Nature appreciation: La Mesa Eco Park

A bunch of coworkers and I participated in a company-sponsored tree planting activity in La Mesa Eco Park in Quezon City last February 7. La Mesa Eco Park houses a 700ha reservoir and 2000ha forest. The reservoir is Metro Manila's sole source of potable water and sadly the forest is the last remaining one of its size in Metro Manila. It's always nice to get away from the city (even though the park was in Quezon City) and see an actual forest. I stumbled across some interesting flora and fauna...

A mother duck and her little ones. A little googling and wikipedia-ing tells me that she is a Muscovy duck, aka Cairina moschata. She's not as regal looking as her Google lookalikes though (OMG someone actually cooked a muscovy duck and uploaded a photo in the image search! Beware). I'm sure she's had quite a hard knock's life.... It isn't easy being a duck in the Philippines.














Her babies are the cutest ever. She's one protective mama -- every time I'd try to get close to photograph her and the ducklings she would flap her wings and quack at me. She loved to nestle in the grass and observe her kids run around excitedly.
A kind human offers her and her kids some breakfast.


















The fruit of the samak tree. People from Laoag City, Ilocos Norte commonly ferment the fruit, leaves, and bark with sugar cane to make vinegar and basi. What your eyes don't see...




































Yellow orchid. I think it is a Odontocidium. From this website: Odontocidium Tiger Crow 'Golden Girl' is an intergeneric hybrid consisting of Odontoglossum and Oncidium. It grows in a wide range of temperature conditions from warm to cool. The flower spikes emerge often twice per year and are colored in yellow and burgundy. The species behind the cross include Oncidium tigerinum, Onc. leucochilum, Odm. crispum, Odm. pescatorei, Odm. hallii, Odm. harryanum, and a host of odontoglossum hybrids.

I think it's so interesting to find out the scientific names of plants and animals, and learn more about them.

NB / disclaimer:
The La Mesa website says it has a "butterfly trail and hatchery" -- I didn't get a chance to visit this place. Oh and La Mesa has horseback riding = not vegan! It has a pond and boating lagoon -- I honestly have no idea if it's manmade or not and whether it has natural fish (versus fish bought from some Cartimar vendor). And, I have no idea if the duck was endemic to that area (or again, bought from Cartimar as a baby in a paper bag).

Braving a cold winter's night with soup + classy impromptu salad dressing #2

Last Christmas day my family and I trekked over to Lake Tahoe for our first time to experience snow (!!!!). My dad rented a cabin "that could comfortably fit 10-12 people" but in reality could've fit 20. Seriously, there are residential cabins out there that could house 20 people. Anyway all ten of us plus my three cousins made the trip at around 4pm on December 25 and arrived there at around 9:30. It was EXTREMELY cold but we enjoyed every moment of it, especially because we got to snowboard!

What we did NOT enjoy was our first night. So arriving at the driveway we had to shovel the snow off the garage door. Then we entered a 49 degree F / 9 degree C (if I can recall correctly) house, tired, hungry, cold, and cranky. The heater was broken. We literally could see the fog coming out of our mouths when we breathed. We had to wear our winter clothes inside the house.

My mom cooking in her parka. Nice.

While some of the boys tried to figure out the heater issue my mom and I decided to cook some dinner. We didn't have much supplies... To be frank I wasn't in the mood to open a can of beans and chop onions. Everyone was cold and the only thing that could've helped us was soup. We didn't have any soup supplies except for...

Excuse the ugliness and the extremely not vegan taxedermied snake in the background.
The snake came with the house.

Behold the V8 vegetable juice. We bought this because my American cousins don't eat enough vegetables (sorry guys, potatoes aren't really vegetables) and American restaurants don't serve 'em. During my stay in the US I drank this everyday so I could get a dose of veggies and vitamins. Anyway we ended up making fake soup: V8 juice gently simmered with Italian spices, chili pepper, salt and pepper. I think I may have added powdered garlic (too cold to peel and chop fresh). All the spices were found in the kitchen cupboard.















