Braving a cold winter's night with soup + classy impromptu salad dressing #2

Last Christmas day my family and I trekked over to Lake Tahoe for our first time to experience snow (!!!!). My dad rented a cabin "that could comfortably fit 10-12 people" but in reality could've fit 20. Seriously, there are residential cabins out there that could house 20 people. Anyway all ten of us plus my three cousins made the trip at around 4pm on December 25 and arrived there at around 9:30. It was EXTREMELY cold but we enjoyed every moment of it, especially because we got to snowboard!

What we did NOT enjoy was our first night. So arriving at the driveway we had to shovel the snow off the garage door. Then we entered a 49 degree F / 9 degree C (if I can recall correctly) house, tired, hungry, cold, and cranky. The heater was broken. We literally could see the fog coming out of our mouths when we breathed. We had to wear our winter clothes inside the house.

My mom cooking in her parka. Nice.

While some of the boys tried to figure out the heater issue my mom and I decided to cook some dinner. We didn't have much supplies... To be frank I wasn't in the mood to open a can of beans and chop onions. Everyone was cold and the only thing that could've helped us was soup. We didn't have any soup supplies except for...

Excuse the ugliness and the extremely not vegan taxedermied snake in the background. The snake came with the house.

Behold the V8 vegetable juice. We bought this because my American cousins don't eat enough vegetables (sorry guys, potatoes aren't really vegetables) and American restaurants don't serve 'em. During my stay in the US I drank this everyday so I could get a dose of veggies and vitamins. Anyway we ended up making fake soup: V8 juice gently simmered with Italian spices, chili pepper, salt and pepper. I think I may have added powdered garlic (too cold to peel and chop fresh). All the spices were found in the kitchen cupboard.









Too simple to make, it shouldn't even be blog-worthy. But it had a cold-winter's-night story so I thought I'd share. Moral of the story: always make sure you have V8 juice on you in case you're stranded in a freezing cabin.

We brought some Boy Bawang (extremely garlicky deep fried corn kernels) from home which made an excellent crouton-like topping. Yum with the ever dependable white rice.

*******************

The next night after a full day of snowboarding I had to make salad dressing. We were in the middle of winter and all my mom got for veggies were salad greens. With no dressing.

Something good always comes out of a salad dressing dilemma, I always say.

This time the only acid on hand was bottled orange juice and the sweetener, strawberry jam. Orange juice isn't as tart as kalamansi juice so we had to add a good dose of salt. It was a good "gourmet-tasting" dressing.

Strawberry Citrus Salad Dressing
1/4 cup orange juice
1 heaping tablespoon of strawberry jam
1-2 cloves of garlic, grated
1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil, to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Add the juice, jam, and garlic in a small bowl and whisk together -- try to break up the clumps of strawberry with the whisk. Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking the whole mixture together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If still too sweet, add more oil or splashes of water.

Me making the dressing with Pop, my oil pourer. I had to keep on wearing a beanie to hide my Medusa hat hair.

Hmmm I think this is my last Christmas entry! Finally. Now I can get on with more current stuff.

Bro #6 enjoying the sun and cool air on our way back to the Bay area.

Tofurky Noche Buena & New Year (plus a recipe)

Christmas 2008 was my first time:

1. To celebrate it as a vegan

2. To celebrate it out of the country

3. To have a Tofurky roast

4. To not cook all day for Noche Buena / Christmas Eve dinner

Normally I despise all store-made, pre-made, catered, pick-up-from-the-restaurant food, generally for special occasions and particularly for Christmas. I belong to the school of thought that homemade food that usually takes all day to make is real food. This is why I'm not a big fan of fake meat. We made an exception to the all-day-cooking rule for Christmas because we were celebrating it in my tita's (aunt's) home abroad. Funny, we spent both Christmas Eve and New Yearís Eve days doing laundry at a Laundromat in Alamo (10 in the family + 1 week of no laundry = 5 loads in the washer); while my brothers waited at the Laundromat my parents and I went to the grocery for Christmas Eve / New Year's Eve dinner.

So anyway, I finally made peace with the fact that I couldn't pull an all-day cooking thing for Noche Buena so I bought a Tofurky veggie roast. This was super easy to prepare; aside from what came in the box I had to prep potatoes, carrots, olive oil, soy sauce, and some sage. It only took one hour in the oven and I had to use the toaster oven because the real oven was being used to cook the dead bird (why oh why must we celebrate an occasion with a cruel death... why?). The tofu-seitan roast had a wild rice and mushroom stuffing and gravy. Good dinner, although I would've preferred something more homemade, like a roasted vegetable dish with tofu and a homemade pie.

