one lucky duck- good, but insanely expensive

just a short and sweet mofo post/restaurant review today. while you're reading this, I'm heading to JFK airport and getting ready to leave the country!

While I was in New York City last April, my friend D. and I were walking around. It was a chilly day, so we decided to duck (no pun!) into a cozy little place to warm up. D. mentioned that she had seen a raw vegan place that she thought I might be interested in, One Lucky Duck. Well, I'd heard of them (Pure Food and Wine's little outpost), and I was intrigued.

So we ordered a pot of tea to share, and a piece of tiramisu to share. The bill came to over $23. That is stupid expensive! Good thing the tiramisu was good because... I'm never going back here again until a)I win the lottery b)I get a sugar daddy or c)I decide to quit paying my mortgage!

The next day I went back there and said I'd really liked their raw tiramisu, and I don't live near the restaurant, so would they be willing to share the recipe with me? The answer was "no, but you can buy our upcoming cookbook." PFFFFFT.

one lucky duck- good, but insanely expensive

You eat that RAW??

Sometimes, I catch on really late. For example, I feel that I'm the last person to realize that there are a lot of unexpected produce items that you can eat raw! Not necessarily marinated, dehydrated, sprouted, or anything else, just straight up raw!

Fresh summer corn, straight off the cob? Yes.

Raw beets? Yes. I've graduated from shredding them into salads to just eating them as veggie sticks.

Sweet potatoes? Yes! (sweet potatoes are not actually potatoes, as you might know)

collard greens? yes- they make awesome wraps! I only started cooking collard greens 5 years ago- before then, I had the image that they had to be cooked for hours and hours. Hey, we can all make mistakes.

Here are some other things that I've been delighted to eat without cooking:

asparagus
turnips
oats (as in muesli)

What are some of your favorite unusual or unexpected raw foods? Let me know- I'd love to try them if I haven't yet!

You eat that RAW??

ani phyo's raw desserts review and give-away!!

I was so excited to get a chance to review Ani Phyo's newest cookbook, Ani's Raw Food Desserts. This is the perfect time of the year to dive into a world of fresh, raw desserts while taking advantage of all the gorgeous produce on hand. While this book contains many simple recipes that shine the spotlight on a single ingredient such as watermelons or peaches, Ani Phyo's fans know that there is going to be much more. There are recipes for cupcakes, cheesecakes, even tiramisu. I was introduced to new ingredients (such as mesquite powder and lecithin), and also enjoyed reading Ani's tips for health, beauty, and green living throughout the book. There are even recipes using wine- Ani is a chef after my own heart!

So far, my favorite recipe that I've made from this book is the strawberry kream cheezecake (p. 57) (I subbed fresh blueberries for the strawberry sauce). Raw or not, vegan or not, this is by far my favorite cheesecake ever! Daiku and I are obsessed with it- it is creamy and tangy and has just the right texture and taste. I can't wait to try variations of it... hmmm, I went strawberry picking today...

Thanks to the generosity of the publisher, I have a copy of Ani's Raw Food Desserts to give away! If you'd like a chance to win this book, just leave a comment here. I will randomly pick one winner from all the commenters. Deadline for comments: Thursday, 9 July 2009, 11 p.m. EST. Winner announced: Friday morning. Good luck!

ani phyo's raw desserts review and give-away!!

institutional to transcendent: vegan in the heartland pt. 2 (kansas city)

this was the one of the pieces of "art" in my hotel room in Kansas City...

As some of you know, I have been an AP art history reader for 3 years now. I greatly enjoy reading the ever-increasing numbers of exams, and having a chance to hang out with fellow art historians for a week. For the last two years, I have gone to New Jersey for this assignment. However this year, they moved us to Kansas City.

As I hopped on the train for the 4-hour trip from St. Louis, I was excited to get a chance to visit a new city, and I eventually ended up much to love in a city known for its BBQ and steak.

First, work food:

When I showed up, I found this sign in the vegetarian food line at the ballroom of the Kansas City convention center. I was relieved that there was a dedicated section for veg. food- but I soon found out why the sign was there. According to my colleagues, the food at the convention center was so bad that people were flocking to the vegetarian food, thus causing the food to run out before actual vegetarians had gotten their meals!

