Archive for February 2016

Why you shouldn't order that fourth Big Mac

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I wrote this op-ed as practice for a Professional Writing Course, and thought it would be relevant to put up here since this blog is dedicated to food. While I revere eating and good food the way other people worship their gods, I don't want people to get the wrong impression. I'm not a binge eater, and I don't encourage gluttony. Quite the opposite, the more you indulge in excess, the less you appreciate it. You can eat sustainably, and still enjoy the ecstasy of good tasting food! Read on if you want to know more about why I think we should cut down on excessive eating. 
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“Finish your food! Don’t you know that there are starving children in Africa?” If this sounds familiar to you, you probably grew up in the developed world, and chances are you probably retorted “Send it to them! They won’t eat it either.” Although nobody believes that finishing your plate would actually benefit the starving children in Africa, could it be that doing so actually harms them instead?

While the act of getting children to finish their food is well-intentioned, I would say it actually does more harm than good. Most leftovers are generated as a result of overly generous portions, and instead of saving them for another meal, many of us are taught to finish it off rather than waste food, leading us to consume far more than we actually need.

In fact, most people consume far more meat and dairy than necessary, and many consume more than is healthy, according to the World Resources Institute, a research organisation dedicated to sustaining natural resources.

These days, the average portion sizes in America are up to five times larger than they were in the 1950s. Obesity rates in the developed world are soaring. Until recently, before they started to be phased out, the prime example of this excessive consumption in our diets could be found in McDonald's, where the Super Size meal options allowed people to meet their daily calorie intake in a single sitting.

Yet at the same time, over 800 million people are food insecure, which means they are periodically hungry. How is this possible? The world’s middle and upper classes consume the largest share of meat, dairy and other resource-intensive foods. The rich simply out compete the poor when food supplies fall short of demand, and the consequences of this food gap are felt most acutely by the world’s poor. Perhaps it’s time to admit to ourselves that we in the developed world are obese simply because we eat too much.

In fact, it’s not just we in the developed world who eat too much. With the fast progression of urbanisation in the passing years, those in the developing world are catching up quickly. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, meat consumption in developing countries has been steadily increasing from a humble 10 kilograms annually per person in the 1960s to 26 kilograms in 2000, and will reach 37 kilograms in 2030, just a mere 14 years away. Multiply to that to the population of developing countries, and we end up with a simple conclusion: excessive meat eating is no longer an option if we don’t want to cannibalise ourselves.

Besides being bad for our waistlines, the over-consumption of food is also bad for the environment. The raising of livestock contributes a whopping 14% to global greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, the transport sector, including dirty, gas-spewing trucks and huge jumbo jets, contributes about 13%. That char-grilled Argentinian steak you have on your dinner plate? It takes more than 9000 litres of water to produce it. Contrast that with 1 pound of wheat, which requires only 95 litres of water. While I’m not advocating for a vegetarian crusade, it seems to me that a more efficient way of consuming edible calories is to switch from an overwhelmingly meat-based diet, to a largely plant-based one.

If we wish to even have a world to live in anymore, we simply cannot afford to continue this culture of excess. Parents and children alike should learn more about how to eat more sustainably, and how to portion food appropriately. More importantly, we need to start eating much less meat. That hypothetical starving child will thank you more for that, than for finishing off your Big Mac.

Mandy goes Meatless: 4 Easy Vegetarian Recipes

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Something that's been occupying my thoughts lately is Sustainable Eating. After watching the documentary "Cowspiracy", reading several articles on sustainable eating and talking to several friends who have gone Vegetarian for environmental reasons, I realised how much the livestock industry actually contributes to GHG emissions and how bad it is for the environment in general. Now, here I am referring of course, not to small-scale and/or sustainable farms, but the huge, industrial scale meat industry. Over the course of last week, I wrote an op-ed about a culture of over-eating that seems to be pervasive in many developed (and also developing) countries, that sums up succinctly most of my reasons for wanting to reduce my meat consumption. 

