Late Night Vegan New York. Dhaba, Vegan Indian past Midnight. Kathy Freston & Jane Velez-Mitchell on Headline News talkin' Cacao. East St. Louis Stray Dogs Need Fosters!

You always hear that NY is the "City that Never Sleeps".  But it's not.  Well, maybe it IS, but maybe it isn't the city that "DINES" all night.  So many places close up at 10, 11 or by midnight.  Kind of a bummer for those of us that love long, leisurely dinners when the clock strikes 12.  Even though many places brag of a later closing time in "The Vegan Guide to New York" book, often they fib.  If it's slow, they close early.  If it's winter, they close early.  If the waitstaff has a wild date night ahead, they close early.  Same thing with DhaBa.  Except that "hypothetically" they are open until 2 am.  Once we went pretty late & the place was PACKED with "youngsters" (people under 45).  And then the last time we went before 11, and were told that the kitchen was closing very soon & we should order ASAP.  So it's a crap shoot, but hit a good night, and this place is happening.

Dhaba

108 Lexington Avenue

New York City, NY.

10016

212.336.3567

What's pretty cool about this place is that they specify which dishes are Vegan.  We vegans like that.  I hate to be the "Meg Ryan" ordering.  So the more answers directly on the menu, the better.

  Kadai Bhindi.  Sauteed Okra with Onions, Ginger, & Coriander.  A great okra dish.  I thought everything was a tad greasy, but hubby didn't even flinch.  But basically all restaurant food seems greasy to me (even raw joints, and sometimes especially raw joints).  So for late night Indian, it was nothing compared to "Shalimar" in San Fran, where we picked up a late night meal because the 3 pieces of tofu from acclaimed "Millenium" were not enough.  Shalimar was greasy.  Beyond greasy.  This was just "normal".

The decor is pretty hip and it's kind of an Indian "Sex in the City" joint.  Okay, everything "hip" is Sex in the City to me, because that's the last thing media wise, that I have followed, where I even came close to "hip clubs".  Lots of cloth on the wall, which I Love, BUT, with bedbugs being such a major NY topic, I kind of wondered if any were lurking in there!!

Loved that this was a "hang out" place.  A full bar and people uninhibited enough to use it.  Overall I though Dhaba was pretty good.  Basically, it has a decent vibe and isn't too "stiff".  Hubby thinks it is is delicious.  And that that deliciousness goes really well with a large Kingfisher Beer.  He quite appreciates a full bar WITH his spicy food.  I could do without the oil......but that is basically at every restaurant, so I can't be used as a barometer.  Also, would I trek here in the daytime?  Probably not.  Only because there are far too many entirely Vegan places to eat during regular hours.  We had just been to Caravan of Dreams way too many times for late night eats and thought we would switch it up a bit.  And Counter was forever closed the last time we went..........

What are your favorite Late Night Vegan Eats where YOU live??

www.gatewaypets.com

Some kids that are on the streets of East St. Louis, Illinois.  Pj & Gateway Pet Guardians go each and every single day to care for all of the stray dogs & cats that they see.......and then rescue & foster as spots open at the shelter or foster homes become available.  These are areas of the United States that are incredible impoverished.  Even though I have accompanied Pj on these feedings many times, I am continually shocked & saddened by the "blight" of Washington Park, Illinois & East St. Louis, Illinois. They are "forgotten" places.  So many people & animals suffering.  There are some organizations helping with the people, but of course, that can be complicated.  The dogs can also be difficult.  As many are very shy & nearly feral.  Others are completely "normal" and were once "pets".  Pj works to gain trust of those that are not so trusting & GPG works on rescue plans.

Kathy Freston & Jane Velez-Mitchell on Chocolate.......Headline News.....Veganism is going Mainstream.  

Ellen sends in Kathy Freston to "Veganize" a Family.

