Exquisito

I wrote about how some don’t have enough food in the last post; I sometimes can’t get enough. However, the guacamole exquisito at Sneaky Dee’s is always green, always good and always more than enough – but I always finish it. Now I need a nap.

Images of some food that I’ve had recently. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Eat

Free vegetarian food on the streets of Toronto to raise awareness of the abundance of food for some and lack of it for others. This happens everywhere, from nation to nation and in communities within cities and towns. I’m surprised that we have so much that it can be given away when there are others that must use food banks or go without. The meal was put together with ingredients that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Food Not Bombs works to end hunger and has supported actions to stop the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people, end exploitation and the destruction of the earth. On this particular day, they were raising awareness about how much food is wasted around the world – yet there are still so many without.

Chocolate

Chocolate bars from Food Not Candy – makers of chocolate from 100% cacao, raw and organic. No preservative or additives. Probably the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

Heart

I’m more likely, and more willing, to cross the continent or leave the country rather than go to the suburbs – or the ’905′ as Toronto city dwellers call them. When I do go, I always appreciate it when I get back to the city – especially my neighbourhood, the Kensington Market which I think is the most convenient neighbourhood in the city. I tell visitors that the Kensington Market is within a 15 minute walk to almost anything in the city – Chinatown, the university of Toronto, Queen Street, Eaton Centre, Little Italy, The Annex, the financial district, the lake and much more.

I can buy everything I need within the market. I rarely visit grocery stores or buy food from outside of the market. At my doorstep, there are three organic food shops, three health food shops, five vegetarian restaurants, three bakeries, countless cafés, a vegan shoe store and an organic clothing shop. There’s also a ton of vintage clothing and furniture shops as well as great bars and clubs.

The Market is generally crowded with people – so much that there is often not enough room for pedestrians on the sidewalks. This causes people to walk on the streets – a point of contention for drivers. However, on the last Sunday of the month from May to October, there is Pedestrian Sunday or PS Kensington when cars are prohibited and artists, performers and people(!) take to the streets.

Here are my photos from PS Kesnington in May 2008. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Here is a set of images from the Market. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Cornucopia

Some people say you should never go shopping for food on an empty stomach because you might buy things you weren’t expecting to buy. I did just that today; I went for kale, but came home with much more. I picked up my first batch of local strawberries, my first mango of the season as well as some of the most amazing peaches I’ve had in a while.

I skipped the salad tonight and has some fruit instead. Don’t listen to those people – go shopping on an empty stomach!

Divorce

I spotted these unusual treats at the local grocery store tonight. I guess when you run out of these puppies, you might need some relief from the item below. Both seen at the same store.

I didn’t buy either of these products. Instead, I bought some kale which seemed more sensible.

Rawlicious

Raw, Delicious, Health, Happiness & Zen is how this living/raw food restaurant is described on their website. I went there with Sandra tonight for dinner to check it out. I know the owner from the raw food community and her food is fantastic. This restaurant is no exception.

Some of the offerings, raw maki:

Raw pizza:
…and my favorite, a mango/orange smoothie that tastes like a creamsicle – remember those?
The rest of the images from Rawlicious; click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Religion

What I did not eat today.

Today is the first Sunday of the month and I’m fasting today as I do occasionally. When I do fast, I always think of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was intrigued to read that members fast on the first Sunday of each month and donate the amount of money equal to the amount of the missed meals to the church.

I’m more spiritual and not so much religious. When people ask me what religion I practice, I state, vegetarianism – because it is based on science and fact. However, if I were to practice an organised religion, it would be Jainism because their vegetarianism is based on ahimsa (literally, non-violence) which is the core of their beliefs. Jainism has been around since the 9th century BC, however, it has progressed with the times. Many Jains that I met in India have also stopped consuming animal milk and follow a vegan diet.

I prefer not to practise only one religion, but practise a bit of each religion and work it into my own life. With the money I save today, I will donate it to the Toronto Vegetarian Association.

Vegan.com

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to have Erik Marcus blog about one of my food photos of vegetable rolls on his website Vegan.com. Erik is an author and advocate of vegetarianism and animal rights. I read his first book, Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, when I first went vegetarian. In Vegan, he writes about the three pillars of vegetarianism, health, animal welfare and the environment and the importance of each and how inter-related they are. This was a good foundation and reinforced my decision to become vegetarian and remain vegetarian.

The foreword in the book was by Howard Lyman, a former cattle rancher turned vegetarian. Most know Howard as the person that appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and caused her to renounce beef. In the book, Howard also wrote about pesticides and chemicals in farming that caused him to become paralyzed (he eventually recovered). This caused me to read another book, Silent Spring that investigated pesticides and the effect on health, life and the environment of plants, animals and the planet.

Years later, when I became interested in animal advocacy, I read Erik’s second book, Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money. He wrote about the animal agriculture industry and the negative treatment of animals in factory farms as well as the peripheral industries such as slaughterhouses. He wrote that all people have compassion for animals and that education about their condition was the key to the reduction of consumption of animal products and the dismantling of the factory farms.

For me, any one of the reasons on their own are compelling enough for an individual to become vegetarian, however, when one thinks of the combination of all three, it is staggering to me why someone continues to consume animal products. By doing so, they advocate the harsh treatment of animals in factory farms, the overuse of resources to feed animals destined for slaughter and the negative effects animal products have on their health. When one goes vegetarian, everybody wins.

Below, the video, Meet Your Meat.

GO

It’s been a while since I’ve thought about why I became vegetarian – it wasn’t any one particular reason. A thought from the book, Fast Food Nation may have triggered it, however, I think it was a combination of things – factory farming, the environment and health (both mental and physical) were all combinations to keep me vegetarian. What really transformed my life was adopting a mostly raw food diet.

It’s probably the two of the best changes that I’ve made in my life. I wrote about it a few years ago for the Toronto Vegetarian Association, although it was never published. However, a link to the article is here (the link opens a PDF document).