fun fact #1

When it comes to reducing your carbon footprint, not eating meat for one day has the same impact as buying all your vegetables locally for the entire week!

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

soylent green

I suck at plot summaries, so here's what michaeldvd.com has to say about this movie:

"Set in the near future when the world's population has reached critical mass, Soylent Green is equal part detective story and futuristic adventure. The world depicted in the film is a nightmarish possibility. Overpopulation has forced millions to live on the streets where any food is in short supply. People are forced to live amongst the rotting corpses of starvation victims as they wait for the Soylent company to distribute their weekly supply of Soylent Green, a manufactured food product developed to feed the starving masses. Charlton Heston plays Richard Thorn, a detective assigned to investigate the murder of a high-ranking Soylent Executive. His investigation leads to a shocking discovery that could devastate mankind."

And what, pray tell, is this shocking discovery?



SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE FROM HUMAN FLESH.

I think of this movie every time I eat soy protein.

eat: sugar beat sweets (sf)

Let's cut to the chase: I love the cupcakes at Sugar Beat Sweets. Love, love, LOVE them. If they weren't so expensive I'd be cramming my face with mini cupcakes day and night.

Type 2 Diabetes?

TOTALLY WORTH IT!!

Right now you can only get the cupcakes via occasional bake sale appearances and online order (sugarbeatsweets.com) but a brick and mortar bakery is currently in the works. So if you're in San Francisco and craving something sweet, check out their website and hit them up. Your tastebuds will love you forever.

best fries in berkeley

I've ordered every type of fried potato you could possibly order in Berkeley, from the garlic fries at Smart Alec's to the tater tots at I.B.'s, so I know a few things about Berkeley french fries. OM NOM NOM.

The one order of fries to rule them all:

Belgian Fries
from Maoz on Telegraph
$2.50 + tax

Maoz has the best ratio of saltiness to crunchiness to oiliness out of all the fries in Berkeley. And that one chick named Monica is kinda hot. I'm not really sure what makes Belgian fries any different from French fries, but I think it has to do with the thickness of the fries and the dipping sauce options.

Honorable Mention goes to:

Cajun Fries
from Raleigh's (also on Telegraph)
$3.95 + tax

The Cajun fries are pretty amazing but the customer service kind of sucks. I really wish they had a takeout window because the fries really aren't worth the sit-down dining ordeal.

take a bow

Two more finals and one more video post. Let's talk about this music video by Madonna!


When I was going through the comments board for this video I was a little taken aback by all the hate flying back and forth on the issue of bullfighting.

I'm definitely not pro-bullfighting, but I want to point out that a lot of rabid animal rights activists seemed to miss the point of this video. While the cinematography and the song and the clothes (oh my gawd the clothes!) are all undoubtedly gorgeous, I don't think that the beauty of the video is necessarily meant to glamourize bullfighting as a sport. The video's plot centers around an abusive relationship between the bullfighter and Madonna, with the bullfighting scene acting as a visual metaphor for the physical and emotional brutality that this guy inflicts; so if anything, rather than saying "killing animals = awesome" the real message in the bull's death is that this fellow is a bad, bad man.

Can you see the running metaphors between the two instances of violence? Do you notice how the dying bull is pawing at the ground just as Madonna is running down the street with lipstick smeared all over her face? If you think that this video condones bullfighting, then you must also think that it condones domestic violence.

To be honest, I seriously love this music video. I think it's one of the most beautiful pop music videos of all time. Things kind of went downhill for Madonna after Ray of Light, but the 90s were undoubtedly the shining peak of her career.

Watch the video and come to your own conclusions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDeiovnCv1o&feature=channel

my vegetable friends

Finals are kicking my ass right now. No time to blog extensively this week. :(

So it looks like today's post is going to have to be a video:



It's a little stupid at first, but it starts getting pretty amazing right around O:56.

harvest moon

I FREAKING LOVE HARVEST MOON. THIS GAME IS THE EPITOME OF ALL THAT IS AWESOME. There's something so wonderfully calming about growing digital crops and raising virtual anime chickens. And you get to ride a horsie and marry a songwriting hippie husband! OMG, SERIOUSLY GUYS, HOW COOL IT THAT??

