blog

A new perspective on eating out - a refusal of meat kitchens

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:11:18 +0100

I used to be like most vegans I know and eat at any restaurant that I believed I could get vegan food at. You know, leave the cheese off of this, ask whats in the broth of my vegetable soup, that sort of thing. Every now and then I would order a dish made vegan from a "trusted" restaurant only to find a chunk of meat in it or some cheese hiding behind my potatoes. These situations would obviously upset me but after a few years it just becomes a part of life and I learned to deal with it and move on.

It wasn't until late 2010 that I actually met someone who didn't eat at meat kitchens. I was talking to a friend about the vegan sushi that I'd had for lunch a few hours earlier and was surprised when she started asking me questions like, "doesn't it gross you out to think they are cutting fish with that same knife? Or that they're using the same cutting board?" Of course I had thought about those things before but again, it all just seemed like something all vegans have to deal with. But for some reason, over the next several days, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Despite feeling a little gross and very guilty, I went back to the same sushi place and ordered some avocado rolls. I know it was just me but, it was as though everyone in the place knew I was vegan and was making a huge effort to talk about dead fish.

(You know in movies when the main character gets dumped and they are trying to stay positive but every where she/he goes she/he sees happy couples skipping through the park and feeding each other strawberries dipped in chocolate?
It was like that only, the thing that was being rubbed in my face was the fact that every person around me was feasting on the fish carcasses.)

I was disgusted. After a little thought I realized that there are a ton of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Berkeley.
Flacos, Saturn and Cafe Gratitude just to name a few. So I decided to see how long I could go without eating in a meat kitchen. Not necessarily for any political or ideological reasons, just to see if I could. I didn't set any rules for myself as I really just wanted to see how it would go. I was surprised to find that not eating at meat kitchens was incredibly easy. During the last year I have eaten at four. Twice I ate french fries from an establishment that does not fry anything but french fries and has an open kitchen, once at a hotel in Las Vegas that had created a specific vegan menu for an event I was attending and the last time was actually in a hotel in LA that was hosting FARM's annual Animal Rights Conference.

Before I go on I think it's important for me to stress that I know things may not be this easy for other people based on things like geographical location and one's financial situation.

How easy it is to avoid meat kitchens in the Bay Area was not the only surprise I encountered. As time went on and I thought about my situation more and more, I began to develop a new perspective on eating out and being vegan. I discovered a sort of pride and satisfaction in knowing that I was not giving money to any restaurants that serve the flesh of animals, other than eggs that is. Although it was not my intention, I felt like I was taking my veganism in a new direction and refusing to compromise one more thing. I am not entirely sure how to describe what I have been feeling other than just being more happy with myself and feeling like I am taking one more step (even if it's a small one) in taking away from the meat industries bottom line.

These new found feelings of accomplishment and self satisfaction coupled with the realization that most of the places I have eaten in the last year are vegan anyway has helped me set my new goal for the next 12 months, which is to only eat at vegan and/or beegan (restaurants that are almost vegan but choose to serve honey for some odd reason) restaurants. I look forward to this challenge but, honestly don't see it being too hard where I live.

In short, I feel like I have started a new chapter in my veganism and I welcome the new challenges that lie ahead of me. I look forward to finding new way of question and pushing myself.

Also, I would like to propose a challenge to vegans, beegans and vegetarians across the world: Stop eating at meat kitchens, try it for a week, try it for a month, try it for a year. It may be incredibly difficult and it may be ridiculously easy but you'll never know until you try.

Spanish Ric... Quinoa!

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:52:35 +0100

Lately I've been cooking dishes similar to those I grew up eating. For those of you who don't know me, my Father is a first generation from Mexico and my Mother was adopted and raised by a Mexican family. Thus, the majority of food I grew up eating was at least based off traditional Mexican dishes. My favorites being homemade tortillas, homemade tamales and Spanish rice, which I have been making vegan for several years now. My Mom went vegan a few years ago and started editing all of her old recipes to omit animal ingredients. Also, after I introduced her to quinoa, she has begun making her Spanish rice as Spanish quinoa.
Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am reluctant to share recipes with people, especially family recipes. Maybe in the back of my head I am planning to author a cook book in the future. But, this one is pretty short and pretty basic and it will only really be found useful for those of you who just don't feel like going through the little trouble to take a Spanish rice recipe and change it on your own.
So, here you are:

