Visiting, Shopping and Body Image, Vantra Restaurant Review

It's been a whirlwind week in and around London! We really barely stopped for a moment this past week.

We saw a gorgeous sunset on Hampstead Heath (and a very cool dead tree that looks like anything you want it to)...

We enjoyed the filtered sunlight in the tall and narrow alleyways of Winchester.

We played with a pair of delightful twins (the children of some dear old friends) who loved posing for photos and then running away as soon as I pressed the shutter: two suspiciously swollen curtains...

and playing 'horses' on Phil's knee.

We visited Phil's stepson, a wonderful, welcoming person,

and spent some time with our beautiful niece, who (of course) adores Phil too, and her parents (I am so impressed with my brother and sister-in-law. Great parents, great human beings).

Traveling around the London area with public transportation is very doable, but is also quite tiring: lots of crowds, lots of walking between stations, lots of stairs up and down, lots of noisy public address announcements... And when I went shopping in Oxford Circus with my mum, I discovered that sometimes nowadays you have to 'queue' (stand in line) just to get back into the underground (subway) station!

The underground looks older - the trains that I remember spanking new in my teens are obviously close to twenty years old now, graffiti'd and worn-out-looking. Lots of renovations and line closures at awkward moments. But I'd never seen building materials stacked under the tracks before! See all those piles of blocks?

I was ambivalent about going shopping with my mum. First of all, I'm a terrible shopper. Second, I don't like crowds. And third, and worst, I had tried on an old pair of trousers (pants) at my folks' home, that I'd worn since my early teens and wore last time I was here three years ago, and they fitted just fine, except that I couldn't do them up! Admittedly, three years ago I still weighed in the double digits, which I no longer do and which most people say I shouldn't, but this threw me for a major loop and gave me little interest in buying clothes, eating, or doing anything except crunches!

But actually, we had a great time. The shopping itself was quite smooth, despite the crowds and the rain, and I learned a funny thing about clothes sizing too. In the photo below, the pants on the left are a size larger than the pants on the right, in a different style.

The purple cords on the left, in the larger size, were tight on my waist and loose elsewhere. The black ones on the right, a size smaller, were very comfortable and quite loose around the waist! Go figure... Not surprisingly, I got the black ones - and my mum got a pair too, so we were both happy.

By the time we got done, it was long past lunchtime, and perhaps I was a little more interested in lunch with that lesson in clothing sizes. And having made you cringe a bit with that body image talk, it's time for a restaurant review! I blogged earlier about our visit to Vita Organic and how they told us that their 'raw food' operation had mostly moved to their new premises in Soho Street.

Mum and I hiked down to Soho Street to find the new place, Vantra.

Liked the look of that mission statement! Liked the young coconuts (whole, not shaved) on the bar.

But 'coming soon' is the operative term: they have a beautiful buffet featuring a lot of raw salads and also a lot of cooked vegan food with sprouts and vegetables and beautiful sauces...

...all along the window to the street, a tempting arrangement... But they don't have any of the raw gourmet stuff yet: the lasagnas, pizzas, etc: that's all 'coming soon.' They do have nut milks and smoothie options, and we got a raspberry-cacao smoothie with nut milk and sweetened with coconut crystals to go with our lunch. One time through the buffet is 6 pounds per person, no sharing. All the plates and 'silverware' are compostable/recycled (great concept, I guess, for a new, up-and-coming place not to have to do dishes on top of everything.

Here's my plate:

(mostly raw, lots of sea veggies and sprouts, but I had to try those giant cooked mushrooms and a piece of aubergine (eggplant) simmered in coconut milk). My mum's plate:

We have some similar tastes! But I wasn't sure about the gluten status of those noodles at 11 o'clock on her plate, or the creamy mixture at 2 o'clock, so stayed away on the safe side.

Naughty me for having cacao, but my mum agreed that the smoothie was delicious! They brought a bottle of agave along when they served it, in case we wanted it sweeter. It was plenty sweet just as it was (no agave for me, thanks)!

She took a pic of me too (but it's a little blurry).

It was a delicious and satisfying meal, at a pretty decent price for central London. I was thrilled that my mum really liked it too, and that she was talking about going back with various friends of hers whom she's sure will love it. It makes me so happy when I can introduce someone to something I enjoy and have them enjoy it too. However, my search for a genuine 'raw' restaurant is still unfulfilled, although if you wanted to eat purely raw at Vantra or Vita-O, they do have a very extensive selection of salads, plus the various nut milks and smoothies. I was sorry that they didn't have any raw desserts, especially since they claim to espouse a low-glycemic philosophy, but truth be told, I generally prefer smoothies anyway.

