belated happy new year and some blog finds

With a little view from the Namsan park where you can overview the majestic scenery of Seoul I want to wish everybody a truly happy new year!

I wish to make more steps towards a joyful and healthy every-day (I still repent of having had merely extinct fish last year...) and seek inspirations in the city.

Instead of formulating boring resolutions I would like to introduce you to some blog personalities that I have been reading for years now. The most rewarding thing in blogging and blog-reading for me is that you can find the people that can inspire and motivate you from all over the world!

Just before the last year came to an end I ran my first 20 km course - at the coast of Dadaepo in Busan. It has took me quite long to become a passionate jogger (a couple of years to be honest) but I think for every person who loves watching cities and who likes to be outside it is the best sport - you always get another point of view when passing by the neighborhoods by running.

For example, by way of this you can overview the Hudson River Park, the Gardin Luxembourg or the Englische Garden much faster when traveling ;)

This fall I would like to participate at my first half-marathon in an acceptable time. And in this regard Cate (from Cate's World Kitchen, Bay Area) is my role model. Not only does she hold astonishing private records at different running races but she also writes a beautiful vegetarian food blog and is a fancier of korean cuisine. And contrary to some German female politicians and Prenzlauer Berg Mamas swaggering about they too, at the age of 40, have offsprings, Cate shows how to manage family, work, healthy and delectable cooking and fitness without being any pretentious.

Less organized but very hilarious is Emi Guner (from letters from the end consumer, Stockholm). Beautiful mother of three beautiful kids, I owe her my favorite quote on consuming:

"I used to think buying things made me happier, but then I noticed that it was the buying, not the owning that seemed to do it for me and how ridiculous is that? Consumerism at its most laughable state..."

Apart from that Emi likes to cheer up her readers to run - by individual training, group challenges (would have loved to join her berlin vs. london challenge but lacked the technical equipment...) or by way of her authority ;)

Finally there is Maria (from Scandi Foodie, Sydney) who is assiduous, highly professional and talented in presenting healthy cooking as well as an ecologically sound lifestyle.

So happy 2012!

And btw, male bloggers are welcomed to this list ;)

attila's tofu bolognese

i normally do not collect cookbooks but this autumn so many great publications flood the book market that it will seriously challenge my budget.

my latest acquisition is the "flavour thesaurus" by niki segnit - a personal encyclopedia about the pairwise combination of ingredients. it is written with much wit and profound knowledge on regional cuisines (including korean cuisine), food history as well as food culture today and it contains recipes, too. so this book replaces several :)

besides, i wanted to have a book with vegan only recipes and was pleased to find a familiar face in the bookstore shelf... two years ago, i met a guy at a party who told me about his friend running a successful cooking channel on youtube (it was late night and obviously we still must have chatted within the context of food :) ). i glimpsed over it later but as i wasn't interested into vegan diet in those days (i thought of vegans as a mystic sect...), forgot about it soon.

now that internet cook has his book published: "vegan for fun".turned out to be a good one.

i liked the pictures that were taken in berlin, in shops that were familiar to me and after all, that the author was a real berliner :).

the recipes sounded delicious and feasible. though i guess they will primarily appeal to men as lots of them cover substitute dishes for meat dishes and almost every recipe requires tofu. but i consider these shortcomings forgivable.

what i appreciated most was to read about the author's food philosophy - joyful, modern and inspiring to do the little steps towards a more eco-friendly nutrition.

my first dish from the book was a tofu bolognese. being of asian origin it still feels weird to cook with tofu for western dishes.

however the result was so delicious (think of a very mellow sugo with a sweet hint), that i am glad to have overcome my inhibitions :)

my sweet vegan diet

this is a long time planned but very retarded post. during mid of july and august i lived five weeks nearly vegan.

the only exception being the milk in coffee grabbed outside.

normally i am almost vegetarian but i have never cared about veganism before.
now i am what alicia silverstone calls "flirting with veganism":)

although i understand those who live completely vegan for ethical reasons i would, could never do so.

the problem is not that animal products are somehow bad but that in times of mass production we have unlearned to value them enough, to spare them for special occasions rather than consuming all the time and to pay for them what they are really worth.

we should go a step back to the past, when without mass production the traditional nutrition was naturally to a big part animal free. back then it wasn't necessary to worry about one's eating habits and to make up categories like being vegetarian, vegan.

as a gal who usually doesn't hesitate to process several pounds of dairy at once it was a very revealing experience to impose restrictions on myself:

- i nourished on more raw and fresh goods than ever. of course facing summer season was helpful in this regard.

- i tried out new veggies, pulses, grains and learned how to cook with them.

- i was surprised that altering a familiar dish into a vegan was mostly not a big deal.

- without butter i stopped with my habit of producing insane amounts of pastry week by week.

- without parmigiano i checked my pasta addiction.

- and so on and so on.

in the end i felt more alive and kicking than ever. detox (something i don't believe in and would never do) must feel like that :))

i can recommend a temporary vegan diet to anybody for the sake of broadening one's nutrition horizon and to bring some changes into one's eating habits.

now that i got lots of ideas on how to do it, i keep more parts of my daily diet vegan while enjoying it even more to have a steak of salmon, an old swiss cheese and a buttery viennoiserie for special occasions :)

here i introduce you one of my favorite lunch boxes from the diet:

crisp broccoli with smoked tofu, glazed onions, cashew nuts and a dressing made of almond butter and orange juice.

i have tried all sorts of "european tofu" from the supermarket (i use this for western style dishes, not the "real tofu" that you get at the asian store ;). a lot of brands tasted either dull or odd so here is a picture of my preferred tofu brand.

also see my favorite soy rice drink, there were odd tasting soy milks as well. and finally, if you haven't tried almond butter yet, give it a go. it's absolutely delicious.

cultural pessimism

For a westernized, self-centered individual, spoiled with all imaginable conveniences of civilization, most turmoils in the world come and go without a trace for one's own life. But when Japan faces new horrendous calamities day after day we hold our breath. Since most of us know or is friendly with a person there and worries. And since it makes us ruminate about how vulnerable and questionable the basis of our prosperous lifestyle is.

