An American version of a mediterranean Lunch platter-INAUTHENTIC AT BEST!

I have been vegan for roughly two years now
Before I went vegan, I was Ovo-lacto-Vegetarian(used to eat eggs, dairy products and vegetarian food-no meat)
This Mediterranean Lunch platter dates back from back then.i DIDN'T MAKE IT.i ate this at a deli in the US.
Greek and Mediterranean food per say does use a lot of cheeses/yogurt in its recipes.But yes, there are lot of really vegan recipes too.
This platter cost 9$.Not bad..But I could make 2 such vegan platters with 9$ now!! LOL.
I took time to print the names of the ingredients on the picture .Click on picture to see a larger view and you can read the names of what all was there on the platter

Mashed potatoes can hardly qualify as Mediterranean.But Most American restaurants will tend to Americanize every ethnic platter to suit the needs of the Average American ..Honestly, I think there is NO NEED TO AMERICANIZE anything.Anyways!!

OCT 2013 UPDATE

This is ONE OF THE MOST VISITED BLOG ENTRIES on my blog..
 I AM EMBARASSED BY THAT FACT.
why?
I didn't set out to type out a blog entry about a mediterranean platter at all.
I INTENDED TO CRITICIZE how IN-AUTHENTIC this particular mediterranean platter at a US deli was...plus,given that i paid nine dollars way back in 2005 or 2006,IT WAS FAR TOO PRICEY for the food i got too.
bUT,SINCE,this blog entry keeps receiving such high number of visits each month,I AM OBLIGATED TO ADD AN UPDATE AND add in some useful information to it too.

First off all,
WHAT DOES THE WORD "mediterranean" mean!
let us go check wikipedia...the easily accesible FREE encyclopedia on the net...constantly getting updated and edited by the readers themselves...
Like I always say,if you have some free change on hand,PLEASE DONATE IT TO WIKIPEDIA.

When i say, i am going and checking on a wikipedia page before writing a blog entry,IT IS NOT so that i can plagiarize from there.It is just to see,what is already out there and then PROVIDE MY EXPERT twist to that already existing information.

so,let us analyze
COUNTRIES INCLUDED IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION
are

a/italy
b/spain
c/france

d/morocco
e/turkey
f/egypt

g/monaco
h/montenegro
i/malta

j/tunisia
k/libya

l/turkey
m/greece
n/cyprus

o/croatia
p/albania
q/algeria
r/bosnia-herzegovina
s/slovenia

t/lebanon
u/israel
v/syria
w/palestine

x/gibraltar
y/akrotiri
z/northern cyprus

As you can see,mediterranean countries are those that sorround the MEDITERRANEAN SEA.
tons of HISTORY THERE.

So,as you can see,I have also color coded the countries into blue and red and arranged them in CUISINE GROUPS, and also using LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET.

As you can now understand,THERE ARE ENOUGH countries in the mediterranean to FILL OUT THE ENGLISH ALPHABET...

So,it is really unfair to GROUP UP 26 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES into one single CUISINE GROUP...

Each single group has a different style altogether...
so,seriously,,A MEDITERREAN PLATTER IS faulty UNLESS it attempts to include atleast ONE DISH from each of these cuisine groups...

seriously,,,as far as I KNOW..greek food is SO  DIFFERENT FROM say, egyptian food or italian food...

Something that strikes me is that MOST OF THESE COUNTRIES do use the TOMATO...surely!

So many of these cultures are SHEPERD OR COWHERD based cultures in the past 500years( all of use were vegan before the concept of rearing animals of other species came into existence but ,well,that is a whole other blog entry about FOOD HISTORY)

so,when you attempt to make a platter,PLEASE INCLUDE TOMATO BASED RECIPES IN YOUR PLATTER.

Great idea to include a dip ...rice and pasta...AND flatbreads...are big on the mediterranean menu-so please include atleast ONE TYPE OF FLATBREAD .

When I think of mediterranean,I THINK OF OLIVES..So,please include OLIVES in your mediterranean platter!
olives for sure...k?

