Categories
Healthy Food

Gratitude

Reminiscing this beautiful celebration at a friend’s place – a generous soul who showers her guests with love, generosity, and laughter:)

Abundance; friendship; sharing; BERRIES:) are Berry very Yummy:) Mango Mouse cake and berries to celebrate an ending, which marked a fresh new beginning.
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Note Mango Mousse Cake went …fast. But no problem ! Just whip one up yourself:)

Mango Mousse
Pureed Mango 100g
Plain Yogurt 200g
Gelatin 10g Or Kanten powder if vegan

Mix well pureed mango and plain yogurt.
In deep pan, heat few table spoons of water and melt the gelatin or kanten.
Just enough for the power to melt and liquify;
Then pour the mango mixture. Mix/whip well (if not vegan, can fold in whipped 2 egg whites to fluff)
Place either individual glass bowls or
into larger baking pan of shape you like, line the sides with ladyfingers (if you want to make it fancy)

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Easy

Okay, I admit THIS cake was done professionally at a bakery … without yogurt but rather eggs and more sugar – But the above is the everyday easy simple recipe and I like to serve with sweet mochi rice (pref. black that becomes purple-ish)
and condensed milk on the side as an option. Garnish with mint or ?

Will take photo next time:) This too, went fast.

Simple, fast and … healthy.

Categories
Beautiful Places Healthy Food

North Berkeley: throwback mode still…

A weekend last month … Post Sunday morning yoga has led to me rambling down memory lane … Not so many yoga studios back then so just doing Hatha yoga at University Ave YMCA … no music, no frills. So happy with so little to nothing … bare bone class … I wonder if that’s changed also …
sm_IMG_6258 Can you believe I used to live here on the first floor 3BR shared with 2 other roommates way back when? Not this nice of a paint-job back then – everything around the neighborhood has transformed into this upscale hip, almost chic, “gourmet ghetto” … I lamented ever leaving this place …it’s just so convenient with Cheese Board around the corner and … brings back memories. Spent some of the best times of my life here … (notice it appears to be all fond foods related?)

sm_IMG_6221Ha ha ha

sm_IMG_6228 Love their simple healthy food …(almost) just like home:)

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Can’t believe either that this very hip new cafe has replaced what used to be a very sort of run down vegetarian Chinese restaurant that was across the street from where I lived … it is a very weird feeling to revisit where you spent your young and hopelessly idealistic days … The flagship Pete’s Coffee is still at the corner on Walnut Square and …
sm_IMG_6236 OMG – Juice Bar Collective – I love this place… it hasn’t changed … still a hole in the wall – so relieved… it’s pretty much the same.
sm_IMG_6329 Yes, still the same menu – Polenta with black beans and salsa (rather than cheese for vegans) … yummy – tastes still the same, yes:) What a relief.

These and only these books were showcased at Mission Heirloom Garden Cafe … puzzled. Isn’t Paleo diet about eating like the Paleos did – which included meat for the hunting tribes but not for non-hunting tribes. I feel more connected to my ancestors who ate no four-legged mammals and supplemented the vegetables and grains with fresh seafood from the ocean that surrounds that beautiful home country. (I am sorry about the whales … ignorance leads one to do stupid things – I recall eating some whale … it was in the elementary school lunch program menu … ahhhhgh I am sorry, I didn’t know better and each student was required to finish everything served. Yet, there’s also a belief that as long as you eat what’s served with gratitude for the life sacrificed before you, lovingly prepared, all food is nourishing, becoming part of your flesh, the divinity within honored… )

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Paleo Code? Can you take the meat out? Can this be plant based? And speaking of ancestors, different race/groups relative to their land, the climate they are placed in, may have a very different food culture. Wonder if this code takes that into consideration… i.e., about diversity. I recall deep fried grass hoppers in Thailand (did not eat them but heaps of them at street vendors…) so … wonder.

Here’s an excerpt from Nipponia to that point:

