vegansaurus!

Bran new Trader Joe’s product worth losing you shit for!...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:54:00 -0800

Bran new Trader Joe’s product worth losing you shit for! Dark Chocolate Nutty Bits (hehehe) with almonds, pistacios & PUMPKIN SEEDS. Throw in some fleur de sel and BAM! a delicious gluten-free (we’re looking out for your our celiac brothers & sisters! You better have our back when the war starts!) snack.

Now, run, bitches!

Achtung, pescatarians!

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:46:01 -0800

SFist alerts you to the risk of “sport-caught shellfish” from Santa Cruz county carrying a neurotoxin called domoic acid, which causes amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). Of course, the key is that most shellfish people buy in stores or eat in restaurant is commercially caught, and thus “subject to frequent and mandatory testing.”

Domoic acid buildup in shellfish is caused by certain algal blooms. ASP can cause brain damage in humans, and seizures in marine mammals. Sounds awesome.

Vegan corn dogs at SF Green Festival! Worth the insufferable...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:27:00 -0800

Vegan corn dogs at SF Green Festival! Worth the insufferable hippie masses. Do it to it!

Fucking Obama and his compromise bipartisanship bullshit.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:41:00 -0800

Remember when everybody made a big stink about Michelle Obama’s organic vegetable garden? Remember how tons of progressive yuppies thought it was, like, the coolest thing ever? Well, evidently, just because the Obamas don’t want their arugula drenched with hormone-altering chemicals and toxic sludge doesn’t mean that they give a shit about what farmers are allowed to spray on yours.

As Mother Jones (ugh, I know, they’re crazy) reports, Obama has nominated a former high-level lobbyist for the pesticide industry for a key agricultural post. In fact, the nominee hails from the very same organization that launched a series of ridiculous and kind of vicious attacks on Michelle’s little garden. (And the same organization that, under his watch, engaged in secret talks with the EPA to test pesticides on children. I will repeat that: test pesticides on children.

Not like Barack Obama has a stellar record on nominating progressives to key positions dealing with either the environment or food production, but this recent bit of news is especially WTF?!

The lobbyist (oh hey, remember Obama’s campaign promise not to fill key posts with lobbyists?) is expected to be confirmed without any problems. But with a name like “Islam ‘Isi’ Siddiqui,” there’s always a chance that the birthers and Lou Dobbs could unite to run this guy out of Washington. Fingers crossed.

From Ben, who stole it from this girl he has a crush on.

SF Green Festival, meatball awards, the miracle of birth, delicious local tofu, Czech dumplings, urban gardening and more in this week's link-o-rama!GE

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:08:00 -0800

Green Fest is in San Francisco this weekend; let Vegansaurus guide you through it.

Win a copy of 500 Vegan Recipes! Hurry up and do it by Tuesday, Nov. 17!

The clever fuckers at the California Milk Advisory Board will be filming their latest “Happy Cows come from California” commercials in New Zealand. Torture the local cows, but don’t let the state benefit from production fees: such lovely people they are.

Local chefs discover that tofu is not an abomination against haute cuisine. Color us shocked. And hungry for samples!

Another poor review of Eating Animals, from another Gawker associate. Shut up, Joshua David Stein, you are much too pleased with yourself and your criticism.

For the strong-stomached, the birth of an elephant. Miracles: kinda gross! This goes for every human who records the births of their own young as well.

And in New Zealand, a shark gave birth to four live sharklets, thanks to the intervention of another shark? Freaky, gross, amazing.

Oh delicious: a recipe for Czech fruit dumplings! Yes PLEASE.

Filling closets with clothes for yourself is acceptable human behavior; filling a closet with matching clothes for your cat is NOT. I recognize we’re all guilty of anthropomorphism to some degree, but this not OK.

Watch out, sickies: you can pass on the swine flu to your companion animals.

Remember Nicolette Hahn Niman’s ridiculous op-ed renouncing her ranch’s responsibility for carbon emissions? Peter Singer gives her brief, precise what-for.

King of Jerkoffs A. Bourdain says humans are allowed to eat animals because they are “smaller and stupider” than us. Ari Solomon says, intelligence is as intelligence does, bright boy. (Although we should note, Mr. Solomon, that “stupider” is an inflected comparative and most certainly a word.) (Grammarsaurus!)