I'll share more as I can. Just a few more days here, and I'm quite tired today and hoping for some slower-paced days. Back home is snow-bound!

How are you preparing for Thanksgiving?

Farmer's Market and an Old Find, Salad Kicks, Where to Get a Decent Knife?

We're having an intense and lovely time here in London. Phil is missing the intensity and extent of strenuous physical activity that is normally the center of his lifestyle, but he is the most wonderful, charming, delightful companion: it's a privilege to introduce him to my family members and old friends. And it has been a continuing delight to meet up with wonderful old friends whom I haven't seen for three years or more, to see their kids growing up into fine young people, see more of them having bought houses, taken off in their careers, or discovering that they need a change of career. And the bedrock of that friendship, that is still strong, firm, sure and loving even without regular get-togethers or much in common in our daily lives.

There were no farmers' markets that I knew of in London three years ago, except maybe the Spitalfields market mostly for traders. Now, it seems like they are a thriving and vibrant scene. I went with my mum to the Alexandra Palace market, near her home, on Sunday.

[Blogger's giving me problems again refusing to upload some of my photos, but]  I was excited to see so many beautiful apples and pears. And those are_figs_ second from right on that front table! We got some and I've eaten a couple: my first figs in over a year (man, those fruitarian days I used to eat so many figs)...

Not a huge market, but plenty of stalls, produce, humanely-raised meat and eggs, goat cheese, olive oil, an awesome-smelling stall of chocolate truffles, food and drink vendors, ethnic clothing...

I was impressed by the variety of greens and veggies available, including shiso and jerusalem artichokes, that I'd never seen in England outside of Chinatown before.
And I found an old favorite that I used to love buying when I lived in Berkeley and haven't been able to find since:

Aged, fermented black garlic. Sorry I'm not a great photographer, but if you look to the left of the shaft of the head of garlic, you'll see a peeled black clove. Shiny, black and gorgeous texture. It barely tasted like garlic at all: almost a chocolatey note to it.  Back when I lived in Berkeley and thought I loathed garlic, I loved it then - even garlic haters can enjoy it. It was expensive just for two small cloves, but worth it!

Although my dad and brothers will hardly touch salad, my mum loves any and every salad that I make. She even loves my spirulina/soaked-dried sunflower seeds/sea salt/nooch sprinkle! I went on a bit of a salad-making kick today. Marinated mushroom medley with green onions/lemon/balsamic vinegar/olive oil/sea salt:

Massaged salad of purple kale, chard (that I bought labeled as 'spinach' at the farmers market!), savoy cabbage, leek and olive oil/apple cider vinegar.

Marinated cauliflower with curry spices and lemon zest (no picture); Cilantro pesto (or coriander, as I'm calling it here in England) with cashews, coconut oil, leek, peppermint, lemon juice, a dash of cayenne pepper and a whole bunch of cilantro.

Spread some of the pesto on a sunflower/flax/chives cracker I brought from home, top with the marinaded mushrooms: instant mini-pizza!

I'm really a terrible photographer...

I'm suffering from a dilemma in terms of wanting to get some nicer accoutrements for my mum's kitchen. I'm used to a nice, big, heavy chef's knife, and it felt funny doing so much chopping this morning with a little, dull serrated knife that has been around since I was 7, on a cutting board that has been in the house since before I was born and is now thoroughly concave, maybe better potential as a metate than as a cutting board... And the knife sharpeners... I remember when my brother got them when we were teenagers they were great, but 15 years later they actually don't make any difference to a blade at all!

Not my usual neat, thin slices...
But aside from the etiquette and potential awkwardness of getting something for my mum's kitchen that she might not appreciate (I might think it's an improvement but she might be quite happy with status quo), I don't know where I would go to get a decent knife or cutting board here! The local stores in my parents' neighborhood have almost all bottomed down to the common denominator of '5 pounds and under' stores, cheap and obsolescent stuff, and that's not what I'm after! And I'm a terrible shopper, the big, posh stores downtown intimidate the heck out of me and turn me into an involuted blitherer.

Any suggestions?

From London - Family (Baby Pics!), Parks, Good Living, VitaOrganic Restaurant

Sorry not to have posted for so long - there's so much catching up to do, so much to see - and a whole new face on the world to which to introduce Phil.

