[book review] thanking the monkey

I came to Thanking the Monkey with some skepticism. Karen Dawn was recently in Melbourne giving a talk as a fundraiser for Edgar's Mission, and at the last minute I decided to go, prompted by some enthusiasm from J. I liked the talk well enough; I wasn't blown away by it, but I decided to pick up a copy anyway (all the profits for the copies sold on the night went to Edgar's Mission, too!).

I like to think I know a lot about animal issues, but some of the stuff I was reading totally astounded me. I had to start bookmarking, and now my copy is filled with post it notes and little sticky bits (which I'm going to remove as I type this, so I can lend the book out).

Dawn has an interesting, conversational writing style. She talks up her book as an accessible gift book, and certainly it is very accessible. The book is illustrated with pictures and comics, on the premise that even if you give the book to someone who can't bring themselves to read it, they might flip through and see some of the comics, and take away at least a part of the message.

Thanking the Monkey was written as an all-around animal rights book: at some times it's an introduction, covering the basics, and at other times it's quite in depth and confronting.

There are lots of suggestions of other books to read, as well as video and other online links. The book is heavily (though inconsistently) referenced, which I always enjoy. It's also very easy to pick up and put down, as it's filled with lots of separate sections. This means I felt comfortable putting it down for a week and a half and then coming back to it again.

The chapters are set out in a nice way, too: there's an introductory chapter, one on pets, animal entertainment, clothing, as food, animal testing, green/conservation groups, and 'compassion in action.'

One big thing for me was that, it led to me revising my opinion on zoos. I've always struggled with zoos, not liking the voyeristic/trapped components of it for animals, but recognising the need for conservation. Halfway through the section on zoos, I changed my mind. I'm still there for the conservation efforts, but why do we need zoos to fit in to urban areas? Anyway, me and zoos are definitely over.

The book does have some problems. Like many vegan / animal rights texts, there's some fatphobia. At some points there's an undertone of cultural cluelessness. There's also a sort of something, for certain people. "And some human mothers will hand over a baby for a vial of crack," (pg 254) for example, is a statement that I would like to challenge. The book frequently uses terms like 'normal,' which regular readers of this blog will know I dislike, as it positions some of us as not-normal.

However, I learnt a lot of things that I didn't know. I don't know if it was naiveness or overlooking or what, but as the book went on I was blown away by how much I was bookmarking. A small sampling:

• "...unlike other mammals, dolphins are not automatic breathers; every breath is a conscious choice, and when life becomes unbearable they can choose to take no more. They commit suicide. He says that much of the early mortality rate of dolphins in captivity is a result of suicide: "We literally bore them to death."" (pg 84)
• There's type of fur (from lambs - not sure why it's not wool), where the baby lambs are killed at a few days of age, and sometimes even the skin of unborn lambs is used. I'm not sure why unborn lambs horrifies me more than born lambs - maybe because the mother has to be killed too? (pg 107) In the USA (not sure if this extends beyond the USA) coats with less than $150 worth of fur don't have to be labelled as having fur (pg 110).
• Farmed salmon requires about 2.5 times the same amount of wild fish as food.
• The WWF, as a conservation society, sometimes positions itself squarely against animal rights (pg 295) - this was cool to read because then, when I was talking to the Wilderness Society people at World Vegan Day, I was able to ask so many questions I'd never previously have considered.

Another thing: Stephen Colbert has an adopted turtle daughter: her name is Stephanie Colburtle. Adorable name!

One final benefit of reading the book, for me, was being able to quote from it for my recent talk at the Animals Australia Forum. I gave a talk on intersectionality, and I had wanted to give examples of why intersectionality is needed in AR. Advised against this, I went the other way: I used Dawn's 2005 article ' Best Friends Need Shelter Too,' reproduced in the book, as an example of how intersectionality takes things in to account. So that was nice.

I recommend the book. It's an interesting read, and I learnt a lot, but I recommend reading it with caution. I'm not sure I would give it as a gift book to people who weren't already interested in AR/AW.

