New Beginnings!

After months of neglect, it’s about time I breathe new life into this blog of mine. A lot has happened since I last wrote: I moved to Las Vegas, started an MFA program in poetry, went through some pretty big life changes, and moved into my first very own little apartment under the glow of the Stratosphere and the lights of The Strip.

One thing about my life hasn’t changed one bit, however; I’m still absolutely dedicated to my now nearly five-year strong vegan life and I am still fervently holding the sour cream (especially when dining at one of the many yummy Mexican restaurants in my area of Vegas). As such, this will still be a vegan food blog, dedicated to all things deliciously animal-free.

I was thinking earlier, however, that I want this blog to have a real direction and not just be about my general vegan cooking hijinks (although I could fill a blog with such things).  My previous focus of this blog, living vegan in Ukraine, where I spent seven months teaching English in 2010, gave this blog a real direction. Writing, therefore, became a little harder for me once I left Ukraine and couldn’t keep with my original theme.

That’s why I have decided to restart this blog with something specific in mind. I intend to focus my blog on vegan adaptations of traditional—and not so traditional—Jewish cooking. Some of my earliest and fondest memories I have growing up are in my mother’s kitchen as she whipped up a batch of matzo ball soup, or with my grandmother putting salad plates together for one of her epic Passover dinners. I’m sorry to say that since going vegan, I haven’t had one bite of matzo ball, kugel, potato latke, tzimmes or cholent. And dare I say I’ve never met a vegan shmear I liked. I hope to change all this and cook my way through some favorite Jewish recipes with a vegan spin. I also hope to continue blogging through the Jewish holidays as I’ve done here and here in the past. If this blog serves to help me reunite myself with all my favorite childhood dishes (and perhaps meet some new ones along the way), then hooray!

Also, I can’t think of a better time to start blogging about vegan Jewish food than right now. In less than thirty-six hours, I am flying to Eastern Europe to spend two months in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. What better place to revive this blog than in the “Old Country” as my dear bubbe—may she rest in peace—would call her place of origin?

Over the next couple months as I explore Vilnius, Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk and Riga, I hope to glimpse some of the roots of my favorite family recipes, successfully navigate what I know to be an otherwise very meat and dairy-heavy cuisine, meet wonderful and inspiring travelers, and blog along the way. When I return to Vegas, I’ll have my kitchen simmering with the smell of carrot tsimmes, savory borscht, and—baruch hashem—my Grandma Molly’s divine mandel bread (with some substitutions of my own, of course).

Island Cuisine

For its size, Tampa is pretty full of vegetarian/vegan restaurants. We have Grass Root, a vegan/raw restaurant in Tampa Heights (and also more recently in South Tampa), Udipi in Carrollwood, The Loving Hut, a quirky vegan-only restaurant that spreads the word of its founder, the Supreme Master Ching Hai (much more on that later!), and many other vegetarian/vegan-friendly restaurants, too. These restaurants are easily found on any Google search of "vegetarian Tampa" and are conveniently located on major streets like Florida Avenue or Dale Mabry Hwy.

But one of my favorite takeout spots is a little vegan gem hidden in the back of a strip mall between a Ross and a Payless shoe store. It's called "Island Cuisine" and serves Caribbean-style food out of a modest kitchen and buffet cart.


With "JERK CHICKEN" and "JAMAICAN BEEF PATTIES" written on the windows and glass doors, you'd never guess that this place serves some of the best vegan food in town.
Here's a picture of the counter where you order your AMAZING food. You can also get a 2-liter of Faygo if you nasty.

The owners are actually vegetarian. I got to talking with one woman who said that she'd like to serve vegetarian food only but she would lose too much business. She tries to keep it as veg-friendly as possible, though, so all the side dishes are completely vegan and along with a list of different meat and chicken dishes, the menu features items like tofu, seitan and even "tofu fish bites." She told me that some people order collard greens and ask, "Why isn't there any meat in these greens?" Shaking her head and smirking she said it was something else that most people can't even eat meat-free vegetables.

The last time Melissa and went to Island Cuisine we ordered a mix of jerk tofu and spicy seitan with bow tie pasta. All the dinners come with two sides so we got red beans with rice and collard greens. We also got a side of plantains because I have never left a restaurant that serves plantains without them.
Although there are some tables outside to eat on, we always take our food home. There's something about a view of the Ross parking lot that doesn't do much for the appetite.

Before finding Island Cuisine, I assumed that Jerk food and especially greens from Jamaican restaurants (almost always cooked with chunks of meat) was a thing of the past. Not so!

