Vegetarian? Phuket!!!

Thai news reports:

During October 3rd to 11th the whole island of Phuket will covered with
mostly yellow flags, and local people in white clothes, symbolizing the ancient
vegetarian festival which has been practiced for almost two hundred years.

Chairing a press conference held last Friday at the Navamin square in Phuket City, Governor of Phuket, Udomsak Uswarangkura reaffirmed that the island is ready to welcome participants and tourists, both Thais and foreigners, to join in the ceremonial festival, with ample security and facilities.

Wow, what a nice statement from Governor U. Phuket. Phuket's cultural ambassador Holly Cheet added "If you are going to Phuket for the festival you'll surely leave with a smile' and "bring your mother to Phuket"

Mitt Romney and me

Redstate.org reports

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney likes to tell conservative audiences that
being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts is like being a cattle rancher
at a vegetarian convention.

Of course, the article is rather crtiitical of Mitt but...

Oh, poor victimized conservative republican. It must hurt to be in the minority on all political and social issues including vegetarianism...oh wait, that's me. I'm in the minority.

Poor me.

September is National Chicken Month!

September is National Chicken Month! There is no better way to celebrate Chicken Month than by visiting Eatchicken.com. It is a site created and sponsored by "individuals in the chicken business".

My favorite feature on the site is the 'advanced' chicken search. It is so advanced that it needed a 'tips'' section so that they could explain to the audience the eatchicken.com advancements in chicken search.

"All recipes have been categorized by the chicken part used to prepare the dish. Some recipes use more than one chicken part and are categorize as such. To search for recipes based on chicken part, you can select one or more of the listed parts. Selecting more than one chicken part will not find recipes that contain all of the parts selected.

If more than one part is selected, the results list will include recipes that contain any of the selected parts. For instance, if "Leg" and "Whole" are selected, the ingredients of the resulting list of recipes will include either leg meat or a whole chicken, not necessarily both."

Wow, that is advanced. You need a chicken-parts degree from chicken university to figure out the logic of their search. The sad thing is that I did an advanced chicken parts search on "beaks" and only got one recipe...for Chicken McNuggets (just kidding)

The really suprising thing about eatchicken.com is that it is sponsored by U.S. Poultry & Egg Associations. Don't you think those two assoictions would actally be mortal enemies. Isn't the egg asocition like a Pro-life group and the chicken association more like Pro-choice?

Oh parody namesake! How you disappoint.

I browsed over to the red lobster site just for giggles today. They have the most bizarre flash movie running. It is a 360 degree panoramic view of a Maine-like scene. To view all three degree you have to mouse over the left or right side. I'm not sure how most users would know to do that. There are no instruction what so ever.

In fact when it first start moving I though it was rocking like a boat. I thought I was sea sick.

(also, turn on you sound for ocean and seagull sounds. Do you think seagull is on the menu this week?)

Review: Stonewall's Jerquee

This is just a quick "thumbs up" review for a product I have enjoyed for years. Stonewall's vegetarian Jerquee comes in 8 flavors and I like seven of them ( I've never had the Cajun Bacon). Some are spicy and some like the "wild" and some are almost sweet like the "Terriyaki".

I grabbed a bag at a local store this weekend and munched in the checkout line. This reminded me how much I like the product and that I owed it a review.

The bag contains little round pieces of flavored jerky that you pop into your mount. You will be denied the "tear" and "chew" that you get from veggie jerky sticks or strips. Nonetheless, this is great line of products.

Try 'em. I used to order box loads online.

Hot Salami!!

It seemed like it was high time to review some new faux deli slices. So the next time I was browsing the virtual aisles of Fresh Direct I added Yves Veggie Salami Slices. The folks at Yves make a really good veggie Turkey slice so I was really interested to see if their whole deli counter held up.

The Yves Veggie Salami Slice is, in a word, spicy!! The texture is really good and taste is a very close match for actual salami. But then the spicy back end kicks in an whoa boy. I am in no way squeamish when it comes to spicy food. I've review a few spicy products and I continue to search for great veggie buffalo wings. I like spicy salsa and spicy veggie jerky. However, this Salami packs an unexpected kick that is a bit unsettling. It is no way the spiciest thing you'll ever eat. You won't be running to the sink and drinking from the faucet to quench the heat. However, these slices are bit on the wild side. The heat come from a lot of black pepper (or the like) in the slice.

Overall, this is a good product. I'll have this in the fridge now and then. It makes a nice sandwich and Yves continues to be a vegetarian's friend with this item. It isn't the most exciting product but it adds variety to the Yves line.

• Overall Rating: 3
• Similarity to meat (but in a good way): 4
• Similarity to actual food described: 4
• "Worth it?" Rating: 3
• "Would I get them again?": 3

Ingredients:
water, vital wheat gluten, isolated soy protein, tofu (water, soybeans, magnesium chloride), spices, salt, wheat starch, natural flavor, organic evaporated cane juice, yeast extract, beet root powder, garlic powder, onion powder, natural liquid smoke, carrageenan (from seaweed), vitamins & minerals (vitamin B1(thiamine hydrochloride), vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin),pantothenic acid (calcium pantothenate), iron oxide, iron (ferric orthophosphate), zinc (zinc oxide), magnesium (dimagnesium phosphate), potassium (dipotassium phosphate)).

PETA's Golden Bun Awards

Peta rated and ranked restaurant and chain veggie faux-meats and such awarding top products their Golden Bun Award. They did a pretty good job giving high marks to some of my favorite brands such as Boca, Gardenburger and Yves.

Bad call on the Veggie sausage from Lightlife. I guess they missed my review

I'll have to get me some Tofurky sausage

Animal lovers group want vegetarian mayor

"The animal-loving PETA folks are hoping to convince Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to stabilize his fluctuating waistline by going vegetarian.
He's a good mayor and a good man, but he could stand to lose some weight"

That's funny

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=101718