March 2009 Summary

Just want to recap the blog posts for March 2009

* The Invisible Vegan

* Read Vegan at Your Local Library

* My Inner Super Vegan

* Sri Lankan Vegan Curries for Two

* Cooking Perfect Brown Rice

* DIY Spice Organizing

* Buying among meat-eaters

* Samosa & Dosas in SF

Samosa & Dosas in SF

For many years, vegetarians in the San Francisco area envied the abundance of purely vegetarian Indian restaurants in the South Bay.  Why, we asked ourselves, was New Ganges the lone Indian vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco?

Mixed Vegetable Uthappam served with a sambar and three coconut-based vegan chutneys

Then, last summer, it all changed.  Udupi Palace, which has vegetarian Indian restaurants in Berkeley, Newark, and Sunnyvale, expanded to San Francisco.  Udupi Palace serves traditional dosas and other south indian food.

Udupi Palace has been well-received, and even in this economy, they continue to do brisk business.  I’ve been there several times earlier this year, dining early and mid-week, they’ve typically been two-thirds full.

The prices are reasonable, the food is well-seasoned and delicious, and the wait staff are friendly and prompt.  There are many selections for vegans, and the wait staff have always been helpful in answering which items are vegan or can be made vegan.

Inside the Samosa: one order contains two pieces, and two different sauces.

My favorite and recommended dishes are:

Samosas (two pieces, $3.75)
Spring Dosa ($6.95)
Mixed Vegetable Uthappam ($5.75)

The Udupi Palace in SF is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco.  I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking to enjoy vegetable-based Indian foods (there are no faux meats used in any of the dishes).

And, one of those days, purely in the interest of research for my blog, of course, I need to try their lunch buffet. It’s $7.95 during the week, and $8.95 on the weekends.

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Buying among meat-eaters

After our old refrigerator started freezing our produce, we bought a new refrigerator.  There wasn’t any labeling that would be amiss in a vegan home; we just removed the unnecessary plastic egg tray.

Yet, it’s not always that easy to remove the reminders that we live in a meat-eating and animal-exploiting world.  I recently purchased a new digital camera, a Canon PowerShot SD 790.   It’s a point-and-shoot camera, but much fancier than the earlier two digital cameras I’ve used.  In fact, it has special settings for taking photographs indoors, of foliage, at the beach, underwater, of “pets & children” (who won’t stay still), sunsets, and many more than I can elucidate from memory.  The one setting that it does has, and that I cannot erase from memory, is the “aquarium”.

It will be my ongoing reminder that I am living and buying in a world of meat-eaters.  So, it was with sweet irony that I first used the setting to snap a photograph through the glass window of the freezer of one of my all-time favorite vegan desserts, Mudslinger’s FreeStyle Tarmack soy ice cream.

The best vegan ice cream

It is absolutely the most decadent and delicious consortium of espresso, chocolate and peanut butter ever created by man, in this case Michael at MaggieMudd.

The Mudslinger’s FreeStyle line is entirely non-dairy, and carried by many natural food stores and restaurants in the Bay Area (including Garden Fresh and Herbivore).

If you live in San Francisco, or in an adjacent city, this is definitely a must-try experience to visit their store in SF’s Bernal Heights and explore their many non-dairy ice cream flavors, sundaes, shakes, or custom-made ice cream cakes.

DIY Spice Organizing

I enjoy touring open houses.  It’s always interesting to see how different households are set-up.   I’ve seen spices stored in pull-out drawers, on spice racks as well as spinning carousels.

Herbs & Spices in Alphabetical Order

Made our own spice shelves from reused cardboard

We’ve got our herbs and spices organized in a kitchen cabinet adjacent to the stove. Opening the doors releases a medley of different fragrances.

Two simple organizing tricks have really helped us to access our spices when cooking — putting them in alphabetical order, and using steps to elevate the 2nd and 3rd rows. And the best part is this cost us nothing to do, but has made locating the right spices and herbs so much easier. The hardest part is putting them back after cooking

As you can tell from the labels, I do reuse and refill spice jars.

