Coupon code: 15% off vegan bags

Finally found a little time to blog again!

Check out Estella design - where you can get vegan bags. Handmade from vegan fabrics, these bags are long lasting and durable.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/estelladesign

You can use the code: LIVINGVEGAN15 to get a discount of 15% off from now until 7th May.

Happy shopping!

Eco vegan product agency in Singapore

This is something new and cool in Singapore! A marketing agency which focuses on vegan and environmentally friendly stuff. They are pretty well diversified in what they do - handling Public Relations, Events, Advertising, Design, Interior, Concerts for clients. I got a chance to interview one of the founders - Marie about her business.

1) Why did u start this eco vegan product PR agency?

The reason we started this agency is because Maria (my business partner) is a vegan. She influenced me to lead a cruelty-free lifestyle. We don't own any items or belongings that are derived from animals or animal, because it is the ethical way of life. She is a wise leader and she taught me to be my best. I have to thank her as our company is a niche market and we are the only one in Singapore and probably Asia.

2) Can you tell us more about your company?

Our company support clients that are cruelty free. Basically almost everything except stuff that contains animals derivatives. We are a company who cares and loves the environment. Both Maria and I are creative directors who are experienced in our field.

3) You mentioned you are the vegan chef at home, can you share a recipe?

Yes. My extremely easy, fast, quick-cook meal is called the Spicy Sumptuous Sensational mouth-watering Vegan Wrap. It's called short form SSS Mouth Watering Vegan Wrap. (When you eat this you'll tend to go "ssssss", cuz it's really spicy on your tongue)

1) First, chop cucumbers, tomatoes, red and yellow peppers into small peices.
2) Take a pan, add vegan cooking oil or olive oil.
3) Heat the pan up with low fire and stir-fry it with a little onions, garlic, grounded pepper.
4) Stir-fry the cucumbers etc. with Mushroom Sauce or Vegetarian oyster sauce or even pasta sauce for 5-8 minutes.
5) Add oregano leaves and basil leaves. And then Add Chili padi (Chopped, 3 small pieces are good enough).
6) Pour about 5 tablespoons of water to cook and stir it with the vegetables. I use alkaline water by watersource because adding Alkaline water in your food balances the pH level of your body.
7) If your broth is too watery, pour more sauce, If your broth is too thick, pour more water.
8) To enhance the flavour, get Fry's vegan Sausages at cold storage. They are extremely tasty. Chop one sausage into tiny peices and fry them till they become thick.
9) Lay the wrap (check ingredients that is vegan) on a plate. If you wanna bake it to be hard it takes 5 min to bake)
10) Pour all ingredients on top of the wrap and add a dash of sesame oil
11) Serve with a glass of Water Source Alkaline Water, I have to mention this again because this is really good. I use to wake up often and can't get back to sleep, but after drinking this, I slept throughout the night. You can get more information from their website here www.watersource.com.sg. I suggest everyone use it in their cooking especially so if you are not a vegan, because animal products and junk food increase our body's acidity.

(In the recipe above, I chopped up all my food first then stir the mixture and put the wrap below and I cooked with Veg's Fry Burger Patty but I suggest to chop the sausages as they go with it better)

4) What about tips on preparing healthy food, could you share some secrets of culinary skills? 

Secretsss.... The secret to preparing food is to omit all meats. Mix the vegtables with a lot of different ingredients that gel together logically. There is also trial and error to certain foods. A chef needs to be passionate about cooking as well. When you are cooking for the sake of cooking, your food will taste ok, if you are cooking with love, your food will taste jaw-dropping. Do look out for our cooking show very soon.

Please give Marie support by liking her facebook page here
http://www.facebook.com/ALEXANDRIAandALEXANDER

Happy International Meatless Day!

Today is international meatless day! This is a day I will never forget, because 10 years ago, I had wanted to go vegetarian today but failed. I went vegetarian the next day.

I hope if you are on your journey to be a vegetarian or vegan you will not give up. And if you are already one, you will remain so :) Stay free!

If you face any problems on your vegetarian or vegan diet, please feel free to write to me. I am not an expert, but I will try to help you within my means.

Gangnam style? Nah... Now we have VEGAN STYLE!

A funny parody of the latest dance fashion GANGNAM STYLE VEGAN STYLE.

Rally for Volunteers: Adopt a Uni Day

This message is posted on behalf of the Vegetarian Society (Singapore).

