My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 24

Oyster shooters

What a night of partying with my relatives. It is very common to find my relatives having parties almost every weekend. We love food and quality time together to its full capacity. My cousin Linh was making seafood hot pot which was very appealing to me but soon to find out she used pork bones in her soup base (smh). However, there were plenty of oysters to go around so I decided to load up on them until I have had enough, it took about 10 oysters to to get there. These were cooked oyster shooters rather then raw because these gigantic oysters are not safe to eat raw. The ones you could eat raw are the smaller more rounded oysters found at seafood restaurants. These are simple to make, just add some lime juice with ground black pepper, sriracha sauce, and sautéed green onions with oil. They come together pretty nicely especially with a little sprinkle of chopped peanuts.

I then dove right into the main course. I utilized the squid, fish filets, tofu, mushrooms, shrimp along with a variety of vegetables to have it go with the vermicelli noodle. Separate from the seafood I boiled the vegetables in water with a teaspoon of vegetarian broth seasoning. In an aluminum pan I added all the seafood with the tofu and set it on the charcoal grill for about 10 minutes. Served it with soy sauce and lime juice, man talking about a great alternative to seafood hotpot. Wish my cousin had made the broth with fish rather than pork bones.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 23

I love sushi

For the last couple of weeks I have this high rush of sushi craving in my system. Just a couple of days ago I was at Shima Japanese Restaurant for dinner. A great Japanese restaurant with a Zen like ambience, but rather pricey for the sushi that they serve. The food presentation isn't as great as most modern sushi restaurants I have eaten prior, (i.e Ki Sushi in La Jolla). The portions are smaller but as I read in an article recently, in the Japanese culture people would only eat to 80% to their stomach's full capacity. The term for this diet is Hara hachi bu which means “Eat until 80% full (literally, stomach 80%)". This is one of the reasons why Japanese are the one of the healthiest human beings in the world. Photo below was retrieved fro http://www.presentationzen.com.

The only meal I had today was dinner. Ask why? Well I skipped breakfast and lunch due to working with a client in Hollywood and then had to make my way to Brea to consult another. That left me no time for a quick meal and I wasn't in the mood for a quick fixing at the drive-thru. I find myself at Ichiban sushi restaurant in Brea, Ca, the sign outside says celebrating 23yrs in business. So I thought this place must be known for something great. I ordered the shrimp crunchy roll as my appetizer and then I had to custom order an entree that they did not have on the menu which was fish katsu. This was the same dish I ordered at KI Sushi in La Jolla a couple of weeks ago. My first impression of this restaurant was it has a charming personality for being opened for 23 years. As I was eating my edamame, my crunchy roll came out and let me tell you, the food presentation was not what I would expected at a sushi restaurant. This goes the same to my salad, rice, and the fish katsu. The sushi chef had to take my fish katsu from the waitress and set the plate himself or else my waitress would've just given me the 3 pieces of fish in a basket.

As I am sitting there enjoying my dinner trying to stay positive about the place since the food did not look overwhelmingly attractive. It dawned on me that the 23 years of this establishment being in business. It may have contributed to why their food is served in a simple less fancy way. That is when I started to appreciate the place and as customers were walking in, sushi chefs at the sushi bar were very inviting and greeting them by their names. The history of this restaurant may have kept its vintage charm by keeping its personality since the first day it opened. While exiting the restaurant, I looked at one of the walls and it had signed photographs of what seems to be celebrities, sports athletes and public figures. After all this place does have a history, charm and good o'l sushi food.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 22

Pineapple braised fish with kimchi and rice

Life is really about enjoying what you eat whether you are a meat eater, vegetarian or vegan. Technically speaking for people who love and appreciate the art of food. I'm blessed to be around people who are really good cooks (mom, cousins and aunties). I myself is getting there... one day I suppose. For now it's just observe, eat and learn.

