Some Travel notes... Angola and UAE

Ok, so I went to visit my adoptive son Didi in Angola, and here are some notes on my food adventures.

Didi & me at the National Museum in Luanda 6/24/19

Emirates airlines, they had some reasonable vegan meals, but a bit inconsistent, because like most in the hospitality industry, they are clueless about nutrition. So I wrote to them. I had brought along some baggies of kale with sweet potato, with my usual mustard seeds and balsamic vinegar and that kind of supplemented my food during the journey. Because vinegar is a good preservative, some of it made it all the way to the fridge in my hotel in Luanda and lasted another two days.

Hotel Diamante at Luanda. L loved the very central location of the hotel, and what's more the food was not bad. Particularly the breakfast, which was perhaps my most important meal. There was a greengrocer (Casa de Frescos) around the corner on Av. 4 de Fevereiro, where I could get some rice cakes, and any extra fruit if I wanted. They also had stuff like brown rice and whole wheat pasta, so clearly there is some budding interest, but overall the selection is limited when you go out.
For breakfast there was an extensive selection of fruit, melon, papaya, banana, on and on, so I would get myself a huge fruit plate, and then there was a very good quality of course multigrain bread and always sautéed vegetables (probably onions, and chard, or collard greens). They were not too greasy, although for me any grease is too much, I hate it any more, but these were passably good. The whole thing made for a substantial and quite acceptable breakfast.

DIY. During the week, my friend became curious about my food habits, so one day we went to the supermarket, and I made a meal at lunch time. Here's what I made - and I started with a mixture of caramelized onions with garlic and some chilis as a foundation for three veggie dishes, plus, I cooked some sweet potatoes. Here were the other dishes:

• black beans with caramelized onions, chilis, garlic and some spices. In this case from a can, so I needed merely to heat them up.
• Mixed vegetables, I don't remember everything, but I started with the same base of caramelized onions and added some more, including eggplant, coco/eddoe/taro, carrots, tomato, peppers.
• Swiss Chard (which were labeled spinach in the supermarket.

 Primitive, but not bad, and again the leftovers went into freezer bags and on towards my hotel fridge, and with some rice cakes from around the corner, I could have a nice veggie snack at any time for the last few days.

Restaurants

I don't really remember the name of all the restaurants, but there was one very nice place on the beach, Coconuts, described as "vegetarian friendly," and I would agree. Here is a picture of the view to the beach on the inland bay on the Ilha do Mussulo:

Generally speaking, the way I got by, was this (note that I had been instructed by an infectious disease doctor not to eat salads and only the kind of fruit that you can peel): I managed to explain that I wanted mixed vegetables but cooked without oil, and then I combined it with either potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pasta. It was beyond me to explain how to caramelize onions without oil, but there was generally some onions and tomato in the mix. Sometimes I specified some tomatoes and some garlic. Herbs and spices too hard to explain, but I often resorted to balsamic vinegar. Forget whole wheat pasta of course, or brown rice. As noted, I could get those at the grocery store, but that was not a battle worth having at a restaurant. The most upscale place we tried, Pimms - supposedly one of the fanciest restaurants in the city, which was also written up as also 'vegan friendly,' disappointed the most. They tried, but the result was mediocre, for twice the price.

UAE, Le Meridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Center. Arriving at the airport at 5 AM and at the hotel before 6 AM, before any room would be ready, the only thing that mattered was breakfast, and the selection was extensive, not to say overwhelming, but still slanted in favor of heart attack food. So, it was still not easy. Fruit was easy. I found a quinoa salad that was not too bad, and something like Tabouleh. With a little combining I managed to end up with a nice leisurely breakfast, and time to wait until my room was ready.

Dinner with a friend as a local restaurant in  Ras Al Khaima found me a buffet dinner, and although they looked at me weird when I began to explain about no oil, no meat, etc., it turned out that once I started exploring it was not too bad at all, and I managed to survive.

