Tuesday, May 13, 2008

No taste for cruelty

May is National Egg Month; so the group Compassion Over Killing decided that it would be a good idea “to put a compassionate spin on this month-long industry-declared holiday.” So it is conducting a ”Crack the Cruelty” campaign to urge people to choose egg-free foods.

Even people who understand why vegetarians would avoid meat because it involves killing animals often wonder why vegans also avoid eggs and dairy, which don’t require killing the animals.
The sad truth is that the “factory farm” style production of any animal product involves an almost incomprehensible level of cruelty to the animals while they are alive. And then their lives end in the slaughterhouse anyway.

More than 95 percent of the eggs sold in the United States are laid by hens crowded into battery cages so small that they cannot even stretch their wings. According to Compassion Over Killing’s report on ”Animal Suffering in the Egg Industry” these cages give each hen an average of 59 square inches of living space — an area little larger than half a sheet of typing paper. I could go on, but there are many Web sites that tell the story better than I can.

For example United Poultry Concerns has a wealth of information on Battery Hens. Its page on the “Life of one Battery Hen” begins with a touching poem that I will use as an ending:

“Sound of a Battery Hen”

You can tell me: if you come by the
North door, I am in the twelfth cage
On the left-hand side of the third row
From the floor; and in that cage
I am usually the middle one of eight or six or three.
But even without directions, you’d
Discover me. We have the same pale
Comb, clipped yellow beak and white or auburn
Feathers, but as the door opens and you
Hear above the electric fan a kind of
One-word wail, I am the one
Who sounds loudest in my head.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Sage Vegetarian Cafe

I finally got the opportunity last week to eat at Sage Vegetarian Cafe in Chapel Hill. It’s a place I’ve long wanted to try but hadn’t had a chance to. I’m happy to report that it was excellent! It’s always a thrill to be able to order anything on the menu. I might not always want to order everything, but I could. Sage’s menu isn’t expansive, but it has a nice variety.

We started with a mezze platter, which changes daily but always includes hummus and pitas. We also got stuffed grape leaves (I’m not usually a big fan, but these were excellent), pasta salad and a Persian potato dish that was unusual and yummy, with flavors of the Middle East.

And the sweet iced tea! We all agreed that it was some of the best we’ve ever had, infused with jasmine and cardamom for an exotic, refreshing treat that the waiter kept having to refill and refill and refill for us.

All three of us ended up ordering the same entree, Fesen-Joon, which the menu described as “A Persian classic. Sweet and sour flavors of pomegranate juice, ground walnuts and herbs blended with grilled tempeh, served with basmati-saffron rice [you could substitute brown rice, which I did] and a side of shirazi [a tomato-cucumber salad].” It was a bit of a shame that we didn’t each try different things so we could share, but we all agreed that the Fesen-Joon was so fabulous, if only one of us had gotten it, the others would have had excruciating food envy. It was rich and filling, and the flavors of the walnuts and pomegranate shone through.

There are other delicious-sounding items on the menu—Bud-m-Joon ("eggplant paradise with tomato, split peas, saffron, sauteed onions, hint of cinnamon and other spices"), a vegetable kabob and soy chicken cutlets in a mild coconut curry and mushroom sauce—but I’m not sure I could NOT order the Fesen-Joon the next time I visit. It was that good and different.

There are also sandwiches and wraps available for lunch, and the menu clearly marks which items are vegan or have vegan options available. Sage is at the Timberlyne Shopping Center on Weaver Dairy Road.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Burger ratings

In its June 2008 issue, Consumer Reports taste-tests veggie burgers, and the news is good: “Our trained testers tried 12 leading veggie burgers, discovering 10 that are very good and two with flavor and texture issues.”

Although the complete ratings are available only in the magazine or to subscribers online, an overview of what Consumer Reports found is available online here.

The top pick is Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patties. However, vegans should note that this burger contains egg whites. Happily, my usual vegan burger, Boca’s Original, ranked among the 10 “very good” burgers

Bizarro World

Cartoonist Dan Piraro, the creator of the comic strip Bizarro, is also a vegan and a humor columnist for VegNews magazine. One section of his Web site is devoted to Animal Stuff, such as “Why I’m Vegan” and a “Talking Pig Video” that illustrates the physical differences between carnivorous and herbivorous animals…. Altogether, it’s an interesting world to explore.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Taking on Anthony Bourdain

I should hate Anthony Bourdain. He hates me—or would, if I ever met him and the subject of my eating habits came up. In his book Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain writes that “Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.” He also calls vegans a “Hezbollah-like splinter faction.”

So, yeah, we’re not exactly on the same wave-length when it comes to food, to put it mildly. Yet I still find myself somewhat amused by his persistent bad attitude, chain-smoking crankiness and penchant for oh-so-witty insults. (He once told a contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef that his lobster had “the consistency of doll head.") Of course, this amusement is no doubt helped because I only see him occasionally on television. I’m sure continued exposure would wear away my amused tolerance quite quickly.

A new vegan blog has sprung up in response to Bourdain’s remarks about vegans: Hezbollah Tofu. Its purpose, besides snarking about Bourdain, is to veganize the very unvegan recipes from his Les Halles Cookbook, then sell the compiled recipes and donate the profits to vegan outreach organizations and farm sanctuaries in Bourdain’s name. They’ve already tackled some of the mainstays of French cooking, such as french onion soup and creme brulee. No starting out with the easy stuff!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Eating for the Earth

Today is Earth Day, so it’s a good time to consider again just how very environmentally friendly it is to go veg. FARM (the Farm Animal Rights Movement) has a campaign called “Stop Global Warming … One Bite at a Time” with a Web site at www.coolyourdiet.org that provides a convenient place to learn such facts as:
* “Animal agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than automobiles”;
* “Animal waste and feed cropland dump more pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined”;
* “Meat-based diets require 10-20 times as much land as plant-based diets.”

