Kin Jeh

Finding pure vegetarian food is a challenge here. It's like the Philippines where it's ok to add some bits and pieces of meat into a vegetable dish and still call it vegetarian. I have dinner at Julie's every night so it's usually the lunch that gives me a slight problem... deciding where to go that is. I can always order stir fried vegetables and vegetable fried rice every single day but that would be boring, wouldn't it?

There's one word that I've learned though in order to make sure that what I order doesn't have any trace of animal products in it... "Jay/Jeh". Loosely translated, it means vegan but I believe there's more to it than just veganism. Read here for more about jay.

The sun was shining brightly today so after the morning practice, Julie, Pearl Anne (Julie's daughter) and I went to this roti place for breakfast. Julie and I had Mataba again just like last Sunday and Pearlie had roti with bananas... it looks like mataba as well but only with bananas inside.

After breakfast, I took Julie's scooter for a spin and went to Nai Harn beach. Spent the whole afternoon on the beach and had a 2-hour oil massage with the sounds of the breaking waves as the background music. Lovely.

A fellow Pinoy ashtangi requested for more food photos so here they are. I wonder if I can make a book on Pinoy vegetarianism... "A Pinoy's Simple and No-nonsense Guide to Vegetarian Cooking". How about that? ;-) Enjoy.

Mataba (Vegetable-filled fried roti)

Sweet cucumber dip that comes with the Mataba

Pad see eiw

Pad Phak and Vegetable Fried Rice

Stir fried vegetables

Vegetable Pad Thai

Idli/Idly

Conference was early today at 9:30am. Moon day tomorrow so there's no practice. Had to do pranayama after asana practice so there was no time for breakfast before 9:30. Went to Gokul Chats for paper dosa but for some reasons dosas were not available today. Had idly instead. It actually tasted like the Philippine puto only that here they serve it with coconut chutney and sambar. In the Philippines, they either top it with cheese, flavor it with pandan, or serve it with that ever famous Philippine stew. For those who've been vegetarian for a long, long time, you wouldn't want to know what it's made of.

Found a photo of Indian breakfast items. Haven't tried everything yet though but should soon.

Hungry, anyone?

We went to visit the temples at Belur, Halebeedu and Sravanabelagola last Thursday and Friday. I will create another entry for that next time as I'm still organizing my thoughts about the experience. For now, let me just share with you what I had for the last two days.

Carrot soup which came with the North Indian thali that I ordered for lunch at the Sri Krishna Hotel in Hassan.

North Indian thali which I think is better than South Indian ones simply because it has more flavor in it. It's spicier as well. Channa curry, sambar, dhal, and the usual, rice and chapatti.

Dinner was at Ashok Hotel, I ordered rice and mixed vegetable schezuan which I didn't take a photo of. This is the carrot halva which I had for dessert. It wasn't as good as the one I had in Riyadh though but it was ok.

Breakfast at the Southern Star Hotel and I had idli rava with sambar and coconut chutney. I was planning of taking cooking classes while I'm here in Mysore but since I've been eating all these thalis and basically know how the dishes taste like, I think I can just get the recipes online and make them myself.
The Spice Rack at the Southern Star Hotel in Hassan.

Indian meal at the Raghu Restaurant in Sravanabelagola. This one tasted different. Light but tasty... and felt very sattvic. A friend said food will be different here because it's a Jain's area. I still need to do my homework and read more about the way Jain people prepare their food.

Indian Feast

I've been really lazy to cook lately. So what to do? Order Indian take out and have a feast!

Tasty papadums with minty yoghurt dip, mango chutney,
and some salty pickled veggies which I didn't like.

Palak Paneer or Spinach with Cheese curd.
Delicious. Reminded of me Laing.

Butter Kofta. Vegetable balls with creamy tomato curry sauce. Yummy!!!
The rice is the only thing that I prepared in this meal.

This was dinner last Wednesday and I had enough leftovers for Thursday's lunch and dinner. ;-)

Sandwich Day

Last night, I was supposed to make a tempeh "mock tuna" sandwich for today's lunch but Indonesian convenience store where I get my tofu and tempeh didn't have one so I decided to make egg sandwich spread instead.

I forgot from which website I got this tempeh "mock tuna" sandwich recipe but it sounds delicious.

Ingredients
8 ounces tempeh, crumbled into tiny pieces
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup scallion or red onion
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp celery salt (to taste)
Fresh black pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients well then refrigerate.

Sandwich from either the newly opened Megawraps near PSU or Subway has been the usual lunch for the past weeks. A large egg salad wrap with ranch dressing or a 12-inch veggie delight with extra cheese and honey mustard dressing. Sometimes, it's basic egg sandwich or felafel from the nearby Arabic sandwich shop.

