This Ain't No Picnic: Your Punk Rock Vegan Cookbook
Lucky for us, we got our hands on This Ain't No Picnic: Your Punk Rock Vegan Cookbook by Joshua Ploeg. Known as “The Punk Rock Vegan Chef, he’s not only done buffets and demos at shows, he’s cooked on tour for numerous acts, with names as legendary as Fugazi, The Gossip, Ani DiFranco, Anti Flag, and even Senator Daryll Steinberg.
A longtime fan of punk rock, we found it quite amusing that these re-imagined classic vegan dishes came paired with recommended punk rock playlists. This rad punk-themed cookbook far exceeded our expectations, with it’s humor, counterculture quotes, content filled rants, variety of impressive contributers, and stunning photography by Vice Cooler and Dalton Blanco.
It’s time to get off the couch, get out the studs & spuds, put on the vinyl, peal back the pages, and go bananas kids! Whether you’re down with the crust, pop, gutter, steam, or glam, you’ll definitely find something in this cookbook that will pan out in the kitchen.
Other notable works by Joshua Ploeg include:
• In Search of the Lost Taste: The Adventure Vegan Cookbook
• Fire and Ice
• So Raw It’s Downright Filthy: A Raw Vegan Cookbook
• Defensive Eating with Morrissey: Vegan Recipes from the One You Left Behind
• Comfort Eating with Nick Cave: Vegan Recipes to Get Deep Inside of You
• A Chef’s Tale: Strange Traveler’s Tales of Food, Sex, Random Occurrences, and Other Culinary Disasters
and many more.
We had the pleasure to talk to the punk rock vegan chef himself. Here’s what he had to say.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us Joshua. Now that we’ve discovered This Ain’t No Picnic, we’re excited to purchase your other works. Are you currently working on a new vegan cookbook or other project you’d like to talk about?
Thank you! Yes as a matter of fact I’m currently working on three upcoming cookbooks which will be coming out over the next few years. Two of them are recipes accompanying the work of artist Automne Zingg, who is doing artwork of celebrities eating various things in amusing situations. We have a series of these ongoing, the first two were Nick Cave and Morrissey themed, these next two are themed to the Ramones and Metallica. Slowly getting the work done! The third book has a theme of lowered water use, in both the growing of the ingredients and the cooking methods. Needless to say this could have some good application in the near future.
What led you to become an author?
I had been doing personal cheffing, a secret cafe, cooking demonstrations at punk shows and stuff like that, and was trying to decide how seriously I should pursue cooking as I became better at it and got a better response. A friend of mine was working on a children’s book and chided me into working on a cookbook/zine at the same time during little writing sessions. He was convinced I should have a book to peddle and he was right. I started out selling these photocopied, comb bound cookbooks at dinner parties and shows, and touring with them and eventually got hooked up with my main publisher. I have some background in writing to begin with, having done an assortment of zines and articles on and off since the early 1990s. There is something amusingly authoritative about writing something down no matter how ridiculous or useful, as the case may be!
We’ve learned that you are also a talented musician in many bands. Can you describe your music style and tell us about the bands you’ve been part of?
I sang screechily in several hardcore bands- mostly I would describe them as spazzy, sloppy, noisy and punk in style. Behead the Prophet NLSL, Mukilteo Fairies, Lords of Lightspeed, Warm Streams and Select Sex are the bands of that zone. I’m still in Select Sex technically, it is relegated as a studio project for the most part but we did just stick a new album on our bandcamp. I played in Kiss Me Kill Me and the Special Friend, various instruments and meant to be vaguely annoying. And for the past 20 years or so I do some folk and classical stuff, involving costumes, storytelling and zany performance under either my own name or “Sanctuary of Sound”. Joshua Plague is one of my punk names, I still do use that from time to time as well, Rocksworth Sexington being one of my other aliases. I started playing music a little bit with noise as a joke with friends and writing lyrics for punk bands in 1989, so it’s been a while!
Many people are suffering right now during this pandemic, can you offer some helpful advice to those feeling discouraged?
