Hot Southern Florida weather pairs well with fresh vegetarian and Asian fare: Malaysian restaurant Parc 28 in Weston offers "boldly spiced fare" in a cuisine that takes inspiration from Malay, Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Thai and European influences; "fresh and vibrant" vegan cuisine is offered at Miami's Om Garden; Lauderdale-by-the-Sea offers "light, fragrant, healthful" Vietnamese food at Basilic.
Culinary historian Maricel E. Presilla discusses the honor of cooking a feast for Fiesta Latina at the White House and her attempts to "convey that the allure of Latin food is as irresistible as the rhythms that pulled President Obama out of his chair to dance" that night.
The "Desperation Dinners" feature raves about infused vinegar and its ability to "excite the palate" and elevate otherwise simple dishes.
Once incorrectly reputed to have a correlation with breast cancer, the grapefruit has been expunged -- and is even suggested as the perfect pink fruit for Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Cabernets are the quintessential U.S. wine: "big and brash, supremely self-confident, a little loud, even rude at times."
Calendar highlights include a silent auction for painted pumpkins, $35 prix-fixe meals for Dine Out Lauderdale, Rosa Mexicano's Chocolate festival and a "Top Chef" Talent Hunt.
Gardein is the latest plant-based protein line that is animal- and dairy-free. The product's "meaty texture" comes from a blend of soy, wheat and pea proteins, vegetables and grains (quinoa, amaranth, millet and kamut). In fact, the name Gardein is a combination of "garden" and protein."
Gardein is getting a lot of press these days because of Oprah Winfrey. Chef Tal Ronnen, who created Oprah's vegan 21-Day Cleanse menu, also helps Gardein in its development of different flavors, textures and variations.
What makes a wine vegan? After all, wine is made from grapes, not beef. Where animal products do come into play is during the fining process. After fermentation, most wine is filtered and fined, which is basically removing all the sediment and leftover dead yeast cells and such from the fermentation process. Most winemakers use animal products like egg white or isinglass, but vegan wines are made with non-animal products such as clay.
Want to find out if your favorite brand is vegan? It's not always easy. Winemakers aren't required to disclose ingredients like the information on Oreo cookie labels, so you have to do some nosing around. One great source is the Barnivore Vegan Wine & Beer Guide, a community project listing of vegan and non-vegan wines. Cheers!
Julia Child. Photo: John Dominis, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
Somewhere Julia's chuckling.
The Boston Globe reports Tuesday that the doyenne of French cuisine's Cambridge home is now occupied by a vegetarian animal-rights activist, who -- since the release of "Julie and Julia" -- has been besieged by tourists snapping photos of her home and leaving butter, yes butter, on the fence post.
"It's a bit ironic," Lisa Landsverk said of her place at Julia's kitchen.
Who knew someone as adorable as Zooey Deschanel could be so difficult? Truth be told, when the actress and singer showed up as a guest judge/elfin dinner hostess last night on "Top Chef Masters," we were counting the moments until she threw the inevitable curveball: "I'm a vegetarian."
When she added "no eggs or dairy" -- never uttering the word "vegan" -- and professed her intolerance for soy or wheat, we sensed the evil guiding hand of the show's producers, eager to ratchet up the tension for the five remaining celeb chefs. The only way they could've played it up more would have been to have her break plates and pull a "Mommie Dearest" at the dinner table: "I told you, no gluten ingredients EVER!"
No such luck. The star of the heavily Bravo-promoted "500 Days of Summer" was a model of apologetic demureness when she met the cooks pre-meal, although she did decline Michael Chiarello's request to sing couple of a cappella songs in exchange for his culinary handiwork.
Behind her back, the Italian cuisine maestro was the most outwardly offended by the restrictions, calling them "off-putting."
'Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine' Recipes by Bryant Terry Da Capo Press -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
It's almost impossible to think of soul food without thinking of pork, butter and drippings, and equally improbable to imagine a vegan who would voluntarily consume any of these things -- or anything else containing animal products, for that matter.
So Bryant Terry's "Vegan Soul Kitchen" would appear to be both a novelty and oxymoron, something Terry himself admits when he writes "I do realize that veganism ... .is antithetical to the way that African-American and Southern cooking has been constructed in the popular imagination over the past four decades."