Too simple to make, it shouldn't even be blog-worthy. But it had a cold-winter's-night story so I thought I'd share. Moral of the story: always make sure you have V8 juice on you in case you're stranded in a freezing cabin.

We brought some Boy Bawang (extremely garlicky deep fried corn kernels) from home which made an excellent crouton-like topping. Yum with the ever dependable white rice.

*******************

The next night after a full day of snowboarding I had to make salad dressing. We were in the middle of winter and all my mom got for veggies were salad greens. With no dressing.

Something good always comes out of a salad dressing dilemma, I always say.

This time the only acid on hand was bottled orange juice and the sweetener, strawberry jam. Orange juice isn't as tart as kalamansi juice so we had to add a good dose of salt. It was a good "gourmet-tasting" dressing.

Strawberry Citrus Salad Dressing
1/4 cup orange juice
1 heaping tablespoon of strawberry jam
1-2 cloves of garlic, grated
1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil, to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Add the juice, jam, and garlic in a small bowl and whisk together -- try to break up the clumps of strawberry with the whisk. Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking the whole mixture together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If still too sweet, add more oil or splashes of water.

Me making the dressing with Pop, my oil pourer. I had to keep on wearing a beanie to hide my Medusa hat hair.

Hmmm I think this is my last Christmas entry! Finally. Now I can get on with more current stuff.

Bro #6 enjoying the sun and cool air on our way back to the Bay area.

I got mentioned in Appetite Magazine! + a letter opposing animal exploitation

Wow. I still get giddy thinking about it.

I must've mentioned in my past posts that a local food magazine was to feature my baking company in its pages (come to think of it, I did mention the magazine here). Well, it finally happened. I think I'm the only vegan baking company around (?)... and to be featured in a mainstream food magazine?! To think the Philippines is VERY meat-centric. And dairy- and egg-centric. And not so vegan friendly. We Filipino vegans are a dying breed (I know no vegans aside from bro #5 and the guys at PETA).

Anyway here it is.

PETA Asia Pacific found out about me back in October and I've been on a baking whirlwind ever since. They've ordered pretty much everything off my menu. They've been so supportive and promised to feature me in the veg section in Appetite Magazine called Herbivore. I kind of forgot all about the magazine-feature thing... Several months have passed, I'd check out the magazine every month with no mention, then last Friday I remembered to check it out after doing some grocery shopping during my lunch break... and lo and behold!

This is a big step for veganism in the Philippines you guys! Well I'm no second coming of Jesus... But it's good to let the public know that vegans need not give up cupcakes in order to boycott the dairy and egg industries, no?

I know there are a lot of vegetarians and veg-friendly places in northern Metro Manila... so it's also nice that southern Metro Manila is represented =)

Oh yeah, I may be under "Restaurant Review" but I don't have a restaurant. I churn out baked goods from my oven at home and either deliver or have the things picked up...

Appetite Magazine, February 2009 issue

Herbivore section, page 84

close up of the article, squee!

*****************************

In other news, bro #6 called to my attention that his (all boys) school is having a Father's Day / sports fair (what, no mother's day?) this Saturday. Typically in school sports events small pet animals such as rabbits and chicks are sold like candy. I think you can get a chick for P50 (US$1)? I remember buying a rabbit, duckling and chick once when I was a kid and didn't know any better. Anyway, I didn't want to be that kind of person who's all talky about animal cruelty this and animal cruelty that, without taking any action. So I convinced bros #5 and #6 (bro #4 who also studies in the same school apparently can't grasp the gravity of the situation here) to draft a letter to their school director. They really didn't want to do it... and the rest of my family who are ho-hum about the whole issue didn't help either. But what the hell man, what's the point of taking a stance on an issue when you can't take action when given the chance?

Here's the letter. The fair is this coming Saturday and it's a long shot if the school bans the sale of animals this Saturday. But, hopefully the letter sheds some light on the issue and will stop the sale of animals in the next (2010) sports fair.