The pineapple braised fish I had tonight was satisfying and went well with a side of kimchi. Pineapple makes almost everything thing taste so good. It adds a little kick of sweetness to the sauce and gives off that nice pineapple flavor. I usually braise catfish than any other fish because it is my favorite to eat in an Asian dish due to the fatty skin on them. At this point I'm pretty tired of fish, forgot about meat and craving tofu so bad. One of the reasons why I haven't been eating as much of tofu lately is because I don't want to play it out. It is going to be a big part of phase 2 as I'm 8 days away from.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 21

Banh tet (Vietnamese rice cake)

It is only fair to let everyone know what I had for lunch and show you what banh tet looks like from the inside. For lunch I had my aunt's banh tet that she gave me as mentioned from my previous post. It was a little strange to have these for lunch because it tasted more like a dessert because of the banana filling which makes it very sweet. I savored every bite of it and I'm only down to half a roll left and I am not in any hurry to devour the rest of it any time soon. I've had banh tet in a variety of different fillings before, mung beans with pork, mung beans by itself and these with bananas. I really don't like the one that just has only mung beans because it tastes dry but I love these with bananas as they are very tender in the center. Go out and get yourself one during Lunar New Year which is somewhere at the end of January because only during this time it is when banh tet is consumed the most.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 20

Vegetarian Pho

I went over to one of my aunt's house for dinner tonight. Seems like something I find myself doing ever so often. On the way there I decided to stop by Pho Island restaurant which is nearby and they serve a great bowl of vegetarian pho, says one of my aunts. I figured it would be polite to bring my aunt and her family a dish from the restaurant to share around the dinner table. I picked up a deep fried tarp that came with a seasoned savory sauce along with my veggie pho.

My vegetarian pho came with a lot of vegetables, carrots, napa cabbage, celery, mushrooms, green onions, bean sprouts and Thai basil (single most important vegetable for any pho). I love the tofu put in, it wasn't too soft, breakable or chewy but rather a firm texture and to the point of goodness. The broth was wonderful made from 100% vegetable broth and although the aroma and flavor were not up to the standard of a regular bowl of pho, it got the job done.

So my aunt was preparing dinner and I had to snap a couple of photos of what she was making that could possibly be another type of vegetable I could utilize in my vegetarian diet. These are called water spinach or Chinese spinach which ever you prefer. It's my #1 favorite Asian vegetable, I have worked with them before and they're pretty easy to dish out an awesome side dish. Here it was being prepared for a soup she was making that included some shrimp. I could've had it but decided to pass it up because my vegetarian pho was a handful.

To start off my dinner I had what you call it banh tet in Vietnamese or rice cakes for the lack of a better term. Usually the filling is made up of mung beans and pork meat rolled up in glutinous rice, I checked with my aunty before diving in and she said these were filled with bananas that turn a purplish-red color after hours of steaming. They were delicious, I had two slices before dinner and best of all my aunt personally made it today. She actually gave me one roll to take home. Thanks aunty!

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 19

Pescetarianism

A term defined as "a dietary choice in which a person, known as a pescetarian, eats any combination of vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans, fish or invertebrate seafood, but will not eat mammals or birds. Some animal products like eggs and dairy may or may not be part of a pescetarian diet plan." If you'd like to understand more about this diet and how it is perceived by the Vegetarian Society then feel free to wiki "pescetarian". From my understanding that although it is a diet of choice, the Vegetarian Society does not somehow consider pescetarianism a valid vegetarian diet. I totally agree, one cannot claim s/he is a vegetarian if fish or seafood is part of their diet. My perspective is that if you're a vegetarian because you love PETA but would consume fish or seafood, you are not a vegetarian! Why give rights to those mammals or birds but not living creatures in the the sea?

I'm not in love with PETA or have a strong feeling against animals being slaughtered for food. I'm on this vegetarian challenge because I'm welcoming new changes in my life and I want to understand for a period of time what vegetarians eat. To better understand something you must put yourself in that situation and experience it first hand. I'm 11 days away from exiting my pescetarian diet and into a vegetarian diet. I'm a little scared because I would have to pay more attention to what I eat to consume enough daily nutrition values so that I could function properly.

My morning started off pretty late. Found myself inside a grocery store doing some shopping. To manage my craving for a salad, I bought a 1/2 lb. of Italian pasta from the deli. It was so good, probably one of the best I had so far or at least from my recent memory. For dinner, I was at my aunt's house and she had made shrimp wontons noodle soup. Even though I could not eat the soup due to the fact that the stock she made was from pork bones. I decided to make my own version in a dry form. I did consume the shrimp wontons because my pescetarian diet allows me to. In a bowl I added the rice noodle and egg noodle with cooked bean sprouts and green onions topping it off with fried shallots. I then drizzled some soy sauce that I made, it included red chili paste, some fresh squeeze lime juice and of course soy sauce (free of any animal product). It was delicious, and people said to me "Tim, you really know how to eat even though you're on this vegetarian challenge of yours". It helps when you've been cooking for quite some time now.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 18

What's up dog?