I was delighted to see this clip of Kathy Freston on the Ellen show. Of course Ellen is one of our favorite "Daily Vegans". Thankfully she doesn't shy away from having vegan cooking segments on her show & she is really doing a lot to educate the general population about "veganizing" their life. And our friend Kathy.....Here, There, and Everywhere. Of course she had her big Oprah show appearance where she had to share the stage with "Poopy Pants Pollan" and she has been making the rounds since then. Just last night there was a decent segment on "Extra" TV!! She's amazing because she is appealing to all of our senses. Losing weight, saving the planet, getting healthier. And since she kind of made her initial appearance doing the 3 week cleanse on Oprah, she has been able to expand her scope beyond "cleansing" and touch a little more on the animal aspect of it. I believe she is primarily vegan for ethical reasons, but we take awhile to break into that vibe in the States. If it doesn't fix us, our bodies, or we don't see the correlation with our health, we don't pay much attention. I know she got criticized for a lot of packaged foods on her Oprah segment. However, she did make it clear that you can eat very basic vegan foods like rice & beans (think Anupy's Indian Slow Cooker Book), whole grains, and veggies. Or you can use a "transition" diet that does include "Tofurkey", Daiya cheese, and the likes. This is easier for a lot of people because they can use substitutes for the foods they are used to eating. And even if Daiya cheese or vegan chicken wings are not as healthy as brown rice, broccoli, or bok choy, they still contain NO cholesterol so they are way better for your heart.

Note:  You do  not need packaged food to be vegan.  My folks were eating pretty close to vegan when I was little because of books like "Diet for a Small Planet" and meat was expensive.  I grew up with rice & bean pie (always brown rice!), homemade whole wheat bread, and swiss chard. So if you aren't into "Gardein" or "Daiya" (you really want to try Daiya!), then no worries.  You can still be vegan!  Kathy and Tal are both in Oprah's circle, so these are the peeps that are getting lots of coverage.  And they went into a home that is used to eating meat daily.  So for this family, to just try to ease into eating less meat, then I believe these products can be helpful.  It isn't really representative of what I eat on a daily basis (although my hubby would be fine with Amy's Vegan Pizzas and Grilled Daiya daily), but it is an avenue for change.  

In a country where nearly 75% of people are overweight, I am just THRILLED that Veganism is getting some press. And I am not mentioning the "overweight" part because I think people should be concerned with their "looks". It is far more serious than that. We are losing our Mothers, our Fathers, our Sisters, and our Brothers to obesity. To preventable diseases. This reason alone is enough to try something different. And maybe somewhere in all of this process, people will realize that a pig is no different than a dog. The pig is actually smarter. It is always funny, in a strange way, that Americans are completely outraged by cultures or people who abuse or would eat dogs yet they eat pigs, chickens, and cows. To us vegans, it's kind of like EVERYONE is eating dogs. But it's comical sometimes to see someone really get quite excited about something that happened to a dog and then they eat steak......or bacon......Just a disconnect somewhere. You can't really condemn a culture that eats animals we call pets while we eat animals other cultures call sacred. What is the difference to an American between a dog and a pig? Between a Sacred Cow and a Pig? Between a Pig and a Chicken? 

What is the difference to you guys between different animals? Are you guys offended by people who would eat dogs? If you don't eat meat or dairy anymore, what was the book, thought, movie that motivated you to quit?

Crazy Sexy Diet Adventure Cleanse of Kris Carr, Day 16. Chubby Cargill Chic and Oprah's "Stedman" is now "Studman".

                    