I can't wait til bro #5 is faced with the dilemma of dissection (he's in his sophomore year = biology). He claims he's not required to dissect, but bro #4 went through it. While my parents don't give a damn about this issue I sure as hell do. Both brothers don't want to create a ruckus lest they get suspended... I hate that students are encouraged to stand up for some (read: religious) things but turn a blind eye on other things.

Dear Mr. R,

We have noticed that in the past, animals such as chicks, ducklings, rabbits, hamsters, fish, and snakes were sold in Father's Day purely for our entertainment and use. We would not want this to happen in this coming Father's Day and in all future Father's Day events. As men of integrity we realized that we need to stand up and speak out for those who have no voice in this situation.

Chicks and our other animal friends are born in this world purely to be sold and treated like non-sentient objects by us humans. They are ripped from their mothers and packaged in crates, boxes, and plastic bags with no thought to their well being nor their feelings. They are sold to children who look at them and treat them as novelties. These children have no idea how to take care of such creatures and without their knowledge, may not provide proper attention to them. The animals usually die in a short amount of time, unloved, forgotten, and often mistreated.

God has made us stewards of the earth and of the animals, and we believe that this does not give us the right to exploit either of them. We believe that Father's Day can still be full of fun without this form of animal cruelty. We'd hate to think that those who buy these animals may be in conflict with section 6 of the Philippine Animal Welfare Act, which states that "it shall be unlawful for any person to torture any animal, to neglect to provide adequate care, sustenance or shelter, or maltreat any animal" because they bought them in the spur of the moment in Father's Day.

We know Father's Day is a few days away but we hope this letter will be able to do some good. We do not want S to be a school that is known to support animal cruelty and animal exploitation. We hope that in the future, S bans the sale of animals and entertainment provided by them in its premises.

Thank you.

Tofurky Noche Buena & New Year (plus a recipe)

Christmas 2008 was my first time:

1. To celebrate it as a vegan

2. To celebrate it out of the country

3. To have a Tofurky roast

4. To not cook all day for Noche Buena / Christmas Eve dinner

Normally I despise all store-made, pre-made, catered, pick-up-from-the-restaurant food, generally for special occasions and particularly for Christmas. I belong to the school of thought that homemade food that usually takes all day to make is real food. This is why I'm not a big fan of fake meat. We made an exception to the all-day-cooking rule for Christmas because we were celebrating it in my tita's (aunt's) home abroad. Funny, we spent both Christmas Eve and New Yearís Eve days doing laundry at a Laundromat in Alamo (10 in the family + 1 week of no laundry = 5 loads in the washer); while my brothers waited at the Laundromat my parents and I went to the grocery for Christmas Eve / New Year's Eve dinner.

So anyway, I finally made peace with the fact that I couldn't pull an all-day cooking thing for Noche Buena so I bought a Tofurky veggie roast. This was super easy to prepare; aside from what came in the box I had to prep potatoes, carrots, olive oil, soy sauce, and some sage. It only took one hour in the oven and I had to use the toaster oven because the real oven was being used to cook the dead bird (why oh why must we celebrate an occasion with a cruel death... why?). The tofu-seitan roast had a wild rice and mushroom stuffing and gravy. Good dinner, although I would've preferred something more homemade, like a roasted vegetable dish with tofu and a homemade pie.

2007 was my first Christmas as a vegetarian and the complete opposite of 2008 -- I spent ALL AFTERNOON AND NIGHT cooking and baking. I even remember what I made -- a baked lentil loaf with roast garlic gravy. I was the only veg person then so I had to cook my own food, all by myself. It was pretty sad because there were a ton of people fixing the dead bird / cow while I was going crazy making gravy -- roasted garlic and veggie broth included -- FROM SCRATCH, ALONE. It was about 100 degrees F / +30 degrees C in the kitchen; everyone was in pretty Christmas clothes while I was in a sweaty shirt. So, I guess I really shouldn't complain about the speediness of the Tofurky (by the way the loaf turned out weird but the gravy was a hit to the omnis)...

