Native Foods Blog

Win a Trip to Chicago and Tickets to Lollapalooza!

by Native Foods Cafe

Go to our Facebook, Like us, then leave a comment on our Wall about why you like us.... and you could win a trip to Chicago for two including airfare, spending cash, tickets to Lollapalooza and the VIP pre-opening parties at Native Foods Cafe in Wicker Park!  25 runners-up could win a-meal-a-week for an entire year at Native Foods, an iPod Touch, a pair of Tom's Shoes, a year subscription to VegNews magazine and more... Woo-hoo!  But don't delay... The contest ENDS THIS SATURDAY July 30th, 2011 at 5pm (PST).  Get in on the action HERE... and be creative... jazz it up with video, pictures, whatever!

My Summer in India...

By Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

I missed a trip to India two years ago due to saving some sacred cows here in the U.S….rats! I was really happy to help save the cows don’t get me wrong, but I also wanted to see the rats at the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke. It is here that people honor and feed the rats, and believe it or not, the rats spread no disease and never populate the city where the temple is situated, just the temple. Such a thing has never been heard of in human history.

In a perfect world, cows will be hanging out side of Native Foods Cafe, on a lush greenscape that is!

I somehow have a connection with these rats, maybe because I am a rat in Chinese astrology. I somehow always cheer for the underdog and the underrat and the underpigeon. Pigeons also get a bad rap for being dirty, as do rats, but they are forced to live where the humans are (who the real cause of the unclean areas, such as big cities with concrete and no natural drainage and inefficient sewer systems).

 

You may ask how I can go from thinking of rats and sewer systems to create a menu item that is predicted to be the best selling salad of summer. Well thereby hangs a very long tail.

Rats at the Karni Mata temple... I think that is almond milk they are drinking!

As I was thinking of India and all its history, the Ganges and Himalayas, the oldest texts and texts on medicine, yoga, astronomy, I then do what I always do and start thinking about food.  In this case Indian food, my favorite part of Indian history and culture !  On my driving routes from the desert to OC and LA I have a little Indian street food place I like to stop at and get a nice cooling snacky salad item called Papri Chaat. Over the course of many quick stopovers and intimate oral dissections I would have mental conversations on how to rebuild this chaat with some more greens and veggies to give it “full meal” status.

The beginning of the food evolution to the Indian Summer Samosa Salad at Native Foods Cafe... Papri Chaat.

So one day after doing yoga and standing on my head gazing downwardly at the stars, the Indian Summer Samosa Salad idea rushed in along with the O2 to the brain.

A whispered voice in my head got louder as it said in almost a mantra-like crescendo fashion “Crunchy samosa croutons, boiled potato, soft garbanzo beans, fresh cucumber and mango with a creamy coconut jalapeno chutney style dressing on a bed of crisp romaine. “ I thought maybe I’d call it the Samadi salad but didn’t get that far.

The moral of the story is do more yoga and eat Indian Summer Samosa Salads at Native Foods Cafe (in Chicago or Southern California) while planning your trip to the temple of Karni Mata. 

The Indian Summer Samosa Salad at Native Foods Cafe... Namaste.

 

Jimmy Carter the Worm Killer!

By Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

I know you haven’t heard about this in the media... and I only read it from reading “Think!” by Lisa Bloom, the Attorney and National TV Legal Analyst Vegan. I added the word “vegan” to her title because now you know she's REALLY cool... the word “attorney” can scare people.  Plus she likes the Peanut Butter Parfait, so COOL x 2!

So I’ll tell you what I learned from the book about Jimmy Carter the worm killer... but to preface, Lisa was really writing about how our media makes some of the small things BIG and the big things SMALL... and to always think about what you are really reading. The book is fun, smart & informative and an absolute must-read, and “absolutely” is in bold on purpose.

So don’t get pissed at President Jimmy for killing the worms, he’s actually preventing them from being born and why would he do that?

Get this bike-riding worm killer a Peanut Butter Parfait from Native Foods Cafe stat!

Well the worm is the Guinea Worm also known as Dracunuculus medinensis and it is a human parasite mostly found in Africa... that measures a meter long! It starts from drinking water where their larvae lie and fleas then ingest. The fleas then get in the water the people drink, stomach acid dissolves the flea and releases the worm, which loves the human reservoir, and then goes through intestinal wall into blood stream and grows and grows until it wants to get out.