MAYBE , I will make my own platter with ONE RECIPE from each of these countries and then make a new blog entry...yeah?

till then,please go explore cuisine from each of these countries ,which are quite DIFFERNT from one another...and don't use BLANKET STATEMENTS LIKE  "mediterranean cuisine"..
IT IS A FAULTY STATEMENT.

All vegans are a smart,evolved and similar lot, Aren't they?

A couple of days ago, I went into the mood of actually looking around Vegan blog land.I went around on a reading spree of all vegan blogs that I could possibly lay my hands on in the internet.
I was on one hand really pleasantly surprised and on the other hand kinda not surprised that all of us vegans are so similar on so many levels.
Vegans are like this Evolved thinking ethical group of people.
No, I am not saying this because I am vegan and I am bound to find my own kind more appealing.This is an unbiased opinion.
Most vegan blogs  that I read were very creative.Many of us in addition to liking to cook...were also very artistic.We like photography and surprisingly many of us love knitting for some reason..Cute..
Many of us are professionals.Almost of all of us are avid researchers, who read and research a lot before coming to conclusions.
Nice to know that we are smarties club..LOL.Made me feel good and Made me feel like I am not alone.
In the past three years , I have noticed that the number of vegan blogs has quadrapuled..which makes it even more easy for people wanting to turn vegan to look up recipes and get all inspired.
Becoming vegan is even more easier these days with more and more vegan supermarkets and restaurants opening up.
I see that more and more youngsters see the health benefits of a vegan diet and are willing to try it out..Makes me very happy that our younglings are so open minded and are so willing to try it out.
anyways...big hugs to everyone who is reading this...gotta go hit the shower now.

My vegan story

Well, I recently registered on Vegan represent dot com

They ask you  to first post a vegan story telling more about your vegan journey.


Here is what i posted there


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Here is the basic questionnaire I have been asked to answer while posting my vegan story.
- Why did you become vegan? Was it a bunch of reasons or one major one...gradual or instant?- When did you become vegan?
ANS. I became vegan two years ago.I have been ovo-lacto-vegetarian all my life before that ,primarily because my parents are ovo-lacto-vegetarian .At the age of fourteen i watched a video of pigs being slaughtered and hair pulled out of live pigs to make paint brushes.That video left a deep impression on my mind.I had ever since wanted to completely go vegan.I finally did the deed of going fully vegan 2 years ago.

- How has it affected relationships with friends, family, etc...?- What challenges did /do you face and how you dealt/dealing with them?

ANS.Even as an ovo-lacto-vegetarian. I  have had to order special meals at restaurants and on plane rides and at parties etc...
Now that i have vegan, It has gotten a wee lil bit more finicky,that's all.
Eitherways,I have always been the avoider of boring mundane parties where all people do is gossip about dumb ,nosy stuff .Being vegan has given me an excuse to avoid the idle talk with even more conviction now.

I have meat eating friends, many of them are online ones.Since I don't meet them in person, their meat eating doesn't affect me on such a personal level.I am sure that if i went out with meat eating friends, special accommodations from both sides might need to be made.So far,I  have avoided most such outings though.

My family is fantastic.My friends at work??Well!They work,I work.I am a kickass doctor(wink,wink)They respect me for that..end of story..
I really don't go out eating with them or anything.
Sometimes it gets awkward, yes,especially when someone goes and gets takeaway food for everyone  while all of us are pulling a long busy work shift.But, who cares!
My beliefs are important to me,Especially since I am the one who has had the conviction to sacrifice taste for ethics.
I am proud of my decisions,which helps a lot while defending yourself  when your non vegan friends quite unnecessarily give you a hard time..I think they do that coz  they secretly feel guilty..LOL

- What have you found easy/hard?

ANS.I travel a lot , so sometimes while eating at restaurants.Oftentimes, I end up needing to take time to first ask about the ingredients being put into the dish.
I often also have to pore over food labels on processed food packets at the supermarket.
But I am used to doing those both to a large extent by now..NO biggie
I thought that giving up cheese and eggs would be a big thing and that I would go into relapse because of that..But, surprisingly,in the two years that I have given up cheese and eggs so far,I haven't really craved for either one of them at all.That came as a surprise to me.The fact that I didn't crave for them at al surprised mel.I thought that a cheese craving would make me relapse or some such.That didn't happen.
But then, living alone and cooking (greatly tasting) vegan meals without others eating eggs or cheese in front of you probably helps a lot in not craving them at all.