New Year's Eve dinner was something more semi-homemade, I'm happy to report. Brother #5 and I discovered Tofurky sausages during the Christmas break and made a stir fry out of it. We used Tofurky Polish Kielbasa but the Italian works well too (we actually prefer Italian over the Kielbasa, but we only had Kielbasa on hand then). For the vegans with no access to Tofurky you could use your canned fake sausages (arghh I despise that stuff, it has no taste!!) and just add more spices. I've included the 2 options in the recipe below although I have to confess I haven't tried it with the spices yet.

New Year Tofurky sausage and zucchini stirfry

Ingredients:

splash olive oil or vegetable oil

1 package of 4 Tofurky sausages, any flavor (Italian or Polish Kielbasa)

2 white onions, sliced into half-rings

5 egg tomatoes, sliced into chunks

2 zucchinis

salt and pepper to taste

chili pepper (optional)

To prepare the sausages: slice the sausages in half lengthwise, then slice it into thirds crosswise at a diagonal.

To prepare the zucchini: slice the zucchinis in quarters lengthwise, then slice it crosswise so it's about the same size as the sausage chunks.

Heat the oil in a skillet at medium heat. Fry the sausages until they get a nice crust on both sides, then remove the sausages from the pan.

Heat more oil in the skillet. Add in the onions -- when the onions have turned transparent / caramelized, add in the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes have melted into the onions -- add salt and pepper and chili to taste. Place the mixture in a dish and put the fried sausages on top.

Heat more oil and sautee the zucchini slices. Add salt and pepper to taste and be sure to scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Lay the zucchini on top of the sausages, and serve.

Variation:

If you live in a non-Tofurky world, you can use canned or frozen vegan sausages (about 540g). The ones I find here in Manila have zero taste and need to be spiced heavily.

Slice the sausages according to the directions above. Place the sausage chunks in a bowl and drizzle in some oil, salt and pepper.

Add in either:

2 tsp paprika, chili pepper (optional), 3/4 tsp ground mustard seeds, and 1 tsp crushed fennel seeds

or

2 tsp paprika, chili pepper (optional), 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/8 tsp allspice

or

2 tsp paprika, chili pepper (optional), 1-2 tbsp crushed fennel seeds, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/8 tsp ground all spice

Toss the sausage-spice mixture together. Usually the canned veggie sausages here are Vienna Sausage-like in texture, so you might want to coat them in cornstarch before frying to get them nice and crisp. Then, fry as directed above.

NB: spice mixtures inspired from Fat Free Vegan's Veggie Pepperoni, Seitan O' Greatness, and Julie Hasson's Spicy Italian Sausages

Photos of the Tofurky roast courtesy of brother #4 aka Jose Gonzalez.

Bleeding Cupcakes

My shortest post ever!

Bleeding red velvet cupcakes -- what's a better way to celebrate a vampire themed murder mystery party? The red velvet cupcakes are crimson blood hued, with white vanilla buttercream leaking with freshly spewed cherry blood. Cupcakes are filled with the cherry blood as well. Inspiration taken from here. 

The nightmare before Christmas, aka pre-Christmas baking porn

Remember when I was on an insane baking rampage the few weeks before Christmas? Well I was reviewing my food porn photos and unearthed these... and remembered I hadn't blogged about 'em yet. 

Finally got myself a real cake pedestal / turner instead of the overturned-salad bowl-and-plate I used to rely on. Frosting cakes on the turner was a dream! They turned out more professional looking and the cake wasn't in danger of falling off the bowl. Quite difficult to frost cupcakes on this though 'cause you can't stop the thing from swiveling, so for cupcakes I still recommend the overturned bowl.

A 2-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and shaved dark chocolate on top. I was able to source some vegan dark chocolate at the baking supply store and am very happy with how chic my cakes turn out to be.

A 2-layer vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream and dark chocolate curls. A favorite of PETA.

True blue brownies, unadulterated with the usual banana yumminess. While chocolate purists may prefer their brownies 100% chocolate, I prefer mine with banana.

A successful experiment! Mango cashew cream cake -- a 2-layer mango cashew cream cake with vanilla buttercream, topped with fresh slices of mango. Thank God this country has the best tasting mangoes in the whole world (I'm not kidding) and that they're available year round.

