new year, new blog

Happy new year and new decade, everybody! 2009 was a year of great change, and surprise in my life, and so I know that 2010 will be very different. Those differences will also be reflected in this blog- look for a new address, a new design, and new directions for Where's the Revolution? in the next few weeks. I hope that you'll join me for a new journey!

and now, my new year's resolutions, 10 for 2010:

• learn to make sprouted grain bread like Ezekiel
• make injera
• read 200 books (inspired by Elizabeth)
  
• keep a journal (including dream journal)
• visit 10 cities I've never visited
• get a job, pay off credit card debt
• be better than I've been lately about drinking water and taking my vitamins
  
• write, create writing portfolio, send out articles for publication
• keep in touch better with friends- letters, emails, cards, care packages, phone calls
  
• revamp this blog!
  

new year, new blog

the winners!

That's right, winnerS. I've decided to pick 2 people to send the Swell zine to! (Here's the original post describing the zine) Lucky numbers 15 and 37, Amey and Hase! Send me your mailing addresses at wherestherevolution@gmail.com and I'll put Swell in the mail for you!

Thanks for playing everyone, and keep watching for more giveaways!

the winners!

blog action day: climate change

decided to keep it short and sweet this year- even though the U of C study is a few years old, it bears repeating:

Researchers at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a US-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state of the art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year.

quote taken from this Guardian article, 2006

(also, don't let people side-track you by talking about large-scale production of crops such as soy and corn that feed vegans- those are the same crops, but on a much larger scale, that meat animals are fed as well! Whether you are vegan or not, you are eating soybeans. It's up to you how.)

blog action day: climate change

It's coming...

October is going to be the 3rd annual VEGAN MOnth of FOod! It's not too late to get your blog into the game- visit Kittee's blog for more info.
VeganMoFo is overwhelming, but so so fun! Email me if you want more information!

If you want to see what my previous mofos have looked like, check out:

October 2008 (from all over Europe)
November 2007 (I actually managed to post 30 times that time- woah!)

Here comes VEGANMOFO III! Are you ready...?

It's coming...

3rd blog birthday! (I can't believe I blogged the whole thing!)

Can you believe this blog has been chugging along for 3 years? Even though I haven't been blogging as often as I used to, I definitely am not ready to quit, and I promise many more posts in the future.

Some fun facts about this blog:

• When it began, this was a team blog! Even though Daiku doesn't officially blog any more, his ideas (and fabulous cooking!) are still there, and I'm grateful for his help.
• I've kept the same avatar, a tomato-face with carrot nose, radish eyes, and scallion mouth, the entire time. The produce was from a garden Daiku and I grew in Old Field, Long Island, in 2000
• Our names aren't actually bazu and daiku! But those are our real-life nicknames. Our real names (drum roll please...) are Bahar and Michael. Nice to meet you!
  
• I never thought that blogging would lead to meeting such fabulous people (virtually and in real life) - you guys have enriched my life, and I look forward to more friendships!
• I don't do bloglines or google reader or anything yet. I know, I know, I should start. My link list is really outdated.
• I didn't think to post my email address to the blog until about a year and a half in! What was I thinking??
• I have blogged from different cities and even countries, but have found that I'm best when I'm at home- hence the sometimes long delays of my travel posts
• I have never been able to decide between the taglines "the revolution will be veganized" "green is the new red" or "live green, eat vegan". Help!
  

Now it's your turn- do you have any questions about us or this blog? Leave a comment with your question and I will answer all of them, to the best of my ability, in the next post. Thanks for reading! VEGANZ 4EVER!!!!!

p.s. follow me on Twitter and Veggie Thing! xo

3rd blog birthday! (I can't believe I blogged the whole thing!)

and the winner is...

Lucky #19, Sara Beth! Sara Beth, please email me at wherestherevolution@gmail.com and give me your mailing address and I'll get Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen mailed out to you!

