english breakfast tea with milk and sugar

belgin waffles with maple syrup

vodka smoked salmon

poached egg, and hollandaise sauce

apple coleslaw

potato and leek soup

challah toast

chocolate covered almonds

sesame dessert soup

corn on the cob

roasted sweet and new potatoes with olive oil

broccoli

mom’s chinese soup

roasted salmon with lemon and soy sauce

white rice

glass of milk

peach yogurt

a strawberry

two grapes

haha, let the good times rolll…

i cannot wait to gorge on food when i land in europe in t minus 3 days. woot woot.
then it’ll be jloeats.. all over da world. sweet! :)

cheers!

grilled garlic shrimp
ceasar salad with croutons
vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries and strawberries
oj,
milk,
bowl of white rice, 
chinese veg,
broccoli,
a fried egg,
green grapes,
a chocolate cookie
fried squid balls,
chocolate black milk tea with bobba,
sweet potato fries
miso soup
salad
dragon roll (eel, avocado, seaweed, rice, tobiko)
king roll (tempura shrimp, salmon, avocado, seaweed, rice)
hot tea

Q. why is it ok for me to have seafood? 
i love food. i can’t help but eat more than fruit, veg, grains, and legumes… i’m missing my meat. haha, but being concious of not eating meat has made me eat healthier in terms of variety and getting more fruit and veg into my diet.

Fact. i have been feeling chillier, and more hungry today – even after all the food. (i hate it when my mother is right. hahaha)
i’m even starting to get a lil dizzy, but i have felt like this detox has given me more energy, and has made me less depressed.
do those things even correlate? maybe i just need more sleep as well. yes i definitely need more sleep.

Q. what is it in meat that i need as nutrients that i can’t get in non meat foods?

Fact. it is difficult to be mindful of my eating choices everyday, but that’s part of growing up and taking responsibility for myself too :) hideehoo! on with the show!

but holy meat temptations!

see, we are creatures of habit, but isn’t fun when you break them?

i struggled with the chinese food today — mom’s famous chicken wings, dumplings with dipping sauce, saucy minced beef over fatty noodles, ughhh.

why is it so easy to do the bad thing, and why does it have to taste so goooood? lol. especially when you go to one of your regular chinese restaurants and order the same things, and then realize that you can’t eat what’s become so routine on a normal tuesday dinner night out because of political choice.

(this is very new territory for me as i grew up with immigrant chinese parents and grandparents, never allowed to question what was in front of me out of respect. we ate what was given because we were lucky enough to have food on the table. and you know… you kind of have to swallow your pride along with a side of guilt when your culture only expresses love through the food that is cooked and placed in front of you – no questions asked.)

but i did notice that i was salivating for that pork intestine and chicken feet soup — growing up chinese does have it’s foodie perks when it counts, and the moment i tried to cheat a lil – by putting a soup spoon full of soup near my nose to smell it, i was hit by the smell, and it kind of turned me off from succumbing to my will.

good thing. cuz if i cheat, let’s go all the way baby!

so i was relived, but then the sauteed chui chow spiced chicken came to the table, and the smell of it was so enticing. aw man! hahaha

“don’t do it!” push it to the other end of the table. go for the greeen! yes. beans… hahaha i promised myself i’d live by my word this week, and that’s what i did and will continue to do :)

so counting my gastronomic inventory, today i had:

leftover garden lover pizza (yes all kinds of leftover pizza is good), a whole seeded papaya, steamed corn on the cob, white rice with long string beans, seafood corn soup, tofu with preserved soy sauce, chinese broccoli, red bean and grass jelly slushie, tea, a spoonful of nutella, and a glass of milk.

and i’m still kind of full from dinner :) resist the temptations!!! onward ho! you can do it!! you are already on day four… sweet!

today i had:

a peach, a pear, two glasses of oj, 2 carrots, half a cucumber (chopped up with sesame oil, salt, and 3 cloves of minced raw garlic), a fried egg on wheat toast with ketchup, winter melon soup, a plate of chinese green veg, an apple, vanilla yogurt with museli granola, a green tea vitamin water, garden veg pizza on whole wheat dough, a glass of milk

i think the hardest thing about today was trying to explain my choice not to eat meat to my parents.

these kinds of political subjects are always hard to explain and seldomly met with optimism, especially when there are cultural and generational gaps. my parents grew up during war and famine, getting to choose what to eat now is an ultimate luxury.  my parents have always brought me up to spend my money on food, instead of fancy things, that quantity is always better, and that life is all about survival.

slightly hypochondriac, my mother’s maternal instincts came out in an outrage 

“but you’re not going to get enough nutrients! it’s not healthy! you need a variety of foods!”

