Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

this must be a vaguely cultural thing, but i'm amused to find that tahina doesn't rank on your list at all! my mom once handed me a jar and said, "here, meet your new best friend." she was right.

ugh, yes, standing o for this post. Thanksgiving I was designated dessert-maker, I spent money and time I generally don't have on fabulous desserts (a pear, chocolate, and hazelnut tart and pumpkin pie brownie cupcakes among other things) and almost no one even tried my desserts because they were vegan. The people who did eat them loved them, and I got leftovers, but whatever. So obnoxious. The difference between the tart as a vegan tart or a nonvegan tart was butter vs coconut oil, and in my kosher family, we would have used margarine or something nondairy anyway. Grah.

Frankly, I believe I get the same sort of joy from digging into a giant kale salad that I used to have digging into some of my other favorite foods. My perspective on why I eat and how has changed, and now when I put something into my mouth knowing how it's going to positively affect my life and maybe even someone else's life one day, there is always extreme joy. Also I definitely don't sit here counting "macronutrients, check, micronutrients, check." Yeah, if you're comparing your really beautiful kale sandwich to that stewed offal you're going to have in a few weeks when this experiment is done, of course you're not going to find joy in what you're putting in your mouth, because you aren't looking for joy.

This series is lovely but a crash diet in veganism is honestly a little questionable to me. I see you're uncovering the troubles that, of course, all of us who have chosen to attempt this path encounter, and the difference between you and I is that I've decided this is my LIFESTYLE so I have time to be patient with myself when these choices aren't always as cut and dry as they should be, or when I make a mistake. On the other hand, you with your leather wallet and down comforter (I have both, too, haha) need to know that those aren't "mistakes" that will derail you if you were really looking into this for a lifestyle. Same thing with all the nutrition points noted in this post, any of these "difficulties" become much more normal if you commit to this as a lifestyle rather than just pretend and observe.

i love this but i like never have the patience to wait for it to marinate so i usually just toss my kale with a bunch of olive oil and some salt and massage it with my clean hands (thus the "massaged" moniker as noted in a comment above). five minutes to marinated kale. definitely my favorite way to prepare it. then you just add whatever you like to it - my favorite is to add a lot of lemon juice, diced avocado, some salt and pepper, so the avocado melts all over the leaves of the kale.

I'm loving this series, I've never been compelled to comment on SE so frequently, let alone more than once in a day.

believe it or not, the best ginger ale i've ever had was at Candle 79. They make it with fresh-pressed ginger and lime juices, muddled mint, agave, and top it all with sparkling water. I nearly got drunk off of it.

Beer is a no brainer with this one! In Bangkok, we would get a dish of pad thai on the street for a dollar and then a Singha or Chang beer for less than a dollar, and dinner was ready!

If I have to pick *JUST ONE* I say just a piece of quality dark chocolate and a mug of green tea. I live dangerously.

Oh my goodness... Thailand, this past summer. Of course, the country is like one giant kitchen, and almost every eating experience became a major adventure, but the best part was when my friend and I stayed with a Thai family for a eek. They took so much pleasure in introducing us to their food. My favorite, and most memorable moment, will always be when they offered us Thai chilis to sample with our food, and how they laughed as we gulped down rice and water to kill the heat, and taught us how to say, "Very spicy!" in Thai.

Mmmmmmm....I used palm sugar in cooking lessons I took this past summer in Thailand. This post just reminded me! I hope I can find some around here.

I love using gala apples combined with granny smith.

aaaaand we wonder why theres an obesity epidemic in this country? perhaps because many people are fond of glopping PURE FAT on top of everything they eat. ick. my roommate freshman year would eat mayo by the spoonful, straight from the jar. i've been turned off every since... tehina is a much better replacement.

I love it. I took a cooking course this past summer in Thailand and while using a mortar and pestle to pound up the curry paste was fun and an exercise in the kind of patience I know how to yield in the kitchen, maybe I'll try this blender method for at-home execution.

for most of my life, i couldn't tolerate heat. then last summer my friend (also a former no-heat girl) and i spent seven weeks in thailand, where the chilis are hot and ubiquitous, so rather than fight the movement, i gave in. the first phrase we learned in thai was "phet ma!" or "very spicy," which quite amused our hosts every time we would gasp the phrase and gulp down water. midway through our trip, we noticed that we were now dousing everything from phat thai to pizza in chili flakes. the chili back here in the states no longer cuts it for me. the hotter the better!