Ooh, how wonderful is sharing food - a most precious ritual, culture to culture, home to home. Families celebrate over roasts, reward with sweet meats and show appreciation with treats. But these days sharing food is a revolutionary movement!
My lovely Catalan friend Estella, who is part of the love love love of the Love Bis - Malaysia Chapter - a seeker of good people, truth and (cheap sustainable) travel, joined the ragtag group collaborating Food Not Bombs here. They cook and share food regular Friday nights..for free! Yes, yes, free food!
Food Not Bombs is a peace movement sharing vegan and vegetarian food in over 1,000 cities around the world!
Holding the belief that while people are starving not a single dollar more should be spent on WAR. Food from bakeries, packaged food from dumpsters, surplus stock are collected, cooked and shared with the community...those people...'out there'.
The immense wastage of our Western societies is ignored, government and corporate priorities are SKEWED and as a result, billions of people starve. Thusly, a loose-knitted group of activists collect free, surplus and thrown away food and cook it up to distribute to the homeless and poor, FREE.
...and it's yuuuuummy!
It reminds me of my first Nimbin trip. Haha.
Starving and exhausted we pulled into town as the sun disapeared over the hills. The town was desolate (hippies retreat to the hills to pump water and fix solar panelling in their yurts). Our hungry bellies rumbling and not expecting to eat...
But then, a white van stopped on the main street in dim circle of street light adn two people began unpacking... a line of fold-up tables a huge feast began to materialise.
Huge pots bubbling with pea and lentil soups, fresh brown seeded loaves, steaming cauliflower and vegetable casseroles, cream cakes, chips and biscuits and plastic cups full of raspberry cordial and juice. Our eyes bulged at the miracle assembling itself on the desolate street.
From the dark shadows hairy, dreadlocked hippies emerged, torn tie-dye shirts, clinking talismans and dirt stained feet. Over soup, I chatted with a boy, Josh's age, covered in cake from stuffing his face, he had wild eyes and was living in a house in the hills making jewellery, this was his first proper meal in a while.
I was told that the man who created the feast was called Les. From his own pocket, he had been feeding people in the Lismore region every Saturday for 20 years!
There are angels among us..feeding us..and cooking up a little peace*
Ok, so being a vegan is a ridiculous amount of fun!
Never mind about people's shocked looks when you tell them you've cut eggs, dairy and cheese from your diet...
I didn't think I would cook or eat so much aaamazing food. (Which maybe it's not so good, the speed at which my waistline is expanding is a little frightening.)
Actually being so conscious of the food I cook and eat is very nice. I find myself looking at each ingredient, studying menus and the backs of packets, adding nuts and seeds, extra colourful veges and experimenting a lot!
And making friends, I recently hosted a few vegan dinner parties with not a single stirfry or carrot stick in sight :) lovely people with the desire to live a more environmental, kinder and pure gastronomic lifestyle.
Ok, so I like cake. My first chocolate cake bombed! The second wasn't much better and the third, well, more like chocolate putty. Finally, when I thought of giving up ever eating a moist, rich chocolate cake, my angel couch surfer, Lisa, introduced me to...wait for it...
..chocolate zucchini vegan cake!
I will graciously post a recipe here, because the love must be spread.
Mix in a big bowl all the dry ingredients
2C plain fl
2C brown sugar
3/4C unsweetened cocoa
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Then add the wet ones and mix it all around
2 x smooshed banana
3/4C vege oil
3/4C apple sauce
THEN... add 3 cups of magical grated zucchini and mix it in!
Bake on 'very hot' for 1 hour or just test it every now and then... cover in icing or real chocolate (if you're not vegan-ly inclined), add nuts and stuff...
Cook it! Cook it! It's incredible, and I dare you to find a single zucchini piece, they magically disapear!
I've decided to go vegan...
It's Week One... so...we'll see how it pans out. But for the short term at least, I am going to be a very conscious eater.There are many reasons (and we all know why)...I want to be more self sufficient and not rely on wee animals, it's the 21st century - we're educated and it's easy to stay healthy, the environmental impact, it's lower in fat and better for my heart and cholesterol...
...and one look at the PETA website is enough to turn anyone's gastronomic habits in a better direction! Ack, let's face it who wants to eat tortured animals.
There's a whole world of amazing, simple and delicious food out there that doesn't involve any animal participation. I've cooked nachos, vege burgers, spinach quiche, pesto pasta, mushroom steaks and actually... I think I may actually eating BETTER than I was before!
As I type a delicious chocolate cake is bubbling away in my oven! And it's totally guilt-free...well, almost... I didn't say fat-free did I!
UPDATE: The chocolate cake was terrible...and so was the second attempt...hmm..at least my drumming group enjoyed them! It's back to the chocolate cake drawing board.
Ooooooh.. I love a good organic garden! It makes me all warm and goozy inside. Planting seeds and watching new life creep out from life giving soil...what could be better! Munching sweet tomatoes warm from the earth or hunting through lawn for nasturtium flowers for salads..but that was in Brisbane..
..here in Hanoi, my rooftop container garden (attempt) in the heat of summer was a disaster! My basil went to seed, lettuce wilted, herbs died...my pumpkin sent out a shoot, saw the fate of his friends and gave up hope...
I'll try again soon. Yesterday I visited one of the first organic farm projects on the outskirts of town..my eyes got their fill of how gardens are supposed to look!
Bright green rows of spinach and beans mixed with purple herbs and yellow marigolds, a protective windbreak of corn surrounding the lots. Helpful bees and birds and small red tomatoes and thick green zucchini growing on bamboo lattice. Organic gardening at its yummiest!!
An NGO here, Action for the City, has put together a community development project teaching farmers how to grow food organically for market. The farmers have all moved from their age old tradition of growing only one crop and are a brave lot to go 'against the grain' so to speak.
I'd like to spend my time here learning skills that I enjoy, we'll see if I can make the money I need to pay of my debts at the same time as digging in gardens of goodness.. and live a dream life at the same time...
RAU HUU CO THANH XUAN organic farm project
Action for the City
For more information visit Action For The City
Ooh, how wonderful is sharing food - a most precious ritual, culture to culture, home to home. Families celebrate over roasts, reward with sweet meats and show appreciation with treats. But these days sharing food is a revolutionary movement!
The immense wastage of our Western societies is ignored, government and corporate priorities are SKEWED and as a result, billions of people starve. Thusly, a loose-knitted group of activists collect free, surplus and thrown away food and cook it up to distribute to the homeless and poor, FREE.
It reminds me of my first Nimbin trip. Haha. 
From the dark shadows hairy, dreadlocked hippies emerged, torn tie-dye shirts, clinking talismans and dirt stained feet. Over soup, I chatted with a boy, Josh's age, covered in cake from stuffing his face, he had wild eyes and was living in a house in the hills making jewellery, this was his first proper meal in a while.