They know how to cook a meal. The saltiness of the greens brought out the spicy-sweet marinade on the tofu and the beans and rice were perfectly seasoned. I'm always completely stuffed after eating only half of this meal, as it's FULL of protein and fiber.

Hands down one of the best vegan takeout places in Tampa.

TAMPA FLORIDA Y'ALL

It's alive!

To be honest, I considered discontinuing this blog and letting it take up space on the Internet as a remembrance of my seven months in Ukraine. I recently realized, however, that my vegan take on regional cuisine is still very relevant as I settle back into life in the United States. After months of inactivity, I've decided to breathe new life into this old thing.

First, a little update on my life as of August. After a week in New York City visiting friends (and allowing my ears to adjust to the cacophony of English conversation all around me), I moved back to my hometown of Tampa, Florida, where I now live with my girlfriend Melissa. We recently found a cute apartment in Seminole Heights, an historic district full of 1920s bungalows and river parks. After many years of neglect, the area is experiencing a resurgence of independent restaurants, bars, and shops. Seminole heights also boasts a community garden which supplies produce to local restaurants and a monthly Sunday morning market (soon to be the subject of future posts).

Since I now call Tampa my home, this city on the water and its food will be the main focus of this blog for the time being. In order to talk about Tampa's unique local cuisine I should first give a little background about the history of the area. The city was officially organized under Florida legislature on July, 15 1887 (exactly 100 years before I was born!). During that time, the city experienced a boom in industry following Vincente Martinez Ybor moving his cigar manufacturing company to Tampa from Key West. As a result of this growing industry, a huge number of Cuban and Spanish cigar workers immigrated to the district now known as Ybor City, just east of downtown Tampa. These immigrants brought their native cuisine with them, a Latin and Caribbean flavor that heavily influences local Tampa fare to this day.

The city grew considerably after WWII and the construction of MacDill Air Force Base. In 1956, the University of South Florida was established north of downtown and suburban areas in North Tampa began developing. Nowadays, downtown Tampa and Ybor City are no longer the centers of commerce and culture they once were at the beginning of the 20th century. In the last fifty years, most of the businesses in Tampa have moved from the center of town to suburban shopping plazas and office parks that cover the county in all directions.

Though this suburban sprawl presents its fair share of problems, the current set-up of the city has allowed various neighborhoods and suburbs to take on their own regional feel and flavor. In under half an hour I can drive from my parents' house in Carrollwood to my grandparents' house in the South Tampa neighborhood of Sunset Park and pass through no less than ten neighborhoods with their own distinct feel and flavor. In this blog I will explore the cuisine of these neighborhoods, searching for hidden vegan gems or customizing recipes to make them vegan friendly while still preserving the integrity of these dishes. I'll include a true Tampa spread, from the fried yuca at West Tampa's La Teresita to monthly Vietnamese vegan buffets at Trang near USF.

I see blogging about my vegan journey in Tampa as a perfect continuation of my life in Eastern Europe. Like the city of Odessa, Ukraine, where I lived and blogged for seven months, Tampa, as a major port city, draws its cuisine from all over the world. Where Odessan food is influenced by Greek, Jewish, French, Russian and Georgian culture, Tampa draws its flavors from its neighbors Cuba and Mexico, as well as from more recent influxes of immigrants from as far away as Vietnam, India, Ethiopia and Lebanon.

As a third generation Tampanian (or as my Uncle Michael would call it, a full-blooded Tampon, yikes), some of my favorite meals growing up were fried plantains (or platanos maduros), black bean soup and freshly pressed Cuban sandwiches. I still eat beans and plantains on a regular basis, as these foods call for fresh and basic animal-free ingredients, but for those of you who know what goes into an authentic sandwich Cubano (a combination of ham, pork, salami and Swiss cheese that would make even the most secular Jews among us blush), I'm sure you aren't surprised that I had to take this item off my menu...

A rabbi's worst nightmare

That is, until last week!

That's right! Last Saturday I woke up with one goal in mind: build an authentic vegan Cuban sandwich. It took three damn hours, but i did it!

Note the red face: three hours in a kitchen in Florida with no a/c.

