Native Foods Blog

Win a Trip to Portland CONTEST WINNERS!

by Native Foods Cafe

 

Holy Guacamole!  We had so many amazing entries in our Win a Trip to Portland with Chef Tanya contest on Facebook this past week.  All of our friends and fans are so freakin' awesome!  It was a very hard decision, but here is the run-down on the winners.  Thanks to everyone who played and Like us on Facebook to be the first to find about all contests, giveaways and Native Fun stuff!

All winners, please e-mail contest@nativefoods.com to claim your prize!

 

Grand Prize Winner: Marshall Dion

Marshall and his wife Tiffany will be joining us at Native Foods Cafe in Portland for our VIP Grand Pre-Opening Party this weekend.  Their fab prize includes airfare, hotel, spending cash, and a personal vegan shopping tour with Chef Tanya, VegSource and Jess of Get Sconed!

Weekly Lunch at Native Foods Cafe for an entire year:  Maddy Coghlan

How many Raw Choppers can you eat in a year Maddy?!

A Sweet Pair of Tom’s Shoes:

1) Matt Arguello

2) Beverly Lau

 

A Subscription to VegNews Magazine

1)  Candace VandeZande

2)  Jennifer Silveira

3)  Sum-Sum Chan

4)  Molly Gard

5)  Mindy White

6)  Andi Glover

7)  Teresa Stella Buelna

8   Ericka Gonzalez

9)  Madison Gagliano- Olson

10)  Dean Case

 

$25 Native Foods Gift Card

1)  Dan Cotreau

2)  Olive Glasgow

3)  Corey Rovzar

4)  Paul Simpson

5) M.g. Mary Grace

6)  Sheva Kafai

7)  Kevin Ramirez

9)  Kelly Peloza

Native Foods Cookbook

1)  Fernando Castroman

2)  Judy Reinhold

VIP Tickets to the Pre-Opening Parties in Portland

1) Gail Davis

2) Leslie Rossell

3) Toby Gershon Padgett

4) Charissa Sharkey

5) Tawny Mergel

5 Reasons to Vegan this Week!

By Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

 

1.  You are in Chicago and feeling maniacal  Go to Veganmania! Nov. 5 , 10am- 5pm, Pulaski Park Fieldhouse.  A  celebration where the non-vegans have the most fun! Vegan food, great music, vegan products, vegan doctors, vegan lawyers (can you imagine?!... and you can even meet Tofu Man (we think he’s a lawyer in disguise).

Join Native Foods Cafe at VeganMania this year!

2.  Easier now to get a great vegan meal at a banquet function   While I was fortunate to receive the Universal Courageous Heart Award for helping animals from the uber compassionate man and fab musician Barry Manilow, the highlight was the vegan gourmet dinner the Westin in Rancho Mirage served! Still dreaming about that fresh warm cobbler with cream dessert!

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of TIME from the Farm Sanctuary Gala.

3.  November is American Diabetes Month  Besides that it kills more people each year than breast caancer and AIDS combined and soon 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes! 79 million now at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. A simple change to eating a delicious vegan diet can be the solution!  

Try the Portobello and Sausage Burger at Native Foods Cafe!

4.  TV dinners! If that’s what was keeping you from going vegan you can thank Joy and Bart from Candle Cafe and Candle 79 in NYC.  Whole Foods is now carrying  a line of their frozen vegan entrees.  Yum yum. 

5. You are a French rebel  So France afraid of losing their gourmand culture to veg heads is now not allowing schools to serve veg or vegan meals. Come on now let them eat tofu…il ne vraiment pas de justice! 

 
Hungry veg pupils just want delicious vegan food in the form of Scorpion Burgers from Native Foods Cafe.

 

 

 

 

PETA vs. SeaWorld

by Christopher Arnett

Native Foods Cafe

In a new lawsuit that would have the founding fathers raise their eyebrows, PETA is interpreting the scope of the 13th Amendment’s ban on slavery to include animals. In this case specifically, PETA is fighting for the rights of five performing killer whales who the organization claims are being kept in conditions that violate the 13^th Amendment.

