![Japanese-style Black Sesame Okra Salad :)
Because of my kitchen deprivation for the past 2.5 months, I created this on the same day I made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream and my Coco Loco Vegan Waffles.
I felt a shortage of vegetables, particularly of the green, and relatively un-greasy variety, while I was in Sri Lanka. So, I attacked all green and/or leafy vegetables in sight. One of my first tasty victims was the Okra in this ridiculously easy, surprisingly tasty, simple and fresh salad, which some of its early doubters now claims could rival movie food and/or pulutan. Simply:
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Boil the okra until desired crispness / sogginess. I prefer for it to be a little al dente vs. limp and impotent.
Toast black sesame seeds.
Crush them slightly with a fork, just enough to release its wonderful addictive aroma. (I love black sesame.)
Add 1-2 parts Kikkoman soy sauce for every 3 parts of mirin.
Toss everything together.
Enjoy!
Crazy easy. Just like cooking up a batch of instant pancit canton sans the packeted oil and wax-coated noodles, which while delicious and addictive in its own right, provides a lot less nutrients than the above dish.
I love simple yet tasty food.
Hoo-ha,Jen
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Japanese-style Black Sesame Okra Salad :)
Because of my kitchen deprivation for the past 2.5 months, I created this on the same day I made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream and my Coco Loco Vegan Waffles.
I felt a shortage of vegetables, particularly of the green, and relatively un-greasy variety, while I was in Sri Lanka. So, I attacked all green and/or leafy vegetables in sight. One of my first tasty victims was the Okra in this ridiculously easy, surprisingly tasty, simple and fresh salad, which some of its early doubters now claims could rival movie food and/or pulutan. Simply:
![COCO LOCO: Vegan Waffles with Coconut Meat and Home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream!My take on one of my most favorite breakfasts in life ever (from Hariharalaya Retreat Centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia). :D
I’ve been away from the kitchen for so long since my 2.5-month trip around Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka, that cooking was the activity I immediately sought out as soon as I had time away from sleep and get-togethers.
A week before leaving, the ice cream maker I had ordered had just come in and I only had 2 chances to experiment with it then. This time, I made some rather delightful home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream, which I later decided would go well with this waffle. :)
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Still need to fine tune the recipe for my ice cream and vegan waffles, but so far, I think the first attempt was already a success!
Will resume my Sri Lanka posts when I’ve finished all my pending work, and satisfied the itch to play in the kitchen some more! :P
Coco-nutty,Jen
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COCO LOCO: Vegan Waffles with Coconut Meat and Home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream!
My take on one of my most favorite breakfasts in life ever (from Hariharalaya Retreat Centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia). :D
I’ve been away from the kitchen for so long since my 2.5-month trip around Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka, that cooking was the activity I immediately sought out as soon as I had time away from sleep and get-togethers.
A week before leaving, the ice cream maker I had ordered had just come in and I only had 2 chances to experiment with it then. This time, I made some rather delightful home-made Coconut-Peanut Ice Cream, which I later decided would go well with this waffle. :)
![Cheap Vegetarian Eats in Chiang Mai, Thailand
A pleasant surprise I’ve come to realize on this trip is that it really isn’t that hard to maintain a vegetarian diet while traveling. You can always find yummy vegetable dishes or salads, and you can always ask people to omit the meat in your Phad Thai or replace it with veg-friendly tofu.
I’ve also found that vegetarian dining can be the easiest to your pocket, and that was especially true for me in Chiang Mai.
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Clean food, dirt cheap
As mentioned in my post about my guesthouse in Chiang Mai, there was a ridiculously cheap Chinese vegetarian resto located literally a minute away (along Prapokklao Rd.), selling real cheap food.
How cheap?20THB - 1 viand + 1 rice ~ yep, that’s $0.66 or 26PHP25THB - 2 viands + 1 rice ~ WTF
But even before I found that, I actually accidentally discovered this other Chinese vegetarian resto (located along Rachadamnoen Rd.) right before meditation with Tiko at Wat Sri Gerd.
And yup, they sell their food at the same price as Tein Seng (resto in 1st photo). And both establishments provide free water to diners. Honestly, I don’t know how they still make money.
Clever take on salad
When you’re feeling a little fancy, you can also shuffle on down to Nimmanhaemin Rd. on the west side of Chiang Mai and pay a visit to Salad Concept.
For only 50THB - 65PHP or $1.66 (and this is also relatively cheap in Thai standards considering the ambiance of the place), you get a base of greens along with 5 free toppings and your choice of salad dressing. They also have more premium toppings that you have to pay a little extra for, but still.
