so this picture doesn’t really do it any justice whatsoever (whoops, must have been in a hurry to eat) but we’ve been making these really awesome caramelized onion tempeh sauerkraut sandwiches on ezekiel bread and hot damn!!! so good.
on sunday we found ourselves in santa monica…
and mmm. this was the highlight.
apple walnut raisin (red-leaf lettuce) salad. mmm, i’m not minding this warm weather food all too much.
and we finished off the evening with a delicious and seemingly endless organic mango. nom.
so we made spicy vegan sushi, featuring tempeh, avocado, carrot and cucumber. it was really damn good.
bran + buckwheat flour + mango + apple + carrot + dates +
raisins + flax. mmmm. bran muffin success. (may also be a laxative.
we’ll get back to you on that in the morning.)
tastes like COFFEE ICE CREAM. oh, the possiblilities. you had me at first taste…
-white mage
march 8th, our resident black mage’s birthday! after a bit of indecisiveness, it was decided… there would be sushi. and a whole goddamn lot of it. boasting a filling of tempeh, carrots and cucumber, clad in brown rice and nori, dipped in tamari and dressed up with some wasabi and pickled ginger, and accompanied by a light side salad with cashew dressing, the meal was decidedly a success.
in honor of national pancake day… we made our favorite pancake recipe, which can be found here:
http://epi.us/6cAWNy
thanks, moby. i don’t know who you are, but you sure make some fucking good pancakes. (however, i took the liberty of adding some vanilla extract, cinnamon, using exclusively buckwheat flour, and exchanging the blueberries for blackberries. hope he doesn’t mind.) then we smothered them with raw creamed honey, paired them with some figs on the side, a hot cup of coffee, and national pancake day was off to a great start.
EDIT: also it ended on a really freaking awesome note because WE HAD PANCAKES AGAIN. aww yeah.
pat’s day off, where to go? what to do? after going through palm springs on the way to the hike a few weeks ago, we decided we wanted to spend the day walking around and windowshopping. so, alas, it was an easy decision! the local vegan reataurant, Native Foods, also helped convince us. we got there a little early, walked around, ended up not being able to wait, and got a seat at the restaurant. Cameron and Kevin got the gandhi bowl and the hollywood bowl — along with sides of steamed kale and sweet potato fries — with the intention of sharing, as well as some hot tea. pat got a burger (noticing a trend here…) and watermelon juice.
the drinks arrived first:
tea! mmm.
watermelon!
after a bit of a wait, it ended up being just time to eat when our food was served, so we were quite happy we showed up a bit early.
and then it was chow time.
after eating, we walked around and checked out the shops, pat got some snide comments about his hair, and we found a starbucks. coffees in hand, some serious windowshopping ensued; it was a very nice day.
we headed out just as the evening snuck in.
Lately I’ve been asked what being vegan actually encompasses. Of course its obvious traits include a plant based diet (whole foods optional) and also taking on a non animal product stance if desired (planning on doing over time, so poor). That includes clothing, make-up, whatever.
But thats its official meaning.
Every word, I believe, holds its own precious meanings to the person expressing it. Its associations in experience, usage and interpretation.
Vegan. Its a word that holds alot of weight nowadays. It resembles something so extreme. so powerful. Religious you could say. But to me its more of a promise. Yes it is a lifestyle in every aspect in basic terms, but its deeper effect that ties into everything we do gives it momentum. From our daily meals to the sustainability of the environment to the very fabric of a our moral and existential consciousness that weaves us together as a whole. Being a vegan is more than just being healthy, its more than just being morally right, its more than being human. Its a response to the injustice in the world that have been perpetuated generations long.
A promise.
Its a promise to the children of tomorrow that they might have the chance to live a better healthier life full of the diversity of nature.
To live guilt free of the burdens of man made extinction, environmental exhaustion, human corruption, animal abuse, and lethargic living.
To have a world full of beauty that lasts and lasts. I think that is the epitome of being a vegan. A standard that holds no nationality or origin but blankets humanity as a whole. A promise not to live better, but to give better lives for those to come.
Yes the picture above has no relevance to anything.
-red mage
january 29, deerhoof, the echoplex.
we head out in the afternoon, making sure we have enough time to grab lunch. we aren’t sure if we’ll still have our hunger with us after having to sit in pat’s car the whole drive (little microbial forests grow inside the cupholders) but we somehow manage. an average amount of traffic later, we find a parking a bit away and walk over to real food daily. it’s not too busy in there, and the crowd seems a bit more down to earth than the last time we stopped here. the locals must have other things to do on a saturday night?
regardless, we had our expectations set high after experiencing the wonder of their pooh bear and christopher robin last time around; another amazing monthly special salad.
boasting curry sauce, baby greens, cashews, spiced tofu, currants, apples, and basmati rice, the road to new delhi seemed like the obvious choice. we got the 10-piece nori maki for the three of us to share, and pat got the burger with the works. (they took no chances with misnomers on this burger.)
our drinks are up first; pat gets a rootbeer and kevin and cameron get the house blend kukicha tea. mmm… starting the meal off right.
next up… eats! food is brought over in a timely manner, and it looks amazing. pat assembled his burger, and kevin and cameron start with a roll of nori maki.
then jump to the salad.
