Lunch At Little Shanghai's

I love saying that. Lunch at Little Shanghai's. This is my all-time most favorite restaurant in Santa Cruz for lunch! I can always count on their delicious brown rice cooked fresh daily. My husband and I try to get there right at 11:30 a.m. when they open because that's when the food is the very best.

We stand in line in front of the cafeteria counter, watching as they place the steaming hot food into labeled warming pans before us. Sometimes I go first. 

"Brown rice, please. For here. One item." I watch as they serve several generous scoops of brown rice onto the plate and then I point to the "Tofu Broccoli" item. Several more generous scoops of soft tofu and broccoli cooked in ginger garlic black bean sauce goes on top of the rice. 

The plate goes onto a serving tray and is moved down the line to receive pickled cabbage if I want it, my choice of soup, and a fortune cookie. Then it's Michael's turn. He usually gets two items, and occasionally maybe three. He has his favorites too, like me. 

The thing is, all of their food is good. (I wish I knew their recipes!) They have menus that you can download from their web site, such as this pdf of "Tofu and Vegetables (All Vegan)." And their prices are more than reasonable, I think, especially for what you get.

Little Shanghai's also serves dinner, restaurant-style. The overhead lights are dimmed, candles are lit, and food is brought to you that you've ordered from a menu with a greater selection of entrees. 

The menu choices are diverse, different, and interesting. The food is simple, life-giving, and unpretentious. I highly recommend it.

Cheers!

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What Is A Veggie Burger?

I discovered some new brands of veggie burger products this weekend while reading the June 2012 newsletter from our grocery store, the New Leaf Community Market. Inside, I found articles featuring grilling tips, recipes, toppers, and "best veggie burgers."

In their list of nine types of Veggie Patties, I was already familiar with (1) Gardenburger, (2) Boca Burgers, and (3) Wildwood Tofu Burgers, and I found some more that I'd like to try, including (4) Sunshine Burgers and (5) Amy's Veggie Burgers. 

Some sounded a little weird, like (6) Quorn Burgers (what is "mycoprotein"?) and (7) Sol Cuisine frozen burgers (too much soy? at least they're GMO FREE!). (8) Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger proudly lists the ingredients for their truly all-vegetable burger (no fillers or egg products). And finally, (9) Hilary's Eat Well veggie burgers use two whole grains, millet and quinoa, that are free from common allergens.

The newsletter also included a recipe for "New Leaf's Own Beet Burgers," which includes red beets, quinoa, toasted seeds, onion, flour, bread crumbs, and garnet yams. 

This all got me to thinking about what exactly is a veggie burger? 

According to Wikipedia, a veggie burger is a hamburger-style or chicken-style patty that doesn't contain meat.

As I look at recipes for vegetarian and vegan burgers and lists of product ingredients for store-bought or restaurant patties, I'm seeing a common theme. Either there's an emphasis on having a burger patty substitute that tries to mimic the flavors and textures of meat or it tries to replace the protein you would otherwise get from meat. 

I'm very happy to see that there are a lot more veggie burger options out in the world today, and now I'm excited to see that — finally — many of the patties are including whole grains. Because from a macrobiotic point of view, whole grains are the yang replacement for meat. This is all good information for my dream diner, Burger Number Seven.

It is also good to know that my chances of finding more vegetarian burger options in restaurants are steadily improving! I have found a lot of places, especially cafes and pubs, that serve Gardenburgers or something similar. (See The Cheyenne Cafe.) The great ones serve their own handmade veggie burgers on whole grain bread. (See Boulder Creek Brewery And Cafe.)

Listed in the Wikipedia's Veggie burger article, other places that serve veggie burgers include:

• Burger King (they serve MorningStar Farms Garden Veggie Burgers) and Hungry Jack's in Australia, certain Subways, and Harvey's (served on a whole wheat bun), as well as many chain restaurants, such as 
• Red Robin (they serve Gardenburgers), 
• Chili's  (according to their vegetarian menu pdf, their veggies burgers are made with black beans, egg, dairy, and/or honey),
• Denny's ("Fit Fare" menu includes Amy's Veggie Burgers),
• Johnny Rockets (the "Streamliner" = 100% soy Boca Burger), and 
• Hard Rock Cafe (the San Francisco menu includes a "Veggie Leggie" patty grilled and topped with a portabella mushroom).

Here's a toast to more yang veggie burgers in the world — cheers!