More meat and more dairy makes Jack an angrier, more hostile and depressed boy; more carbs and less meat and dairy makes him happier and peaceful.

Friend-of-Vegansaurus Graciela has a new blog in which she explores urban gardening in L.A. We are so envious of all her lovely greens!

Check it out, another E. coli outbreak in ground beef!

Kind of pretty, kind of disgusting: your internal organs rendered in produce.

Genetically engineered apples that stay crispy without refrigeration!

Congratulations Ike’s, winner of Peta’s best vegetarian meatballs! Enjoy them in a (vegan) Meatless Mike or a Not-So-Sloppy Ike.

An interview with our hero Deborah Madison, vegetarian chef and cookbook author extraordinaire!

Last year’s fascinating story “Morality bites,” by the Chicago Tribune’s Monica Eng, is included in Best Food Writing 2009.

Publisher’s Weekly selects this year’s best food books; titles include the bizarro Almost Meatless (“almost”? come the hell on), the revolting Lobel’s Meat Bible, and two books Vegansaurus wouldn’t mind unwrapping this holiday season: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, and Salt to Taste: The Key to Confident, Delicious Cooking. Neither is vegan, but both seem extremely useful.

Revolting, slightly terrifying tale of a food writer’s giving in to a murderous impulse and shooting a baboon, and the global fallout.

Ours friends at Veg-Table are looking for writers for their city guides. GET ON IT, YOU WRITERLY PERSON.

Spotted in Morro Bay. Be still, my heart. MY HEART FULL OF FOX...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:10:08 -0800

Spotted in Morro Bay. Be still, my heart. MY HEART FULL OF FOX LOVE.

Thanks, CBS 5 Eye on Blogs!

These are fur-trimmed sunglasses by Fendi. They are $800. You...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:35:00 -0800

These are fur-trimmed sunglasses by Fendi. They are $800. You are paying $800 to look like a Yeti! Might as well grow a beard and gain 600 pounds, asshole!

Please excuse the terrible photo, I’m far too lazy to scan and iPhone can only do so much OH QUIT JUDGING ME COME OVER HERE AND SCAN THEM IN YOUR DAMN SELF. Actually, if anyone has the current Elle (SJP, The Lady of Having a Foot that Looks Like a Face), want to scan it in and send it my way!? Thanks, Maren!!!

Green Festival in SF this weekend!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:10:00 -0800

A lot of you are probably planning on attending because you’re a bunch of g-d liberal hippies. All the info you need is here, but basically, it’s all day Friday (that’s TODAY!), Saturday, and Sunday. It’s at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center and it’s $15 per day but there are various deals for bike riders and seniors (go on, people on wheels!).

There are definitely some great exhibitors like PCRM, VegNews (also a partner! go vegans!), Compassionate Cooks, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and more. There are also some lame exhibitors but I won’t go in to details because I’m not feeling particularly mean today but let’s just say the happy-meat-eating Prius crowd will be there IN FULL EFFECT. Guard your loins! I don’t know why I said that, just love the expression. Also, don’t procreate with those people. Also, I’ve noticed a bizarre amount of organic baby clothing for sale at these events. Probably has to do with the thing above.

Speakers include the usual hippies and visionaries and sometimes-crazy-people-with-a-point. Oh also, A QUEEN. Except not in the traditional sense but this is Green Fest, what’s traditional about it? Hey, guess what, I’m a Hobbit Wizard!

It’s pretty much a good time, LOTS of people giving stuff away, some good vegan food being sold, and good people watching. I’ll be there so if you see me, DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT. I’m hella crazy. Also, say hi! WHAT TO DO!?

Product Review: Eat Pastry Cookie Dough!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:02:00 -0800

Eat Pastry Cookie Dough is the S-H-I-Z (that is slang for something very delicious: e.g., “this shiz is delicious”). I’m not about to be coy or shy about the amount of this cookie dough that I ate. I ate a lot. I ate enough that if you were to lay these (beautifully designed) tubs filled with (g-d amazing) cookie dough side-by-side, that shit would wrap around the earth five times. I ate so much cookie dough that your mama is so fat and she could not eat as much cookie dough as I did. I ate so much cookie dough that you cannot recognize my scent as that of a human, only that of cookie dough. I ate so much cookie dough that YOU GET THE IDEA.

