Eating at Crossroads is hard. Eating vegan at Crossroads is hard. Let’s be real — being vegan in general is pretty hard.

It doesn’t take long before you get sick of the options Crossroads has to offer — there are only so many days you can eat salad with hummus and guacamole. But fortunately, Crossroads does have one item that can help us diversify our vegan palate each week: its vegan burger. Who knew that one patty could make for five days of different lunches?

Here are our suggestions:

1. The classic vegan burger

Make sure to get out of your ketchup comfort zone and try adding hummus, guacamole and different sorts of veggies.

2. Modern croutons

Chop up the patty and add it onto your salad as a crouton replacement.

3. New soup crackers

Try topping off that vegan soup with some chopped-up burger and pumpkin seeds from the salad section.

4. Stuffed pita bread sandwiches

Substitute a chopped vegan burger for falafel and stuff it into pita bread with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.

5. Open-face vegan patty

(Excuse the bacon)

Slather the burger with loads of hummus, and top it off with some lettuce and veggies of your choice.

Disclaimer: Your food will probably not look similar to the pictures, but we’re sure it’ll be pretty close.

Image Sources: ccharmon,  SweetOnVeg, Ted Drake,  Enobytes Wine Online,  franksteiner, and HannahWebb under Creative Commons

Contact Sparsha Saxena at ssaxena@dailycal.org.

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Eunice Choi/Staff

Previously, Eating Berkeley praised the flavor of and gave tips on what to do with the almond, a popular type of nut that can be found in many places, from Hershey’s chocolate bars to the pantries of nut lovers. The trend has only been growing as the dairy aisle experiences the battle of dairy alternative products among soy milk, almond milk and coconut milk. The current king? Almond milk.

Relatively low in calories (30 to 40 per cup), void of saturated fats, delicately nutty and wonderfully satisfying, this creamy and mellow “milk” is the favorite choice of many. We could continue prattling on about all almond milk’s health benefits, but wouldn’t it be best to know how anyone can easily make almond milk in his or her own kitchen?

This has to be one of the easiest DIY projects — you only need five ingredients, no special equipment and barely any time investment. While Almond Breeze, Silk and other great brands offer fantastic almond milk, let’s face it: When has homemade ever lost to store-bought?

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of uncooked, unsalted raw almonds
• 4 cups of filtered water
• Separate water for soaking almonds
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
• Optional: honey, agave nectar, sliced dates, etc. as sweetener

Equipment:

• Blender
• Large bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Fine sieve or strainer OR several layers of cheesecloth/muslin (not just one)
• Storage jar with lid

Directions:

• Soak the almonds for at least 8 hours, preferably 12 (overnight). The water softens the almonds so they are easier to blend and make into almond pulp. The longer you soak your almonds, the creamier the result will be, so you can even consider soaking almonds for up to 2 days.
• Drain the water from the almonds.
• Place the soaked almonds and 4 cups of filtered water in a blender. Add the vanilla extract and optional sweetener(s). Continue blending until the mixture is no longer gritty.
• Prepare the cheesecloth/muslin/sieve/strainer and place it above the storage jar. Slowly pour the blended liquid through the strainer. This ensures that you leave the almond pulp out of the almond milk. (You can save the almond meal for additions to foods such as cookies and gluten-free casserole bread crumbs.)
• Refrigerate. Almond milk will last 4 to 7 days. Shake and drink away before that deadline! You can also use the milk for savory dishes such as Food&Wine’s Almond-Milk Creamed Spinach or all kinds of desserts (homemade banana ice cream, smoothies and rice pudding, to name a few).

We weren’t lying when we said this would be outrageously simple. Starting off with 1 cup of almonds to 2 cups of water results in almond milk that is similar to 2% cow’s milk. Change it up if you want thicker or thinner consistency. Also, make small batches, because the milk does not last very long and requires minimal labor.

Things can’t get better than this for almond milk enthusiasts, vegans and poor college students, right? So go to the nearest local grocery store and start shopping for those raw almonds in bulk!

Recipe was adapted from WikiHow and theKitchn.

Contact Eunice Choi at echoi@dailycal.org.

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Josh Escobar/Senior Staff

1. It’s the evening before a midterm, and you need to get through the last episodes of “Breaking Bad” before you can focus and really study. So you go down the street and order a cup of coffee.

2. It’s a grand sunny morning in Tuscany. After brushing your teeth you sit down at the kitchen table with your home-stay family. Breakfast is a croissant stuffed with orange jelly. On the stove, in an upright metal pot boils the espresso, enough for everybody.