Sometimes I still fantasize about running a chicken farm someday. It will be a no-kill chicken farm, more of a hobby than a for-profit business, and I'll eat nothing but free range, organic eggs. I might also expand the business to include a small family of ducks. There will also be a pet goat named Billy and a puppy named Gogi. I do realize that Gogi is a tasteless name.


It's a horsie! And a cow!! Awww...so cute. <3

Someone really should write a paper on how the enduring success of this series reflects a post-industrial longing for an idealized agrarian past. Not me though, sorry. I'd rather just play the game.

eat: wild ginger (nyc)

Wild Ginger
380 Broome St
New York, NY 10013
Neighborhoods: Little Italy, Nolita
212.966.1883
I can't believe it's vegan!

I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to Asian fusion restaurants but I was pleasantly surprised by Wild Ginger. Unlike P.F. Chang's (ugh, I can't stand P.F. Chang's) all the dishes were delectably nuanced in flavor and I didn't feel like my tongue was being pickled in salt.


If you can only order one thing off the menu, order the curry samosas. The pastry shell is light and crunchy with just the slightest kiss of deep-fried oily goodness, and the flavors marry beautifully with the spicy coolness of the mint sauce.


Honestly? I don't know why I ordered the mu-shu vegetables. It was tasty but boring, kind of like a baked potato. Order something else, like the mango soy protein...


Whenever you go to a new restaurant and order something with "soy protein" in it, there's always a chance that it'll come out tasting like glue. Luckily for us, Wild Ginger's soy protein looked, felt, and tasted freakishly like succulent slices of chicken. The mango sauce cleverly balanced sweet and sour with savory, the vegetables were all crisp and fresh, and the protein was so delicious that me and my date got into a fork fight over the last piece.


Then of course there was the obligatory slice of chocolate cheesecake. Very tasty, but a little dense. Probably could've lived without it.

With an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert, the bill came out to around $50 including tip and tax. Going without the cheesecake would've brought it down to around $40. A little pricey for a young college student, but well worth the quality of the food and the elegant ambiance. The outstanding curry samosas and the mango soy protein have ranked Wild Ginger as one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan, and it's undoubtedly the best Asian fusion restaurant I've been to so far. So f--k you and your sodium content, P.F. Chang's.

eat: cocoa v (nyc)

cocoa v
174 9th Ave
Manhattan, NY 10011
Neighborhood: Chelsea
212.242.3339
I can't believe it's vegan!

First thing you should know: the guy working there when I visited was THE HOTTEST GUY ON THE PLANET. I actually did a dorky happy dance the minute we stepped out onto the sidewalk because HE WAS JUST SO UNBELIEVABLY SEX-ABLE. OMG OMG OMG.

As for the establishment itself, Cocoa V is a 100% organic(!), vegan(!!), and free-trade(!!!) chocolate boutique and wine cafe. The ambiance is upscale and elegant without being intimidating and stuffy, and the menu features all the tasty treats you'd expect from a non-vegan cafe minus the suffering and cruelty inherent in animal products and globalization. :D


There's a gourmet chocolate bar at the front and a nifty little seating area connected through a doorway in the back. All the chocolates are so pretty that it's almost a shame to eat them, although eat them I did and they were f-ing delicious. My girl date and I didn't get to try any of the savory menu items but we did get two cups of darjeeling and a red velvet cupcake. My verdict on the cupcake?


Best goddamn red velvet cupcake of my life.

The cupcake was amazingly moist and the frosting was fluffy, thick, and perfectly sweet. I hate it when frosting is too sweet, so good job Cocoa V.

Altogether the cupcake and the tea came out to around $10 with tax not including the massive tip (he was SOOOO cute!). A little pricey, but just think: for $10 you could get two lattes and a skanky-ass scone at Starbucks, or you could feel all worldly and sophisticated and have some tea and the best cupcake of your life at Cocoa V.



You can kind of see Mr. Perfect on the far left. Tall, thin vegan boys with soulful eyes, bashful smiles, and an odd sense of humor seriously rock my socks off. They really do. If you don't care for vegan sweets, then at least go for the hotties who work there. <3