INTERVIEW: Talking Vegetarianism with Philly's Dirty South Joe

[Photo by Carrie Epps]

Club music DJ/producer Dirty South Joe has been tastemaking and killing dancefloors since time immemorial. After his set at this past weekend's Trillectro Music Festival, I got the chance to talk to the Philadelphia resident and long-time vegetarian -- 23 years! -- on his favorite Philly restaurants, why he doesn't eat animals, and the amazingness of jackfruit.

Instead of asking you how long you’ve been vegetarian -- because a lot of people do that -- how long did it take for people to realize your vegetarianism wasn’t a phase?

It was right away because actually I lived in a household full of vegetarians; I had this weird predilection to dating vegetarian girls in the maybe two years before I made that decision, when I was 19. That was part of what made it really kind of an easy decision is because I kinda saw their habits and unlike being a vegan, which I think is really a struggle to find the right sustenance all the time, being vegetarian, they made it all look pretty easy. So, I quit one day, and knew already the next day I was never going to eat meat again in my whole life.

Totally the same way. One of my really good friends from college is vegetarian. She['s been] vegetarian [since] high school, and living with her kind of opened my eyes.

I think there’s a lot of preconceived notions that you’re just running around like a rabbit eating lettuce or something. But there’s a lot of hearty ways to sustain yourself and most major cities -- and not even major cities, but even in smaller towns, there are places to get food, and get good food.

I noticed that earlier this year with one of the mixes that you put out, you included a recipe for vegan sloppy joes.

I did.

So do you cook a lot?

No, I don’t.

Is it because you’re touring all the time?

No, because I eat out more. Or, like, I’ll go to a grocery, like a co-op grocery or Whole Foods sometimes and just eat at their hot food bar. So, yeah, I don’t really cook that often. The last time I cooked the vegan sloppy joes was for [DJs and producers] Diplo and Switch. They came over to the house, one of my old houses years ago, and I made vegan sloppy joes for everybody and I think we watched that TV show about the Kiwi guys that was on HBO.

Flight of the Conchords?

Yeah, I think that was it. And that was the last time I made those sloppy joes. But, I should cook more often. I tell myself that all the time. I need to be in the exact right space. And I love where I live now, but it’s not what I need to be cooking.

I’ve lived in Philadelphia for 12 years and when I first moved there, I went exploring for as much vegetarian food as much as I could possibly find and there wasn’t much at all, and even in the last dozen years, like now we have two fine dining vegan spots, we have so much variety --

Vedge?

Vedge and also a new place called Charlie was a sinner., which is like, the best.

Oh, I’ve heard of that place!

It’s the best. The best. It’s my favorite. And if I have vegetarian friends coming into town, that’s the first place I’m going to take them. Second, I’m going to take them to Govinda’s for a cheesesteak.

Yes, I saw that in your write-up for Infinite Legroom.

Yeah, that was fun. Actually, it’s so poppin’ right now in Philadelphia for food that I want to write a follow-up. I was going to hit them up because I think that there are 10 new restaurants that are kicking lots of ass. The food options are crazy.

And then you have V Street coming soon [a bar from the owners of Vedge].

They’re trying to compete with Charlie was a sinner. there, that’s what Charlie was a sinner. does. It’s a cocktail bar with those high end, you know, watch-them-do-a-bunch-of-fancy-stuff cocktails, where you gladly watch the bartender take 10 minutes to make a drink because they’re, like, bruising avocado.

Bruising avocado?

Well, I don’t know what they do. But there are all kinds of random, extra bartending stuff.

What’s your favorite part about being vegetarian?

My favorite part....

Is there a favorite part?

Ah, certainly.

I feel like that’s kind of a hippie question.

I think my favorite part -- it didn’t take long to realize this, because when I first became a vegetarian, my thinking was on the fact that I knew it was a healthy life. And, immediately, that was my reasoning. But, within a day, within a week, within a month, I knew I did it for a whole other reason. I got in this strange headspace where I just -- I don’t want to eat anything with eyes, with a mom, or anything that takes a shit. And after a while I started thinking, like, what goes on the moment when an animal is killed? What are they thinking? Are they screaming out in pain? And if so, that’s frozen moment in time and I think that ingesting their body, it’s like you’re taking in that pain.

