Tag Archives: Being Vegan

Jamaican in New York!

Yes, you guessed it! From the “Where is Walt” photo at the top of the blog to the pretty self-explanatory title of this post, I know I can’t put anything over on you! I’m in New York City! I’ll share more of the adventure soon! For now, enjoy a taste of New York courtesy of Vegetarian Paradise restaurant on West 4th Street and 6th Avenue in the Village. Yes, I went straight from Newark Airport to Manhattan to dine at my favorite restaurant within an hour of landing! 

“All Jacked Up” –an important documentary, showing here on Saipan!


If you happen to be here on the island of Saipan on Friday, Sept 2, 2011 at 6:30pm, then come out to the American Memorial Park Theatre and check out a documentary entitled “All Jacked Up” a look at what’s really in the food that you eat.

The event is sponsored by First Friday Films here on Saipan. Here is a blurb from their blog 

Ever wondered what exactly is in the stuff that you eat? Find out as First Friday Films presents All Jacked Up. Bring your friends and family to the American Memorial Park Visitors Center by 6:30 PM on Friday September 2nd to see just how jacked up some of the food we are served is. The film highlights the dangerous trends in present-day eating habits and unveils the unsavory practices that put the health of a whole generation at risk.

I haven’t seen the film, but Natural News. (https://www.naturalnews.com/022510.html is involved and recommends it highly. I’ll see you there!

Bill Clinton goes VEGAN! (Now we can hang out together!)


CLICK to Download BILL CLINTON GOES VEGAN

I heard about this through my free subscription to the NaturalNews.com newsletter. I think this is fantastic, that someone in the American public eye, with such influence and media clout is saying these things. I’ve always believed that one of the best ways to affect mass consciousness in the US would be to have a sitting president come right out and advocate for a paradigm shift in eating habits. This is probably the next best thing! It will have an effect on the continuing mainstreaming of being vegan even as the various industry councils mount their assault.

As a public service to help spread the word, I’ve created an mp4 video of the CNN interview you can download here
(You can see the original youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4hbV4RgzI8)

In my opinion, the next steps in this trend should include these concepts as they relate to eating from a plant-based paradigm:


1. This is not a “diet.”
It’s sad that garbage and poisons are considered normal, while natural choices are considered a “diet” which implies a deviation from a norm in order to achieve a desired end.


2. This is not complicated.
We don’t need scientists in on this. You can be your own authority.


3. All we need is a definition of REAL FOOD that everyone can understand and apply.

I suggest to you, therefore, that
It’s time to grow up.
Just because something tastes good, doesn’t make it food.
Just because something can be eaten and swallowed, doesn’t make it food.
For those who need a biblical paradigm for this concept:
If it didn’t exist in the garden of Eden, it’s not natural and not meant to be consumed by humans.
Food is for nutrition, not just for taste. (In fact, some of us make our choices of what to eat for the nutritional benefit alone. It’s time to grow up.)

Here’s an idea that will help you come to a simple definition of food:
Let’s imagine you have a raw carrot. You put it into the ground. What happens? It grows, right? Now imagine you put that carrot into a pot of hot water, just for a quick minute, then change your mind and decide to put it back in the ground. What happens? (I’m aware some people may not intuitively know the answer to this, but you don’t need to have been raised on a farm to know.) The answer is it DOESN’T GROW. That means something fundamental about that carrot has changed. It’s no longer “alive.”

Now, comes the million dollar question: If you want to be healthy, which one of these two carrots do you think is better for your body? Is there any way you can believe that putting something “dead” into your body yields the same effects as putting something “raw and alive”?

Even a “quick” boil kills the life-creating properties of food. Sure, it may still have a smaller amount of minerals and vitamins left in it, but it is absolutely, positively, and hopefully intuitively not as healthy as it was before. It is now “less food” than it was before. Is the food you eat able to be planted and grown?

If your current choices can’t pass this simple test, you are not eating as healthfully as you could be.

No matter how much sunshine, water and good soil you lavish on a pizza that you’ve planted in the ground, it is not going to grow and produce more pizzas. Ergo, it is not real food.