Everyone else, thanks for playing and... yes, watch this spot for more giveaways this month!

and the winner is...

another give-away! Vegan Soul Kitchen

Some of you might remember my review of Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook a couple of months back. Now that summer is at its peak, these recipes will be even more of a joy to experiment with. Think fresh watermelon, mint, tomatoes, garlic... you get the picture! Well, once again, I am thrilled to have a copy to give away on this blog! If you want a chance to win this book, just leave a comment! Deadline for comments: Wednesday, 15 July 2009. Winner announced Thursday, 16 July.

* Note- I announced KimberlyNE as the winner of Ani Phyo's Raw Desserts book. However, I have not heard from her. If I don't hear from her soon, I will hold a second drawing and announce a new winner.

Thanks for participating!

another give-away! Vegan Soul Kitchen

and the winner is...

Lucky comment #68, KimberlyNE!! KimberlyNE, please email me at wherestherevolution@gmail.com and give me your address and I'll ship Ani Phyo's book right out to you!

Everyone else, watch this spot for another exciting giveaway in the next couple of days...

and the winner is...

ani phyo's raw desserts review and give-away!!

I was so excited to get a chance to review Ani Phyo's newest cookbook, Ani's Raw Food Desserts. This is the perfect time of the year to dive into a world of fresh, raw desserts while taking advantage of all the gorgeous produce on hand. While this book contains many simple recipes that shine the spotlight on a single ingredient such as watermelons or peaches, Ani Phyo's fans know that there is going to be much more. There are recipes for cupcakes, cheesecakes, even tiramisu. I was introduced to new ingredients (such as mesquite powder and lecithin), and also enjoyed reading Ani's tips for health, beauty, and green living throughout the book. There are even recipes using wine- Ani is a chef after my own heart!

So far, my favorite recipe that I've made from this book is the strawberry kream cheezecake (p. 57) (I subbed fresh blueberries for the strawberry sauce). Raw or not, vegan or not, this is by far my favorite cheesecake ever! Daiku and I are obsessed with it- it is creamy and tangy and has just the right texture and taste. I can't wait to try variations of it... hmmm, I went strawberry picking today...

Thanks to the generosity of the publisher, I have a copy of Ani's Raw Food Desserts to give away! If you'd like a chance to win this book, just leave a comment here. I will randomly pick one winner from all the commenters. Deadline for comments: Thursday, 9 July 2009, 11 p.m. EST. Winner announced: Friday morning. Good luck!

ani phyo's raw desserts review and give-away!!

july happenings!

Watch this blog for a glorious July! I will celebrate summer with tons of new posts with cookbook and product reviews, great summer recipes, travel updates, meet-ups with awesome vegans, and drawings and giveaways galore! tell everyone you know- Where's the Revolution will be the July IT blog. =)

Oh, and there will be farm animals. Definitely lots of farm animals.

july happenings!

let's get this blog back on the road!

Bijou looks on disapprovingly at my lack of blogging.

Ok, I've been playing the catch-up game forever! Because of my slowness to post about my travels in Europe, I've also been neglecting the here and now- resulting in a huge blogging backlog which of course makes me afraid to do anything! So resolved, as of today, a schedule for getting this blog back on the road:

• Saturday, April 4 - Berlin
• Monday, April 6 - Review of Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen
  
• Wednesday, April 8 - Copenhagen and Malmö
• Friday, April 10 - Belfast
• Sunday, April 12 - England odds and ends
• Tuesday, April 14 - Drawings for 3 prizes, from among those who kindly donated to my charity sky dive way back in September- I have not forgotten!

I'm making myself stick to this schedule, and so you can be sure to see all these posts shortly! For all you lovely people who have been gently prodding me in the right direction- thank you!