Mendez Family Spanish Quinoa

1 T. canola or olive oil (I like canola, my mom likes olive)
4 Gloves garlic, minced
2 C. quinoa (I like to do a mix of white and red just for aesthetics)
3 C. Water
1 C. Tomato Sauce
2 t. Salt

Skillet with lid or aluminum foil

Sauté the minced garlic in a pan (I use a 12" non-stick skillet) on medium high heat. If your garlic is burning the heat is too high and you will most likely end up burning the quinoa in the next step.
Add quinoa to your pan and continue to sauté until you can see that the white quinoa is a light golden brown.
Add water, tomato sauce and salt and stir until well mixed.
Bring liquids to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes.
I suggest checking your quinoa after 20 minutes. Just lift the lid, stir the quinoa to see if there is any liquid left in the pan. If there is then it's not done yet and if there isn't you can scoop some out and try it to see if it's still crunchy or not.
The end result should be well cooked, fluffy, delicious quinoa.
Fluff and serve hot with homemade tortillas, refried beans, guacamole, fresh kale and sautéed tempeh and veggies.

Piercing Blog?

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:59:34 +0100

You know when you think something is relatively common knowledge, or when you think certain beliefs died off?
I feel that way right know about body piercing. I just spent 20 minutes looking at one of the most ignorant body piercing blogs I have seen in a long time. Seriously. Wow.
Even more shocking is that I am lead to believe that this person is actually getting free products from companies to do reviews on. Why in gods name would you want someone who stretches their ears at home with an acrylic taper in the year 2011 to be reviewing your products? Why not teach a gold fish to type and have them review your products? The answer is, the companies that are being reviewed are either super desperate for any sort of advertising or they just make shitty jewelry and they need someone who knows nothing about body piercing to say their product is great.
Anyway, I have decided I am going to let body modification take be a larger part or what I write about.
So, look forward to reviews of companies that don't suck and products that are actually made of materials you want inside of you.

Photo Dump!

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:36:45 +0100

I realized recently that not only have I been up to a lot of cool stuff but, I have also taken a lot of pictures with my phone that I'd like to share.

Honda CBR250R!
I've been wanting to get a motorcycle for years and I can finally afford one! I should be able to pick it up in the first week of October and I AM SO STOKED. Here's a Honda's official video for the 2011 CBR250R http://youtu.be/1dtsuSM9Keg


Cinnaholic's 1st Anniversary!
The 1st Anniversary of my work was in July. This was really exciting for all of us and made me feel great personally, being the only employee to work for Cinnaholic since the store front opened in 2010.
As part of the celebration, for 4 hours we sold traditional frosted cinnamon rolls for 1$ each. We had a line out the door and down the sidewalk the entire 4 hours in addition to a 45 minute wait- and that's after you had already ordered! I recall exactly but if I remember correctly I personally rolled out (made) just under 300 rolls.

Flacos!
It came to my attention recently that although I talk about Flaco's all the time on Facebook and Twitter I don't think I've really talked about them on here. So, if you haven't heard of Flaco's Tacos, it's my favorite vegan Mexican restaurant! They have all the staples you could want including, tamales, tacos, pan dulce and even horchata! I would love to tell you what my favorite items are but I honestly could not pick one thing over the other.
Flaco's Tacos is located at 3031 Adeline St. in Berkeley (across from the Ashby BART station) and can also be found online at http://www.flacos.com/

Tamale with black beans, rice and avocado salsa

Taquitos, tacos and avocado salsa

Tamale, tacos, black beans and rice

Souley Vegan
Another favorite of mine. In my opinion places like Flaco's and Souley Vegan really have no competition. They completely dominate their specialties, which for Souley Vegan is... Vegan Soul Food! Something I love about Souley Vegan is that their food is surprisingly affordable. I generally always get the same thing, a toasty-crispy burger which has bbq tofu and southern fried tofu with a side of greens and lentils. Although, there are many other "must try items" including the mac and cheese which is amazing!
Souley Vegan is located at 301 Broadway in Oakland and is half a mile from the 12th St. BART station
http://souleyvegan.com/

Source
There are so many restaurants in the Bay Area that I love, and I mean LOVE, and Source is definitely one of those places. They have incredible service and, despite being a vegetarian restaurant, everything on their menu can be made vegan. Since I first had their food (leftovers from my bosses' lunch date) I have been there three times including my last birthday dinner. Did I mention all their desserts are vegan? If you try one new restaurant in 2011 or 2012 make Source that one restaurant.
Source is located at 11 Division St. San Francisco
http://source-sf.com/

Spicy Buffalo Bites


Baked Vegan Spinach Artichoke Fondue
I'm not generally into stuff like this but it was so good!