Have to start with the baby, of course! She is just three months old, but she's so alert, so big, so engaged, so happy! She has this knowing look in her eyes as she smiles, as if she has a private joke. Here she is with my mom...[removed baby pics at request of my brother and sister-in-law]

And with her mom and grandma

My brother makes such a great dad

And I got to experience her remarkable firm-footedness also (she likes to 'stand up')

It is a new kind of magic, the galvanizing effect on a family of having a small baby around. The juxtaposition of helplessness, constant, earnest, determined learning (watch those babies soaking up everything!) and being charming and adorable... Plus, the appeal of an infant who resembles their family members is definitely strong. It was fascinating for me to be drawn into that too: they were wondering whether she might end up with eyes like mine (my brother has red hair and fair skin, but much darker eyes, whereas I'm darker-complected but have almost green eyes) and remarking on the similarity of our hair colors also. It's wonderful to see how her parents dote on her, how alert they are to her needs and likes.

Phil and I went around London a bit - we went to the National Gallery: I was so taken with the fig-tree hedge outside! Actually, I was seeing fig trees everywhere - those beautiful leaves...

The trees are one of the things I love most in London - many of them are so old and full of character.

Here's Phil with Buckingham Palace in the background. He thought there was something fundamentally, conceptually wrong with taking such a picture!

When I was a kid, the ponds in London parks were full of mallard ducks, canada geese, coots, and not much else. Now, though, there were still those, but also beautiful mandarin ducks, another kind of coot, two or three other kinds of geese, several other kinds of duck, and these ridiculous, hilarious pelicans!

We met up with my other brother for lunch - they got take-out falafels and we sat outside a pub in the rain!

I just got a little broccoli and cauliflower (from the falafel place, middle-eastern style, like my grandmother's cooking) because I was so excited to go try a raw food restaurant in London! There were none last time I was here: now, according to web searches, there are several. Vita Organic wasn't very far from where we were with my bro, and their website claims that they have a low-glycemic philosophy, so I was especially excited to try them out.

UNfortunately, they hadn't updated their website to tell that they were expanding to new premises, a way further on, and that most of the live food was in the new place. So after a long, in my case, hungry, walk in the rain, we came to a very cool and cute bar that was mostly cooked vegan eat-in buffet.

I got a 'living latte' - nut milk with your choice of flavorings. I asked for chai and maca, and had it made with yacon syrup to be low-glycemic.

It was 3pm, but quite busy with customers coming in to eat buffet - but I was surprised by how long it took to arrive. For how expensive it was, it's also pretty small. The top inch there is 'head.' It was good enough for me, but I could have made something much better myself, and wouldn't have felt good about sharing it with someone who wasn't into raw foods. What I couldn't understand was why it had such an intense licorice flavor - there was a lot of nutmeg in the chai, which amplified the licorice. I've never had yacon syrup before, but I've grown yacon before and that has no licorice taste... I didn't dislike it, but a lot of people do.

I've been making lots of gorgeous salads at my folks,'

(table spread extra-big for the visit of my brother, his wife and their baby)

and stuffed a butternut squash with lentils, middle eastern style...

Some marinaded and lightly-toasted pumpkin seeds on top - was yummy! Neither of my brothers would eat it, although my bigger brother loves Israeli style lentils. They're both major meat and minimal veggies guys. We have many differences and many things in common too - have been enjoying giggling over reminiscences.

I have a product review to do, as promised, and lots more London experiences to share. But most of the time here has to be dedicated to visiting, going, seeing.

Much love!

Postcard from the Road/Airport; Scary Halloween Picture

Hey folks! Crazy busy the last few days preparing for our trip - now we're at the airport, so I'll see how much I can share. Thank you so much for all comments on my last post - has helped me to evaluate such a time-consuming process better. I'm thinking that for 'regular' time, I need to do something less time-consuming with my grains, and save this process for occasional treats. That infinitesimal amount of dairy does seem to affect me, and although it's delicious, I don't notice significant digestive benefits.

Here is the view from our cabin these last few days:

Yes, snow is here! I pulled out the last of our garden produce and will share some interesting pics/recap soon.

But we managed to go to our neighbors' Hallowe'en party last night, amidst all the packing, and managed to get costumed up, even! Phil got a little devilish -

His initial proposal was that I wear those, superglued to my head - seriously! I wasn't into that at all, but thought he looked just great.

I put on his oversized 'xtratuf' boots - seriously twice as big as my feet - and clowned it up -

So funny - a whole bunch of people, including my own husband, said that they wouldn't have recognized me! There's something about painting your face... Obliterating native expressiveness... That nose is uncomfortable, though! I still feel borderline snotty - for some reason I felt compelled to stay 'in character' for a long time. Hard to eat under it, too!