Eat Pastry is a small company that you might remember hearing about on Vegansaurus. They showed up on one of the design blogs Jonas reads because their design is super cute and fucking awesome. (It says adorable little things all over the package, like “made by two chefs who met in pastry school and have been in love ever since” and “let fully cool before you devour (we mean savor)”) So then we posted about them and dreamed of cookie dough but nothing happened. THEN, I was visiting the offices of the Republic of the Best Place on Earth, VegNews, and they freaking had Eat Pastry Cookie Dough!!! We sampled (read: gorged ourselves on it) one day after lunch and an incredible, insatiable crush was born. The kind of crush you can only stop by eating the person/cookie dough. Eat Pastry’s “website” is sadly missing really any content but with a little sleuthing, I was able to contact them and ask for some delicious dough. WELL BITCHES DELICIOUS DOUGH THEY SENT. Five different types, to be exact: Chocolate Chunk (my fave), Chocoholic Chunk (brownie in a tub, my fave), Cinnamon Ginger Spice (Christmas in a tub, my fave), Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip (HOLY CRAP, my fave), and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip (my other fave).

YOU GUYS. This is the kind of stuff that dreams are made. Literally, my dreams are made of little cookie dough-shaped people. You were there last night, Ginger Spice. You too, Chocolate Chunk. Eat it straight out of the tub and you know that your shit can’t get salmonella. OR WORSE. Bake it up and know that you have Perfect Cookies. Like Stepford Wives perfect. I wish I were like them, their lives are so great! (By the way, I’ve only seen the first 30 minutes of that movie.) This is the kind of product that you want to throw a parade for. It’s like Daiya, but for cookie dough. I know that the phrase, “it’s so good you can’t tell it’s vegan!” gets waaaaaay overused but seriously, it is painfully, deliciously true when it comes to Eat Pastry Cookie Dough. YOU CANNOT TELL IT IS ISN’T VEGAN. OR I MEAN IS VEGAN SEE HOW IT IS FUCKING WITH ME.

Anyway, it’s currently available in some Whole Foods in San Diego (for the first time in my life, I am jealous of San Diego OH SNAP) and Mother’s Markets. I am assured that they are expanding their reach to Northern California very soon and so we can all get it on it. SO PLEASE, whenever you’re in Whole Foods here, fill out one of those customer comment cards and ask for Eat Pastry Vegan Cookie Dough! And Basu’s Homestyle! And Daiya! And also, ask at Rainbow too. Let’s do this, vegans. Activism has never been so delicious. Except for that one kind of activism that involves sex workers.

Get your Groupon on!

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:10:00 -0800

Get your Groupon on!:

So what this shiz is, you join and they send out a daily group coupon (GROUPON, GET IT?). If enough people buy in, you get an awesome deal. For example, today in SF, they have one for a place that has VEGAN PIZZA. You buy a $20 gift certificate for $10! SCORE. Never ate there so can’t confirm on the deliciousness of the pizza, but that’s rad.

GET ON IT, VEGANS!

(Thanks, Jennifer!)

Vegansaurus Wants You!

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:03:00 -0800

But only as a friend.

No, seriously. Vegansaurus is looking to expand and take over the world and dominate in every way possible. We’re looking for writers.

Specifically, we’re looking for people who are way into vegan food. We are especially interested in people who are really into cooking, baking, and creating amazing recipes. Also, someone with a good eye for current events, especially (obviously) vegan news. Certainly being a witty genius is a plus because we need more of that. this could be one person. or it could be two. You don’t have to be in San Francisco as we’re looking to expand our reach. But we need people who can contribute two to three times per week.

If you’re interested, send a couple samples of your writing to laura @ vegansaurus dot com, even if it’s just your blog or some scanned-in poetry. Actually not that second thing. Please god.

Vegans, vegetarians, and yes, even omnivores are invited to apply. And maybe your dog too if he can use a computer.

Review: Cook Food, by Lisa Jervis

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0800

First, let’s appease the FTC by noting that we received a copy of this book for free, for reviewing purposes. Second, let’s appease the critics by noting that as Lisa Jervis is a founder of Bitch magazine, we are predisposed to love her. Third, I don’t have any photos of the food I made because I don’t have a functioning camera, so you’re just going to have to imagine how wonderful everything looked, OK? Fourthly, let’s write this.