Related Blog Articles:
My Dream Diner — "Burger Number Seven"

Whole Grains In Restaurants

MACRO TALK (Wednesday, May 25, 2011)

My Favorite Local Restaurants Today

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Beckmann's Old World Bakery

This morning I had a very special treat! Thin slices of steamed rye bread from Beckmann's. The bread is the most delicious, pure rye bread I have ever tasted that wasn't homemade. It's made of organic 100% rye flour, water, sea salt, and fresh yeast.

The bread company used to have a small bakery cafe in Santa Cruz, which is where I was first introduced to the rye bread. The cafe has since closed, and now Beckmann's is pretty much the wholesale bakery that stocks many of the shelves in local grocery stores and market places. And I just discovered that you can buy Beckmann's bread online at their website!

Yesterday, I was delighted to find several loaves of their pure rye bread stocked on the shelves at the New Leaf Market, since it is not always there — probably because other people get there before me and snatch them all up! Beckmann's Bakery makes many other varieties of bread, which are also delicious, but none as great in my opinion as the one-hundred percent rye bread.

The loaf is rectangular and shaped like a fruitcake or a brick of pure gold. The bread tastes the best when slices or chunks of it are steamed, and second-best when very thin slices of it are toasted or grilled. It can dry out quicker than other breads, but steaming always seems to revitalize it!

Did you know that rye flour is the original source for sourdough starter? (Someone from the San Francisco sourdough bread company, Boudin told me that on the museum tour at the wharf.)  Natural yeasts in the air seem to love it! It makes perfect sense, once you've tasted the slightly sour quality of Beckmann's rye bread. Wikipedia has a long article about the history of sourdough. I also found an interesting pdf article written online by Robin Donovan on The Story Of Sourdough Bread.

But where San Francisco Sourdough Bread is made of white flour, Beckmann's Pure Rye bread is made of 100% whole rye flour. I see from their website that since the acquisition of the Whole Grain Natural Bread Company, Beckmann's flour is now freshly milled each day, thus retaining most of the vital minerals and nutrients of the rye and making the bread less acid-forming. Beckmann's also uses organic grains, ensuring that no harmful chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) are in the bread.

By definition, bread that is made from flour is not a whole food. The process of making flour from the rye berries separates the components and some get lost, like important alkalyzing minerals and metals, thus making the bread more yin and more acid-forming than the whole grain. The more the grain is milled and the longer the flour is moved from place to place, the more that gets lost. Therefore, making your own bread from your own freshly milled flour is going to be the closest to whole foods, and Beckmann's Pure Rye bread is the next closest!

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What Is Macrobiotics?

Here is an answer to the above question from off the top of my head this morning:  

• Macrobiotics is a way of life.

• It follows the principles of yin and yang and the seven laws of the universe.

• It is a language for understanding and controlling the effects of the two forces, yin and yang, on you and your life.

• Macrobiotics is based on the laws of nature.

• Macrobiotics is a practice followed by many people. There are many official websites and macrobiotic centers all over the world.

• Macrobiotics is a diet based on whole, natural foods.

• Macrobiotics is a restless, ever-changing view of our world as we know it.

See:

What is Macrobiotics? by Phiya Kushi

What is Macrobiotics? by Carl Ferre

George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation
Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa

SEVEN LAWS

TWELVE THEOREMS

Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa

What is "Macrobiotics"? (January 2, 2011)

What Is Macrobiotics? (January 23, 2011)

MACRO TALK (April 27, 2011)

What is Macrobiotics? (M Cafe)

Wild Dandelion Greens Freshen Up Dinner

Wow. Not bad! Here's how I fixed the fresh-picked wild dandelion greens for my dinner:

I put a heaping teaspoon of unrefined sesame seed oil (Spectrum Organics) in a seven-inch frying pan and turned the gas stove on medium-high to heat it up. I washed and stacked about a dozen dandelion leaves on my cutting board and then sliced the stack into very thin strips. I placed them in the pan, stirred evenly, and turned the heat down to medium-low.

While that was starting to cook, I brought out my leftovers from the refrigerator: a mixture of cooked quinoa, brown basmati rice, and wild rice, and a mixture of cooked lentils, kombu seaweed, and onion. I scooped out enough for a single meal and placed it on top of the greens in the pan, then drizzled a little water over it (about a tablespoon). I turned the heat down to low and covered the pan.

