NYU Animal Legal Defense Fund & Sacred Chow!

Meatless Mondays Launch at NYU

MARCH 1, 2012

by cbronsing

The launch of Meatless Mondays marks the beginning of the

Climate Change: It’s What’s For Dinner campaign

Connecting the dots between the environmental impacts of the meat industry
and the choices we can make to lower our carbon impact every day, one meal at a time.

_________________________________________________________________________

Supported by a Green Grant from the NYU Office of Sustainability and in collaboration with the Wagner Food Policy Alliance, the Wagner Climate Coalition, the Department of Food Studies at Steinhardt and NYU Law Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Meatless Mondays at NYU

NYU MEATLESS MONDAYS LAUNCH
MONDAY, MARCH 5TH | 12-2PM

Rudin Forum, Puck Building 2^nd Floor
295 Lafayette St. at Houston

_________________________________________________________________________

Why Meatless? Why Monday?

What exactly are Meatless Mondays? Find out why they’re sweeping the nation, who’s taking part, why they’re doing it, and how you can join them. Take 3 minutes and check out this video, currently a finalist for the TED “videos worth spreading”: Meatless Mondays in a Nutshell

I know, I know – change is hard. But once a week is very doable and your pledge will be counting towards a wider NYU movement to measure our climate impact. Be a part of powerful collective action. (Also known as peer pressure with a cause.) You can be a Monday vegetarian, a weekday vegetarian, a flexitarian or a long-time committed vegan, it all makes a difference. Come join us THIS MONDAY and dig into some free veggie eats.

Never tried fake meat before? OR maybe you’ve tried it and you weren’t impressed? No matter where you fall on the spectrum, (ahem - yes, even if you love meat!), forget the bland tofu and come on out to taste fake meat done right with some seriously delicious food from a popular local vegan bistro, Sacred Chow.

We didn’t skimp on the selections, so come hungry and fill a plate with:

• Indonesian Roasted Tempeh
• Orange Blackstrap Barbecue Seitan
• Root Vegetable Latkes with Indonesian Date Butter
• Griddled Shiitake Mushroom
• Shredded Tofu Spa Salad
• Sliced Ginger Soba Noodles
• Dijon Marinated Raw Kale
• Cesar Salad
• Steamed Brown Rice
• Banana Pound Cake

Besides the free lunch, come to check out the vegetarian food prep workshop by our very own Wagnerd and Food Policy Alliance Co-Chair, Ryan Brown at 1PM. Then make your pledge (!) and join the movement to cut the meat once a week. You’ll get yourself a fancy button to flaunt your MM-veg status, tasty recipe ideas and tips on sustainable eats around NYU.

Help us spill the beans: invite your friends!

See you there,

Christina
and the crew behind The Climate Change: It’s What’s For Dinner campaign

JL GOES VEGAN!

Sacred Chow, NYC

by JLGOESVEGAN on FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Last weekend Dave and I had dinner with two dear friends, Ethan and Michael at Sacred Chow, a tiny vegan bistro. There was awesome conversation and tons of laughter… and tons of food!

We started with the Sunflower Lentil Paté.

Yes, it’s as delicious as you think!

Then came my serving tray!

I opted for the Tapas option where you select three items for $18.

Naturally, one choice was kale.

Kale massaged in Dijon mustard = I died and went to heaven.

Next up, Root Vegetable Latkes with Indonesian Date “butter.”

Swoon.

Black Olive Seitan.

Oh, yes, you read that right. Black olives and seitan – destined to be together! Outstanding.

Finally, the Sweet Potato Torte for dessert.

I don’t think my dinner mates were as impressed with this delightfully savory dessert but I didn’t mind because that meant it was all for me.

Sacred Chow is truly a new (to me) NYC vegan favorite! Huge food, reasonable prices and it’s simply YUMMY!

Integrity & honor!

Standing outside of a locked door looking in. Today my son Huxley is playing his 4th chess tournament. For Huxley, although he has great determination and desire to win, it is more about truth & honor, & how much he will learn from the experience.

The boy he is playing loudly boasted before the challenge began, "

I have played in 40 tournaments, and my rating is..." Huxley proudly stated: " well, I have played in four!" And without any signs of trepidation, he began his match.

I asked him this morning if he was at all nervous, as he was challenging other players that were ranked much higher than he was. "Nope" he said. "I am not nervous at all. Of course I hope to win so that my rating improves, but no matter, I will learn much more, & I will play with honor & integrity." The other player's boasting did not undermine his confidence, to the contrary, he was watching out for intimidating tricks, and raised his hand for a Chess masters assisstance at any of his opponents devious false traps.