3. It’s late afternoon and you’re done with classes. You’re half-tired, half-awake, which is good because you have so much work due tomorrow. “I always have work, yet I always get so much done,” you think while sipping a mocha cappuccino.

4. Iced coffee – better than chocolate milk, anytime, any day.

5. It’s still too cool and dusky outside until you have that first full drink of coffee before class at 8 AM. Then it’s a brisk, resplendent morning on October.

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Started by Minh Tsai in 2004, Hodo Soy Beanery has grown from a small business selling at Palo Alto Farmers’ Markets to the ever growing company it is today with their products in places ranging from Berkeley Bowl to Chipotle. The people at Hodo Soy Beanery take pride in creating the best tofu they can. Using organic non-GMO beans is integral in creating their tofu, which mainly consists of soy milk and a calcium sulfate that acts as a coagulant.

Part of their mission is to demystify the production of tofu. Tofu is essentially soy milk cheese. After the coagulant is added, the mixture of soy milk and calcium sulfate is heated. Once a curd forms, the mixture is drained and the curd is pressed into tofu at various pressures depending on the intended final texture.

Tofu is not the only product at Hodo, they also make yuba, which is tofu skin. To make yuba, the soymilk is gently heated so that the fat and the proteins rise to the top, forming a sheet that is then skimmed off and hung on metal rods to dry. Yuba, if you have never had it before, is exceedingly delicious with a taste similar to a silken tofu, particularly when freshly prepared.

Hodo’s tofu, yuba, and soymilk break tofu free of the often assumed bland-meat-replacement stereotype. The respect they show towards the sourcing of ingredients and the creation of tofu reveals itself in their final product. A product that can stand on its own or within a dish whilst ever maintaining its integrity.

So keep your eye out for Hodo Soy products, which can be found at the Berkeley Student Food Collective, various Whole Foods, and Costco’s and other locations listed on their website.

The post A quick look at why Hodo Soy tofu is delicious appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Looking for something to do after midterms? How about some food? Berkeley has 10 events this month that just might make your stomach happy and lighten your spirit!

1. Foods of the Americas exhibit
Oct. 2 to 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Location: UC Botanical Garden
A display of food crops, from chocolate to quinoa, that originated in the Americas thousands of years ago.
Free with garden admission.

2. Oktoberfest at Pyramid Alehouse and Brewery
Oct. 3, 5:30 p.m.
Location: Pyramid Alehouse and Brewery
German food and desserts, live polka band, bratwurst-eating contests, stein-holding contests and more.

3. Stefani Bittner and Leslie Bennett present “A Winter Salad Workshop and Salad Tasting”
Oct. 6, 4 p.m.
Location: Mrs. Dalloway’s
In a talk based on their book “The Beautiful Edible Garden,” the authors will discuss which seeds to plant now for harvesting later this winter, which plants to buy from nurseries and which herbs will complement your winter salad.
Ticket: $10

4. Make Goat’s Milk Cheese at The Cheeseboard Pizza Collective
Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Cheese Board Pizza Collective
A class with the San Francisco Milk Maid on transforming goat’s milk into either crumbly, fresh chevre or fuzzy, ripened goat cheese. The class will cover the basic steps of making cheese, essential equipment and where to find a special “rind-ripening” fungus called geotrichum.
Ticket: $40

5. Innovate Berkeley: Sustainable Economic Development — East Bay Social Innovation Dinners
Oct. 10, 6:15 p.m.
Location: The David Brower Center — The Hub Berkeley
Innovate Berkeley Dinners are informal monthly gatherings where East Bay thought leaders discuss entrepreneurial activity in Berkeley and other Bay Area cities, principles of civic engagement, sustainable city development and social and environmental innovation.
Featured guest: Peter Hirshberg, CEO at The Re:imagine Group
Featured chef: Amy Murray, executive chef at Revival Bar + Kitchen and Venus Restaurant
Ticket: $31.74 for Early Bird and Impact Hub members; $36.87 for general admission

6. 2013 BCF Annual Awards Dinner
Oct. 10, 5:30 p.m.
Location: HS Lordship’s Restaurant
The Berkeley Community Fund will hold its 2013 Annual Awards Dinner to present the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal to Hugh Romney, better known worldwide as Wavy Gravy, an activist, visionary, philanthropist and compassionate clown extraordinaire.
The program includes No Host Cocktails and dinner.
Ticket: $100

