who doesn't love fake pork products?

Fastmiso heads off to LA tomorrow sans me (Manhattan Beach to be specific - shout out to em c) so tonight we did it up big time at his new favorite restaurant, which just happens to be completely vegan. Happiness abounds.

The place is called Garden Fresh (or Fresh Garden. I can't remember. It might just be the most nondescript vegan restaurant name ever. No pun, no shiny happy people, no nothing in the name), and it is one of those 'fake meat' Chinese places that seem to exist all across America in this quiet, unassuming way. Just like Harmony in the ATL (Buford Hwy, what what), the place in Chinatown in Philly, the place on M street in Georgetown, and even the Chinese place in historic Doylestown, this place is filled with young punks and older hippies, but, unique to Silicon Valley, Garden Fresh also has Yahoo, Google, and Facebook employees wearing their 'team training ski trip 2007' Northface jackets. Ick. The food, fortunately, is much better than its clientele and we are slowly working through the whole menu (sweet and sour pork=good; pepper chicken=excellent; veggie rolls=a-mazing). I did still have that moment of panic and dissected a piece of 'pork' to make sure it was, in fact, totally not meat.


The evening also confirmed fastmiso's ability to charm older Asian women. He once ran into our alteration's lady at Nordstrom Rack and chatted her up about the bargains. Now she calls him by name when he brings in pants. We are also now on a first-name basis with the owner of the Thai restaurant by our apartment. And tonight the Garden Fresh owner ending up bringing us free soup while we were waiting on our take-out order. He's a keeper.

I think I'm going to use my lonesome weekend to try out some more recipes and possibly read the new Oprah book club book that she won't shut up about. Though I am completely mortified about going in to Borders to buy it. 'Awakening to your life's purpose, are you? You just let me know how that works out for you.' Maybe I can get Amazon to expedite...

so much cooler than his brother

Yet another reason to have a crush on Casey Affleck

drowning in a sea of cuteness

In my efforts to buy a purse that was chic and not leather and not over 400 (hello Marc Jacobs bag of my dreams), I went to Etsy.com to check out their offerings. After spending TWO HOURS clicking through freakin' adorable handmade purses, clutches, totes, wallets, wristlets, and what have you, I have narrowed myself down to these two (well, actually, it's down to about 20 but I can only inflict so much pain on the rest of the world).

I'm waving my white flag and letting you, the reader, vote for your favorite. Note that the grey purse is reversible and the other one is just awesome.



And these bags just make me happy: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5265612

happy new year, losers

Last night we went to see Grizzly Man on campus which was followed by a Q&A with the director Werner Herzog. While the movie itself was sufficiently entertaining, the Q&A had me doubled over in delight. Silly Germans. At one point Herzog declared the entire twentieth century a mistake, comparing modern psychology to the Spanish Inquisition. I kept waiting for Tom Cruise to leap out from behind the curtain.

Herzog then went on a rant against cinema verite, the 'fly-on-the-wall' style of documentary films, which he thinks is a waste of time. He said that while at a documentary film festival in January he got on stage, lambasted the film makers, and then concluded by saying 'Happy New Year, Losers." (I think you have to imagine this being said in the thick governator accent to truly appreciate the comedic effect).

He also took many (MANY) cheap shots at film students (who had reserved seats for the screening) and asserted that film school simply corrupts anything marginally good.

I checked out his book 'Herzog on Herzog' on Amazon (how I wish to someday be enough of an egomaniac to write such a book) and his opening advice to readers might be my new go-to mantra: 'never ever forget the shower curtain.'

Sehr gut!

Update blog instead of dissertation: check

Is it wrong to add something to your To-Do List after you have done it and then cross it off? Or is it only wrong if you get the same sense of satisfaction crossing it off as you do with real To-Do items that you complete?

I'm starting to think I am going to make my lists at the end of the day, jotting down and crossing off everything I accomplished. 'Have Jamba for lunch instead of well-intentioned salad I brought to work': check. 'Buy Wagner on a whim': check.

Hm - I might just be on to something here. I should go call Real Simple and clue them in.

everybody's working for the weekend

The whole vegan thing was such a non-issue this weekend that I almost don't feel right writing about it as though it were an issue worth relating. But I have nothing else to post, and you have nothing else to do on a Monday morning when you should be working, so here we go...