- What has brought you to VEgan Represent?

One other user on another Animal rights forum cross posted something for me here upon my request..I followed along and I liked it here.I registered :)
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Why i will only date a fellow vegan

Well,
I am a 31 yr old female physician
As if, finding a smart man to deal with a smart woman is not enough,I now have a 'vegan clause' to my dating rules!!!!
I came to this decision only after much thought; that ,unless the guy is vegan I won't date him.Why?Because I want peace in my life.Because I want peace in my own home.
I can't forever witness meat being cooked or eaten in my home each day and yet get turned on by the same guy each night(or day or afternoon) in bed.I would totally be turned off If I watched my partner eat meat each day; to such an extent that I will fail to respond sexually to him in bed.
Plus, having kids with a meat eater and then trying to fight over whether to led kids eat meat or not is another headache.
I am an ethical vegan and therefore..I might find it hard to connect on an emotional and sexual level with a man who thinks it is fine to eat meat .ya know!
It will take a little bit of DISCONNECT in my mind to be with someone sexually while clearly knowing that they have no problem unnecessarily killing and eating animals while my own beliefs are quite the opposite.
So,I have  rejected a lot of attractive men.including some doctors just for the case that they are not vegan.
I don't know if i am being stupid by doing this.I don't know if I am narrowing my chances of finding a mate drastically by choosing to date only vegan.But see,I know my psyche, I know my mentality.If in my own home, I have to go through the torture of witness animal body parts being seared..that is a big breach of comfort level for me.So,If i am narrowing my chances of ever finding a mate...so be it


But,trust me.I don't regret my decision.It is better to sit in the kitchen and eat alone>> some healthy food than to live on a day to day basis with a meat eater and then undergo stress each day.
A peaceful life alone is better than a stressful life with a partner whose sense of ethics is miles apart from mine.

My vegan bread baking adventures from 2009

MY BAKING ADVENTURES IN 2009 
I became a full fledged baking expert in 2009.
After i realized that I was getting better at baking, I invested in a new Tiny oven-just for baking bread.
Good investment..Plus, I  purchased it for a bargain coz it was the last piece on sale in that category of appliances at the mega appliance place!
Becoming a bread baker was a big kitchen achievement for me coz, Though i am a great chef.. I had never till 2009 forayed into baking my own bread .
But now, all I ever eat is homemade bread,from scratch, from Whole wheat flour,with toppings and additions and condiments of my choice suiting my moods .

It doesn't really work out cheaper per say in terms of cost(a wee weee wee bit cheaper, maybe) .It can work out cheaper if you plan it well and choose portions and ingredients wisely and then buy in bulk-esp the wheat flour.
All i can say is, It won't definitely turn out pricier than store bought bread.
Plus, homemade bread won't have any of those PRESERVATIVES, STABILIZERS, SOFTENERS and other crap that store bought bread WILL FOR SURE contain.(pssst,read the ingredients label of your store bought bread the next time and you will gasp!)

I have noticed that my homemade bread keeps as well as my store bought ones if not for longer if i store them in the refrigerator right away.

Being vegan, I pack all of my lunches, snack packs, water bottle etc while i go to work.These homemade baking goodies work well for my packed lunches.
I am big big bread expert now..All self experimentation I say! I don't even feel the need to measure flour or yeast these days, That is how much of a bread making expert I am  now..So, big BREAD MAKING YEAR for me, this 2009. Very thankful and proud for that.
I would suggest that all of you play around with whole wheat flour and try baking.It is fun, and as you go along, TRUST ME , you get better at it.
The whole wheat bread will turn out a wee bit denser and heavier than the refined white flour breads.But I like texture, and i like it dense.I like the bagel chewy factor in my bread.
That is the joy of bread making though-you can choose your ingredients..If you are a fan of those uber spongy wonderbread loafs..go ahead  and use refined white flour instead of whole wheat flour