I felt sick these last days and somehow guilty in enjoying the day. I couldn't follow my Google Reader and keep reading on receipes / home interiors / travels. I avoided facebook where at the same time, there were Japanese refugees uploading pictures of their mass shelter and people discussing passionately the latest shoe purchase of a girl.

How can one's own existence remain so unaffected when the earth is so messy?

And the pressing question coming along with this was how to design a pleasurable day that is not anyhow based on material consumption.
Does that even exist in our culture?
Are non-stop jet-setters still tolerable or should one stop flying so that future generations get a chance to experience one, two flights in life as well? Should gasoline prices boost drastically and cities without mass transportation be reinvented? How can we stop the vicious circle of buying and tossing away gadgets?

The end is clear yet the way how to make a difference as obscure as ever. It is this dilemma that can render the most lighthearted city girl into a deep pessimist.

Photo: The Burghers of Calais in the Met Museum

1 buck per plastic bag

In an ideal world or at least in a far better world, this would be the charge.

So that every customer at the cash desk would think twice if a disposable bag would be really indispensable.

This is not the case at home (where a plastic bag costs 9-15 euro cents) but at least one has to pay there to get a bag in the grocery stores. Which fortunately is enough incentive to opt out. I don't know a territory where reusable bags are more appreciated than in Germany. The adoration for cotton bags goes so far that at art fairs, gallery weekends and fashion weeks in Berlin, in other words at those events with the maximum concentration of designer-wear-people, cotton bags have become the key accessory.

I came to the U.S. for the first time and with the general understanding that conditions here would play tough with ecologically conscious people. But as an innovative country, this is also the realm of Al Gore's movie, Summer Rayne Oake's style guide, the concept of carbon footprint. After all, N.Y.C. was said not to be like the rest of the U.S. so I hoped for the better.

It proved out as bad as in every current preconception and experiencing the waste problem day after day turned out to be far more frustrating than only hearing about it:

• when I returned a dozen of beer bottles to the vendor in the assumption that they would be industrially cleaned and reused, the same kind shopkeeper from 24 hours before turned me down with contempt.

• when you buy 200g ramen for lunch, it is served in a heavy plastic bucket together with a heavy lid, a plastic bowl of kimchi, a plastic lid for that, a plastic spoon, a pair of chopsticks, 4 sheets of napkins and a plastic bag (feels like 1 kg of waste). Although you eat the noodles right away in the deli.
  

• indoor rooms are so violently heated that despite of minus degrees, you sleep with open windows. (Regarding the fact that most walls in New York are old and leaky, so that you need more energy to moderately heat a room, you don't want to imagine how much is needed to overheat a room...). I have witnessed several girls with circulation problems because of constantly overheated rooms (though one must admit that beyond the German-speaking world this disease doesn't exist :) ).

• a complete business buffet can be served in disposables so that afterward remained food and setting likewise can be tossed in a (plastic) trash bag.
  

• coffee shops that only serve in paper cups are the reason why I drastically reduced my daily caffeine consumption during the week. During weekends I seek places that serve in porcelain.
  

• shared kitchens are completely stocked with disposable dishes and cutlery although there is a dishwasher...
  

This post might sound snotty, as if there aren't bigger things to worry about. True is that few things upset me more in everyday life than the brainless consumption of resources and the production of waste (throwing away food ranks equally). So that is one of the few things that really drives me nuts here.

Apart from the environmental issue the aesthetic and health aspect are not to be neglected. Eating and drinking out of PVC is not only poor in style but is also harmful for the body (according to public health authorities). Even if you have paid 12 $ for say, some salad leaves, avocado and shrimps, it somehow feels like junk food when it is packed in vinyl.

And let it be pointed out - coffee-to-go in a papercup is so not cool though American mass franchises promote the opposite. Can you imagine a stylish Milanese / an elegant Parisian drinking their espressi out of PVC? If they do it by now, blame this decline in style to the aforementioned franchises.

But since this blog should administer positive thoughts not negative ones, here are my personal tips to resist insane waste consumption:

i) Never take a plastic bag. Keep in mind that you will never be asked in this matter so you must reject ultra-fast.

ii) Always carry a reusable bag with you. If you are like me, you never plan to shop but you end up doing it.

iii) If you miss point ii) still don't take a plastic bag unless it is physically impossible to carry your purchase with both hands away.

iv) If point iii) is not feasible reuse your new plastic bag with care and as long as it is whole (should last at least for a month). If it gets dirty, wash it out.

v) Point iv) can be generalized: Never throw away things that still serve its purpose or can be fixed. Avoid to buy things for short or temporary use.

vi) After having internalized maxims i)-iv) and having fostered a healthy hatred towards disposables, you will be ready for the most courageous act:

• get yourself a pretty tumbler and let it be filled in the coffee shop. Though think twice beforehand if you can't afford the luxury to enjoy a coffee to stay.
  
• bring your own tupperware when grabbing food outside.
  
• carry your own cuttlery when eating out.
  
• when dish-washing afterwards don't screw up the eco-balance by wasting too much water.
  

These points might sound freaky but the efforts will be rewarding. Even if you look nuts when carrying your purchase at hand, bear in mind that some minutes of inconvenience will save a plastic bag that will last on the planet forever. Isn't that tempting??

Finally, don't hesitate to ask for further tips if these aren't helpful in your case! I've reflected much on this regard and we can discuss a solution :)