That fear.

You’re taking in that fear, you’re taking in that pain, and it’s almost like you’re swallowing their soul in a way, you know? I can’t not think that way about it. Even though I guess that probably -- that’s probably why I’m not really the type of vegetarian that likes to fucking tell people what the fuck to eat and I can see somebody eating some big, sloppy meat thing and I’m not disgusted by it because I’m like this is my choice and that’s yours, and I appreciate the fact that people enjoy anything in life. It’s rare to see people really love what they’re doing, so if they love eating meat, then --

More power to them.

More power to them, you know what I mean? But I think that’s why it’s easy to get along with people as well, because I don’t push an agenda on them so it’s like they take me more seriously as well.

But I think my favorite thing about being vegetarian is not taking on the karmic burden of ingesting the souls of these perished beings.

Okay. I like that.

Thanks.

What’s your favorite type of cuisine, and what’s the most surprisingly tasty thing you’ve eaten?

My favorite type of cuisine is probably Italian, or fake Mexican.

Fake Mexican like Tex-Mex?

No, like Taco Bell. I’m trying to get out of the habit -- I went through a gluten-free phase for a while.

How did you like being gluten free?

I liked it a lot until I was out of the country on tour and it just was a really hard fucking thing to do. It’s not hard to be gluten free if you eat meat.

Right. It’s really hard to not eat carbs if you don’t eat meat.

I used to really explore the shit out of fake meat products and stuff like that. Anything gluten, anything seitan. I’m a little more hesitant now to get into that stuff. I’m trying to get greener and greener with what I’m eating, but I’m what you call a 7-11 vegetarian, meaning I can go into 7-11 and eat half of the store, as long as it’s not meat in it, I’ll eat it even though it’s full of fucking bullshit. And, you know, I’m trying to get out of those habits, but Taco Bell, definitely, and Italian. And the surprising food? Starfruit my homie had.

Starfruit?

No, no, it wasn’t starfruit. I don’t remember what it was.

Jackfruit?

It was jackfruit. That’s what it was.

I love jackfruit.

Motherfucking jackfruit. I had never had jackfruit, and my homie is going [as] raw vegan [as possible] and [drinks] lots and lots and lots of pressed juices and smoothies that he likes to eat all the time, and [keeps] cases and cases of bananas around and that kind of thing. But he introduced me to the jackfruit.

So was it sweet jackfruit?

Yeah, it was sweet. It was awesome.

I’ve seen a lot of jackfruit pulled pork [recipes].

Oh my God. I’ve got to talk to this guy about that. There’s a place that was doing coconut in a very bacon-ish kind of way. That’s pretty cool, too. But that sounds amazing, jackfruit pulled pork.

What’s the first restaurant you go to when you get off tour?

Blackbird Pizzeria [Philadelphia’s first and only all-vegan pizzeria].

I wanna try that place so bad.

I live a couple of doors down from there, so it’s a go-to. It’s in the rotation all the time. They have some really delicious sandwiches and pizzas.

I would be so fat if I lived a couple of doors down from them. That’s awesome.

They’re amazing. And they’re so punk, and it’s awesome.

Do you come to DC a lot?

I do. Pretty often. I grew up here.

Oh! I didn’t know that. I knew you used to live here but I didn’t know you were from here.

Well, I’m not from here, but I went to high school here. Finished high school here, I lived here for ten years up until ‘95. I used to work at the 9:30 Club, I worked there for six years. The old 9:30 Club [downtown, at 930 F St, NW], and a year when it moved to the new spot [on 7th and V St, NW]. I worked at every Tower Records in the area, when they used to exist.

What is your favorite vegetarian meal in DC?

Well, for the fact that maybe I haven’t been too far in exploring vegetarian DC, I would say that the veggie dog at Ben’s Chili Bowl is my favorite. It’s something that I will pursue, and devour.