Cook Food is a little, no-frills book that is crammed full of useful information. It’s written by a (seemingly) very practical person for the very pragmatic cooks among us, by which I mean she takes a very “do the best you can with what you have” approach, with her recipes functioning more as inspiration than rules to strictly follow. This, I dig; often I want to make dish but cannot find one of the ingredients, and do not have the opportunity and/or inclination to go get it. It’s rare to find a cookbook author who encourages you to wing it. This is all right.

I tried out three recipes from Cook Food, all of which I tried to follow to the letter but none of which I did, exactly. The first was Rosemary Mustard Tofu; lazily, I didn’t press the tofu at all, but I did let it sit in the marinade for a good long time. Per the author’s notes, the leftovers did make a good sandwich the next day. I accidentally put too much dijon mustard in the sauce, because I have trouble with tasks like measuring, but it wasn’t a big deal, really.

Next I made Lentils with Wine, which I loved and will definitely make again. For a dish with so few ingredients, it has a lot of flavor, full-bodied and rich and just really delicious. Red wine, red onion and green lentils are apparently the perfect combination.

Lastly, I tried out her version of peanut sauce, which, as she warned, was not at all like the Thai-style peanut sauce I had sort of wanted (despite having read the recipe before deciding to prepare it). This one I fiddled with, a little; I found it quite salty and, I don’t know, off somehow, so I added a lot of white balsamic vinegar and a couple splashes of plain soy milk, and that seemed to mend it for me. Then I ate it on everything; on Trader Joe’s vegetable gyoza; over cold mixed lettuces and hot rice (DELICIOUS, my goodness); as a dip for baby carrots and steamed broccoli. It turned out to be a very versatile sauce.

Cook Food wasn’t written by a vegan; it’s a vegan cookbook because Lisa Jervis believes that eating mostly organically and locally grown produce is healthiest for us and our environment (and she’s right, duh). It’s plainspoken without being obvious, and pragmatic without condescending. It’d make a wonderful first cookbook for new vegans—much better than those “Vegan Recipes for College Students” that teach you how to boil pasta or whatever—but once your skills have improved beyond “beginner” you’ll still find it useful.

Plus, like I said, it’s Lisa Jervis, and everything she creates is of very high quality.

It’s Veterans Day and that’s really important. It...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:19:00 -0800

It’s Veterans Day and that’s really important. It sucks that it’s smack in the middle of the week and a lot of people don’t even know it’s happening and we don’t have 19 days off to celebrate it because it’s not a Christian holiday but you know.

Anyway, in honor of Veterans Day, you should donate (even a dollar helps! at least that’s what they tell us and if we all gave a dollar, etc) to these fine folks, and also, check out Mental Floss page of dogs greeting soldiers returning home from war. It’s pretty fantastic, the dogs go apeshit. BRING OUR SOLDIERS HOME is what the dogs seem to be saying. I’m pretty sure I’m not anthropomorphizing. I posted my favorite above because HEY THAT’S A CUTE-ASS PIT BULL!!

Candy Cane Joe Joe’s ARE BACK!!! We spotted them at a SF...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:41:00 -0800

Candy Cane Joe Joe’s ARE BACK!!! We spotted them at a SF Trader Joe’s! Hurry and get some before I eat them all. Because I’ll do it. I WILL JUST DARE ME.

Now. LET US DO THIS. Also, this. And maybe this too.

The Uniqueness of Humans “We are just a basic, off-the-rack...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:22:08 -0800

The Uniqueness of Humans

“We are just a basic, off-the-rack mammal. … We’ve got the same basic building blocks and plumbing in there, but we use it in ways that are unprecedented.”

#1 This is a fascinating lecture.
#2 Look closely and it’s obvious this man is actually John Malkovich in a curly wig and fake beard.
#3 The lecture lamentably does not address this ~~interspecies love story~~…errr…reprehensible behavior in chimps.

(via bstriddy! Thanks, Brant!)

Fancy-Ass Thanksgiving Plans: Millennium!

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:52:00 -0800

If you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN GREAT NEITHER DO I.

If you are so inclined/filthy rich, you could spend Thanksgiving doing it up at Millennium. Oh go for it, you have no family who loves you anyway. I mean in the Bay Area! I’m not that mean! OR AM I, PERSON WITH NO FAMILY WHO LOVES YOU?? IN THE BAY AREA. Dang, paranoid!