Yesterday at the grocery store I bought a pack of veggie hot dogs, as you can see from the post below. The brand is Lightlife and it is called Smart Dogs, a veggie protein link that offers 15g of proteins mostly from soy. Standing in the produce section in front of an assortment of vegetarian food products, I couldn't make up my mind on whether I should get the tofu dogs or these. Not so keen on how they differ on taste from each other because honestly I've never had a veggie hot dog ever! Rather I'd prefer a hearty polish sausage or a German brat, now that's a real dog. So the tofu dogs are going to have to wait until I deplete these which should take me about a week or so.

Compared to it's counterpart these veggie links smell funny (not a big fan) and taste a little funky to me. If only I went with those tofu links then maybe my perception of a vegetarian hot dog isn't so bad after all. With my wild imagination for lunch today, I wanted to explore outside the box for a meal. A hot dog, a bun and some ketchup would be too boring and bland. So I spruced it up by adding some mozzarella cheese and used some of the Hunt's vegetables pasta sauce to create something with enough oomph in taste. My bun of choice was the 100% whole wheat allowing 22g of whole grain per serving. Now that's some energy to get excited about.

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 17

"In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail"

Went to Stater Bro's today to do some grocery shopping for a recipe that I wanted to make for lunch. I was inspired by a good friend of mine Kimiko who sent me a text message a few weeks ago as we were having a conversation about my vegetarian challenge. She suggested that I make eggplant parmesan because it's "so good" as she puts it. I grabbed the ingredients necessary for the dish and a few other vegetarian goodies while I'm at it.

For my eggplant parmesan I decided to use mozzarella cheese rather than parmesan, I know it's weird right? Well lets just call it eggplant parmesan anyway just because lol. I have never worked with eggplants before so I took a leap and let faith decides where it goes. I want to couple the eggplant with some fettuccine tossed in a vegetable marinara sauce. Without doing a little research into how to cook an eggplant I knew that the eggplant was going to get fried up anyhow. Little did I know, eggplants tend to act as a sponge when frying it in oil without smothering it with egg batter and coat it with bread crumbs. Within 1 minute, the slice of my eggplant soaked up all the oil in the pan. Long story short, I then tossed it into the oven for about 15mins and baked it at 225 degrees. It looked great but after a few bites I felt that this is not how it's suppose to taste, the texture just wasn't up to par. So with a trash can nearby and it looked hungry, so I fed it with the eggplant. I ended up just eating the fettuccine which by the way superb!

I had to admit, I failed at attempting to work with eggplants for the first time. It happens to the best of us or maybe just some of us. Failing is a process of learning and even if you did fail, there was a fortune cookie I came across with the message saying "In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail." It's true right?

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 17

Jazz Cat Shabu-shabu

Once again got invited out to have a late night dinner with some friends. Although I enjoyed my dinner at home eating rice with mango squid salad but I had the urge to go out and enjoy this Friday night. Met my friends up in Rowland Heights where they were eating stinky tofu as a snack at one of the spots in an alley of a plaza. I took my first sample of stinky tofu and I was not a fat, thanks to Icebreakers for taking care of the bad taste in seconds (those do come in handy). We decided to head over to Jazz Cat a fusion shabu restaurant that happens to open pretty late. Friends gave me an awkward look when I ordered the veggie plate with a veggie soup base. As you can see that the hot pot did not look appetizing at all. Was told that it was just water and a hint of some unknown spice with one shiitake mushroom. My veggie plate includes enoki mushrooms, tofu, napa cabbage, baby bok ch0y, baby corn, celery, carrots and squash. Throw it all in the pot, it looked very appetizing then. I served it with udon and rice and gave it two thumbs up!