I could go on and on. And in fact, I have! I wrote about this extensively in my book, The Ageless Adept: Perfect Health, Long Life and the Fountain of Youth by A. Seeker (a pen name)

Walt
p.s. Since Doctor Ornish was too wary of industry repercussions to actually say it, I will do him the favor by responding to the baited question by the CNN Commentator: YES! Human children should not be consuming the milk of
another species of animal.

Here’s another image for you:
You’re out in a grassy field with a herd of cows grazing in the distance. Wonderful scene isn’t it? Now picture yourself going down on all fours, walking over to a cow in that field, pushing aside the calf that’s suckling, and suckling at the mother cow’s teats. There should be something innately odd about that image. No other species of animal on the planet drinks the milk of another species. Dogs don’t suckle on cats. Rabbits don’t suckle on giraffes. It’s patently absurd.


p.p.s. Understandably, given the paradigm within US society, these changes may need to be made gradually, so as not to incur a dramatic backlash. However, this plant-based paradigm should not be touted as simply a cure for disease because then, those who don’t currently have any noticeable symptoms will feel the information doesn’t apply to them.
It’s so refreshing to hear these ideas on the mainstream media. However, as you can tell by the divisive and opinionated way the interviewer poses his questions:
“Are you saying children should not drink milk?”

“I take fish oil. Is that a bad idea?”

“dairy, chicken, meat,…the fun things in life”
and attempting to pit one guest against another, you can see that media reporting is often not about giving unbiased information, but about stirring controversy, confusion and conflict. Be careful.

Finally, Bill, now that you and I are on the same page, we can hang out together next time you’re in China! Sorry, I was, um “unavailable” last time.


FINAL THOUGHT: Now that Bill Clinton has stopped eating meat, I wonder if Monica Lewinsky has stopped eating presidents?

The vegan trend: Jamaican in China speaks out


Being vegan in Laos from a few months ago

Check out what your favorite Jamaican in China (and Laos and Saipan) has to say about why veganism is catching on in this article from demodirt.com entitled Not a Flash in the Pan: Veganism making its mark as a lifestyle choice, not a short-term trend.

demodirt.com is the leading online publication dedicated to providing demographic and psychographic intelligence about Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers, Matures, and more. It also covers the latest demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal data and trends by race, religion, gender, geographical location, educational attainment, health, household income, and more.;

https://www.demodirt.com/index.php/us-trends/consumer-spending/475-not-a-flash-in-the-pan

The perpetual pursuit of the perfect, plump, plausibly-priced papaya

In the  previous installment of the Papaya Chronicles, I shared with you that the best price I was able to get for a papaya was about 5RMB, at the supermarket. Whenever I shop at independent vendors, I get the foreigner price. Seems they can always tell I’m not originally from China. I think my accent gives me away. In any event, last week, when I went shopping with Peggy and Fanny, they took me to an outdoor market and introduced me to their favorite papaya vendor. I selected my single papaya, he placed it on the scale, and announced the price 2RMB. I couldn’t help chuckling out loud. He laughed, too, likely because he knew foreigners don’t often get to hear those words, “Two RMB,” attached to anything in Sanya (or China) except perhaps a bus ride.

So, I asked them to tell him to remember my face (hee hee), so that when I returned, he would treat me like a regular ol’ Chinese customer since I planned to return. Then, “happy as a pig in papaya juice,” I took my new acquisition back home and enjoyed it.

Yesterday, I returned, found Mr. Fair Deal Perfect Papaya Man, he remembered me (good eye for faces), and sold me TWO papayas for 4RMB. So, I’m not exactly sure what the unit price is (my ability to palm and weigh in kg needs some work), what I do know is that this….


Costs me 2RMB, not 5, not 8, and not the 15 Mr. Papaya near Lost Hostel wanted me to pay.

