meansoybean

Take, say, bananas.

Bananas have attained mainstay status in our society. Our grocery stores present them as almost a basic staple. They are even made affordable — to most, anyway.

Thing is, we seem to have forgotten that bananas are, like, totally alien to our northern climes; an exotic item. Indeed, they are the fruit of a whole industry with a less than palatable background.

Sure, you could try organic bananas for thrice the price, if that helps you get through the night. Sadly, there’s no globally recognized certification for organic labeling, and in the end you end up having to trust Dole (or some other “legitimate business” of dubious legitimacy).

Then there’s also “fair trade”, though that doesn’t mean your bananas will be free of pesticides. Whichever path you choose, you’re still eating something that had to travel halfway across the world and appears fundamentally unsustainable given the hidden energy costs.

To eat locally and sustainably means letting go of such crazy — yet seemingly normal in today’s economy — imports. Like coconut milk, avocados and olives, to name a few. Think back to your grandparents’ time, when getting an orange at Christmas was enough to get your sock garters in a knot from excitement. Like, something special.

I’m not saying that importing anything from far away is wrong, but I do believe a true “staple” should be locally produced. We can’t let the hubris of globalization reach a point where we depend on food imports for our basic needs.

Now, if you’re going to import something, it should be produced by people who get fair compensation for their — in the case of bananas, backbreaking — work.

Anyway, as you might’ve guessed, this Norwegian has purchased nary a banana for some time now.

He’s also been anxiously — and ANGRRRILY — looking forward to a doc called BANANAS!*, which will finally be playing in Montreal as part of the Rencontres internationales du documentaire festival, on November 17^th and 20^th.
Check it out!

Just a quick pic from Sunday’s dinner over at a friend’s. The ingredients were very simple: margarine, red onion, garlic, veggie stock, arborio rice and a lot of red wine.

I had a pearl barley winter squash risotto disaster awhile back and… let’s just say I need more practice making this kind of dish.

Sorry in advance for the bad photo. Crappy camera phone and low light don’t make for pretty pics.

Thanksgiving Sunday I went out to Aux Vivres for dinner. Now, I’m an early-adopter type so I’ve been known to try their plate of the day special. That night the blackboard boasted Moussaka Royale. I didn’t notice it then, but there was no description. When it arrived at the table I was skeptical and disappointed, feelings that stayed with me to the very end of the meal. The base consisted of TVP and brown lentils. Then there was a very thin layer of eggplant covered in, I kid you not, almost three inches of mashed potatoes topped with béchamel sauce.

Totally not what I was expecting, in terms of moussaka. Aux Vivres rarely uses TVP, in fact I think this is the first time I’ve encountered it here. I don’t like the taste of TVP on its own, it has to be mixed in something. The lentils were just murder for me. I wish there had been more eggplant slices — that’s the whole point of moussaka! And WTF was up with all that mashed potato? The lack of costly eggplant and abundance of cheap, cheap potato was suspicious at best.

For the next little while I’m going to stick to my tried and true regular menu picks; the dahl, the dragon bowl with tofu or the sirocco sandwich on chapati. Something you need to try if ever you go: I stopped eating their BLT on chapati shortly after Aux Vivres moved to their St-Laurent location, only because they cheaped out on the coconut “bacon” and filled it with lettuce. But I recently picked it up again, brilliantly combining it with a side of dragon sauce. I highly recommend it and wouldn’t have the BLT any other way. Try it!

BTW if anyone from Aux Vivres is reading this, you should totally make a portable sandwich version of the dragon bowl.

Edit: Ever wonder what’s in that crazy Dragon Sauce? Right this way…

How perfect is this picture?! Can you believe all I did was resize it?

The roast was an ad hoc creation, consisting of one each of celeriac, red onion and French onion. The baking sheet was then filled out with multiple sunchokes, carrots, and potatoes. A nice coating of olive oil with a sprinkling of dried thyme and rosemary, salt and pepper. The finishing touch was about a 1/3 cup of dry white wine drizzled over top before covering tightly with foil. Into the oven at 450°F until soft, then it’s foil off under the broiler til nicely browned.

The tofu briefly soaked, then baked under foil, in the Italian Tofu Marinade in Veganomicon. It still turned out great, though. The slaw was sliced thinly by hand, tossed in a bit of apple cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar.

This plate is 98% organic, which is pretty damn cool, if you ask me. It tastes as good as it looks too. Yeah!