I had a great trip, but I was happy to be back in my very own food paradise in little Bangladesh on Starling Avenue.

How to deal with doctors

My qualifications on this particular topic are based mostly on my own experience with doctor visits, which are a relatively rare occurrence in my life. My outlook is heavily informed by the the fact that my father was a doctor and our mealtimes were often mini conferences of him and various colleagues, often focused on their resistance to the formation of what we now call Pharmageddon, or the medical-industrial complex and the de-humanization of medicine. Even then, in the early sixties some doctors were seeing how the new developments in pharmaceuticals made doctors into drug pushers fighting symptoms and not helping patients heal and be healthy. My father had scathing criticism for the pharmacological inroads into psychiatry and eventually evolved into a sort of Jungian psychotherapist more than a psychiatrist because he categorically declined to get involved with psychopharmaca. He also would at times serve patients for free or on a sliding scale whenever insurance stopped covering them, he simply would not accept administrative interference in patient relationships.

The Lifestyle Medicine revolution

Lifestyle Medicine is the new form of medicine that is rooted in the Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet and the insight that nutrition is 80% of the work. In other words, acute issues aside, the first order of business is to make sure you are getting the whole benefit of the whole foods, plant-based diet, for it provides an abundance of nutrients, which puts your body in optimal shape to deal with all of the real life challenges, including preventing or reversing the chronic diseases that kill people who follow a modern, industrial Western diet. So, diet should be your first concern, but that does not mean doctors are an unnecessary luxury.

The slow evolution of lifestyle medicine means we have to be innovative in dealing with doctors. The central point is that you are now taking responsibility for your health, for you decide what goes down the gullet. How far you want to go with that is your business, but besides my wide reading in this area, I went and took the certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from Nutrition Studies. The new relationship with your doctor, assuming he is a plant-based doctor is a partner in wellness, where he/she should be very much your personal subject matter expert, particularly if there are any challenges and together you can figure out any adjustments that may be needed along the way.

Not necessary, but it helps

In most cases, your regular doctor is in a system that pushes him one way and one way only a consultation and a treatment. Even the ones that do sympathize with the premises of lifestyle medicine and the whole foods, plant-based diet are still in that system. So when this year I had some anomalies in my regular annual physical exam, I decided it was time for some extracurricular consultation, and as it was, I went and visited Dr. Robert Graham at www.freshmednyc.com. He went and took some more extensive tests and together we figured out what was right and what was wrong and some prudent adjustments to make. We are talking about tweaking now, but sometimes it helps to not be guessing and get very specific feedback from a trusted expert who cares.

I learned a lot. Without discussing all the details here, I will highlight one element... just to illustrate why I got concerned with my physical this year.

2015: Spring physical, Total Cholesterol (TC) was 185. My diet was still fairly mixed, although for the most part I did not eat a lot of meat, probably a chicken a week and a hamburger 3 times a year. But lots of eggs, yoghurt, cheese, cheese and more cheese. Still, I always ate plenty of fruit, vegetables and whole grains. I never ate white bread or white rice in my life. I considered that rat food, or window caulking in a pinch. So I probably ate a bit above average. And 185 is not really all that concerning. I just recently read a book about heart disease, "Know Your Real Risk of Heart Disease" by the Australian physician Dr. Warwick Bishop. The book is very well organized, and offers good explanations about how the heart works and what various diagnostics do or don't mean. To him, TC level below 193 would be just fine. In America, regular doctors consider 200-239 the range for borderline concern, so 185 would be of no concern.

And then there is Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who says below 150 is heart attack proof. Is he nuts or what? The same Dr. Esselstyn also says again and again that Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is a paper tiger that need not exist and unless it is absolutely acute and critical, the only intervention we ever need is a whole foods, plant-based diet. He will also point out that anyone eating a Western diet and aged 60 ish will have some level of CVD. And recently, we learned that for our Southeast Asian friends, we could say above 40, for the average age of heart attack victims in e.g. Bangladesh is 43 years of age, because genetically, they have smaller veins.