Friday night fastmiso and I cooked our standard quinoa, fake-meat cutlet, and greens dinner before going to see Hitchcock's Rope at the theater by our place. Recommendation: steamed kale with lemon juice. No, really. Go be the crazy person that actually eats those 'leafy greens' Women's Health has been yelling at you to eat.

On Saturday we were up in the east bay to see Ira Glass and David Rakoff and had some take-out Indian beforehand with our friends and their new baby (well, the baby didn't eat indian. it's two months old. but I wanted to add the frightening detail that I have friends with BABIES). The Indian place labeled all the vegan entrees with a happy little leaf and they even offered a vegan version of my fav dish, Malai Kofta. And our friends had made vegan chocolate chip cookies for dessert, not even knowing I was back on the vegan wagon. Welcome to Berkeley.

Tonight I had a small Oscars party with lots of fun little vegan appetizers. I think I was so excited about using my new food processor (I seriously called fastmiso into the kitchen on two separate occasions to marvel at my finely chopped onions and walnuts) that the 'challenging' vegan part of the appetizers fell by the wayside as a concern. Who cares about egg substitute when you have the most sublimely pureed cannellini beans? And once again a friend made vegan chocolate chip chips that, once again, made me embarrassed at my previous baking endeavor. But, thanks to my shiny red food processor, I had a fantastic walnut-mushroom pate that seemed to say to the world that yes, I can be something of a cook, too. Even if I can't bake cookies.

Perhaps my cooking excitement sapped away some of its strength, but did anyone else find the Oscars to just be a giant yawn? Stewart was adorable as always but I can't quite put my finger on a single memorable moment. So sad when a vegan pasta salad (=a blatant excuse to use my nayonaise) outshines the academy awards.

life in the fastmiso lane

It is such an accurate depiction of living with a former programmer that I can't even laugh.

nique ta mère

Fastmiso is currently trying to get permissions from various museums to publish pictures of Greek vases. One such museum is the Louvre, which has become something of a pain in his derriere. A couple days ago while I was working away in my room and he was working away in his room I hear through the hall 'Fuck the Louvre!'

It has become the new catchall curse in our apartment. Pile of dishes in the sink? Fuck the Louvre. Spinning rainbow of doom on Safari AGAIN? Fuck the Louvre. Superdelegates? Fuck the Louvre.

Endorsements below

I made a curried tofu salad for lunch today (perfect for salads AND sandwiches! oh my) and the recipe called for vegan mayonnaise. I haven't had regular mayo since I don't even when, so perhaps my reactions to the vegan mayonnaise was a bit overdramatic, but sweet jesus this stuff is good. My taste-test while making it last night sent me on a flavor road-trip to fourth of july, potato salad, and BLTs. I literally dreamed about eating the salad last night (made with mayo, curry powder, crushed pineapple, raisins, and cubed tofu).

No word yet from fastmiso on his own mayonnaise induced spiritual journey, but I strongly recommend you all go out and get a little jar of nayonaise or veganaise of your very own. And then you can tell me that it's awful and part of my brain must have clearly been replaced by actual soybeans (or ad execs from the soybean industry).

What do we want? When do we want it?

I was reading the Vegan Sourcebook last night and it reminded me of everything I agree and disagree with about the whole vegan 'movement'. The chapters on the animal industry (dairy, eggs, leather, wool) were once again eye opening and at points I literally had to put the book down and try not to throw up. I had the same reaction when the book went on to talk about the possibility of getting all new vegan friends and ditching those unenlightened meat-eating friends. Vomit. This is what turned me off of veganism in the first place. Well, that and a good hard cheddar.

I can certainly understand how sitting at a meal with a bunch of hunters eating veal is the equivalent to eating dinner with racists who like to beat puppies. But swearing off Thanksgiving with your family? Getting a divorce? I always thought the compassion part of veganism should extend to animals and humans.

I think I was particularly enraged because fastmiso's pater is a hunter and vet who once ran the animal lab at Dupont. According to the vegan manifesto, I should ditch the boy and picket his family's home.

