
So it was with great interest that I read an article that Hanoi posted on our Facebook page last week about a vegan café in the UK that's come under fire after the owners launched an online attack against some of its customers.
The proprietors of the Goat café in Huddersfield announced on Facebook they would no longer be serving some of their popular coffees and were, ironically, ditching the internet. They said they'd no longer accept credit card payments and believed humans were being exploited by modern technology.
They would, however, respond to written or verbal communication and urged people to open their minds and drop their egos if they had a problem with the new regime.
Social media being what it is, people immediately clamoured to take offence, and protested at the tone of the message. Not to be outdone, the owners fired back, and fired back with true venom. One customer was labelled a "f*^#n' control freak", another compared to Hitler, while yet another was asked by the owners "when exactly are you going to die?"
The owners also proffered the statement, "If you can only use the internet to live then you need to address your life". That's potentially sage advice and I must say I admire the couple's willingness to run things in a Twenty-First Century, Fawlty Towers-esque fashion. It's my bet people will go there on the off-chance they might receive a verbal bashing from the Goat café proprietors!
The café is temporarily close at the moment for repairs but the I hope it's open the next time I'm in Huddersfield; I'm definitely going to pop in and pay my respects, although what the hell would I order from a vegan café? At least I best not be hung-over...