In addition to pointing out the problem, FARM makes the solution easy by providing starter kits and other information that make it simple and healthy to go veg. Most vegetarian groups make such information readily available. But, puzzlingly, many environmental groups do not. PETA takes a humorous approach to this by urging people to “Offset Al Gore’s Eco-Unfriendly Diet” by taking a pledge: “I want to eat better, feel better, and help offset the damage that Al Gore is doing to the environment by eating meat. By signing my name, I pledge to explore a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days, which will prevent more than 270 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Friday, April 18, 2008

Green gatherings

Saturday is the Piedmont Environmental Alliance’s third Earth Day Fair. There will be talks, tastings, merchants, demonstrations and a lot of other good stuff. I went last year and enjoyed it immensely. You can read more about the day’s lineup here. Among the guests will be Wanda Urbanska of PBS TV’s Simple Living and singer Martha Bassett. Right now they’re calling for showers on Saturday—I hope they hold off!

The actual Earth Day is Tuesday. If you’d like to do something special to mark the day, Earth911.org has a list of suggestions, as does Durham’s city page. You can also get an evironmental tip of the day via e-mail from the EPA.

This handy site lets you search for Earth Day events within 5 to 250 miles of your home. (The link will show you events within 100 miles of Winston-Salem—hover over the bottom for links to subsequent pages.)

Earth Day also marks the day when Whole Foods is aiming to rid all its checkout lanes of plastic bags.

*If you’re looking for a more vegetarian-focused event, Vegetarian Summerfest, the North American Vegetarian Society’s annual conference, will be held June 18-22 in Johnstown, Penn. It will feature lots of speakers and educational sessions. You can find out more at the conference’s Web site.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Coffee Silk, Coffee Milk

A thwarted journey and a friend’s obsession got me thinking about coffee milk recently.

Until Skybus abruptly folded its wings, Tim, Cass and I planned to go to Rhode Island. There were other places on the itinerary, too. But my literary idol H.P. “I am Providence” Lovecraft identified so strongly with his hometown and state that it was all Rhode Island to my mind….

And Rhode Island loves its coffee milk, so much that in 1993 it made it the official state drink.

Just what is coffee milk? Quahog.org has the answer: “Coffee milk is simply milk mixed with coffee syrup.” This excellent Web site on all things Rhode Island also has a detailed history of coffee milk, suggestions for mail-order sources of coffee syrup, and a recipe for people who want to make their own coffee syrup at home. All it takes is coffee, water and sugar. Put your coffee syrup in soymilk, and it’s suitable for vegans.

But the coffee-milk connection lay dormant in my mind until another friend, Craig, asked about coffee-flavored Silk soymilk. Craig is a connoisseur of coffee drinks, such as Mr. Brown’s Iced Coffee from Taiwan. The coffee-flavored Silk turns out to be quite pleasant – it’s smooth and tasty, and it seems to pack a bit of caffeine, too.

Finally, consider the “coffee cabinet.” As What’s Cooking America explains, “When ice cream is added, Coffee Milk is called a ‘Coffee Cabinet’ or ‘Coffee Cab.’ In other words, a ‘cabinet’ is a local term for a ‘frappe’ which is a regional term for an ice cream milk shake. It is though to be called a ‘cabinet’ because it unknown originator kept his blender in a kitchen cabinet. Also mixers were often stored in square wooden cabinets.”

So, though we may not make it to Little Rhody anytime soon, let’s raise a toast (of coffee milk, of course) to its culinary quirks.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Carb-Conscious Guacamole

To help me out with my diet, Julie loaned me her copy of Robin Robertson’s Carb-Conscious Vegetarian. It includes a fabulous guacamole recipe that’s lower in fat and carbs, and higher in protein, than a typical guacamole—the secret is that it replaces some of the avocado with edamame. It’s not as creamy as guacamole usually is, understandably, but it’s still extremely tasty. I highly recommend it.

Robin Robertson’s Guacamole

1 c. fresh or frozen shelled edamame, cooked
1 small ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
1 4 oz. can chopped green chiles drained (I omitted this)
2 t. fresh lime juice
1 T. finely chopped onion
1 t. chopped garlic
1/8 t. ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped cilantro (I added this to the recipe)

In a food processor or blender, combine the edamame, avocado, chiles and lime juice. Process until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to blend in, leaving some texture. Serve with raw vegetables for dipping.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Food for thought

Add another one to the list of reasons to prefer organic, seasonal food: A recent opinion piece in the New York Times, “Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird?” presents sobering information on the danger that our love of out-of-season fruits and vegetables poses for songbirds.

The author, biologist Bridget Stutchbury, makes the point that pesticide use in Latin America has increased fivefold since the 1980s, to feed the growing demand in North America and Europe for fresh produce during the winter. In too many cases, migratory birds are the victims - “A single application of a highly toxic pesticide to a field can kill seven to 25 songbirds per acre.” Declining populations of many birds may be linked to the use of pesticides in their winter homes.

But happily, there are steps consumers can take to make their shopping list more bird-friendly. Buying only organic coffee and bananas are important moves. And, “When it comes to nontraditional Latin American crops like melons, green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers and strawberries, it can be difficult to find any that are organically grown. We should buy these foods only if they are not imported from Latin America.”