2007 was my first Christmas as a vegetarian and the complete opposite of 2008 -- I spent ALL AFTERNOON AND NIGHT cooking and baking. I even remember what I made -- a baked lentil loaf with roast garlic gravy. I was the only veg person then so I had to cook my own food, all by myself. It was pretty sad because there were a ton of people fixing the dead bird / cow while I was going crazy making gravy -- roasted garlic and veggie broth included -- FROM SCRATCH, ALONE. It was about 100 degrees F / +30 degrees C in the kitchen; everyone was in pretty Christmas clothes while I was in a sweaty shirt. So, I guess I really shouldn't complain about the speediness of the Tofurky (by the way the loaf turned out weird but the gravy was a hit to the omnis)...

New Year's Eve dinner was something more semi-homemade, I'm happy to report. Brother #5 and I discovered Tofurky sausages during the Christmas break and made a stir fry out of it. We used Tofurky Polish Kielbasa but the Italian works well too (we actually prefer Italian over the Kielbasa, but we only had Kielbasa on hand then). For the vegans with no access to Tofurky you could use your canned fake sausages (arghh I despise that stuff, it has no taste!!) and just add more spices. I've included the 2 options in the recipe below although I have to confess I haven't tried it with the spices yet.

New Year Tofurky sausage and zucchini stirfry

Ingredients:

splash olive oil or vegetable oil

1 package of 4 Tofurky sausages, any flavor (Italian or Polish Kielbasa)

2 white onions, sliced into half-rings

5 egg tomatoes, sliced into chunks

2 zucchinis

salt and pepper to taste

chili pepper (optional)

To prepare the sausages: slice the sausages in half lengthwise, then slice it into thirds crosswise at a diagonal.

To prepare the zucchini: slice the zucchinis in quarters lengthwise, then slice it crosswise so it's about the same size as the sausage chunks.

Heat the oil in a skillet at medium heat. Fry the sausages until they get a nice crust on both sides, then remove the sausages from the pan.

Heat more oil in the skillet. Add in the onions -- when the onions have turned transparent / caramelized, add in the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes have melted into the onions -- add salt and pepper and chili to taste. Place the mixture in a dish and put the fried sausages on top.

Heat more oil and sautee the zucchini slices. Add salt and pepper to taste and be sure to scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Lay the zucchini on top of the sausages, and serve.

Variation:

If you live in a non-Tofurky world, you can use canned or frozen vegan sausages (about 540g). The ones I find here in Manila have zero taste and need to be spiced heavily.

Slice the sausages according to the directions above. Place the sausage chunks in a bowl and drizzle in some oil, salt and pepper.

Add in either:

2 tsp paprika, chili pepper (optional), 3/4 tsp ground mustard seeds, and 1 tsp crushed fennel seeds

or

2 tsp paprika, chili pepper (optional), 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/8 tsp allspice

or

2 tsp paprika, chili pepper (optional), 1-2 tbsp crushed fennel seeds, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/8 tsp ground all spice

Toss the sausage-spice mixture together. Usually the canned veggie sausages here are Vienna Sausage-like in texture, so you might want to coat them in cornstarch before frying to get them nice and crisp. Then, fry as directed above.

NB: spice mixtures inspired from Fat Free Vegan's Veggie Pepperoni, Seitan O' Greatness, and Julie Hasson's Spicy Italian Sausages

Photos of the Tofurky roast courtesy of brother #4 aka Jose Gonzalez.

The nightmare before Christmas, aka pre-Christmas baking porn

Remember when I was on an insane baking rampage the few weeks before Christmas? Well I was reviewing my food porn photos and unearthed these... and remembered I hadn't blogged about 'em yet.

Finally got myself a real cake pedestal / turner instead of the overturned-salad bowl-and-plate I used to rely on. Frosting cakes on the turner was a dream! They turned out more professional looking and the cake wasn't in danger of falling off the bowl. Quite difficult to frost cupcakes on this though 'cause you can't stop the thing from swiveling, so for cupcakes I still recommend the overturned bowl.

A 2-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and shaved dark chocolate on top. I was able to source some vegan dark chocolate at the baking supply store and am very happy with how chic my cakes turn out to be.