The Vegetarian Society (Singapore) is now looking for volunteers to participate in the first “Adopt a Uni” Day on Wednesday, 21 March 2012. It is a program in which volunteers hand out pamphlets to students in universities throughout Singapore to raise awareness about issues surrounding where our food comes from. The pamphlet you will be giving out will be an edited, localized variant of this: http://www.veganoutreach.org/cc.pdf.

“Adopt a Uni” Day is designed to be as flexible as possible. We are looking for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian volunteers – rope your friends in if you feel shy about doing it alone! And you are welcome to volunteer as much of your time as you want – be it half an hour, 1 hour, or 3 hours – on this special day – it is completely up to you. Although it is definitely more convenient for a student to leaflet at his or her school, you don’t have to be a university student to volunteer either – perhaps you are teaching in a university, or you want to leaflet outside a university near where you live.

You can choose to volunteer at a local university, such as NUS (Kent Ridge campus and Bukit Timah campus), NTU, SMU, UniSIM, and SIT. We are also looking for volunteers at foreign universities, such as James Cook University Singapore, University of Chicago GSB, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, etc.

Pamphleting is a simple yet extremely effective outreach activity – By investing just some of your time on 21 March, you can help to educate and inform many students about factory farms, slaughterhouses and animal agriculture and therefore potentially transform their lives. As Erik Marcus (publisher of Vegan.com) wrote in The Ultimate Vegan Guide, “[a]t a busy campus, it’s easy to pass out a couple hundred booklets an hour. That’s 200 people, for each hour invested, who would not receive this information if it were not for you. The results of this outreach effort are inspiring – astonishing, even... Nothing feels better than coming home after a couple of hours spent leafletting, knowing that you’ve just gotten hundreds of people to think about eating more compassionately.”

The pamphlets will be given to you for free. But VSS can only afford to finance the printing of the pamphlets because of donations from people who care about the animals, the environment and public health. Therefore, if you can donate – even if it is just a minimal sum – please do, but if you can’t we will try to provide you with what we can.

If you want to volunteer but have certain concerns – for example, you might feel shy about leafleting to strangers – you don’t have to worry. For all registered volunteers, there will be a briefing at 2pm on Saturday, 17 March 2012 where you will be allocated your pamphlets, you can network with like-minded individuals. We will tell you about the general leafleting strategy (e.g. when and where to leaflet) and give you effective leafleting tips (e.g. what to say, good responses to questions) and answer any questions you might have. If you really feel inhibited about talking to strangers, trust me - that feeling will go away after you give your first pamphlet away. :)

****** IF YOU ARE INTERESTED TO PARTICIPATE: PLEASE SIGN UP ******

by Friday 16 March 2012 by emailing ashley(at)vss.sg with the Subject: Adopt a Uni Registration and the following information:

1. Name:

2. University you would like to leaflet for:

3. Are you a student in that university?: Yes/No

4. Are you vegetarian or vegan? :Yes/No

5. Estimated duration you can leaflet for: (e.g. 1 hour)

6. Can you attend the briefing at 2pm on Saturday, 17 March?: Yes/No

Upon receiving your email sign-up, we will then send you a confirmation email to confirm your participation in Adopt a Uni Day.

We are looking forward to meeting you and working together to create a more compassionate society in Singapore.

(“Adopt a Uni” Day is modelled after Vegan Outreach’s Adopt a College program in the United States.)

Teresa Hsu passes away

This post was written in memory of Teresa Hsu - the 113 years old supercentenarian vegetarian lady in Singapore who has passed away on 7 december 2011. She is the founder of heart to heart services charity. Although I have only met this lady in person twice, she left me a very deep impression because of her selflessness. What she has been doing was all for others, not for herself. These kind of people... we are seriously short of on this planet. She is truly an inspiration for everyone.

Vegetarian carnivores: a cat and a lion

These are some of the most amazing animals who exhibit much kindness despite being carnivores.

Some of you may have already heard of the cat Dante, who refuses to eat meat. He was found abandon and starving, yet refused to eat meat even at that point, but instead gobbled down some leftover vegetables, he continue to refuse meat after that and remains healthy. He does not bother himself with the other animals in the house - from hamsters to fish, but instead hunts bits of string. His owner trys to sneak in meat to him but if he spots it he will refuse. I wish his owner will just get him some vegan cat food if she's worried. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169637/Meet-Dante-Britains-vegetarian-cat-refuses-eat-meat-fish.html

Now what about a lion? A big cat who refuses meat!

This lioness wouldn't even drink milk mixed with one drop of blood, not to say turning its head away from meat. It was also gentle to other animals (that are usually food for lions), and little chicks hid in her fur for protection. Here's her story
Some animals are more human than humans. Please don't eat them!