Bijou says "I'll believe it when I see it."

let's get this blog back on the road!

blog action day (poverty): mofo with no fo

Tonight's mofo will have no fo- no food, that is. It's because today is Blog Action Day, and this year's theme is poverty. In the past year, as food prices rose in many parts of the world, a lot of us began taking a second look at the relationship between food and justice. As many vegans come to realize, issues of ethics and justice are inextricably bound up with what we choose to put on our tables and in our mouths. However, many of us feel powerless to truly affect change in the global problems that so many face- poverty, hunger, malnutrition, disease, and the plethora of other challenges brought on by the lack of food. I don't pretend to offer a sweeping solution. Just a small suggestion. Fasting. I have never really fasted before, for any reason. Growing up in Iran, I saw adults all around me go without food or water from sunrise until sunset for the month of Ramadan, but I never took the plunge myself. For an entire month, you are supposed to go without food or water when the sun is out. You are supposed to pray. You are supposed to make charitable donations. You are supposed to keep your mind and your thoughts pure and filled with good thoughts. This year, Ramadan was in September. While I didn't fast in the religious sense of the word (I am not really a religious person at all), I did experiment with fasting fully for a few days. I decided that, leaving religious dogma aside, I would fast for those days to get closer to the purpose of Ramadan as I understand it- to feel empathy for fellow human beings who are not fortunate. And you know what? Fasting is a powerful form of meditation. When you take yourself out of the daily ritual of food (what am I making? what am I eating? what am I buying? what am I preparing? what recipe am I using? what am I blogging about?) you free up a lot of brain space to instead think about what all those acts represent. You begin to see how incredibly fortunate you are that you get to be picky about what brand of soy milk or bread you buy, and what kind of water you like better. We are so fortunate to be able to eat not just to nourish our bodies, but also for fun, for health, for entertainment, for learning.

Of course, I am not saying that food is bad, or that those with ready access to food are bad people. What I wanted to point out was how easy it is to become detached from our place in the cycle of food and justice in the world- to forget the roles we play and can play. On one of the days I was fasting, we were holding a birthday celebration for my grandmother. I made and decorated a cake for her. And when the sun went down and I broke my fast by sharing a slice of cake with her, I was reminded of how powerful food truly is.

blog action day (poverty): mofo with no fo

2nd bloggiversary!

.
Yes, folks, Where's the Revolution is 2 years old today! Little did I know two years ago that blogging and the vegan online community would become such a huge part of my life. I look forward to more years of sharing my life, my thoughts, and my food with you all. However, tonight's post has to be short and sweet. You see, Daiku and I are preparing to go camping tomorrow with 14 fellow veg-heads! So tonight, to celebrate the blog birthday, I bring you a simple and nostalgic summer treat:

Take some premium vegan vanilla ice cream...

...and some natural and authentically brewed root beer. Mix them together and what do you have?

A rich concoction known as... a root beer float. So simple, and yet so satisfying. These photos are from a party at our friends' house, and it was my first time trying the new coconut-based flavors of Purely Decadent ice cream. The ice cream was fabulous- coconut, vanilla, and even a hint of butterscotch perfectly offset the zing of the root beer. I raise a glass to all of you!

P.S. Thank you all SO much for your support and donations for my sky dive! Because of your generosity, I have raised over $700 of the $975 goal. I feel confident that I can raise the full amount which means *gulp* I get to jump out of a plane after all...
.

2nd bloggiversary!

JUMP! (It's for the kids)

image courtesy of Lucy Hall, 2008

Ok, I must be insane. How else to explain this? Well, let me put it to you this way. I arrive in England on September 14th. On September 20th, I've agreed to jump out of an airplane!

It's a sky dive for charity, and I figured doing it for a great cause would be the only way to motivate myself to take this frightening step. The goal is to raise money for the La-No-Che Camp and Orphanage in Tanzania, an organization that provides housing and other services for children orphaned to AIDS and other diseases. My friend Lucy has been involved with this project for a long time now, and it has been inspiring to see the camp become better-established and better-funded every year. My goal is to raise £500 (roughly $975) in the next 5 weeks. And this is where I ask you for help. Would you be willing to donate to the cause? All the money I raise will go directly to Camp La-No-Che, where it will fund infrastructure (new roof, supplies), and programs for the kids.

image courtesy of Lucy Hall, 2008

The catch is that I will only be able to jump if I raise that minimum amount, and that is why I'm asking for everyone who can to donate what they can. As any of you who have raised money for good causes know, no contribution is too big or too small, and contributions add up quickly! If I raise under £500, all the money will be given to Camp La-No-Che, but without the whole Bazu jumping out of the airplane part.

image courtesy of Lucy Hall, 2008

What's in it for you? Well, everyone who donates money will receive a personal thank-you from me, and all names will be entered to win a super-special thank-you prize. Oh, and I pledge to live-blog from the actual jump! So if you are able, won't you make a contribution to Camp La-No-Che today?

