vegansaurus!

Russell Simmons tells NY to get off the cow teat!  »

Earlier this month, Russell Simmons wrote a letter to New York governor Andrew Cuomo telling him that milk should no longer be the state’s official beverage. In other news, milk is New York State’s official beverage. No but really, did you know that? I didn’t. Wait, does every state have an official beverage? Looks like a lot of them do, and for the vast majority, it’s milk. Grody! However, California’s is wine—go ‘head, Cali! Get your drink on!

I used to be all about almond milk but now I’m all about coconut milk. It RULES. So! I think the oficial state drink should be coconut milk! There, it’s settled. I’m a (super) genius!

One Green Planet has a nice guide to help people dump the cow milk and get down with some plant milk! So if you know anyone looking to make the change, there you go. 

NYC: Mardi Gras party to support carriage horses on Feb. 24th!  »

NYCLASS is having a Mardi Gras masquerade ball for the carriage horses!

From Samantha at SuperVegan, because she’s funny and I’m lazy:

Do you ever stare at a long, rectangular fish tank, waiting for your one true love to appear on the other side? That one person for whom you’d die a historically tragic death? And also that the fish were swimming in the ocean? Just me, then? Well, this is what comes to mind when I hear “masquerade.” Basically, it’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes locking eyes for the first time, through the enchanting, refracted light of a fish tank.

I’m pretty sure that’s how things are going to roll at the Mardi Gras masquerade that Verite Catering is organizing for Friday, February 24.

Yeah, sounds good! Plus, there’s going to be vegan king cake! I don’t know what that is but I think I heard Laura say she likes it. That’s good enough for me. Plus, I hear they hide stuff in it? I like that because it reminds me of my favorite Amelia Bedelia book where they tell her to make a “date cake” and she makes a cake with calendar clippings in it. That Amelia Bedelia! There’s also a bunch of vegan-sounding food from Verite Catering including Cajun fried seitan and eggplant jambalaya! 

Masks are strongly encouraged; But while NYCLASS tells you to “find your feathers,” I’m telling you to leave the feathers on the birds! Let’s not celebrate horses by ripping the feathers off a bunch of birds. Also, I think you should make your own mask! Ever heard of paper mache?! It’s recycled and biodegradable! Here is a DIY tutorial for making a paper mache mask and then this Threadbanger video has great decorating instructions—she uses ribbons instead of feathers! Lovely! I happen to love paper mache and there are few times when it’s a legitimate activity sans kids, so take advantage of this opportunity. 

Final suggestion: DON’T SHOW UP IN A HORSE CARRIAGE. 

All in all, sounds like a great event! And it’ll be easy for you guys to remember the party date because it’s the day before my birthday. 

Get your fill of Sophocles and vegan food at the Flea Theater in New York!  »

Guess what, everybody! We have a very special guest post today! It’s from MY DAD! My dad is a theater nut. Like, big time. He goes to plays constantly and he was so excited when he heard this weird Sophocles marathon he was going to was going to be serving vegan food. Not because he’s vegan, but because he’s a big Vegansaurus fan! He was happy to share his experience with all of us:

Dear Megan:

I have a tip on a fun thing to do for your NYC-area Vegansaurus fans. The Flea Theater, an off-off-Broadway venue in the Tribeca neighborhood, is running a marathon theater event entitled THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES. It’s an extremely interesting and exciting adaptation of the seven surviving plays by Sophocles. Each play is cut to about a half hour. All the gory action that takes place off-stage in a classically presented Greek play is put right back in full view. The chorus consists of a group of nurses who spend a lot of time mopping up blood. They do quite a bit of singing, but no long chanted passages. Also, no gods; it’s all intense human interaction. All 38 parts are played by The Flea’s resident acting company, The Bats, who are uniformly wonderful. In fact, wonderful is really the word for the whole evening.

The angle for Vegansaurus followers is that the ticket price includes a vegan, gluten-free dinner prepared by the Macao Trading Co. and served by the cast after the first three plays. The night I went, the main course was a very good eggplant curry served over jasmine rice, accompanied by excellent vegetable spring rolls served with mustard (they were small - I had eight!). They served green tea and water, with wine and beer available for purchase. After two more plays, there was another break for dessert: mini-cupcakes - vegetarian, but not vegan, so true Vegansaurs may want to bring their own dessert. The Bats clearly love interacting with the audience, by the way, chatting us up at every opportunity. Overall, the evening - seven plays, dinner and dessert - clocks it at about five hours - actually a little less the night I went.

These Seven Sicknesses will be running through Sunday, March 4th. Here’s the link for tickets and more information: http://www.theflea.org

Love, Dad

Thanks, daddy! This does sound fun! Corny on the cupcakes though. You KNOW vegans make some good cupcakes! Maybe we can hook them up with Babycakes. Then I would definitely go. I should go anyway to see if their ANTIGONE is as good as my 8th grade class production of it. I was Tiresias! See? I’ve always been psychic. But really, who makes 8th graders do ANTIGONE? The unavoidable doom of destiny kind of underminds the need to study algebra. 