then comes the food-ADD, when everything is so incredibly and unfathomably flavorful that you aren’t sure what to eat next, so you just jump from one to another, too determined to talk about it, but sharing lots of “mmm”-noises, because one can still make those without ceasing chewing.
pat becomes territorial of his aptly named burger, and denies cameron a picture…
but she manages. really, it’s under there… somewhere. this is just a pat-sized potion of food.
surprisingly, we actually made the meal last, and it was delicious. we paid, and tipped, and drank the rest of our tea, and were off. the rest of the evening involved periodical reminiscing about dinner while strolling around awaiting the doors to open for the show. a little after 8:30, they open the doors, and we enter, cameraless. (denied our press passes)
regardless, the show was awesome; ben butler and mousepad opened, a synth and drum duo, which ended up being pretty crazy. deerhoof followed, and it turned out to be a very awesome show, and a very awesome night, all in all.
By Red Mage
Alright. So this has been on my mind for a good couple of weeks. Its something that ever since I’ve turned to vegan-ism has been haunting me more and more. I ask, should I feel guilty about the actions of others? specifically speaking here, I’m talking about the abuse and use of animals. Food. Clothing. Product. It seems like they are our eternal tools, slaves to our grand scheme. Their backs and bones, bodies obliterated in rending machines, the structure of our diets and liveliness. Its been around for thousands and thousands of years. human carnivore-ism. But today’s world, where we want peace and equality, justice for all, freedoms and what not, stands ridiculously hypocritical when what we eat and wear is imprinted with death. The foundation of eating and wearing animals is grossly morbid and considerably despicable almost to the point where it could be considered evil. Yet here we are where the entire populous eats affluently, not seeing, hearing, or smelling the things they put in their mouths. Not even questioning the cleanliness or value of it. Or even it’s origin.
As Americans we have always depended upon animals. Culturally our American lifestyle has been rooted in the flesh of others. Eggs. Bacon. Milk. Thanksgiving diner. Christmas diner. Mcdonalds. 49c tacos. Carne Asada. CHICKEN NUGGETS. It’s all very appetizing but all so morally objectionable. I want to believe that others have the sense and intelligence to question their daily processes. Overwhelming evidence of Factory Farms pushing unsustainable amounts of meat. Farmland spanning acres and acres to grow crops to feed those whose sole purpose is to die. Calves killed so that their milk can be our milk. Chickens overstimulated to grow abnormally big. E.coli infested beef. Animals drowning in their own shit and butchered still covered in it. Its nothing new, but from these eyes, this mind, I’ve only recently realized the futility of man’s greed, man’s folly.
‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’
Genesis 1:26
And here I am quoting the bible. Some would take that interpretation and call it God’s Permission for us to take whatever we want. I don’t understand that. Animals have been around long before Mankind. What? Where they waiting for us to come and devour them? Are we some sort of locust, some sort of expansionary invasive species set to plague the Earth? Perhaps. But in optimistic terms we are the keepers of the Earth; heralds of nature. What exactly makes us better than the dumb, stupid, or ignorant? Nothing at all. We all move, we all feel. We don’t consider newborns lesser people. Indeed like newborns, are those weaker and lesser than us to be taken care of? Is it not our responsibility? OUR DOMINION? OUR FAMILY?
Responsibility. It’s something that’s only recently become a global need to do. Demands for true democracy in the Arab states. Bipartisanship(I guess lol). Health care. Financial Reform. Gay and Lesbian rights. And I think most importantly of all dietary and moral awareness and responsibility. Sure veganism and vegetarianism is a very tiny tiny percentage of the western world, but so was Christianity, scientific thought, cleanliness, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and others at one point.
I’m not gonna go preaching the benefits of a vegan diet. Or how Humans are natural Vegetarians and not carnivores or even omnivores. Because that’s hardly the point.
THE POINT IS. where do morals lay in all this mass slaughtering? because it is mass slaughtering. billions every year. What peace is there when our stomaches are lined red with gravestones? The double standard of having death everyday on your plate but not wanting death. It’s unnervingly frightening what we do daily, all the more so because it is entirely UNNECESSARY. The effort it takes to kill is less than to grow. Why kill when you can grow? Why cut when you can pick? Why destroy when you can create? It’s the very basis of an advanced spiritually civilized people transgressing, transcending past the vices of ignorance and hatred. Non-violence. constraint. humbleness. acceptance. understanding. PEACE. peace for gods sake.
why are we killing ourselves? Because killing comes naturally; breakfast, lunch and dinner. A subconscious dive into accepting the right to have death every day. So why shouldn’t we have it wherever we go? on the go? against who we want or what we want. Its like respect doesn’t mean anything anymore.
Respect. why not? why not give it a go. It’s the only thing that makes any sense in this world. Respect begets respect. Yet many fail to respect the life that’s been taken; no longer anything but “meat” no more an animal. horrible yet true. The same vein goes for killing humans. No longer human but a corpse. whats the difference between a corpse and meat?
And I ask Internally again. Should I feel guilty about the actions of others? The answer is yes. The systematic world holds no outsiders. The dead hold no words but speak through their absence. Neutrality brings nothing but sorrow and tragedy for the victim and the victims to come.
And that is why I am posting this. Respect. Responsibility. Peace. Why the fuck not?
we be wizards 