It was hard to decide but I wound up getting a salad of 1) tomato, 2) broccoli, 3) asparagus, 4) grilled mushroom (yum!), 5) red bean (for protein), and got and add-on of tofu (20THB ~ 26PHP or $0.66), all to be enjoyed with my delicious tamarind sesame dressing (though I would have loved to try the passion fruit dressing too!).
I also decided to go all out and order a shiitake mushroom soup (69THB ~ 91PHP or $2.33 - ironically more expensive than the salad), which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Stevie approved of my order too. It really wasn’t one of those tiny, tiny salads you might get in the Philippines for the same price.
I loved the restaurant design as well, both indoors…
…and outdoors.
It always adds extra pogi points when a business cares about the earth, and uses funky wall decals too.
I was later joined by Ro, the Thai guy I met on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, and his friend Jane, who would both unexpectedly take me to one of the prettiest places near Chiang Mai. But more on that in a succeeding post.
But yeah, bottom line, traveling as a vegetarian is fun! :)
Leafy greens,Jen
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Cheap Vegetarian Eats in Chiang Mai, Thailand
A pleasant surprise I’ve come to realize on this trip is that it really isn’t that hard to maintain a vegetarian diet while traveling. You can always find yummy vegetable dishes or salads, and you can always ask people to omit the meat in your Phad Thai or replace it with veg-friendly tofu.
I’ve also found that vegetarian dining can be the easiest to your pocket, and that was especially true for me in Chiang Mai.
![Deconstructing The Lotus Seed: My Cheap Cambodian Thrill
I find joy in the simple things, and I hope my boyfriend agrees with me when I say I’m a cheap date. And while eating a lotus seed might not seem exciting to most people (particularly to Cambodians), I feel it is deserving of its own blog post.
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July 18
After my first encounter of lotus flowers / pods with seeds being sold on the street while on my arts and crafts walk, I hadn’t seen them again. It didn’t help that I left town for Hariharalaya for close to 2 weeks. But when Hanne and I went back into Siem Reap, I finally got my chance. :)
Hanne purchased 4 flowers / pods for 2000 riel, I think. Or half a dollar. Super cheap thrill! :P
After running an errand, we then picked a spot by the river to rest and partake of the much anticipated lotus seed, but not before camwhoring with the flower / pod for a bit.
Those are just cement elephants behind Hanne, by the way, just in case you were wondering. :)
[Posing Koreana-style]
Step #1: Rip the lotus pod open and take the seeds out.
Step #2: Peel the seed. Hanne ate her first one with the skin on. Not advisable. Hehe.
You might notice that there’s a rather bitter taste to the seeds. If you are bothered by this, which I was, you may deconstruct the seed even further and proceed to the next step in my process.
Step #3: Half the seed (with your teeth), and take out the green shoot in the middle. In my scientific study, I have found that that is what makes it bitter.
Ta-dah! And that concludes Lotus Seed-Eating 101. Bow.
I’ll have a more substantial next post, but humor me on this one. :P
La-la-la-lotus-loving,Jen
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Deconstructing The Lotus Seed: My Cheap Cambodian Thrill
I find joy in the simple things, and I hope my boyfriend agrees with me when I say I’m a cheap date. And while eating a lotus seed might not seem exciting to most people (particularly to Cambodians), I feel it is deserving of its own blog post.
Hariharalaya Retreat Centre: Getting Comfortable Outside My Comfort Zone
It’s not my proudest moment when I say that I’m a city girl.
I don’t like dirt, but it’s something you can’t avoid forever (something you can’t avoid ever, actually) at Hariharalaya. Dirt is omnipresent, on the soles of my feet - people walk barefoot indoors and outdoors, underneath my fingernails, and the constant film of soil or sand or clay on my skin.
I’m not exactly the biggest fan of bugs either. Let me rephrase. I hate bugs, and the mere thought of some of them is enough to give me goose bumps.
Although I’ve explored yoga more in the Philippines 3 months before I left for my trip, and had 1 meditation session at White Space, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about being surrounded by what in my head would be hardcore hippie yogis, compounded by being away from home, and not knowing anyone, and not really having internet access.
![Veg Cooking Session: Artisan Pizzas and Vegan Lasagna
Last May 22, I had the privilege of being part of a very exclusive vegetarian vegan cooking session with Alessandra Lanot, owner of Pipino Vegetarian resto, and Kara Hizon of Veg Wahine. :D
Initially, I had just asked to meet Alessa so I could talk to her more about her vegetarian beginnings and her business Pipino. The meeting kept getting pushed back (because I extended my stay in Baguio), but somehow, I became even more delighted with what our supposed interview turned out to be!