I bought this brown samoli bread from Othaim last night and it's actually good. 3 pieces 9-inch long bread for only 1 SAR (27 US cents). I had half with peanut butter and banana for breakfast this morning, and then a quarter with the egg salad spread, and another quarter with a chocolate-flavored sweet tahini spread. It was a big breakfast.

For the egg sandwich, I just crumbled 4 hard boiled eggs, combined it with about 1/2 cup mayo, black pepper and some leftover grated cheddar cheese. Spread it on half of the bread, top with sliced tomatoes, cucumber, and yellow and red bellpepper.

I basically eat whatever I want but in moderation so I don't really worry too much about fats and cholesterol. I was thinking of making a low-fat version of this by substituting 2 eggs with an equivalent amount of tofu and use low-fat mayo instead of a regular one.

On another note, I made tofu balls with Chinese sweet and sour sauce last weekend. I'll post the photo and recipe next time. The tofu ball was perfect but the sauce can still be improved. It was my first time to make one so it was forgiveable. ;-)

Vegetarian Enchilada

What to do with leftover vegetarian chili and mexican rice? Grab some tortilla, put some of the leftover stuffs, add some fresh salsa and grated cheddar cheese... roll into a burrito, or arrange in an oven-proof dish, pour over some of pureed chili, top with cheese and bake until the cheese melts... and what do you have?

Vegetarian enchilada...

Practice was good... it was a "led"practice today. I woke up late from watching The Bourne Ultimatum and No Reservations last night. I felt sluggish and ready to skip asana practice this morning, then I remember it's Friday and traditionally, Friday is led-class day.

Thanks to technology, I played Sharath's primary series audio and practice was finished in less than 90 minutes. Whew!

Banana, Walnut & Caramel Pancake

Breakfast today? Nah, this was last night's dessert. ;-)

Today's Breakfast

Pancakes with Blueberry topping, banana slices and walnuts

Italian or American???

Today was supposed to be either Italian or Mexican but ended up with vegetarian cheesy crust pizza from Pizza Hut. The photo isn't very inviting, I know, but it was ok. Good enough for a starving vegetarian yogi in Riyadh.

I went to PSU after the morning practice to follow up on my ticket request for this June and when I decided to go home, I was craving for pizza! Pizza is supposed to be an Italian food, I texted Maria, so I'm still keeping up with today's theme. Just ignore the "hut" or it will become an American Fastfood.

Got 3 more slices left so that will be dinner later. Cheers.

When will I ever learn?

As expected, the stomach was heavy with mucus this morning. Thought I could let it go and just do my pranayama without doing vaman but it didn't feel quite right so I proceeded with the ritual. Got to use the new travel kettle to boil water.

No asanas today since it's my official rest day. Thursday and Wednesday are the official weekends in this part of the world and I start late on Saturdays so there's asana practice for those days, plus Sundays, I practice with a group at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the afternoon. Monday is mid-week, so...

Breakfast was good. The usual minus the banana as I've been lazy... yeah... really lazy to get some bananas from Othaim which is only about 3-5 minutes walk from where I live. I told you, it's too much of a task already as the mind is already on that plane home.

Lunch was ok. Some cheese pizza and salad from the cafeteria.

Went to the Philippine Oversease Labor Office to get my OEC (overseas employment certificate) that will exempt me from paying the travel tax on my way back here.

Had a donut and a cup of tea upon returning to the office. Now, just chilling out and waiting to open the Health Club at 6:00pm.

A Package from Ireland

I received Maria's presents today. Organic cookies, organic vegetable stock cubes, chocolates and a Christmas card. The cookies were crumbled though. The Saudi post must have checked if there are illegal stuffs in the package... I've heard a lot of story about how stringent they can be but I guess they have loosen up a bit already.

When I first arrived in the Kingdom in March last year, the immigration security officer had to open my luggage and manually check what's inside... my books were browsed for indecent photos and luckily, I didn't bring any cds with me or they would have checked it for inappropriate contents and I'd end up waiting a bit longer. The 2nd time I arrived which was after the 2006 Ramadan break, they started using the x-ray machine and my luggage went through it. I still had to open it though as I had suspicious bottles inside... brought got some bottles of Chinese sesame oil as they are pricey here... the sesame oil they sell at the supermarket is also not as aromatic as the Chinese variety/Lee Kum Kee brand.

Breakfast was porridge this morning and a cup of korean green tea with roasted rice. Lunch is egg sandwich with tomato slices. Starting to get even lazier with cooking now because probably of the excitement of going back home next week. Still got 2 slices of leftover Mediterranean veggie pizza from the Pizza Company early dinner yesterday. Will have those for snack later.

