The Post Punk Kitchen Journal

Goodbye LiveJournal!

2007-10-01T18:38:37Z

It's been over 3 years I think, but the time has come for the PPK journal to move on to WordPress. I'm sure you understand the reasons, I don't need to spell it out for you. I'm going to keep my LJ up and do one of those feed things, but comments will be disabled here and all the fun will be happening at my new WordPress blog. Update your bookmarks and rss feeds and all that jazz because I'm sure you don't want to miss a goddam thing I say.

Thanks to everyone who I've met here and became real and virtual friends with! I leave you with a telling fortune.

Other people's vegan cookbooks (OPVC)

2007-09-27T23:09:50Z

Herbivore is publishing two cookbooks that I'm really excited about by two talented cooks that I really like. First up is Yellow Rose Recipes by Joanna Vaught, who I've had the pleasure to meet a couple of times in Portland as well as spend years with on the internet. She does yummy American cuisine, with (what I think of as) a Southwestern flair. Maybe I just think that because she's from Texas.

She has some recipes on her site up so go test them out!

Next up is Lauren Ulm (lolo to you) of veganyumyum, who always astounds the entire internet with her I-wish-I-could-reach-into-the-computer-and-grab-that photography and tutorials. I'm actually going to write the foreword for that baby whether or not she wants me to.

So this is turning out to be quite a year for vegan cooking. Let the turncoats like Mollie Katzen and Peter Berley dismiss vegetarianism and promote their fictitious happy meat and animals that want to die for us. We don't need 'em.

PS We actually do need them. We need everyone. But they've been especially annoying in the press lately.

Veganomicon sample recipes and stuff

2007-09-27T04:12:37Z

Thanks for all the well wishes. I feel a bit better, and my mom said just to rest and not leave the house today. So I was able to update the website a bit and put up a page for Veganomicon that includes a few recipes you can sample. And because everyone was so sweet even after I called you a cheapskate, I put up the Chickpea Noodle Soup recipe, too.

Please ignore the stupid Emeril ads for chicken stock that google ads keeps filtering in. I am getting rid of those this week because they obviously don't understand veganism. Instead support the Wildwood ads, they are vegan owned and operated and their soygurt clobbers.

Chickpea noodle soup for the vegan's soul

2007-09-26T02:51:01Z

I've been sick. And I also broke my toe. But this soup changes everything, at least for the moment. It's in Veganomicon so you'll have to get the recipe that way you cheapskates.

Gluten Free Buckwheat Pancakes

2007-09-22T20:47:53Z

Buckwheat has a wonderful sweet, earth flavor and aroma that makes everything smell so home-y. And it's completely gluten free, which is confusing, since the word "wheat" is in its title. I'd been toying around with a gluten free pancake recipe for awhile and nothing really sang to me, but this morning I struck gold with these babies. They're hearty pancakes for sure, but they're also light and fluffy. I think the main difference in texture between these and white flour pancakes is that they're a bit grainier and less flexible. But who cares if they're less flexible because you're not gonna' bend them, you're gonna' eat them.

The recipe has quite a few ingredients that you probably don't have laying around the house unless you're a compulsive grocery shopper (like me) or follow a gluten free diet, so if you like, you can replace the quinoa and corn flour with whole wheat pastry flour (or regular flour) and leave out the tapioca flour and flax seeds. You may need to thin the batter with a bit of water in that case. The recipe is below.

Gluten Free Buckwheat Pancakes
Makes 8 five inch pancakes

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup corn flour (NOT cornmeal, corn flour is lighter)
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (or flax meal)
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (cornstarch or arrowroot would be okay, too)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, mix together all flours, flax seeds, tapioca, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Create a well in the center and add the remaining ingredients. Use a fork to mix well for about a minute. Let the batter rest, and preheat a large, non-stick or cast iron pan over medium-high heat.

When pan is hot, spray with a thin layer of cooking spray and use an ice cream scooper to pour batter and form pancakes. I did two at a time, but do as many as you can fit. The pancake should start to form little air bubbles, but not as much as "normal" pancakes do, so don't worry. Cook for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, then flip and cook for 2 minutes more. Keep warm on a plate covered with tin foil until ready to serve.

