Travel, Veganism Travel, Veganism

Main Street Vegan Academy, part 4

P1090677Sometimes you find good advice where you least expect it (in this case, the ladies' restroom at South Station.)Saturday morning I took the bus down to New York for a Main Street Vegan Academy reunion dinner at the marvelous Peacefood Café (at Union Square). It was so lovely to reconnect with my classmates and meet a few new friends from the earlier sessions (one of whom, J.L., has a brand-new book out called Vegan For Her!)I've gotten to the point that when I'm in a totally vegan-friendly place like New York, a Chipotle burrito isn't going to cut it when I could patronize a cruelty-free business instead. I hadn't looked up a vegan option near the bus stop beforehand, but I decided I would find one without having to try too hard (I think most of you know I don't own a smartphone).And what do you know? A block and a half north of the Megabus stop (7th Avenue at 29th Street), there is a Loving Hut.P1090681The girl behind the counter actually remembered my name, and used it each time she asked if I needed anything and if I was enjoying my food. A seitan sandwich with chipotle mayo and a side salad with carrot ginger dressing were so satisfying after a four-hour bus ride!

P1090698More deliciousness at Peacefood that evening: gingerade, chickpea fries, and a Daiya cheeseburger with sprouts and plenty of pickle and mustard on focaccia.peacefood dinnerPart of the Main Street Vegan crew. Oh how I adore these people!!!P1090700Afterward we went to Chloe's for some fruity soft serve. Tali always orders the large.

P1090724For brunch the next day I went to Sacred Chow (on Sullivan between West 3rd and Bleecker), which Tali had recommended. Stellar service--I love it when waitstaff don't try to make me feel weird for eating solo and taking up a whole table--and the fresh market greens salad hit the spot (after two faux meat sandwiches the day before, I was really hankering for some roughage).This was my first experience of jicama (that's the white bits), and I wasn't thrilled with it—it doesn't seem to have a taste at all!—but the raw cashew kefir dressing and "almond and sunflower nutmeats" were really delicious.Much more to say about my night in New York, but I'll save it for later this week.

Read More
Travel, Veganism Travel, Veganism

Main Street Vegan Academy, part 3

(All Main Street Vegan Academy entries.)Friday morning Victoria offered several very useful lectures on public speaking and the nuts-and-bolts aspects of working with clients. She's so knowledgeable practical and wise. If you ever get the chance to hear her speak (or better yet, attend the vegan academy yourself), you should JUMP on it. And read Main Street Vegan, of course! She presents everything you need to know in such an easy and loving way; I admit that some of us vegans get REALLY impassioned to the point where we might alienate the "veg curious," but in her books and on her podcast, Victoria's approach is always gentle and friendly.

After Victoria's talks, our classmate Ilana gave us an introduction to Ayurveda, which is an ancient Indian tradition of natural healing. (Ayurvedic practitioners generally use milk and ghee, but some vegans are modifying the tradition--see Talya Lutzker's new book The Vegan Ayurvedic Kitchen. Talya was a guest on Victoria's podcast last month.) I'll write more about Ayurveda in a future post. Then we took the subway downtown to Pure Food and Wine for a languid lunch, and by that I mean three courses over three hours, or close enough to it! (I'd been there earlier in the week with Kate and Sara, remember, and while the company was excellent my burger was a little disappointing. This meal more than made up for it!)  P1090572The Mediterranean salad: arugula, kale, kalamata olives, tomatoes, pumpkin seed macadamia parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette. Awesome.P1090581Brazil nut sea vegetable croquettes with a tartare sauce. If I had to pick my very favorite dish out of all the meals at NYC vegan restaurants I've had, this would be it. It's the sort of thing you really want to recreate at home, but you know you won't be able to! Exquisite. (I also ordered a "swan greens" juice--cucumber, spinach, dandelion, pear, grapefruit, tarragon, spearmint, and yuzu...which I now know to be an East Asian citrus fruit, thanks to Dr. Google.)P1090583I was a bit skeptical when this lemon bar showed up—it looked kind of plasticy—but appearances can be deceiving and all that. Really flavorful—a PUNCH of lemon—and a perfect almond coconut crust.P1090588After lunch we walked to an Indian grocery, where I picked up a bunch of interesting powders and oils Ilana recommended on the fly. (This photo with Ilse, Zachary, and Stephanie.) I haven't had a chance to try any of them yet, but when I do I'll let you know how I find them.

