I hate Illinois Nazis
By Monica on November 19th, 2007
Saturday night Ray & I went out to dinner at a local dive. At the table in front of us was a man who kept telling his 3 young sons to “stop eating so many carrots and eat your fried chicken!” At the table next to us was a family full of white supremacists complete with a very scrawny pale kid, maybe 18 years old, sporting a swastika tattoo on the top of his right hand. Now, I know the swastika symbol has been around long before Hitler and has significance to other cultures, but this was the Nazi version for sure.
Yes, some days it is a real hoot living in the rural Midwest. All I could think of was Jake Blues in the Blues Brothers: “I hate Illinois Nazis”. Best movie ever.
Glutton for punishment, after dinner we stopped at the grocery store to see if I could find vegan graham crackers for a cheesecake crust. (Snowball’s chance in hell, right?) Now I’ve been to this store in the past and it’s like all the rest out here - meat, processed crap, semi-rotten vegetables. I don’t know what transformation the Hy-Vee underwent since our last visit, but it was a vegan extravaganza! Out here! In the sticks!
Not only did they have graham crackers I could use, but THREE kinds, including chocolate graham crackers! There was tofu, and it wasn’t even expired or covered in a layer of dust! There was soy chorizo, two kinds of Tofutti cheese, Gimme Lean sausage, Sour Supreme, polenta, TVP, dairy free ice cream, tempeh, the ‘good’ hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese… It was my Christmas miracle, even though it’s not quite Christmas and I’m not quite (at all) religious. No longer do I have to trek 60 miles to Whole Foods when I need tempeh or tofu! So today I am sending off an email to Hy-Vee thanking them for carrying these things, though I will probably not mention that Ray and I now call them “Hy-Veegan.”
Suzie says:
That must’ve been a relief! Luckily I have a Shaws nearby that has their own, little ‘Wild Harvest’ section for people like us who want organic and somewhat-healthy food. Usually I end up at Whole Foods anyway. Sometimes you need ingredients that regular supermarket employees would look at you and go ‘Huh?’ if asked about them.
November 19th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Anonymous says:
That’s awesome! We went to the grocery store last night and my husband and I went separate ways and both returned to the cart with the special Silk flavors–me with the Soy Nog and him with the Chai. I should take a pic of our refrigerator door and our multiple flavors of soy milk, plus regular, plus soy creamer. Ha!
November 19th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Joni says:
YAYAYAYAY! That is so awesome for you!
November 19th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
The Little Vegan says:
Ooh looks like a good bounty for you!
Haha I love the comment under Moth’s picture! It’s great that we’re both “mommies” of turkeys now– does that make us inlaws ;o)?
November 19th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Classic Cook says:
The anonymous comment was me
I meant to add, nazis suck.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Kumudha says:
Wow! so many great vegan items.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:38 am
bazu says:
Boooo. I’ve come across people like that, who act like veggies are an affront. I’ve seen someone open up his hamburger, take the little shreds of iceberg lettuce off it, and then eat it. Sigh.
Oh, and how cool that your store carries so much vegan stuff! I don’t have some of the stuff (*cough*silk nog*cough*) here! That’s funny- one of our supposedly “classy” supermarkets (P&C) is utterly disgusting in the produce section and has no vegan foods, while the supposedly “lower level” supermarket (PriceChopper) actually has a whole natural foods section, good produce, and tons of other things. We also have Wegmans, which can be really good, but I have a bunch of problems with them… but they’re the closest thing we have to Whole Foods here.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Veggie says:
I’d love it if that was the view at my grocery store!
I haven’t been able to find any Silk flavours at all here yet.
November 21st, 2007 at 6:00 pm
The Little Vegan says:
Yup– Molly’s a scottie :o)
And she knows she’s cute; it helps her get away with a lot of mischief!
November 23rd, 2007 at 8:48 am
Celine says:
it’s kind of weird that I’m not the biggest fan of the Silk holiday flavors when drinking them straight up [love the pumpkin in coffee, though!] and yet seeing that picture of them on the shelves made my heart sing for joy.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Anonymous says:
This is hilarious. I definitely know the feeling! I also live in rural Illinois — there is NOTHING in any grocery stores that even remotely resembles vegan-friendly food! I had to travel to about 5 different stores just to find tofu — it’s a sad life. Hahaha.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Amy says:
Yes, that’s really funny! I live in a town called Braidwood, Illinois when I’m at home — when I live at school (which I do now), I’m in Bloomington-Normal. It’s a little easier to find vegan food down here, which is why I hate to go home so much! There is absolutely nothing worth visiting within a 20 mile radius! I was flabbergasted when a town 15 minutes away got tofu. It was a dream come true.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Amy says:
Also, I know I’m commenting on old posts, so I hope you don’t think that’s weird and that you still find them!
December 1st, 2007 at 8:00 pm
shawn & shawn Sudaj says:
actually just writing because we’re happy to hear theres more vegans in the area, and I have Allison Ryan to thank for that for putting your site in the news trib. my wife, kids and i are vegans living in BFE also, so it’d be great to hear from a vegan in the area. we go through mendota quite often to go to the drive in in earlville, and the first vegetarian friend i have ever had was from mendota…. back in like 89? scary
December 5th, 2007 at 10:25 pm