How bad could the food be? Well, let's just say it was... institutional. The above image is a collection of some of my breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. As you can see, it wasn't too difficult to eat vegan, and by the end of the week, there were even some pleasant surprises (tofu! tacos! beans!). I also noticed some signs saying "brown rice available for vegans." Which, great, I love brown rice, but did I miss the memo that said that only vegans could eat it? (You guys already know how I feel about needless food segregation and weird definitions of veganism.) The food was honestly not that bad, but very bland and extremely repetitive. (Especially since I'd been spoiled for good fresh veg. food in New Jersey, as you can see in this post from last year.) By the third day, the thought of veggie sausage for breakfast again was enough to make me ill. As you can see in the mosaic, by the end of the week (top photos) I had resorted to drinking soda with my meals just to settle my stomach, and I (like many other readers) started skipping dinner.

Here is a shot of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, a giant and wonderful museum that I happily got to visit a couple of times while in K.C.

Still Life No. 24 by Tom Wesselmann, 1962, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Here is a work of art by Tom Wesselmann that speaks to some of our worst fears about American food- packaged, processed, and bland. After a few days on my institutional diet, this piece really made me think. It's funny how distorted the promise of plenitude has become in the American psyche, isn't it?

Fortunately, there was a whole other side to my visit. First of all, I was lucky to have found a wonderful yoga studio within walking distance of my hotel. At Kansas Siddhi Yoga, I got to work out the kinks in my neck and shoulders, but more importantly, work out the negative attitude that was starting to take over my mind.

Taking advantage of the Kansas City Veg. Restaurant Guide, the advice of fellow bloggers and PPK-ers, and the convenient and cheap K.C. public transportation system, I finally found enough time one evening to get myself to Eden Alley Café. When I saw the specials list, I knew exactly what I needed to get: watermelon gazpacho! This raw dish, bursting with fresh ingredients (a gazpacho of watermelon, cucumbers, apples, and tomatoes, served with a big scoop of guacamole and topped with sprouts and lime juice) was the counterpart to the bland food I'd been having all week.

Fresh lemonade

House-made sourdough bread drizzled with a green and fruity olive oil

And gazpacho! I can't tell you how good this meal was. It was totally worth the trip, and getting caught in a thunderstorm on my way back!

Especially because my awesome server slipped this chocolate lavender cookie to me after my meal, for free! This cookie let me have something awesome and healthy to enjoy as everyone else snacked on candy bars during our reading the next day.

There were so many other vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants that I still wanted to try in Kansas City, but I ran out of time. Good thing I'll be returning here for work every June for the foreseeable future. My yoga class allowed me to have gratitude- not only for the extraordinary vegan food at Eden Alley, but also for the quite ordinary food at the Convention Center. I was reminded that even though I complained about it, it was still food, vegan food. And that is something to be thankful for.

Restaurant Information:

Eden Alley Café
707 W 47th St
Kansas City, MO 64112
(816) 561-5415

institutional to transcendent: vegan in the heartland pt. 2 (kansas city)

the produce post

I had a few summer wishes that hadn't come true until very recently, which is why I have been obnoxiously clinging on to the passing season. Among these, raspberry picking, blueberry picking, peach picking, one last trip to the beach, one last BBQ, one last road trip. Well you've seen some of these happen lately (hello raspberries! nice to meet you BBQ!). It's too late for me to pick blueberries this season. Whew! Just admitting that is liberating! In this post, I bring you some more items that I've been ticking off my summer checklist, bringing me closer and closer to accepting the end of that season and the beginning of another.

Behold...

Peaches! I had been wanting to go peach-picking for weeks. Not only would picking the peaches ourselves be more fun, but it would be way more cost-effective than buying them at the market. My environmentalist and frugal tendencies would nudge me in this direction. But the closest peach orchards to us were about an hour away. So... how many fossil fuels am I willing to burn for the idyllic thrill of picking fresh local peaches? Support local farmers and save money, but drive 150 miles round-trip, put out carbon emissions, spend $20 on gas? Decisions, decisions.

Fortunately, the decision was made for me one Saturday at the farmers market, when I met a man selling this huge bushel of "seconds." They were seconds not because they were overripe or damaged, but because they were cosmetically compromised by hail! Basically, I got a box of ugly buy perfectly delicious peaches for $5. Local, meet the farmer? Check. Cheap? Check. Lots of peaches to have fun with? Check and check.