Box of Fall-inspired cupcakes: chai latte cupcakes with spiced buttercream and carrot cake cupcakes with walnut-studded cinnamon buttercream.

I really love this close up photograph of my chai latte mini cupcakes.

Co-vegan brother #5 finally asked me to help him bake some cupcakes to bribe his teachers and classmates with. He lives with a vegan baker and never asks her to bake anything for him. I made him peanut butter cupcakes and a lemon cake for his birthday and I don't think he even touched them! Baaah, boys and their non-existent sweet tooth. This guy reverse-psychology'd me into helping him make vanilla and chocolate cupcakes in the midst of my baking pandemonium! First he asks me if I could help him, then I say I'm up to my ears in cupcakes, then he says "Nevermind," guilting me into fulfilling my job as ate (older sister) and kitchen activist:

Quite frankly bro #5 is a pretty terrific froster. These designs are all his own. I heard that his classmates and teachers told him they looked bakery-bought.

Close up of vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, dusted with cocoa powder and topped with shaved dark chocolate.

Chocolate cupcakes with pecan-studded chocolate buttercream and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

How can omnivores think that vegans live a poor dessert-less existence? Seriously?

So among the stuff I baked I also had to make lemon cupcakes -- I ended up with 2 extra mini lemons which I've juxtaposed with my messy kitchen.

What your eyes don't see is:

I literally used all the dishes in my kitchen...

How the Nintendo DS led to an Herbivore Lunch and to our car being towed (almost)

Might as well get this post over and done with, I know it's long overdue. I believe it was after-Christmas-ish when I FINALLY got to visit a completely vegan restaurant during my vacation in SF. 

The decision to eat in this restaurant started from the Nintendo DS. So brother #5 got a Nintendo DS for Christmas thanks to his ninong (godfather) who is also our cousin. This cousin of ours has two Nintendo DS's of his own and so does cousin #2 (so 4 DS's all in all). We spent a few days in Lake Tahoe after Christmas and a lot of time was spent in front of the fireplace, boys DS-ing their asses off (apparently this futuristic device has some Bluetooth thingy that allows them to play against each other). Then brother #3 got some moolah for Christmas thanks to his ninang (godmother) and got some other handheld game playing device (the name escapes me of the moment). 

Brother #2 got pretty much brainwashed into getting his own DS and with trusty Linda Blair our GPS, we go on a wild goose chase for 2-3 days hunting down a black DS (it HAS to be black because all of bro #2's gadgets are black) with the BEST price -- we did not leave a Best Buy, Costco, and Target store unturned. From San Ramon to Dublin to Walnut Creek and finally to San Francisco we find the perfectly black Nintendo DS of bro #2's dreams (he also bought a crap game in the midst of all his greed). I think I footed the $4 Bay Bridge toll so I DEMANDED that we eat at a vegan restaurant (so I'm cheap, sue me). Also it was about 3pm and we were starving.

Of course being the well prepared person that I am I made it a point to list down every vegan restaurant in the Bay area, in hopes of getting to eat in one of them at least once. My self-proclaimed carnivore and vegetable hater sister wasnít with us during the Search for the Black DS so it was the perfect time to get 2 carnivores (bros #2 and #4) and 2 vegans (me and bro #5) to eat veg for lunch.

So thanks to Linda Blair we parked our car at Herbivore on Divisadero (between Fell and Hayes, I think?) at 3:30pm for a late lunch. Bro #5 and I were soooo excited to finally eat in our first vegan restaurant ever! Actually it was a first for bro #2 and bro #4 as well and good thing they were game. As a vegan let me just say how happy I was to be able to eat anything off the menu, as in anything. Nothing made with the suffering of animals. Nothing contained animals or animal by-products. No one died for us to enjoy our meal. It was such an adventure and a relief.

So first off we ordered a vegetable sampler for our appetizer -- a combination of char-broiled vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes) with 3 sauces: pesto, tahini, and lemon-garlic. The dish was served with sliced baguette. We enjoyed this very much.