It will go out anywhere including the eye. You know it’s coming because a blister forms that is itching, swelling and burning. The pain is awful and that’s when the human runs to water to quell the itch burn pain. The water makes it emerge and then it releases its larvae. What a life cycle!

The Guinea Worm under a scope... You can google the graphic pics if you so desire!

It happens sometimes yearly to the same people and there is no cure except for slowly pulling it out by rolling on a stick until you finish. The pain is so severe mothers can not attend to their children and workers can not go to work, which is really hard for the people in addition to the pain. Humans are their only reservoirs.

The Carter Presidential Center has been working on this for 20 years by helping filter the drinking water in Third World countries and he’s been making huge progress. In 1986 3.5 million people got infected and in 1995 130,000 were infected world wide.

So let’s give the man Jimmy Carter a big hand…oh and of course a Peanut Butter Parfait too!

 

Cruising for a Bruising this Earthday?

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

I’ve always thought cruise ships to be a vacation of entrapment, as I like to travel and how can you travel when you are stuck on a boat?  Some of my best friends love to go on cruises though. Did you know there are even condo cruise ships complete with heliports and palm trees and water falls?

 

Everyone has their own favorite ideas of travel and vacation but do you know about cruise ship pollution? 

Native Foods Cafe and Chef Tanya Petrovna are designing a luxury hovercraft that runs on water vapor and serves delicious vegan food to replace cruise ships!  They won't even touch the ocean!

 

Every year more than 200 cruise ships carry over 10 million people passengers internationally, and in one week a three thousand passenger cruise ship leaves behind 210,000 gallons of raw sewage, 1 million gallons of gray water (shower, sink, dishwashing), spews out 37,000 gallons of oily bilge water, generates 8 tons of solid waste, and transports about 7,0000 species around the global waters in the ship’s ballast water, some of these species are potentially invasive brought in from one area to the next. The sewage and toxic waste generated may be legally allowed to be dumped within three miles from shore. 

Check out the EVENTS Boards at your local Native Foods Cafe for info on beach clean-ups in your hood!

An environmental savvy friend of mine went on one of those San Diego to Mexico cruises and wanted to know where they took the trash and waited and watched after every disembarked and watched them throw it in the ocean. If you are one of the many cruise fans, please ask the company you are considering going with handles these problems. For example Royal Caribbean Cruise Line installed advanced wastewater treatment systems on all of their ships as the public and environmental groups brought it to their attention. Speak up so the whales and dolphins following these ships aren’t forced to swim in toxic waste! Thank you 

Check out oceana.org to learn more about water and beach quality, fish habitat and marine sanctuaries.

 

To All the Fruits I Loved Before: A South American Mother Recalls the Fruits She Misses Most

by Christopher Arnett

Native Foods Cafe Tribe Member

Once upon a time, an exotic Peruvian beauty came to live in the good ol’ U.S.of A. But as this lovely Latin lady (my mom) came to discover, the golden land of opportunity was unfortunately unable to provide her with her favorite fruits from her native South America.

Selma Hayek... Eat your heart out!  Do it at Native Foods Cafe with vegan food.... Ha!

So I took some time talk with my mom to ask her and learn about the delicious fruits south of the equator she misses most. (You probably won't find these at Native Foods Cafe in the near future... but you never know with Chef Tanya's wild ways!)  Here are her top five:

1. Lucuma: This delectable fruit hails from the Amazon jungle. It has a soft orange pulp, similar in texture to a yam. It is used to make juice, ice cream, and other desserts. It has a flavor that is a cross between a kiwi and a melon.

Looks like a cantaloupe!  Chef Tanya would sprinkle some chili con limon on top and call it a day at Native Foods Cafe! 

2. Ciruela: This small fruit is a little bigger than a globe grape, with a thin pink skin. It is very juicy, and very sweet.

Hmmmmm... I see this being a part of a Chef Tanya agua fresca creation at Native Foods Cafe!

3. Chirimoya: This delicious fruit has a green skin and a white pulp with black seeds.The pulp is juicy and soft, with a flavor that ranges from medium to very sweet. In Peru, it is used to make ice-cream (homemade vegan chirimoya ice-cream, anyone?). Thankfully for mom, chirimoya became widely commercially available since she first came to the U.S., and is now available in most supermarkets; but she still recommends buying them from your local farmers market.

Oh Cherimoya!  We love you... you are so delicious... you should plant yourself right outside of Native Foods Cafe in Westwood.