So, here’s my traveler’s tip for you: when YOU come to Sanya, Hainan, and want a plump, perfect, plausibly-priced papaya, take the number 8, 16, 10, 2, 7 or 10 bus to the stop closest to original Wang Hao Supermarket #1, not the Wang Hao nearest to the bus station, but the one that’s now the new location of the original Wang Hao after the owner of the building they were renting from didn’t renew their lease, forcing them to move to the new location near the International Hotel, (got it?), and then walk through the mall, out the back, across the street, through an alley, past the covered area with the meat vendors, past the vegetable vendor ladies who may gawk at you if you’re Jamaican, step over the dog lazing in the exit, and into the open area where the fruit vendors are located, make your way through the crowd and find this man….


Mr. Fair Deal Perfect Papaya Man.

Say, Ni Hao in your best Putonghua, and then tell him that Walt, the Jamaican, sent you. Pay for your papaya, and enjoy!

Secret Sanya Sea Salt Safari! (…..don’t tell anybody!)

The ebook edition is completed, but my writing energies are still being diverted towards completing the paperback edition of Living True to Your Self. However, I’ve been able to raise my standard of living here in Hainan:

I was able to locate sea salt here in Sanya. Now, that may not seem like earth-shattering news to you, but it is for me.  I don’t eat table salt (check the ingredients of your favorite brand of supermarket-bought salt, and note the dextrose (sugar), aluminum (think “Alzheimer’s), and other unnecessary anti-caking and otherwise harmful ingredients. Sanya, being a coastal town should have natural sea salt readily available, right? You would think.

However, the authorities have convinced the people that consuming sea salt is bad and that it is most often contaminated. Whether true or not, it takes a bit of asking and searching to find it, as vendors are forbidden to sell it openly, and one has to ask (with the help of a Chinese person), the right questions, the right people, and, presumably not appear to be a government plant searching for violators.

I won’t reveal my methods, my contacts, or my supplier. I’ll just show you the hand-off.

Sea salt on Hainan

Psssst. Hey, buddy, wanna buy some sea salt?

Breaking my fast

I’m breaking my fast today! Yay! I’ve been on a water-only fast for the past 6 days. I started about 2 days before leaving Xishuangbanna, and have been on it for the past 4 days in Sanya, Hainan. So, if I look skinnier than usual in any of the Hainan photos, now you know why. So, this morning, I will have a watermelon, then rambutan, papaya and other fruit throughout the day to break the fast. In my initial travels around Sanya, I’ve found a protein bar and some wheat-free cookies and I’m anxious to taste them!

Sanya, Hainan, China, beach

Found a good way to pass the time while I fast

beach, sanya hainan, china

Meanwhile, I’m currently staying at a youth hostel near the airport. In between jaunts on the beach, I’ve been on a quest for an apartment with a kitchn here in Sanya. I have found a 80RMB/night hotel a short ways away (no internet). The challenge is that Chinese new year is coming up on February 7, and all the hotels and landlords raise their prices to take advantage of the rush to celebrate new year on Hainan. I was paying 40RMB/night($6US) ( for my third floor hotel room in Xishuangbanna with internet access. Here, the cheapest hostel charges 120RMB/night ($18US). Some of the quotes I’m getting for a one-month apartment rental start at 6,000RMB/month ($909US). I REFUSE to pay $900 for an apartment! That’s a New York price!!!

The secret, for those of you planning a similar trip, is to go out and find the smaller hotels that are NOT listed on the internet. (you can only do that once you get here, of course, or if you have a friend on the island)

hotels in sanya, hainan

Now THAT’S a small hotel

It’s all about the food!

From: walt@jamaicaninchina.com

Subject: Jamaican in China!–It’s all about the food!

Date: October 18, 2010 10:42:28 PM GMT+08:00

A new friend and fellow vegan mentioned yesterday that our lives seemed to revolve around food. That came as a surprise to me–a slim, 135-lb vegan who eats only one meal a day–but, as I thought about it, I realized she was right!

We had just finished lunch with the Vegan Social Club of Beijing (food), and she had another dinner get-together with friends later that day (food).

I had arrived late to the social club lunch, and so I didn’t eat (no food), so she agreed to accompany me to my favorite restaurant for another meal (food).

After our meal, I told her I was headed towards BHG Supermarket to get a certain brand of organic, wheat-free, breakfast cereal that isn’t sold in regular supermarkets (food).