Of course! All pandemics phase out eventually or become a manageable situation, this one is likely to be soon. Make yourself as comfortable with the situations you get into day to day as you can be, meaning if you feel like you are rushing into normalcy, you can put the brakes on a little bit without feeling ridiculous, I mean it has been over a year and it’s understandable if you’re still stressed out by the length of this and confused by conflicting information. A combination of vaccinations, precautions and general herd immunity ought to bring the transmission and severe case numbers down regardless of mutations (which frankly have been happening all the time the entire time). Try not to doom scroll too much, it will drag you down. Be informed but not foolish. Of course, it could be with us seasonally for a while, with big campaigns every fall or so to get this or that shot. Any of us with other conditions or that get flu shots or travel overseas regularly are used to this kind of thing. I think the depression associated with this had a lot to do with the high strung and political atmosphere of the past year +. Extracting yourself from that political web and its internet culture particularly is a good idea, you can keep yourself in the loop with a weekly spin of the news and trends but every day getting up to the neck in that is basically like living in a political advertisement and it’s all about the clicks, you will feel better limiting that. In person contact cannot be undersold, if you can find a way to be comfortable getting that every once in a while do so. We’re a little more fast and loose where I am but I won’t bombard people with all that, haha- we aren’t all in the same reality in some ways but it’s not helpful to mock regional differences.
What are you currently listening to while cooking? Can you tell us about a recent discovery of a genre of music, performer, band, or album that you are enjoying right now?
I listen to a lot of classic rock/metal and new wave in the kitchen, some country (like, old country) although for some reason I prefer that when I’m arranging a room over when cooking. And classical or folk are always nice. Sometimes I will go on youtube, bandcamp or wherever and just let a suggested playlist go on from one band. I recommend going to bandcamp and picking a genre and listening to the list of recommendations of new and recent stuff, that is a good way to find new things you might like. Also apps like radio garden, or the other streaming site I think it was radiooooo with a bunch of o’s lol… people post uploads of records from around the world from different eras or stuff from radio stations and you can get some cool listens out of those.
I understand that you’re originally from the Pacific Northwest. Can you recommend some of your favorite punk rock venues and/or vegan restaurant hotspots in that area?
A lot of the venues I used to like to go to or worked at aren’t there any more! Once shows get up and running again, check the local weeklys and FB events, Instagram and other places where people put shows but also definitely look at the physical flyers when you see them in windows, on posts or on obscure boards around the town. Food wise I always like Georgetown Liquor Company, Wayward in Seattle, Wayside in Olympia, Chaco Canyon, Plum Bistro, classics like the Quickie in Tacoma- I mean there are so many and also I know a lot of people so I don’t want to make a huge list and still leave people out haha! Portland is ridiculous, throw a paper airplane and hit some awesome vegan food… or alcohol, don’t even get me started on booze yum yum!
You have a long history as a pioneer in the chef/catering world, and have been featured in many magazines and papers across the country. We understand that you even have a secret cafe in your home. What haven’t you done yet that you’re eager to get to?
I would like to have a set retail space, I’m fine with fast casual but also wouldn’t mind a little fancier or partnering with someone on that but we’ll see. I think the fast casual with a deli case will happen this year. I moved to Billings, Montana last year and started the process but needless to say the pandemic and reaction to it torpedoed that. However, not torpedoed for too long, I am getting my little dinghy arranged for an upgrade haha and this year ought to be the year. I also would like to get a bit more involved in agriculture and possibly some small manufacturing. By these I mean helping work on resource and nutrient-savvy variations of grains, legumes, some veggies… and possibly some mailorder lines with a small facility… and possibly some milling or legume product production. We shall see, I’d have fairly narrow objectives with any of that and everything requires a chunk of change and a lot of regulatory ballet. Truthfully I would likely have my hands full just with a small place and my books. Dare to dream though!
Can you reflect on what kind of year 2020 has been for you personally?