A deeper look, however, reveals that prior to the industrialization of the food industry, the traditional African-American diet included plenty of fresh produce, and as Terry demonstrates with his book's 150 recipes, those fruits and vegetables can still play a central and innovative role in dishes ranging from Creole Hoppin'-Jean (a bacon-free twist on Hoppin' John, the traditional black-eyed pea and rice dish) to Savory Triple-Corn Grits, which substitutes creamed cashews for butter. In other words, as Bryant writes, think "Alice Waters meets Melvin Van Peebles," a farm-fresh update on a rich and soulful tradition.
See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
As one of New York City's most well-appointed concert venues, the Highline Ballroom gets its share of long lines. But the 180 people milling outside its entrance yesterday afternoon hadn't come for the music. They'd come for the soy.
Soy doesn't exactly scream "ruthless fight to the finish," or summon images of a marauding vegetarians. Yet the stakes at the first-ever Tofu Takedown were high enough to inspire even committed bacon lovers to attend the spirited competition, which was organized by Matt Timms, the hungry genius behind the chili, salsa, fondue, cookie and bacon takedowns.
Seventeen amateur cooks gathered in the ballroom to battle it out for tofu supremacy with entries that ranged from so-called "Ethiopian empanadas" to salted caramel tofu gelato. Somewhat surprisingly, sweet far outnumbered savory, demonstrating just how far tofu has come in its role as an ingredient for dessert.
"Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery"
By Erin McKenna
Photographs by Tara Donne Clarkson Potter -- 2009 Buy It at Amazon
Note: While testing the vanilla frosting recipe, we accidentally used soy flour instead of the the soy milk powder the recipe called for. The two are easily confused but not interchangeable, as our results demonstrated.
When Erin McKenna opened BabyCakes NYC in 2005, her gluten-free, vegan baked goods became a huge success, giving hope to the gluten-intolerant and converting legions of dairy-worshipping skeptics. Her new cookbook is both a how-to guide and winning, chatty account of McKenna's journey from junk food junkie to gluten-free goddess (she changed her Twinkie-loving ways in 2004, when she was diagnosed with wheat and dairy allergies). Pretty much everything in the baked good pantheon is here -- cupcakes, blueberry corn muffins, scones, cake and cobbler -- ensuring that while the gluten and dairy may be missing, absolutely nothing else is.
Takeaway Tips: McKenna writes in a clear, humorous and reassuring voice that makes you feel like you're baking in the company of, if not an old friend, then an endlessly understanding and forgiving teacher. She provides ingenious advice on making simple, natural food coloring (who knew that a pinch of turmeric made gorgeous yellow icing?), and her incredibly helpful ingredients glossary at the beginning of the book (from agave nectar to xantham gum) removes a lot of the considerable intimidation factor inherent in gluten-free, vegan baking.
See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
I have to admit, I was a little put off by the greenish stuff oozing out of the side of these cupcakes. But once I heard it was mole, I was all about it.
Originating in Mexico, mole refers to a variety of sauces whose recipes vary but usually contain chiles, nuts of some sort, spices, and (often) chocolate. These vegan cupcakes, from Norwichnuts on the Slashfood Flickr pool, are filled with a rich mole made from mild chiles, ground sesame seeds, pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and cinnamon-spiced Mexican chocolate.
The cupcakes themselves are chocolate Devil's Food and the frosting is vegan pine nut "buttercream" with a sprinkling of brown sugar and nuts. Me gustan mucho!
For his Minimalist column in the New York Times Dining & Wine section, Mark Bittman cooks and eats everything from rib eye steak to cheesy potato gratin. But when his doctor told him he had high cholesterol, borderline high blood sugar and was 35 pounds overweight, he realized he needed to make some changes to his diet. The doctor suggested trying veganism, but Bittman, a confirmed omnivore, said no way.
Lo and behold, the "vegan 'til dinnertime" plan worked. "Within three or four months, I lost 35 pounds, my blood sugar was normal, cholesterol levels were again normal ... and my sleep apnea indeed went away," said Bittman, quoted in a New York Times health column. He says though he realizes the diet wouldn't work for everyone, he wants people to see that even simple eating changes can have a big impact on health.
Interesting. I have a feeling that if I let myself eat absolutely anything I wanted after 6 p.m., I would gain weight in rather short order regardless of what I ate during the day (what I want to eat after 6 p.m. is often of the cookie dough and caramels variety).