There are 2 ways to pay:

1. Paypal. You can pay me directly through paypal (my account is bazooq (at) gmail (dot) com)
2. Check or money order. If you live in the U.S., you can mail me a personal check or money order, but I need to receive it by the first week of September. (email me at bazooq (at) gmail (dot) com for info. and address)

Please make sure to include "La-No-Che" on all payments, and let me know if there is a blogging name I know you by! Also, please feel free to email me for more information about this project.

With everyone's help, hopefully in about 6 weeks, you'll see me doing this:

image courtesy of: http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/

Cheers, everyone!

JUMP! (It's for the kids)

memes! (and a request)

Ok, I've been tagged several times for these memes, and I feel like a very neglectful blogger for not acknowledging the lovely bloggers who have tagged me! Now that my teaching for the semester is over and I have turned my grades in, I have a lot more time to catch up in the blogging world.

The first meme, sent my way by SaraJane of Vegan.Chicks.Rock. is the one where I am to tell you 5 things about myself. These memes are really interesting, because I always have fun and interesting things floating around my head, but when pressed to reveal 5 things about myself, I draw a blank. I will try, though.

1. I will be turning 30 next year. I don't usually make a big deal of birthdays, but 30 does seem like a big milestone. I have come up with a "30 before 30" list of things I want to accomplish before then. You can see the list here. (Your comments are always welcome!)

2. As #1 demonstrates, I am a huge fan of lists and to-dos and goals set down on paper.

3. But I'm also a huge procrastinator, so not all of my lovingly-created lists get accomplished. My procrastination can make blogging particularly painful at times, when I realize that I took a photo of a wonderful meal months ago and never got around to blogging it!

4. I've learned to deal with feelings of blogging angst, though. I'm nearing the 2-year mark on this blog, and if I were to take myself too seriously or make it too hard on myself, I'd never have been able to hang around this long.

5. This idea of being calm and peaceful is going to come in really handy as Daiku and I scramble to finish out the semester and leave for almost the entire month of June- eep!

Ok, one meme down, 2 to go! The second one comes via Celine, a.k.a. the baking genius behind have cake, will travel! I'm supposed to list 6 words to describe myself:

1. Ok, I was going to say "Koreaphile" meaning one who is interested in Korean culture. But, thanks to Google, I see that this might get confused with "korephile" and so I'm not going to go there. Hmmmm. How about "kimchi-lover"?
2. academic
3. grammatical
4. funny
5. neurotic
6. wanderlust-haver

Finally, I was overjoyed to receive this award from two blogs: Hezbollah Tofu and love like a vegan. To think that the brains behind these excellent blogs would say that this one ranks as "excellent" is very awesome, indeed. Now, what I'm supposed to do is pass this on to 2 blogs that are excellent. Well, this is where my request comes in. I feel that I've been a bit out of the blogging loop lately, especially as so many new vegan blogs are cropping up! So I want to use this as an opportunity to familiarize myself with some new blogs, especially now that I have a little more time for browsing them. So, do you know any excellent blogs that I might not have heard of yet? Or are you the owner of a blog that you think I would like? Please, leave me a comment and I promise to visit it! Hopefully this way, the "E for Excellent" award will serve as an impetus for me to find some new excellent blogs and keep my blogging mind fresh! Thanks in advance, everybody.

memes! (and a request)

bloggy meet-up and food overload!

Hi everybody! How are you all doing? No, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. As my vacation winds down, I'm trying to take advantage of every moment of relaxation possible - which means that other than the occasional scrabble game on Facebook, I've been on a bit of an internet hiatus. To add to that, the internet access here at my mom's house is a bit spotty, so I still haven't uploaded all my Los Angeles photos. All that adds up to a huge pile of photos and blog-posts and guilt for neglecting it all! So I'm back today, with a huge post. Brew a cup of tea or coffee, sit back, relax, and let me tell you all about one of the bloggy meet-ups Daiku and I got to enjoy during our time in California!