Serve with Earth Balance, maple syrup and fresh fruit.

Happy pot pie season!

2007-09-13T04:34:58Z

This is my favorite way to construct the edges of a pie crust. It's easy, you don't have to trim anything and it looks rustic yet professional. Alls you do is press the crusts together, roll the edges inward, then take a knife and firmly score the roll at an angle, all around. Try it. It's better looking than pressing with a fork and easier to pull off than pinching.

This particular pot pie has homemade seitan plus the usual suspects; peas, carrots, shallots. I used the seitan simmering broth to make the gravy, so nothing was wasted. Except for, like, my entire afternoon.

BBG Chile Fest, Sunday Sept. 30th

2007-09-10T17:04:47Z

Terry and I will be doing a food demo at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Chile Fiesta on Sunday Sept 30th. We'll be doing Jewish-Latin Fusion; yuca latkes with chocolate chile mole and apple salsa. Plus, we'll have mexican hot chocolate mini cupcakes to share. We're on from 4:30 to 5:15. Every year I've been there there's been a vegan chile and barn dancing under a tent. Sold?

Image stolen from hoveringdog

Pattrice Jones speeches

2007-09-07T16:01:53Z

Pattrice Jones, author of Aftershock and founder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary, has posted a number of talks by her and others from the AR conferences over the years. So instead of searching for 80s glam metal videos on youtube today, why not give these a listen? Pattrice is not only insightful and informative about animal and human liberation, she's also funny and engaging.

The Veganomicon Unveiling

2007-09-04T23:42:50Z

2 years in the making, Veganomicon has finally gone to print! It's all incredibly surreal, and probably will stay that way until I have the actual book in my hands. It almost did swallow our souls, so it is aptly named.

Some fun facts:
1) It is hardcover and although you can't tell from the photo, the cover has a shiny/matte texture that will look very fancy shmancy.

2) There are 32 color photos inside, some of which you can see here.

3) There are around 250 recipes, plus lots of variations on recipes. There is also a whole section on basics; roasting, grilling, sauteeing, steaming. These aren't exactly recipes, more like guidelines.

4) The Chickpea Cutlets will rock your socks.

5) It's currently available for pre-order on Amazon and Powells and it will be shipped in November.

6) There are user-friendly icons, so that with the flick of an eyeball muscle you'll be able to determine if a recipe is 45 minutes or under, gluten-free, soy-free, supermarket friendly and/or low-fat.

We hope it lives up to its name as the "ultimate" vegan cookbook! We really tried to give you some new and exciting things to cook, without using too many esoteric ingredients. And along with our dedicated team of testers we tested our collective butts off. We hope that you all have as much fun reading it and cooking from it as we did writing it, only minus all the pain, suffering and third degree burns that we endured.

Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk Zine

2007-08-30T19:14:24Z

Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk Zine: Simple Recipes For Complicated Vegans is available again, so if you missed it the first time around, seize the moment and get it. For a mere 2.50 the tempeh wings that everyone is raving about can be yours!

Seattle in an hour and a half

2007-08-27T16:03:05Z

I've been gone for most of the summer. I'm sure you missed me. The purpose of my trip was to attend Vegan: The Gathering, a gathering (duh) organized by the PPK message boards. So I will bore you with the details of that in the following days, but right now I will just bore you with the details of my too brief pit stop in Seattle.

Last time I was there I was just a poor gutter punk, sleeping in parks and on stranger's floors, getting my boyfriend out of jail for shoplifting cigarettes at Safeway, and what have you. That was 14 years ago, but still, I liked it there. It seemed to me as east coast as a west coast city could possibly be, from the way the actual city looked - bricks, big urban parks - to the way the way the people were - they walked fast, talked fast (or at least faster than people from Oooooooregoooooon), and wore black.

I would love to spend more time there, but we really only had time for a drive by veganing. So we stopped at Wayward Cafe for brunch. Wayward is a collectively-run restaurant that serves vegan home cooking. I loved it so much in there that they could have served me a cold block of tofu and I would have been happy; bright orange walls, flyers everywhere, stuffed panda bears - if someone made a play about a collective vegan cafe the set would look just like Wayward cafe. And they were playing the Smiths, so I was in heaven.