4. Pacay: This very interesting fruit looks like big green bean. It’s long and green, and  when you open the pod, a pulp that looks just like cotton, but that is sweet and melts in your mouth.

Oh!  So long and interesting... would make a good hanging motif in Native Foods Cafe...

5. Níspero: This small fruit is about the size of a ciruela. It is yellow, with a sweet and slightly acidic flavor.

The Peruvian orange... Well it looks like it at least!  Looking forward to Native Foods Cafe Lima... Coming soon hopefully!

And if after reading this you’re feeling bad for my mom, don’t worry—she’s planning a trip to Peru and will soon be enjoying all her favorites once again!

 

Is it Raining Soy Beans? No, It’s Setsubun!

by Chistopher Arnett

Native Foods Cafe Tribe Member

Well, it’s that time of year, again: Setsubun! What is Setsubun, you ask? Well, it is an ancient Japanese festival (originally from China) that celebrates the coming of spring, usually held on February 3rd or 4th.  Because of its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun (each season has its Setsubun, though the main Setsubun is in spring) was regarded as kind of New Year’s Eve. And since no New Year celebration is complete without some sort of cleansing or new beginning tradition, thus the bean- throwing. Yes, the throwing of roasted soy beans is the preferred method of driving away the evil of the former year, and hindering the evil of the year to come (the act of throwing the beans in the context of the festival is called mamemaki in Japanese)! 

You naughty little evil spirits! You better run from those soy beans! 

The custom of mamemaki was usually carried out by a male in the household who was born in the year of the Chinese zodiac corresponding to the current year, or else just the male head of household. The roasted soy beans (known as “fortune beans”) were thrown out the door or at a relative wearing a demon mask to represent the evil spirits. This was done while the throwers chanted “Demons out, luck in!” Then, the door was slammed shut (way more fun than a glass of champagne and confetti at an American New Year celebration, in my opinion). Sadly, this isn’t common practice in households anymore, with participants usually attending festivals at temples or shrines where the mamemaki takes place. After the symbolic driving away of evil spirits is done, roasted soy beans were then eaten to bring good luck. It is tradition to eat one bean for every year of one’s life (no cheating, here—the spirits will know!)

“Mom, can I come in now? I’m tired of being pelted by roasted soy beans…” 

Today, the custom of mamemaki continues during Setsubun. The honor of throwing the roasted soy beans (sometimes wrapped in gold or silver foil) belongs to priests and invited guests. However, more than just soy beans are tossed at the eager throngs waiting to gather good fortune: sweets, candies, little envelopes stuffed with money, and other prizes are showered on the attendants who push, shove, and grab for the goodies. It’s kind of like standing in a mosh pit under a giant piñata that’s just exploded. And to enhance the fun of the experience, celebrities and sumo wrestlers are invited to the larger festivals.  

Watch out! Setsubun sumo mania!!!

So if you find yourself caught up in the spirit of Setsubun this year and seek to promote health and prosperity through the consumption of soy, what better way to do so than by grabbing some delicious soy-based meals from Native Foods! Why settle for roasted soy beans when you can also have: 

 

• The Scorpion Burger! Chef Tanya's homemade blackened Tempeh dressed with spicy chipotle dressing on a whole wheat bun, with lettuce, carrot, onion & creamy avocado. 

We borrowed this picture from our lovely friend Lynn over at the Actor's Diet Blog http://theactorsdiet.wordpress.com

• And if you feel like keeping it simple, order a side of edamame. You can’t go wrong with fresh, steamed soybeans right out of the pod!  Chef Tanya likes to lightly steam, salt, and serve on the side of all of the handholds at Native Foods Cafe.

 

 

 

 

Malaysian Monkeys and Native Foods

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

Gado Gado is a traditional vegetable salad dressed with a peanut sauce served throughout Malaysia and Indonesia.  I love this recipe because of all the fresh veggies… and it is always open to interpretation, i.e. whatever you got in the fridge!  The peanut sauce and veggies used vary throughout Indonesia and Malaysia.  Feel free to change it up and get wild… or try the peanut sauce from the Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook.  It is a little more complex in flavor than the one below, but also has a few more ingredients. 