[book review] the indian vegan kitchen

I picked up the Indian Vegan Kitchen (by Madhu Gadia) at the beginning of April, on recommendation of my friend Christine. She had very complimentary things to say about it, and it had clearly made an impression on her so when I saw it in Dymocks I thought I'd bring it home and give it a go.

In the intervening six weeks I've made six recipes from this book, which I think has given me a pretty good basis from which to stand as I say: this is a really good book. There's lots of variety in the recipes, both flavour and heat-wise, and there's variety in their difficulty, too: some are very difficult, some are easy, and some are middling in their difficulty. There's also a nice collection of different types of food: entrees + finger food sort of things; main meals; desserts + drinks; and an attempt at barbecue foods, which I appreciated (and hope to try). And a whole lot of breads. A lot of the recipes in the book are fast to make, but some do require sitting time (such as soaking).

The recipes, to my taste, were a little bit hit or miss but mostly hit.



We started with the curried potatoes (pg 100) (gf) and the creamy mushroom curry (pg 103) (gf), the latter of which was cooked by Danni. I found the curried potatoes a bit too dry for my tastes, though the flavour was quite nice. The creamy mushroom curry was really delicious, not as creamy as I had expected but a nice mushroom flavour without being overwhelmingly mushroom-y. I definitely plan to make the mushroom curry again (or have Danni make it).



Next up was the rajmah (pg 120) (gf) and the cabbage mixed vegetables (pg108, gf). The cabbage mixed vegetables were a bit same same - you really need to like cabbage to get into this dish, and it was very understated. It's not really my thing, though it was good to have the contrast to the rajmah, which was full flavoured and quite tasty. I will make the rajmah again, but I've made plenty of mixed vegetable dishes and the cabbage was nothing exceptional.



I love a good noodles, as I've mentioned many times, so I thought I'd give the chickpea noodles (pg 149) (gf) a go. These were not my thing at all - the flavour was understated to the point of being bland, which is not great for rice noodles, and the chickpeas overwhelmed what flavour there was. It was like eating two separate dishes, because you couldn't pick up noodles and chickpeas at once. I added extra cayenne pepper, but all it did was allow me to see through time. Not trying this one again.



The final dish we've so far tried is the pea and tofu curry (pg 176) (gf). This is Christine's favourite dish. The flavour of this one is really good, but I need to work out something to do with the tofu - maybe marinate it first, because it takes a while to soak in the flavours. However the flavour was really good, so I will try this one again. Featured in the back of this photo is my aloo muttar.

So that's the Indian Vegan Kitchen so far! I recommend it, it's going well.

book: vegan planet

So SJ picked up Vegan Planet ages ago, whilst we were out perusing books together, and promptly made the lemon risotto (p237), and it was delicious. I finally got a copy of it (thanks, Mum!) for my birthday earlier this year, but promptly moved across the country so didn't get a chance to try it out until recently.

As regular readers of this blog (or anyone who has ever talked about food with me for about half a second) would know, I love noodles. A lot. And my friend C has talked up some drunken noodles in Mt Lawley, so when I saw this recipe (p262) in Vegan Planet I thought I'd give it a go.



These were good. The flavour was a bit understated, but overall okay.



I've been really getting into tempeh lately, so I was excited to give this pappardelle cacciatore a go (p249). Unfortunately it was quite bland. If I were to give it another go, I would slice the tempeh a lot thinner, and go OTT on the fresh rosemary. And I would probably add some dried chilli flakes.



Finally, I tried out the red bean and sweet potato curry (p286). It was bland and watery, which was a disappointment. I think it needed some more cumin and curry powder.

Overall, I like the potential of Vegan Planet, but it needs a whole lot more spices and herbs for it to be my thing.

veganomicon: a review

I've been putting off this review for two weeks, thinking that I'd make just one more thing, to make my review just that little bit wider, but this morning as I lay in bed I realised that I'm all Veganomiconed out, so I suppose that the time for a review is at hand.