It was somewhat difficult as I was sitting with my friends eating and for the entire time we were at Jazz Cat it was tempting to see their hot pots come in different flavors and types of meat. Then there was my veggie hot pot. What can I say? A challenge is a challenge and finding myself in situations like this one only makes me stronger.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 16

Pound for pound

Absolutely amazing! I never would've thought I would lose weight that much and that often. I stepped on the scale today and wasn't sure if the needle was working correctly or the scale was off balance. Scale seemed perfectly fine and then that's when it dawned on me, I had lost 10 lb in two weeks. Don't think for a second that I've been starving myself ok because I'm not, I've been moderately eating and without any red meat my appetite has gone down just a bit. After losing 25 lb. last summer where I went from 178 lb. down to 153 lb. It was 3 months of dedication running 2.5 miles 4-5 days a week. Since then I've been steady around 160 lb. and now without any running or having long dates with the gym for the past couple of weeks. I'm blown out of my freaking mind that this challenge I'm doing got losing 10 lb. in 2 weeks to 150 lb.! You can say I'm a boxer because I'm knocking my weight down one pound at a time.

To keep me on track to lose more pounds. I decided to take the left overs from last night and fried me up some tofu to make tofu vermicelli. Quite simple and quick recipe I decide to make for lunch. This is another one of those vegan meals you could say because I did not use fish sauce but rather soy sauce. It was delightful, pleasing and tasteful without giving you a blown stomach after eating. Has it been 16 days already? Holy cow, time flies when I'm having so much fun just eating. Or am I not?

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 15

Day by day

Not thinking too much on how I will get to day 90 because that is too far out and trying to figure out how I am going to get there would just discourage me more. It has become easier for me now than it was from day 1, although I'm mostly encouraged to have the same type of food repeatedly day after day. That would be too easy for me and I'm not looking for an easy way out. Have you ever done something but did not want to take the easy way out, instead it's more glorious doing it the difficult way?

Got a call from one of my sales reps asking me to go to lunch with him. He decided to head over to California Noodle & Grill down the block from our office. I asked the waiter what he recommends for a vegetarian rice plate and seafood would be ok. He pointed out the shrimp curds rice plate so I went with that and added in an egg done over and easy. I enjoyed it as much as my sales rep enjoyed his rice plate with BBQ pork chops which by the way I was not envious at all. As one meal goes down it was then to the next meal which was dinner which I had white rice with pieces of fish cakes several hours later. It is much easier to just take one meal at a time and then plan on what I want to eat for the next. Without paying attention to how many more days I have to put myself through this because it is somewhat depressing to think of it that way. Instead I am taking it day by day, soon enough I will realize that it is day 90.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 14

Eager for Vegan!

I swung for the fence today for dinner. Saw my aunt roasting up some eggplants again and I had to stand there to watch her do it so I could learn a thing or two. Simple as it seams but most of the work came when she had to peel off the outer skin of the eggplants which seems to me takes some patience. After seeing her put together this dish I wanted to share with everyone how delicious it looks.

The focus of my dinner was not on these roasted eggplants but what I was going to make for myself since I haven't made any recipes a little more than a week. I wanted to go all vegan for dinner and not have anything in my food containing any animal product. There were some left over Vietnamese wet cakes so I used what was left then added in pieces of cucumbers, bean sprouts, basils and right to the microwave for 1 minute. For my proteins, I cut up a block of firm tofu into rectangular blocks to deep fry them for about 5 minutes or so for the tofu to have a semi-firmness on the outside but soft inside. For my dipping sauce I used a simple soy sauce with a fresh red chili. I couldn't believe myself how easy, quick and delicious it was to make this.

BTW- I went and got myself an iPad 2 finally today! Now I can blog whenever I go out of town or on vacation. This blog looks pretty sweet on the iPad2! =)

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 13

In recent days I've been commuting to and from La Jolla, Ca a lot to see my clients. which means I have been eating out on the road a lot. After about 2pm I was sitting out front in front of my favorite Starbucks location in La Jolla and enjoying a roasted vegetable panini. I never had it before and the last time I was there as in my previous post I had the Sesame Noodles. I figured why not give it a try. Am I missing something here? Why is it that the deeper I explore into vegetarianism, I'm amazed as to how delicious some of these vegetarian choices are that I would never pay attention to. My roasted vegetable panini included red peppers, zucchini, eggplant, onions, and provolone cheese on focaccia bread, absolutely yummy! A 350 calorie panini that includes 13g of protein without any meat or tofu? call it a complete meal! =).