Malaysian Gado Gado

Chef Tanya likes to use Native Foods Cafe homemade tempeh in her Gado Gado.
Photo Credit: http://peacelovecupcakes.wordpress.com/

Ingredients:

6 long beans, cut in 2 inch pieces (you can find in most Asian groceries)

1 cup mung bean sprouts, rinsed

6 oz tempeh, cubed and lightly fried or baked

4 oz firm tofu, cubed fried, baked, or however you would like it

6 French beans, cut in pieces (green beans will work too, or yellow beans!)

2 potatoes, cubed in 1 inch pieces

3 cabbage leaves, torn in pieces (red or green, or both)

For the sauce:

10 oz roasted peanuts

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 ½ tsp sugar  (more or less to taste)

1/2 tsp chili powder
(mix in a little cayenne if you like it spicy!)

1 cup water

Directions:

Boil the potatoes, then cool, make sure they aren’t too soft.

Steam the vegetables (except the mung bean sprouts),then drain and cool.

Blend the sauce ingredients.

Place the salad ingredients on a plate. Pour the peanut sauce over the salad ingredients.

Feel free to garnish away…. Sliced chiles, a squeeze of lime, roasted peanuts, fresh herbs, green onions, crispy onion… you can really improvise with this dish.

Eat while imagining you are in the middle of Taman Negara making friends with a monkey.

 

The Native Foods of Malaysia

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

My days in the oldest rainforest in the world started in Malaysia, right after traveling through tasty Thailand.  Taman Negara simply means National Forest. And apparently it is the oldest forest, as it hadn't been affected by melting polar ice caps… not yet anyway.

   (Photo Credit: Chef Tanya Petrovna, Native Foods Cafe)

The destination Kuala Tahan gets you to the Natural Park office and is a 3-4 hour boat ride on a river in a deep bottomed boat where you sit with your eyes nearly level to the water. We passed Bungor trees filled with parrots of many colors, swinging long-tailed macaques, and met with human vendors selling fresh mangosteens. A fruit you need to eat fresh in Southeast Asia for the full flavor profile. Mangosteens are the most aromatic, erotic and exotic fruit I've ever eaten. This would have been Eve's choice fruit pick if it was available at the time!

  Mangosteen was Chef Tanya's favorite Malaysian fruit... future Native Foods Cafe dessert?

A Postcard to My Parents from Taman Negara April 30, 1989;

 

Hi Mom and Dad,

 

The jungle is fascinating. This picture doesn't show all the twisting trees and hanging roots and huge trees. This picture can't let you feel the humidity, feel the rain (warm), see the lightning, smell the flowers and the jungle and you can't hear all the sounds, monkeys, cicadas and other singing bugs and birds of all types from this photo. You also can't see the  birds and animals and other unusual things here, so much for a picture is worth 1000 words!  I saw elephant footprints(and elephant s***, but no elephants). I saw tapir, monkeys, 6-12 foot lizards, beautiful colorful birds, ants an inch long and leeches sticking to everyone's legs. I swam in cool rivers, hiked for hours, watched for leeches (I didn't want to get even one stuck on me) and sweat like crazy. It's great! See you soon! Love, Tanya

 
The front of the postcard Chef Tanya sent her parents Peter and Gertrude:  Pre Native Foods Cafe Era!

 

Malaysian recipes and treats coming very soon!  Coconut rice and mangosteen.... Mmmmmmmm.

 

メリークリスマス!

by Chef Tanya Petrovna

Native Foods Cafe

That's Merry Christmas in Japanese! That's how you spell it and how do you say it you may wonder? Well it's exactly "Merry Christmas."

How do I know this? I lived in Japan for one year teaching conversational English and traveling in Asia. I lived near Kyoto in Muko-shi near the bamboo forest. It was wild and fun and it was great to immerse myself in another culture and world that was completely unfamiliar. Well not  completely unfamiliar as I had been familiar with some Japanese foods due to the rise in popularity of sushi restaurants in the U.S. The other most fun influences of Japanese cuisine came from my almost second family I inherited from my college roommate, the Tanji's.  We would spend New Year's Day near San Diego with a huge group of their Japanese friends and family members making fresh mochi, and if you knew mochi, like I know mochi, oh, oh, oh what a thrill.

Mochi is made from sticky rice, a higher sugar/starch content rice (there are many many types of rice). It is steamed traditionally in stacked bamboo steaming baskets where it then gets turned into a big stone bowl. From here two men with wooden mallots take turns pounding it until it is a big sticky stretchy ball.