A 2-layer vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream and dark chocolate curls. A favorite of PETA.

True blue brownies, unadulterated with the usual banana yumminess. While chocolate purists may prefer their brownies 100% chocolate, I prefer mine with banana.

A successful experiment! Mango cashew cream cake -- a 2-layer mango cashew cream cake with vanilla buttercream, topped with fresh slices of mango. Thank God this country has the best tasting mangoes in the whole world (I'm not kidding) and that they're available year round.

Box of Fall-inspired cupcakes: chai latte cupcakes with spiced buttercream and carrot cake cupcakes with walnut-studded cinnamon buttercream.

I really love this close up photograph of my chai latte mini cupcakes.

Co-vegan brother #5 finally asked me to help him bake some cupcakes to bribe his teachers and classmates with. He lives with a vegan baker and never asks her to bake anything for him. I made him peanut butter cupcakes and a lemon cake for his birthday and I don't think he even touched them! Baaah, boys and their non-existent sweet tooth. This guy reverse-psychology'd me into helping him make vanilla and chocolate cupcakes in the midst of my baking pandemonium! First he asks me if I could help him, then I say I'm up to my ears in cupcakes, then he says "Nevermind," guilting me into fulfilling my job as ate (older sister) and kitchen activist:

Quite frankly bro #5 is a pretty terrific froster. These designs are all his own. I heard that his classmates and teachers told him they looked bakery-bought.

Close up of vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, dusted with cocoa powder and topped with shaved dark chocolate.

Chocolate cupcakes with pecan-studded chocolate buttercream and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

How can omnivores think that vegans live a poor dessert-less existence? Seriously?

So among the stuff I baked I also had to make lemon cupcakes -- I ended up with 2 extra mini lemons which I've juxtaposed with my messy kitchen.

What your eyes don't see is:

I literally used all the dishes in my kitchen...

How the Nintendo DS led to an Herbivore Lunch and to our car being towed (almost)

Might as well get this post over and done with, I know it's long overdue. I believe it was after-Christmas-ish when I FINALLY got to visit a completely vegan restaurant during my vacation in SF. 

The decision to eat in this restaurant started from the Nintendo DS. So brother #5 got a Nintendo DS for Christmas thanks to his ninong (godfather) who is also our cousin. This cousin of ours has two Nintendo DS's of his own and so does cousin #2 (so 4 DS's all in all). We spent a few days in Lake Tahoe after Christmas and a lot of time was spent in front of the fireplace, boys DS-ing their asses off (apparently this futuristic device has some Bluetooth thingy that allows them to play against each other). Then brother #3 got some moolah for Christmas thanks to his ninang (godmother) and got some other handheld game playing device (the name escapes me of the moment). 

Brother #2 got pretty much brainwashed into getting his own DS and with trusty Linda Blair our GPS, we go on a wild goose chase for 2-3 days hunting down a black DS (it HAS to be black because all of bro #2's gadgets are black) with the BEST price -- we did not leave a Best Buy, Costco, and Target store unturned. From San Ramon to Dublin to Walnut Creek and finally to San Francisco we find the perfectly black Nintendo DS of bro #2's dreams (he also bought a crap game in the midst of all his greed). I think I footed the $4 Bay Bridge toll so I DEMANDED that we eat at a vegan restaurant (so I'm cheap, sue me). Also it was about 3pm and we were starving.

Of course being the well prepared person that I am I made it a point to list down every vegan restaurant in the Bay area, in hopes of getting to eat in one of them at least once. My self-proclaimed carnivore and vegetable hater sister wasnít with us during the Search for the Black DS so it was the perfect time to get 2 carnivores (bros #2 and #4) and 2 vegans (me and bro #5) to eat veg for lunch.

So thanks to Linda Blair we parked our car at Herbivore on Divisadero (between Fell and Hayes, I think?) at 3:30pm for a late lunch. Bro #5 and I were soooo excited to finally eat in our first vegan restaurant ever! Actually it was a first for bro #2 and bro #4 as well and good thing they were game. As a vegan let me just say how happy I was to be able to eat anything off the menu, as in anything. Nothing made with the suffering of animals. Nothing contained animals or animal by-products. No one died for us to enjoy our meal. It was such an adventure and a relief.

So first off we ordered a vegetable sampler for our appetizer -- a combination of char-broiled vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes) with 3 sauces: pesto, tahini, and lemon-garlic. The dish was served with sliced baguette. We enjoyed this very much.