Here is my personal experience (I wrote about this before when I turned 65):

2015: physical (spring) TC=185
2015: May, re-read Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. I decided to quit fooling around and jumped in with both feet.
2016: physical in spring: TC=151
2017: physical in spring: TC=146
2018: no physical
2019: physical in spring: TC=168???
2019: retested three months after my physical, with a more elaborated test (June) TC=145

That was one of a few things that seemed off, and I could not explain except I was probably more religious about going to the gym in 2016 than recently, so time to step up my game, but still.
With further testing and consultation as indicated above, this time TC came back at 145, just two months later. That simply makes more sense given the history, and what I know I am doing with my diet. By the way there was absolutely NO sign of inflammation. Nice to know the diet works, but with the information at hand we figured out I could add another scoop of chia seeds, hemp seeds, (milled) flax seed, or walnuts, to slightly increase my Omega-3 intake. This becomes one of those areas where we're all different, and some may need a bit more than others, but it is important to know that more is not always bettter. It is about the ratio between Omega-6 and Omega-3.

In short, I learned a lot from a very specific consultation that allows me to tweak my lifestyle. It pays not to become complacent. As to diagnostics, initially, here is the only diagnostic you need:

https://4leafsurvey.com

It is a simple self-test for how well you eat based on whole foods, plant-based nutrition criteria. It give you a rating from 1-leaf (slightly above average already) to 4-leaves (you are doing a Whole Food, Plant-Based diet completely) and it is excellent for handholding so you can gradually improve your diet.

Conclusion

If you are doing a Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet, talk about it with your physician. If they ignore it, it may be worth looking for another doctor. That is what happened with me in 2018. I switched away from my old doctor, because he did not know or understand enough about lifestyle medicine and the whole foods, plant-based diet. Of course as soon as I switched my new doctor moved to another state, and I changed doctors again this year.
In terms of doing this diet, for yourself, or for others: don't try to practice medicine without a license, but you can confidently rely on the fact that if you are following the #WFPB diet properly, minus Sugar, Oil and Salt, and plus some natural Omega-3 sources, and your B12 supplement, you are giving your body the optimal chances to heal itself, and many common issues will pass you by unnoticed. Against that background your medical requirements should be extremely modest, and if anything comes up, at least you know you are helping yourself to the maximum.
That latter point is really the theme of the movie The Game Changers, which premieres on Sept 16th (don't miss it!!!). The lead character is a martial arts trainer for the military and he found the whole foods plant-based diet because he wanted to help himself recover from a very serious injury and in his research he stumbled on the fact that the gladiators in Rome ate mostly barley and veggies. That is where his journey started.

Yondu Recipe #2 - Sautéed Radishes

Here we go with another Yondu recipe from their recipe cards, and all I had to do to make it #WFPB is take away the oil and instead caramelize some onions with some garlic (I could add some Thai chilis if I am in the mood for hot.

Original pic from Yondu site

Sautéed Radishes

Ingredients

• 1 Onion Chopped fine
  2-3 garlic cloves
  1--2 Thai chilis sliced thin (optional)
  3 cups halved small radishes (or larger radishes quatered)
  1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
  3 teaspoons Yondu (3 tsp = 1 tbsp)

Preparation

1. Sautée the onion:
1. Dry roast on medium high (425F) for 5 mins, no stir
2. Add the minced garlic and chili (if using)
3. Stir fry with a few table spoons of water, sufficient to liquify 
2. Add the radishes and scallions: 
1. 3 mins at medium making sure enough liquid
2. Add Yondu
3. 2 more minutes until Yondu is absorbed

 On a side note

People have so much trouble cooking with out oil, yet once you know the basics it is both easier and tastier. This is an absolutely yummy side dish any time.

