food

Pizza Research Institute now has another award to hang next to their handful of Best of Eugene certificates: The delicious pies and slices have led the tiny, tempting-smelling joint to be selected as one of the country's Top 10 Vegan-Friendly Pizzerias. They're sitting nicely in the middle of the pack at number five; the press release from PETA says:

The Pizza Research Institute is a much hipper place than its name implies. However, with all the one-of-a-kind pizzas they offer, you would think that there really were a staff of scientists in the kitchen. Health-conscious diners will find on the menu such items as the Chef's Choice, which redefines “veggie lover;” the "3P" with pears, potatoes, and pineapples; and toppings as far-out as corn on the cob.

Congrats, you guys! Funny, now I think I'm hungry for pizza...

The boyfriend and I wandered into the Bier Stein tonight on a whim, which is usually how we wind up there: "I think I'm hungry." "OK, what do you want to eat?" "Um, I dunno ... Bier Stein?" We have a thing for their sandwiches, though the pizzanini is still missed.

But anyway. I digress. The point is, we heard from Chip Hardy, who owns the beertastic place with his wife, Kristina, that today was the third anniversary of the Stein's existence. And we applaud that heartily. We applaud the variety of ever-changing taps; the ability to buy a bottle of regional microbrew at a price that splits the different between the grocery store and most bars; the beers we might never pick up anywhere else; the beers we might not find anywhere else; the availability of both Fullers ESB (which reminds me of post-collegiate drinking and is delicious) and Toohey's (Australian Budweiser equivalent that I still drink every so often just for the memories, because I'm nostalgic that way); the super-awesome, super-friendly staff; those sandwiches; and did I mention the beer?

(Thinking happy thoughts for the Stein makes up for thinking sad thoughts at Roger Federer earlier. Boo. Also hiss. I would much rather watch Federer remove his curly locks from his forehead before every damn serve than watch the other guy remove his undergarments from the snug parts of his derriere.)

According to press release from the UO, the school and Holy Cow have reached an agreement and the popular organic eatery is going to remain in the EMU for the next five years.

"After a competitive bid process, the university selected Laughing Planet, an Oregon restaurant firm, to take over the space occupied by Holy Cow. However, the university and Laughing Planet were not able to reach an agreement," says the release.

Inquiring minds want to know why U and the Planet couldn't reach an agreement.

The release left unsaid that the decision to replace Holy Cow raised the ire of vegans and Holy Cow lovers throughout the campus community.

According to the an April 19 story in the R-G, Holy Cow owner Kathee Lavine was looking into legal recourse to the café's now-moot removal from the EMU.

For now, the students have their Cow back, and Laughing Planet lovers can still get their burrito fix across town on Blair Blvd.

The only big change at Holy Cow, says the release, is the new option to use credit or debit cards.

A few weeks ago — or maybe it was more like a month, but it's unimportant — I went to one of these lovely Music Industry of Eugene events, where writers, booking folks, venue owners, radio people, studio owners, PR folks and more (I'm sure I forgot something pretty key) get to meet face to face to chat and mingle and simply find out who we all are. I kind of love this; it just always helps to actually know who someone is. This time out, the first person I met was Thaddeus Moore, who runs Sprout City Studios (I suppose I'll forgive him for only linking to the R-G story about the studios' tenth anniversary, and not ours as well). As it turns out, he and his wife also run The Divine Cupcake, an organic, vegan, cupcakes-only bakery.

I put the business card for the bakery in my wallet and didn't think about it again, except to giggle at the straightfowardness of a friend who told Thaddeus she'd heard one person rave about the bakery's cupcakes — and one person rant about disliking them. (They'd been for sale at the Country Fair, apparently, so she'd heard about them from friends.)

Then I went to the library today for a cup of coffee, and there in the pastry case were these charming little things. Well, regular ones, little ones, all kinds of ones. I only had eyes for the green (green?) mini cupcake with a huge chunk of candied ginger on top; I've got a weakness for candied ginger.

Of course, it turned out these were Divine Cupcakes. And mine was, indeed, divine. It was light and fluffy and sweet and completely un-identifiable as vegan. The frosting tasted just like cream cheese frosting. The cake stood up on its own, with a slightly spicy flavor it might be hard to peg as green tea if you didn't know what you were looking for (and there's nothing wrong with that), but with the frosting it was luscious and decadent, and with the ginger? With the ginger I wanted to go back and buy another.

You need to try these things.

I once had a group of students in my rhetoric class at the University of Iowa who wrote and presented about the problems with hog lot farming.

Now you may think, "This has nothing to do with me! I'm a vegetarian!" or "Hunh, I live in a city, yokels in Iowa mean less than nothing," or something like that.

Oh, my friend, my friend, farming — the ways of big agriculture — they affect us all. From the desire of farmers in the Klamath Basin to irrigate their crops — thus destroying the fishing industry and salmon runs up and down the West Coast — to the nitrogen-based fertilizers that farmers, at the whims of a greedy corporation, put on their crops (crops that are grown for hogs, for cows and for biofuel, not to mention for tofu, for tempeh, for soy isolates easily stuck into almost anything from tennis shoes to "protein bars," which means this does affect and involve you), those ways are the ways that ruin our planet.

But. Though I'm not a fan of more hybrids or more modified food, here is some good news about one possible development that may save the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico and the wheat farmers.

Huzzah, I say. (I like the direct-sow idea, but I know that large-scale farmers will want something less labor-intensive.) Huzzah, and let's please figure out something to help corn not be so evil as well.