Next up we got 4 different entrees which we all shared together (the family that eats together, stays together). 

Bro #4 got the best entree: penne with lemon herb cream sauce with char-broiled portabella mushrooms, zucchini, artichoke hearts, and spinach served with crostini. OMG even the carnivores couldn't believe it was vegan. The sauce was seriously creamy and delicious. I suspect it contained ground cashews or almonds; I don't think silken tofu could get that creamy and satisfying. I tried inquiring with our server what the sauce was made of but she was too busy to pay attention to us...

Bro #2 got a lentil loaf with mashed potatoes topped with mushroom gravy and sauteed greens on the side, with crostini and a tomato sesame salsa. He liked this a lot and the lentil loaf was deliciously rustic and comforting. The greens tasted very much like our local alugbati -- very earthy.

Bro #4 got his comfort food: Pad Thai. Rice noodles sauteed with tofu, red bell peppers, togue (bean sprouts), green onions, wansoy (cilantro), and crushed peanuts with peanut sauce. This was nothing new to us, we heart Thai food so I'm not going to drool over this much. It was good, although I suspect you can get better tasting Pad Thai at a traditional Thai restaurant (that reminds me, I should blog about Som's, a Thai carinderia-style restaurant located near my workplace -- dirt cheap Thai food with a killer veggie pad thai).

I ordered a moussaka -- layers of eggplant, potatoes, soy protein (eek! Fake meat!) tofu ricotta, mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, spinach and marinara sauce with crostini on the side. I used to heart all things tomatoes (at one point I even thought I should've been born in Italy instead of the Philippines) but since discovering different kinds of sauces (peanut sauce, hummus, roasted red pepper-cannelini, sunflower seed pesto, curry, you get the picture) my love wavered a bit... My brothers liked the moussaka, I found it okay. Also I'm not a big potato fan (excess starch!) -- maybe if there were no potatoes I would've enjoyed this dish more.

With my food I ordered a green juice, which sounds disgusting but was actually refreshing and yummy. It was a cocktail made of celery, apple, spinach, parsley, mint, ginger, and lime. The green-ness was so bright! I really should be drinking more green juice...

Anyway, on to dessert! We were absolutely stuffed but I really wanted to try some dessert that was not cake or cupcakes. Bro #4 got a coconut chocolate chip cookie which was alright tasting. We shared a blueberry pie with Maggie Mudd vanilla soy ice cream -- what a hit! I love pie -- I feel like it's "healthier" than regular cake and cupcakes because of the fruit component, nevermind that they are all full of sugar. We can't get blueberries in the Philippines so we really enjoyed this pie. Oh I really should experiment with pies in my kitchen...

Oh yeah, so our car was about to be towed while we were inhaling our food. We parked right in front of the restaurant and thought we were so lucky to have found the perfect spot. I put some quarters in the meter to last us 30 minutes. By 20 minutes I added a few more quarters to buy us extra time (the food hadn't arrived). So while wolfing down the moussaka I checked the time on my phone, which showed that I had 4 minutes left til the meter ran out! So I popped out to refill the meter when I found that the front of the car was attached to a tow truck. The tow guy was towing this other car a few cars in front of mine. I thought the tow guys were waiting for the meter to run out so they could tow it so I immediately put more quarters in the meter. Something didn't feel right though. I waited for the tow guy to go back to my car and I asked why he was towing it -- apparently cars were banned to park on the street between 4 and 6pm and it was 4:15 (we sat down at our table at 3:15 -- Herbivore took so long!). I played the sorry-tourist-card and had bro #2 park the car around the block.

So, all's well that ends well. Bro #2 got his Nintendo DS (he also got another Handheld Game Playing Device for bro #6 -- ah, the joys of consumerism), bro #5 and I got our Herbivore lunch, and we didn't get towed. Overall, a good day.

organic soy latte with agave syrup and bro #2 happily playing with his DS

HERBIVORE THE EARTHLY GRILL

531 Divisadero, SF

415.885.7133

http://www.herbivorerestaurant.com/index.html --> check for other locations!

SF is vegan haven / heaven

Wow. All I can say is, wow.

San Francisco and the Bay area = nirvana for vegans.

I guess trying to be vegan in the Philippines makes trying to be vegan anywhere else a LOT easier. Seriously, it was too easy.

Most of the regular restaurants had veg options. For instance...

