Jain is another meat free religion

March 21, 2010

I met a Jain vegan doctor practicing in Oakland. . However, she is not

taking more patients. She’s a great person. FYI,

there’s vegan friends out there that we don’t know about.

Below is a Jain author, this is a great article including a

13 page slide show. I posted part 1 of the article. I didn’t

forward the entire article since it too long. Click on it before it goes

away.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/travel/07choice1.html?pagewanted=1

Choice Tables

Buenos Aires for Those Who Shun Steaks

Horacio Paone for The New York Times

Arevalito, which offers five or six dishes in a rotating

menu, is among the vegetarian restaurants (it bills itself as

“meatless”) in Buenos

Aires.

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By

TANVI CHHEDA

Published: March 7, 2010

IT

was over a bowl of delicious, spicy-sweet peanut soup with pesto made from

huacatay, or Andean black mint, that I realized the vegetarian diner was now perfectly

welcome in Buenos Aires. As a vegetarian traveling

in a country where beef takes center stage, I expected my meals to be relegated

to an assortment of side dishes — sautéed greens, some variation of

potatoes — supplemented by the occasional granola bar. For many, myself

included, the diet is not just a daily choice, but a way of life. I am a

practicing Jain — a member of an ancient Indian religion that espouses

ahimsa, or nonviolence toward all living beings — and my diet forbids all

meat, poultry, fish and even eggs, though it does allow milk and cheese.

Skip to next

paragraph

Go to the Buenos Aires Travel Guide »

Multimedia

Slide Show

Vegetarian Buenos Aires

But during a

recent visit, I was happily surprised, if not downright triumphant, to discover

a cluster of recently opened restaurants serving tasty and fresh vegetarian

fare. Largely concentrated in the fashionable Palermo Hollywood neighborhood

and its fringes, the restaurants tend toward the homey and casual — and

they cater to the full spectrum of diners who don’t eat meat.

Casa Felix

A puertas cerradas (literally “closed

doors”) or private restaurant, Casa Felix offers a fine-dining experience

in the charming whitewashed home of the Argentine chef Diego Felix and his

wife, Sanra, in the Chacarita neighborhood. Guests, generally a dozen or so per

meal, dine by appointment only (reservations can be made by phone or e-mail)

and to their personal specifications (e-mailed well in advance): vegan, gluten-free, pescetarian and so

forth. (Meat eaters are also welcome.) Dimly lighted and cozy, the setting

provides ample opportunity to mingle with other diners.

My five-course meal began with a botanical lesson

in the Felixes’ backyard, where the chef pulled at branches, plucking

leaves of pineapple sage and lemon balm before passing them off to be scratched

and sniffed. Those homegrown herbs and vegetables (he also grows heirloom

tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, arugula and more) were the centerpieces of the

menu to come.

First up, that revelatory peanut soup. Though I

tend to prefer to keep my spicy and sweet separate, I was impressed by the

creamy soup, which balanced nutty sweetness with just a few drops of chili oil

and a teaspoon of pesto. The corn-and-squash humita — a South American

dish similar to the Mexican tamale — was comforting, moist and filling.

Served with a dollop of organic ricotta on top, it resembled pie à la mode.

Soon the real dessert arrived: rum-soaked and sautéed apple slices, paired with

a granola-like almond and date crust and kumquat cream. I quickly gobbled it

up.

Casa Felix, (54-11) 4555-1882; diegofelix.com. Dinner for two, 300

Argentine pesos, or about $80 at 3.8 pesos to the dollar.

Meraviglia

This organic bakery and cafe is blissfully laid-back,

the kind of place where morning meals go on for hours and newspapers are still

spread open across tables at closing time in the early evening. Breakfast

attracts mostly tourists; Porteños, as residents are called, are typically late

risers. But by lunch, the place is bustling with local moms and strollers.

Meraviglia was the dream of Mariana Chami, 31, who

is usually standing behind the register when not serving patrons. Ms. Chami

suffered from acute arthritis as a child and at the suggestion of her doctor

went vegetarian when she was 13. The diet seemed to cure her medical woes and

she’s never turned back. When it came to creating a healthy menu for her

restaurant, she recruited the talented chef Juliana López May, a Buenos Aires

native who is a natural-food specialist and is often featured on El Gourmet,

the Latin American equivalent of the Food Network.

My brother, who was my traveling companion, and I,

both had been obsessed with the fruit juices that seemed to flow as freely as

water everywhere in the city, so we started with a jug of Meraviglia’s

ginger-and-mint-infused lemonade, which didn’t disappoint. Tangy and

invigorating, with chunks of fibrous ginger settled at the bottom of the

pitcher, it reminded me of the nimbu pani — fresh lime water — I

drank as a child at my grandparents’ home in India. Moving on to our main

courses, I found the falafel sandwich a bit dry, but the salad, a mix of

uncomplicated ingredients — lentils, quinoa, chopped cucumber, celery,

olive oil, balsamic vinegar — tasted at once hearty and fresh.