  But what about the Orcas Mr. Adams?  We've not yet addressed their constitutional rights?  Um, how about we take a break for some vegan food at Native Foods Cafe?  This is simply too daunting.

For the past year-and-a-half, PETA has had five lawyers working on the case to grant constitutional rights to the orcas. SeaWorld depicted the suit as baseless. Legal experts not directly involved with the case say the chances of success for PETA are slim. Of course, the decision ultimately rests with the courts and their interpretation of the law.

A giant orca in one of those tanks is like a human in a cardboard box, but hey!  That's ok too, right?  Just check out Skid Row in downtown LA.  Sarcasm by Native Foods Cafe.

 The 13th Amendment officially abolished and continues to prohibit involuntary slavery and involuntary servitude in the U.S, except as punishment for a crime. Slavery is defined as a system in which people are treated as property and forced to work. They are held against their will and deprived of the right to leave. Well, by this definition, killer whales can be considered to be slaves. But the subject of the condition of slavery recognized in the Amendment has always been human. Jeff Karr, one of the PETA lawyers, said “…this case is about the orcas in their own right, not whether they are or aren’t similar to humans.” Ultimately, that is true. But unfortunately, if PETA is going to utilize laws intended for humans in order to confer rights to animals, there will have to be an overlap at some point. In order to win their case, it seems PETA will have to convince the courts that either the Amendment was intended to ban slavery for all creatures, or to somehow include animals in the definition of a person.

  We're all the same really.  We want to eat (preferably vegan food at Native Foods Cafe), have sex, maybe some kids, protect them, have a little fun...

 

When the founding fathers wrote that “all men were created equal,” they had men of European descent in mind. Since that time, civil rights movements (abolitionists, African-Americans, women, etc.)  have adopted the statement, broadening its scope in such a way to include and validate their own efforts. But will PETA be able to do the same? Altering the original intent of this statement so that it included non-Europeans and women was really not that much of a stretch; we are all of the same species, after all. It seems PETA has their legal work cut out for them. And yet, despite all the legal hoops PETA is making the effort to jump through, the underlying issue remains the same: is it right to hold a wild animal in captivity for the purpose of human entertainment? Like many others, I say it is not. I believe that wild animals may at times be needed to be in the custody of humans for treatment and research that benefits the animal, but not spend the length of their lives in captivity for the purpose of gawking onlookers.

  Ugh!  Can you imagine there was once a time when they kept animals in captivity and made them do tricks such as having humans stand on their noses?!  

PETA has had a history of extreme and high-profile measures (PETA porno,anyone?), drawing the ire of many a detractor. And this current campaign is no exception (check out the comments left on the Yahoo! News site, for one). But strangely enough, these very people who would ridicule PETA’s efforts have only served to keep the buzz alive and encourage a dialogue. It is unlikely that PETA will currently win this lawsuit, but it is undeniable that they have raised an issue into the public spotlight that will get people thinking about it. And while many people must be thinking “this is stupid,” as long as they take that next step and ask themselves “why is this stupid?,” they are engaging in a process of inquiry that can only lead to certain truths if their minds stay open and logical. Well, here’s hoping, anyway.

 

 

Check out this link to read more on PETA’s official site.

 

 

 

 

 

Food “Did Ya Knows?”... and a Great Party Appetizer!

By Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe 

Ras el hanout   A Moroccan spice blend that is unique to each maker. Can contain up to 50 different spices and as tradition would have it, contains aphrodisiacs; one isn’t vegan…the Spanish fly beetle. Make sure you know your source if eating!

Kinda like the Egyptian Dukkaf from Native Foods Cafe (vegan recipe below).

 Potato Gaufrette  Thin, crispy, latticed potato chips.

Gaufrettes are a delicious way to scoop up Tempeh Pate from the Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook!