While that was slowly steaming, I boiled some water for tea, and washed some dishes. I'm telling you this, because otherwise, I did not use a timer to mark how long it was taking to cook the food. I knew it wouldn't take very long, because most of it I was only reheating and the dandelion greens did not need to cook much at all. (They're often used raw as a salad green.) Then when the tea water had come to a boil and the tea was steeping, I plated up my dinner.

I placed the whole mixture in a bowl, sprinkled gomasio and a little Ohsawa soy sauce over the top, and took its picture. Then I ate it. It was very good. And there was no bitterness at all. Some of the pieces of dandelion greens had become delicately light and crispy, adding a little crunch to the overall dish. Yum, yum!

See Also:
Dandelions, Rediscovering The Wild Greens 

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Green Vegetables

Dandelions, Rediscovering The Wild Greens

I was working out in the garden a couple of weeks ago, pulling weeds, when I finally decided to taste my first dandelion leaf — right then and there on the spot, without bothering to wash it. Before, maybe ten or fifteen years ago, it never would have occurred to me that dandelions are edible. I have childhood memories of my grandmother showing me how to eradicate them from the garden and lawn, stressing how important it was to remove the entire root, or else it would always grow back.

Nowadays I hear about dandelions a lot, both the green leaves and the roots, being used in cooking recipes and tea. I've even seen it in the grocery store. So here I am, standing in the sunshine, finally tasting my first dandelion leaf, and I'm shocked to find that not only is it not bitter — as everyone seems to be saying it would be — but it is also delicious! I picked a whole bunch of them and cooked them up for my lunch and they tasted even more delicious, again, no bitterness to be found.

The next week, I found a big bunch of dandelion greens at the grocery store and decided to buy it. The leaves looked much better than my straggly little dandelions back home — longer, bigger, and brighter green. But you know what? They tasted bitter! Even after I cooked some, they tasted bitter. But I liked them anyway. I looked up a bunch of recipes for cooking them and tried the simple method of boiling them for 15 to 20 minutes and then seasoning them with soy sauce. Not so much bitterness, but it was still there.

Okay, this morning I happened to be looking at a dandelion in our back yard and began to wonder. Do dandelion greens start out tasting sweet and become more bitter the longer or bigger they grow? Does the process of cultivating them using rich, loose soil, fertilizers, and lots of watering, actually cause them to become more bitter? Do they become more bitter when they're flowering? 

I don't know, but I'm going to go pick that dandelion right now and see how it tastes!

Well, the verdict is not entirely in, but I will say this: I just tasted two wild dandelion leaves, one from a plant that has no stems or flowers and one from a plant with lots of stems and flowers. I could not detect any real difference in the taste and once again, they were not bitter like the ones from the store. There is a faint bitterness, but it's very faint. So, later, I shall cook them and see how that changes the taste, but I suspect that cooking will only make them taste less bitter.

I think my wild dandelions are better than the cultivated ones from the store!


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Wild Dandelion Greens Freshen Up Dinner

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A Basic Yin And Yang Tool Set

How do we know when something is more yin than it is yang? Why do we say that a tomato, for instance, is very extremely yin, and meat, on the other hand, is very extremely yang? Furthermore, what tells us when we need to eat a yin food rather than a yang food or vice versa?

In his book, Philosophy of Oriental Medicine, George Ohsawa gives us a head-start in determining the answers to these questions.

According to George Ohsawa's "Unique Principle," everything is made up of two opposing and complementary forces, called "Yin" and "Yang."   

• Yin is an expansive, outward-moving force (centrifugal).
• Yang is a contractive, inward-moving force (centripetal).
• Yin and yang are opposites and they complement each other. 

Physically speaking, everything is under the influence of these two forces. Yin is the centrifugal force in this world that is expansive. It produces silence, calmness, cold, and darkness. Yang is the centripetal force in this world that is contractive, or constrictive. Yang produces sound, action, heat, and light. 

All living things—animals and plants alike—start out small and yang. As they grow and change, they become more expansive, more yin. The longer they have been growing, the more yin they are. Until finally, at their most-yin state, they die, leaving seeds that return to the earth and continue the same cycle in a new and different way.

Here are some of the basic phenomena that can be used as tools to measure the amounts of yin and yang in all living things, including food:

• Color and Temperature
• Shape, Form, and Size
• Weight, Density, and Pressure
• Chemical Composition
• Water Content
• Taste and Smell
• Point of Origin
• Direction and Speed of Growth
• Climates and Seasons

See also:

TWELVE THEOREMS

SEVEN LAWS


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