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Cooking Perfect Brown Rice

Image A. Uncooked brown rice

Brown rice is a staple in our household.  We buy it in bulk, currently from New Leaf Market in Half Moon Bay. We eat so much brown rice, we just purchased a 25-lb bag.

One of our favorite cooking shortcuts is to make a large batch of rice, in a pot, and then freeze it in portion sizes for one or two people.  Then, voila!, we can have organic brown rice in minutes, instead of the 30-45 minutes it can take for fresh brown rice.

When the frozen rice is reheated, it tastes just as delicious as freshly made rice, in a fraction of the cooking time.

I used to make rice in a rice cooker.  However, when after many years of reliable use it broke, I decided not to replace it for two reasons:

1) At that time, all the rice cookers had aluminum or plastic inserts.

2) The frugal environmentalist within decided to forego the expense, finite counter space, and resources such an appliance required when I could just as easily make rice in a multi-purpose pot.

Image #B. Filling the pot with filtered tap water

After hearing some talk from others about their struggles with making rice, since I recently got a new digital camera, it was a fun opportunity to try my new camera and share some rice-making tips.

1.  Fill your pot with uncooked rice (my favorite is organic short-grain brown rice). See image A.

2. After rinsing the rice thoroughly, I fill it with water – see image B.

After making rice basically weekly over the course of many many years, in a pot, I don’t measure the rice nor the water.

Image #C. Fill the pot with half-inch of water to cover

3. I fill the pot with water to cover with close to half-inch of water. ( see image #C )

I tend to err on the side of less water than too much, as I can always add water later on.  Whereas, too much water can lead to mushy rice.

Image #D. Bring the rice to a boil

4. Bring to a boil ( see image #D)

For the amount of brown rice that I typically cook, it takes about 10 minutes to bring it to a rapid boil.  I put the lid on, leaving it ajar for the steam to vent, with the kitchen timer to remind me to check it in 10 minutes.

(I’ve also learned to not overfill a small pot, because it creates a mess on the stove if I’m not watching it closely when it boils.)

Image #E. Let it simmer

5. Simmer (image #E )

Once it has boiled, I turn it down so it’s simmering (barely still bubbling) and cook it for about 20-25 more minutes.

At this point, it’s obvious that a good amount of the water has already been absorbed into the rice, and the rice is expanding as it cooks.

Image #F. Perfectly cooked rice

6. This is the rice, after it’s finished cooking (image F)

Sometimes after the second timer chimes, I’ll find the rice is cooked to perfection, with all the water has been absorbed.

Other times, I find the rice is still slightly crunchy, so I’ll add a bit more water and cook it for another 5-8 minutes.

And, while I have never done this, I have seen someone cook rice with a huge amount of water, and then drain the water after it was cooked (like cooking pasta).

Image #G. Rice for one, ready to freeze

7. For me, this is a single-serving size of rice (the container says 8 oz, see image G). I put this in the freezer, and rice for one is available in minutes. For a serving for two, I’ll reuse the Earth Balance tubs (the container says 16 oz).

Here’s a tip when for reheating it – after you take the frozen container out of the freezer, run it under the tap, rotating it so all sides are covered.  Because the tap water is warmer than the frozen container, this will defrost it just enough to pop the rice out easily.

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Sri Lankan Vegan Curries for Two

Sri Lankan Curry - Asian Rose, Santa Cruz

One of my favorite places to eat vegan in the San Francisco Bay Area is in Santa Cruz.  It’s a favorite with locals and with vegetarians in the know.

With seating for about 60 people, this rustic yet elegant ambience is the perfect setting for their wonderful food.

During the day, the Asian Rose menu features delicious Sri Lankan cuisine, entirely vegetarian, with lots for vegans.  During the day, diners have their choice of luncheon options which include a dozen vegan curries.  Price is based on the number of items selected.

Sri Lankan Curry - Asian Rose, Santa Cruz

During the evening, Asian Rose becomes Malabar Restaurant, with an expanded menu of vegetarian Sri Lankan foods, including ample appetizer and entree choices for vegans.