Luckily, the food was good, too! I had fried tempeh, scrambled tofu, hummus and veggies with a side of biscuits and gravy. The biscuits were more cakey than I'm used to, but still wonderful, and even if anything wasn't wonderful the rich, luscious gravy would make up for it. And they aren't stingy with the nutritional yeast, they even trust you enough to leave out shakers so you can sprinkle it on all by yourself. Seward Cafe in Minneapolis does that, too. No place in Brooklyn would ever do that, but places like this aren't really a possibility in Brooklyn these days because Brooklyn just wants people to come here, spend all their parent's money and run back home to the midwest once their dreams are crushed and all of the bodegas have been turned into French restaurants.

Our next stop was, of course, Mighty-O Donuts.

My heart turned into a ball of mush when I saw the place, it was like a real donut place. Like, this is what the vegan revolution will look like. Like, you could take your grandma here and not have to apologize for anything. And the donuts reminded me of my grandma, too. Old fashioned cake donuts, the kind that I longed for even in my pregan days. Not sickly sweet, not sticky and deliriously fluffy, but still light and "toothsome." We got a dozen and ate them over the course of the next few days for the long ride home through Canada. And thank god we did because if I didn't have a vegan donut while driving through Saskatchewan I might have dirven of a cliff, if there were any cliffs. But there weren't, only A&W drive-thrus. I think my favorite, if someone held a gun to my head and made me choose, was a chocolate donut with cinnamon sugar.

More pics here, if you so desire.

VeggieAwards, you and me

2007-07-25T16:13:40Z

Please vote for me in the VeggieAwards for favorite cookbook author! Because if I don't win I will cry as if I just watched a double feature of Life Is Beautiful and Beaches while simultaneously reading Flowers For Algernon. The Post Punk KItchen is also up for best website, but I don't expect to win that since I haven't updated the site since, like, February.

Also, if you vote you might win prizes. Who doesn't love prizes?

Fedex and the conspiracy to silence veganism

2007-07-16T16:40:10Z

There have been studies that show butterflies more attracted to paper butterflies that are bigger and more colorful than real butterflies, and I figured that's what was happening with my FedEx guy. He would approach the door of my building, get enraptured with a shinier buzzer than my own, ring that one, walk away in an endorphin riddled daze, forgetting to even leave a tag on my door.

But on Saturday, the day that a proofread manuscript of Veganomicon was scheduled to arrive, I knew something far more sinister was afoot. I sat here all day, tracking the package with space age technology. Running downstairs every 2 minutes just to make sure. Only to be disappointed by a 3pm update informing me that I wasn't even home. My first thought was that I was actually long dead, a ghost caught in limbo, foolishly awaiting the arrival of a package that would never come.

But then it occurred to me - FedEx hates veganism.

A quick google search confirmed my hunch. A boolean* string of "fedex veganism" turned up a mere 446,000 hits. Meanwhile, "fedex meat"... an earth shattering 1,090,000.

I immediately bitch voiced the FedEx lady and was forced to take my earthly trappings all the way to the macabre industrial park where FedEx houses their demonic minions, each keeping close eye over our packages, caressing them with their talons, grotesque mouths agape and spilling acidic drool over their surfaces. Few are allowed in and even fewer are allowed out. But it was a chance I was willing to take.

Long story short, I brought a photo ID, signed on the dotted line, picked up the package, littered in their parking lot out of spite and now I have the manuscript and can send back my edits! Note: the unicorns will not be included on the final cover.

*I don't actually know what "boolean" means.

Manuscript plus toe

Fizzle guards the Veganomicon, nay! Veganism!

It's like I'm studying for the bar

Make it happen Bloomington!

2007-07-04T18:42:07Z

This post was left on the PPK message boards.

Theres something new in Bloomington, it's called the Blooming-Vegan Brunch!

It is basically a party outside every Sunday serving all vegan food. The location is not important and will preferably be different every time. While it is nice outside still, it will be outdoors. In the winter, who knows.

Live music will be present. It will be non-profit. It will be fun. We want ideas and creative people, this will hopefully become something bigger than what it sounds like right now. The possibilities are endless and theres no way for us to limit what will happen. So anything you want to make happen will likely happen, as long as you make it happen.... know what I mean?

