Posted via email from eric forsyth's posting place
Friday, February 25, 2011
Menu catch up Feb 25 + introduction to real raw vegan culture
Q: Eric, what's the hardest part about going vegetarian, cold turkey?
A: The food is easy. Keeping up the stupid blog is by far the hardest part.
I've pretty much been eating chocolate and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And cheese and vegetables. In that order.
But also:
Some fancy Risotto with feta from Restaurant Josef in Zurich, Switzerland:
(I also had a great green salad and some potato gnocchi at that place. Each plate was a pretty small serving. Other meals on this short trip included pretzel sandwich with cheese and tomato and a green salad with grilled pumpkin and almonds at the airport)I went to a Korean place in Leicester Square with Jaime at the beginning of the week. Here's some tasty fried egg rice:
And rice noodles with vegetables of some sort. Also super tasty, especially with the chili sauce you can see made friends with both dishes:
Tonight, Jaime and I went to Saf, a critically acclaimed raw vegan restaurant that's right below our apartment. Literally the same building. We figured we should eat there while it's still February and I'm still vegetarian.
I ordered the lasagna, containing raw bolognaise, rustic pesto, marinara, olive relish, herb cheese and mushroom (yes, cheese made from herbs and no animal milk of any kind):
It was decent. But cold. And kind of a chore when compared to real lasanga with noodles and normal cheese. There's a good vegetable lasanga at a deli/cafe by my office. It's not vegan but it's vegetarian and I love it. I'm really not sure why Saf was so against noodles and bread of any normal sort. I make what I think is perfectly vegan pizza dough all the time at home. What's the problem? Anyway, Much (but not all) of this restaurant seemed kind of over the top hipster and masochistic. See more on that in Jaime's dish ----->
Jaime ordered Grilled Seitan, which she thought was funny, first of all because it's pretty much pronounced like "Satan," and also because it was mentioned as the stereotypical lame vegetarian food on the TV show "Parenthood" this week. Mushroom ragout, smoky aubergine salad, roasted curly kale with mushroom gravy. Sounds delicious, right? The smoky aubergine salad was gag-worthy (that lump on the right). I mean really, really bad. I think they might have messed it up. The rest of pretty good, but the completely overwhelming smoke stench and taste unfortunately kind of ruined the rest of the dish:
So, another learning of this month, which I can say with some empathy: I don't mind being vegetarian. It's pretty good when done well. But vegan can be straight-up sad.
I haven't been cheating. I've just been busy.
Stand by for a lazy, rushed incomplete recap of the last 4 days.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Menu Feb 21
Breakfast: green machine from Starbucks on the walk to work (Jaime hooked me up with a gift card)
Lunch: Korean rice bowl with egg, vegetable and chili sauce (no picture, sorry).
Dinner: Jaime made what she called "Greek Tofu"(pictured) to which she of course insisted on adding pineapple, so I call it "Greek-Polynesian Tofu." Got some serious tang to it with lemon juice, feta and pineapple. The tofu pretty much just soaks up the taste of anything around it. I couldn't distinguish its own taste.
Sent from my Windows Phone
Monday, February 21, 2011
Menu Feb 20 - Sunday home cooking
Sunday morning brunch: Jaime passed up this awesome scomelet i made with bell peppers, grape tomatos and mature cheddar and Tabasco, with toast. But I enjoyed it.
And for an early dinner: Basil+ Naan with houmus and my favorite cucumber salad with tomatoes, bell peppers and fresh buffallo mozzarella cheese. The dressing is a dill-herb mix i picked up at a German deli. We used to use this dressing all the time in Germany. Tasty.
Menu Feb 19 - Greenwich Market
Jaime and I went to Greenwich on Saturday, where the Prime Meridian (0 longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is based. For more on our day in Greenwich, see Jaime's blog here.
We grabbed food at the Greenwich Market which has food and boutique textile/fashion vendors. I've attached a picture of a pasta-mozzarella-pesto ball I got. I also ate some sambosas with lentils and some cheese tomatoes bread, all from different vendors.
One thing I'll miss about London is the open air food markets.
Sent from my Windows Phone
Oh well.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Menu Feb 17-18
Breakfast is usually Belvita biscuits and fruit. Sometimes yogurt and juice. Let's just establish that and cover lunches and dinners, shall we? I'll let you know if a major breakfast deviation occurs. Promise.
Yesterday lunch: Egg/mayo sandwich from Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks. No pic. Not worth it.
Yesterday dinner: Pizza from the Italian by-the-slice place by work (working late, got hungry). I like their pizza. One had cucumbers, mushrooms and buffalo mozzarella. Another had potatoes on it. Another was pretty much margarita. and Check it out
Today lunch: pasta with roasted tomatoes, fresh basil and feta cheese chunks with some sort of tomatoe/olive oil dressing - from Marks and Spencer. Realized after eating it that it probably would have been good heated up.
Today dinner: Homemade salad with spinach and other greens, cucumbers, baby plum tomatoes, and jaime's whole wheat croutons. Dijon dressing.
And Jaime went to Borough market and got a couple pies for dinner. Mine had potatoes, cheese, chives, and probably some other stuff. It was good with ketsup.
Yesterday lunch: Egg/mayo sandwich from Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks. No pic. Not worth it.
Yesterday dinner: Pizza from the Italian by-the-slice place by work (working late, got hungry). I like their pizza. One had cucumbers, mushrooms and buffalo mozzarella. Another had potatoes on it. Another was pretty much margarita. and Check it out
Today lunch: pasta with roasted tomatoes, fresh basil and feta cheese chunks with some sort of tomatoe/olive oil dressing - from Marks and Spencer. Realized after eating it that it probably would have been good heated up.
Today dinner: Homemade salad with spinach and other greens, cucumbers, baby plum tomatoes, and jaime's whole wheat croutons. Dijon dressing.
And Jaime went to Borough market and got a couple pies for dinner. Mine had potatoes, cheese, chives, and probably some other stuff. It was good with ketsup.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
At its best.
Last time I lived outside the US, it was in Germany and I was 19-21 years old. It certainly wasn't the proverbial youthful backpacking through Europe or college semester abroad. I was wearing a tie every day (yes, even weekends), working 80 hours a week mostly in a foreign language and I only called home twice a year. Pretty much a kid jumping headfirst into adulthood. As much as that sounds like hell, it wasn't (most of the time). I cried when it was time to go home and take a much deserved break and go back to school.
Now I'm back across the pond working again but in a much different way. As an American with experience living abroad, I feel I've been acutely aware of what makes me different, and how I'm perceived here (that's not to say I don't also have lots in common with folks here). I sometimes think about the States and things I miss as well as things I wish were more like Europe. This morning on my walk to work, a thought popped into my head:
It doesn't get any better than America at its best (but only at its best).
Call me biased. But you better be an American living abroad to even argue with me.
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