Budget #WFPB on Starling Avenue

Recently, Premium Halal had Okra at $1.49. Their selection of veggies is always great. In general Okra goes anywhere from $0.99/lb to $2,49 lb, depending on the shipment. It pays to watch... Okra is extremely healthy! Low on the glycemic index and high in nutrition.

Rice, one of our staples

White rice is a nutritional disaster.

White Rice is very high on the glycemic index, and basically it is stripped of the nutrition and fiber of brown rice. Yes! Magazine had a beautiful story recently about The Story of White Rice. Notice this passage:

After farmers harvest their rice, it typically goes to a mill. There, it is cleaned and the husks are taken off the grains of rice. At this point, it is referred to as “brown rice” or “unpolished” rice. Once the husk has been taken off the rice, there remain several very thin layers of wholesome bran. At this stage, the rice is full of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and protein—and very healthy to eat.

But polishing rice from so-called “dirty rice” into the sparkling white form that most people prefer has caused—yes, caused—a number of major, adverse impacts on health.

First, polishing removes most of the vitamins and minerals vital to one’s health. One example: the rice bran contains vitamin B and thiamine, both key to preventing beriberi. Indeed, in the largest World War II prison camp in the Philippines (where John’s grandfather was interned), American prisoners suffered from beriberi until they convinced the Japanese prison guards to let them cook the bran shavings that came off the polished rice; then the beriberi went away.

White rice also increases the risk of diabetes, rates of which are rising quickly in the Philippines, the United States and many other countries. The rice layers removed during polishing contain nutrients that guard against diabetes. Polished rice further contributes to diabetes risk because it causes blood-sugar levels to rise more rapidly than brown rice does. According to the New York Times, a 2010 Harvard study showed that people who consume white rice at least five times a week “are almost 20 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who eat it less than once a month.” In our travels in the Philippines and the United States, we meet people who are shifting to brown rice on their doctors’ orders precisely because of concerns about diabetes.

And polishing rice also reduces the protein content of the rice, which can mean the difference between being well-nourished or malnourished. The bottom line on all of these health fronts is the same: the more polished the rice, the less healthy.

from: The Story of White Rice

Brown rice is healthy, black and red rice even better...

Here's for the selection of Basmati Brown Rice at Al Aqsa:

Basmati Brown Rice in 4lb, 8 lb and 10lb packs.  The Shimla Road Brown Basmati is $6.99 for 4 lbs and $14.99 for 10 lbs, Deer Organic Brown Basmati is $14.99 for an 8 lbs bag. Neerob Bazaar, by the Bx22 bus stop carries Swad Brown Basmati for $12 per 10 lbs. Take your pick. Brown Rice from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan is the healthiest you can get because of lower arsenic levels. In the US, I would trust Lundberg rice the best.

Brown versus white

The bottom line? Brown rice versus white reduces the diabetes risk by 16%, and a significant reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer and, for that matter, red, purrple and black rice may be even better, so you might explore some variety:

Different varieties at Chang Li Supermarket:

Rice blend

Black Rice

 

Onions, another daily staple

Canadian Onions on the left, US Onions on the right.

The US onions go for $2.99 for a 10 Lb bag, and the Canadian onions, such as Onio and Vegco, go for $4.99 for 10 lb. It all varies a bit with the seasons. I've seen the Canadians for as little as $3.99 and sometimes more than $4.99 too. The US onions I've seen as low as $ 1.99 at times.

In short, with $15 to $20, you can have 10 lbs of high quality rice and 10 lbs of quality onions, then you can add various lentils, chick peas and beans, and that is most of what you need for staples for the month and you only need to add fresh fruit and vegetables.

#WFPB shopping at Neerob Bazaar

Neerob Bazaar remains one of my go-to places on Starling Avenue. Today I found an excellent brown Basmati rice from SWAD, which is an excellent value at 10 lbs for $12.

Khokon holding up SWAD Brown Basmati Rice

It is so important for people to eat brown rice instead of the white stuff. Diabetes is exploding among the SE Asian population as they adopt more american foods and cooking habits. Refined (simple) carbohydrates, animal protein and too much cooking oil are the chief culprits. Here is a link to Dr. Neal Barnard's new approach to diabetes, based on a Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet. Remember always, if you are under medical treatment, do this only in consultation with your doctor, but generally, it appears that 70% of diabetes is reversible, and the other 30% can usually reduce their insulin dramatically, as well as reduce other medications, if they can do a Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet.