I'm looking for anyone that wants to be involved. There are tons of ways to contribute including cooking, making decisions, pulling strings and as previously mentioned, making shiitake happen.

Email us at BloomingVeganBrunch@gmail.com with interests or questions!

Spanks,
The Art-Official Crew

Help Food Fight Grocery get a new door

2007-06-19T17:59:32Z

Some jerks smashed the glass in their front door yesterday. It wasn't me! I was in Brooklyn!

Why not go buy a couple of cookbooks? Doesn't the Rabbit Food cookbook look good?

Or perhaps a totebag?

Dinner, music and maaaybe revolution

2007-06-18T21:53:52Z

I suck. I should have posted this weeks ago but I have the weight of the world on my shoulders or at least the weight of the Veganomicon manuscript, and hot damn that forker is heavy.

This Thursday June 21st 7 pm at Vox Pop we're going to have dinner and the soothing punk rock of Eric Petersen. Yeah, Cortelyou Road is the new Ludlow Street. Next thing we know there's gonna be a vegan restaurant in Sheepshead Bay, that's how we'll know that everything is over and it really is time to move to Queens.

I'm not sure what dinner will be yet, perhaps a homemade Thai Curry? There will also be Dog Fish Head beer on tap!

Vegan Culinary Activism in 10 Yummy Steps

2007-06-08T16:43:56Z

A little article I wrote for Satya's final issue.

Vegan food is too inconvenient. It just doesn’t taste good. How many times have you heard something along those lines? It seems too many conversations about animal liberation end with those deal-breakers. Now imagine a world where we didn’t have to deal with all that, where going vegan is welcoming, fun and, most importantly, delicious. Today it’s easy enough to look around and see that America is a much more vegan-friendly place than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Supermarkets are stocked with vegan burgers, tofu, tempeh and other protein-rich foods. Cafés offer soymilk, tofu cream cheese for your morning bagel and the occasional vegan muffin. Maybe even your meatball lovin’ grandma enjoys vegan ice cream.

The thing is, just seeing the word vegan—in the supermarket, at bake sales and cafés—is doing more than we know to promote veganism. People are often turned off by images of downed cows and debeaked chickens, and, of course, they should be. But while most people know in their hearts harming animals is wrong, their reaction more often than not is to turn away rather than to turn vegan. Presenting the vegan lifestyle in a positive light makes thinking about it easier. The more readily available vegan food is, the more the word vegan is out there and associated with something positive and yummy, the easier the transition will be. That is where culinary activism comes into play!

Every time I hear animal rights activists engaging in heated debate, I want to shout, “Shut the hell up and go invent a good tasting soy cheese!” Because it’s true, without one we are doomed. Of course, we can’t all invent a good tasting soy cheese (but can someone? Please?), so I humbly offer 10 steps even the most activist-phobic among us can use to help create a vegan world. While these things may seem obvious, maybe even insignificant in light of what animals are going through every day, look at it as a chipping away at our meat and dairy based culture.

Also, dealing with issues of animal abuse can take a toll on a person’s psyche, make us cynical, depressed and, worst of all, make us lose hope. It’s important that we keep our spirits up, and sometimes seeing the words “Vegan Muffin!” in a bakery’s display case can feel like reading a newspaper headline declaring “Bush Impeached!”

To that end, here are 10 yummy ways to do your part in creating the vegan world we all want to live in.

Get vegan products into your corner store or supermarket
You don’t wanna waltz into a store you’ve never been in armed with AR literature and demand soymilk. Remember, they have security alarms under the counter. It’s simply not enough to ask for vegan items, you have to get specific. Write down the names of the products you want—better yet, bring in empty boxes of the products for the shop keeper. Small stores like to order from only two or three distributors so their supplier may not carry the brand you prefer. For that reason, asking for products from larger companies ups the odds for you. Also, if you are asking a store where you are not a regular customer, make sure you buy something so it doesn’t seem you are a door-to-door salesman.

Larger supermarkets are a little trickier since the manager makes the buying decisions. Usually, if you ask to speak with the manager they will make the time for you. Again, ask for specific items. It’s helpful to point out that lots of people have food allergies and will purchase dairy-free and egg-free things if only because of that.