Like I mentioned in the article, I'm not advocating for a Vegetarian Crusade. In fact, I don't think we need to completely cut meat out of our diets, but there is definitely a more sustainable way of eating, and the easiest way to do that is simply to cut down on the amount of meat we eat. Writing that Op-ed gave me the shove I needed to really try to do as I preach, and cut down on the meat I stuff my face with. So I decided to go vegetarian for my lunches (and some of my dinners), for 5 days first, just to kind of ease into the process. I'm writing this at the end of the week and I can safely say, it wasn't all as painful as I expected it to be! So I'll probably be continuing this as best as I can, and to encourage some of you out there, I decided to collect four easy vegetarian recipes that I cooked this week. Okay, I'm cheating, I only cooked three of these and ate the leftovers for the other two days instead of cooking a fourth recipe, but I've cooked the fourth recipe in the past and for completeness' sake I've put it in this post. So here goes!

1. Roasted Aubergines and Mushroom Pasta

This is probably the easiest recipe out of the four, especially if you use store-bought pasta sauce! It's also great for those of you who have a big appetite, because you can just scale up the amount of spaghetti you cook to fill you up. For some variety, try switching up the parmesan cheese with mozzarella! Click here for the recipe.  


2. Onigiri, Seaweed Tamagoyaki and Cucumber Salad

This one is great for packing your own lunches to school, or work because it doesn't make a mess in your Tupperware and doesn't need to be heated up. I would say this would taste even better in the summer because it's so light and fresh! Recipe here. 

3. Yaki Onigiri and Miso-simmered Aubergines

If you made too many of the Onigiri before, switch it up a little by crisping them up in a pan! Probably a better recipe for the cold times, since the miso-simmered aubergines also double up as a hot, delectable miso soup.  Click here for the recipe. 

4. Crispy Tofu, Miso Spinach and Teriyaki Sauce Rice Bowl

And of course, every Vegetarian's go-to substitute for protein, good ol' tofu. Spice it up with some teriyaki sauce! Recipe here. 

Mandy Cooks: Crispy Tofu with Miso Spinach

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This is one of my favourite recipes. The crispy tofu is extremely easy to make, and the crunch of the skin combined with the teriyaki sauce is just amazing. To top it off, you have the tangy, miso taste from the spinach and the fluffiness of the white rice that makes this dish just, so, so ,so delicious. I kid you not. Don't believe me? Try the recipe and see for yourself! 

 

Ingredients

  • Half a block of tofu from DM 
  • Corn starch to coat the tofu
  • Sesame oil 
  • Soy sauce 
  • 1 tsp Miso 
  • 0.5 cup cooked rice (any kind you'd like, I prefer Japanese rice)

Method

  1. Cook your rice in a rice cooker! This takes a while, so always do this first. 
  2. Cut tofu into slices of your preferred thickness, then rub some soy sauce and sesame oil into each slice. 
  3. Coat tofu with corn starch (or just regular flour, but the corn starch gives a crispier texture to the tofu)
  4. On medium high heat, pan fry the tofu slices until a light golden brown colour on all sides. 
  5. In the meantime, boil some water and once water is boiling, switch the stove off and  quickly blanch a handful of spinach. (Blanching basically just means plunging whatever you're cooking in boiling water for a short while, then drain and soak in cold water)
  6. Drain the spinach. 
  7. Mix miso with 1-2 tbsp of hot water and mix well to achieve a thick, sauce like consistency. 
  8. Toss the spinach in the miso sauce.
  9. Serve tofu and spinach on top of cooked rice!

Mandy Cooks: Yaki Onigiri with Miso-simmered Aubergines

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Tired of regular Onigiri? Here's what you can do with your leftover Onigiri (from the previous recipe), turn it into Yaki Onigiri! Yaki means 'grilled' in Japanese, so by right, this should be a grilled rice ball, but I have no grill, so I simply replicated it by frying it in a pan. It doesn't really matter in my opinion, because the highlight of the Yaki Onigiri for me is the crispiness of the surface. Both parts of this recipe are ridiculously easy, so if you mess this up, shame on you! (No, I'm kidding, I'm not judging you. Really. Don't leave this page please. )


Ingredients

  • 2 palm-sized Onigiri's. More, if you're greedy. 
  • Soy sauce. 
Method
  1. Oil the pan like you saw in the last Onigiri tutorial! 
  2. On medium heat, fry Onigiri on all sides until lightly crisp and brown.