Next up we got 4 different entrees which we all shared together (the family that eats together, stays together). 

Bro #4 got the best entree: penne with lemon herb cream sauce with char-broiled portabella mushrooms, zucchini, artichoke hearts, and spinach served with crostini. OMG even the carnivores couldn't believe it was vegan. The sauce was seriously creamy and delicious. I suspect it contained ground cashews or almonds; I don't think silken tofu could get that creamy and satisfying. I tried inquiring with our server what the sauce was made of but she was too busy to pay attention to us...

Bro #2 got a lentil loaf with mashed potatoes topped with mushroom gravy and sauteed greens on the side, with crostini and a tomato sesame salsa. He liked this a lot and the lentil loaf was deliciously rustic and comforting. The greens tasted very much like our local alugbati -- very earthy.

Bro #4 got his comfort food: Pad Thai. Rice noodles sauteed with tofu, red bell peppers, togue (bean sprouts), green onions, wansoy (cilantro), and crushed peanuts with peanut sauce. This was nothing new to us, we heart Thai food so I'm not going to drool over this much. It was good, although I suspect you can get better tasting Pad Thai at a traditional Thai restaurant (that reminds me, I should blog about Som's, a Thai carinderia-style restaurant located near my workplace -- dirt cheap Thai food with a killer veggie pad thai).

I ordered a moussaka -- layers of eggplant, potatoes, soy protein (eek! Fake meat!) tofu ricotta, mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, spinach and marinara sauce with crostini on the side. I used to heart all things tomatoes (at one point I even thought I should've been born in Italy instead of the Philippines) but since discovering different kinds of sauces (peanut sauce, hummus, roasted red pepper-cannelini, sunflower seed pesto, curry, you get the picture) my love wavered a bit... My brothers liked the moussaka, I found it okay. Also I'm not a big potato fan (excess starch!) -- maybe if there were no potatoes I would've enjoyed this dish more.

With my food I ordered a green juice, which sounds disgusting but was actually refreshing and yummy. It was a cocktail made of celery, apple, spinach, parsley, mint, ginger, and lime. The green-ness was so bright! I really should be drinking more green juice...

Anyway, on to dessert! We were absolutely stuffed but I really wanted to try some dessert that was not cake or cupcakes. Bro #4 got a coconut chocolate chip cookie which was alright tasting. We shared a blueberry pie with Maggie Mudd vanilla soy ice cream -- what a hit! I love pie -- I feel like it's "healthier" than regular cake and cupcakes because of the fruit component, nevermind that they are all full of sugar. We can't get blueberries in the Philippines so we really enjoyed this pie. Oh I really should experiment with pies in my kitchen...

Oh yeah, so our car was about to be towed while we were inhaling our food. We parked right in front of the restaurant and thought we were so lucky to have found the perfect spot. I put some quarters in the meter to last us 30 minutes. By 20 minutes I added a few more quarters to buy us extra time (the food hadn't arrived). So while wolfing down the moussaka I checked the time on my phone, which showed that I had 4 minutes left til the meter ran out! So I popped out to refill the meter when I found that the front of the car was attached to a tow truck. The tow guy was towing this other car a few cars in front of mine. I thought the tow guys were waiting for the meter to run out so they could tow it so I immediately put more quarters in the meter. Something didn't feel right though. I waited for the tow guy to go back to my car and I asked why he was towing it -- apparently cars were banned to park on the street between 4 and 6pm and it was 4:15 (we sat down at our table at 3:15 -- Herbivore took so long!). I played the sorry-tourist-card and had bro #2 park the car around the block.

So, all's well that ends well. Bro #2 got his Nintendo DS (he also got another Handheld Game Playing Device for bro #6 -- ah, the joys of consumerism), bro #5 and I got our Herbivore lunch, and we didn't get towed. Overall, a good day.

organic soy latte with agave syrup and bro #2 happily playing with his DS

HERBIVORE THE EARTHLY GRILL

531 Divisadero, SF

415.885.7133

http://www.herbivorerestaurant.com/index.html --> check for other locations!