7. Cooking with EVOO
Oct. 21, 5:30 p.m.
Location: California Olive Oil Council
COOC taste-panel member and Bay Area chef Anthony Florian will give a class on cooking with extra virgin olive oil, including a live cooking demonstration for a few different dishes prepared with California extra virgin olive oil.
Ticket: $25

8. A Meaningful Light Benefit
Oct. 26, 8 p.m.
Location: The Starry Plough Irish Pub and Restaurant
A Meaningful Light is a charitable organization that raises awareness about the meaningful contributions that people with intellectual disabilities make in our community. The event will feature performances by the Shams Eire, the Guvernment and McCraes Battalion.
Ticket: $15

9. United Nations Day 68th Anniversary Celebration Dinner 2013
Oct. 27, 5 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Location: International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave.
Organized by United Nations Association USA-East Bay to commemorate UNA-USA’s 70th anniversary. The program includes a wine reception and dinner.
Keynote speaker and awardee: Rep. Barbara Lee
Tickets: $40; $20 with student discount

10. Patricia Wells presents “The French Kitchen Cookbook”
Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Mrs. Dalloway’s
The event includes tastings prepared by Summer Kitchen and wine from Vintage Berkeley Elmwood.
Tickets: $60 per person, $75 per couple.

Mai Truong is the editor of Eating Berkeley. Contact her at mtruong@dailycal.org.

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Mai Truong/Staff

What contains enough caffeine to help you plow through the midterms but also keeps your brain relaxed in a meditating state? Tea.

Tea contains theanine, which reduces mental stress and boosts cognitive functioning. But forget all that boring chemistry! Just ditch your coffee, drink tea and see for yourself how surprisingly happy you feel despite the stacking number of days you run on two hours of sleep. The next important question is this: Where in Berkeley should you get tea?

Sure, every cafe offers a few kinds of tea bags. You pour in hot water, close the lid and run to class, but comparing that to real tea — i.e., whole tea leaves in a teapot — is like comparing instant noodles to a hearty bowl of chashu ramen: There’s just no comparison. As of today, Berkeley has four tea houses that serve real tea: Asha, Far Leaves, Imperial Tea Court and Teance.

What makes them real tea houses as opposed to bagged-tea houses? Simple: They don’t serve instant tea in a bag. They also have printed tea menus, unlike tea houses that have no menu or place it on the overhead board next to croissants and bagels (no offense to croissants and bagels, but those pastries are not quite tea snacks). Their tea menus are sectioned into White, Green, Oolong, Red (or Black) and Puer. They also have someone who can explain to you what each category of tea is.

Of those four, which tea house is the best? Well, it depends on what you’re looking for. For your convenience, we have tabulated our experience as follows:

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Blackberries, oranges, grapes and walnuts are all in season. Check out these scrumptious treats that you can have for breakfast or during a study break. All of them cost less than $5 and can be found a block from campus!

Mixed berry scone at Babette. Photo by Josh Escobar.

Mixed berry scones at Babette

These gluten-free scones, available on Thursdays at Babette in the Berkeley Art Museum, are rugged and dry on the outside but soft like a cupcake on the inside. Break it in half and you’ll see blotches of strawberries and blackberries that look like confetti.

Cranberry crumb bar at the Berkeley Student Food Collective. Photo by Josh Escobar.

Cranberry crumb bars at the Berkeley Student Food Collective

While pastries by Nabolom Bakery are delivered every morning to the Berkeley Student Food Collective, this treat is made on-site by student volunteers. It goes great with coffee or as a mate for breakfast!

Al Mare gelato. Image courtesy of Simone Arpaio.

Honey and walnut gelato at Al Mare

This cold treat tastes just like it sounds and has the added creaminess of gelato made fresh. Look out for the orange, chocolate and spice gelato and pumpkin flavors next month!

Grape oolong tea at Asha Tea House. Photo by Josh Escobar.

Grape oolong tea at Asha Tea House

Asha Tea House makes this tea with fresh fruits. The bitterness of California red grape peels and oolong tea is balanced with the sweetness of crushed grapes at the bottom of the drink. It’s perfect iced!

The post 4 autumn treats around campus appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Eunice Choi/Staff

Summer is gone, and along with it, the beautiful California Hass avocados and heaps of ripe plums have left as well. Every season has its bounty to share, however! Fall has just begun, and because local grocery stores are piling up autumn’s best harvests, why not take on October with a few reusable grocery bags, a pair of sharp eyes and our list of Northern California’s 16 fruits and vegetables at their peak, as suggested by Earl’s Organic and examined at Berkeley Bowl and Whole Foods? Happy shopping, everyone!