Cast of characters:
Daiku and me, yours truly
Vegyogini of Hugger Food
Teresa of Maybe Pigs Can Fly
Trina of Your Vegan Mom, along with her husband and adorable baby boy
Textual Bulldog of Bigmouth Strikes Again, along with her friend

Date: Sunday, 29 December 2007

Location: Vinh Loi Tofu, a Vietnamese vegan place in Reseda that I had heard rave reviews about.

Except for one thing- here are, from L to R, Teresa, me, and Vegyogini discovering that D'OH! Vinh Loi was closed for the holidays!

On to plan B: we all decided to drive over to a Valley institution, Follow Your Heart, a grocery and cafe and birthplace of the vegan kitchen staples Vegenaise, FYH cheese, and many other wonderful things. I fondly remembered going here to buy my very first block of vegan cheese a few years ago, but had never tried the cafe, so I didn't mind at all.

While we waited to be seated, we marveled at these shelves and shelves of nothing but vegan frozen desserts. It's like the promised land- all kinds of ice creams, sorbets, frozen yogurts, and other creations- totally irresistable. In one small corner were huddled a few pints of Akbar Mashdi Iranian-style dairy ice cream, and I loved the reversal- this is one of the few places on the planet where the dairy was in the sad neglected minority while the vegan stuff comprised the overwhelming majority. Awesome.

Finally we were seated- I got to sit close next to Desmond, cute vegan baby extraordinaire, and photograph his antics! It was really difficult to decide what to order, but we finally made the tough choices that had to be made... I photographed everything but now I can't remember what it all was! Hopefully some of you who were there can remind me in the comments!

I went with the eggs benedict special, since I'd never had it in veganized form. I just had to photograph the kitschy black olives. It was a cool dish, and definitely filling, but a little underwhelming as far as flavor went- and it was a bit of a tofu overload! Tofu eggs, tofu hollandaise sauce, and a tofu scramble and soy chorizo on the side- whew! Fortunately, I love tofu just that much.

No words are needed to convey the deliciousness of the colorful food, happily.

Here's the whole group, kindly photographed by a FYH employee. I don't think most of us came close to finishing our plates! Afterward, we all walked around the market checking out all the vegan goods that most of us had never seen before.

Textual Bulldog and Teresa marveling at Play Food cheese! (Take that, Cheez Whiz)

(I had to buy one, since I'd heard such rave reviews. Here's my Cream Tang flavor bottle- but I didn't open it, since I wanted to be able to take it along with my luggage on the flight back home- and I don't think I'll open it until I get back to Syracuse- anticipation!)

Vegyogini and Daiku oohing and aahing over vegan chicken!

Outside Follow Your Heart was this wonderfully smart and friendly border collie, Buddy, who was helping his owner collect signatures for an animal-rights proposition to be placed on the California ballot. Since I'm still a registered CA voter, I got to sign the petition- sweet!

Here's a parting group shot. It was so nice meeting everybody! (And thank you guys for putting up with my photo-obsessed ways). It's so cool to think about the ways in which blogging has changed my life, putting me in touch with brilliant people that I get to meet at home or whenever I'm lucky enough to travel. In fact, tomorrow, Daiku and I are looking forward to a Washington D.C./Virginia PPK meet-up. I'll be sure to report on that... eventually. Just kidding- I'm getting back into the blogging routine, I promise! Have a great weekend, everyone.

Restaurant information: Follow Your Heart Natural Foods

Extensive menu (mostly vegan with some dairy options), fair prices, wonderfully stocked market.

21825 Sherman Way
Canoga Park, CA 91303
(818) 348-3240 Phone
(818) 348-1509 FAX

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK, 8:00am - 9:00pm

P.S. This is for Trac, who wanted to see palm trees:

...and this is for Elizabeth, who wanted to see my new haircut:

bloggy meet-up and food overload!