This is a VEGAN sandwich. And it was awesome. French baguette with tomato sauce, bell peppers, pepperoncini, mushrooms, olives, and SOY cheese. Check out Goat Hill Pizza at 715 Harrison at 3rd St, SF -- any dish with dairy cheese can be substituted with soy cheese.

This establishment is so-so when it comes to vegan-friendliness. 21st Amendment at 563 2nd St, SF has a veggie burger that contains egg so I opted for their garden salad with beans. One thing I've noticed in American restaurants is that garden salad does not necessarily = leaves + tomatoes. This one had shaved fennel, sliced radish and cherry tomatoes.

Spending time with my American cousins has made me more appreciative of non-Tequila-and-Kahlua-liquor. Here is 21st Amendment's Pomegranate Cider. It looks like liquid gold here, but it's actually a light pink. Nice.

I'm not much of a photographer 'cept when I'm in a kitchen hence the lack of restaurant food photos. I am a HUGE fan of Mexican food (cilantro / wansoy is my herb of choice and I can eat guacamole all day every day) and any Mexican restaurant has a veggie burrito with beans. I think I ate Mexican every 2 or 3 days.


There are 2 restaurant memories that I will treasure forever as a vegan.

I think I just about died and went to heaven when I visited Maggie Mudd at 903 Cortland Ave, SF. It isn't 100% vegan but it has a menu of vegan ice cream, soy- and coconut milk-based. SUNDAES CAN BE MADE VEGAN.















I got to go to this place thanks to Janine, a former high school classmate of mine who is now based in San Francisco. I think I bugged her to death to take me to Maggie Mudd (and bribed her with free ice cream too) and it did not disappoint. The photos look like crap because it's all white, but let me explain. On the left is Janine's choice: 1 scoop of oatmeal cookie dough ice cream in a waffle bowl (which they make in the premises as you wait!) with marshmallow sauce and whipped cream. Take note that Janine couldn't finish her 1 scoop because it was about 3/4-1 cup worth of ice cream.

On the right is my choice which I consumed on my own with no traces left whatsoever. It was a fudge brownie with 2 huge scoops of ice cream (oatmeal cookie dough and The Dubliner -- coffee ice cream with Irish Whiskey), with marshmallow sauce, whipped cream, and almonds.

OMG is all I can say. Since I turned vegetarian I have only had 5 vegan ice cream experiences.

1. Strawberry soy ice cream at Chimara, a "neo vegan" cafe in Greenbelt (neo vegan in quotations because they serve fish -- wtf indeed) which sucked. If you are a vegan based in Manila or are just plain curious about non-dairy ice cream, please do not try Chimara's because it will dash your hopes and dreams of what delicious soy ice cream is supposed to taste like. If you need an ice cream fix I suggest you puree a frozen banana or two -- this is a good sub.
   
2. Coconut "tofu" ice cream at a vegan grocery store in Sydney, Australia. Really good.
3. Vanilla soy ice cream at Janine's apartment -- sadly she's not vegan but she's lactose intolerant. Soo... sorry for her food insensitivities, but yey for saving cow's milk for the calves?
   
4. Maggie Mudd -- to be treasured forever. and ever.
   
5. Vanilla soy ice cream at my aunt's place, acquired from Trader Joe's.

And...

I dragged my 3 brothers (well 1 was vegan, so I dragged 2) to Herbivore at 531 Divisadero, SF (between Fell and Hayes) and it was amazing. The restaurant had a FULLY VEGAN menu from appetizer to entree to dessert. I almost cried stepping into the place (I almost cried when my rental was in the process of being towed in front of the restaurant, but that's another story for another post).

Actually, I'll leave my Herbivore raves for another post. It deserves its own post. :D Let me just say that... I wish I could open a Manila version of Maggie Mudd and Herbivore. One day... some day... Hopefully in 5-10 years.

Michael, if you're reading this, you open a vegan ice cream parlor and I'll open a vegan restaurant. Together we can rule the world -- er, take over the Manila restaurant scene -- and convince omnivores to move over to the vegan dark side.

Hope everyone had a happy cruelty-free holiday!

Away for the holidays + sad news about my cats

Hmmm so I guess my weekly blog posts turned out to be a bust... but it's the holidays, so I should be excused, right?

