The Stuff I Eat restaurant is only two weeks old, but they promise their vegan recipes “will make you regret that you ever tasted any animal products.”
This restaurant, located on 114 N. Market Street in Inglewood, offers its customers some of the most unique and healthy tasting dishes like the grilled jerk tofu that’s served on sprouted bread with veganaise, mustards, lettuce, sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes, grilled red peppers, fresh herbs and spices. Not to mention the Portobello mushrooms like onions, black beans, wild rice, savory sauce, fresh salsa, guacamole, lettuce, rainbow coleslaw and SIE dressing.
Barbet Davis owner of The Stuff I Eat restaurant said she and her husband Ronald Davis expressed their interest in the catering business when they were involved in a play several years ago.
“[Since] we were making sandwiches for the cast members, we decided to go ahead and start a catering company,” Davis said. “We were thinking about a name and I just said ‘It’s the Stuff I Eat’.”
During the 1980s, Davis and her husband began distributing their vegan foods to employers at Northwest Airline. They also became caterers for the Agape Spiritual Services located on Slauson and Buckingham by Reverend Dr. Michael Beckwith for six years. There, they served thousands of people who came from other countries and nationalities.
“We are interested in sharing this food with the masses,” Davis said. “What we want people to understand is that you don’t have to give up on taste, texture and the enjoyment of eating just because you aren’t eating animal products.”
Davis and manager Danielle Horton said African Americans are more susceptible to receiving heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and other life threatening diseases because of the excessive animal products that are ingested into the body.
Horton said she’s been a vegetarian for 10 to 12 years since college, but is now a vegan. She said as a vegetarian, there were products like cheese and other foods that could contribute to health problems.
Vegetarians or lacto ova vegetarians do not eat any meat products, but they eat dairy products and eggs. Vegans do not consume any animal products including dairy products, according to the Food Commission Website on Veggie Varieties.
“ There are a lot of African Americans with health issues [such as] diabetes and [I told myself] I’m not going to end up like that. This is not how I want to live,” Horton said.
Davis said people could be less harmful to our planet and to themselves if they stop eating animal products.
“[Look at] the issues we are having with our planet and the cruelty that we are doing to animals,” Davis said. “You are eating the flesh of an animal that’s been traumatized, it’s almost like do you really want to eat that flesh?”