AND I'm supposed to call Henry and Finnegan my 'domesticated companions'. These two animals just fought over who gets to sit in the blue Ikea bag left on the floor after I did laundry. They are pets. When they actually do the laundry, I might consider calling them companions. Actually...I seem to have a hard time getting my other domesticated companion to do the laundry. Maybe I should call him my pet, too.

(insert witty caption here)

Originally uploaded by ktpi

The prologue to the Tour of California kicked off today right outside my front door. I was more concerned with shutter speed as the racers went flying past and discovered this little red-headed guy (with matching crocs) when I got home and uploaded my photos.

I leave it up to you to create the caption. My current favorite: pedal faster, you bastard.

continued efforts to someday hear 'Oh Captain, my Captain'

I teach Latin to a group of gifted youth in an online high school. This current activity has provided me with ENDLESS cocktail party anecdotes. The scenario always plays out the same way:

'So, what do you do?'

I'm a grad student.

'Oh, what do you study?'

Latin and Greek.

'Oh.'

I also teach Latin for an online high school.

'Hm.'

'Wait, what? Online high school? Well how does that work?'

And, voila, I am the most interesting person at the party. 

The other perk of teaching online: I pre-record the majority of my Lectures, which means I sit in my little office without any outside censor and talk to my computer. This allowed me to record a Lecture in which I rant about the importance of slowness and exactness in translating Latin. I go off on how Roman history, the literary output of the Roman civilization, is in the hands of my students, and, really, who are they to think they have the right to mistranslate Cicero? The result, I get an email like this from a parent:

I have been asking ––– "how's Latin coming?" You may be interested in what she said this past Wednesday night, "I made up my mind not to dally in Latin anymore, not accept less than 100%. Magistra told us that faithful historical translation requires more than 'almost right' -- it requires perfect translation, otherwise you don't convey the sense that respect for ancient people demands. That made me think. (Referring to my long-standing fatherly admonition that anything less than 100% doesn't cut it.) You've been right all along. I want to learn the history, and to do that my Latin has to be unimpeachable. So I made up my mind to do what's necessary to nail it every time."

And, yes, they call me Magistra. I can't handle Miss and I'm not a Doctor or Professor yet, so that's what we got.

And there's a picture of a pizza

Caveat emptor: smelling and viewing the contents of this box may have adverse side effects on young children, pregnant women, and two-week old vegans.

And I don't want to sit here and explain ALL the reasons 'I chews you' is funny, but I can say that it is as equally amusing as watching hen and finn stare in terror at the screaming flying monkey I got in the mail today. These felines wouldn't last a day in the wild. 

heart of chocolate

A Valentine for me: Lindt Dark Chocolate is Vegan.

A Valentine for you:

who wears short shorts?

In about six weeks I am going to be wearing a bathing suit. This fact has pretty much taken over my life. Case in point: I had a pretty successful day yesterday in terms of my professional career and lots of wheels are turning in really great ways. What did I think about all day? How frightening the cellulite on my thighs looked in the Cal library bathroom. The image still haunts me and managed to ruin what should have been a really great, confidence-boosting day. While I did my best to listen intently to two incredibly intelligent and prominent Latinists as we ate gelato outside, my eye kept following all the skinny girls in short shorts, blemish-free thighs ablaze.

On the Vegan front, being cordial beat out being ethical yesterday when a Prof offered me a brownie, which she baked explicitly for our visit. I tried the 'oh, no, I couldn't -- I just ate' but when a tenured-professor insists, you yield. I can just imagine the job review: 'Oh, yes, I remember her. Lovely paper she gave once, but the ungrateful brat refused my brownie on ethical grounds'.

For those of you also concerned about the impending bathing suit season, check out the Podrunner podcasts on iTunes. They have a pretty cool interval podcast that alerts you to when you switch from jogging to walking and changes the BPM to match it.

Driving Miss Daisy

I'm giving a talk tomorrow for an undergraduate Ovid course with my advisor. While I am sufficiently stressed about giving a talk, I am even more stressed about driving one of the preeminent Latin scholars in the world across the bay. Check out this horrific story: 

http://gawker.com/news/the-powers-that-be/-325039.php


Looks like I'll have to clean those Kashi wrappers out of the backseat as well...

Pasta 1, kt80 0

I just had a little moment of reflection and decided to google how exactly one does make gnocchi. I realized these scrumptious potato dumplings might contain something other than potato. And, voila, we have egg yolk. Awesome.