Will be posting the photos of what Maria sent me later.

Cheers.

Food Journal 12-02

Breakfast at 7:00am
Muesli with laban and 1.5 tsp brown sugar

Coffee with 1.5 tsp coco sugar



Lunch at 11:15am
Steamed rice
Tofu & Cabbage Garlic-Basil Stir fry (ate only half of it)



12:30pm
2 pcs dates bar
2 pcs fig bar

tea at 1:00pm

Pizza with Mar and Ruby at 4:30pm

Food Journal 12-01

Breakfast at 7:30am
Muesli, laban + 1 tbsp brown sugar

Coffee at 8:50am

Lunch at 12nn
Tofu & Water Spinach (Kangkong) Stir fry
Steamed rice

2 pcs Swedish Chocolate Balls at 2pm

Coffee at 3:30pm

3 pcs Hershey's Reese's Cups

Dinner at 6pm
1 large Felafel sandwich

Food Journal 11-25

Breakfast at 6:45am
Split Mung bean with Butternut Squash (Pinoy Dhal)
Papadum
Rice

Coffee at 9am and 10:30am

Lunch at 12nn
Salad dish with humus and Arabic bread from the cafeteria

Dinner at 7:30pm
Same with breakfast

Food Journal 11-24

Breakfast at 7am

A bowl of Dorset muesli with slices of bananas, 1 tbsp brown sugar, laban.
1 pc toasted wheat bread with butter
1 cup of coffee with brown sugar

Tea at 10am

Lunch at 12nn

Pumpkin & Basil Stir Fry with Egg
Steamed Rice

Coffee at 3pm and 4 dates bar

Dinner 5:30pm
Felafel

Too Lazy to Cook

Wow, suddenly this site has been visited by people from 15 different places around the world.

I told Maria yesterday that kitcherie is my "lazy day food". It's easy and quick to prepare. Just chop all the ingredients, nuke the potatoes and carrots to make sure they cook evenly with the rice and mung beans, dump everything into a rice cooker and do whatever you need to do while the cooker does the rest.

Today is even a lazier day though. Since I had to be at the University for the evening recreation activity program until 9pm last night, I went to bed late and of course, woke up this morning a bit late as well. Didn't have time to prepare proper lunch today so what's the solution? Steamed rice and canned beans with tomato sauce. Nutritious yes, but prana-wise, it must be deficient.

Breakfast was so-so. 2 pcs Pan de sal with herbed cheese. My meals are definitely not very colorful today. Hopefully I don't get too lazy tomorrow. Cheers.

Food Journal 11-10

Breakfast at 7:00am
Angel Hair pasta with Pesto (courtesy of Marshal)
A bowl of choco-peanut oatmeal with banana slices

Coffee at 8:30am
1 cup black with sugar

Lunch at 12:00nn
Spaghetti with Sauteed Tomato, Onions, Olives, Chili Flakes & Pesto.

Food Journal 11-06

Breakfast at 7:30am

1 cup muesli
1 cup melon cubes with raisins and honey
1 banana, sliced
2 cups laban

Coffee at 9:30am... equivalent to 2 cups
Coffee at 10:30am... equivalent to 2 cups

Lunch at 12nn

Fried tempeh with Hoisin Sauce, Chilli flakes and Sesame Oil
Steamed Rice

Dinner at 8pm
Roasted Red Bellpepper and Carrot Soup
3 pieces toasted wheat bread with pesto

Food Journal 10-28

Breakfast at 6:30am

1 toasted wheat bread with chunky peanut butter
1 cup muesli with 2 sliced bananas, 2 cups laban, 1 tsp brown sugar
1 cup coffee with brown sugar

Lunch at 11:30am

Stir fried Tofu, Carrots & Spring Onions with Hoisin Sauce & Chili Flakes
Steamed Rice

Food Journal 10-27

Breakfast at 7:30am

1 cup muesli, sliced bananas
2 cups laban
1 slice toasted wheat bread with 1 tbsp chunky peanut butter
1 glass low fat milk

Coffee at 10am

Lunch at 12nn

Garlic Tofu Stir Fry and steamed rice
(3 quail eggs from Marshall)
Green Tea with Mint

Coffee at 3pm

Light Snack 1 at 4pm

2 pan de sal with Hochland processed cheese with herbs

Light Snack 2 at 8:30pm

2 pan de sal with Hochland processed cheese with herbs

Just before bed at 9:30pm

1 cup of Cadbury Mint Chocolate milk