  3. Brush all sides with soy sauce, and fry some more until crisp and golden. Be careful not to let it burn! 
That's literally it. You can choose to eat it just like that, with the rest of the Tamagoyaki from the previous recipe, but I like a little bit of variety so I decided to make some miso-simmered aubergines to go with it. 

Ingredients
  • Half an aubergine
  • 1 tbsp Miso
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Mirin 
Method 
  1. Cut the aubergine into thick chunks. 
  2. Lightly fry the aubergines in a pan on medium high heat. Turn to medium low. 
  3. Pour the water, miso, soy sauce and miso in and mix well to ensure miso is completely diffused. (Be careful! The water will tend to sizzle vigorously when you pour it on the pan, which is why it's important to lower the heat a little)
  4. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes. 
After I simmered the miso, I decided to dilute with a little more hot water so I could drink the miso-sauce as a soup because right after you simmer it, the sauce tends to be a little too thick and salty to drink purely as a soup. I'd recommend doing that so you don't waste your miso! I also decided to just dice some tomatoes and placed it on a piece of lettuce, and added some of the cucumber salad we made in the last recipe for more vitamins! (Also because it looks prettier) 

Mandy Cooks: Onigiri with Tamagoyaki and Cucumber Salad

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This meal might be a little bit more complex, just because there are several different elements you have to assemble to create it, but if you cook a little more, you can eat it for several days, which is what I've done. This bento box is a great packed lunch to bring, simply because you can keep it in the fridge with no consequences to taste, and there's no need to heat it up before you eat! It's also easy to modify the recipe, leaving out or substituting any component you might not want. 

Let's start first with the Tamagoyaki (Sweet rolled omelette)! Like most normal people, I don't possess a rectangular or square pan, so rolling the Tamagoyaki is a little bit more difficult, but I made it work anyway! So don't fret if you don't own one, you can just cut the ends away to make it look better. This whole recipe serves about 2.5-3 me's.

Ingredients 

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 0.25 tbsp salt (or more, if you like it salty. Trying to keep it a little healthy here)
  • 1 tbsp Mirin (Japanese sweet wine)
  • 1 piece of roasted seaweed (optional)
  • 1 tbsp Dashi or Bonito stock(optional. I skipped this because I'm going vegetarian with this meal)

Method 

  1. Whisk the eggs together with all the other ingredients.
  2. Oil your pan,using a piece of kitchen paper to ensure the whole surface is coated thinly and to soak up excess oil. Don't throw the paper away! (as seen in picture) 
  3. On medium heat, pour a tiny bit of egg on the pan, and ensure it coats the entire surface thinly, like a crepe. (Test the heat of your pan by taking a little drop of egg batter on your chopstick and place it on the pan to see if it sizzles.)

  4. Place a piece of roasted seaweed on top of the egg. 
  5. Once the egg is about 3/4 cooked through (I like to make sure it's not cooked through because the egg can burn or taste too dry), roll the egg up towards you, like in the picture below. 
  6. Place the egg roll in the middle of the pan, oil the half of the pan nearer to you with the oiled kitchen paper, and pour another thin layer of egg on that half, making sure it touches the piece of already rolled egg. 
  7. Once 3/4 cooked, roll towards you again, and repeat steps 6-7 until all the egg is used up. 
  8. Tada! Simply cut and serve! I cut away the ugly bits at the end and stuffed it into my Onigiri (next recipe). 


Now on to the Onigiri (Rice balls)! Side note: I used Japanese rice in this recipe because it has a sticky quality to it when cooked that is good for shaping into Onigiri, but you can try using other types of rice but with a little more rice than you normally do to make it stickier. 

Ingredients 

  • 1 Cup Japanese short grain rice
  • 1 piece of roasted seaweed (Nori slices) 
  • Water (according to directions on your rice cooker)

Method

  1. Cook your rice (I just cooked mine in my rice cooker). Once done, let it cool a little so you don't burn your hands when you shape it, but don't let it cool all the way!
  2. I recommend wetting your hands before shaping, so that the rice grains don't stick too much to your hands. Alternatively, you can also use cling wrap on your hands for the same effect. Split the rice into six parts, and take one of the six parts.
  3. Roll into a ball, and then flatten on your palm like so. 
  4. Place the ends of the tamagoyaki in the middle. There are a variety of fillings you can put in an Onigiri, so check them out of the Internet and experiment a little. 
  5. Close your palms like so, and then seal the Onigiri by pressing between your hands. 
  6. Shape the way you want! The triangular shape is one of the more common shapes, and I find it's also better for holding fillings. 