Fruits

• BERRIES: Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries — make blackberry tarts and blueberry scones, eat them fresh and go wild.
• LIME: Key lime meringue pie, honey-lime glaze grilled chicken, lime sorbet — the options are endless.
• FIG: It’s an excellent autumn fruit that comes up from summer and winds down in November — make bacon-wrapped figs or fig-and-pancetta salad.
• GRAPE: How about grape jelly or some chicken salad with grapes?
• KIWI: They’re ripe and ready to eat at the end half of fall, October and November, and strawberry kiwi smoothie is a refreshing no-brainer.
• MELON: Cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelons are best enjoyed in the summer heat, but they’re still in great shape in October — and cantaloupe-lime-chili soup, poached shrimp with honeydew and jicama as well as watermelon, prosciutto and balsamic vinegar bruschetta are just a few quick recipes you can try with melons.
• PEAR: Fall is the best season to grab these beauties — eat the Barlett or Comice fresh, poach or bake the Bosc for desserts and top a few slices of Asian pear in your noodle soup for some crunchy sweetness.
• POMEGRANATE: Fall is in, and so are pomegranates — their tartness is perfect for salads and chicken stews.

Vegetables

• CORN: It peaks in September and October — ironic considering corn is big during Thanksgiving, and you’d think they’d be peaking in November as well! Grill them as a side, simmer them to make corn soup, add them to your salmon and salsa verde tostada and enjoy!
• EGGPLANT: It’s an excellent autumn vegetable for ratatouille, pasta and stir-fry dishes.
• HERBS: October is the last time to grab herbs before winter, so stock up on herbs and look out for a future Eating Berkeley DIY project: drying herbs!
• OKRA: Okra creole, fried okra or a simple pepper grilled okra will surely make a great side dish.
• BELL PEPPER: Nab them, stuff them or roast them!
• ZUCCHINI: Fall is the last opportunity to grab them while they’re in prime condition — bake zucchini bread or do a quick pickle with zucchini and yellow squash for a refreshing salad.
• TOMATO: All tomatoes are great throughout the fall, including heirloom and cherry tomatoes, so eat them fresh or grill them with a brush of balsamic vinaigrette to truly experience the sweetness of the season.
• WINTER SQUASH: Despite their name, they are also in prime shape in the fall! Baked butternut squash risotto and quinoa-stuffed squash make easy comfort food any day.

Finally, we couldn’t resist adding in a bit of musical creativity (or not) to celebrate the season!

“Eating Berkeley’s Ode to Autumn”
— Eunice Choi

Gone are the days of warm, hot summer.
Our first thought naturally is “Oh, what a bummer,”
but fall is about to sweep in, as sweet as honey
with sweaters, hot teas and noses so runny.
Our ode kind of sucks, sorry, but hey,
we’re just excited by the treasures in our Bay.
Shop locally to see the bounty fall has in store;
like you, we thanks the season for the galore!

Contact Eunice Choi at echoi@dailycal.org and Mai Truong at mtruong@dailycal.org.

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Josh Escobar/Senior Staff

Erin Wade, co-chef of Oakland’s beloved mac ‘n’ cheese restaurant Homeroom, gave a reading from “The Mac + Cheese Cookbook” ($16.99, Ten Speed Press) at the bookstore Mrs. Dalloway’s last Wednesday.

The book begins with a few blurbs about Homeroom and the co-chefs/owners/authors Wade and Allison Arevalo. It offers many recipes for mac and cheese — from Trailer Mac, with potato chips and hot dogs, to Patatas Bravas Mac, with potatoes and paprika. There are two sections on sides and desserts, convenient conversion charts in the back and, for those who have never made mac and cheese, the book offers a step-by-step lesson on how to make Mac Sauce, a basic cheese sauce that goes with most of the recipes.

“We’ve kept the recipes simple,” Wade explained, “since mac and cheese is a comfort food that everyone should be able to make.”

While the cookbook maintains the simplicity Wade mentions, it is also delightfully crafty. For example, to give a throwback to recess and grade school euphoria, it includes doodles of paper airplanes, goats, lemons and more. It also has a troubleshooting section to help you ace the “spoon test,” which determines whether you’ve properly made the Mac Sauce or messed it up.

After talking about the book, Wade told the unconventional story of how she became a chef.

“I started off as a food reviewer for The Princetonian when I was an undergraduate,” she said. “Afterwards, I became a pastry chef in New York, then a lawyer in San Francisco. Then the firm fired me — which ended up being a blessing.”