Get cafés to carry vegan items
I admit it, I get jealous when I see people walking to the train in the morning with their muffin of choice and coffee. Of course we can bake our own but there’s a certain feeling of normalcy when you can walk into a café and snag a baked good.

If the café does their baking on the premises, bring in a sure-fire recipe. The least socially awkward way to proceed is to first request a vegan muffin. Then, depending on how it goes, tell them you will return with a recipe. This way you don’t come off as a crazy-carrying-around-muffin-recipe-girl. Make sure to test the recipe beforehand. Also, pick something simple that doesn’t call for egg replacer or flax seeds. When you return with the recipe, bring a sample of the muffin. Show them you mean business.

If the café doesn’t do their baking on the premises find a wholesale vegan bakery in your area. More and more are popping up all the time so do some research; ask around on internet message boards. Bakeries often deliver up to an hour away so maybe there’s one you aren’t aware of. Once you find the bakery, call and see if they will deliver to your target café. If they will, the next step is to give the café the contact info for the bakery and vice versa. Make vegan magic happen!

If you can’t find a vegan bakery, find any bakery and ask if they would consider producing a vegan muffin. Again, harness the power of the all-mighty food allergies!

Bring vegan goods to a bake sale
Any bake sale, not just one specifically geared toward animal issues. Sometimes we are wary of marking our baked goods as vegan, thinking people won’t want to try them. But try making your sign really pretty, as if “vegan” were a desirable selling point. Write it in bright colors, surround it with hearts—pimp your vegan goods! Remember, as long as your cookie looks good people will purchase it. If you choose not to disclose the veganitude of your items in writing, then at the point of sale tell them as an aside, “Oh and the great thing about this is that it’s vegan!” No more shall we mumble “vegan” under our breath, say it loud and proud!

Write to companies and get them to produce more vegan goods
Get lots of people to write, call and send e-mails. You can write something like, “Dear so and so, I really used to enjoy your crackers back when I suckled at the teat of death, but now that I am vegan I won’t eat them. Can you please change your murderous ways?” (Only leave out the part about suckling at the teat of death and the part about them being murderers.)

Get your school or work cafeteria to serve vegan options
A petition would work really well here. Make sure your petition takes into consideration how healthy vegan foods are. Lots of people have had success with getting their cafeterias to carry vegan items, especially in colleges where many people are on the four-year meal plan. PETA has a wonderful guide to veganizing your college cafeteria.

Make your friends and family vegan-friendly
Bring vegan dishes to holiday gatherings—any social gathering, really. Just get vegan food out there to the masses starting with the ones closest to you.

As gifts, buy them vegan cookbooks to go along with something they “really want” (no, it doesn’t have to be Vegan With A Vengeance, but that isn’t a bad choice!). Or take them out to a great vegan restaurant. Cook them a yummy vegan meal. Prepare dishes familiar to them: soups, chilies and curries. But here’s a suggestion: don’t break out the nutritional yeast on the first date.

Yes, it would be great if you could make everyone vegan but the next best thing is to make them vegan-friendly. You never know when they will be met by the anti-vegan—that guy who wears the People for Eating Tasty Animals beer hat. Having people who aren’t vegan but are in your corner helps in our defense.

For people you are really close to and that will love you no matter what, replace some of their non-vegan things with vegan ones. Store Vegenaise in their refrigerator door, push the half and half to the back with that ancient jar of apricot preserves and put the Silk Coffee Creamer front and center. Hopefully they will try these things once they are in the fridge, and if they don’t, well, you’ve voted vegan with your wallet and that’s okay, too.

Bring cookies to the office
We all know the one cubicle everyone gravitates to, the one whose inhabitant always has a tissue, handiwipes or that ubiquitous bowl of candy on her desk. Well, guess what? That person is now you. Bring in vegan cookies and candies a few times a week. Your co-workers will love you for it and might even be willing to listen to the reasons why you are vegan. As for the handiwipes and tissues, well, those don’t hurt either.

Offer to write a food column for your local paper
Put that GED to good use and sharpen up your writing skills. Call your local newspaper and ask if they have any need for a recipe column. A good pitch is to say that it will be a column about local foods, offering recipes that are seasonal, healthy and will feature your area’s best produce. Sneak the word vegan in there when you get a chance, but if your ’hood isn’t ready for it, don’t be pushy. Just get it out there.

