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 [...]

Where to eat? Pan-roasted organic mushrooms with toasted walnut-red pepper

A fantastic holiday (or any day) recipe from Prego’s executive chef John Watt. Vegan Good Eats puts his vegan cooking chops to the test. The result is an earthly orgy of organic mushrooms coupled with a silky sauce, dotted with salsa verde.

They ask, “where do you eat?”

I respond, “where do YOU eat?”

Nothing is perhaps more annoying than answering a question with another question, but that specific somewhat mischievous act proves a point. I eat where you eat: at restaurants. Sometimes, [...]

Hail Merry’s Miracle: Sinful, indulgent and raw

A fad or back to basics?

If we think about the food and weight-loss industry trends these past few decades, we realize that we have come full circle in terms of what is considered healthy in the consciousness of the mainstream. Low-fat alternatives laden with sugar and high fructose corn syrup, the invention of diet sodas, low-carbohydrate diets and Atkins are amidst the popular fads that have come and gone.

In the meantime, vegetarianism and veganism have slowly and consistently entered our [...]

Shogi Hibachi Express: I pick the ingredients, you cook, clean, can you pay?

I love discovering new restaurants. More so, I love discovering new restaurants that have vegetarian and vegan options. Although Asian restaurants are typically very accommodating with their myriad of bean curd, tempura and curry dishes, it sometimes feels like they are looking at me for not ordering their specialty sea bass with whatever, the craw fish who cares, or the fillet doesn’t matter.

As a student (for a very short time) at Michigan State University, I was a regular at a Mongolian [...]

Foodie Breaking News: Falafel Chips and Wrights of Texas Salsa

I interrupt your regular scheduled work day to bring you breaking foodie news: the discovery of falafel chips and raw salsa.

Peggy and Rick from Wrights of Texas helping me discover that one should NEVER buy salsa from the non-refrigerated aisle. Why did it take me so long to figure that out?

At about 10 am-ish on Friday, April 9th, 2010, during a routine shopping trip to my local Whole Foods Market, I met Peggy from Wrights of Texas and had a religious [...]

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 [...]

Houston’s Best Bagels

There can never be too many bagel places in Houston. There is an acceptable number of bakeries which means there aren’t enough. That is disappointing when considering my religious pseudo pious adoration for carbs. Thankfully, the somewhat limited choices are beyond satisfactory. Although I try not to make this a regular outing, driving to treat myself to this eatable orgasm is a type of foreplay.

Assortment of 26 Bagel Flavors at the Hot Bagel Shop of Shepherd near Fairview

In my [...]