From the monthly archives: September 2010
I’ve been working on my layer of blubber, getting myself ready. Inadvertently. Here’s what’s anchoring me in for a long winter:
Roasted zucchini sandwich with way too big a bun X’s 5 days a week.
Huge tofu dosa from House of Dosas in Hicksville, Long Island. 
Vegan cheese whiz. What the heck am I going to do with all this stuff? 
The Tofu Benny at Bone Shakers. ::Sigh::
When boy watches Giants game, girl makes chunky chocolate chip cookies. This can’t happen every Sunday.
So what if Philadelphia sports fans have a terrible reputation… and the SEPTA subway trains are home to a human hostility I haven’t experienced in some time… and that the Phillies are whipping the Mets’ butts in the National League East… and that I had to take a certification exam to get my literacy coach license the next day… Citizens Bank Park, the ballpark of those Philadelphia Phillies, has got the best vegan stadium offerings this side of the Mississippi! An adventurous group of us food and baseball connoisseurs visited the park to taste and run back to New York City, the best city in the world. 
With the Phillies first place in their division, the ball park was packed. The game was an important one for most there, but not so much for us. Although the Mets came back to take the series, winning game 2 and 3 of the series, the night we chowed down, game 1, they lost. But look! The V-bomb dropped in the concession stand, clearly and easy to find. I had to nab a vegan chicken sandwich, which they whipped up in the back with some fresh lettuce and tomato. And look at all those veggie dogs. Artsparrow partook but was a bit disappointed about the lack of fixins. 
My sandwich and the soda I grabbed, which was diet unfortunately. I am not a fan of diet soda! 
Finally at our seats, I dug in. Not bad! I mean, sure it needed some Vegenaise and was a bit dry, but I was eating a vegan chicken sandwich at a baseball stadium! 
Here’s the vegan philly steak sans the cheese. Being excited and eager to get to Philly, I had forgotten a container of vegan cheesewhiz in my classroom’s fridge; I had made it the night before to bring in to the stadium. I was very disappointed in myself. But even though it was missing this key ingredient, I enjoyed it. It was tasty… a nice hoagie with lots of onion and soy science meat.
The gang scarfs down the food before we leave during the 7th inning stretch to head back to New York.
There was more to report on but time and appetite were constraints. Maybe I’ll get back to Citizens Bank Park again one day… buuut I think I’d opt for Horizons next time I’m in Philly.
Happy Birthday CandyPenny! It was the lady’s choice for dinner so we hit Abistro, an upscale yet homy spot for a quality meal in Fort Green, Brooklyn. Abistro is most certainly not a vegan restaurant though tofu is able to be subbed in the majority of their entrees. They sure know their medium and the value of a well-dressed, beautifully presented dish.
We started with the only veg-friendly appetizer special, plantains drenched in a sweet and tangy sauce. Though I am a huge fan of ripe plantains, a pair of old gym shoes would taste good with this sauce on it! Notice the slightly burry picture, the result of my hunger pangs. 
This is what made the venture to Fort Green worth it. A half order of the Charette’s Seared Marinated Tofu: braised kale, sauteed fresh strawberries, crimini mushrooms and a spiced yucca cake in a strawberry vinaigrette, a dish I spied on the vegguide, which I pour over often, having the most thorough listing of veg-friendly options. My only complaint was the disproportionate ratio of kale to other ingredients. The strawberry worked and the beet on top, heavenly. Despite its total yum, I was glad I chose the half order.
Em’s plate. She subbed tofu in one of their fish dishes. It had artichoke hearts in it. Do you need more than that?
If you want attention from the general public around you, you need not compromise your modesty in a revealing garment of clothing, your blouse undone to here and your skirt split up to there [source]. All you need to do is carry around a plate of food, an empirical plate of food. In a city that barely acknowledges its 8 million pacing swiftly about, day-mayors and sidewalk loiterers, policemen and groups of two or more often partake in the social opportunity a traveling plate of food offers. This time, it was CandyPenny‘s birthday cake: toasted coconut topped chocolate loaf. 
I defy you to taste a Concord grape and not think of grape Bonkers, the shredded pastel purple of grape-flavored Big League Chew, a shiny purple Spree. Before I knew Concord grapes existed I wondered how these candies got away with calling themselves “grape”. Ah, but these frosty loose-skinned skin-staining indigo jewels have shown me how.
I will not eat Thai lunch specials.
I will not eat Thai lunch specials.
I will not eat Thai lunch specials.
Now that school is in session, I am surrounded by good Thai, contrary to my home neighborhood. This school year I am going to resist. More. And without the double-load of grad school at night, I have more time to whip up lunches for myself… combinations of form and function. The truth is I’ll eat anything I bring to my classroom. The same food that sits bored in my fridge is given new life within the confines of reading and math workshop. For example, the very same cherry-sage sausage I made for the real-deal vegan brunch has been in the innards of my lunch sammies for several weeks. And I ate them with ferocity.
So here is the next few days’ menu…Sloppy Joe’s. I have a real problem with the container size of tomato paste. It is very conducive to waste. I needed to make something that utilized the paste leftover in the fridge with a flimsy foil hat, that re-heated well and that utilized other relatively cheap ingredients.