                                                 Healing Cancer from the Inside Out  

Is Stedman going to "flip"??  While I am not going to go on and on and on about the Oprah show yesterday, that discussed veganism while also giving Michael Pollan a chance to justify his unsexy ways, I was uber excited that Stedman seemed to have an interest in the whole Vegan thing.  I guess Oprah had mentioned in passing that she had been at her "Vegan" meeting, about herself and her staff going Vegan for one week, and Stedman wanted to jump right on board.  Apparently he has some interest in continuing with it after the "trial week".  Kathy Freston, "The Veganist", was the Vegan Voice for this show and she had a smokin' hot Vegan Body to accompany it.  Which isn't a point at all really, because it's what's on the inside that counts, but good advertising never hurts.  Even though Kathy advocates a Whole Food (not necessarily Whole Foods) diet, she did accompany one staffer to Whole Foods and they stocked up on "transition" foods, like Tofurkey, Daiya Cheese, Earth Balance, and Almond Milks.  These are all great foods, and even with their packaging carry far less environmental harm than killing cows and chickens, never mind the Karma Points.  But ultimately it's cheaper and healthier to eat foods as close to their natural sources as possible.  That said,  Daiya cheese tastes great and none of these foods have cholesterol.  It seemed that this "Vegan Experiment" made a lot of staffers at least think about how animal products have penetrated every food they buy, and apparently "poop" was a pretty big topic.  I found it hard to believe that a young staffer once only pooped once a week but was pooping every day on the Vegan diet.  Once a week?  Ouch.  I guess I am pretty naive that pooping is such a major difficulty in our country.  It does blow me away that people buy fiber supplements, as if fiber is such a rare entity in food.  There was a meat processing scene, of one of the Cargill's slaughterhouses and a whole bunch of BS by a Chubby Chic who represented "Cargill".  If you want to look like the "Chubby Cargill Chic" eat slaughtered cow.  If you want to look like Kathy Freston, well, eat Vegan.  Look, nothing against "Chub", but "Chub" is always cuter if it comes from Uncle Eddie's Vegan cookies or Fish Gut Free Frey.  Chub is no longer cute when you are being a spokesperson for how ethical and moral you are while blacking out the stun scene.  Let the kids see the friggin' stun scene.  They wouldn't even show it to the adults.

Kathy Freston "The Veganist"

Ah, back to cleansing.  Snow, ice, Kale.  Have been totally owning bragging rights to eating up to 2 heads of Kale a day.  I have been using bananas the last few days which is so not in the Cleanse as low glycemic fruits are preferred.  However,  I have been using and entire bunch of Kale in each smoothie and adding green powder as well.  The whole glycemic thing is pretty confusing at this point.  On one hand you have Hippocrates and Gabriel Cousens dissing carrots and potatoes and on the other hand the Gerson Therapy has you drink 13 glasses of juice, mostly carrot, a day and stewing white!! potatoes. One thing I do know, is that if you are not the most disciplined eater, then you need to have "healthy contraband" in your kitchen.

Kale Salad with Sunflower Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Red Cabbage, Lemon Juice, Coconut Aminos, Olive Oil.

An example is a gal I know who basically eats pork chops and brownies, throw a little pad thai in here and there.  Now she is getting healthier, and truly wants to shed some weight, so she adds green smoothies in her diet, which is awesome.  However, she doesn't eat enough healthy food or have "healthy binge" food around, so she still binges on boxes of brownies.  If you "binge", then you better have some healthy stuff like apples, bananas, or even vegan cookies with fruit sugars.  Being an ethical vegan makes it pretty damn easy to avoid a lot of c**p, because in Middle America, people aren't baking mountains of Vegan Brownies and bringing them to work to share. It's not like there is a Babycakes around the corner.  Sometimes it's good that you can just automatically discount 95% of the food in the room, because you shouldn't be eating it anyway.  Throw stuff you shouldn't eat in the trash.  Yes, the trash.  Then take the trash out, we all remember the episode of Sex in the City where Miranda dug her brownies out of the trash.



So story with the "Brownie Babe".  The green smoothie with a box of brownies wasn't really working so she went on a diet touted by Kevin Trudeau diet of eating meat and dairy and a severely restricted vegetable allowance.  And 500 calories total intake a day.  For 3 weeks or something to "reset" your body.  Of course if you eat 500 calories a day you will lose a pound every 2 days!  My point, get healthy binge food so you aren't pumping poison into your body to lose weight.  Buy your Karma Kookies or get your nuts and dates out.  You just have to redefine what "junk" food is.  To me it's bananas.  My butt likes it that way.

Hubby's Quote of the day on topic of my breath: "You smell like you've been lickin' a lawnmower.  Like freshly cut grass."

Now that's what I consider a successful Cleanse Day.
Maybe if I make a Vision Board today, that has a picture on a Vision Board on it, one will come to fruition over the weekend.........And thank you Kris Carr for getting the Green Machine and I back together.  Loving the Kale,  and Kris was the one who helped us reunite.

This book is great for anyone.
Super fun and inspirational.