Then it was on to Moo Shoes, which I somehow hadn't visited since 2004. I'm happy to say that vegan footwear has come a LONG way in that time! (By the way, my other favorite place to buy fashionable, quality, breathable shoes is Vegetarian Shoes in the UK.)P1090592Margo gave some love to the Moo Shoes resident kitty.I spent so much time trying on shoes that I missed out on Babycakes (everyone had left by the time I got there, and I didn't feel like eating cupcakes by myself), but I did manage to meet up with my pal Kathy (for whom I used to work back at HarperCollins) for cocktails and some delicious gourmet pizza with Daiya cheese (made of arrowroot and tapioca as opposed to soy, by the by--melts just like dairy cheese) at Pala, which offers a vegan menu. (Sometimes I do wish I still lived in New York...!)

Saturday morning we reconvened at the grocery store around the corner from Victoria's apartment to meet her daughter Adair, who was playing our hypothetical client. I picked up several new pieces of knowledge in the course of the "tour," the most scary of which is that tin cans contain BPA unless otherwise noted on the label. You know how water bottles will say "BPA free"? That's because studies have indicated that BPA is a carcinogen. So you have to look for cans of soup or beans or sauce that specifically say "no BPA." Here's a list of seven brands you can trust on Treehugger.com. (If you do a quick Google search on BPA, you'll find that it's the organizations profiting from it who say it's perfectly safe, and it's not like you can actually trust the FDA, due to the influence of said corporate interests.) Afterward we went back to Victoria's for Fran Costigan's talks on food demos and comparing all the different kinds of vegan sweeteners for use in pastries and desserts (coconut sugar, date sugar, rice syrup, Sucanat...) Her new book, Vegan Chocolate, comes out in November, and the confection on the cover looks every bit as decadent as an ordinary chocolate cake. (But like I said, you enjoy your treats way more when you know they're fair trade and cruelty free...)P1090600After lunch we had a panel discussion with Gary Gibson, Dianne Wenz, and Jaime Karpovich, all MSVA graduates, who offered more practical info on starting a vegan coaching business.     Michael Parrish DuDell gave the next lecture--half was marketing and business-y and the other half presented the case for veganism from an environmental standpoint. Did you know that raising animals for food contributes more to global warming than every mode of transportation in the world combined? It sounds unbelievable, but this is a statistic generated by the U.N. in 2006. No one is making this up; no one would ever want to. You can see why Michael says he initially went vegan for the sake of the environment. That night we went to Blossom for dinner. I've had pretty good meals there in the past, but nothing truly inspired until Friday night: P1090612Seitan Frites Au Poivre with creamy mushroom peppercorn sauce, shoestring fries, and grilled asparagus with horseradish cream. The chocolate mousse pie was awesome too, and I almost collapsed with ecstasy as I sipped the organic mint chip shake Lindsay ordered.

Sunday was our last day. We had lectures from Sharon Nazarian on social media and Rynn Berry on the history of veganism. Professor Berry's talk was absolutely fascinating, and I'll be blogging about his books (Food for the Gods, etc.) in the months ahead. (He even gave me an extremely useful tidbit for my Edinburgh novel! Like I said--collecting the jigsaw pieces...)P1090618A refreshing glass of gingerade and a Mediterranean panini at Peacefood Café on the UWS, where we celebrated our graduation. The chickpea fries (in the background) were INCREDIBLE.

After lunch and a round of goodbye hugs, I went to a wine bar with Ilse and Stephanie to continue our conversation, but I didn't order a glass myself since I was heading out to Park Slope for yoga with our classmate Jean. That was another full circle experience for me, since I used to go to that studio when I lived in Brooklyn nine and ten years ago. (More about this when I blog about my pretty-much-daily practice at Back Bay Yoga.)Thus concludes my MSVA recap, although I do feel I ought to take another post for reflection as opposed to "we did this and this and this." It would be impossible to overstate how much I loved and learned from this program—I'm truly only scratching the surface here!

Read More
Travel, Veganism Travel, Veganism

Full Circle

msva peta

With Tali and Margo on Washington Square East, en route to the PETA talk at the Kimmel Center. Photo by Rain.