My only complaint about eating at Asian Rose is when I finish eating:   I simply want to eat more.  Our last visit was on New Year’s Eve 2008.  We each chose the Tempeh Goreng, yam curry, and differed on a chickpea curry versus a vegetable curry.  A papadam was included with each lunch.  The total cost for both meals was a mere $15.19, which included tax & tip.

For those who are new to Asian Rose/Malabar Cafe, it may seem odd that this one restaurant has two names.  Originally, however, there were two separate restaurants.  Malabar Cafe resided on Soquel, and closed in December 2006.   Asian Rose was located on Pacific Street, and closed in June 2006.  Both restaurants featured Sri Lankan vegetarian and vegan foods.  For Asian Rose, it featured foods cooked at Malabar, and sold in a deli case.

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My Inner Super Vegan

Super Vegan: Protecting animals from scumbags like you

WonderCon describes itself, on its official website, as a combining ” the worlds of comics and the popular arts to offer a lively and exciting mix of shopping and stargazing.”

Caped crusaders, jokers, and astromech droids of all types were seen on Saturday, Feb 28th.  It was a fun opportunity to show up amidst them, disguised in ordinary, every day street clothes, and ready at hand with Vegan Outreach’s Even if You Like Meat booklets.

With responses ranging from “This is so cruel!” to politely discarding the leaflets on a nearby railing or not so politely discarding it in the trash,  135 people received information about a wonderful new way to live — a life without eating animals.

So, while without a cape, I did manage to channel my inner super vegan for that brief moment in time.

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Read Vegan at Your Local Library

Vegan Books at the Public Library

I’ve been a card-carrying library member in every city that I’ve lived in, and even occasionally attend the library’s fundraiser book sales. Typically the books sold at those sales are donated by local denizens but they can also include the unpopular books that don’t circulate.  I’ve found Tofu Cookery and Diet for a New America selling in the paperbacks section for 25 cents each.

While I enjoy the opportunity of scoring a wonderful vegan book at a vastly discounted price, I’d much rather see them remain in the library’s public collection for the entire community’s enjoyment and education.So, on a periodic basis, I literally checkout the vegan and animal rights titles that my library offers.  We both benefit — I get to peruse a book without worrying about it becoming another surface for dust collection subject to housecleaning, and the library sees a vegan book that is being actively used.

One-Dish Vegetarian Meals

This past weekend, I checked out cookbooks on my most recent visit.  It was nice to see that in just one area of one shelf, I recognized several vegan cookbooks: Vegan Italiano, Veganomicon, The PETA Celebrity Cookbook, You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan, The New Vegan, The Vegan Sourcebook, and The Millennium Cookbook.

And, what’s great about the library, when a friend on facebook recommended a vegan cookbook specializing one-pot meals, my local library didn’t have it but another library in the same county did.  But instead of me driving 90 minutes round-trip to pick up the book, for less than the cost of a Clif Bar at Trader Joe’s, I had it transferred to my local library.  That was 75 cents well-spent.

So go forth and read vegan at your local library.

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The Invisible Vegan

Leafleting at Maker Faire

The primary focus of my efforts in leafleting is to promote veganism to those who otherwise would not receive the information.  A secondary benefit is providing an opportunity for leafleting virgins to participate.

Some first-timers are apprehensive about the response they will get from the people whom they are trying to reach.  In my experience with leafleting, these are the some of the common responses and interactions:

• “Thank you” and takes the leaflet
• Walks right by me, like I’m the invisible vegan
• “No”
• “No, I like meat” (in which case, it’s great to have Vegan Outreach’s “Even If You Like Meat” booklet to offer as an alternative)
• I’m already [ vegetarian | vegan ]
• I already have that

Goal Reached! Four people read their new VSKs

I once leafleted someone who glanced through the information, and then turned around and leafleted it to someone else.  Now that was really neat.  But, for 99.9% of these interactions, it’s a very narrow window of opportunity to talk to people and offer information, as most often people are on their way somewhere.  And nearly every time I leaflet, I will get a few people who initially say “no” or walk right by my (in)visible self, then turnaround and ask for a leaflet.  And what’s what leafleting is all about — giving people information to make informed choices.

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