Start a vegan food blog
The Blogger’s Choice awards are a great example of how effective a good food blog can be. Readers nominate and vote for their favorite blogs, and last year, among the hundreds in the running, Vegan Lunch Box won as Favorite Food Blog. No, not favorite vegan food blog, but favorite food blog overall. Is that not progress? At the time of this writing, the top three blogs in the food category are all vegan ones. It doesn’t take much to get started, just a decent digital camera and an internet connection. (I prefer wordpress.com, but lots of people use blogger.com.) A few examples of wonderful blogs are veganyumyum.com, letsgetsconed.com.blogspot.com and blog.fatfreevegan.com. If you don’t cook but would still like to do a blog, you can photograph and review food from restaurants, like my good friends do at veganfriendly.com.

Cook!!!
Don’t just cook but cook! First learn the basics—cook with every vegetable you can get your hands on. Learn how ingredients act, experiment with different methods—grilling, sautéing, broiling. Watch cooking shows (if you can stomach seeing all that meat), read cooking magazines and cookbooks, and cook cook cook! Even if you think you are the worst cook in the world, keep at it, you’re bound to get better. Even if you are lazy, even if you are busy—vegan culture needs you to cook. The more you cook the more you will be connected to your food. Cooking like a madwoman is actually what made me vegan and what keeps me vegan. Nourish yourself, love your food, share your food and maybe the world will follow. Who knows, you might be the one to invent that soy cheese that actually tastes good…

A vegan cooking show? In Brooklyn?

2007-05-28T20:13:36Z

No, I mean, a whole nother vegan cooking show in Brooklyn! Learn how to fight zombies and make ice cream! (Hint: You need a cast iron pan for one and 2 tin cans for the other.) If you can't see the video below, click the comments and you'll be able to see it.

From Vegan Hedonism.

Video from the Secret Dinner!

2007-05-26T02:56:26Z

I look like a Jewish grandmother, but whatevers.

The good, the bad and the gummy

2007-05-24T19:00:51Z

My feet feel like two blocks of pressed tofu but all the things considered I think that the NY Magazine event was a success. I'll start with the bad - even though I listed the good first. 1) The event started late and even though the kitchen was prepared to serve everything, we served about an hour later than we were supposed to. A lot of the food came out cold and the matzoh balls got gummy. And cold. 2) I think that some tables got screwed and had courses skipped or got less food because there were more people at their tables. We actually had extra food sitting downstairs for tables that got skimped out on but no one ever got them!

So because of the late start time I was kind of stressed out. My mom came downstairs to the kitchen to tell us that everyone was happy and enjoying themselves and the food, but she's my mom! She isn't gonna throw a cold tempura mushroom at me. And then my publisher came down and said the same. Chance of him throwing a cold tempura mushroom at me: only about 4% more likely. I read the reviews on Brooklyn Vegan and some were pretty bad, but studies have shown anonymous people on the internet to be 113% meaner than the general populace. When I combine the data from those factors I can easily grade everything as a solid B.

It seems like everyone had fun, and that is probably the most important part. Man Man was more insane than a drum circle in Tompkins Square Park in 1992. But they sounded awesome and there wasn't a random guy playing "the bottle." (ie: tapping his empty 40 with a stick) They just may be my favorite newish band lately, besides the Prids.

I also saw some guy fall of his chair. If that isn't a measure of success then I don't know what is.

There are some pics up at NYC nosh, like this one:

Shiitake Tempura

Meat Eating Parents Starve Baby!

2007-05-21T15:26:34Z

Enough with this vegan parent baby killers thing already. I probably get 10 angry emails a day about it, all of which I ignore along with the emails about canine teeth, lack of protein and instructions directly from god to eat meat. But this op ed piece by Nina Planck really bugged me. I wrote a response to it elsewhere, but I'm posting it here for good measure.

For starters, Nina Planck, is not a doctor or even a nutritionist. She is a business woman whose business is selling meat and dairy to people, including her book about why meat and dairy are good for you.