Vegetarian marathon

Nope, this isn't a run for vegetarians. It's not an eating contest either.

All you have to do is to form a team of 2, pay $20 as a team. Find a day between 25th November and 4th December, call up 90390066 or 98740778 to reserve seats for dinner at #01-06 Fortune Centre.

You will be served 10 vegetarian dishes and answer questions related to the dishes. That's all. If you're lucky, you'll qualify for the second round between 10 and 11 Dec, and perhaps you may win prizes stated on the poster.

Reuniting the vegan population

Division of the vegan population
As time goes on, it seems that the vegan population is getting divided - mainly into 2 groups. One that go by the being as vegan as possible and not to worry about trace, imperceptible animal products and one more towards abolitionist style.

Until recently, I have been seeing some articles mentioned Vegan Outreach or PETA bashing veganism. I was pretty surprise as these were some of the groups which articles supported my switch to veganism and I believed, had helped many people switch to a vegan diet.

These are the some of the arguments that both groups of vegans present.
More towards as vegan as possible 1
More towards as vegan as possible 2
More towards as vegan as possible 3
More towards abolitionist 1
More towards abolitionist 2
More towards abolitionist 3

If you are a vegan where do you stand?  

My own experiences
I once went to a dessert stall with my friends and wanted to order a bowl of dessert. Not knowing what is in the dessert, I started to ask the waitress about the ingredients used. Her tone was like I was trying to steal their recipe or something! I learnt a lot from this experience and other similar experiences. You can ask them about one or two main ingredients like eggs, milk, honey etc. but if you start to question more deeply - is there xxxx in the gravy? what is your mock meat made of, does it contain xxxx. A few more questions you can be sure to get the look.

I once told a vegan lady that her preserved olives were soaked in a preservative medium consisting "lactose", which may not be vegan, and she said I am a vegan police. I laugh it off, even though I will not buy that product myself. She still calls herself a vegan, and I didn't myself bothered with that. Why? Because if you have been a vegan for some time, you will know that the place to draw the line may not always be clear.  

Grey areas
Things are not always black and white, many things are grey. And even within grey, there are many shades of grey. Where do you draw the line?

For example, if you have everything vegan in your house, except for your pleather shoes made with animal glue, will you still be a vegan? What about everything being vegan except for a bottle of non-vegan shampoo? As to food, what about eating dishes which you thought was vegan but actually contain traces of animal product?

My personal take on this is that being vegan is not about forcing yourself to be 100% perfect when you are in a situation which does not allow you to. Doing so will remove "vegans" by the batches. For example, if you are going to live in Singapore and insist on getting non-bone char derived sugar, you can say that it is impossible unless you buy your own sugar and avoid eating out. Most of our food are imported, it is insane to go questioning every single vegetarian outlet and ask them to trace their sugar sources, they will not be bothered with you. If because of this, you avoid eating out, and every other vegan do the same thing, the vegetarian food outlets will also lose their business and in the end, it will only prevent more people from wanting to go vegetarian and vegan.

I am in support of the spirit of abolitionist veganism. Yet at the same time, I do not disagree with some of Vegan Outreach's approach, because this approach of promoting vegetarianism first can help people who are not ready to plunge directly into veganism. From my own experience, just telling the people I know about what I have to avoid - meat, eggs, dairy, gelatin etc. are already making them think this is near impossible. So to promote the abolitionist approach will not work for these people, whom I classify as having a more easy-going nature. For those people who have a stronger, indomitable nature, the abolitionist approach may appeal to them more.  

Conclusion
Being vegan is about doing the best within our own ability, and "best" is a different shade of grey for everyone. We all have the same ultimate goal and that is white and everyone will have different methods to reach that white square. Throw away all those fighting, and classifying who's right and who's wrong. Give your heart some peace.

Lee Kuan Yew is all for veggie thursdays

Let hear what Mr Lee has got to say on veggie thursdays... For more information on veggie thursdays in Singapore please visit http://www.veggiethursday.sg/

Veg posts needed for "my city cuisine"

My city cuisine is a free-resource, wiki project with the goal of helping travelers discover local foods from all over the world, raise cultural awareness and preserve traditions in a world that's constantly changing.

They are currently looking for contributors and you can add on the types of vegetarian and vegan food in your area to the site

Website: http://www.mycitycuisine.org/wiki/Main_Page

Fish is not vegetarian

A picture for the weekend...

Why are some vegans so angry?