OH ALSO SPEAKING OF THAT…if there are any stragglers around for the holidays who can’t afford Millennium, you’re welcome to come with me to my parents’ house. It’s seriously a blast. First, we will eat hella mashed potatoes, then we’ll hear my dad lecture about raquetball and/or aliens, then my four-year-old niece will feel you up, and THEN we’ll watch a movie! Probably something with an end-of-the-world or Strawberry Shortcake theme. It’s actually tons of fun, email me!

If you can’t/refuse to make it to either event, you can always recreate the Eric Tucker Experience with his pumpkin pie recipe (Thanks, VegNews!). I’d share mine but basically it’s exactly his only I came up with it first um yes that’s the ticket.

Manzanita Macrobiotic Restaurant!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:56:00 -0800

Manzanita is the place to go when you’re sick of feeling like a big fat greasy intoxicated pig and need to feel cleansed, which is obviously not good for all occasions but certainly has its place. It’s organic, vegan, macrobiotic food FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. I know that just made half of you go, “oooh…tell me more” and it made the other half (the smarter half, some might say) go, “DISGUSTING I HATE YOU LAURA I HOPE THIS BLOG BURNS TO THE GROUND.” However, I would ask you to reserve judgment as I am so often unwilling to do. Manzanita is actually quite fantastic. Be prepared to be surrounded by white people with dreads who might step outside for a delightful mid-meal game of hacky sack (but you’re used to that by now, aren’t you). Just go with it. If you can’t handle a woman coming up for some fresh air after an invigorating partner yoga session to openly breastfeed her seven-year-old, what can you handle!? JESUS, GROW A PAIR.

Things that are especially delicious: the salad dressings, the kale (I don’t know what they do but MAGIC!), and actually pretty much everything is really good. Except the vegan baked goods. As you might have guessed, I’m a junk food vegan so I know how hard it is to get the baked goods right, but come on. You’ve got time and a kitchen, let’s get to practicing! Less time making daisy chains and sexing in communal hot tubs (SHUDDER) and more time in the kitchen! ALL SAID, this place sounds way more hippy-dippy than it actually is (lie) and the food is way worth a visit (truth).

Saul Williams is at the Independent tonight!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:38:00 -0800

Saul Williams is at the Independent tonight!:

Sorry for the late notice. But if you’re looking for something more hip to do than whatever you usually do on Tuesday nights, check it out. Get into some poetry-slam post-punk hip-hop David Bowie revival action. Apparently he’s vegan too.

Encuentro Cafe (Erik Tucker's restaurant!) to open this month!!

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:13:00 -0800

Encuentro Cafe (Erik Tucker's restaurant!) to open this month!!:

More specifically, the second or third week of November, in Jack London Square in Oakland. It will offer wines and vegetarian small plates. You’re invited to contact Eric directly and ask him to please at least make most of the dishes vegan or easily veganizable. Because that’s dope that he’s keeping it all vegetarian but really, you are ERIC TUCKER from MILLENNIUM. We have expectations, Tucker. Your empire is built on the backs of vegans so do not forsake us or we’ll go totally non-violent and pacifist on your ass!

Gawker clearly just hates Jonathan Safran Foer, regardless of what he writes

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:54:00 -0800

Gawker clearly just hates Jonathan Safran Foer, regardless of what he writes:

Dear Foster Kamer of Gawker:

If you actually read Eating Animals, which you clearly didn’t, or you just hate him SO MUCH that it clouds everything, you would know it’s not preachy. It’s extremely well researched, smart, and thoughtful. I mean, we just want you to THINK about this stuff, AT THE VERY LEAST. Your knee-jerk snarky omnivore response is hardly conducive.

Also, this comment from “carbonadam”:

Any vegetarian who thinks animal life is more sacred than plant life is sorely mistaken. All life is sacred and none from the lowly ameba, to humans, to trees, vegetables, nuts, goats, dogs, cows, whales, roaches and rats is any more important than the other. This “animals are more sacred” than plants argument is nonsense and is rooted in human hubris that is about as arrogant and single minded as it can get. vegetarians can be annoying and self righteous and at the end of the day they still have to place organic matter into their maws that was once alive, as do we all, in order to say alive. I say let the annoying ones who think they have it all figured out grind up rocks into dust and eat that instead of organic plant and animal life.

Is this the aptitude level of the average Gawker commenter ? I mean, COME ON.