 

Fines Herbes  A mixture of very finely chopped herbs added to dish right before serving. Classic is chervil, chives, parsley and tarragon. Try some!

  Nice mixed in olive oil for delicious dipping with hot crusty bread.

Fining  Process of removing little floating particles from wine and beer that stop it from being clear. Egg whites and shells, dairy protein, gelatin, isinglass (fish bladder) as well as diatomaceous earth are used. The latter being vegan.

Diatomaceous earth has plenty of household uses as well!

 

Falernum  A West Indies sweetener that tastes like lime, ginger and almonds. Name doesn’t sound as good as flavors taste!  

  Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of eldoradobar.blogspot.com

Dagwood Sandwich  Named after the cartoon character in the Blondie comic strip.  A big thick sandwich made from a variety of meats, cheeses, condiments and lettuce.  Now vegan alternatives exist!  This was my version for Father's Day this year.

  The Big Daddy Dagwood at Native Foods Cafe served on Father's Day

Roux   A mixture of flour and fat  cooked over low heat and creates a flavor profile as well as thickens soups, sauces, stews. How long or how dark on lets it gets when cooking depends on the flavor profile you are looking for. 

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of iverlog.blogspot.com

 

Tutti Frutti  A jam/preserve made with various fruits, sugar and brandy. An Italian term that means “all fruits.”

Filbert   Also known as a hazelnut. Yum. Try it in this recipe!

Dukkah

A wonderful dry Egyptian spiced nut mix served with bread and a bowl of good olive oil.  Dip Bread into oil and then dukkah.  Will keep in a jar for weeks.

2 cups hazelnuts (filberts)

1/2 cup sesame seeds

2 cups almonds

2 tbs coriander seed

2 tbs cumin powder

2 tsp sea salt

2 tbs sweet paprika

2 tsp turmeric

Bread and olive oil for dipping

 

Pre-heat oven to 325.  Put the almonds and filberts on separate sides of a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. 

Add coriander and sesame seeds to almond side of tray and bake 5 minutes more.  Remove all from oven. 

While filberts are still warm, rub in a towel to remove skin.  Allow both mixtures to cool. 

While nuts and seeds are baking, mix remaining ingredients in a food processor. 

When cool add remaining ingredients to

processor and pulse until crumbly.  Pause between pulses to prevent overheating and oiling up the mixture!

 

vegan food, native foods cafe portland, vegan appetizers

 

Being a Healthy, Inspired Vegan in Orange County: OC Vegan Adventures

by Kriss Young

Native Foods Cafe Contributing Blogger

After learning about the cruelties of the dairy industry and factory farming, I adopted a vegan lifestyle in January 2011. Being vegan is easy, especially in Southern California.However, it takes some research to learn how to do it in a way that is healthy and sensible. That’s why I created a blog dedicated to veganism in Orange County, covering everything from veg-friendly restaurants to nutrition facts, great beauty products and more!

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of  OC Vegan Adventures

Vegan Eating

For the first few months that I was vegan, I would hardly eat out because I didn’t knowwhere to go or how to order. Luckily, that allowed me to try a lot of healthy recipes at home, including "cheesy" black bean enchiladas, veggie pesto sandwiches and roasted tomato soup. Eventually I learned that there many local places to eat out, including 100% vegan establishments like Native Foods Cafe, Freesoulcaffé and the Seabirds Food Truck.  Surprisingly, there are popular chain restaurants that accommodate the vegan diet as well.

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of  OC Vegan Adventures.

Shopping

Did you know that Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, Whole Foods and Mother’s Market each carry an abundance of vegan products, including frozen chicken-free nuggets, all-natural shampoo, bee-free lip balm and more? I didn’t think that finding these kinds of items would be so easy. I also didn’t know that Target has all-natural hygiene and beauty products, or that Sephora carries Urban Decay, a popular brand of cruelty-free cosmetics.  Check my blog for a list of my favorite products and where to get them.

