Famous Vegetarians

Hollywood stars, artists, politicians, scientists, musicians, writers, spiritual leaders, sports men and women...vegetarians come from any background.

Abraham Lincoln

Albert Einstein

Leonardo Da Vinci

Ashoka the Great

Confucius

Aristotle

Plato

Socrates

Guatama Buddha

Vincent Van Gogh

Xavier Rudd

Portia De Rossi

Bryan Adams

Alanis Morissette

Avril Lavigne

Jim Carrey

Pamela Anderson

Shania Twain

Brigitte Bardot

Mohandas Gandhi

George Bernard Shaw

Bob Marley

Peter Tosh

Antoni Gaudi

Heather Mills

Damon Albarn

Tom Yorke

Jeff Beck

Jane Goodall

Sir Paul McCartney

Ringo Star

Joanna Lumley

Kelly Osborne

Elen DeGeneres

Fiona Apple

Carl Lewis

Moby

River Pheonix

Natalie Portman

Prince

Alicia Silverstone

Weird Al Yankovic

Philip Glass

Anne Hathaway

Jared Leto

Paris Hilton

Anthony Keidis

Linda McCartney

Gwyenth Paltrow

Eddie Vedder

Brad Pitt

Claudia Schiffer

Deepak Chopra

Jack Johnson

Jason Mraz

John Abraham

Kate Winslet

LaToya Jackson

Olivia Newton John

Orlando Bloom

Tommy Lee

Seal

Tracey Chapman

Me Goreng Indonesian style

This is a simple recipe using packet noodles but very authentic, the kind of dish you can pick up from a warung anywhere in Indonesia. Serves 4.

Ingredients

5 packets Indomie Mi Goreng instant noodles*

1 carrot, peeled and sliced in strips

1 red capsicum, sliced in strips

1 bunch bok choy or other green leafy asian greens, cut chunky

1 diced onion

2-3 cloves garlic, pressed and minced

small red and green chilli diced finely

oil for frying

1 block tempe cut into small slabs

4 eggs

fresh lettuce, shallots, sliced tomato and cucumber for side of dish

*Indomie is an Indonesian brand of noodles but easily available in most supermarkets or Asian grocery stores. Each packet contains noodles, seasoning, dried onion, oil, chili sauce and soy sauce.

Method

Cook the instant noodles in a pot of boiling water. Drain and cover in seasoning. Set aside.

Fry the onion, fresh chili and garlic until brown. Add the carrot then capsicum and cook until tender.

Add the noodles to the vegetables and squeeze out the packet sauce/oil and chili. Also add the green leafy vegetables now and stir evenly, careful to spread out the flavours.

In a seperate pan add about an inch of cooking oil for shallow frying. When the oil is heated add the slabs of tempe and cook submeged in the oil 3 minutes each side or until golden brown.

Fry 4 eggs and place aside.

Serve the noodles with fresh lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber with the fried egg on top and tempe on the side. Garnish with fried onions from the Indomie packet and chopped shallots.

Selamat Makan!

Why am I vegetarian? Why not?!

I’ve been vegetarian for over 13 years now and whenever I meet new people and we go out to eat they always ask me similar questions about my diet so I’d like to take some space to talk about it.

The tipping point? I was a kid at the zoo and of all the exotic animals, there was one particular pretty cow with lashes so long they grabbed my heart and cried moo. I decided then and there I didn’t want to eat animals and proceeded back to my Grandma’s house with my new news. Unfortunately for her she’d already prepared a dinner of sausages and chicken. Fortunately for me she was so senile that she didn’t notice as I slipped forkfuls of meat under the table in a hidden jar while complimenting her on her cooking.

I don’t want to eat something that has a living life. I think animals are wonderful special creatures with independent minds and emotions and I simply don’t want to eat something that was killed for me to consume. I also don’t like the idea of being a living human and putting dead flesh into my body. It doesnt make much sense to me to fill my living body with something decomposing inside me. Then there is ecological reasons. Long before climate change and methane gas became a hot topic, vegetarians have been trying to convince others of how beneficial a non meat consuming diet is for the planet. Cows contribute a huge amount of carbon which is contributing to our global climate change crisis. Also the imprints of their hooves on the top soil is damaging the earth and preventing a sustainable and fertile future for the land in which they graze. Many forrests are cut down specifically to graze cattle and the loss of trees not only lessons our planet’s ability to absorb excess carbon, but it threatens plant and wildlife dependant on these areas for their habitat and survival.

In terms of health benefits, it is said that a nutritious and balanced vegetarian diet decreases the risks of heart disease, osteoporosis and many types of cancer. Consuming meat may also transmit unhealthy viruses and food poisoning including salmonella, mad cow disease, stereroids, and growth and antibiotic hormones.

So basically I am vegetarian for spiritual, ethical, health and environmental reasons. I don’t like being pushy and vocal in person with other people about my vegetarianism but it is something I am very passionate about and believe in strongly. I encourage everyone to question their diets and consider a vegetarian diet for the health of themselves, the planet and of course the lives of innocent animals.