It immediately reminded me of when I had taken the Pennsyvania Bar Exam, and during a lunch break from the exam, 4 other exam takers were boasting how the answers that they had chosen were the correct ones, while the ones I had chosen were clearly wrong. The 4 against one factor had clearly played into my sense of confidence, and so, I assumed they were right, and perhaps I had failed the exam. Months later when the results were out, the boasters had all failed, and I had passed.

I learned thereafter how important it is, for self-preservation, to trust my sense of truth, and to walk away from those working to boast their fears by trying to undermine others.

What I teach Huxley, when the torpedoes of life are postioned to annihilate by intimidation, is that he has the power to shift away from & transcend such attacks through honoring his integrity & keen intelligence. And that above all else: do not listen, just focus on the task before you.

I don't know if Huxley has won his match yet, as I am still watching the set take place. But no matter the final result, his honor, integrity & intelligence are well intact. And I am so proud of him!

It wasn't as bad as we thought it'd be.

So we went in this cold, drizzly morning, to the imposing building. The lady who met us was very friendly and kind. We went through line by line, showed what makes sense and what doesn't, and then ended with smiles.

The anticipation of it all was far worse than the actual experience. Funny that, right?

It all comes back to my (possibly insane) belief that the universe takes care of us, and things end up working out. OK, so there are struggles and hardships. That's standard for the experience of life. However, at the end of the day, you do your best, you keep pushing, keep fighting for what you need, and only then can you be satisfied with knowing that even if things don't work out perfectly, you've done everything in your power to make it right. You've used all your energy, creativity, and ability to sort things out.

Sure, things aren't perfect. They never are.

But there you go.

That's life.

I /still/ don't ever want to own a restaurant.

This week has been utter and complete purgatory for me and bossman. We can't go into the kitchen and cook the entire time we're here. Instead, we need to sit astride a mountain of paperwork to answer to an audit of doom. Thankfully, there's nothing there that's sketchy, but it's still painful to have to do, because you're talking about papers that are years old, and are not as organised as they are now. It means painstakingly going through each transaction, line by line, penny by penny, and making sure that it's all accounted for.

Meanwhile, there's folk on staff who aren't thrilled with each other. The wait staff, thankfully, has been angelic. Every single one of them has proven to me time and again that there are people out there that truly /get it/. Who really understand that vision of making less violence, making more kindness, showing our love for humanity through food. They treat each other and our customers with respect and kindness. They treat this space with the reverence of an altar of peace deserves. OK, so I'm being a touch hyperbolic. I think I'm allowed a touch of poetic license for having to look at numbers until I'm cross-eyed.

The problem is that a kitchen is built on ego. Well. A "usual" kitchen, in any case. It's a place where men flex their importance, and show how much they can take. Crassness, rudeness, and violent tempers are nurtured and encouraged. It's a horrible place to be. When you come from a place of ego, "make less violence" doesn't quite sink in. That's when we start to notice that the person may not be a good fit, and we have to part ways. Part ways where we wish the person the best, but understand that at the end of the day, we have to nurture kindness and love.

Meanwhile, this pile of paperwork that happens when you run a place doesn't care that you've got a thousand other things on your plate. It keeps building, and threatening to engulf you in its arms. And somehow, you keep just past the point of getting swallowed up.

And yet, there are folk who think that I'm mad enough to wish this on anyone, much less myself.

I'm not. This is /not/ my idea of fun. I watch bossman go home each night, shoulders held high to be strong for everyone else, and carry us on them. I watch what happens to him, day by day, as the depravities of the world keep wearing away at his armour. And I know that even though I /could/ do this, I don't /want/ to. I have passion, and drive, and love. I don't, however, have those strong shoulders to bear the weight of my loved ones or those that wish me ill.

Don't ever think that owning a business is just making the books balance. Don't ever think that it's just about finding good staff. Or that it's about having a good concept. All those things mean nothing if you're not strong, tenacious, and just a little crazy.

And I may be crazy, tenacious, or strong. But not at the same time.

That's why I've got my business partner/boss. Because we treat each other as equals. He places as much weight on my own opinion as he does his own. Bossman is just my affectionate nickname for him. I know we're equals, but I know that it gets his goat when I call him my boss, or call myself his assistant.

I'm rambling. It's been a long week. And it promises to be a long and painful audit tomorrow.

That's why I have my friend.

Organic /can/ be accessible.

Our friend Max at Living Maxwell has made an entry on his blog about a dinner for two (at home) for less than $15. He even posted a picture of the receipt from the store, so that he can show that he wasn't making idle boasts, and that he really did manage that feat for that price. A similar meal in a restaurant would have easily ran to $15 per person.