* * *

As you may know, at NYU I was an opinion columnist for the Washington Square News. (If you're interested, here's the best thing I ever wrote for that paper.)One time the animal rights group on campus circulated a pamphlet stating that NYU researchers, funded by our tax dollars, were practicing vivisection on rhesus monkeys, supposedly to discover a cure for lazy eye. I was going to link to the definition of "vivisection," but I think I'd better define it for you here:

viv·i·sec·tion  [viv-uh-sek-shuhn]noun1.  the action of cutting into or dissecting a living body.2.  the practice of subjecting living animals to cutting operations, especially in order to advance physiological and pathological knowledge.

I was so shocked and disgusted that I hastily typed up an opinion piece decrying what was going on in our university research labs. It was an absolutely lazy piece of so-called journalism--I did virtually no outside research--and the next day we published a letter from the NYU spokesman (part of whose job it was to take us pesky kids down a peg on a regular basis) that began, "Camille DeAngelis parroted the contents of a nasty pamphlet..."Funny that he should use the word "parrot," right? Because parrots repeat what's actually been said; they don't obfuscate, as humans are wont to do. The NYU spokesman didn't deny anything about the vivisection itself--he only attempted to rationalize it by saying people would be helped by the "work" they were doing, and that the animal rights activists were just getting in the way of medical progress. As if making use of our first-amendment right was "nasty," and drilling holes into monkeys' heads WASN'T.Yeah, I think the monkeys would have a thing or two to say about that. But we don't speak their language.

Does "progress" necessitate the torture of innocent, sentient beings? Scientists like T. Colin Campbell believe this to a certain extent--for without his lab rats we wouldn't have as much scientific evidence that a plant-based diet is THE way to fend off cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and there's no denying that animal testing has saved many human lives through vaccines and other critical medicines. Our technology, however, has advanced to the point where animal testing (for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and so forth) is actually the least effective way of doing things. And yet many companies are still dropping chemicals in rabbits' eyes before sticking them back in their cages.I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a party to unnecessary suffering in any form. I wish I had actually joined People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals back at NYU, and gotten involved. I thought I was doing enough by being a vegetarian, but I know better now.

P1090565Ingrid Newkirk's lecture included photographs and video footage of animals doing extraordinary things...and animals being treated with extraordinary cruelty.As our vegan academy group walked down to Washington Square for the PETA lecture that Thursday night, I thought back on that ill-executed yet thoroughly righteous editorial I'd once written. I also remembered a brief conversation outside the NYU Main Building I'd had with a really nice girl named Lauren, who was active in the PETA group on campus and was thrilled that I'd written about the vivisection issue. I was sipping a hot chocolate, and I offered her some. She asked if there was milk in it, I said yes, and she politely declined.Why didn't I get it?I wasn't ready, I guess. But I really wish I could have been. 

(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)

Read More
Travel, Veganism Travel, Veganism

Main Street Vegan Academy, part 2

We kicked off Main Street Vegan Academy Tuesday evening (June 18th) with a delicious chickpea curry, DF Mavens ice cream ("the best dairy-free ice cream in the world" is no exaggeration), and a presentation by Dr. Robert Ostfeld of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Dr. Ostfeld did a great job of explaining the mechanics of heart disease in layman's terms. ("Grummus" is something you do NOT want inside your arteries, but it's such a fun word to say!) Dr. Ostfeld and nutritionist Lauren Graf offer a plant-based cardiac wellness program for their patients, many of whom are living on limited incomes. These are awesome people doing awesome work, and I know we all felt very lucky to learn more about it.Wednesday was our most lecture-filled day. First up was Marty Davey, La Diva Dietitian, who offered us a basic course in vegan nutrition, followed by special guidelines for pregnancy and children, athletes, and the elderly. Marty is very wry and witty, making the material way more engaging than it might have been. (She likes to tell teenage boys that if they stick with the standard American diet, "by the time you're 35, Mr. Happy may not be so happy!")After lunch, Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House gave an impassioned and very articulate talk on animal rights and animal law (Mariann is a professor of animal rights law at Columbia and a couple other NYC schools. I really loved it when she said, "What was I thinking before the light bulb went off?", because that's how I've felt every single day since I went vegan.) If you're interested in exploring the philosophy around animal rights, their website is a great place to start. (See also Main Street Vegan Academy Will Change Your Life.)After their talk, Jasmin and Mariann were guests on Victoria's radio show, with our classmate Zachary co-hosting. We got to be the live studio audience.