I miss blogging! But everything's been so busy and crazy and I haven't been able to upload photos to my laptop. Right now I am in the United States spending the holidays with my family in the Bay area. I really should blog about it because: it. seriously. is. a. legendary. Christmas. It's been the best holiday so far, meeting up with my 2 (out of 6) brothers that have been living on other sides of the earth the past year as well as spending time with my cousins from my mom's side who live in California. My whole family hasn't been in the States in 6 1/2 years, hence the legendary status.

Here's a rundown of issues about this trip so far:

1. Finding a vegan winter coat was almost impossible (vegan = not wool, not containing down or feathers, not leather)
2. How we were able to surprise my 2 brothers with our visit -- while wearing graphic tees with their faces on them!
3. First trip to Lake Tahoe, first time to see snow, first time to sleep in a cabin that had the temperature of 40 deg F (5 deg C) because of broken heater, first time to snowboard
4. How San Francisco is so Goddamn easy to be vegan... I'm jealous of all you Northern Californians, seriously
5. First time to eat at a fully vegan restaurant
6. First time to eat a Tofurky roast for Christmas dinner and Tofurky sausages for breakfast

I expect to be visiting a VEGAN ICE CREAM PARLOR soon and I am so excited! Will definitely have to mention that one.

Will be back home by the 7th of January! You will find my next blog post shortly after I arrive.

Happy holidays everyone!

PS I miss Pinoy weather where it's sunny year round and you can go out in tsinelas... My Pinoy skin is not used to North American coldness.

PPS I just remembered: today is my vegan anniversary! I have been vegan for exactly 1 year today! I turned vegetarian on October 8 2007 and vegan on December 31 2008.

PPPS I have sad news about my cats :( We recently found out that my youngest brother is allergic to the cats we adopted. He gets violently sick every month and apparently it's because of the cats. My mom is putting her foot down and is demanding that they all (I have 3) have to leave the house. Either find them new homes or turn them to the streets. This saddens me immensely as I consider these cats my babies. I rescued them from a cruel world and now I'm forced in a position to give up on them and be like any other cruel human they have faced. The thing is, Manila is very unfriendly to moggies / non-purebreed cats. Actually Manila is unfriendly to cats in general. I have no idea how to find them good homes. 

My mom said one option is for them to live outdoors. My first cat Lucky has been human-raised since he was 7 days old and is completely unaccustomed to the outdoors. He goes out sometimes to play in the garden but always under human supervision. He has no means to survive in the outdoors... He may run into the road and get into an accident... he may get into fights with other cats... I think I would get a heart attack if I come home to the roadkill remains of one of my cats...

Velma is our only female cat. She is unspayed because of her leg deformity -- her right front leg is unusable and is a 3-legged cat wonder (see a cute picture of her here). Turning her to the streets would be disastrous... Because of her deformity the vet said she can't be spayed (something about her immune system or the risk of the surgery) and mustn't get pregnant. I'll be consulting with the vet again regarding the spaying issue. I can't turn an unspayed female cat into the streets in full conscience.

I haven't blogged yet about my 3rd cat, Francis. I will dedicate a whole post on him soon. He is an orange tabby like Lucky and he came into our lives in October. He lives in our garage right now because my mom didn't want any more cats. He is completely street smart and will do fine as an outdoor cat... When he first arrived we tried to get him, Lucky and Velma to be playmates but Lucky and Velma thought they were too cool to play with him. They'd hiss at and ignore each other. Now they are all BFF's especially Lucky. I think Lucky enjoys playing with another male who's not as good as wrestling as he is (believe it or not Velma is an awesome wrestler and runner, despite her 3 leggedness). Francis is just about 3-4 months old while Lucky and Velma are 9 months old.

Anyway, I ask for your prayers regarding the cats... When I go back home I will be forced to address this issue. Have the cats live outdoors, subject to other street cats, cruel humans, and cruel drivers, or find them permanent homes and have them separated from me completely? What would you do in my position?

Would you have the courage to give up your own babies? 

Of vegan cupcakes and teen prisoners

So yesterday a bunch of coworkers from my real job and I went to visit the kids at CRADLE, or Center for Restorative Activities, Development, and Learning Experiences at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. CRADLE sounds like a nice warm place you'd want to come home too, right? CRADLE is essentially a prison for teen criminals. I hesitate to use the word "criminals" -- they aren't rapists, or drug lords, or murderers. Actually, I didn't really get to ask them what they did to deserve living in CRADLE. I suppose they snatched purses and cellphones while sniffing glue... Perhaps the occasional Jets vs. Sharks rumble...