Rough physically, I had some major teeth problems (feeling okay for now again but I need to get this taken care of later this year or it could become even worse) and a few other things along those lines. As people with pain issues know that sort of thing really interferes with accomplishing tasks and creative processes. So it did get in the way of some of my activities, I feel in good company on that. I did manage to wing it and muddle through the year, changing my plans every time something I was doing for money became impossible to do any more. Not very fun but continuing to try to do something got me more connections and a bigger following here, such that I would absolutely feel comfortable opening a spot here. I am pretty social, with swaths of reclusive behavior in there, here we have not had the more severe restrictions of some other places, for the most part, so I have been able to see friends to some degree and within reason. If it had stayed all year like it was here in mid-march thru early May this would be a different story. Slowly some accomplishments were made, this year is already much better I’m looking forward into moving on, and I like Billings a lot so I’m also looking forward to at last taking advantage of what I can accomplish here.
Besides being a vegan chef and musician, can you tell us what other interests you have?
Sure- hobbies include drones, archery, other types of writing and I guess oracular items and games- this would be like runes, tarot and stuff like that and cards and other games (I do some design of this kind of thing, will be a low key sidebar over the next few years). I do like to garden, hasn’t been much of that though recently but hoping to supe that up this year again. I do go range shooting from time to time, because when in Rome, however I’m not a huge enthusiast although it can be fun. And I like to so some embroidery and such and design that, but have not been able to concentrate on those types of tasks for the past year. And of course I am an avid reader and I enjoy travel. Generally my travel is exclusively tied in to doing events, not much of that out of the area lately but a little very limited bit going on again this spring (and hopefully beyond!).
From what we’ve read about you, travel has been a big part of your life. If you were to leave town tomorrow with just a few things, what would you bring?
Wow- it depends a bit on where I’m going. I always bring my notebooks and a few clothes, pens, a book or two to read. Toothbrush. I have to bring my tablet and phone due to modern convenience but would really enjoy leaving those both behind and bring only the pen and paper. Around town or in the area I don’t bring my phone with me most of the time, plus they are nosey- never you mind I say! Oh yeah- Passport, haha! I don’t cart my knives anymore, I don’t usually check a bag and unless they are having a moment they would notice chef’s knives in your carry on.
Can you share a random story with us that has what you consider a valuable moral?
Once I was in Philadelphia making food for a spring equinox warehouse party… I checked out the space, kitchen was limited to an extent, we borrowed some implements, we sent people out to buy various groceries, I was a bit frazzled and had just flown in, that morning my friend’s car had been stolen so we had to come up with another ride (pre-uber days) plus he was then distracted throughout the day! I didn’t make a real plan or list for groceries or have any idea how many people would show up. There wound up being not enough working burners or space for the cooking, not enough plates to serve on, not enough or practical enough groceries for the number of people, or time to prepare properly, it would up being a long line of people the entire night standing in line waiting for food, reusing plate. A group would put a person in line, who would then go to the back of the line immediately once they got their food, their friends would come and eat it and then one of them would stay in line to do it again. People got so desperate to eat something that a person who fried sardines in a wok (which made a terrible gross smoke) as part of their performance art had to give them these yucky fish to eat. And I’m like nooooo I’m supposed to be over here with the loaves feeding the people!! There were no overhead lights, and I had been too distracted to notice until it was too late, wound up lit up like a band- with like a shop light dangling and a desk lamp lol, couldn’t see much. In the dark, I also got electrocuted. Haha- on the plus side the drunker the people got, the more money they put in the camera bag hanging on the wall which was for my tips. Ingredients that can be made in bulk, then accented with tasty sauces and sprinkles of something fun, with at least one precious treat, with the ability to do some of it buffet style when you’re by yourself, enough light not to injure yourself and at least one item people can just grab that acts as a distraction, lots of even disposable pans to put things in in a situation like this, so you’re not running around putting things in tubs, drums, or other weird containers. I mean, I knew all of this by then but all the drama got the better of me...moral being- don’t let the magic of the moment overshadow your practical concerns… :)
Thanks so much Joshua! It’s been fun!
And thank you!
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