One thing about being a vegan is that you may improve the compassion towards animals yet be an angry person. Sounds a little paradoxical. But yes, there are some angry vegans, including myself. Hey! We are suppose to help contribute to a more peaceful world by reducing the hate in the world with less killing of animals, but now we are adding on to it instead. Why did it turn out this way?

Why are we angry? Angry because the world continues to use animals without end, people trying to put you down because of your diet, people who treat animals cruelly, people who simply shrug their shoulders and chomp into their burgers even when informed about vegetarian benefits... we can even be angry with people who try to encourage us to eat meat out of concern of our health.

So we make justifications to prove our point to let them understand, sometimes to the point that people start to find us judgmental, condescending, inflexible, preachy and hold an all-knowing and "I am morally superior" attitude. It could be that sometimes they are right about us, but sometimes, they aren't. In both situations, no way they are going to go veg if they see us that way.

Some people put this angry energy into action - through certain forms of activism, it could be legal, it could be illegal. But hate is not going to go far even though it may seem to help at first. Eventually even supporters become tired and angry, and they just want some peace.

There are ways to work on this, to transform that anger and yet continue to do activism / promote veganism. One thing I've learned is not to hold any expectations or insist that things or people HAVE to be in a certain manner. Don't hold on to the "Vegan is right, meat is wrong" mindset so tightly. Even though we believe veganism is the ideal way of living, others may not. And we can't change them, only they can change themselves. If we cling to this mindset too tightly, we become very tense. Then just a single remark that seems to put veganism as not so ideal or someone who doesn't fall into this ideal will be the breaking point.

Let it go, let it be. Let nature takes its course. When the time is right, they will give up animal products on their own accord. Meanwhile we do what we can to "promote our medicine" by being a living example, doing activism, etc. and share with people when they want to know more.

What if you miss eating meat?

(Warning! This post may disgust you)

If you miss eating meat, just remind yourself it's the flesh of a rotting corpse. I don't think anyone wants to eat a corpse, less so a rotting one.


Bacon anyone? Other animals decomposes pretty much the same way.

Look what goes into a hot dog.


Sodium nitrite poisoning in China - "When a large amount of nitrite in the human body combines with protein-based food, the nitrite will react with the food and form a toxic substance called nitrosamine, this is carcinogenic."

Vstream Zine - A vegan blog reporter

Vegan Mainstream is offering a 54-page Zine about vegan blogs. It's a compilation of blog recommendations and preferences from some top vegan bloggers, influential vegans and their own staff to tell readers about their favorite blogs in their own words.

The Vstream zine act as a rough guide to vegan blogs online and is suitable for old-school vegans, new veg heads, and people exploring veganism.

Some features...
- 54-page Zine available in print and digital versions (both available worldwide).
- Free eight-page "sneak peek" available.
- Zine includes over 50 vegan blog recommendations from many influential vegans, such as Terry Hope Romero, Ayinde Howell, Chloé Jo Davis and Sarah Taylor (to name a few).
- Vegan Blog Directory with hyperlinks to each of the 200 blogs listed.
- Tips on how to improve your blogging experience and how to find vegan blogs

For more information or to purchase you can go here.

Donating vegetarian food for disaster hit victims

We all know about the recent 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the Tsunami and the nuclear radiation problem in Japan. Organizations are now rushing to help the people of Japan.

But what if you want to donate vegetarian or vegan food?

Currently there are 2 organizations I know of that provides vegetarian food during disaster relief. I am not sure if the food is vegan, but it's the closest you can get.

1) Food for life global
You can donate online to their Emergency Relief Fund on their website.

2) Tzu Chi
Tzu Chi has several headquarters worldwide, including Taiwan, USA, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Philippines, Canada, Japan, Singapore. Click here for their website where you can choose your location and see how you can help.

Tzu Chi Singapore will be carrying out a fund raising drive in aid of the victims of the deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the collection will begin from 18th March to 30th April.

Donation boxes will be placed at their premises as below from 18th March:
1. Tzu Chi Foundation - 9 Elias Road, Singapore 519937
2. Tzu Chi Free Clinic - 90 Redhill Close #01-400, Singapore 150090
3. Tzu Chi Free Health Screening Centre - 328, Jurong East Street 31, #01-138 Singapore 600328

Cash donations will also be accepted at Tzu Chi Foundation at 9 Elias Road, Singapore 519937.

Cheque donations should be made payable to "Tzu Chi Foundation", with "Japan Relief 2011" written at the back.

Unfortunately, Tzu Chi does not have online donation available.