Decided to stay in La Jolla to have dinner at my favorite sushi place in UTC instead of fighting the 5pm traffic jam driving 2hrs back to Chino. The place is called Ki Sushi and Sake Bar located on 8650 Genesee Ave. #105 in the Costa Verde Shopping Center. I used to live about 2 minutes away from here and it is my to-go-to sushi restaurant. Hungry and have a long drive home ahead of me I decided to load up on some sushi (not a good idea). I started out with the spicy crunchy tuna roll. It was actually a lot bigger than I assumed from the picture in the menu. It was the best crunchy tuna roll I've ever had. Then came my entree the Fish Katsu entree. The area around the bar where I was sitting looked like I was eating dinner for a family of four. My fish katsu was served with white rice,miso soup, salad and three sides (vegetable eggroll, sauteed garlic vegetables and edamame). The fish katsu was crunchy, and their version of a white honey mustard dipping sauce made the experience amazing. I love everything that came with it even the salad! Stuffed and the entire drive home even now at 12:24am Im still stuffed while my stomach is feeling a little bit of a pain. It was worth it!



-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian challenge DAY 12

A friend of mine texted me early in the day on going to the Orange County Fair along with other friends of ours. It was a Sunday so I thought what's there better to do than going to a fair? Before heading out, I went to get some late lunch and had a small cup of brocolli cheese soup. A few hours later there I was at the fair. The first fair I went to this year and the first ever Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa. The first thing I noticed by my sense of smell was the enormous amount of food vendors serving up some over-the-top food such as beef kabobs, 1/4lb 12" jumbo hot dogs, humongous cheese burgers and a plethora of junk food goodies.



Of course I had to stick to my 90-day challenge so I was only limited to a cheese pizza and Australian Battered potatoes lol! Let me tell you, these battered potatoes were over the top and boy did I get plenty of them (for the friends and I of course). Not fun when you're on a pescatarian diet working your way into a vegetarian diet and you're at a fair! To add insult to injury, I was envious when my friends teased me with their turkey legs, jumbo hot dogs, and beef kabobs. Not for one second that I was thinking on throwing in the towel and say "the heck with this challenge". Besides the food vendors, I enjoyed a wonderful staged show by the Peking Acrobats, and a comedian hypnotist Mark Yuzuik. Fair runs from July 15th- August 14.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 11

It's day 11 now and it seems like I've been eating out more than putting those two vegetarian cook books I bought to some use. Not sure if I'm confident enough to whip some recipes up in the kitchen or it's because I'm just too lazy and find it much easier to eat out. My meal started with a 2 items entree at a local Chinese food to go. For my carbohydrates I went half and half with fried rice and chow mien noodles. For sides I went with stir fry vegetables that include mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, and mushrooms and 4 cream cheese won-tons. It delicious but I could only eat several spoons full because of my limited appetite.



For dinner I had white rice, sauteed fish with tomato sauce and roasted eggplants which were awesome. My aunt makes it all the time and it's because of that I have acquired a taste for eggplants. She puts the eggplants on top of the gas stove to roast them then cut them into small pieces where they will be lightly seared in a sauce pan. She then topped them off with some chopped green onions. Just perfect taste and texture. Oh how I love being a a vegetarian. Just 19 more days where I will switch to an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet. Can't wait!

-Timothy Pham

My 90-Day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 10

Delicious! Did not have my first meal until 2pm. Went to Starbucks and purchased a packed lunch-ables style Asian noodles with tofu. I had my choice of either an egg salad sandwich or a bell pepper with mozzarella cheese panini but instead I went with my Asian instinct. It was nicely packed with with the tofu cubes and cucumbers in their own little container with the noodles tossed in a mix of spices and vegetables.



When it came to dinner time I went over to one of my cousin's house because she was making dinner. I was amazed what she had made, we're talking about duck porridge, Vietnamese salad with duck meat, shredded cabbages, Thai basil, mint, onions all tossed with some lime juice and fish sauce. She also was baking fish in the oven for the spring rolls. Although I was tempted at the duck meat I tried really hard not to break my challenge, I prevailed!



What I had was an amazing dinner that consisted my own vegetarian version of the Vietnamese salad where I substituted the duck meat with some tofu. Don't freak out now because I made my own batch so it wasn't like I picked out pieces of the duck meat then put the tofu in. After the salad I dove right into the baked fish and rolled it up with rice paper, cucumbers, vermicelli, lettuce with steamed carrots and daikons.