After the radio show, Joshua Katcher of Brave Gentleman and The Discerning Brute gave an equally powerful presentation on animal cruelty in the fashion industry: fur, leather, wool, silk, and feathers. For a quick intro (no, shearing sheep isn't the same as a haircut!), check out the FAQ on his blog."We must not allow the beauty of an object to blind us to the horror of its origins."Joshua designs vegan business suits, which are manufactured in Italy. Fashion may seem frivolous on the surface, but the work he, Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgart, Jill Milan, Jaclyn Sharp, and other designers are doing is so, SO important. An estimated one billion animals annually are killed for their skins, and the undercover footage Joshua showed us almost literally made me sick.(You don't want to watch this, but you really should. This particular footage was taken at a fox farm in Illinois.)People like to think if you're going vegan you can only dress in burlap sacks, but there's absolutely no excuse to wear leather or fur when alternatives exist that are ethical, sustainable, and stylish.Wednesday evening, after a delicious avocado quinoa salad at Candle West (I skipped dessert, though I did have a bite of Marcia's cannoli and it was just as tasty as "the real thing"!) I went down to Union Square for some edible and inedible treats.Thursday morning Jennifer Gannett gave us a very practical presentation on "mixed" families (i.e., not everyone in the family wants to go vegan) and transitioning to veganism in general. That'll be really useful for those of us who will be focusing on private coaching.P1090544Thursday lunch: carrot-pecan-coconut salad; mock tuna salad; Aztec salad with black beans, red onion, red pepper, tomato and cilantro; and a creamy dill dip. Words can't express just how much I enjoyed this meal.Thursday afternoon we took a field trip to a cute little raw food store called High Vibe, followed by Sustainable NYC and Vaute Couture. After dinner at Jivamuktea, we headed down to NYU to hear a talk by Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I'll be blogging about Vaute and the PETA lecture over the next couple of days.

(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)

Read More
Books and Creativity, Travel, Veganism Books and Creativity, Travel, Veganism

Treat Yo'self!

Thursday night (of vegan academy week), after a delicious dinner at Candle West with my classmates, I went down to Union Square for dessert and some browsing at one of the world's best bookstores.(That "treat yo'self!" episode of "Parks and Recreation" is the only episode I've actually seen, but I do like to quote it.)P1090535Dairy-free dark chocolate YUM in a pretzel cone at Chloe's Soft Serve Fruit Company.People sometimes have this notion that being vegan means giving up all the fun stuff. Not true at all! I enjoy a treat way more now, because I can feel good about where it came from.P1090540As much as I enjoyed that "soft serve," browsing at the Strand was an even bigger treat. (Here's an example of something awesome I found there on a past visit.)P1090542Delicious books! The Decomposition Notebook was a gift for a friend, but isn't that sort of a treat for myself too?(I'm almost finished with Hardcore Zen, which my friend Mike recommended to me years ago. It's a great book. I'll be blogging about it.)P1090538I don't usually spend much time perusing the clearance books outside the store, although I do like to daydream sometimes that the Strand is still around a hundred years from now, and some NYU student finds one of my books on the dollar cart, reads it and loves it....Is that weird?P1090533(And here is a random window shot of a store called Mantiques Modern. Ha! Love it.)(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)

Read More
Veganism Veganism

Critical Thinking

I mentioned in my first post on Main Street Vegan Academy that I'm learning to think more critically. Here are two examples:

P1090567

Before: Gross. I can't look at that.After: So sticking capers in a cow's corpse is art, eh? Way to obfuscate. Art is CREATION, not murder! I'm taking a photo of this for my first Powerpoint lecture.P1090624Before: Grooooooooss.After: It's at least ninety degrees out, and who knows how long those boxes of beef and chicken have been sitting out on the sidewalk. This is a ridiculous public safety hazard; but then, you could say that of any animal flesh we choose to eat. Powerpoint!