“Any history of food in Japan has to include the many centuries when eating the meat of four-legged animals was forbidden. The first law prohibiting meat eating was issued in the year 675, a little more than 100 years after the arrival of Buddhism.
In the 7th and 8th centuries, when a new emperor came to the throne he would issue an Imperial edict forbidding meat consumption. This was because, according to Buddhist belief, killing animals is wrong. The fact that these edicts were issued from time to time indicates that some found it hard to give up eating meat. But by around the 10th century just about everyone had stopped eating it.
In China and the Korean peninsula, the Buddhist clergy were not allowed to eat meat or fish, but in Japan even ordinary people did not eat meat. This was partly because of Buddhism, and partly because even the indigenous religion, Shinto, considered that eating the flesh of animals was unclean.
But the rule extended only to meat from mammals, not seafood. Whales are mammals, but the common folk thought of them as big fish and there was no prohibition against killing and eating them. Wild birds were also eaten. There was a belief that chickens and roosters were messengers working for the Shinto gods, and their meat and eggs were not eaten until the 15th century.
The indigenous Ainu of Hokkaido in northern Japan depended considerably on food from wild birds, animals and plants, and deer and bear meat was an important part of their diet. In the far south, the Ryukyu Kingdom in the Okinawan islands was in a different jurisdiction and prohibitions against meat eating did not apply. People there raised pigs, goats and other animals and ate their meat. In mountainous areas on the main islands of Japan, people who made their living fishing the mountain streams would hunt wild mammals for their fur and medicinal properties, and eat the meat of what they caught. And others, hoping to cure some illness or build up their strength, might practice kusuri-gui (eating medicinal flesh of wild animals). But in spite of all this, animals were not raised for meat, and for many centuries meat consumption in Japan was remarkably low.
Like their neighbors in China and the Korean peninsula, the Japanese did not drink the milk of domestic animals, and the manufacture of dairy products did not occur until much later. It is no wonder, then, that preparing fish for the table developed into a fine art.”

Categories
Beautiful Places Healthy Food Yoga

Sleep deprived …

sm_IMG_0369Pushed away the desire to sleep in this morning to make it to my fairly weekly class over in East Bay… crossing the Bay Bridge is so easy when there’s no traffic. I mean, who is crazy enough to get up no different than weekday hour to cross the bridge just to get to a yoga class on a ZZZ sleepy weekend morning – most would rather opt to stay under warm covers in the comfy bed I imagine since it’s only on Sundays we get to sleep in … I normally do not care for Iyengar classes due to its austerity and sternness I used to find way too serious, dry and boring – but he keeps it light with humor and does not even call it an Iyengar class – it’s a “Fine Tuning” class; Yay, just what this yogini needed, i.e., fine tuning of the fundamentals:) I love the fact that I have to focus and thoughtfully embody my body with each detailed cue.

You really have to put on that “pair of glasses” for your internal eyes to see what your body is up to … command your body to move in a certain way rather than in a habitual automatic pattern. Normally I avoid male teachers* having felt mangled in the past but when my legs were pulled up to the sky, reminded that it takes a lot of strength to adjust/correct/improve someone’s shoulder stand…would be tough to do for a petite willowy yogini of an instructor (because WE can hurt ourselves while spotting if we lack the strength and the right stance) so they don’t usually mess with that kind of spotting … So happy I was spotted which allowed me to get into a much better shaped shoulder stand – legs vertical so much more than I could have ever done on my own … haahhh – the vertical “lift” upward felt so nice:) (used 5 blankets! Manduka wool blankets tend to run thin- but nice and smooth:)

sm_IMG_6112 Miso Ramen ordered by M.
sm_IMG_6115 Veggie kakiage tempura. I can eat this!
sm_IMG_6113What a treat of crab & salmon roe bowl ordered by M – had a little morsel to taste … so this is why becoming completely Vegan is a bit hard and I am a Pescetarian. Giving up meat is not hard for me but … seafood? sushi? Will be Pescetarian but end up being a Vegan as sushi is rather a rare treat anyway- maybe 4-5 times a year at most? It’s all about moderation …per Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara living legend of a doctor, age 103.
sm_IMG_6114 Edamame! I can eat this:)
sm_IMG_6116 Mojito ordered by the other M – took a sip – minty!
@ “Iyasare” Bekeley. Iyasare means to “to heal” so these are healing foods from Japanese perspective, probably not meeting the criteria for other health food definition but to me, SOUL food IS healing. Yet do hope that your soul food is not bacon for your health – recall a Bikram yoga instructor who kept on talking about BLT sandwich, apparently her favorite food – during class – as though the yoga practice was so that she’d be allowed to eat that BLT. Funny.
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When I see a student who seems to have considerable amount of energy escaping – a bit Vatta, maybe a bit anxious – like to give some grounding props so not all her energy we are harnessing dissipate into thin air … yet it is too bad that modification is not made possible for someone with limitations – something to think about going forth. BTW, Who would not know Judith Hanson Lasater, PT & PhD or Roger Cole, PhD, if we are talking Restorative Yoga that’s science based? Yes, there are so many types of so called restorative yoga styles out there but … hope it’s not called restorative and turns out to be something else like just nap and stretch. And yet, as the guru says – ALL yoga is restorative as in restoring your “chi”, prana or life-force. All – yep, all – which gives me the license to be more creative? Perhaps.

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Realized I was in Berkeley/Oakland Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week … perhaps we should move over there at this rate?
* could be a top ranking profession in that “15 Professions you don’t want your future husband to work in” – that article offended so many…