At the market, we also got a huge basket of these tiny plums, which as you can see in the photo above, were about the size of large grape tomatoes. I kept wanting to use the plums to cook or bake something fabulous, but they were just so damn tasty to pop into my mouth. Somehow, Daiku and I went through these before anything got made. Going delirious with a huge glut of produce and eat them all before you can make anything with them? Check!

One of the best buys we have made from the market in recent memory is the world's biggest and best bunch of spinach ever. See that huge bunch I'm holding up in the above photo? That was only, say, 1/8 of the entire bag. We had so much spinach, that we used some almost every day, but didn't finish it for over a week! We kept fearing that it would go bad, but this never happened. Basically, this was fresh local spinach, pulled out by the root, so it stood up to refrigeration admirably. We used it for pizza topping, pasta, soup, salad, and more, as you've seen in my last few posts.

But the coolest thing that came from the spinach was... green smoothies! I've always wanted to experiment with throwing greens into smoothies. I've made smoothies with powdered spirulina, and I've juiced kale, but I had never gathered up the courage to just throw a bunch of greens into a smoothie until now. I figured the spinach was so fresh, tasty, and tender that now was as good a time as any to try it.

And boy, was it good! As you can see from these photos, the spinach completely dissolves in the smoothie, so there are no chunks hanging around. There is also no lingering flavor- all the spinach leaves behind is this beautiful emerald color. I was amazed at how much spinach I could cram into a small smoothie. So for breakfast, I could have 2 or more servings of greens (in addition to the banana, soy yogurt, orange juice and other goodies I threw in there) before the day had even begun. It felt really virtuous and good. Get a huge amount of perfect produce, enough to experiment with? Check!

With all these lovely summer produce experiences, I have been comforted enough to finally let autumn in. The photo above is from our second apple-picking excursion. It's so fun to bring home a huge amount of apples, and now that different varieties are coming in, there's even more we can do with them. In future posts, I will share the crisps, juices, pies, and sauces these apples have been yielding, but for now, I want to share my apple theory with you.

You see, when I go apple picking, I always pick these apples with the freckly markings on them. Not only do I love imperfect produce, but I'm convinced that these are the apples with the best flavor and texture. So far, I haven't been proven wrong. See, this is the fun of picking your own, whatever the produce item might be: getting to see the charming, quirky, irregular, or ugly fruit that you might never encounter in a supermarket. It adds immeasurable pleasure to the eating experience to come to terms with your food in its original context.

What about you? Do you have any "theories" about what makes the best-tasting produce? Are there any rituals or superstitions that you have to share about how you go about gathering the food you eat? Share them with me!

one year ago today: on 2 October 2006 I asked, what's on your skin?

the produce post

the BBQ dinner post

Happy October, everybody! Thank you for your kind comments about the sourdough post. I went away to Virginia for my mom's birthday this weekend, and was so happy to come back and find that it had gotten such a good response. I am having a lot of fun with it.

Well, the voodoo stew seems to have worked better than I could ever imagine! Clear, sunny weather and record-breaking warm temperatures have been hanging around, and I figure, as long as I keep getting warm days, I'll keep posting warm-weather foods!

On September 21, Daiku and I took advantage of the newly warm weather to pull out our trusty little hibachi grill to make some barbeque. This little cast-iron guy is very near and dear to our heart. We bought him very cheaply a few years ago when I was still living in California, and the heavy, sharp, rusty thing has managed to follow us to New York. (Let's just say multiple trips were involved).

The main course was some mock duck (canned seitan from the Asian market) marinated with a peppery barbeque sauce. Here is the duck getting basted with reserve marinade.

The salad was inspired by this beautiful ripe red pepper from the garden.

I used it, along with some fresh tomatoes and raw corn from the farmers market, some scallions, olive oil, and sherry vinegar to make a salsa. I've only recently discovered my love for fresh raw corn, and am snapping it up every chance I get. I figure it'll only show up at the market a couple more times, tops. This particular corn was white and especially sweet and tender. I may never cook corn again- seriously.

I then poured the salsa over a huge bed of spinach, also from the market.