“yes, i need a variety, and no, many people in the world thrive, let alone survive off of meat as a luxury item, plus i’m not going vegan (yet , i’m still eating dairy, eggs, and fish. and i always have tofu and beans as protein! i’m good ma!”

“eat whatever you want! i’m just telling you, an all vegetarian kind of diet is not for everyone!”

“yes, and i will try my best. it’s only a week! i did this for a month last year, per YOUR advice to detox my body from eating all that game meat during my whole first month of culinary school remember?”

and then i attempted to go food shopping with my father – who frequents the organic aisles as per my mom’s request, no matter how expensive – 7.99 for a jug of OJ?! 10.49 for 3 bags of organic milk?! holyyyy! — ooh look they have ontario local tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers!

“but they’re not organic -”

yes but these are local – support local farming dad! and most of the organic veg is all from california or mexico! 3000 miles! look those apples are from new zealand, and those from chile! – do u think they were picked ripe if they had to travel so far? they don’t look so fresh to me at this crazy premium price!

“but the pesticides!”

yes – i chose freshness today over pesticide use. and price. because for the first half of my life i’ve had conventionally grown veg… and i’m ok,

so that was my choice today.

day two commence!

so self congratulatory but i too have to be my own biggest fan here ;)

today i had-

an apple, vanilla yogurt, wintermelon soup, a plate of green veg (chinese brocoli blanched in water, oil with oyster sauce), a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, a glass of milk, a glass of orange juice, unagi donburi for dinner and two pieces of salmon sushi, tofu, endamame, miso soup with seaweed, and water melon as my midnight snack 

not too shabbbbyy i’ll say ;)

(yes yes, i said no meat, not vegan — that’s a another week, as i learn to practice getting my proteins from other sources, versus, what momma feeds me that i eat without question because she made it with love and it’s already made)

i was watching anthony bourdain’s no reservations earlier, and he was in crete, greece. a) i love his show, and any traveling food journalism show for that matter, b) everything i’ve been thinking about about ancient civilizations lately was inadvertently segmented on the show — how poorer people of these lands eat from their “backyards” as in anything grown on the country side — which usually includes green, green, greens, how local fishing on the coasts give local fishermen and chefs lots to work with – but they don’t whored it, and how if they want meat, they kill it themselves.

there was a whole segment on the killing of a lamb, shaving it, singing during the killing, and using EVERY LITTLE BIT including all it’s organs — how OFFAL! :) 

and i noticed something — the actual slitting of the poor lamb’s neck was obviously censored out of the show, re edited, bleeped out, however you want to say it. and i was almost disappointed. why was it not shown? (other than the obvious reason of them getting a million PETA compliants most likely on every airing of the show – i remember this happening with the food network and lobsters during an iron chef episode and now they never show any chef killing any thing live for food) but really, how does this help? why is it ok for us NOT to watch an animal get killed if we practice this act every day for our food? de-animalizing the living thing makes it ok to show it as food? 

ironically i was “Dragged to Hell” as i like to call it yesterday to the horror movie currently in theaters with the exact punny name. So why do people PAY money to go see gore, blood and gutts, and ridiculous fight scenes between humans and animals tempting death and playing with spirits, yet animal kill scenes that we as humans practice everyday are still censored out!? “OMG she has to sacrifice her kitty cat so that her spirit will be saved!” cut to her grabbing a kitchen knife, cut to her burrying her cat with blood on her shirt and the crazy look on her face.

hmmm. ridiculous, no?

i always wonder what it would be like to witness and actually participate in the act of hunting. i wonder if i’ll be able to cook the animal and eat it too. why is it ok when the animal or sea creature is “already dead”? i too have shed a many tears for the 12 lobsters i have had to kill for my job, to date. in fact, it’s story is what got me into grad school. lol.

sometimes i guess i just want to run away and go live in the country side for a period of time and grow my own food. maybe i should make this my thesis! hahaha, because it will be like resetting my cultural clock and pulling myself away from all this tweeting speed of light technology and industrial living that i’ve grown up with. funny huh? it’s like the country mouse vs city mouse kind of thing. and my internal country mouse is jumping up and down wanting to be heard again, and i’ve played in the city for so long… :)

Cultural, local, sustainable living at it’s best, simple times exemplified by one of the oldest civilization of the world like greece. so inspiring, and also makes me laugh at how humans got the idea of drinking, and making alcohol. what’s one to do on a farm all day long after the work is done? almost every meal was paired with alkie, and lots of drinking to liven up the mood of such cultural atmospheres all across the world (for those familiar with no reservations ;) haha he drinks everywhere he goes! and they offer him culturally different types of alcohol every where he lands, kind of a universal, and kind of hilarious — i mean, it took one monk to make a mistake, to make champagne right?)

well, i’m ok with that, if life’s all about drinking and eating,

then that is gluttony at it’s best.

day two here i come!