-Timothy Pham

My 90-day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 9

How can I go 9 days without having any kind of red meat and not miss it? Truth is I do crave it and I have been tempted from looking at them as they're sitting in the fridge or on the counter. My aunt loves to tease me but I am strong and I can hold off on it. Skipped breakfast and went right to lunch. As I was driving home from the office I craved for some Phad Thai with only tofu, turned my car around and went to California Thai Kitchen here in Chino, Ca. A great small charming restaurant which I have dined in a couple of times. I got the lunch portion rather than the dinner portion because I knew I couldn't eat that much. My appetite has gotten cut down due to the fact that I have been able to control my eating habit. It came with a small bowl of soup, the waiter told me that the soup did not have any meat in it but I never asked if the broth was made from a meat stock such as beef or chicken. I took a chance and from my taste buds I felt that it was innocent. The soup had mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and had that sweet and sour taste to it FTW! The Phad Thai was really good, I asked for a lot of tofu and it was granted. For dinner I stopped by Costco to grab a slice of cheese pizza, sprinkled some onions on it with a swirl non-fat yogurt. Enough to get me full for several hours until I just had a small bowl of rice with some sardines and chili bean curd sauce.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 8

Back to back busy day of work. Had a small serving of Multi-Grain Cheerios for breakfast to start my day. Made plans for dinner in La Jolla with a friend of mine whom I met in a research lab. Arrived in La Jolla around 4:30pm with only breakfast in my stomach. Tired and hungry, she recommended Piatti an Italian restaurant in La Jolla Shores since the place I had chosen La Vita Dolce Ristorante wasn't open until 5pm (sucks). Upon arriving to Piatti, the look of the place is very charming inside and out. We decided to take a table outside to enjoy the beautiful outdoor scenery and sunshine. Our server she was very nice and sociable especially when I told her I was doing a 90-day vegetarian challenge. She herself is a 5 year veteran being a vegetarian until she gave it up after getting drunk at a beach bbq (fun story she told). As we were going over the menu I asked a lot of questions about the food they were serving just to make sure no meat product is involved. She went to check with the chefs and indeed the sauce for my pasta does not include chicken broth. Sounds like I was being difficult with my choices but I did not want to feel I'm cheating in this challenge.

Our waitress asked me how strict I was on this vegetarian thing and I told her that I will accept fish and seafood. She recommended that I order the Linguine Alla Pescatora (mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari, fresh fish, garlic, parsley, chili flakes & white wine tomato sauce). I did however, I substituted the linguine for the fettuccine pasta. I started out with a mixed green salad with a light Italian vinaigrette dressing which was awesome. Not to mention Piatti's bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip is to die for. Beats the typical butter other restaurants give you. When our waitress came out with my Fettuccine Alla Pescatora, I was blown away of the amount of fish and seafood in the pasta. All the flavors were there, the white wine tomato sauce was very pleasing made just right. As I was sitting there enjoying my dinner and having a wonderful conversation. I wish they would serve it in a bigger portion because it's that good! I would have to say thanks to my friend for recommending Piatti because I will be back.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 7

Didn't have breakfast at all and lunch? Well it was not eaten at the appropriate time. Rushing to get down to San Diego to meet with a client in the morning, of course traffic on the way there. On the way back it was pretty much the same story. However, did manage to eat my first meal of the day, unfortunately it was at Denny's. Ordered a side of onion rings and for the entree a Veggie Cheese Omelette. Portions were big and I had to finish the huge omelette including a generous serving to hash browns. It was pretty good, although I should have passed on the cheese but I loved what was in it. Fire-roasted peppers and onions, fresh spinach and mushrooms folded in with diced tomatoes, talking about flavors.

I came home around 6pm just in time for dinner and had an amazing home made fruit salad (apple chunks, lettuce, mango chunks, tomatoes, cherries, thai basil and mayo) then onto a bowl of white rice with fried tofu sprinkled with red ground chili flakes. Thanks to my aunt who made them and I took no time to devour my dinner. Honestly, I really don't miss meat that much since I'm starting to acquiring the taste of a vegetarian.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 6

Today was an exciting day. First off I got braces for the first time in my life. It was more of an impulse decision after receiving my consultation with an orthodontist. I've been told in the past that I should consider getting them because my teeth are grinding and there is a little of an overbite. For years I have been putting it off because I did not want to spend thousands of dollars for them, I was fine with the way my teeth were at the time. Somehow today I had the courage in me to say yes and I did, that yes costs me nearly $3,ooo for a full set of braces which I will have for the next two years, yikes! I know some people like my sister pay about $6500 for theirs and I was kind of happy that mine came in more than half of that. Two hours later I have my upper teeth fitted with braces then follow by the bottom set about a month later. I guess braces could help with my vegetarian diet to look on the positive side and also cuts down tremendously on the amount of junk food I'm not suppose to eat. Overall I really like how they look and I'm looking forward to see how much my smile and teeth look two years later.