Meraviglia, Gorriti 5796; (54-11)

4775-7949; meraviglia.com.ar. Meal for two, about

48 pesos.

Buenos Aires Verde

Adorned with yoga fliers and racks of reusable

canvas totes, this cheerful restaurant with orange-painted tables and teal

chairs promotes healthy living — note the list of smoothies with

ingredients like rejuvelac, a mildly fermented beverage made from grains and

wheat grass — and spirituality as much as it does vegetarianism. The menu

features dishes for vegans, vegetarians and raw-food enthusiasts. The gourd

soup, for example, is made without ever bringing a pot to boil (to better

retain nutrients and enzymes lost at high heat); another popular appetizer

showcased marinated portobello mushrooms cooked at a low temperature and served

atop crackers smeared with cashew cheese. We skipped the soup, but I found that

the chewy texture of the mushrooms matched well with the crunchiness of the

paper-thin flaxseed crackers; the faux cheese, made from cashew nuts,

didn’t work as well. Better was the quinoa risotto, which came studded

with carrots and celery, a variety of cheeses and a drizzle of garlic oil. It

was warm and light, a healthier textural cousin to mac and cheese.

Click on the article for rest of part 2

winnie

signature:

come join me

http://sundaystreetssf.com/

April 11, 18

May 23, June 20, July 11, Aug 22, Sept 19, Oct 24

I'll be doing all 9 of them in the city

March 21, 2010

Hi Sunny : ) That's great that there is a vegan dr in Oakland who is a Jain. I have to say tho that most Jains are not really vegan. I am writing a book on religion, nature and animals, and as such have spoken to a number of Jains( + read extensively on Jainism), all report that while most Jains are vegetarian, few are vegan. Of course Jainism developed long before there was such a thing as a factory farm.

Also, Jainism teaches Ahimsa (non-injury to all living beings) because of the belief that thru reincarnation, an ant may have been your aunt.

Jains have animal hospitals where they do not offer any relief to suffering animals, because they feel to do so would interfere w/ the animal working off his/her karma.

Jains believe that humans are the most important and therefore desired incarnation. It IS possible for a non-human to be reincarnated as a human, but extremely rare and difficult. People are reincarnated as nonhumans because of bad things they have done- Karma.

In my research thus far, all organized religions teach that humans are infinitely more important than nonhumans.

Stephanie

On 3/21/10, sunny <sunny_outdoors wrote:

I met a Jain vegan doctor practicing in Oakland. . However, she is not taking more patients. She’s a great person. FYI, there’s vegan friends out there that we don’t know about.

Below is a Jain author, this is a great article including a 13 page slide show. I posted part 1 of the article. I didn’t forward the entire article since it too long. Click on it before it goes away.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/travel/07choice1.html?pagewanted=1

Choice Tables

Buenos Aires for Those Who Shun Steaks

Horacio Paone for The New York Times

Arevalito, which offers five or six dishes in a rotating menu, is among the vegetarian restaurants (it bills itself as “meatless”) in Buenos Aires.

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By TANVI CHHEDA

Published: March 7, 2010

IT was over a bowl of delicious, spicy-sweet peanut soup with pesto made from huacatay, or Andean black mint, that I realized the vegetarian diner was now perfectly welcome in Buenos Aires. As a vegetarian traveling in a country where beef takes center stage, I expected my meals to be relegated to an assortment of side dishes — sautéed greens, some variation of potatoes — supplemented by the occasional granola bar. For many, myself included, the diet is not just a daily choice, but a way of life. I am a practicing Jain — a member of an ancient Indian religion that espouses ahimsa, or nonviolence toward all living beings — and my diet forbids all meat, poultry, fish and even eggs, though it does allow milk and cheese.

Skip to next paragraph

Go to the Buenos Aires Travel Guide »

Multimedia

Slide Show

Vegetarian Buenos Aires

But during a recent visit, I was happily surprised, if not downright triumphant, to discover a cluster of recently opened restaurants serving tasty and fresh vegetarian fare. Largely concentrated in the fashionable Palermo Hollywood neighborhood and its fringes, the restaurants tend toward the homey and casual — and they cater to the full spectrum of diners who don’t eat meat.

Casa Felix

A puertas cerradas (literally “closed doors”) or private restaurant, Casa Felix offers a fine-dining experience in the charming whitewashed home of the Argentine chef Diego Felix and his wife, Sanra, in the Chacarita neighborhood. Guests, generally a dozen or so per meal, dine by appointment only (reservations can be made by phone or e-mail) and to their personal specifications (e-mailed well in advance): vegan, gluten-free, pescetarian and so forth. (Meat eaters are also welcome.) Dimly lighted and cozy, the setting provides ample opportunity to mingle with other diners.