Homeroom began when she “randomly met Allison at Bittersweet Cafe on College.” The pair realized later that they should go into business together. Lots of friends told her she was crazy. Both Arevalo and Wade committed their life savings to a one-food specialty restaurant in a neighborhood where street traffic averages four people per hour.

“If Homeroom didn’t work out,” Wade admitted, “I would probably be living out of my car right now.”

But that wasn’t the case. Three years after stumbling across 400 40th St. while hunting for a storefront, Arevalo and Wade own it. Soon they’ll be opening a mac and cheese takeout shop across the street with picnic tables and soft-serve ice cream.

“The advice I would give young people is to not think linearly,” Wade said during Q&A. “Our parents teach us to go to school, get a job and to work hard, but fulfillment isn’t guaranteed in the end. … If you want something, you have to give it to yourself.”

“The Mac + Cheese Cookbook” represents Wade’s fresh approach to an American classic, which was reflected in her excitement and creativity during the reading.

Contact Josh Escobar at jescobar@dailycal.org.

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When putting off homework, we tend to look for justifiable distractions or means of procrastination, and when in search for those, some of us turn to the kitchen. This year was no exception, with the discovery of the ultimate study break: the almond. Almonds are relatively cheap and healthy for you, and they are primarily grown in California. They are a rich source of vitamin E, protein and fiber. It is fascinating how many ways this single ingredient can be transformed, and it surely can take up lifetimes, but these few preparations are a great place to start.

1. Toasted almonds

Beyond eating them raw, toasting almonds is likely the most straightforward preparation of almonds. All you really need is a dry heat source — a stove, a toaster oven or a convection oven.

• Turn the chosen heat source to whatever temperature you like, but remember, the higher the heat, the more likely the almonds will burn without careful attention. (About 350°F should be safe.)
• Toss some raw almonds into the chosen heating receptacle (pan, skillet, roasting tray, etc.) and agitate the almonds every once in a while to ensure that they won’t burn.
• Toast them to your pleasure and take them out of the oven. Salt to taste.

There you go — delicious toasted almonds. When toasted, the almond acquires a wonderfully subtle creamy meatiness that you might not expect when thinking of almonds.

2. Candied almonds

Though less healthy than toasted almonds, these are just as delicious. You can put them in salads, cookies or cakes and even just eat them by themselves. They can be lightly candied, turned into almond brittle or made into praline almonds. This may sound intimidating, but luckily, all of these options require very similar, simple steps that are centered around melting sugar to caramel. So let’s grab our saucepan, some sugar and some almonds and get to work making some almond brittle.

• For maximum flavor, toast your almonds.
• Chop up about 3 cups of raw almonds. See the previous section for toasting instructions.
• Put 1 cup of sugar in a saucepan. Once it starts to melt, add 1 more cup of sugar
• Stir to prevent the sugar from burning.
• Let the sugar cook until it turns a rich, golden brown color.
• Whisk in one stick (4 oz.) of chopped-­up butter.
• Continue whisking the mixture until it is fully smooth.
• Add toasted almonds and stir to completely coat.
• Pour the molten brittle mixture onto some wax or parchment paper. Spread it out into an even layer and let it cool.
• Eat.

3. Almond milk

This method is surprisingly simple.

• Soak 1 cup of raw almonds in water for up to 48 hours (at a minimum of 6 hours if you are in a pinch).
• After soaking, strain the almonds and discard the soaking liquid.
• At this stage, the almond skin can be pinched off, but it’s not necessary.
• Add soaked almonds into a blender with 3 to 4 of cups of water, depending on how you want the finished product to taste.
• Blend thoroughly and add whatever seasonings you wish: salt, vanilla, maple syrup, honey, cloves or cinnamon (you can really be inventive here, so don’t be scared).
• After adding your flavorings, blend one last time for good measure.
• Strain through muslin or a cheesecloth‐lined strainer.

There you have it: fresh, delicious almond milk.

So now that we have successfully distracted ourselves from our studies, let’s get back to work, but don’t forget to bring the delicious snacks you have made. Perhaps as you reopen your book to resume the odyssey of a student, you can think back to how you can do magic with only a few simple steps and some ingredients from your kitchen — or you can go back and make almond butter with the leftover almonds. For this dauntingly complex task, put your almonds in a food processor and process it for 20 to 30 minutes — or, really, however long it takes to get the almond butter to a consistency you enjoy. Then you have almond butter, which is great on apples or other fruits. You could also start melting chocolate and make almond butter cups instead of peanut butter cups, but then you might run out of time for your assignment.

Happy studying, and happy cooking!

Contact Aaron Kitchin at akitchin@dailycal.org.

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