Importantly, here is some nutritional information on brown versus white rice:

• Cooked Long- grain brown rice: Note that the estimated glycemic load is 22. The overal score of completeness is 33.
• Cooked Long-grain white rice is 10% higher in the same measure. The overall score of completeness of nutrition is 20% lower than brown rice at 27.

Another great find was a bag with 1 lb of Organic Sweet Peppers, which adds great nutrition to any salad, for only $1.99.

Organic Sweet Peppers 1 lb

Little finds like that make me feel as if it is spring already!

Adding color to your salads is so important.

For substance, I add some cooked quinoa, and for my dressing I make a basic 3/2/1 dressing I learned from the Esselstyn family:

• 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup

Then, optionally you can extend it with some the juice of a lemon and finely chopped garlic and parsley for an out of this world dressing.

Alternatively, you can roast a red bell pepper and mix it in with a blender. Vinegar is an excellent preservative, so that will make an out of this world dressing, which will keep in the fridge for a few days. The trick is to always make certain things ahead, so you can keep the ball rolling with minimal effort.

This is what it's like to live in food mecca in the Bronx.

Yet Another No-Oil Vegan Dinner at Packsun

My hunch that Bangladeshi cuisine is particularly suitable to be adapted to the no-oil vegan lifestyle, is proving to be amply true. And of course, I was lucky enough to get to know Khokon, the owner of Packsun Halal Chicken, where we had our second no-oil vegan dinner yesterday, Tuesday April 4th, 2017. Conveniently, he also owns Neerob Bazaar on Starling Avenue, and he always cooks for the restaurant with ingredients from his store. And it's all home style food, people come from far and wide, and slowly but surely his clientele is expanding beyond the Bangladeshi people.

Our Dinner Last Night

Last night, we had a beautiful salad of chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, with purple onion, cilantro, salt and lemon juice. There was also a dish of daikon radish cooked with some water, turmeric, garlic and cilantro. There was another excellent dish of yellow lentils, and a dish of greens (poi greens) as well. Rice and bread were the foundation.

Khokon is taking ownership of this initiative to such a degree that he is not letting his regular chef come close to the food - he prepares it himself, and he is all excited about the fact that without oil everything tastes better. Everyone at the table was complimentary of the food, and only one person of eight even wondered why there was no meat in it, and when he got the explanation he promptly became very interested in the whole idea. One of the diners will probably go to the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore.

On to Forks Over Knives on April 25th

On April 25th, NYPL Parkchester will be showing Forks Over Knives from 5-7, and at 8 PM there will be a free oil-free vegan dinner sampling menu at Packsun. You do need to make a reservation.

Inaugural No-oil Vegan Dinner Improv at Packsun

Tonight, Monday March 27th, 2017 we spontaneously had our first no-oil vegan dinner at Packsun. It all started with a conversation at Neerob Bazaar at 2085 Starling Avenue, with owner Khokon (Muhammad Rahman), and a few friends. He then simply said, let's do it right now, and with that he grabbed some ingredients, and our little group was on its way to the Packsun Restaurant, at  2160 Westchester Avenue, which he also owns.

There, inside of 40 minutes, Khokon whipped up a beautiful no-oil vegan dinner with basmati rice, whole wheat roti, and three vegetable dishes:

1. Sautéed spinach with onions, garlic and chili peppers.
2. Yellow lentils, tomato, onion, garlic, chili peppers, and some turmeric, salt and pepper
3. Water squash (this is a light green squash that is popular with the Bangladeshi community), eddo (a delicious tuber, the jamaicans call this white coco), tomato onion chili peppers, garlic, turmeric, a bay leaf and salt.

The food was too good, so I only took a pic of the last bit of #3

(bay leaf in the middle)

This was not a joke, people inhaled the food. Khokon himself was an inspiration, he had only just discovered the whole idea of oil-free vegan cooking recently, through our conversations, but he loves it now himself. So we have a motivated owner (and part-time cook).

In short, this experiment is off to a roaring start. All the ingredients can be found at Neerob Bazaar.

Neerob Bazaar

Asked by one of the diners what was the secret of his preparation, Khokon answered: "All you need to cook a good meal is heart." Now, that's my kind of cook, I'll go to his restaurant any old time.