Thursday, February 28, 2008

Survey says?

This survey has been making the rounds in the vegan blog-iverse, so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. As I was filling it out, I asked Andy many of the questions, and his answers made me laugh so I included them for you all.


1 . If you have to choose between locally grown or organic, which do you usually choose?
I would probably choose the cheapest option, but if they were both the same price, I would go local.

2. Favourite way to prepare potatoes:
I love potatoes in every shape and form. My favourite way for me to make them is probably mashed. My favourite way to eat them when someone else has made them is roasted and crispy—I can never seem to get them to go crunchy when I roast them.

3. Do you press your tofu before preparing/cooking it (if you eat soy)?
I have once or twice, but I generally find it’s a waste of time and I just skip that step in the recipe. If I’m using frozen tofu, I squeeze the hell out of it, but don’t press.

4. Name your favorite recipe that is a tradition in your family:
We’re not really a food tradition kind of family, though my grandmother’s recipe for peanut butter frosting has served several generations of cake-eaters quite well!

5. Any food allergies?
No, thank god. I have seasonal allergies, and possibly a wee little cat allergy.

6. When you want to go to a fancy dinner, where do you go?
I’ve never, ever been to a fancy restaurant—vegan or not. So I suppose my house is where we get the fanciest food when we feel like it. Andy has an aversion to any restaurants with a table cloth, because he says they give you tiny food on a huge plate, and charge a buttload of money for it. “I don’t care that they charge so much, but I want to be full at the end of it.” I’m inclined to agree with him.

7. When you have a cold, what do you crave?
Toast. Toast with avocado, toast with just margarine, toast with vegemite, toast with banana… Andy swears by a tea of chilli, ginger, garlic, oil, lemon, and hot water—chug it down and you’ll feel better straightaway.

8. What kind of water do you drink? (Filtered, spring, tap, etc.)

These days, either straight out of the tap or from a jug in the fridge (which gets filled straight out of the tap). I would like to get a filter, because I’ve always been a bit of a water snob—I grew up drinking the yummiest well water, and now chlorinated water doesn’t really do it for me. Plus, Townsville’s water is fluoridated, which kind of squicks me out. Do brita filters get rid of fluoride?

9. Name a flavor of soda you'd love to see:
I don’t really drink soda, but… maybe strawberry lemonade? Andy says ‘soy and mushroom… not garlic, not in a fizzy drink, it will go up your nose and hurt’.


10. If the recipes you ate as a child were compiled into a cookbook, what would the title be?
Convenience foods and creative leftovers

11. If you were allowed to grow one food that can't grow in your climate, what would it be?
Hmm… I think maybe cherries. And other stone fruits like plums. Andy reckons nectarines.

12. Favorite type of mushroom?
I’m not much of a mushroom connoisseur—we usually just eat regular button or flat mushies, but my favourites were some of the crazy looking ones I was fed in Thailand.

13. Most frustrating part of your kitchen?
There’s no pantry! Our cabinets are overstuffed because the food competes with pots and pans and other kitchen stuff.

14. Last food you burned?
Some toast I was making for breakfast, but then it was topped with tinned spaghetti so you could barely taste the burniness.

15. Usual response to a veg*n's favorite question, "But where do you get your protein?":
I haven’t gotten this question in ages. I always wish I had a witty response to that question, but I just kind of blabber about protein being in everything, like beans, veggies, grains, etc.

16. If you were baking your own birthday cake today, what flavor would it be?
Lime, coconut, ginger. That’s just what I feel like today, it isn’t always my most favourite combination. Andy says: Blue!

17. Favourite brand of chocolate chips?
No vegan chips that I know of in Townsville shops, so I buy vegan chocolate bars when they’re on special, usually Lindt 70% or 80% dark and then I smash it up.

18. You have $200 of your tax return reserved for Williams Sonoma - What do you buy?
I’m torn between buying a nice food processor, and cashing it in to head to thrift stores and garage sales to get all kinds of kitchen stuff like baking dishes, cake and cupcake tins, sifters, utensils…

19. Do you plan your menus in advance? Any tips to share?
If there’s a recipe I see on a blog or something that I really want to try, I will plan that ahead. And sometimes we’ll think about various things to have throughout the week after we get back from shopping. But nothing is set in stone, and it usually changes.

20. You have 3 minutes before you have to leave the house and you're starving- What do you eat?
Toast with peanut butter. Says Andy: Bread.

21. If Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray got into a fight, who would win and how?
Martha Stewart. She spent time in prison, remember? She’s hardcore.

22. If you eat oatmeal, what do you add to it before serving?
We make oatmeal the night before and let it soak in the fridge, so it doesn’t take so long to cook in the morning. Usually Andy makes it, and he adds various amounts of brown sugar, dried fruit (which gets really plump overnight), jam, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, bananas, coconut, etc. I always sprinkle on some ground LSA before we eat.

23. If you got to travel to one country and learn all the traditional dishes there, where would you go (ignore commitments in your current place of residence)?
I think Ethiopia. It’s easy to get good, cheap Thai or Indian food. But great Ethiopian is hard to find, and usually expensive. Plus, they spend half their year in fasting mode, which is just a vegan diet plus fish, so there would be heaps for me to eat! Andy chose Thailand.

24. Favourite late night snack?
I usually eat so much at dinner that all I have room for before bed is a cup of herbal tea.

25. Favourite springtime food?
There’s no real spring here, rather just dry and wet seasons. But, I think fresh corn was really good at the market during the technical springtime, that and asparagus.

26. Favorite food-related magazine?
I read Vegan Voice, which is slightly food related. That’s the only magazine I buy.

27. Which do you prefer: shoyu, tamari, conventional soy sauce, or Bragg's Aminos?
Bragg’s.

28. What vegetable or fruit do you dislike the most?
Peaches and apricots. I hate the taste, and the smell. Especially artificial peach scented things—ack. Andy hates ‘those yellow button shit mushy things, disgusting, those green ones as well’—he means button squashes. He also listed artichokes, orange sweet potato, mushy pumpkin, leeks, those weird little eggplant things, durian… ‘they’re all shit’.

29. Name a holiday food you look forward to all year long:
Cranberry jelly.

30. If you could convert anyone to veganism with your magic wand, who would you convert?
Oprah. She has such wide-reaching influence that veganism would be a lot less ‘freaky’ if she were herbivorous. Andy thinks a vegan butcher would be funny.

8 comments:

K said...

Interesting stuff!

Coles Dark chocolate bits are vegan.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

haha, great answers! I find apricots weird, too (the fresh ones anyway). And vegan Oprah would be SO awesome.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Love reading this survey!! Andy's responses gave me a laugh....

Unknown said...

"They're all shit"- hah- that's hilarious. I actually read last year about a vegan butcher. He would tell all his clients about the dangers of eating meat and how they should go vegan- all while slicing up dead animals for them. I can't remember now where I read it. Maybe on the SoulVeggie website or the MadCowboy newsletter?

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

i like yr idea for oatmeal. i might have to steal it : )

Ashasarala said...

I laughed a lot at some of these. :)

I love your answer for number 30. That is THE perfect answer!

urban vegan said...

Thansk for sharing. These memes are fun to read! They remind me of slams that used to go around via mail. Boy that dates me. I realize that you're too young to know what they were.

Unknown said...

‘those yellow button shit mushy things'

i had to lol at that!