The information about the OU campus in the following was adapted from SDS member Elizabeth Rucker’s post on BoomerBlogs, which offers a more detailed look at vegan eating on campus and can be found here.
While the city of Norman fails to offer vegans the warm dietary embrace that might be found in a larger city, it certainly features enough options to stave off both food anxiety and boredom. This post attempts to present new (vegan) OU students and newly vegan OU students an introduction to vegan eating on an around campus, because figuring it out the hard way is, of course, hard.
Housing and Food at OU does a fair job of accommodating its vegan residents. Beginning with the cafeteria, which tends to be the locus of most freshman dining, one can find the cornily dubbed “Vegatation Station,” which offers a few vegan entree and side dishes (intermingled with a more impressive lacto-ovo vegetarian spread) each day except Sunday. The variety and quality of these dishes can be disappointing, especially since the Vegetation Station features the only clearly identified vegan foods in the cafeteria.
Other options within the cafeteria include the breakfast bar, which offers soy milk and a ridiculous array of cereals that usually contains a few vegan cereals. Many other locations in the cafeteria offer made to order dishes, which, as long as one is discerning, can be ordered vegan. Casa Del Sol and Shanghai Stir Fry offer Tex-Mex and eastern stir fry respectively (all the sauce options at Shanghai Stir Fry are vegan).
Cate Food Court, which contains the other non-chain dining options south of Lindsey, features another handful of vegan-friendly choices. O’Henry’s sells made-to-order wraps with a solid variety of vegetables (I used to order them all). Roscoe’s, the coffee bar, offers, if I recall correctly, fair trade coffee and the option of soy milk as a dairy substitute in fancier drinks. They also sell good but fairly expensive vegan cookies.
The union offers the final handful of vegan-friendly restaurants on campus. On the south side, Crossroad’s offers veggie sushi. The wheat and rye breads used for the sandwiches are vegan, according to correspondence with a Housing and Food employee. Frëshens’ next door to Crossroads offers filling but expensive fruit smoothies (though the “protein boost” contains dairy). The union food court contains the Laughing Tomato, which offers somewhat pricy vegan fare. This is the only establishment in the union that clearly identifies vegan meals. Like the Vegetation Station, the options are a little disappointing.
Moving on to the exciting world of off-campus dining, the first place a vegan ought to turn is The Earth on Campus Corner. The Earth serves a variety of vegan foods, including several sandwiches (with vegan bread available daily), breakfast dishes and bakery. My personal favorites are the hummus sandwich, the vegan biscuits and gravy and the lavender cake. Do not pass up the opportunity to enjoy the latter. Meals at The Earth can be expensive in relation to some other restaurants on Campus Corner—a sandwich served with a side of chips or carrots and with a cup of coffee usually approaches ten dollars. That said, The Earth is to my knowledge, the only restaurant in Norman where a vegan might feel as welcome as an omnivore.
One building north of The Earth is Freebird’s, a quick, fairly cheap Mexican-inspired restaurant. Their specialty is made-to-order burritos. An in-the-know (married to a vegan for several years) employee assured me that every vegetarian ingredient is also vegan, and there are a lot of vegetarian ingredients. The size and heartiness of the portions at Freebird’s also make for a very solid cost-to-fullness ratio. Additionally, hearsay tends to maintain that Pepe Delgado’s down the street offers vegan friendly Mexican food, though the authors have never been.
Pita Pit, as its name suggests, serves pitas, which are made to order and can feature hummus and falafel, along with a bunch of veggies (again, I usually get them all). Pita Pit, like Freebird’s, is another good option to maximize bang for your buck.
A variety of Asian restaurants round out the selection on campus corner. There are two Thai restaurants, Pad Thai, which is more delicious and more expensive, and Thai Raja, which is cheaper, and offers a great lunch buffet during the school year. Both have several tofu dishes, and the wait staff are fairly good about answering ingredient questions. Tea Cafe is a little more limited, but features a few decent tofu dishes (and some really good teas).
Finally, I would like to suggest a few good sources for hard to find vegan groceries in Norman. Native Roots on Main and Santa Fe offers a great selection of vegan ingredients and snacks, as well miscellaneous items like vegan soaps and supplements. The Earth Natural Foods and Deli, which is affiliated with the restaurant on Campus Corner, is an additional option located on Flood. Finally, there is Forward Foods, also on Main, which can be pricey but offers some good bulk foods.
Additional information about ingredients in dishes served on campus can be obtained by emailing dflowers@ou.edu. Additional information about off-campus dining can be obtained by old-fashioned shoe-leather.
