About Me

Hi! Welcome to Fruit Bat Vegan. 

I'm Ana, a writer, runner, teacher, and mom living life on the San Francisco Peninsula. After moving to Redwood City in 2018, I found myself spending a lot of time (and I mean a lot of time) googling restaurants to find great vegan eats from San Mateo to Mountain View. After four years of wishing there were a more comprehensive resource for finding vegan options on the Peninsula, I decided to take it on myself to gather information about the vegan situation between San Francisco and San Jose. Hopefully you find this blog to be a helpful resource!

My Story

Growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, I was pretty much raised on the Standard American Diet (so very SAD). That changed the summer before my sophomore year of high school, when my sister and I were sent to spend the summer in Spain with extended family. After spending a long morning relaxing on the Mediterranean coast, my aunt took us to El Mercado Central in downtown Valencia, a beautiful market enclosed in a huge slant-ceilinged-and-domed-roof building. After traipsing the aisles to gather fresh fruits, vegetables, and other sundry items, we stopped in the meat section, where an array of freshly-butchered animals were displayed on ice or hanging from hooks. The contrast between packaging in the United States and Spain hit me as hard as the smell, which was sharp and caustic. Once we left Valencia for Montan, the small mountain town where my aunt and uncle regularly vacationed, I got used to seeing the cast-off heads and feet from the neighbors' slaughtered chickens regularly scattered throughout the road for the family of feral cats that lived nearby. And while I had steadfastly determined to forgo meat for the summer, I expected to dive right back into my high school cafeteria's chicken nuggets or my mom's spaghetti with meat sauce when I returned home. 

But it didn't work out that way. I realized after being faced with where meat actually came from that I didn't want to eat another animal's flesh anymore, and I became fully committed to vegetarianism. 

Veganism was a less natural transition for me, as I loved cheese and it was hard to give up. Even after being diagnosed with a dairy allergy, I still enjoyed foods that were filled with bubbly cheese. But as I learned more about animal agriculture and thought more about where these foods came from, I realized they weren't right for me, and now I can't even think about consuming dairy or eggs. 

Veganism has come a long way since I was first introduced to it in the early 2000's. The options for vegans in restaurants are greater than they ever have been, and I am happy to have you on this journey with me!