Veganomicon: a review

I love the title of Veganomicon; the idea that it is the cruelty-free book of the dead; that it is an excellent vegan compendium; that it is a gigantic recipe book filled with recipes I can cook without alteration.

I have found the book very US-centric. Earth Balance and Veganaise have both been listed as "don't bother with anything else" sort of items, which made me feel incredibly (perhaps not rationally) resentful, as if there was no acknowledgement that maybe there are vegans out there in the world beyond the US' borders, with awesome products of their own. As an Australian, I've become used to converting recipes in my head, but the narrowness of the book has, as I mentioned (and childishly or not) made me feel resentful. Any Australians (and others?) using the book should remember that "all purpose" flour is plain, and "confectioners' sugar" is icing sugar.



Both D and I have had some interesting experiences with the flavour of the recipes. The curried things were bland, and things that used herbs we rarely use (tarragon, for example) were often quite overpowering (though not necessarily untasty). This may be an indication that we're not used to these herbs, but I am not convinced.

I have seen many complaints about the format, and I have to agree - although format isn't a make or break thing, and I don't mind having multiple recipes on one page, having to turn the page in the middle of a recipe didn't work for me. Once or twice I didn't notice until halfway through the recipe that there was more on the next page, and that's my fault for not reading the recipe all the way through in advance but also it makes for awkward reading.

I've had some problems with the times listed, and it wasn't until the second recipe that I realised they were cooking times only, which is a bit misleading.

The cookies so far have been pretty awesome. I have baked the chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies multiple times now, they are quite tasty and the next day it's like eating muffins or something. That they are so damp is less than ideal, but that is quite likely part of what gives them such a great final consistency. The recipe is also very flexible; as I mentioned in a previous post, messing up the proportions quite considerably didn't dampen the deliciousness of the cookies. The chewy chocolate-raspberry cookies were also quite tasty. I am confused by the wheat-free chocolate chip cookies - they contain oat, which is a maybe-yes maybe-no item for coeliacs, which they acknowledge in the recipe, so I'm confused why their wheat-free cookie wasn't something that was guaranteed to be coeliac friendly.



I do love the listing of basics and how-tos. Beside the samosa stuffed potatoes it tells you how to bake a potato if you've not done it before, and that's handy. I enjoyed discovering some new things (penne vodka with slivered almonds - awesome!), and having some new takes on things (samosa stuffed potatoes - fantastic idea!).



It was definitely worth the purchase, and having to cart it all the way back from Singapore. Similarly to Vegan With a Vengeance, it is a bit junky, and I have found that I usually have to modify the recipes as I'm cooking them to make them to my taste, which is not necessarily a problem, it's just a thing.

It does, in its way, meet its title as 'the ultimate vegan cookbook.' Maybe there will be a bigger, more encompassing cook book sometime, but for now it's certainly the most comprehensive that I've come across in terms of basic variety, which makes it a good starter's book, definitely (although now that I've said that, I do wonder how it competes with Vegan Planet, which I've yet to try but understand is awesome).

Overall, I'm glad I have it, and I can see myself getting a lot of use out of it, especially in terms of ideas and inspiration (less than the recipes word for word), but probably no more than any other cookbook on my shelf.

Recipes that we tried in order to form this opinion: samosa stuffed potatoes (p60) (awesome idea); lemony roasted potatoes (p109) (not really my thing); messy rice (p118) (bit bland); potato and kale enchiladas with roasted chile sauce (p162) (bit bland); pumpkin saag (p184) (quite tasty); red lentil-cauliflower curry (p186) (needed more spices); penne vodka (p193) (I loved this); green pea and lemon risotto with roasted red peppers (p199) (tasty, but nothing exciting); chewy chocolate-raspberry cookies (p234) (quite tasty); chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies (p236) (these have entered rotation as go-to present cookies).