Have you tried partial vegan diets or restricting foods before or after a certain hour? Did it work?
As far as I'm concerned, a Caesar salad is one of the best salads going. Don't get me wrong, I do love salads that are heaped with a number of different veggies and topped with a simple vinaigrette. However, those many-ingredient salads are a lot of work and don't lend themselves to a quick weeknight dinner in the same way that a basic Caesar does.
There's but one drawback to the classic Caesar and that is that the dressing contains raw eggs, a no-no for pregnant women, folks with suppressed immune systems and vegans. Happily, Divine Caroline recently posted a recipe for Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing with Meyer Lemon that sounds good enough to spoon straight from the mixing bowl (not that I would ever do something like that) as if it were soup.
If you can't find Meyer Lemons (although I'm still seeing them in my local market in the Philadelphia area), you can substitute regular lemon juice, sweetened with a bit of orange juice.
While there's no chance in hell that I'm going to give up my beloved meats, cheeses, and other animal products, I still like to mix it up with vegan food now and then. Some of it is just darned good -- rich soups, excellent salads, and some tasty dessert treats.
Above you can check out Everyday Dish's vegan chocolate chip cookies. (Get the exact measurements here.) Making use of a ton of pantry items, this looks like a great way to whip up some tasty cookies last-minute. They also fit into a lot of dietary restrictions -- you can used unrefined sugar and other types of flour. (I kind of wish I saw this recipe last week, when my chocolate-craving friend was over and in the midst of a refined sugar fast.)
Like many, I may claim to be adventurous about food, drinks, condiments and above all desserts, but when it comes down to it, things like flavored mayo (and mayo in general) and multi-flavored soy milk are a bit off-putting.
So this past week, when I not only tried chocolate peppermint soy milk from Vita Soy and loved it and converted three non-soy-milk drinkers into wanting to find it and buy it too, I also broke down and tried mayo on a sandwich. No, it was not a horror. It was dijon-style nayonaise, and I liked it so much, I started mixing it into baked potatoes and was even inspired to create Potato-Less "Mashed Potatoes." Yes, that's right, all you dairy-intolerant and veggie folks out there, check out this 'Tofu Tatoes recipe that is entirely dairy-free, a similar consistency to mashed potatoes and it much easier than peeling potatoes and waiting for them to boil while your tummy growls.
So here's to trying new things and sharing the soy joy with others.
I've learned over the years that one of the vital rules when cooking for both meat-eaters and vegetarians is that you have to do everything you can not to contaminate your vegetarian cooking vessels and tools with anything meaty. I first awoke to this mandate when I found myself in charge of grilling for both camps of eaters at various potlucks and picnics. I would bring two sets of spatulas and tongs, so as to ensure that I didn't render food inedible for vegetarians.
Gallery: Bizarre objects found in food
However, it seems that KFC in Canada has not learned that same no-contamination lesson that I assimilated during college. They recently announced that they would carry a "non-chicken" sandwich in order to have a menu option available to vegetarians and vegans. However, according to Ecorazzi, they cook this meat-free patty in the same fryers in which they cook their meat-based meals, which renders it unappealing to the vast majority of the no-meat crowd.
I realize that it might be naive of us to think that KFC would have thoroughly thought out their vegetarian plan, but it seems to me that in order to keep offering these sandwiches, they're going to have to declare at least one fryer per store a no-meat zone.
I am far from a vegan, and I'm inclined to agree with anyone who says that French Onion Soup isn't French Onion Soup without the rich, tasty meat flavor. That being said, I'm immensely intrigued by a new foodie video that's popped up over on YouTube, which you can see above.
Unlike many FOS recipes that use Brandy, this variety uses rum, and then a collection of ingredients that sound like they could make for a tasty, albeit different experience. Granted, there's no way I'd not add cheese to the mix (and some good, crusty bread), but this sounds like it could be quite tasty -- and something I'll try in the near future.
I also like the style of the video. The soup is very simple, so the entire prep is shown on fast-forward, with overlayed text. Enjoy!
"Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery"
For his Minimalist column in the New York Times Dining & Wine section, Mark Bittman cooks and eats everything from rib eye steak to cheesy potato gratin. But when his doctor told him he had high cholesterol, borderline high blood sugar and was 35 pounds overweight, he realized he needed to make some changes to his diet. The doctor suggested trying veganism, but Bittman, a confirmed omnivore, said no way. 
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