I have to have fruit. Here, the rest of the grapes from my weekend, the only figs that weren’t moss-covered upon delivery from Fresh Direct and the sliced kiwi that came with the cut strawberry used for below. Now, what about the 5 blackened bananas in my bowl? Hmmm. 
I made a batch of cupcakes to dole out to The Electrician‘s family during his birthday thing… but the texture was way off. So as to not taint their impression of vegan baked goods, they came home with me. I whipped up a half recipe of a coconut buttercream using the rest of the coconut milk from my recent curry and sandwiched in some strawberry.
Can you figure out what these are?
They’re kind of the coolest thing ever to happen to pancakes. Star Wars pancake molds from Williams Sonoma. Yes, that’s an Imperial stormtrooper, Darth Vader and Yoda, a great birthday gift The Electrician received. Of course I just had to break them in with a batch of vegan pancakes.
They’re trickier than they seem. Using a pancake pen, I filled them with my unsteady hands and struggled to flip them as they had cooked onto the molds. I managed only to make one of each head for the birthday boy before creating several fully operational Death Star pancakes (uh, round ones) for myself. Next time I will add a bit of oil to the molds.
V-Spot brunch in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Sweet Fruit Empanadas of banana and strawberry with some sausage. Yummy but could have used an accompaniment… compote, cream, etc
Mango and sticky rice at Long Tan in Park Slope, again. Bless that towering cylinder of coconut milk sweetened sticky rice. 
If I was being executed I’d want my final meal to be Pad See Ew, my go-to Thai dish. This is from Thai Sky in Park Slope. This was pretty standard delivery… which is fine with me.
Spring rolls from Thai Sky. It’s fried and it’s good. I’d ask for these in my last meal too.
Have you eaten a $9.00 pretzel before? Radegast Biergarten in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has some real good authentic German softies. Order one for yourself so you don’t have to fight over who gets the knots, nobs and super-thick branches.
Beer and pretzels and wood. Astoria’s frat boy-filled beer gardens have nothing on Radegast. Plus their service is killer, even in the face of drunken cheapo squabbling.
A new study that followed 120,000+ people for 20-26 years concluded that animal-based protein diets make you die sooner; this is not a groundbreaking study as research has been concluding this for years.
Yay, more evidence but also more of the same ridiculous reporting: “Plant-based diets – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, a little fish, soy products, legumes – you want to eat more towards that end of the spectrum, not exclusively vegetarian,” says Ornish, an unaffiliated doctor, founder and president of Preventive Medicine Research Institute.
Uh, why not?
That would just be too preventative?
A vegetarian diet prolongs your life… but don’t eat an exclusively vegetarian diet, no. What do you want to live forever or something?
Tomorrow is the first day of school. So tonight I had lots of anxious energy to burn. I had to get in the kitchen and bask in a fragrant medley of like 40% of my spice rack… freshly-ground coriander, a heavy twist of the garlic mill, best buddies in dying my utensils yellow: turmeric and cumin, ground ginger, allspice, ground mustard, paprika, cayenne pepper and your standards: salt and pepper. Ok- more like, I’d been jonesing for a tofu curry for weeks and I had no curry powder nor curry paste.
I’ve made plenty of curries before but this one was probably the best. I grated a bunch of fresh ginger root, used a cup of vanilla soy yogurt along with 3/4 cup of coconut milk for super-duper creaminess and didn’t include too many watery vegetables. I served myself a small helping of bright white sticky rice and the fabulous creamy curry and packed the rest away for the Rosh Hashanah break.
That helped a bit.
Unwound helps too.
As the Industrial Revolution took hold of the nation, the average American in the late 1800s worked 12-hour days, seven days a week in order to make a basic living. Children were also working, as they provided cheap labor to employers and laws against child labor were not strongly enforced.
With the long hours and terrible working conditions, American unions became more prominent and voiced their demands for a better way of life. On Tuesday September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first-ever Labor Day parade. Participants took an upaid day-off to honor the workers of America, as well as vocalize issues they had with employers. As years passed, more states began to hold these parades, but Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later.
On May 11, 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago struck to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. They sought support from their union led by Eugene V. Debs and on June 26 the American Railroad Union called a boycott of all Pullman railway cars. Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied and railroad traffic out of Chicago came to a halt. On July 4, President Grover Cleveland dispatched troops to Chicago. Much rioting and bloodshed ensued, but the government’s actions broke the strike and the boycott soon collapsed. Debs and three other union officials were jailed for disobeying the injunction. The strike brought worker’s rights to the public eye and Congress declared, in 1894, that the first Monday in September would be the holiday for workers, known as Labor Day.
(source)
An Updated How-to Celebrate Labor Day list:
- For inspiration, read chapter 13-15 of Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States aloud with a friend.
- Watch Matewan. Giggle at Will Oldham.
- Sing Joe Hill‘s labor songs (And you thought Bikini Kill wrote “Rebel Girl”.)
- Make a boycott list on manufacturers who use sweatshop and child labor: check here and here and here for starts.
- Support the Fair Trade label
- Pete. Seeger.
- Grab a Union Jack or Maid and enjoy the weekend. Weekends exist because of them.
The Almanac Singers, 1941: Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell, Pete Seeger
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