Along with some garlic toast, plain corn on the cob, and some barbecued broccoli and green onions, (and some amazing grilled peaches that I forgot to photograph), this was a satisfying dinner for the last day of summer. The last day according to the calendar, anyway...

To be continued!

the BBQ dinner post

the raspberry post

This past Saturday, Daiku and I finally got to do something that we've been wanting to do for weeks- go raspberry picking! You see, every time we decided to go to raspberry orchards, it would rain (they don't let you pick wet raspberries because of the risk for mold), or it would be a super-crowded holiday, so they would all be picked out, or we would be out of town or... well, you get the picture!

But this weekend, with the sun shining and the temperatures in the 80's seemed as good a time as any to head over to Henkel's Berry Patch, about 15 minutes north of Syracuse. Here are some scenes from our outing:

The skies were really dramatic and kept threatening to break into a storm, but thankfully, no rain fell. We did, however, see a few trees here and there with bright red and orange changing leaves.

We got to pick red and golden raspberries! The golden ones had a beautiful peachy-pink color to them. We even saw a few remaining currants still hanging around- they tasted so good!

We also got to enjoy quite a bit of floral goodness as we traipsed from patch to patch, leisurely filling our bucket and popping a few berries into our mouths as we went along.

Here's our full bucket buckled into the car preparing for the drive home. (We picked up a couple of fresh garlic bulbs as well- now that I know the pleasure of fresh-picked garlic, there is no turning back.)

To the right, you see the "raspberry of love" - shaped like a heart and bigger than a penny! Below, you see a couple of ways we enjoyed the berries once we brought them home- a smoothie and some flan topped by fresh ones. So far, we haven't done anything too fancy other than pop huge handfuls into our mouths. I froze about 2-3 pounds, though, so there will be no shortage of raspberries for future creations.

Ahhhh. Happiness, thy name is u-pick produce.

Here are some photogenic bales of hay and some raspberry bushes, bidding us goodbye as we left. With perfect days like this, I am finally beginning to feel that I have had the quintessential summery experiences that I've been longing for!

the raspberry post

Cherry 'n berry picking

Inspired by this post on Vicki's blog, Daiku and I went cherry picking last week. Even though the 4th of July was gray and damp, we braved the weather to catch the first day of cherry season at nearby Grisamore Farm.

Is there anything more giddy than running around a grove full of fruit trees with a bucket to fill?

Daiku picking cherries.

Bazu packing as many cherries into her mouth as into her bucket!

We also picked some raspberries, at $1 a pound, who could resist?

The raspberry bushes were so fruitful, I'm inspired to plant my own. I want a cherry tree too! So my question to you, fellow bloggers, where can I find raspberry bushes to buy? For those of you who have fruit trees or bushes or vines, what advice do you have to offer?

The farm also had an assortment of animals, my favorite being this friendly bleating sheep who came coming up to us, then running away, then running back towards us. He was adorable.

So what did we do with our pounds and pounds of fruit? Smoothies, pies, cakes, cobblers? Nope, we ate 'em all out of hand (or out of bucket, as the case may be). I tossed raspberries onto salads and Daiku tossed them onto ice cream. We devoured the cherries. I am not ashamed. But I do want to go back and pick some more next week. This time, I might even get creative with them!

Oh, one last thing. As we were leaving to drive to the farm, we saw this deer running behind our house. While it's very cute, it's also a little heart-wrenching, because the deer have to cross a major road to get from their hang-out to our house, which means a chance that they'll be hit by a car. I'm sad to report that last year, we even saw a deer get hit right in front of our house. It was traumatic beyond belief. So now when we see deer, we try to help them across the street and back home by watching to make sure no cars are coming by. Sigh. Sometimes I forget that I live within a 10-minute bike ride of the downtown of a major city!

S/he made it home ok!

Cherry 'n berry picking

The Raw and the Cooked

Well, it only lasted a week. I set out to eat raw for the month of July, and only made it to the 6th day. My thinking was, July is the best month for fresh produce. Well, I was half right. All the good produce is delicious, but it also inspires thoughts of cooking and baking in my head. And it didn't help that I have a partner who cooked up a different delicious meal every night...