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of  OC Vegan Adventures

About Being Vegan

Since I am not a vegan-veteran, I feel like I still have a lot to learn. I'm slowly scratchingthe surface on important subjects like taking supplemental vitamins, eating "perfect proteins", supporting local animal-oriented charities and more. I am excited to share everything I learn on my blog, as I continue to grow as a person and become increasingly familiar with the different aspects of veganism.  For more information about being vegan in Orange County, including animal-oriented volunteer opportunities, local events, resources and facts, please visit my full blog at www.ocveganadventures.com.  I’m working hard to update it and add new information everyday. Thanks for reading and allowing me to share my journey with you!

 

*Kriss was one of the winners of our "Blogging with Chef Tanya" Facebook Contest!  We loved her Vegan Adventures in OC blog as it guides you through all the basics of the vegan lifestyle, in Orange County!

 

5 Reasons to Vegan YOUR Week!

by Chef Tanya Petrovna 

Native Foods Cafe

1) You get Vegucated!  I know I hyped this last week, but I'm not gonna stop till everyone sees it!  And the L.A. premiere of Vegucated is this Thurs. the 27th at 7pm at the Landmark Theatre. It will certainly help you get started at least eating vegan 1 day per week! It’s a bit of a comedy too so you won’t have to bring a tissue. www.getvegucated.com 

2) You Want To Eat Like an Olympic Athlete!   Meghan Duhamel, the Canadian figure skater eats a healthy vegan performance diet. In a recent interview she told VegNews,  "One of my proudest accomplishments has been going vegan."  Athletes can really feel  the difference in what they eat and can feel a good calorie v.s. a yucky one. Burn the right calories!

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of USA Today.

3)You Like Diner Food   Vegan Diner the cookbook. A fave L.A. customer that uprooted to Portland has got some crazy good diner recipes in her latest cookbook. See you soon in Portland Julie! 

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of another fab Portland vegan company Herbivore Clothing

4) Russell Brand Did It   If PETA’s 2011 Sexy Veg Celeb can do it and still have a sense of humor…you can too. He tweeted that he watched the documentary Forks Over Knives.  Forks Over Knives Changes Lives! 

5) You Know What To Put On It   Hardest part is figuring what to put on stuff to make it taste good. Here’s a quick sauce that will keep you and your friends coming back for more. Slather on everything. 

Slather Sauce 

2 ea.red bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded 

¾ cup almonds, blanched and roasted 

1 ea. garlic clove 

2 Tbsp. olive oil 

2 tsp. smoked sweet paprika (usually from Spain) 

½  tsp. salt 

¼ tsp. black pepper 

Puree all in blender until smooth and creamy. 

 

Native Foods Cafe uses this photo courtesy of Bob Chamberlin Los Angeles Times.

 

 

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears…Ohio!

by Christopher Arnett

Native Foods Cafe

I’m sure many of you heard the story in the news this week of the Zanesville, Ohio man Terry Thompson. He killed himself after freeing his large collection of exotic animals from their pens on his junkyard/wild animal farm, 56 in total! The animals released included lions, tigers, bears, wolves, and monkeys. Because of the high number of carnivores that were released, the public and the emergency responders were at great risk.

 

Thompson had a history of violating local laws regarding his ownership and treatment of the animals. In fact, there was a whopping 35 calls made to police by neighbors in the past couple years about animal escapes, as well as animal abuse charges. Yikes! Why wasn’t this guy shut down a long time ago? Sounds like it was a disaster waiting to happen.

 

A former zoo director, Tom Stalf, was brought in to help with the situation. He supported the police’s abandoning of their initial intent to sedate and recapture the animals. The animals were loose on the 73 acres of Thompson’s property in the pitch-black darkness of night. This, combined with overwhelming number of animals and the fact that tranquilizer darts take eight to fifteen minutes to take effect, put the responders in too much danger. Stalf said lethal force was necessary to ensure the safety of the officials and the town populace. The local SWAT team was brought in to help bring down the animals.