NYC: Bill A 5449 vote is TODAY  »

Sorry I didn’t get this out earlier! I don’t know what time it’s happening, but here’s the info from Best Friends:

The New York State Assembly Agriculture Committee will be voting on Bill A 5449 on Wednesday, Feb 15. Last year,Best Friends expressed our concerns about this bill, and presented recommended changes to Assemblywoman Paulin that would address serious problems in this legislation. These suggestions were not incorporated into the current version of A 5449. We have resubmitted these recommended changes and need your help to insure that they are included. Without the suggested changes, A 5449 would:

• Allow for the euthanizing of a frightened or panicked animal on the basis of “psychological pain,” which is too vague and subjective to be meaningful criteria for euthanasia.
• Allow animals to be euthanized for unspecified and undiagnosed “deadly and contagious” diseases.
• Not clearly define the requirements for a rescue organization to be maintained on a shelter’s registry of approved rescue organizations, which opens the door for arbitrary requirements subject to change without notice.
• Allow shelters to remove rescues from their registry of approved groups if a group is publicly critical of the shelter or staff, regardless of the merit of such criticism.
• Remove all protection for an animal that is surrendered to a shelter with an owner request that the animal be euthanized even if the animal is healthy and could be placed in a new adoptive home or with a rescue group.
• Not require shelters to include rescue organizations located in adjoining counties in New York state on the shelter’s registry of qualified rescue organizations.

The recommended changes offered by Best Friends to Assemblywoman Paulin would close the holes in the safety net that this bill should be providing. Please urge Committee Chair Magee and fellow members of the Assembly Agriculture Committee to vote NO on Bill A 5449 unless these changes are all incorporated. The welfare of shelter animals in New York depends on your action.

That sounds pretty out of control. My timid Figaro would have definitely not made it to me with those rules in place. You can go to this link to enter your ZIP code and find out who to contact.

Vegan Divas makes yummy vegan desserts in NYC!  »

Guys, your friend Megan is super fancy. Or at least I kind of was on Thursday! I went to a fancy dessert tasting in Manhattan thrown by Vegan Divas (heads up: the homepage has music. But it’s kind of the greatest song ever). They are an upscale vegan dessert company in New York and I got to try a wide array of their offerings. 

Vegan Divas is very much focused on health so their desserts are preservative free, their cookies are fortified with fiber and they substitute spelt flour in place of regular flour. However, they do this without sacrificing taste and presentation. Look how pretty:

Fernanda Capobianco, the owner of Vegan Divas and a vegan of fifteen years, was at the party, as was her husband François Payard, renown pastry chef. François made a pretty funny speech with zingers interjected by Fernanda. An interesting thing François said was that he’s learned that you can better taste the flavor of food when it’s made without butter. He said butter coats your mouth and without it, there is no barrier between you and the food. Interesting! Fernanda then said her piece about the many health benefits of a vegan diet. I was like, OK, but do the desserts taste good?! Well let me tell you, they do! 

The chocolate cake pictured above was rich and delicious. In fact, everything chocolate was really good. If you like chocolate mousse, you have to try theirs. It’s made with tofu and I think it’s a signature dish. I thought it was great and I’m not even that into mousse! I am into donuts though and I really liked these chocolate-topped baked donuts (get out of my way, coconut donuts!):

Since the donuts are baked and not fried, we are not talking Ronald’s, but they were good. And you can’t tell from the picture but these are mini donuts! Like mini-mini donuts. Very tiny. I love very tiny food!

My very favorite thing was the carrot cake! I haven’t had a good carrot cake in a while and this really hit the spot. Very moist and yummy but not too sweet:

Another highlight were these wacky “sand” cookies:

I love them! They were salty and reminded me of these wheat biscuit/crackers Carr’s used to make. 

Now I will introduce you to my favorite party guest, Hanly!:

OMG Hanly rules, he’s a Seeing Eye dog! And a party animal. Plus, he has his own wine label! Well, his owner does. But his picture is on the label! Alex Elman supplied the delicious wine for the party. I got a chance to speak with her and she said her wines are all vegan and organic. And they were sure tasty! I definitely recommend this wine and it seems to be widely available. You can check for it near you.

Back to Vegan Divas, you can buy their products at a number of places in New York. They also do catering! For those outside of New York, they do say they ship to the continental US (sorry my out of country friends! Now you have to visit me!). My official recommendations are the carrot cake and anything chocolate. And if you are gluten-free or have any other allergies, I think this is the company for you. Order Vegan Divas and have your own fancy dessert tasting! You know what would make it even fancier? Invite me! I light up a room.