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[Alessa in her kitchen and her vegan-friendly ingredients]
Alessa also invited Kara to join us as she’s trying to go vegan too. (Well, I’m just trying to go lacto ovo vegetarian, really. But if I wind up vegan somehow, then VEGAN POWERS TO ME!!) So anyway, seeing as Alessa owns her own frikkin’ restaurant and Kara’s blog basically revolves around recipes, I was intimidated by the thought of having to contribute my own recipe to the session, since right now I basically do simple pastas, salads, and vegetarian homecooking for the lazy. Luckily, Alessa volunteered her recipes for that day. Yay! Pressure-free!
Being the teacher that she is, Alessa handwrote the recipes on pcs. of 1/4 pad paper:
My tasks were to the knead the pizza dough, prepare the tofu ricotta and chop mushrooms. Kneading the dough and and preparing the tofu ricotta was just like playing with my food because I was literally hands on (no pictures to prove it though). I also chopped the mushroooooooms! I love mushrooms but generally lack chef skills in chopping, but I think I did an okay job. :P
Being a vegetarian noob, I learned a lot of “exotic” vegan ingredients, and Alessa and Kara were patient enough with me to answer all my questions. :P
These may all seem like very strange things to you right now, as they did when I first encountered them, but I’ll try to give you guys a Vegetarian Food for Dummies post on chia seeds, nutritional yeast, liquid aminos and TVP (textured vegetable protein) in my next entry.
Since I’m a noob, and haven’t SUPER geeked out on all their origins and benefits YET, it’ll be super digestible descriptions for you guys, I promise. :D
Here’s a picture of the TVP, which we used as our vegan meat stuffing.
We also prided ourselves in creating most artisan-ish pizzas (Read: rustic, or a glorified term for very irregularly shaped pizzas. Bakit ba, pagkain pa rin yan. Sa Cibo ba bilog? Pang-Cibo to!)
O-ha.
The finished product:
And the super winner vegan lasagna:
And finally, me with my fellow happy kitchen messer-uppers, Alessa & Kara:
Don’t you think it looks like we could start our own cooking show? Though at this point, my relevant skill would be maybe hosting the show and asking all the questions on behalf of the vegetarian lingo illiterate. Haha.
I do hope I can hang out with the girls again soon! *hint hint* :D
Weeee,Jen
P.S. You guys will be getting even more familiar with Alessa and Pipino in an upcoming post. Come back for that! :)
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Veg Cooking Session: Artisan Pizzas and Vegan Lasagna
Last May 22, I had the privilege of being part of a very exclusive vegetarian vegan cooking session with Alessandra Lanot, owner of Pipino Vegetarian resto, and Kara Hizon of Veg Wahine. :D
Initially, I had just asked to meet Alessa so I could talk to her more about her vegetarian beginnings and her business Pipino. The meeting kept getting pushed back (because I extended my stay in Baguio), but somehow, I became even more delighted with what our supposed interview turned out to be!
![Vegetarian Food Find: Army Navy’s Tortilla Soup
Okay, so I stopped counting my food finds.
I actually had Army Navy’s Tortilla Soup a couple of times before but hadn’t really recognized its vegan-ness ‘til now (because I’ve become more conscious about what’s in, or what’s NOT in the food I eat).
The Tortilla Soup (P110) is mostly a tomato-based soup with a super spicy kick and cilantro freshness. :) You can also get this with an extra side order of Tortillas (P35) for extra dipping.
Buuuut Army Navy being Army Navy, I usually have to order their Freedom Fries (P65) and Libertea (P75) (really, this is what I used to go to Army Navy for, and not their burgers and burritos. Notice how they have fancier names for those two things). Their Cheese Quesadilla (P150?) doesn’t hurt either.
This might not look like much (in my opinion), but this is seriously a decent meal for 2 people. The Tortilla Soup is a lot more filling than one might think, so it’s definitely a bang-for-buck order. You might wind up spending a bit more on another Libertea though because the soup is seriously spicy!
So next time your friends are hankering for burgers, know that vegetarian-friendly, non-burger-lover (like me) options await at Army Navy, whose mission it is for you to come in hungry and walk out happy. :)
[Ugh, I’m sorry if I sound like an ad, but this is all just me, and I can only wish Army Navy actually paid for this post as well. :P]
Cilantro-head,Jen
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Army Navy(All over the Philippines, really)
NM Veg Rating Taste Price Ambiance Presentation Creativity Waiting Time Veg-nessn/a Freelancer-friendly — didn’t try. Value for money](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4ddgoQymR1r0u81eo1_1280.jpg)
Vegetarian Food Find: Army Navy’s Tortilla Soup
Okay, so I stopped counting my food finds.