Chili Cluck Pie

The Taco Pizza is an interesting variation of a traditional pizza, definitely worth trying and their Truffle Mac and Cheese is something no one should have to live without


MOON PIE!

Vegan Twinkie, Chocolate Heaven Dog and a delicious Strawberry Cake thing (I don't remember the name)

Vanilla Heaven Dog!

Source's all vegan dessert case!

Cinnacakes!
This 12 roll Cinnacake was for Hope from IDA's birthday a few months back.
It had vanilla and caramel frosting, Newman O's, ginger snap cookies, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, chocolate chips, hazelnuts and pecans.



Here's another 12 roll Cinnacake. I don't remember who this one was for but it had vanilla frosting, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, apples and bananas.



More food...
Here are a few more pictures I just wanted to share.

Mini rolls & peanut butter cups with various toppings



I had some spare time at work a few weeks ago and decided to make a giant chocolate chip cookie :) I put a Newman O next to it to show it's size

I'm not really sure why I love this picture but I think it's because it looks so gross and people seem to think being vegan means you can't indulge in shitty food. Here are some frozen french fries, Gardein chkn crispy things and bbq sauce.

I just love the way these kabobs look, they're from a bbq I had with my brother a few weeks back.

The Animals Lawsuit Against Humanity

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:09:17 +0100

I'm moving out of my apartment at the end of September and am currently trying to decide what to keep and what to give away. I was looking through my bookcase and found a book that a friend had given to me several years ago. It's an Islamic children's book, the story of which dates back to the 10th century. I just wanted to share a bit from it I find to be particularly wonderful.
Keep in mind, at this point in the book a Cricket is speaking.
"Although God created us as we are from the beginning--some of us as plant-eaters and some of us as meat-eaters-- you humans at first were given only plants and fruits to eat. But you turned from the Creator's way and behaved badly, so God brought the Great Flood to wash away your evil from the Earth. Only after the Flood, as a concession to your vile appetites, did the Creator permit Noah and his descendants to eat animal flesh. That you have learned to catch us, kill us, spice us and cook us is no mark of your "superiority". Rather, it is a sign that you continue to fall short of our Maker's original design."
I am in no way religious, but I still thought this was worth sharing. God wants you to be vegan.

Bikram Yoga for the first time!

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:13:37 +0100

...

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:25:01 +0100

I think I am going to use my camera to record my blog instead of my webcam due to all the background noise...

Quick Response

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:09:16 +0100

I got this little guy made with the help of my dear friend Cam.
I don't want to be negative but right now there's a lot of lame stuff going on.
I'm getting to the point where it's difficult for me to care about things.
Maybe I'm depressed. Oh well, it will pass and I'll be happy. I know have
a lot of things to be happy about right now but I feel sort of numb and the
positive stuff isn't really penetrating that bubble of numbness.
Actually, just writing about it makes me feel a lot better. I'm going to eat some bread.

я тебя люблю

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:47:14 +0100

Having my own computer is so wonderful!

Today was a fun day. I got up a little after eight to drive Katia to the BART station then came home and started cleaning my room. I cleaned until about 3pm and now I just have some dishes (okay, a lot of dishes), some laundry to do and I need to clear off and organize my table. After cleaning I hung out with Katia, we sat around the house and made драники for dinner and worked on some flash cards.
I started writing every word that I know in Russian and I have a pretty decent amount. Up until this point my main focus has been learning the alphabet as well as how to pronounce each letter, writing each letter individually and learning to speak new words. Today I began making flash cards of some of the words I can both pronounce and spell in Russian. Written on the front of each card is the word in Russian and on the back is the same word written in English, just in case I need a little help.
I've thought a lot lately about giving Rosetta Stone a shot since soon Katia will be in Belarus for two months and I'll have no one around to help me learn more words and practice but I'm not sure if I will as I haven't actually met anyone who has used it.
I think tomorrow I will type out every Russian word I know and post it here.

I got a laptop!

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:46:13 +0100

I am so excited about it!
It has a built in webcam so I can Skype with Katia when she goes back to Belarus for 2 months and
start video blogging on a regular basis again.
I'm also really excited to be able to watch some videos on improving memory and the ability to read faster
and comprehend more. And I can't wait to have photoshop!
OH MY GOD. I AM SO STOKED.
Also, I think I'm going to look into something like Rosestta Stone to help me learn Russian.

I cannot wait to have my computer all set-up and running!