* * *

Today in the dining hall I sat down with my friend Ryan, who was seated across from a middle-aged woman I'd never met before. We introduced ourselves, and Ryan started telling my new acquaintance (his teaching colleague) about my being a vegan. We talked about the health benefits, and Ryan (bless him!) complimented me for expressing myself and my beliefs in a non-judgmental way. I couldn't help noticing that his colleague had tunafish and a few slices of ham on her plate."What I don't like," she said, "is when they try to teach chimpanzees English, or dress dogs up in stupid outfits. As if they didn't have their own wants and needs."I'd only just met her, but I wasn't willing to let this slide. "Can I ask you something? Isn't that also true for what's on your plate--the animals that food used to be?" She bristled, but I went on, making a special effort to express myself in a calm and friendly way. "It's so interesting how we want to be kind to our dogs and cats, but then there are all these other animals we only see as food.""All right," she said as she dropped her cutlery on her half-full plate and got up to leave. "I'm done.""I'm sorry if I've offended you," I said pleasantly. (As I said this I thought of my new friend Stephanie, who says we should never apologize for speaking the truth, but in this case it was a social nicety. It's important to me that people don't feel I'm being an "angry" or "militant" vegan. If I keep my tone and demeanor light and friendly, they can't honestly accuse me of jumping down their throats—which is, of course, thoroughly counterproductive.)"You haven't offended me," she replied as she gathered her things. (Hmmmmm.)As she walked away I said, "Have a good day!" Then Ryan and I had a nice little conversation about moral consistency. And because I'm certainly not perfect either, I invited him to call me out on my own bullshit the next time he detects any (though he already knows this, I'm sure). As Marty Davey (a.k.a. La Diva Dietitian) told us in her lecture for Main Street Vegan Academy last Wednesday, it's a basic sales principle that "he who questions owns the conversation." I asked the question, and now it's up to my new acquaintance to consider it.She might just decide that I'm a jerk, though, and for the first time in my life (thank you, Victoria Moran and company!!!), I'm totally okay with that. But I do hope she'll think about it. It takes courage to examine your own entrenched beliefs, but I believe that each and every one of us is capable of it.

Read More
Travel, Veganism Travel, Veganism

Main Street Vegan Academy, part 1

Where do I even begin? It was that wonderful.Last week was thoroughly life changing. I made lovely new vegan friends and colleagues, learned a TON, gained confidence, and ate some of the most delicious food EVER. I've already noticed that I'm thinking more critically and I'm more sensitive to the issues. I want to speak the truth in a loving and compassionate way, and I feel empowered to do that now.How is this all going to play out in my life and work? More on that soon. I'll do a proper blog post later this week, but here are some highlights in the meantime.P1090545Rain and Margo en route to Sustainable NYC and Vaute Couture. Here are some incredibly happy, healthy, gorgeous people!! Vegan is love, baby.P1090516Thursday lunch, topped with Treeline cashew cheese. D-I-V-I-N-E. Dairy cheese is literally addictive--it contains casomorphin, an opiate (!)--and while this "cheese" is insanely tasty, you can eat all you want and stay healthy!P1090594On Saturday morning we went on a supermarket tour, with Victoria's daughter Adair playing a new client who wants to eat healthier. Whether or not you're vegan (yet!), it's so, so important to read every label before you drop the item in question in your cart. Also very helpful to know which fruits and veggies contain which vitamins and minerals.P1090585More fieldtripping. (We spent much more time in lectures, but apart from one food demonstration I didn't take photos.)P1090551Seitan burrito at Jivamuktea. Thoroughly delicious.

P1090566Thursday night we heard Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, speak at NYU, and she was electrifying. I was so inspired!(Main Street Vegan Academy.)

Read More
Books and Creativity, Travel, Veganism Books and Creativity, Travel, Veganism

Vegan Academy Prelude

(The Heart is a Compass; Victoria Moran's Main Street Vegan Academy.)I'm in New York City this week for Main Street Vegan Academy, which began with a glorious dinner (chickpea and green bean curry, lemon broccoli, lovely fresh salad with shitake mushrooms, raw chocolate cake and non-dairy ice cream) and a very informative lecture by Dr. Robert Ostfeld of Montefiore Medical Center.But before that, I got to have lunch at Pure Food and Wine with my lovely agent and my new editor at St. Martin's! We shared a plate of guacamole and a celebratory bottle of white wine. Such a treat. I also found out that they sold the rights in Italy, so Bones & All will be translated into my ancestral tongue. My grandpa would be proud.P1090515Portabella and hemp seed burger. Sprouted manna bread, caraway kraut, lapsang souchong tea smoked cashew cheese, house made mustard, pickled pink onions. The "cheese" was my favorite part. More filling than it looks!Plenty more MSVA-related posts coming up! I'm already having a ball, and I can't wait to share it all with you.

 

Read More