I actually had Army Navy’s Tortilla Soup a couple of times before but hadn’t really recognized its vegan-ness ‘til now (because I’ve become more conscious about what’s in, or what’s NOT in the food I eat).
The Tortilla Soup (P110) is mostly a tomato-based soup with a super spicy kick and cilantro freshness. :) You can also get this with an extra side order of Tortillas (P35) for extra dipping.
Buuuut Army Navy being Army Navy, I usually have to order their Freedom Fries (P65) and Libertea (P75) (really, this is what I used to go to Army Navy for, and not their burgers and burritos. Notice how they have fancier names for those two things). Their Cheese Quesadilla (P150?) doesn’t hurt either.
This might not look like much (in my opinion), but this is seriously a decent meal for 2 people. The Tortilla Soup is a lot more filling than one might think, so it’s definitely a bang-for-buck order. You might wind up spending a bit more on another Libertea though because the soup is seriously spicy!
So next time your friends are hankering for burgers, know that vegetarian-friendly, non-burger-lover (like me) options await at Army Navy, whose mission it is for you to come in hungry and walk out happy. :)
[Ugh, I’m sorry if I sound like an ad, but this is all just me, and I can only wish Army Navy actually paid for this post as well. :P]
Cilantro-head,
Jen
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Army Navy
(All over the Philippines, really)
NM Veg Rating
Taste
Price
Ambiance
Presentation
Creativity
Waiting Time
Veg-ness
n/a Freelancer-friendly — didn’t try.
Value for money
The Nomad Manager’s Veg Resto / Food Find Rating Scale
Okay, since it looks like I’ll be looking for more veg-friendly restos or food finds (probably for the rest of my life, since it’s looking to be a cause I will fully support), I figure I should have an appropriate rating scale for all my discoveries moving forward.
So here’s the criteria I’ve come up with, arranged in the order I deem them important:
- Taste
- Price
- Ambiance
- Presentation
- Creativity (resourcefulness in using veggies / recreating otherwise non-veg dishes)
- Waiting Time
- Veg-ness
- Freelancer-friendly (depending on wi-fi and outlet cost / availability)
- Value for money (overall rating)
And here’s the 4-point rating scale I’ve come up with, with 1 icon (right now, ) being the lowest, most negative rating, and 4 being the highest, most positive rating. Please have as fun a time reading as I did writing:
1) Taste
· Better than hunger.
· Doesn’t taste “vegetarian” (read: bland and cardboard-like)
· Seconds, please!
· I CAN EAT THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!
2) Price
· IS THIS FUCKING GOLD-LEAFED THEN DEEP-FRIED IN TRUFFLE OIL??
· It hurts this cheapskate.
· It’s reasonable.
· Food here, beri beri chip!
3) Ambiance
· Just get your food and leave.
· I can hang out here for a bit.
· Loved the look; I’ll definitely be getting some design ideas here.
· CAN I LIVE HERE, PLEASE?
4) Presentation
· My poop looks better than this.
· Edible-looking.
· Pretty!
· Low EQ and food blogger ambitions aside, I HAVE TO TAKE A PHOTO.
5) Creativity (resourcefulness in using veggies / recreating otherwise non-veg dishes)
· Boring.
· Pretty clever.
· I wish I’d thought of that!
· THIS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.
6) Waiting time
· I couldn’t wait to find out. Really, I couldn’t.
· Sana nag-padeliver nalang tayo. (30 minutes or more)
· Enough time for some reading / chitchat (15-30 minutes)
· Faster than speeding bullet! (0-15 minutes)
7) Veg-ness
· Oh, that was the ONLY vegetable dish? (Has isolated vegetarian fare)
· Omnivore family/barkada-friendly (Has a fair array of vegetarian options)
· Yay! Plants! (Fully/mostly vegetarian)
· VEGAN POWERS!! (Fully/mostly vegan)
8) Freelancer-friendly (depending on wi-fi and outlet cost / availability)
· This is NOT a place to work.
· I’d like to work here, but they make it REALLY hard for you.
· I could work here for a bit.
· I could work here all day!
9) Value for money (overall rating)
· Don’t waste your money here.
· It’s worth a try.
· I’d definitely come back.
· IT IS FACE-MELTINGLY EPIC!
Looking forward to reviewing more restos and rating some more food finds! :)
Veg out,
Jen