That being said, I think that his receipt highlights something important: organic food is no longer for just the elite and wealthy. The prices for some of the things he bought are comparable to the conventional versions, and in New York City, there are a bunch of different places that are happy to sell them to you at those prices. Furthermore, I'm noticing that even at the regular grocery store that's near my apartment in Washington Heights has organic food in it, priced similarly to what I'd pay further downtown.

Mind you, if you didn't have the money for the tomatoes and the walnuts, that meal would still have been excellent with some beans of your liking, or some tofu. It would have certainly been delicious with just the veggies and the quinoa, but I think Max wanted something a little more elaborate and varied.

In fact, were you to make the sauerkraut yourself at home (which is fairly easy to do), you could bring down the cost even further! But look at the price of his avocados, and the Kalamata olives. Both those items are priced at roughly the same as conventional versions. Same with the quinoa. For the record, that small amount of quinoa cooks up to a whole lot of food. It seems pricey when you cost it per pound, but when you get it home, you only need a very little bit to make lots of food.

There's this quote that the lovely Colleen Patrick Godreau says all the time: "Don't do nothing because you can't do everything." If you can't afford to get all the food that you purchase as organic, do the best you can with your budget and time constraints, and get what you can. If you can't cook at home every night, then do so once a week, and expand from there! It doesn't need to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Eating healthy and supporting organic foods can be workable, if you're willing to be creative, like Max has, with a simple shopping trip, and a few spices from home. It takes a bit of planning, but it's well worth the effort.

Thanks for the blog post, Max!

Plain

There's times (rare though they be) when I want a particular vegetable with nothing on it but a bit of salt, and possibly some olive oil. I don't want any spices, herbs, or complex flavours. Sometimes, I just want the pleasure of eating that vegetable as it is, with no adornments.

It was a couple of weeks back, but I recall how pretty it looked. Bossman was hungry, and I had cooked up a pumpkin for something else. I scooped out the pumpkin from the shell, and put it in a bowl, with a bit of salt. Then, I added some steamed kale, and a bit of steamed red cabbage. The colours looked so vibrant and vivid in the bowl. I tossed the kale with a bit of sesame oil and salt, and left the other veg just plain.

Of course, he ate every bite, and enjoyed it.

It's funny how those things work out. I'm surrounded by really amazing food all the time. Whether it be at the restaurant or at home, everything I eat is fairly complex with regards to its preparation and spicing. There's multiple layers of flavour and spice that go into every dish. This goes double for the Indian food that I tend to make, which is inspired (though not constrained) by South India, which tends to layer on the spices. You generally start with hot fat, whole spices, pop the spices in the fat, then add aromatics, then add powdered spices and any chiles you have, and then add your food, and herbs of your choosing when everything is done cooking. It's layers of intricate flavours, all combined with skill and grace. And I'd say that 99 days of 100, I'm quite happy to settle in with a plate of intricately spiced things.

However, some nights, when I get home, I want plain steamed veggies, or a bit raw veggies with a touch of lemon juice and salt. Sometimes I crave plain boiled potatoes with just a hint of salt. No fat of any kind, but just the plain potatoes. An onion sandwich. A tomato, fresh from the market, with the smell of the sun on its skin. A ripe, juicy Macintosh apple (it's my favourite type). Some daikon, that's been lightly steamed with a bit of ginger and soy sauce. Broccoli, steamed in the microwave for about five minutes, with a grinding of black pepper. Cucumber, with a bare hint of rock salt.

OK, so I'm a bit of salt fiend, but you get my point, right? The next time you get something home, try it plain, without any adornments, and then see what works with it. Sometimes, just having it neat is quite pleasurable.

Be who you are.

This story brought me to tears. Not just of the sadness of a little boy whose own parent is being a bully to him, but for the big brother who stands up for his little brother.

I hope that were I in the same position, I'd do the same thing. I know for a fact that my little sister certainly would. I remember my mom getting annoyed phone calls from her school bus driver when she was in elementary school. Her concern was not that it was her fight or not; it was more so that justice be served. She would stand up for the person who she felt was in the right whether or not it was anything to do with her.

I'm fairly certain that I would. I've been the recipient of such bullying behaviour in the past, and I know what it feels like to be tormented by someone much bigger than me, and with so much more power than I have. It's not a comfortable place to be in.

I understand that parenting is the hardest job in the world. I don't deny it. However, there comes a point when good people cannot stand silently by while injustice continues. If a kid has certain tendencies, no amount of your disapproval is going to make them more "manly" or "lady-like". All that's going to happen is that your child will drift further and further away from you, to the point where you aren't an important part of their lives, and you lose your child.