There are plant sources for DHA yet she chooses to omit that fact. She does say that plant sources for essential amino acids are "inferior in quantity and quality" but offers no evidence of this. Probably because there is actually no evidence of this. Humans can synthesize enough DHA from eating plant sources rich in Omega-3s, like flax seeds. So if the mom is eating her omega-3s and breast feeding, DHA levels should be sufficient and free of mercury and other toxins that a fish-heavy diet would surely contain. However, I'm not a doctor, so here is an article about vegan pregnancy and infancy by someone who is.

She says that this has happened three times in four years, but I can think of only one other case where the parents actually were actually feeding their child cod fish liver oil and so this seems to directly contradict Nina's assertions that fish oils would have saved the baby. It also contradicts the very notion that this baby was fed a vegan diet.

Also, how many babies starved at the hand of omnivorous parents in the past 4 years? I bet that Nina doesn't have those statistics at hand. "Meat Eating Parents Starve Baby" doesn't make a very good headline. Also, how many vegan babies did not die of starvation in the past 4 years? Again, that would probably not make a very sexy headline either.

Finally, I just want to add some anecdotal evidence into the mix. The vegan children that I know have all been vibrant, happy and healthy. If anything good can come of this recent tragedy it will be that some responsible reporter somewhere in the world will decide to do a story about them.

Who are these elusive happy, healthy vegan mom and baby?

No Death, No Dinner

2007-05-14T16:44:49Z

I bit the "ethical omnivorism" bullet. As you probably have noticed, I tend not to talk politics, instead opting to make yummy vegan food and force feed it to people. But jewcy.com asked me to debate a yoga guy about ethical meat eating and I said yes. What followed was a few days long email debate, which you can read here. Only the first 2 emails are there so far, the rest will be up this week. Jewcy introduced me as a utilitarian, which I'm not really, but whatever.

Vegan Secret Dinner Wed. 5/23 - don't miss it for reals!

2007-05-08T17:16:57Z

New York magazine asked me to host this vegan dinner party on May 23rd, and gave me the free range to come up with a creative menu that fit with their theme. I can't give you all the details but think Asian Bat Mitvah!

We are having our event at a yet to be disclosed location, and if you buy a ticket, you'll be getting an e-mail from me 24 hours in advance with the location, the menu, and some fun places to hit up before the dinner party. Before this event gets too public, I wanted to give you, my loyal friends, cooking partners, and readers, the chance to buy a ticket! Its $35 bucks, and you get a multi-course meal, open bar, dance floor and the delicious tunes of Man Man!

Buy your tickets today between 3 and 6 to make sure you get a seat!

Here are the details again:

Who: Post Punk Kitchen
What: A dinner party
When: May 23rd, 2007 from 7:30 to 11:00
Where: We're not telling
Why: Because you want yummy food
How: Go to nymag.com/nyxny to buy a ticket for $35

The charitable partmer for this event is NY Cares.

May 23rd - vegan dinner night, save the date!

2007-05-07T17:44:41Z

I can't tell you the exact details yet but this is going to be awesome. NY Magazine and NY Cares are hosting a vegan dinner with awesome music and an open bar and a dance floor. Tickets will be 30 bucks. I wish I could tell you all the details now because it's just insanely ridiculously awesome, like the vegan bat mitvah I never had. But I can't tell you the details. Yet. But save the date! And save up 30 dollars!

http://nymag.com/nyxny/kitchen.php

This link will take you to the event page, if you try to buy tickets right now it will say it's sold out, but it's not. I'll give more details sometime this week. Seriously - save the date like crazy.

Brunch again - this Sunday 5/6 at Vox Pop in Brooklyn

2007-05-04T02:15:40Z

The last brunch went so well that we're making it a regular thing. So show up this Sunday May 6th between 11am and 1pm to get your vegan waffle on.

The menu is the same - Breakfast burrito with scrambled tofu, homefries, tempeh bacon, salsa fresca (that's fresh salsa to you, bub) and guacamole

or

Pumpkin waffles with apple butter, vanilla soy yogurt and the freshest fruit that Brooklyn has to offer

We're raising the price to 8 bucks, but it's a benefit for Eastern Shore Chicken Sanctuary, so I won't be lining my own pockets with your hard earned cash.

I hope to see you there!

Vox Pop website for directions and what have you.

Happy brunchers from last time