NYC: Vegan Valentine’s Shop-Up on Feb. 12!  »

It’s time for the Valentine’s Shop-Up, kids! The most fun you can have at the vegan bar (that’s A LOT of fun!)! Let’s all go and drink bloody marys and let our hair down and buy some vegan wares! Get a load of this action:

Your favorite vegan pop-up market returns on Feb. 12 with the Vegan Valentine’s Shop-Up! Vegan Shop-Up is NYC’s only all-vegan pop-up market featuring the best small businesses around.

As always we’ve gone above and beyond to bring you the hottest and greatest in vegan goods. Get ready for a head spinning array of handmade soaps, Brooklyn-made hummus, botanical tinctures, raw chocolates, jewelry, letter-pressed Valentines, eco-friendly fashions, hot foods, sweets galore, and yes, LOADS MORE. Find something for your Valentine! Find your Valentine! Recover from heartbreak! Fill the gaping void in you heart with pink cupcakes and sugared cookies! We’ve got you covered. 

Plus! It’s been one full year since our first Vegan Shop-Up and we’re gearing up to party! In celebration of our 1ST BIRTHDAY we’ll have some special treats to say thanks for everyone’s support this past year.

30+ vegan vendors. Happy hour. Birthday surprises. Valentines. Tipsy daytime flirting. Bottom line: WE WANT YOU THERE.

See www.veganshopup.com for the full list of vendors. And join our facebook and twitter for even more updates!

Sunday, Feb. 12, noon to 6 p.m.
Pine Box Rock Shop
12 Grattan St.
Bushwick, Bk
FREE!

Yay! Come on out and support some vegans!

NYC: The Whalentine’s Day Bake Sale is Feb. 12!  »

I’m sure you can read the above flyer, so I will not repeat the details, but I will ask you: What could be better than Mooshoes, yummy vegan baked goods and saving whales?! Pro tip: nothing!

You can still sign up to bring baked goods, all the info regarding that is on their Facebook page. If you are just coming to shop, they ask that you bring your own containers to take your yums home, so we keep the environmental impact to a minimum! Good thinking.

From what I hear, there will be chocolate lollipops, Rice Krispies treats, carrot cake, croissants—not to mention mini cupcakes, mini donuts, and mini pies! I love a mini treat. You know what else I love? SHOES*. So be there or be, etc.

*UPDATE: I hear Mooshoes will be donating 10% of all in-store sales that day to Sea Shepherd! Go Mooshoes!

New York Area: Sweet Roscoe is having a rough time at the shelter, needs a home!  »

This handsome fellow is Roscoe! He’s at the Shandaken shelter, which seems to be about 2.5 hours from NYC. I got an email about this guy because, though he’s at a no-kill shelter and not endanger of euthanasia, he’s having a hard time:

Roscoe has been at the Shandaken shelter for a long time. His life is not in danger, since it’s a no-kill shelter, but his sanity is. He’s lonely, and he’s been kenneled so long he’s starting to get a little “cage crazy.” The Shandaken shelter doesn’t get the kind of foot-traffic that they get in NYC or other busy places. And Roscoe is a bit aloof when people first meet him (can you blame him?), so he doesn’t immediately win them over, and they move on. But I’m told that he’s a real sweetheart once you spend time with him. He just needs a chance to show it!

Aw, poor guy! Do you know anyone who could help Roscoe? Homeboy needs to spread his wings and fly! His profile says he loves to play and that the volunteers play hide and seek, fetch, and catch with him! It also says he’s very smart. And look at that pretty coat!

If you or anyone you know can help Roscoe, please call the shelter at (845) 688-5004. Roscoe deserves a home!

Trashcan tilapia? Come on, omnivores  »

“This tilapia is one of the largest Toole has grown at The Point in Hunts Point, the Bronx.”

DNAinfo has a story on “the latest trend in urban farmsteading”: raising tilapia in trash cans. Christopher Toole, the self-styled “Johnny Appleseed of fish,” has been working on small-to-medium-scale urban farming of tilapia for selling and eating. You know, like growing greens in discarded tires! Or backyard chickens! Though unlike backyard chickens, everyone only wants little male tilapia fish—having females “will result in large populations of small fish”—so commercial breeders use hormone therapy to turn baby female tilapia into male tilapia. Science!

I am into self-sufficiency, but I have never heard of homegrown tilapia before. Is this actually a thing? Raising foot-long fish in garbage bins in a converted parking garage in the Bronx? Toole uses the fish waste “to grow mint and basil,” and “teach[es] local children, most of them from poor local families, how to grow their own food.” Forget Johnny Appleseed, he’s like the savior of the Bronx! The new “teach a man to fish” is “teach a man to raise fish in his urban environment”!

Or maybe this is just as disgusting as it appears.

[photo by Jon Schuppe for DNAinfo]