So how did I do it? Well, It had actually never crossed my mind to make a vegan Cuban. I just assumed that, like Snickers bars and turkey legs, Cuban sandwiches were a thing of the past, its flavor fading like an old photograph on the tip of my tongue. All that changed the day I ordered ¡Viva Vegan! from amazon.com on a whim. Flipping through this glorious cookbook (my new fave), I stumbled upon a vegan Cuban sandwich recipe and FLIPPED out. I made some the very next day. Here's how:

Most of the three hours were spent making mojo seitan (in place of the pork on a Cuban) from scratch. For all those unfamiliar, seitan is a protein-packed meat substitute made from vital wheat gluten and chickpea flour. Unlike tofu and tempeh, seitan stretches and shreds just like chicken or pork and holds up to boiling, baking or mixed with veggies for a hearty stir-fry. For this particular sandwich, Terry Hope Romero of ¡Viva Vegan! gives this recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cold vegetable broth
4 cloves garlic, grated
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1/4 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste

In a measuring cup, whisk together all the wet ingredients and set aside. In a large mixing bowl (or wok, if you just paid the rent and spent the last of your money on vital wheat gluten), combine dry ingredients and slowly mix in wet ingredients. Once everything is combined well, knead for 2-3 minutes then let rest for 10 minutes. Knead for 30 more seconds then place mixture on a cutting board and cut into 4 loaves.

Wrap each loaf in a 12" square of aluminum foil and steam for 30 minutes.



Unwrap and let each loaf cool in the fridge for about an hour to seal the deal.


While the seitan is cooling off, you can get the mojo ready. In an 11" x 9" Pyrex baking dish, whisk together 1 cup of sour orange juice (or 2/3 cup oj and 1/3 cup lemon juice) , 6-8 garlic cloves (chopped), 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/2 tsp cumin and salt & pepper to taste. Take two of the seitan loaves from the fridge (and save the other for more recipes like stir-fry!) and slice them into 1/4 inch slices. Line the baking dish with the seitan, making sure to cover each piece with mojo before baking at 375 for 15-17 minutes.


Flip seitan periodically to prevent burning. Mojo sauce should be mostly evaporated and seitan should be sizzling but MOIST! Do not overcook or seitan will be gummy as hell.

To assemble sandwich, start with an 8" piece of (lard-free!) Cuban bread and slice down the middle. If no Cuban bread is available, a hoagie roll or large baguette works in a pinch.

Or if you're lucky like me, walk half a block to your neighborhood Cuban bakery!

Layer mustard, pickles, packaged vegan ham slices, seitan, tomatoes if you want, and vegan cheese (I use Daiya here).


Close sandwich and put Earth Balance spread (or similar) on the outsides of the bread halves. If you don't have a sandwich press (who does?) you can place the sandwich on a large frying pan at low/medium heat and press down with another pan or a brick covered in tin foil for three minutes on each side.

yyyyuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Cut the sandwich into two triangle-shaped halves and EAT!


It had been so long since my last Cuban that I experienced temporary bliss, like running through a cool water fountain on a hot summer afternoon before realizing you don't have a change of clothes.


This sandwich inspired the continuation of this blog, so stay tuned for the next installment of Tampa flavor, vegan style.

Last day in Odessa

I can't believe I leave Odessa TOMORROW at 7 pm. Although I could have written quite a bit more on vegan living in Odessa, or Ukraine more generally, I am satisfied with the direction this blog has taken.

I'm actually not finished with Eastern Europe! It's true that I leave Odessa tomorrow, but before heading back to Florida, I'll be in Lviv for a few days, then Budapest and then Prague (then NYC!).

I did a little visual of all the places I've been/will be since January.


That's Odessa, Kiev, Kharkov, Krakow (Poland), Lviv, Simferopol, Yalta, Sevestopol, Balaklava, Bakchisaray, Budapest (Hungary), & Prague (Czech Republic). Not a bad run!

As far as the future of this blog goes, don't worry! I ain't through yet. I intend to continue blogging about all my food experiences/mishaps as I continue to navigate this omnivorous world. After I get back stateside, I plan on moving to Tampa (my hometown), which boasts a rapidly growing vegan and vegan-friendly community. I actually just submitted my tofu scramble breakfast burrito recipe to a vegan taco/burrito recipe contest run by the (AMAZING) Taco Bus.


The future looks promising, but I will always miss my home away from home on the Black Sea. Ukraine, you've taught me more about myself and the world than I ever expected, and you kept me well fed all the while.

For this, I thank you.


SaM.

Privoz

There's an old song about Odessa that says without two things the city wouldn't be the same: the sea and legendary open-air market "Privoz." Taking up multiple city blocks, this market is indisputably the most "colorful" in the Former Soviet Union, and in my experience pretty unique as far as European markets go. Under the large tents and makeshift roofs overhead, you can buy anything from tomatoes to underwear, from hand-woven baskets to herbal remedies for any ailment.