This was an official company social responsibility / employee volunteer visit. Ten of us sponsored a Christmas lunch for the 37 "children in conflict with the law". By children I reckon they're 14 to +20 years old. The usual diet of these kids are rice and vegetables, maybe the occasional fish. We (my company) sponsored adobo (definitely not vegan - pork and chicken stewed in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, pepper, and bay leaf), juice, and fruits (apple and orange). ACE International, the NGO that asked us to join them, provided the rice. My baking company / I provided the vegan cupcakes, because what's a Christmas without cupcakes, right? And surely these kids don't get cupcakes in prison...







I didn't really grasp the reality of our visit until we saw prison buses that look a lot like this one parked outside. I pictured the movie Con Air and thanked God that my first visit to a prison was at a kids' prison (well, prison's prison right? It's harder for the kids I'm sure).

Seriously, they were so HAPPY that we visited. No one visits them, not even their family. They were completely normal people who just so happened to live in prison. Some of them helped us carry our things in. A bunch of them were setting up drums and an electric guitar (!! they get crap food everyday but they have an electric guitar?). There was a freaking karaoke machine in the room. How Filipino it is, right? You'll always see a karaoke machine anywhere and everywhere in the Philippines -- even in prison.

This little guy isn't a criminal unless you consider being cute and makulit / playful a crime. His name is Michael Jordan (typical Filipino name) and he's the kid of the prison cook. What kind of prison allows the cook to bring in his kid to hang with the "prisoners"?

Apparently it's illegal to take photos of the kids with their full faces seen (back heads or profile are okay). But they were so smitten that we brought cameras and wanted us to take their pictures. I told one of the administrators there that I'd either delete the pictures after or put black bars on their faces. So disclaimer, now they look like real criminals with the bars on their eyes but seriously, they were like younger brothers you never had.

All my coworkers stayed in the back hanging around during the actual meal. One of the boys (let's call him Boy from now on) asked me to sit with him and his friends and I thought it rude to say no. So while they had their adobo and cupcakes I had my baon of beans and togue or bean sprouts (I know, typical hippie food -- I've been eating a lot of sugar and I needed something healthy) . Of course Boy was curious about my food. I think my exact words were, "Hindi ako kumakain ng karne dahil ayokong may mamamatay para sa pagkain ko," which roughly translates to "I don't eat meat because I don't want anyone to die for my food." Well they immediately got it and didn't ask me anymore questions.








(getting lunch and praying before eating)

Boy looked like he was about 16 or 17 years old. He had a boyish smile and seemed pretty sincere. I had an interesting time conversing with Boy. He told me that they were all grateful for us to bring them food and spend time with them. He admits that no one really visits them regularly; he hails from Antipolo which is at the northern tip of Metro Manila and his family has pretty much forgotten about him (!). He's been in CRADLE for 3 years now, the longest among the boys. He misses normal life and his family. Life in CRADLE is mind-numbingly boring. They don't do anything because there's nothing to live for. Some of them have done their time but are stuck there because of bureaucratic red tape -- arghhh, typical government!

(boy band)

It's hard to see them as criminals because their crimes were founded on poverty. These guys were dirt poor, brought up in an overpopulated country that didn't care about them. Their parents were dirt poor and so were their parents' parents. I'm not trying to excuse their crimes, but how can you call them criminals when the only way they could feed themselves is by stealing? I know, stealing is wrong... But who's to blame for their dire circumstance? Poverty begets criminals, and 1/3 of the Philippines is poor.

While we were packing up to leave, Boy approaches me and asks if I could come visit on December 23. Aw man, my heart broke for him! I told him I wish I could, but I can't. I told him I'd get in touch with CRADLE's / ACE's administrators to see if we can visit again. He shrugged it off, but I'm sure he felt bad. He said it was his birthday on the 23rd (and no one visits). :(

Man, some Christmas they'll be having on the 25th, huh?
__________________________







Me bringing 10 dozen mini cupcakes to CRADLE wouldn't have been possible without my dear Christmas elves. They loved piping the frosting and sprinkling the sprinkles on the cupcakes while I was busy frantically baking other goods for my clients. Fina, Honey, Emy, and Marivic, thanks so much!

I leave you with this photo of some of the CRADLE boys (with some of my coworkers). How deceivingly content they look, no?

One more thing -- we couldn't give these guys straws for their juice. Could be used as a stabbing device, you think? So they can have drums but not juice straws?