And, instead of Yondu, you could use some veggie broth, or you could use a small amount of Bragg's liquid aminos, but I would have to say that Yondu does produce a finger-licking good flavor. It is fast becoming one of my favorite flavorings.

Yondu Recipe #1 Sesame Soba Noodles

OK let's turn this #WFPB

Here is the original recipe on the Yondu site:

Sesame Soba Noodles

Now create a #WFPB equivalent - in my experience about the same prep time, some 25-30 mins - I have adjusted it for a dinner for one, and in the process, we drop the oil and the egg and it tastes even better:

• 1 bunch soba noodles, cooked (typically 6-7 mins)

Veggies

• 2 medium onions cut-up fine, or shredded on a mandoline
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 good sized crown of broccoli, cut into florets and stems sliced.
• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 TBSP Yondu
• 1- 1.5 cups of water

Dressing

• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Dijion mustard
• 1 Tsp Yondu
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp grated ginger
• 1-1.5 Tsp of date sugar

Prepping, Serving

• cut up the onions and dry roast 5 mins at 425F (medium high)
• mince the garlic, and add after 5 mins
• stir fry for 5 mins at 425F while adding a few table spoons of the water with Yondu as needed to liquify
• on this bed of onions and garlic pour a cup of water with 1 Tbsp Yondu and add the broccoli and scallion chunks.
• simmer at low temp until the broccoli is done, some 20-30 mins.
• add in the cooked soba noodles at the end.
• Mix the dressing in a blender and poor it over the pasta
• sprinkle on the sesame seeds, and any other garnish you might like, e.g. sliced peppers, hot or mild as you prefer, or hot pepper flakes, etc.

 Just enjoy it. This dish and a good size salad could make a meal. Easy.

 

I discovered Yondu at the Plant-based World Expo & Conference

Here is the Yondu website explaining what Yondu is.

Clearly, it is of Korean extraction, and it's a fermented brew from soybeans and veggie broth, but it is fermented in its own juices, with very little salt, which is the problem with some fermented projects like kimchi or Tianjin preserved vegetables. It seems expensive, but it's actually economical for you can use it just one teaspoon at a time.

It is amazing, you can cook without salt, and this chef does not yet know how to cook without oil, but you can absolutely make any veggie dish without oil.

Here was my first delicious recipe with some Organic Swiss Chard from ShopRite on the Bruckner:

A side of Swiss Chard with Yondu 

Ingredients

• One bunch of Swiss chard
• some fresh turmeric, minced, or turmeric powder
• three small or two medium onions, cut up fine.
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tsp of Yondu

 Preparation

• Caramelized some onions, 5 mins dry roasting at 425F(Medium/high)
• followed by gradually adding some minced garlic and fresh turmeric (always available at Al Aqsa on my street) and stir-frying for another 5 mins at 425F with some splashes of veggie broth.
• Cut up the stems of the chard in 1/4" pieces, and added on top of the caramelized onions, while adding 1 cup of water with one tsp of Yondu.
• Cooked for 10 mins at 275 F (Medium). 
• Cut up the leaves in 1"strips, and put them on top of the onions and stems, and cooked for another 10 mins at 275F.

The result: a quick and easy side of veggies.

An Ayurvedic Okra Dal

Here is one more Okra recipe - by now I've made 4 different Okra dishes in the last few days, all because I bought a half a bushed of Okra for $3.99, and I ate some of what I made, but I froze a lot. That all goes into the idea of cooking cycles, now I have a ton of these Okra dishes, and it will make my cooking easier for months. You could just have some brown rice with a portion of this Okra Dal, some other vegetable, like spinach or zucchini or broccoli, or whatever, and a salad, and you have a meal fit for a prince.

Okra Dal (Ayurveda)

Get rid of the oil - all Ayurvedic recipes use oil, so that is the first thing to get rid of, and I tend to make up for the taste with some more onions and garlic.

