organic food on 23rd st

About 10 days ago, before I left for a week-long trip, I was in Manhattan for some business and came across a recently opened vegetarian restaurant called Terri. Up until recently and still a bit ongoing, the number of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the city has been a number easily countable on both hands. However, with the opening of this restaurant (just a few blocks from the cafeteria-style Bonobo's), I began to feel that there is hope for a healthier lifestyle and diet, and that this is catching on more and more with the mainstream public.

Although Terri calls itself Organic Vegetarian, nearly all the menu items are vegan, but it is not so scary as a newcomer may think. It has the usual Manhattan lunch offerings, including sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, salads as well as ever-elusive vegan desserts. I was happy with the spinach salad I purchased, and even happier with their chocolate brownie, which was too full of choclatey goodness to finish in one sitting. On another day, I would love to return and sample some more menu items, and since it is near the 23rd St. F train stop it is convenient even for someone coming from Queens.

the oil's still coming...

The other day I joined the group "Boycott BP" on facebook. And I invited my friends.

I rarely send out invites to people, although I'm always receiving "gifts", "high fives", "green plants", "green bottles", you name it. But seriously, we are about to celebrate Memorial Day at the end of the month of May, and the oil is still leaking. No one is saying if they've stopped it, although you would think between one of the largest companies and one of the wealthiest nations someone could think of a way to stop it and actually put that plan in action.

I know it's not good to complain and do nothing. When I'm upset by some news, I usually try to pass on important info, write to the editor, or leave a comment to let the powers that be know that it matters to me. I've looked through many news sites to see the different opinions on this matter. For one, it doesn't seem that the government wants to move fast, although according to the latest Live Feed Obama will suspend"planned exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska until at least 2011." (Doesn't that seem like a lot of specifics?)

Also, I also found out through DawnWatch that once animals are exposed to oil, they are basically as good as dead. This is obviously not what the media are showing, based on the wealth of animal clean-up pictures that insinuate that there is hope where unfortunately there shouldn't be.

The animal rights group PETA has chosen to address the oil spill by focusing on an underlying factor: heavy reliance on oil. Since a vegetarian/vegan diet uses less oil and fossil fuels, they suggest using diet to influence a system of consumption and business structure that responds to consumer demand and profit margins.

Tonight, May 28, there is a protest in NYC against BP. So I guess there are ways to get involved, although stopping the leak immediately is still a bit out of reach for most of us.