They then toss the giant rice ball onto a big communal table encircled by smiling women with hands dusted with cornstarch. Each woman gets tossed a chunk of it and then proceeds to pull off smaller pieces and roll those pieces in their palms to form balls, which then are compressed lightly to form a fat disc.

At this point the mochi balls can be dropped into a hot bowl of miso soup and the sticky chewy dumpling fun begins, or they can be dried for later use (this is common).

After drying one can do the same in the soup but usually then you need to simmer for a bit to get the mochi soft, or you can take the dried mochi and pop it in the oven and watch it and expand and kind of blow up. I've taken them at this point and slice them open while warm and put something inside, like miso mashed with tofu, or a tofu ricotta and it makes a great mini sandwich treat. Another popular style is making a sweetened adzuki bean puree and putting a ball of that and wrapping the soft mochi around it. That's traditional but you can let your creative cooking skills go here and imagine all the fun things you can fill them with...yes even chocolate! 

How did my living in Japan at Christmas time story turn into a making mochi in America story? I think it must be Mercury in retrograde and I'm a Gemini. I can tell you though that Christmas is really more of a commercial holiday in Japan since most Japanese are of the Buddhist or Shinto religions. My biggest in awe moment of Christmas is the tradition that somehow came to be of giving a Christmas Cake on the 25th of Christmas. Almost every single person in Japan will get one from someone and it is a huge business. It is basically a white cake with cream and strawberries. The pastry shops literally have boxes stacked 10 feet tall curbside so people can drive by and purchase (I thought of this as I was packing containers of Christmas dinners!).

You rarely see one person NOT carrying a box. The other thing that is called Christmas Cake that isn't really a cake in Japan is a women over 25. There is a push and it is a social thing that women must be married by 25, if she's not she is considered old and the slang for her is Christmas Cake, ok really. I do hear traditionally that is changing somewhat and women are getting married later. It's a trip, and a great trip it was. The culture and the people were fantastic as was the food, though the Christmas Cake wasn't that great.

I'll share other fun food adventures from my travels in some upcoming blogs....stay tuned, but now go bake a Christmas Cake!!!

The Night of the Radical Radish

by Holladay Allen

Native Foods Cafe Tribe Member

Around the world, and perhaps the universe even, there are so many types of religions, and even different sects within one religion.  It is practically impossible to keep track of them all, unless you are a dedicated theologian or avid student of the history of the world.  Here in America, the melting pot so to speak, we are lucky enough to be steeped in so many different cultures and religions, that our knowledge of theology and culture can be expanded just by getting to know our next-door neighbor, or driving into a different part of town.  In our brief history, America has no doubt been most heavily influenced by the traditions of Christianity, which around this time every year brings the celebration of Christmas.  Now Christmas has most definitely evolved into a yearly celebration, or something to that effect, that reflects the capitalism of America.  It seems that even non-religious folk celebrate Christmas because it has indeed become a national holiday, not just a religious holiday.  So it is refreshing to see Oaxaca, Mexico celebrate Christmas the same way for more than 100 years…it’s not about gifts, re-gifting, or sleeping outside a store all night to be the first to get that video game little Johnny has been asking for… its about RADISHES!!! And lots of them.

Shopping for radishes at the Hollywood Farmer's Market with Chef Tanya

These Mexicans know their radishes, and I am not talking about those small magenta roots you slice and dice for your salad to give it a little kick.  I am talking about some mammoth radishes grown buy some very cool farmers, or shall we say radish connoisseurs.  They leave the radishes in the ground for months after their normal harvest in order to reach lengths in excess of two feet and weights more than 6 pounds.

Hardcore Radish Peeps

So every year on December 23^rd, thousands of Oaxacans come together in the zocalo, or main plaza of the town, for Noche de Rabanos, or Night of the Radishes.  There is a giant exhibition of carved radishes in the form of sculptures, nativity scenes, mythical tales, and historical plots. 

Radish Gator! Don't run... he can outrun us all

Onlookers stroll through the zocalo under a canopy of string lights taking in the magnificence of these incredible works of tuber art!

The Virgen of Soledad, Oaxaca's Patron Saint

“The viewing continues all evening with everyone enjoying the occasion — the interesting exhibits and the ingenuity shown in their creation, the Christmas lights, and the company of others. Enjoyment of life in tranquility and good fellowship is the spirit of the night.”

 http://christmas-in-oaxaca.com/night-of-radish.htm

What a lovely night.  Happy Holidays to everyone… what ever you may celebrate!