My five-course meal began with a botanical lesson in the Felixes’ backyard, where the chef pulled at branches, plucking leaves of pineapple sage and lemon balm before passing them off to be scratched and sniffed. Those homegrown herbs and vegetables (he also grows heirloom tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, arugula and more) were the centerpieces of the menu to come.

First up, that revelatory peanut soup. Though I tend to prefer to keep my spicy and sweet separate, I was impressed by the creamy soup, which balanced nutty sweetness with just a few drops of chili oil and a teaspoon of pesto. The corn-and-squash humita — a South American dish similar to the Mexican tamale — was comforting, moist and filling. Served with a dollop of organic ricotta on top, it resembled pie à la mode. Soon the real dessert arrived: rum-soaked and sautéed apple slices, paired with a granola-like almond and date crust and kumquat cream. I quickly gobbled it up.

Casa Felix, (54-11) 4555-1882; diegofelix.com. Dinner for two, 300 Argentine pesos, or about $80 at 3.8 pesos to the dollar.

Meraviglia

This organic bakery and cafe is blissfully laid-back, the kind of place where morning meals go on for hours and newspapers are still spread open across tables at closing time in the early evening. Breakfast attracts mostly tourists; Porteños, as residents are called, are typically late risers. But by lunch, the place is bustling with local moms and strollers.

Meraviglia was the dream of Mariana Chami, 31, who is usually standing behind the register when not serving patrons. Ms. Chami suffered from acute arthritis as a child and at the suggestion of her doctor went vegetarian when she was 13. The diet seemed to cure her medical woes and she’s never turned back. When it came to creating a healthy menu for her restaurant, she recruited the talented chef Juliana López May, a Buenos Aires native who is a natural-food specialist and is often featured on El Gourmet, the Latin American equivalent of the Food Network.

My brother, who was my traveling companion, and I, both had been obsessed with the fruit juices that seemed to flow as freely as water everywhere in the city, so we started with a jug of Meraviglia’s ginger-and-mint-infused lemonade, which didn’t disappoint. Tangy and invigorating, with chunks of fibrous ginger settled at the bottom of the pitcher, it reminded me of the nimbu pani — fresh lime water — I drank as a child at my grandparents’ home in India. Moving on to our main courses, I found the falafel sandwich a bit dry, but the salad, a mix of uncomplicated ingredients — lentils, quinoa, chopped cucumber, celery, olive oil, balsamic vinegar — tasted at once hearty and fresh.

Meraviglia, Gorriti 5796; (54-11) 4775-7949; meraviglia.com.ar. Meal for two, about 48 pesos.

Buenos Aires Verde

Adorned with yoga fliers and racks of reusable canvas totes, this cheerful restaurant with orange-painted tables and teal chairs promotes healthy living — note the list of smoothies with ingredients like rejuvelac, a mildly fermented beverage made from grains and wheat grass — and spirituality as much as it does vegetarianism. The menu features dishes for vegans, vegetarians and raw-food enthusiasts. The gourd soup, for example, is made without ever bringing a pot to boil (to better retain nutrients and enzymes lost at high heat); another popular appetizer showcased marinated portobello mushrooms cooked at a low temperature and served atop crackers smeared with cashew cheese. We skipped the soup, but I found that the chewy texture of the mushrooms matched well with the crunchiness of the paper-thin flaxseed crackers; the faux cheese, made from cashew nuts, didn’t work as well. Better was the quinoa risotto, which came studded with carrots and celery, a variety of cheeses and a drizzle of garlic oil. It was warm and light, a healthier textural cousin to mac and cheese.

Click on the article for rest of part 2

winnie

signature:

come join me

http://sundaystreetssf.com/

April 11, 18

May 23, June 20, July 11, Aug 22, Sept 19, Oct 24

I'll be doing all 9 of them in the city

-- " Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. " Albert Einstein

" The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated. " Mahatma Gandhi

March 22, 2010

Thanks Stephanie for that overview of Jainism. The Jain philosophy that humans are re-incarnated as other animals because of bad things they have done, i.e. other life forms are merely humans being punished., and that other life forms can rarely if ever incarnate as a human is promotional of a view, similar to the Judeo/Christian view, that humans are the apex of creation and that other life forms are lesser physical, emotional and spiritual beings. My personal experience suggests otherwise. In fact I have come to a contrary conclusion.

More troubling is that this view of re-incarnation (other animals are humans who are being punished) suggests that whatever cruelty visited upon other animals is part of their punishment, i.e, Karma, and thus acceptable. Ironically, I guess the people who are cruel to other animals are destined to be re-incarnated as another animal as punishment for being cruel to other animals. I imagine, under this belief, the cycle will never end until humans stop trying to teach, humans re-incarnated as other animals, through punishment but by example. However, there seems to be little to no hope for the non-human animals who are not re-incarnated humans as they appear destined to wallow in their lowly existence.

Pat Cuviello

March 22, 2010

Thanks Vasile, for this different view on re-incarnation.Although I am not sure whether I believe in re-incarnation or not, this view seems much more enlightened.Pat Cuviello