One of the stranger things that I purchased at the co-op in Ithaca was Fiji Ginger. Imagine if you will: pieces of ginger covered in chocolate. Each piece is the size of a Raisinette and even the most hearty of ginger lovers (as opposed Mary Anne lovers?) could only eat a few. I’m telling you: these things are strong.

If you’re interested in trying a bizarre snack foods and can stomach a little ginger, give these a shot. They’re… interesting.

During our trip to New York, one of the places that made quite an impression on me was the GreenStar Co-op. Scott had mentioned it to me several months ago, so I wanted to check it out when we made our trip to Ithaca. It was hard to miss: visible right off of Buffalo Street at the beginning of town was the large grocery-store-like co-op.

I’ve never been to a co-op before, but I understood the general idea: individuals selling their food and products under one roof in a familiar atmosphere with a common cause in mind. I got what I expected: lots of fresh, organic fruits and veggies, a nice bulk herb section, and lots of other typical health-food store offerings (but often with non-typical brands). And the prices were so nice in some cases, that I stocked up on some normal things (like Kiss My Face soap), since they were cheaper than at the grocery store back home.

Among the things I was particularly excited about: some really good Celtic sea salt, organic nettle in non-gelatin capsules (alas, my search for veggie caplet fennel continues…), some quinoa pasta, some snacks, and a bunch of fresh fruit that we snacked on during our trip. I would love to have a large co-op like that nearby, though the health food stores around me do have a pretty good selection themselves.

The co-op also provided a lot more interesting people-watching as the variety of customers was much greater than in a standard supermarket. Everybody there, from hippies to Rastas, looked vibrant, excited, and enthused, something you don’t find walking the aisles of Safeway.

Before I left, I dropped off a few Veg Blog stickers for the Ithaca masses.

We spent Christmas at my parents’ house in New Jersey and they hosted a 13-person Christmas night dinner. Being sensitive to my vegetarian diet, my mom ordered a Tofurky Feast for me. At Thanksgiving, I had had the main part (the roast and stuffing) and enjoyed it, but this time I got to try out the tempeh drumsticks and the Tofurky Jurky wishsticks. The appearance of the drumsticks was mildly amusing, but I was surprised at their taste. It had a much grainier texture to it than most tempeh that I’ve had. It was spiced nicely and wasn’t a bad compliment to the Tofurky roast.

I was especially surprised by the Tofurky Jurky. Though the sticks weren’t the traditional shape of beef jerky, their flavor and saltiness seemed pretty close to what I remember beef jerky tasting like. Good stuff.

My main complaint with Tofurky remains, though: the appearance. The “skin” looks more like my Tofurky is wearing a skully. Taste is more important to me, but unfortunately, having a Tofurky means enduring insults and rude comments about its appearance by other guests. When you think about it, though, I guess it’s a more pleasant sight than a dead turkey…

As you may have noticed, I’ve been away from the Veg Blog for a bit. My wife and I took our delayed honeymoon last week and then spent some time with family over the holidays. During our our honeymoon to New York (Geneva, Ithaca, Watkins Glen), we did a number of decidedly “vegetarian things,” thanks to my wife’s willingness to indulge me. :) Over the next few days, I’ll be commenting on various experiences and places in short entries along with one new feature article. I decided that would be a better move than recapping everything in a single post.

I guess I’ll start by mentioning that I met up with Erik Marcus, host of the excellent Vegan.com and Food Headlines. He also authored Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating. We were originally scheduled to meet at the Harvest Deli in Ithaca Commons, but due to a mistake on my part, I showed up a day late (oops). However, we met a few days later for a Sunday brunch at the ABC Cafe.

Erik is an impressive guy. His dedication to the vegan community is clear, but he also sees the rest of the world with a realistic point of view. He realizes that sometimes you have to make a small sacrifice to your own beliefs in order to help advance them further (something I hope to get him to expand on in a planned interview in the near future).

Erik is at work on a new book that sounds like it will be a fascinating read, even for those that have been long-time vegans and read everything there is to read. If it’s half as good as Vegan…, it’ll certainly be essential.

John Robbins takes on the anti-soy brigade. (via VegSource)

I just wanted to clear up a nasty typo I found on the Veg Blog’s November 29th entry… it previously read: “While I’ve been a definite supported of GMO foods” when it really should have said: “While I’ve been a definite supporter of labeling GMO foods.” Not only did I have a typo, I left an entire word out that changed the meaning. I just wanted to point out this correction because I am definitely not a “supported of GMO foods.” :)

Page Six is reporting that Britney Spears may bare it all for PETA in an anti-fur campaign and may model for PETA’s pleatheryourself.com. The only reason this is the least bit interesting is that just a few months ago, PETA was criticizing the singer for wanting to use four live cheetahs at her MTV Video Music Awards performance. While this turned out to be partially false, she did perform with a tiger and a snake.

Last night I tried miso for the first time in the Miso Vegetable Hot Pot from Lorna Sass’ Short-Cut Vegetarian. Miso’s an interesting beast: though its pasty consistency isn’t terribly appealing (it dissolves into soup broth) and it smells kind of funny, it’s actually a pretty tasty way to add a little salty flavor to your soup (it is relatively high in sodium, so those on sodium restricted diets might want to avoid it). It’s made from fermented soybeans, so it has similar health benefits to other soy products. According to the International Vegetarian Union, though, some Japanese brands of miso contain fish stock.

My version of the above recipe was actually pretty different. Instead of dark miso I used a sweet white miso, instead of tofu, I used long-grain rice tempeh, instead of bok choy I used organic spinach, I left out the baby corn, and I added carrots and celery. And since I didn’t have enough in the way of scallions, I used 1/4 cup scallions and a 1/4 cup of regular yellow onion, chopped. The end result was pretty similar to the original, I’d imagine. The broth was nice and tasty and the almost-raw veggies added some nice crunch. Not bad. Huyen went back for seconds, so that’s a good sign. :)

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day since it’s usually the most nutrient-dense, so I’ve been trying to make mine as good as possible. There are three ways I’ll go for breakfast, depending on my time and my mood:

1. Health Valley Cranberry Crunch cereal (which even got a good review by the discerning folks at The Empty Bowl) with Original Edensoy Extra. It’s an incredibly tasty cereal that’s also mighty healthy, and it works very well with soymilk.
2. A bagel, half with Tofutti Herb and Chive Better Than Cream Cheese and half with Spectrum Naturals’ Essential Omega Spread. For that one-two punch of soy and flax, this is a nice, quick way to have a filling breakfast on the drive into work.
3. Health Valley cobbler bar. Both their strawberry and blueberry are mighty tasty, and quite healthy. There’s no saturated fat, 100% of your daily Vitamin E, and 10% of a number of other nutrients (including B-12). It even has 50% of your daily Selenium (a trace mineral that helps the absorption of Vitamin E in the body—the two make a good antioxidant team). Note, though, that these bars are not vegan (they have whey and nonfat dry milk.

I haven’t grown tired of any of these three options yet, and it’s nice to know I’m not shoveling unnecessary amounts of sugar in my mouth first thing in the morning.

A soy fact I didn’t know: Henry Ford used soybeans to build cars! Talk about a versatile bean…

(thanks to Daily Ping visitor Eric for pointing this out)