The following morning, the bodies of the dead animals were everywhere. It turns out this was the largest animal escape in the history of the United States, as the vicinity of Zanesville became a veritable jungle. The officials discovered that some of the animals had even begun to feed on Thompson’s remains. And it seems Thompson was bent on making sure the animals were able to escape, because he had cut holes in their pens to allow them get out if they were recaptured. When the authorities entered Thompson’s house for further investigation, they could hardly breathe from the stench. He was a compulsive hoarder that filled his house with even more animals in atrocious conditions, such as monkeys in birdcages.

Of the 56 exotic animals that Thompson released, only a handful survived the night’s ordeal: three leopards, one grizzly beard, and two monkeys. Fortunately they are alive, and are being quarantined at the local zoo.

Of the experience, Stalf told the Quad-City Times, “This was a sad day. This was very traumatic, obviously. You know, I’ve spent most of my life educating and inspiring people to love animals. To see them in a pile, waiting to be identified, it was criminal.”

Perhaps as a final act of compassion to the animals in his possession, Terry Thompson chose to free them before he took his own life. Sadly, this choice only condemned the poor creatures to meet their own deaths as authorities sought to bring the town to safety. Fortunately, this incident is going to change current legislature regarding ownership of exotic animals. It will become much harder to own exotics, and the allowable number will be much lower. Ok. That’s an improvement. But here’s an idea: how about private individuals are NEVER allowed to own exotic animals! I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that zoos might be a necessary evil for now (the ones that support conservation, education of the public, and the best possible treatment of the animals, of course), but for anyone else it just seems absurd.

Absurdity in a nutshell!

Maybe I’ve seen too many TV shows about dangerous animal accidents involving your average Joe who has a lion or two penned up out back, but I think this issue is pretty cut and dry. All in all, wild animal and humans don’t mix. It’s not fair to the animals, and dangerous for humans.  Wild animals are beautiful creatures deserving of our respect, but part of that respect involves allowing them to live their lives in their natural habitats without unnecessary human interference.

I mean, what if they decided to bear arms?

Check out our friends Jane Velez-Mitchell and Jane Garrison commenting on the tragic scene HERE.

Pumpkin High

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

Looking forward all year to off-and-go, hi-de-ho, to the pumpkin patch! Nothing excites me more than the energizing color of orange and ablaze I am set in the middle of a patch of pumpkins.  Oh, and our pumpkin carving contest is going on tomorrow at all Native Foods Cafe locations!  Come pick out a beauty, carve it, name it and enter it in the contest to win prizes and have fun.... and remember to save the seeds and the innards to make something delicious (recipes below).

Patchin' it up!  (via Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Food Cafe)

 

Not only are there orange pumpkins but white pumpkins, green and white striped (best fat seeds for roasting), warty ones, ceramic pottery colored ones and let’s not forget crazy tubular snake wrapping squashes. There is no museum in the country that houses such beautiful sculptures.

Pottery Pumpkins!  (via Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe)

When you first walk in to the display you think you see what you want and it’ll be a few minutes before you head to the checkout window. Then your mind is in pumpkin field mud, stuck between which of the two you like best, then you see the one next to those two and can’t decide between the three, then four, then five…!

Red Kuri Pumpkins (via Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe)

It is at this precise point you remember everyone you know that needs the pumpkin vibe too and all of them end up in your cart. The pumpkin patch brings out the ultimate spirit of giving. Hand your friends a recipe along with a pumpkin and you will make it their best day of the year too! Here are a few to copy. Start with the baking and you can go from there.

Baked Pumpkin

Easiest by far and no struggling with knives…

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Place whole pumpkin in oven as is.

3. Bake for about 90 minutes or until tender, check with fork (depends on size).

4. Remove, cool, cut in half and remove seeds and strings.

5. Eat now as is or puree in food processor. You can portion and freeze at this point.

 

You can use this prep to make pumpkin pie, soup, pudding, cupcakes, pumpkin butter…  Anyone who wants to share some vegan pumpkin recipes POST on our FB page!