Both FFL and Tzu Chi are also helping victims of the recent Christchurch quake.

Sitting in the Shade of the Family Tree

This is actually a song, but I can't find the song online, only the lyrics.

Sitting in the Shade of the Family Tree
Rev. Heng Sure, 2007

Water and earth, wind and fire,
Roots digging deep, branches reaching higher,
North and South and East and West all beings are kin to me,
We’re all sitting in the shade of the family tree.

I’ve got earth in my feet, I’ve got oceans in my knees,
Seven generations live on inside of me,
My roots connect the universe, all beings are family,
We’re all sitting in the shade of the family tree.

What we do to our planet, we do to our home;
Planet Earth is our address, nobody lives alone.
Everyone’s a neighbor in our earth community,
We’re all sitting in the shade of the family tree.

Earth is home to all of us,
Share the crops don’t make a fuss,
Share the food grown in the ground,
There’s enough to go around.
Eat the burger, feed the cat,
One you savor, one you pet.
Pet the burger, eat the cat,
How you gonna keep it straight?

I’ve got brothers wearing fur, I’ve got sisters wearing fins,
Some with wings and some with tails, and some with pasty skin,
I’m don’t eat my family come can sit right here by me,
We’re all sitting in the shade of the family tree.

The cook she calls it omelet but the chicken called it egg,
You may call it drumstick, but the turkey called it leg,
Every mother loves her children, live and let life be,
So we can sit beneath the shade of the family tree.

Come on and sit beneath the shade of the family tree.

The author has another song called "American Beef Cow".

Veganism and abortion

I was quite surprise to find that there are quite a number of vegans who are for abortion (pro-choice). It seems a little against my ethics, for I am most certainly pro-life.

Why? And here are some of my reasons...
1) Veganism to me is more than avoiding animal stuff - it is about reverence and respect for life. This is not restricted to animals. The animals want to live and be happy, so do we. The human babies too want to live and be happy just like us.

2) Stage of development and sentience of a human child is not crucial. Pro-lifers and Pro-choicers are always debating about the sentience of a human. Pro-lifers may say it's at conception, while pro-choicers may say at that point of time it is just a clump of cells and only after a certain stage does it have sentience. To me this is not the crucial issue. The crucial issue is that, every child, whether at a "clump of cells" stage up to "before birth", has the potential to be born and be a human being.

3) Rights of an unborn matters to me. Some people say they have no rights and the mother has the rights to decide whether to abort or keep the baby. Every unborn child has the right to grow and survive, and we shouldn't deprive them of the potential ability to do so. Every unborn child has the potential to contribute to veganism. I feel very much grateful that my mother kept me, and so I could hopefully contribute to veganism!

4) We are anti-veal and anti-dairy because we felt sorry for the mother cow and baby calf, but shouldn't we extend this to human beings? Human beings have done a lot of destruction to earth and animals, however, we cannot deprive their potential to be born just based on this. What if we are in their position? We wouldn't want someone else to deprive us of our rights to live as well.

5) Rights of the mother and freedom of choice is important. In unfortunate circumstances such as etopic pregnancy or the baby die in the womb, perhaps some people may opt for abortion, that I have no say. However, in normal cases, the mother and father have the right and choice in the first place not to conceive the baby - many methods including abstinence. Does this deprive them of their rights and choice? Some people say we have instincts and should follow them. What about a butcher or hunter with a killing instinct? Does this give them the right to kill animals? Or a rapist? Or a thief? Or a drug addict? Rights and choices have to be based on consequence. If the consequence may become detrimental to our well-being and others' well being, then the "right" and "choice" is no longer ours alone. We share the universe with everyone else, everyone else deserves their right and choice too. Don't want to abort? Don't get pregnant.

Vegfund - fund your vegan food outreach event

Thinking of doing outreach for the vegan lifestyle but not enough funds?
Here comes the saviour - veg fund. Veg fund provides funding for serving vegan food - in particular to crowds not familiar with veganism. Their goal is encourage a vegan world :)

Do check out their website here!

Check out a few of the suggested recipes for crowds here

If you are a vegan activist, you may also want to sign up for their Ask-A-Vegan program in order to promote veganism - see details on their website.

Veggie Thursdays in Singapore

IF you are thinking of going vegetarian once a week, how about signing up for Veggie Thursday on this website? veggiethursday.sg

Anyway, the idea is to get people to eat more vegetarian food. If you can't do a thursday, it could be a monday, a tuesday, a wednesday etc., it could also be veggie lunches, veggie dinners.