Tagala Brothers: Vegetarian Voices and Violins

Here, from an episode of Ruffa and Ai, performing So Happy Together. The brothers were raised and homeschooled by musically-inclined parents and have been vegetarian since 1991. They were breastfed and are supporters of the breastfeeding movement, garnering for themselves the Lifetime Achievement Award of Breastfed Princes at the Malacanang Palace, 2009.

Thank you  Nona D. Andaya-Castillo of Vegetarian Philippines, for the link! Vegetarian Philippines advocates vegetarianism and breastfeeding.

Ginisang Munggo

This is a soup I love to serve to omnis. It took me weeks to get the taste to how I like it.

Ingredients:

1 cup munggo

10 cloves of garlic (5 crushed, 5 minced)

5-6 cups water

vegan bouillion cube

4 native tomatoes

1 kilo gluten, sliced into 5mm thick strips

1 bunch malunggay

1 onion, minced

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

calamansi – optional

Directions:

In a covered medium pot, boil water, 5 pieces of crushed garlic, and munggo for 1 hour or until the skin comes off the munggo. Add the vegan bouillon cube.

In another pot, saute minced onion (till it sweats)  then add the minced garlic (till it browns lightly), and then, the tomatoes, in olive oil.

When the tomatoes become tender, add the gluten. Stir fry until the gluten absorbs the flavors of the previous ingredients. Add more olive oil if needed. Set aside until the munggo is ready.

Add the munggo soup to the stir-fry mixture. Allow the soup to boil again.

Add the malunggay leaves.

Serve immediately. Squeeze a bit of calamansi juice, if desired.

Vegan’s Hundred

1) Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.

1. Molasses

2. Cactus

3. Scrambled Tofu

4. Grilled Portobella Caps

5. Horseradish

6. Sweet Potato Biscuits

7. Cornbread

8. Vegan Cole Slaw

9. Carrot/Squash/Sweet Potato Soup

10. Fiddlehead Ferns

11. Roasted Garlic

12. Umeboshi

13. Almond Butter

14. Aloe Vera

15. Fresh Bagels

16. Butternut Squash

17. Truffles/truffle oil

18. Fruit wine made with something other than grapes

19. Wasabi

20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Apple cider

23. Mango

24. Quinoa

25. Papaya

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet

27. Goji Berry

28. Fennel

29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie

30. Radishes

31. Starfruit

32. Sourdough bread

33. Sangria

34. Sauerkraut

35. Acai

36. Blue Foot Mushrooms

37. Vegan Cupcakes

38. Tempeh

39. Falafel

40. Spelt Crust Pizza

41. Oyster Mushrooms

42. Jicama Slaw

43. Edamame

44. Hemp seeds/milk

45. Champagne

46. Persimmon

47. Avocado

48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich

49. Vegetable juice

50. Seitan

51. Prickly pear

52. Almond Milk

53. Concord Grapes

54. Ramps

55. Coconut Water

56. Arugula

57. Vidalia Onion

58. Kale/Collards/Swiss Chard

59. Honeycrisp Apple

60. Taro Root

61. Vegan Smores

62. Grapeseed Oil

63. White Peach

64. Pita bread with hummus

65. Chestnut

66. Guava

67. Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

68. Vegan marshmallows

69. Plantains

70. Mache

71. Beets

72. Pickles

73. Liquid Smoke

74. Meyer Lemon

75. Veggie Paella

76. Vegan Lasagna

77. Kombucha

78. Soy Milk

79. Loose tea

80. Lychee fruit

81. Tempeh Bacon

82. Sprouted Grain Bread

83. Lemon Pepper Tofu

84. Vanilla Bean

85. Watercress

86. Carrots

87. Vegan Pie

88. Edible Flowers – at Sonya’s Garden

89. Corn Chowder

90. Vegan (raw) chocolate

91. Yellow Kiwi

92. White Flesh Grapefruit

93. Harissa

94. Coconut Oil

95. Jackfruit

96. Risotto

97. Spirulina

98. Tangerine

99. Sorbet

100. Fresh Peas

Gulay Girl♥

The Best Sisig Ever

This is the best sisig ever, hands down.