So here's my review of my week of raw: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

A trip to the farmer's market ensured that I'd have lots of delicious and fun produce to play with, like the ginormous radish above. There is a stall at the market that sells nothing but these guys, who as you can see in the above photo, are as big as my hand. Contrary to what their size might suggest, however, these radishes have a mild, sweet flavor.

I was also lucky to score a bunch of scapes and fresh peas in the pod.

Daiku created a wonderful dish out of fresh peas, scapes, and basil from the garden. He cooked up some sprouted wheat pasta (from Trader Joes- this pasta was so good, and definitely exceeded expectations) with chopped scapes, peas straight out of the pod, and basil that he had briefly sauteed. The pasta was topped simply with a generous dash of freshly ground black pepper. The garlicky flavor of the scapes combined with the basil made this dish taste like a fresh pesto.

(Ok, this will prove what an academic nerd I am: I am tempted to call this dish a "deconstructed" pesto- as in, it's all the elements of a pesto, but separate, not blended together. However, I have a big pet peeve about the use of the word deconstruction in everyday language- long story short, it doesn't just mean "taken apart." So as much as I want to call this a deconstructed pesto, I know I will be haunted by the specter of Jacques Derrida and thus will keep my mouth shut.)

A typical raw lunch for me: a plate of dates, cashes, bananas, raspberries, and cherries.

A typical cooked lunch for Daiku: a falafel sandwich on pita, topped with tomatoes, onions, alfalfa sprouts, and his special tahini/harissa sauce.

A typical raw dinner for me: avocado salad, lettuce, and flax bread.

I made up the flax bread from a bunch of raw recipes I saw online. I soaked some flax seeds overnight, then blended them with some onion and seasonings, and dehydrated it. At first, the bread was really savory and delicious. However, upon subsequent tasting, it was just too flax-y. I couldn't handle it and ended up only eating half of it. I like just about everything and never throw food away, so this was a really big deal for me. I think next time I'd consider adding some other grain to this, such as wheat or barley, to cut the flax flavor a little. If there is a next time.

A typical cooked dinner for Daiku: broccoli rabe sauteed with tomatoes and cannellini beans, seasoned simply with paprika.

A typical raw meal for me. Rather than a lot of complicated recipes, I found that what I liked most of all were giant salads. Here's a rather simple one: green lettuce and dried cranberries, topped with a cashew/basil dressing.

I bought 7 (count 'em SEVEN!) heads of greens from the lettuce lady for $1 each. Such a great deal, and they lasted all week. I bought: red- and green-leaf lettuce, Boston lettuce, romaine lettuce, escarole, kale, and broccoli rabe.

One great thing about being raw is that I put oft-neglected kitchen appliances such as my juicer to good use. And, I got to try green juice for the first time! I juiced two heads of kale. Daiku and I both thought it tasted like lawn clippings, but the addition of 2 grapefruits and 2 tangerines magically transformed the juice to a sweet creamy treat. I find that if I leave a lot of pith on my citrus fruit when I juice them, the result is a thick, creamy texture that I love. You'll notice that the above glass of juice is so big that I had to put my juicer on top of a book to reach the top!

Raw vegan ice cream: soaked cashews, frozen bananas, frozen mixed berries, some agave nectar, and a tiny amount of water made this treat. I got the idea from Diann, who got the idea from Amey. This ice cream is so great, I didn't even mind my soft magic bullet version and the fact that I don't have an ice-cream maker!

Finally, my favorite raw treat of the week. I saw these lemon macaroons on Kati's blog, and the recipe seemed so simple, that I just had to have them. You simply mix food processed soaked cashews, coconut, agave nectar, lemon juice and lemon zest and dehydrate. I used to love macaroons, but have never attempted a vegan version. Well, with this recipe I hit the jackpot: a vegan, raw macaroon, that is easy to make. If you have a food dehydrator, it's a must-try!

Final verdict on the raw foods diet (from my admittedly limited experience): I definitely like raw foods. I ate whole heads of lettuce in one sitting, and drank up green juice by the pint. I love fruits and veggies, and experimenting with new recipes and techniques. But, I found it to be too tedious, and in the end cooked foods were too tempting. Since, unlike veganism for example, there is no ethical or health reason to eat 100% raw, you'll have to pry my stove from my cold dead hands!

The Raw and the Cooked