That's the first time I've really dressed up for Halloween, actually painted my face and made an effort, and it felt so good just to participate.

I promise that product review very soon (hoping the internet at my parents' has been restored to action, please please!) and that garden retrospective, but right now, I'm about to get on a plane! Love to all. And sorry if I'm not as 'present' as I like to be, reading and writing blogs - I don't know what my internet-connective future is, apart from that I'm going to be on planes for most of the next 36 hours...

A beautiful drive up to town this morning...

another one...

As Promised - Coconut Kefir a Different Way - Thoughts, Please!

I've obliquely mentioned my 'different coconut kefir' a number of times and promised to blog about it: I very much want to know what folks think about it. I also mentioned that there's one product with a tiny 1% of sodium casinate (a milk derivative) that I use - they're both the same deal: it's what I use for making coconut kefir! I'm highly ambivalent both because of that ingredient and because it is such a labor-intensive process, as you will see. It took me so long to do this because of the difficulty of photographing the process. And now that I have all the photos, Blogger refused to let me upload two of the best ones! What's up with that? (It said 'server rejected' and slapped my wrist about not having the right to upload those photos. Excuse me? I took them myself with my own camera!) So, apologies for the photography!

I use my kefir grains to culture a coconut cream made up from Wilderness Family Naturals' Coconut Milk Powder -

It is mostly low-temperature spray-dried coconut milk with 8% maltodextrin and 1% sodium casinate to help prevent clumping.

But even with those additives, it's pretty clumpy, as you can see! I use about three of these spatula-loads...

...blended up with a small amount of water, that I then top off to just over a pint.

Add in the kefir grains, cover, let sit for 24 hours or more...

...and the kefir cream rises to the top and the whey is at the bottom. The cream at the top has such an incredible texture that I didn't want to stir it back together, so I got myself a turkey-baster at a thrift store(!), cleaned it well, and use it to suck the whey up from the bottom -

Here is the whey - about a cup each time. It's not totally precise - I always end up sucking up some cream too.

And here is the cream with the kefir grains mixed in, sitting at the bottom of the jar.

The labor-intensive part is getting the cream out of the jar and separating the grains from it...

Blogger wouldn't let me upload the picture with the whey, cream and grains all separated, but the one above is on the way to that. I end up with half- to three-quarters of a cup of cream, that looks like this:

The tricky thing is that I almost always miss a couple of grains and have to pick them out later when I'm eating the cream. It really only works because I'm the only person eating this - I don't know how well it would work for a crowd. I guess I could just stir everything together, strain out the kefir grains and then strain out the whey - but the floated-to-the-top texture of the kefir is just so great...

I love getting both 'whey,' fizzy and delectable, and cream, out of the kefiring process. I use the whey in my green smoothies, to start sauerkraut, just drink it straight. The kefir cream I mostly eat straight, but here it is as a delectable no-sugar treat -

- mixed with a little stevia and lime zest, on a crust of pecan/flax/coconut/xylitol/lime zest. So yes, it has great potential as a dessert ingredient, if I save up several days' worth, or make bigger batches, or strain the grains out and then strain again. It really is delectable - it is sour, rich, creamy, with just a hint of coconut flavor remaining. Wonderfully satisfying texture and flavor. And all those beneficial bacteria too!

Kefir experts: is this ok for the kefir grains? I notice that they're always clogged with the cream (and when we were in Oregon and I was buying coconut water and kefiring it, the grains ended up looking very different, expanded). They've also scarcely grown since I bought them several months ago: I understand that naturally they reproduce. This is probably a pretty low-sugar product for them to work on. Occasionally I've added some sugar to the mix and they seem to have been invigorated by it.

So, I have ambivalence about the process, because it's so time-consuming, but I also have mixed feelings about the coconut milk powder itself, or more specifically, about that little 1% sodium casinate. I'm not a strict ethical vegan, but I generally feel better (in all respects) when avoiding animal products. And I have a really horrendous reaction to cow dairy, especially when processed. It has frightening effects on my mood and mental state (as I believe I mentioned wrt ghee in Oregon).  When I eat any quantity of this kefir cream, I notice a slight mucus-y feeling in the throat and sometimes nose. I wonder if it's my imagination, or if it's an allergic response to that trace of dairy. At least it doesn't make me psycho...

I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts on this, please!