I can tell you unequivocally that the folk who were nasty to me when I was growing up, with demands that I "act more manly" have lost any shred of respect that I had for them, and my regard for them is nonexistent. As an adult, I've grown to realise that those people are petty, insecure, small-minded jerks, who do not deserve my regard.

And that's what you're setting yourself up for when you bully a child into fitting into an ill-suited mould: you're making yourself become unimportant in that person's development. Cry "sissy" long enough, and you will eventually be ignored.

I give major kudos to the big brother in the story for standing in between the bullying father and his sensitive little brother. May all of us have kind, and loving people like that in our lives!

In my dreams...Add some extra greatness!

A Vegan Restaurant

Eat Drink Montclair wrote: "How about we add some extra greatness to Montclair? I have heard rumors of a vegetarian or vegan restaurant that used to be in Montclair, but then it had to move to Parsippany for lack of patronage. I think that day has come to pass. The vegetarian community here is pretty well sized. Just find a spot smack dab in the middle of our 10+ yoga studios and you’re golden. In my dreams, Sacred Chow will open their second spot here in Montclair, as they are my favorite place in the city. I’m still dreaming about that Brownie Sundae with fudge and sprinkles from the other night.

If you can make ________, you can just as easily make ________.

I was sitting next to a gentleman, while flying from La Guardia to Midway in Chicago, who professed an inability to cook. He said that it baffled him how people could make all kinds of interesting things, and all he could ever do was make a pizza. I asked him, "You mean the kind that comes frozen, right?" with a wink. He admitted to using the premade ingredients, but made put everything together on his own. I said, "You do realise that the leap from pizza to casserole is a very short one, right?"

It was like a lightbulb had turned on!

The thing is that we sometimes underestimate our own abilities, because we never saw how what we already know can be reconfigured into new things. In future, I will endeavour to try to relate the recipes I write to things that most people should be familiar with. "If you can make pasta, you can make quinoa." And then, "If you can make a salad, you can make a pilaf." And finally, "If you can microwave a baked potato, you can steam veggies very easily."

If I didn't have that conversation, I wouldn't have thought of phrasing my recipes in such a way, so that they are indeed more accessible. So, let me make those recipes for you, so that you see what I mean.

If You Can Make Pasta, Make Quinoa

2 cups of quinoa, rinsed well, and drained

12 cups of water

A good bit of salt

In a large stock pot, add the water, and enough salt that the water tastes like sea water. Quinoa is often thought of as bland, because it isn't salted enough. Don't worry though. We're going to rinse off the quinoa once it's cooked. While the water comes to a boil, wash the quinoa several times in plenty of cold water, to remove the surface stuff that's not good to eat. Drain the washed quinoa well.

When the water is rolling and boiling, drop in the quinoa, and let it cook for 12 minutes. If you have a crappy stove, as I have had to work with on many occasions, you may need as much as 20 minutes Essentially, you want the quinoa to be cooked through, and go from a tiny little seed that's completely opaque to one that is translucent and where you can see the little swirly thing inside of it. You don't want any white dots in the middle of the thing. The white dot means it's still undercooked.

When it's done, drain off the liquid, and rinse it under cold running water to stop the cooking and get rid of the excess surface starch.

... You Can Steam Veggies

Take 1 pound of vegetables of your choice. Prep them however you like. If this is one of those store bought packs of fresh veggies, I won't tell anyone. In a casserole dish, put in about 1 inch of water. Add the prepped veggies. Cover with some kind of cover, and microwave on high for 5 minutes. They'll be done to perfection.

... You Can Make a Pilaf

Making a salad is essentially a process of taking a bunch of ingredients, combining them with a bit of fat, some herbs and spices, and tossing them together. A pilaf is more or less the same thing, only involving spices rather than just herbs.

1 portion of the cooked quinoa

2 TB oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 TB curry powder, garam masala, or your favourite herb or spice blend

1 handful of nuts

1 portion of steamed veggies

Salt and black pepper to taste

In a small pot, sautee the garlic in the oil over medium heat, and add the spices, nuts, and salt . Cook until the spices are fragrant and lovely. It should take about three to five minutes. Pour the spices and nuts to the cooked quinoa and the steamed veggies. Add pepper to taste, and toss through to combine all the ingredients together. Adjust seasoning to your taste, and serve hot.

---

The point that I'm trying to get across is that if you break down more complex recipes into smaller, more familiar steps, it starts to gel in your mind, and become way easier to work with.