You can get locally-made vegan cheese from Kitchen Revolution! I absolutely loved the selection and variety. Gourmet vegan food at its finest.
Marie Gonzalez, owner and chief vegetable whisperer of Kitchen Revolution, smiles for the camera.
Like I told Marie before, vegans are angels to animals, but vegan chefs are angels to both animals and vegan humans! Kitchen Revolution holds cooking classes regularly. Check out the January schedule.
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I got a bottle of coco marmalade the other day, and I started eating it by the spoonful instead of as a spread. The consistency was fondue-like and because it dripped the same way, I had the idea of pairing it up with the bread sticks I got from Dr. Tam's.
And it brought me memories of childhood when Yan Yan was a dominant force in my life. I'm exaggerating, of course.
One year ago, I had a blog with a grand total of 2 posts. 2012 was the year that I set out to live authentically. The blog title reflected that, and the first post was how I was going to document all of the ups and downs of choosing this path. I thought it might inspire others to stop making excuses and start living their lives. Needless to say, I documented nothing. Good news is, I lived it. I fulfilled 50% of my intentions at the very least, that part about teaching yoga. The unfulfilled 50% is about starting my own vegan business. So in that regard, I am still at square one.
The second post was about a movie I watched entitled One Day that starred Anne Hathaway (I know, even the actresses whose movies I choose to watch are vegan!) Anyway, I really enjoyed the narration of that movie. It was about her character and this guy, their relationship told through the same day of each passing year. Some years they were completely living separate lives, others they were friends, others they were together. It was a lifelong relationship that changed and struggled and evolved throughout the years, and I thought it was sweet and romantic and realistic at the same time. I understood who they were and how they grew as individuals. I understood their attraction and love for each other. I am not a big fan of sappy love stories where I don't get how the characters got to know each other in the first place, so this movie was a breath of fresh air. What is interesting is that despite that blog having only 2 posts, it really did sum up what my 2012 was like. It was the year I took Jivamukti Teacher Training (although I almost didn't because I signed up for a program that I now know is not the right fit for me), and it was the year that I formed a lifelong relationship with my Jivamukti family. In the years to come, I will likely see my Jivamukti family only either in January during Tribe Gathering or August at Woodstock, and that is kind of how the story will be narrated, just like One Day, and there is something very sweet and fragile about its impermanence that I like. One's first birthday as a vegan can be exciting (food-wise) or daunting (social adjustment-wise), so I am honored to have celebrated Bianca's first birthday as a vegan together with her close friends. I met her through The Vegan Society when she took the vegan pledge, and we got along right away. That seems to be the common theme amongst other vegans whom I meet. Regardless of how different we may be in all other ways, sharing the same values and principles seems to give us that almost instantaneuos friendship, one that stems from ease and familiarity, as if we were each other's family all along. In that sense, a birthday celebration goes beyond food and company and extends to the birth of consciousness that was once asleep.
As non-slaves to the 9-to-6 corporate world, we have the luxury of going to The Vegetarian Kitchen on weekday lunches when we feel like it, even though neither of us live close to it. So it was only fitting that we spend her birthday at a place that felt like home, where Tita (owner of The Vegetarian Kitchen) made it feel like home to us. And this is what we had for lunch. The happy birthday girl with her vegan peach cheesecake!
The vegan apple pie with miracle gems in the form of candied pili nuts.
I knew I was going to The Vegetarian Kitchen, so I went prepared with my own plastic containers to take home food for the next meal.
Tita's so thoughtful she not only gave Bianca her vegan desserts, she also gave me a slice of the apple pie to take home. Advance happy birthday to me!
But this post is not about me, so again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIANCA! P.S. I hope Norah Jones will not be singing your song tonight. Love to you! Once in a while (ok fine, everytime) my vegan friends and I get together, the conversation will stir towards food and we would start asking each other questions like "What's your favorite fruit?" and the questions progress to vegan geekiness to the point that we joke about how we should have a slam book about everything vegan (I think we should really do it). The questions would be: When is your vegan birthday? Who are your favorite vegan celebrities? What is your favorite color of vegetable? Who is your first vegan kiss? You get the gist!
So before going way off-tangent, here is one of my favorite fruits. And fruits are a vegan's fast food. I actually don't get to eat watermelons as much. The reason is that I don't know how I would cut a whole watermelon by myself (I don't own an itak). So thanks to my watermelon sponsor, my eldest sister Suzie, for thoughtfully having a watermelon sliced for me to take home. I love having it with a sprinkle of pink Himalayan sea salt.
