These past few weeks, most of us pigged out. Our excuse? Christmas season!

And if youre like me, you too are raring to eat less and more healthily. I am forever on a diet. I always say that the best time to plan a diet is when youre full. You are so determined to do it. That is until you get hungry.

Such is the story of my life.

I had this misconception that vegetarian food did not taste gooduntil I tried it in a friends home.

Bubut is a vegetarian who served me a snack of veggie Spam on toasted pandesal with a little tomato catsup.

That became the turning point, where vegetarian food in my life was concerned. I loved it.

The next day, I went to a vegetarian grocery on Quirino Ave. to look for that vegetarian Spam and was surprised to see all these delicious vegetarian products.

I am forever looking for good vegetarian restaurants. I have tried many but was never really that impressed with the dishes.

Most of them I found too simple and lacking in creativity. Then friends Dan and Gerry told me about Wabi-Sabi along Malugay St. in Makati. A second branch has since opened in Quezon City.

I love this restaurant. Youre not only eating healthy and delicious food, you feel great after. Vegetarian food is not that hard to digest so you get that feeling of lightness after a meal.

The rest is here:
The best vegetarian food Ive tried

Felicity Cloakes perfect vegetarian haggis. Photograph: Felicity Cloake/Guardian

Haggis, Ive always thought, is one of those dishes best left to the experts. I briefly considered testing this theory this year, but Graeme Taylor of A Scots Larder promptly put me off by quoting a recipe in his possession: Leave the windpipe out of the pan to disgorge the phlegm. Call me squeamish, but I do not deal in culinary phlegm.

But vegetarian haggis, well, thats another matter entirely. It is one of the few vegetarian versions of any meat-centred dish that can stand entirely on its own merits commercial versions tend to be delicious (though, I admit, the plucky sort has my heart. And lungs. And windpipe).

The problem is, I realise after devouring the real deal in the interests of research, the principle flavour in haggis is offal. Meaty, iron-y and ever so slightly sweet, it is a tough one to recreate without animal matter and nor, I suspect, would many vegetarians relish it even if I did succeed. Instead, Im going to try to capture some of the same richness of flavour and make something that goes equally well with neeps, tatties and half a bottle of whisky.

Naively, I assume that the main ingredient in a vegetarian haggis will be vegetables, but after my happy run-in with the meaty version, I realise that grains have a more significant part to play. Traditionally, this means oats, which all the recipes I try use, but pulses are also popular, with chef Graham Campbell, the Vegetarian Society, Edinburgh restaurant Hendersons and Veg Web all using lentils of various colours, and food writer Carl Legge plumping for yellow split peas. Legge, Henderson and Veg Web all go for coarse pinhead oatmeal, which gives the haggis a more interesting texture than rolled oats. Cooked down to a nubbly porridge, they will form the base of my haggis.

The lentils, like the beans used by many recipes (borlotti in Campbells case, aduki for Legge and kidney for the Vegetarian Society), are of course very nice, but they tend to retain their shape rather than dissolving into the other ingredients, making the finished dish more of a bean stew than a haggis. Legges split peas work better, though I prefer the sweeter, earthier, more assertive flavour of the green kind. Legge and Veg Web also use pearl barley, which seems a stroke of genius a traditional Scottish favourite, and a way to add yet more textural interest to my hearty haggis.

Legge and the Vegetarian Society add nuts to their haggis ground peanuts and hazelnuts in the latter case, toasted and chopped mixed nuts for Legge but, though haggis should never be a light affair, I think mine has enough bulk without them. The same goes for Veg Webs fake minced beef. Im sure such things have their place when you dont eat meat, but this place isnt here. (Or, indeed, in my fridge. Ever.)

Vegetables do play a part. Traditional haggis uses onions, rather than Campbells shallots and garlic, so Im sticking with them. Im adding carrots too, which are popular for good reason, adding some much-needed sweetness to the pan. Every recipe I try includes mushrooms, much vaunted for their meaty flavour and texture Campbell goes for shiitake, Legge for chestnut and the others dont specify, but Ive chosen portobello, which Ive always found to be the most satisfyingly fleshy of fungi. I consider adding swede, too, but decide this may be overkill given the customary accompaniment.

The overriding flavour of haggis, offal aside, is pepper. Lots of pepper. Theres also, I think, a hint of sweetness Campbell uses cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, Legge allspice and nutmeg and the Vegetarian Society mixed spice, while Hendersons rather daringly stick in garam masala. I really enjoy their haggis, but if I closed my eyes to the neeps and tatties on the plate, I could be eating something Indian. In fact, rather than playing around with lots of different spices, Im going to keep it simple with sweetly peppery allspice and fiery black pepper.

Herbs are popular Campbell, in particular, sticks in vast amounts of thyme and rosemary, which give his haggis a rather Mediterranean flavour but I cant really see that they contribute much, especially with so much pepper involved. That said, the dish needs a serious injection of something savoury to save it from unbearable worthiness. Hendersons and the Vegetarian Society use soy sauce and Veg Web Worcestershire sauce (presumably a vegetarian variety) and Marmite the last, which I also found a useful addition to my nut roast, rides to the rescue again, supplying umami in salty spadefuls.

Read this article:
How to cook the perfect vegetarian haggis

BERKELEY, Calif --

One skinned boar was left in front of the Herbivore restaurant in Berkeley, which doesn't have any meat on its menu.

"That's disturbing. I'm vegetarian so that makes me sad," said Mackenzie Rubin, an area resident.

The remains of the boar were found Monday morning near Shattuck and Haste streets. About an hour later, another boar's head was discovered in front of Flacos vegetarian restaurant.

"It was definitely an unusual thing. It's nothing I have seen or experienced in my almost 20 years that I have been at the police department. I'm not sure if there is some specific intent behind it, or if someone was trying to prank somebody," said Officer Jennifer Coats with Berkeley police.

When police arrived at Herbivore, the boar head was gone. They found out that people who work for Berkeley's Downtown Ambassadors cleaned it up.

But police did find the one left at Flacos and turned it in to animal control. They are trying to figure out where the animals came from, who did this and why. Police are looking into whether any helpful surveillance video exists from cameras in the area.

Investigators said they don't know why someone would do this, but Berkeley residents have their suspicions.

"That's like offending the people who eat here, trying to make fun of them because they don't eat meat," said Laronda Walker of Oakland.

"Some vegetarians already think that people who eat meat are kind of the bad guys, and it's like they're kind of keeping up with that reputation," said Rubin.

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Skinned boar heads found outside Berkeley vegetarian restaurants