It approximates the texture and taste of real sisig better than all of the restos that have tried. And Look Ma,  no clogged arteries!  (Please let me know if you’ve discovered a sisig better than this!)

Too bad I don’t live in Quezon City. The people in Greens would see a lot more of me if I did!

Greens

92 Scout Castor Street Barangay Laging Handa , Quezon City

02 376 2781 ‎

Cash only

Calling for Reservations

Gulay Girl: Hi. Can I make a reservation for tonight, please?

Reservation Guy: For what ar?

GG: Huh?

Reservation Guy: For what ar?

GG: Pardon me?

Reservation Guy: For what time, ma’am?

GG: Oh, 7:30.

RG: How many pax?

GG: Four.

RG: OK, that’s four f**ks.

(Oh no!)

The Best Thing About a Delayed Flight

The best thing about a delayed flight especially when you’re travelling Seattle-Manila via Delta Airlines, is when you’re billeted at Hotel Nikko in Narita, Japan, and you get to sample their in-house buffet for free! It is not a 5-star hotel by any means, but the food was impressive. It is authentic Japanese food at its best! This photo doesn’t do their miso soup justice, because it is not the miso soup served there. Hehe. Sorry. This is one of my stock photos. I didn’t bring my camera to the dining room area, and I was super hungry that I didn’t want to go back to the hotel room to grab it.   I am just disappointed that there weren’t any labels for the dishes, because I wanted to research for recipes.

Kitchen Revolution

I tried the cupcakes at  Kitchen Revolution, which makes vegan cupcakes, cakes, cookies and bars!  I’ve since ordered banana bars from them and they were superb!

September 25 is International Hug a Vegetarian Day!

Sign Up to Hug Me Today!

TOSS BP Pasta!

I got inspired by Melissa d’Arabian’s stint at The Next Food Network Star.  She had a helpful tip to add each ingredient “to let the flavors build”.  It was something that stuck when she was learning to make ratatouile  (remember EZPOT?), and she applied this is in their grill challenge with habaneros.  Anyway, I hope my interpretation is right – I’m thinking once the “chemical change” is apparent in one ingredient so that it is more receptive of the last ingredient’s flavor, then it is time to add the next one. I wanted to see if the tip applied to making a pasta using whatever you had in the pantry.  So here it is – I humbly present to you my sundried tomato and basil pasta, which I’ve nicknamed TOSS BP for tomato, olives, sea salt, sundried tomato, basil, pepper/parmesan cheese.

Melissa – you are the tip master!

250 g whole wheat pasta, cooked according to package directions

1 medium firm tomato (get the orange kind), chopped, seeds included

1/2 to 1 cup oil-packed sundried tomato,  coarsely chopped

about 2/3 cup olives (get the ones with pimiento in the middle)

4 cloves of garlic, sliced

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 to 1 cup fresh basil, chopped

vegan “parmesan cheese”

sea salt, to taste (optional)

pepper

1. Saute the garlic in olive oil until lightly browned.

2. Add the fresh tomato. Cook in the oil until it softens and soaks up the flavor of the garlic.

3. Add the olives. Season with some sea salt until you get the desired taste.

4. Add the sun-dried tomato and basil.  (Here, I’m not cooking it too long because 1). the sun dried tomato has it’s own flavor that I don’t want to mess with; 2). I don’t want to overcook the basil so it adds a nice, fresh texture as well as it’s distinct flavor)

5. Season with pepper.

6. Top with vegan parmesan cheese. If using parmesan cheese with sodium, do away with the sea salt.

Buon Appetito!

Slicing Techniques

Melissa d’Arabian talks to a kitchen klutz about slicing techniques. I have to warn you – she cuts a piece of chicken, but everything else is non-meat.  Go Melissa! (She recently became a Seattle-ite. Woohoo!)

http://blog.seattlepi.com/video/bcplayer.asp?bcpid=1543292903&bctid=37938850001