They say we don't really need a complicated way to check whether we are getting enough nutrients. We can be guided by color and make sure we're getting a good variety: greens, yellows, reds, oranges, blues, purples etc. And yes, I am talking plant-based. So no, brown from rotting flesh and red from blood do not count. Unless you're a vampire. Or a mosquito. Peace. Every morsel of meat we eat is slapping the tear-stained face of a starving child. - Philip Wollen
I have been vegan for three years now, and the ease of eating out has much to do with the consideration and thoughtfulness of those around me. It actually just boils down to asking me if a particular restaurant is a place where I could enjoy my food. That did not happen today, unfortunately. And in retrospect, I cannot recall a single time when a family meal amounted to me being asked if it was a choice that I could enjoy. The times that the restaurant had good vegan options came out of sheer luck, not choice, not because anyone did any research, but just because they happen to be available. Today was a particularly frustrating time for me. It was supposed to be a family lunch, and there I was, spending so much time on my own at a mall looking for something I could buy and take back to that restaurant. It was a restaurant that served buffet and nothing else, and they only had unexciting salads and fruits that I could eat, and I am unwilling to pay a thousand bucks for food I cannot enjoy. It is the first day of the year and I didn't want to feel angry or hurt or sad, but those are precisely the things that I felt. How hard was it to ask me a single question? How difficult would it be to consider my ethical choices? It's not as if I turned vegan yesterday. It has been three years! This frustration, admittedly, has been growing roots. The only times that I get to choose where to eat as a family is on my birthday. 2010 I chose to go to Greens, and much as I wanted everyone to order vegan, some intentionally ordered dishes with dairy products. But it was my first birthday as a vegan, so I let it pass. 2011 I decided I want my family to try the vegan options at People's Palace. I chose that place because I thought the taste of the vegan dishes there were omnivore-friendly. I sent everyone an email and a text message saying that my one wish for my birthday is for us to have a vegan meal together. The moment we sat down, I heard comments about squid and chicken and some other animal-based dish, so I reminded everyone that I will do all the ordering to make sure everything is vegan. Jokes were cracked to my face about where they would go eat after this meal. My niece refused to eat the dishes laid out in front of us, and my brother ordered chicken for her. I thought this was insulting to me, and reflected poorly on him on so many levels. How hard was it to grant my one wish for a few hours? How hard was it to teach a toddler respect for the ethical choices of others, and the benefits of eating vegetables. That meal left me in tears that come 2012, I decided I will just leave Manila altogether and I ended up spending my birthday in Boracay. It was a slap in the face how my ethical choices were disrespected. And I don't know how to deal with the blatantly speciesist views of treating animals as things. My brother has two labradors, and he said that the veterinarian wanted him to "do a lot of things" but "it's not worth it." I asked, "What if it were your child?" He replied, "But it isn't my child. It's only a dog." That again, brought me so much pain and sadness. It hurts me that he represents the vast majority of human beings who see animals as mere objects. It hurts me that this individual dog had to suffer because his freedom from pain is dependent on someone who could not care less about him. It hurts me that my brother is this desensitized, and it worries me to what extent this self-centeredness could expand. I am hurt, and mostly, I am sad. It is a slap in my face that adjustments were not made to accomodate my choices. I feel so much pain, and yet whatever pain I feel cannot be compared to the pain that these nonhuman animals feel in factory farms and small farms, laboratories and slaughterhouses, zoos and puppy mills, circuses and all these other places and industries where animals are used and abused and killed. Angry vegans are aplenty, and sometimes, like today, I am one. I am angry that change is not happening fast enough. I am angry that the apathy of human beings is causing so many others so much suffering. I am angry that there is a simple solution to end much of the world's violence, health problems, food shortage problems, environmental problems, etc and yet not enough people are taking the necessary steps- all for taste and convenience. And so it is times like this one that I need to dig deep and draw courage and positivity from people I look up to, to keep going, to keep doing what I do. Because you can slap me in the face like this again and again and again, but you cannot shut me up. Not now, not ever. I live to speak up for the animals. And my own family may be speciecist, but my vegan family is awesome. To this, I look into my Jivamukti tribe, my vegan heroes like Philip Wollen, John Robbins, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and so many other famous vegan advocates, and mostly to my vegan friends who like me struggle but never ever give up the fight. For the animals. Until every cage is empty. Until all are free. I gave away my last two beeswax-free vegan lip balms last Sunday, and look what I found today! Lush has three kinds of vegan lip balm, along with a wide range of beauty and bath care products that are labelled vegan. True beauty comes from kindness. Happy new year!
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