Warty the pumpkin and Hector! (via Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe)

Pumpkin Seeds

1. Cut the top off or cut pumpkin in half and scoop seeds from raw/unbaked pumpkin.

2. Rinse well to remove strings and let air on cookie sheet.

3. Put in bowl and ad a little olive oil and salt and toss to coat. I like to add a little spicy smoked paprika too.

4.Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for ½ hour to 40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

 

The Eat Peace Pumpkin

via Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe, vegan food, vegan restaurants


 

 

Loony Cardoons

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

Well did you ever see such a thing as a cardoon?  It is actually in the artichoke family though has a stalk-like celery appearance... but quite huge in fact, about three times the size of a celery. 

photo courtesy of Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe (vegan food)

It has an October physiology as well with spike-like protrusions off the end of the stalks.  The outer stalks are more solid and fang like… remove these tough outer fangs after trimming off the bottom, and any old cuts and/or leaves from the top.

The peeling of each stalk is essential to remove the fibrous ribs. I found the outer stalks to be much more firm and required more diligence to remove the fibrous ribs.

photo courtesy of Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe (vegan food)

They need to cook and simmer about an hour before we do the deed with them, so get your pot of water ready and a whole lemon sliced in half (or I used 2 limes since my Key Lime tree was providing). Squeeze out the juice and drop the whole thing in. Drop in the cardoon as you cut each stalk into about 1 to 2 inch pieces. Bring it all to boil and let simmer about an hour.

Drain, rinse and cool in a casserole dish while you prepare the Béchamel sauce.

 

5 TBSP olive oil

5 TBSP flour

2 ½ cups soymilk or almond milk, warm

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

pinch white pepper

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil.  Then add flour and stir with heat lowered until flour is a golden brown. Whisk in milk a little at a time to keep smooth and let come to boil… then simmer while stirring for a couple of minutes until nice and thick… and you feel like you can’t wait to try it.  Remove from heat and add salt, nutmeg and white pepper.

photo courtesy of Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe (vegan food)
 

Pour all over those cardoons in casserole dish, top with some breadcrumbs and vegan parmesan and bake at 375 for about 30 min until top is a solid golden brown.

photo courtesy of Chef Tanya Petrovna Native Foods Cafe (vegan food)

Very artichokey flavor. Tell me what you think!

 

5 Reasons to Vegan this Week!

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

1. Gulf Seafood Isn’t Safe-and if you are eating seafood from the Gulf, it isn’t safe either!  The Natural Resources Defense Council found that what the FDA said is safe to eat is actually 10,000 times the safe levels of the contaminate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which is linked to cancer, birth defects and liver disease. There were already some food safety issues with fish even before the Gulf disaster, now there’s one more!

2. Hot Knives New Cookbook Salad Daze is out! This new veg cookbook has some great and fun yums by Evan George and Alex Brown. I just got it, and the best recipes are the vegan ones hands down!  Check out their blog for up to the minute food stuffs: Hot Knives!

3. Vegucated the Movie- Three New Yorkers take on a vegan diet for six weeks and it turns into a total adventure comedy and a sociology experiment. It’ll be premiering near you shortly. Get Vegucated!

 

 

4. The Bjorn Tote Bag-Olsen Haus has come out with an amazing new tote that will carry you seamlessly from Fall to Winter and beyond.  Think the Hermes Birkin bag's sophisticated cruelty-free sister.  Check it out here!

5. Even Subway Needs To Know-The chain with a restaurant on every street corner in the country (one of my personal mentors in the biz) is asking for feedback on their Veggie Delite vegan sandwich from their twitter followers. COK (Compassion OverKilling) has started a campaign with a website petition asking them to expand it’s veg options. JOIN IN the commentary! 

native foods cafe, native foods cafe portland, native foods cafe encinitas, vegan food