Today has been a textbook vegan day to my sheer embarrassment. When I went to return a movie (recommendation: wordplay. The ending is a real heartbreaker AND you get to see what Neal Conan looks like) this morning I happened upon a farmer's market. IN FEBRUARY. I picked up some salad greens (bok choy already mixed in? be still my heart!) and a couple blocks of local, organic, tofu from two very happy girls that were earnestly forcing samples of tofu jerkey on helpless market goers. I even signed a petition to free hens from cages. What a morning.

I then had a kitchen success this afternoon with hummus from the Veganomicon cookbook (check out the website, it has the same recipe: http://www.theppk.com/). It was creamy, it had texture, and it let me use up the rest of the tahini in my fridge, which I think was beginning to corrupt the almond butter. And the cherry on top: the burning smell that came from my 4 year old blender gave me full permission to waste the next hour checking out food processors on Amazon. I might just treat myself with a Target trip today.

Cookies full of Canadia

I made some oatmeal cookies from the Veganomicon cookbook yesterday. I don't know why I feel compelled to start new dining adventures by cooking something. I am a terrible cook. And the end result is always inedible food, a sense of embarrassment for my earlier naive optimism, and an undercurrent of therapist-fueled angst towards my wonderful mother who never quite got around to healthy cooking.


The oatmeal cookies were pretty much on par with all of this. The 30 minute prep time somehow took me all the way through Fresh Air and I broke fastmiso's spatula in the process. The first batch were exactly what you would expect when I say 'vegan cookies': dry, crumbly, and filled with burnt raisins. Yum yum. The next batch turned out a bit better. I made the cookies bigger and took them out a lot sooner. Proof of semi-goodness: fastmiso ate a couple of his own free will. My only big gripe is that I used canola oil (which is short for Canadian oil. I was more surprised by this than I probably should be.) and I can not only taste the Canada in my cookies, but even the ziplock bag smells like Canada. Eh.



Last night I had a moment of true panic when I remembered that pesto has cheese in it. Fastmiso and I had found this great homemade pasta place on the way back from Tahoe a few weeks ago and have been having wonderful meals of fresh ravioli and gnocchi with homemade Tuscan bean soup (fastmiso is the soup master) and dollops of pesto ever since. I had a little pity party for myself last night as I watched (and smelled) the pesto all over fastmiso's plate, but I perked up when I decided to add grape tomatoes sauteed with olive oil to my gnocchi. I heart sauteed tomatoes. That Dr. Oz is on to something.

and among other things

I'm starting this blog for a few reasons.

One, typing 'Dear Diary' in Pages (yes, I use Pages. Not Mellel or some other hip processor) to myself is a bit like auditing a course. I want the experience without the accountability, and I know that eventually I'll just stop going. So here I am, officially enrolling for a letter grade and all. What this means: this blog is for me, not for you. You read it? Okay, fine. I might link to some silly fail cats just for you. But for the most part I'm just rambling about my day-to-day life as I get back into being vegan.

Two, the search results on the interweb for a decent vegan blog were disappointing. Oh, there were plenty of vegan blogs - plen-tee. But for some reason being vegan+keyboard=fucking tofu! Seriously. I was hard pressed to find a blog (or any basic vegan site) that wasn't full of expletives and eulogies for tempeh and quinoa. Whole grains are cool and all and sneaky uses of casein are pretty lame, but there simply must be more to your life.

This bring us to three (and the title). Yes, I'm getting back into being a vegan and, yes, I want to chronicle it. Kind of. Being vegetarian for the past twelve years is certainly a part of who I am, but it's just one of the things among other things (=inter alia) that occupy my time. I'm also getting a PhD in Classics and basically live the pseudo-average life of a grad student on the verge of 30 in Silicon Valley. While I will talk about the vegan stuff (oh the perils of eating out! oh the lack of soy yogurt at Trader Joes! oh my increased sense of self worth!) I'm also going to talk about the other things I have going on, like teaching for an online high school and living with fastmiso (which could be a blog unto itself).

And who knows - maybe after three weeks of veganism I, too, will eschew propriety and write flame posts about Chik patties and Whole Foods. But let's hope not.