  7. Cut your roasted seaweed into small rectangles (as seen in picture) and just wrap one end of the Onigiri with it. 
  8. Lick the remaining rice grains off your fingers.  
And finally, the cucumber salad! This is the easiest one, and is versatile enough that you can have it with a variety of other recipes. 

Ingredients

  • 1 Cucumber
  • 1/6 cup of white vinegar or rice vinegar 
  • 1/6 cup of water
  • 1 tbsp of sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • Sprinkling of black pepper 
  • Chopped fresh dill or parsley (optional)

Method

  1. Cut the cucumber into thin slices, throwing away the ends. 
  2. Place with all other ingredients in a ziploc bag or a container. 
  3. Mix well, then leave in the fridge to marinate for at least 3 hours. I left it overnight. 
Now, to assemble everything together for lunch. I lined my container with lettuce, for stylistic reasons but also to inject more veggies into my diet.  

Now, just bring to school/ work and enjoy! 

Mandy Cooks: Roasted Aubergines with Mushroom Pasta

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I love aubergines in all forms, stir-fried, roasted, stewed, so when I saw that Lidl was having a sale on aubergines (although to be honest, how expensive are aubergines normally anyway?) I decided to start off my Vegetarian Lunch Week with an Aubergine recipe. This recipe is extremely easy, you couldn't mess this up even if you tried, so cooking noobs, this one is for you! You could almost say it's a 'gateway' recipe. Hehe. 

That was a pretty bad joke wasn't it? Please ignore it and move on to the recipe. 

Ingredients (Serves 1.5 me's, or one very hungry person)

  • Half an aubergine (aka eggplant, brinjal, whatchamacallits...)
  • Dollop of olive oil (or normal vegetable oil)
  • Spaghetti (to your preference)
  • 1 Tomato, diced
  • Pasta Sauce 
  • Sprinkling of Parmesan Cheese (mozzarella also goes well with this recipe)
  • Sliced mushrooms
  • Pinch of salt and pepper (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line your pan with aluminium foil.
  2. Cut your aubergine slices lengthwise into approximately 5 slices of equal thickness. 
  3. Brush aubergine slices with olive oil on both sides, then spread some pasta sauce on one side and sprinkle with diced tomatoes. 
  4. Grate some fresh Parmesan on top.
  5. Put the slices in the oven and roast for approximately 15 minutes (may differ depending on your oven)
  6. Cook spaghetti according to instructions on your package! I like mine a bit al dente, so I cook it around 6-8 minutes, with a pinch of salt in the cooking water. 
  7.  While that's boiling, slice your mushrooms, and fry with a tiny bit of olive oil in the pan. 
  8. Once mushrooms are soft, dump pasta sauce in to your preference. 
  9. Drain the spaghetti, saving a tiny bit of pasta water to put in the frying pan with your pasta sauce, then mix the spaghetti in just to cover it with sauce.
  10. Plate spaghetti and place aubergines on top, for a fancy photo-op. 
Tip: If you want to go vegan, cut the cheese out and use julienned zucchini to replace spaghetti (or use vegan spaghetti?) 

Berlin Bites: 3 Brilliant Bites around Kotti

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I recently attended a writing course in which the instructor wholeheartedly espoused the merits of capturing the reader's attention with lists à la Buzzfeed. So I've decided to conduct a mini-experiment on the validity of this claim with this post, where I'll introduce 3 of my favourite places to go for a bite around Kotti (Kottbusser Tor). 