Today was very satisfying as I woke up and had a small bowl of Multi-Grain Cheerios with Almond milk for breakfast before heading to the orthodontist to get my braces. I love eating this particular type of cereal because about a year ago it was introduced to me by a good friend of mine who came to visit me in San Diego (beautiful place) where I was living at the time. I really like the taste of 5 whole grains (corn, oats, barley, wheat and rice) altogether and it is really low in calories as well, 110 cal per serving. For lunch I was in a hurry because I had to drive to Los Angeles to meet with a client. I rushed home and had a small bowl of white rice with chilli beancurd sauce then out the door. I came home and my cousin who was visiting made an awesome noodle soup with mackerel. I remembered telling her that if she was going to cook something please keep my vegetarian diet in mind.

The noodle soup was amazing and please forgive me, I ate two portions =). The soup itself was flavorful with pineapple chunks, tomatoes, green onions and of course mackerel. Although I shouldn't feel bad about eating fish because in no time I will be an ovo-lacto vegetarian which means no fish or seafood to finish out this challenge. I was more interested in the soup itself and the vegetables she had out than trying to load up on as much mackerel as possible. I was able to limit the amount of mackerel as possible which works out well. Then 30 minutes later I had the urge to eat again so I had some white rice with the soup and some mackerel. I wasn't lying when I said in the beginning that today was a very satisfying day.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-day Vegetarian Challenge DAY 5

So far so good. Well I hope so as I progress into this challenge. I must say that I've been giving up a lot of great eats since. Whether I'm at home, out to dinner with friends, it seems like I'm envying what people around me are eating. My relatives still think that I'm going crazy and out of my mind continuing to eat vegetarian food. Most of the time they would say things to discourage me and it really bugs me when I'm getting that type of vibe from my own. Should your family encourage you when you're putting yourself to a challenge? Think back when you were going to school to be somebody, they always encourage you to do well and hope that once you finish school you'll become somebody great, am I right? Well that's not the type of encouragement I am getting but like I said from the beginning, I could care less because I'm doing it for myself not for anyone.

To help me through this process I have decided to do something that would do just that. Found myself inside Barnes & Nobel for about an hour because I never knew they had such a collection of books lol. I picked up two vegetarian cook books under the sale section (thumbs up!) and briefly looked through them and thought to myself that these were the books I'm going to take home with me. Not a bad choice, for a merely $20 I was well on my way to explore the world of vegetarian cooking.



Woke up today and had white rice with Vietnamese sour fish soup my cousin had bought from the night before. The only meat in the soup was of course the catfish however it did include a plethora of different vegetables. tomatoes, pineapple chunks, bean sprouts, so okra pods, Vietnamese rice paddy herbs, Vietnamese coriander, and taro stem were the mix. For lunch I went to a neighboring Vietnamese restaurant and ordered a plate of fried egg noodles vegetarian style with tofu being the main source of my protein. It was very good and satisfying. For dinner I had rice with spicy bean curds chili and mango shrimp salad leftovers. Sigh! another day down and I'm excited about the next day to see what I would be eating then. Everyday is a surprise because I don't know what I'll be eating.

-Timothy Pham

My 90-day Vegetarian Challenge Begins Now! DAY 4

I've been on this vegetarian diet for 3 days now and let me tell you my body doesn't feel any different than when I had meat in my diet, at least not yet LOL. I will try my hardest to keep all of you posted with updates on what I have been eating on this vegetarian diet. I'm getting a lot of criticisms from my relatives and my friends for doing this but who cares what they think right? I want to experience vegetarianism and understand the lifestyle of food vegetarians eat. So please tune in and hope that you could find this inspiring to set out your own challenge.

I made my first vegetarian meal for lunch which is the first. I wanted to start out easy and decided to make one of my favorite American recipes, spaghetti. Went to Stater Bros and picked up these simple ingredients and see if I could get them to work. Yes that is meatless meat lol! It doesn't taste or look like what you're used to but once you throw all the ingredients together, well it tastes almost the same as regular meat spaghetti. I kid you not it tasted pretty good especially with whole wheat penne.

-Timothy Pham