So, as we went from lunch to dinner to another dinner (for her), and to a supermarket (for me)… it seemed it was all about food!

Well, see, it’s like this. Unlike most of the other folks on the planet, I have to make special trips to get what I want and can eat. I can’t just pop into a McDonalds, or a local bodega to get my kind of food, so it usually requires a special trip to a special supermarket or a special restaurant.

And so, the people I meet, for friendship or dating, tend to be people I meet at the places I frequent, so I end up dating girls who work at, or whom I meet at vegetarian restaurants or health food stores.

What’s more, the phrases in Mandarin that I needed to learn first have to do, for example, with ordering brown rice instead of white, requesting a knife and fork instead of chopsticks (when I’m REALLY hungry and chopstick-sized portions just won’t cut it) , or asking for the check.

Not only that, but the Chinese characters I’ve learned to recognize have to do with identifying which soy milk has sugar, and which doesn’t.

Add to that, as I start planning for accommodations in Shanghai, (my next adventure), I’m specifically looking for apartments that have a kitchen and that are near to a green grocer or veggie restaurant where I can get organic produce. (That’s about the food, too!) Hmmm…. I guess it IS all about the food.

Speaking of which, here are a few of my favorite recent photographs taken at, um….restaurants!

The Vegan Social Club of Beijing (Restaurant: Purple Bodhi —紫菩提)

My favorite waitress at my favorite restaurant. (Restaurant:Tianchu Miaoxiang– 天厨妙香素食)

Ahhhh. Food, glorious food!  (Restaurant: Beijing Vegan Hut)

Life as we know it

Subject: SPECIAL Jamaican in China!–Life as we know it (a missive fi di massive)

From: walt@jamaicaninchina.com

Date: September 1, 2010 12:36:34 PM GMT+10:00

Dear friends,

I will make this brief.

This is a special email. It is being sent out of sequence to a select group of people to share with you what just happened on my second day in China (even though you haven’t received the first day’s chronicle yet), because the significance of what I’m about to share with you defies adequate description in words, and can not be overstated.

Life on the planet as we know it, has been irrevocably altered.

And, in the familiar Yin/Yang “good news-bad news”  construct:

First, the GOOD news:

Today, I found a VP2 style restaurant in Beijing!

For those of you who knew me in New York, you’ll recall the Chinese vegetarian restaurant, Vegetarian Paradise 3 (VP3), in New York’s Chinatown, which closed after Sept 11, and whose remaining sister location, VP2, is now thriving on West 4th Street in The Village close to New York University.

If so, you know what that restaurant represents to my life and gastric happiness, so you can already appreciate the earth-shattering, life-altering significance of what I’ve just shared with you.

The name of this restaurant is Tianchu Miaoxiang Vegetarian Restaurant (Chinese name: 天厨妙香素食(朝外店); found it on happycow.net). Out of courtesy to those who aren’t familiar, I won’t get into too much detail, but for those who know, it’s VP2 and then some! They’ve got a menu of about 20 pages, with all the mock meat, seaweed and veggie dishes we know and love, plus more stuff that exists here “at the source!”

menu

Sample of a page of the menu

The manager, Christina–as the only one on staff who speaks English–catered to me, explaining dishes, and making suggestions. (I think I’m in love.)

christine

Me and Christina

And finally, at the end of a sumptuous meal, which cost only 114RMB or about 16US, she refused to accept a tip–explaining Chinese culture and restaurant policy to me in the process. (A restaurant that won’t accept tips! Can life get any better than this?? Tell everyone you know: Heaven’s got a sign at the gate: “Cheapskates Welcome!“)

This in a city where everywhere I go, I’m besieged by friendly Chinese ladies who stare, smile, offer their numbers, and are making life quite pleasant. So, in any event, that’s the good news.

BAD news:

Now, the bad news.

um…today, I found a VP2 style restaurant in Beijing, China.

This means–my dear, sweet, close friends and family–you who’ve made my life special for all these years, and who mean the world to me–this means, you will likely never, ever, ever see me again.

Buh-bye.

whooooosh!

flap, flap, flap, flap, flap….

[the sound of a curtain fluttering in the breeze….]