I like to buy my vegetables at Privoz, where they are much fresher and local as compared to their supermarket counterparts. Even though produce such as red apples and bananas aren't without their imperfections, I'd take sweet, delicious food over plastic-looking waxy food any day.

There are also wonderful varieties of pickled vegetables and salads. At most stands, babushkas sell barrels full of pickled cabbage and encourage passers-by to dig their hands right in and take a taste!



This woman below sells her pickled vegetables and salads out of a refrigerated glass case. She even uses GLOVES to serve customers! She might be the only one. Even meats and cheeses aren't sold refrigerated at Privoz, but more on that later...


Summer months mean endless bags of fresh veggies!


At this stand, you walk up to the man selling spices and tell him what you plan to cook. For example, "I need a good spice for soup," or "I'm frying potatoes." He then makes you a special, hand-picked blend of spices ready to use! I just bought the "all-spice" box pictured below and sprinkle it over grilled veggies and rice.

The guys that sell dried fruits are pretty annoying. If the dates and apricots weren't so good I'd stay away from this aisle.


You can also buy freshly shelled nuts by the kilo. Pictured here are crisp walnuts.


You can even buy condoms and racy calendars at Privoz! Sold, of course, by your friendly neighborhood babushka.


In this last part of my post, regarding meat, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I usually try to avoid this area of the market but I thought it important to document meat packing practices. I hope this helps clarify one of the reasons why I gave up an animal dependent diet. Note that no refrigeration is used in these pictures. I wish I could have captured the smells and sight of blood all over the floor in these photos. Also, if you think meat packing industries in the USA are more humane/cleaner/better for you, think again. The only difference is that back home, we buy meat neatly drained of blood and sealed in plastic and styrofoam (having been soaked in chlorinated water and bleached beforehand, that is).









SaM.

Long time, no post!

Well, it certainly has been a little while since my last post. I just wanted to make it clear that I haven't given up on this blog! It's just been a pretty busy week, what with my father visiting and teaching more often than usual. I'm working on a post about Privos, Odessa's biggest open air market, which should be on here by the end of the week.

In other news, I just bought my plane ticket back to the US and I'll be flying out in August. Things should get interesting then...



-sigh-

SaM.

Georgia on my mind...

It's been a while since my last post, but Melissa and I just got back from our vacation in Kharkov a little while ago (which will be the subject of my next post!) and I've been teaching long hours ever since. Now that it's Sunday and I can finally relax a bit, I thought I'd post on one of my favorite vegan stand-by options in Odessa (and all over Ukraine, for that matter): Georgian food!

No, I do not mean fried chicken a la Paula Dean. I mean the cuisine of Georgia, that mountainous country on the Black Sea between Russia and Turkey, where they speak საქართველო.





I had never seen a Georgian restaurant in the United States (and am pretty sure there are none in Florida), but here in Ukraine, there are many places which feature Georgian cuisine. Think of it as their version of Chinese or Italian food. Although Georgian food is best known for its "exotic" choices of meat (including horse), and "hatchipuri" (bread covered in cheese with a fried egg in the center), there are plenty of delicious vegan appetizers available at every Georgian restaurant in Odessa.
One of my favorite Georgian places is "Chito-Grito" which gets its name from a famous Georgian song. It's located less than five minutes from our apartment, on the corner of Daribosovskaya and Preobrajenskaya in "Passage," a pre-USSR hotel/shopping plaza.


Here's a picture of Passage and Melissa sitting in the "outdoor" seating area of Chito-Grito.


There I am sitting at a table made to look like a carriage. And, yes, there's a painting of hatchipuri behind me. And a wooden bird. But check out those tulips! Spring!


So here's the spread: ispanakhi, krasnoye lobio, adjabsandali, two loaves of warm lavash (Georgian bread) and black tea with bergamot.

Here's a closeup of the ispanakhi. It's basically a spinach puree made with onions and walnuts, topped with pomegranate seeds.


Krasnoye lobio, or "red bean" in Russian, is a dish made with stewed red beans, onions, walnuts, and various Georgian spices, also topped with pomegranate seeds.


One of my favorite dishes is adjabsandali, a cold appetizer of eggplant, sweet pepper, mushroom, and onion. It tastes amazing inside a piece of warm lavash.


Although I could easily eat this delicious food every day, it is a bit pricey and is best enjoyed on special occasions.

Tonight we're defrosting the fridge because a MONSTER ice block has formed over the freezer and it won't close. As a result, we have to eat what was in the fridge so it won't spoil. On tonight's menu: Vereniki (dumplings) filled with cabbage and potatoes, chickpeas, and oven fries with ketchup. It's like being in college all over again.


SaM.