1. Doyum Grillhaus

One of the biggest dilemmas I have when friends and family come to visit is where to bring them to eat to get a taste of 'authentic' Berlin. Like I've mentioned before in a previous post, when I ask them what exactly they feel like eating, most people go "Uhhh I don't know, German food?". The problem with that is that every single stereotype that outsiders have of Germany are all SOUTH German. For relativity's sake, Berlin is hella North. When I say hella North I mean, it takes at least 5-6 hours to drive from Berlin to Munich, in the South. So whenever this situation happens, I grapple with bringing them to a South German place that doesn't reflect Berlin, or bringing them to a place that sells what many Berliners consider the state dish. I'm talking about the Döner, obviously. Luckily, on this occasion I got to bring around some friends that were completely open to eating something different from the usual Haxe or Wursts. 

Now, this group didn't want just any old Döner though, they wanted the good stuff. They wanted authentic, Turkish grill. So naturally, I had to bring them to Doyum Grillhaus in Kotti. When you first get to Kotti, you might be a little skeptical that you could ever find good food here. Don't be fooled by the grey, lifeless, run-down surroundings, Kotti is one of the best places to go for food, if you're not too picky about ambiance. Walk into Doyum and you'll feel as if you'd been transported from lifeless Kotti to Istanbul. The smell of the spiced, grilled meats hits you like a ton of bricks, and walls are lined with colourful, mosaic tiles that instantly brighten up your day. Also, unlike other Kebap places, you actually have proper tables to sit down on.
Most of the choices on the menu are a variations of Adana Kebap, which is outstanding by the way. My personal favourite was the Adana with Aubergines, because one, I love aubergines and two, the aubergines here are just so well-done! The food here is a little bit more expensive than your regular Kebap store, but that's because it isn't your typical Kebap store, it's a proper restaurant. 
The service here was pretty good, they were fast and efficient and speak English, so it's a great place to bring your non-German speaking friends if you don't feel like translating their orders for them. 

Address: Admiralstraße 36, 10999 Berlin
Opening Hours: Every day, 12pm- 11pm

2. Maroush

I was introduced to Maroush on a drunken (well, okay, for me this means one gin and tonic) night in December after I started dramatically whining about how hungry I was. For once, my whining actually got me somewhere, because we came to Maroush where I had the best Halloumi wrap of my life. I came here a second time, and had the most fucking OUTSTANDING Shawarma wrap. I have no pictures, probably because I'm usually too busy stuffing my face every time I come here. Biters beware, this is not a place to bring big groups of friends because it's tiny. That's okay though, because it means more Halloumi and Shawarma for you. The prices are also pretty damn decent, because you can get most of the food here for around 3-5 euros. 


Address: Adalbertstraße 93, 10999 Berlin
Opening Hours: Every day, 11am- 2am

3. Angry Chicken 

In contrast to Maroush, I have a lot of photos from Angry Chicken, but they're all pretty bad quality, so  here's a few of the tolerable ones that won't give you eye cancer. Angry Chicken is just further down from the Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station, about 10 minutes away, but the walk is pretty worth it for the Korean fried chicken. Berlin's fried chicken situation is pretty deplorable, so when you're a fried chicken fanatic like me and you find a place besides KFC that does serve it, you go, no matter how far it is. 
First of all, can I just say how much I love this wall. It provides endless entertainment while you're waiting for your meal. Similar space situation as Maroush though, it's pretty damn tiny, and the kitchen is open to the dining area so you're probably going to stink of fried food by the end of your meal. 
 They offer different varieties of chicken, like the Friendly Chicken (for those completely incapable of any spice), the Sexy Chicken ( soy sauce+ garlic combo, not bad, but I'd skip it), the Angry Chicken (cinnamon + sweet chilli, my personal favourite, not very spicy at all) and the So So Angry Chicken (claims to be extra spicy, as of yet, unverified).

You can order the wings individually, or you can go for the better deal which is to get a meal, which consists of 6 x chicken wings, a drink and your choice of sweet potato chips or fries for 8 euros. The first time I went, the guy behind the counter recommended the sweet potato fries to me, which I had no idea was an option at all. The next time I went though, the cashier was completely confused and had no idea what that was, so whether it's actually on the menu or not, or if it was just a one-off item is still a mystery to me. They also have some other things on the menu, like burgers and Bibimbaps, but hey, if you're going make the trip here, go for the chicken. It is their namesake after all, so you know that's got to be good. 

Address: Oranienstraße 16, 10999 Berlin
Opening Hours: Every day, 12pm- 10pm 

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