View on geniuskitchen.com

Ingredients

2-3 onions, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced.
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon of caraway (optional)
2 cinnamon sticks, broken up, or you can use some flat cinnamon and crush it with a mortar and pestle.
12-16  ounces red lentils
1 teaspoon ground coriander and/or
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro chopped fine
1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder (or more, to taste)
1⁄4 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 1⁄2 cups water
1 large tomato, halved
24 okra (ca. 1 lb), topped and tailed, and cut in 1/2" sections
liquid aminos to taste

 

Preparation

• Caramelize the onions in a large saucepan and cook with the cumin seeds and cinnamon over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until the onion is beginning to brown.
• Add the lentils, coriander, chili powder and turmeric. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the water and then add the tomato and okra.
• Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes, until the okra and lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.

Okra Tomato Stew

OK, so the other day I scored a 1/2 bushel of Okra for $3.99 and this has me cooking ahead.

There are tons of recipes and youtube videos around, and converting them to a #WFPB alternative is easy.

Basic Okra Recipe

Here is one nice video, which you can easily convert to #WFPBNO (No Oil - EVER!)

 

How to cook Okra and make an UNhealthy vegan dish

This recipe would be easy to make, and substitute the oil as follows:

• Cut up the onion. Don't drag your knife sideways across the cutting board as the video shows - you will be destroying the edge of your knife very quickly.
• Dry roast it for 5 minutes at 425F (medium/high) without stirring.
• Stir fry it for another 5 minutes at 425F, while adding 2-3 icecubes of veggie broth
• Follow the rest of the recipe.

 Ok, I have so much Okra, I am making this dish as well.

Her ingredients, with comments:

Okra/Lediesfinger- 500gm Onion- 1 medium or large - double up - see below.
add some chilis
Garlic- 3 or 4 cloves Turmeric powder- 1 tsp Cumin powder- 1tsp Salt- 1/2 tsp - use some liquid aminos instead Oil- 30ml - double up on the onions instead

I remove the oil and double up on the onions. That's all. 
-------------------------

So here's the main dish - the promised Okra Tomato Stew:

Okra Tomato Stew

Okra Tomato Stew #WFPB variant

 

View on tasteofbeirut.com

 

Ingredients

• 1 Bag of frozen okra (14 ounces) or the fresh okras
•  1 red onion, chopped or a small bag of pearl onions (6 ounces)
•  Tomato sauce (14 ounces) or fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut (diced)
• some cilantro - I use about 10+ sprigs of cilantro and cut them up good
• 1 teaspoon of allspice or seven-spice mix, or panchpuran
• 1 Tablespoon of mashed garlic (mash with a teaspoon of salt till pasty), alternatively some garlic/ginger paste
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

 

Preparation

• Chop the onion and dry roast it in a sauce pan, for 5 mins at 425F, while mincing the garlic.
• Add the minced garlic and stir fry for 5 more mins at 425F, while adding 2-3 icecubes of veggie broth
• Add the okra (still frozen) to the onions and stir-fry for 5 minutes or so.
• Add the garlic paste to the okra, then the tomatoes (or tomato sauce) and lemon juice and allspice or panchpuran.
• Cover the saucepan and let the mixture simmer for 45 minutes, making sure it does not burn at the bottom.
• Add the cilantro if you're using it
• Uncover the last five minutes of cooking to let more liquid evaporate and turn off the heat.
• Serve at room temperature with some pita bread.

NOTE: To save time I use the frozen okra that is available at the Middle-Eastern store imported from Egypt; it is already prepped and requires no additional chopping. If you are using fresh okra, cut off the tip of the pod, dry with paper towels and stir-fry in olive oil; then proceed with the recipe.
The original recipe omits the cilantro, but I think it is delicious and really makes this stew a winner!!!

In an earlier post I discussed Okra in Lentil Sauce:
https://starlingaveplantbased.blogspot.com/2017/08/and-another-brilliant-wfpb-supper-at.html



Have at it folks.