VeganMoFo and Lattes...

Greetings from Brooklyn! I didn't think I'd be blogging from here, but I just had to jump in and join VeganMoFo after I heard about it. (Check out the huge and growing list of participants on Isa's blog here) Basically, it's the Vegan Month of Food - a blogging event where we all agree to blog about vegan food every day for the month of November. Since I've already blogged for the first two days, I figured it's not too late to jump in on the third day (or night).

I like this idea, because it will keep me on my toes- perhaps by blogging every day, I can finally get to put down all those ideas that float around my brain all the time. All the aspects of vegan food- fun, friends, family, memory, comfort, invention, taste, health are fair game. What was my first vegan cookbook, my first vegan recipe, my first vegan restaurant? My first taste of tofu? (Can I even remember?) This month will be one of exploration centered on this topic.

I haven't had a chance to download any of my current NYC photos yet, so instead, I thought I'd use my first VeganMoFo post to talk about...

...this here big ol' foamy soy chai latte. It's such an elegant and comforting drink, but so easy to make at home. It's one of those concoctions where convenience items (store-bought soymilk, hand-held frothers, microwaves) come together to form a creation worth singing about. Sometimes, vegan food (well, drink) is just this easy:

• Step 1: Brew some chai tea, either from scratch or a teabag, to desired strength
• Step 2: Sweeten to taste, I like agave nectar
• Step 4: In a separate glass, pour some full-fat soymilk. (I find homemade or unsweetened soymilk does not work well, neither does rice milk or any nut milk that I have tried.) Microwave for 30 - 45 seconds, until hot but not boiling.
• Step 5: Using a hand-held frother (such as this), foam hot soymilk to desired consistency
• Step 6: Pour the foamed milk into sweetened brewed tea.

Enjoy! And join VeganMoFo!

Go to Katie's blog for more ideas
And join the MoFo Flickr pool and post your photos

VeganMoFo and Lattes...

sourdough semolina saffron bread

I have been experimenting with sourdough more and more, and have been amazed by the variety of things that it can make! Just recently, I made sourdough biscuits, which I had never before even considered as a possibility - but boy were they good with chili! One of the more intriguing recipes I've come across has been this recipe for semolina sourdough bread. I had had a bag of semolina flour sitting around forever, and this bread looked like a beautiful way to use it. Baking the bread as indicated (replacing the honey called for with agave nectar), yielded a wonderful bread, with the best flavor and texture of any bread I've baked before! Encouraged, I decided to switch things up a tiny bit, and came up with the idea for a semolina sourdough loaf infused with saffron. Here are some illustrations from the process. It's a rather long process (almost 24 hours all together), but most of that time is not hands-on, and the end results are worth it. There is nothing as comforting and yet somehow empowering as spending a day baking bread!

Top to bottom: sourdough starter formed into a "starter dough", the mixture of semolina and all-purpose flour, saffron soaking in warm water, mixed dough with flecks of saffron, and risen dough (look how yellow!) ready to be shaped into loaves. To infuse the bread with saffron, I added a mixture of 1 tsp saffron (ground) that had soaked in 2 TB of hot water for a few minutes in the first stage of mixing (before the first rise).

The result was an aromatic and strongly flavored bread. I realize now that I could tinker with this recipe some more, perhaps increase the sweetener a bit to offset the saffron flavor.

But it's an awesome bread to for sweet (drizzled with tahini and agave nectar), or savory uses, like this sandwich with Melody's tester tofu feta and radish greens:

I'm submitting this post to Sunita's World blog, for her monthly spice event, "Think Spice!" This month's spice, obviously, is saffron, a flavor near and dear my heart as it plays a huge role in Iranian cuisine.

• If you like saffron, here's another post from last year with saffron playing a starring role.
• To catch up with my sourdough spree, check out my sourdough post

If you scroll down all the way to the bottom of this blog, you'll see that I've joined the Foodie BlogRoll, a huge compendium of other foodie blogs. I get inspired daily by foodie blogs, and am thrilled to be joining their ranks (and representing vegan cuisine to boot!)

sourdough semolina saffron bread