Vegan Good Eats

When raw cuisine meets a creative chef: exploring Live Organic Food Bar in Toronto

Raw cuisine requires an abundance of creativity as it defies the Western idea of acceptable sustenance. On a personal level, treating myself to a raw restaurant is always enlightening as it teaches me a few things about new ingredients, techniques, flavors and presentation.

Perusing menus online helped convince my family to follow me on my pilgrimage and quest for darn good eats. We chose wisely.

My cyber research took me to Live Organic Food Bar. Nestled in a busy street consisting of [...]

Could I be a banana at the NY Veggie Pride Parade?

Seriously, there is such a thing, and I do believe it is about time. Although my first thought was to try to figure out a way to be the big yellow banana while having flashbacks of Kevin James in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” I was delighted that the veggie loving population (or hating if you do the I am vegan because I hate plants joke) was growing at a rate where a parade would be in order. [...]

I don’t get it: Why do some vegan restaurants try to recreate meat?

Mongolian Wonder: truly faux steak with delicious spices and a sassy sauce.

Yes. I do not get it. No. I don’t.

I remember a funny conversation I had with my rabbi. I cannot remember the context or the circumstances surrounding the discourse. What I do remember is addressing the concept of I-can’t-believe-its-not-shrimp vegan prawns. His argument was that if the laws of kashrut prohibit the consumption of shellfish, are we then not honoring the larger concept by recreating the taste and texture [...]

Quinoa: Quin-what?

It’s funny how foods become trendy. Hummus took off from 5 million 12 years ago to about 250 million in sales last year, veganism is the new macrobiotic, raw is esoterically and confusingly sexy (I think its the word raw), and tea has blown up exponentially among western drinkers.

Red and Black Quinoa: a recent sacred acquisition at my local Whole Foods

Perhaps globalization, the internet, social media, the Food TV Network and blogs have sensationalized quinoa. Truthfully, I am surprised [...]

Snoballs and Foodie Valhalla

I grew up in foodie valhalla. In what I still believe to be a not-so-distant past, it was a mythological and supernatural era where farmers markets were the norm and the processed foods of the giant evil grocers were a mere futuristic wife’s tale.

PIcarones, a squash and sweet potato fried dough served soaked with thickened molases "chancaca"

Lima, Peru in the 1980s was a land of fresh seafood, exotic fruits, the traveling egg and milkman, home cooked meals, and streets [...]

Don’t Judge a Bagel by its Cover

What makes a good bagel? Like the best things in life, bagels follow the philosophy less is more. Bagels are polish and date back to the the early 1600s where they would be given to pregnant women as a symbol of life. The first written account of the delightful bread appears in 1610 in the Community Regulations of Krakow, Poland. Bagels then came to New York via the immigration of Eastern European jews (Ashkenazi) circa 1880s.

Montreal style: crustier, crunchier and [...]

Doing it Raw in Houston

Sounds sexy? Raw foods can be. There is something naughty about biting into a raw fruit or veggie, hearing its crisp splitting sound and letting its virgin juices enter our mouths. Picture it.

Raw veganism has emerged and is increasing. There is something sensible in its philosophy: eating raw fruits and vegetables allows all the nutrients and fiber to stay intact, just like nature intended. The nuts and bolts: do not cook foods above 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit).

Raw [...]