A little while back, the fine people at Louisville Vegan Jerky Company sent our studio a few sample bags of their new, non-jerky product, their Unreal Vegan Bacon Bits.

We’ve long been fans of their namesake product, which we first wrote up last year—it’s a softer, drier vegan jerky that (most importantly) is leans on short lists of simple, recognizable ingredients for their flavor-packed taste profile.

As it happens, the company’s jerky originated as a happy accident, as founder Stanley Chase explains:

“Louisville Vegan Jerky Company was started in my home kitchen back in 2012. Having spent some time in Oahu as a child, I was craving manapua one night and decided I would try to create a vegetarian version. Typically manapua is made by stuffing char sui (bbq pork) into a sweet dough and steaming it. I got an old recipe for the char sui from my mother and decided to bake the soy protein I was using instead of sauteing it. I was busy trying to get the dough ready and chatting with roommates when the smell of bbq hit my nose. I realized I didn’t set a timer. I ran into the kitchen grabbing the baking sheet out as quick as I could only to find overdone faux char sui. I was going to make another attempt from scratch when I decided I’d try the burnt char sui anyways. I couldn’t believe it, it was the worst char sui I’d ever had, but the best vegan jerky in the world! I scooped up what was on the tray, put the new jerky creation into ziplock bags and went to my favorite local bar that always has a full patio of people. I started passing the bags around the picnic tables, within 20 minutes everyone was talking about the jerky asking where they could buy it. Most of the people eating it weren’t even aware it was vegan! A couple of weeks later I had the first round of bags selling inside a couple of Heine Brothers Coffee shops and Rainbow Blossom grocery stores around Louisville.”

Louisville Vegan Jerky Company’s new faux bacon bits follow the same formula as their jerky, diverging from path of the crunchy, brittle soy bits (yes, Bac-Os are indeed vegan, as Farm Sanctuary founder Gene Baur recently informed Daily Show host Jon Stewart). The Unreal Vegan Bacon Bits instead focusing on flavorful, smokey, soft chunks of soy that make use of tamari, maple syrup, natural smoke flavor, and beet juice for their crave-worthy taste and pleasing color.

We’d highly recommend giving these a try the next time you’re looking to dress up a meal—Los Angeles, you can pick up LVJC’s products at Organix + nearby Follow Your Heart Market; the company’s store locator shows other physical locations along with online purveyors that carry both their jerky and vegan bacon bits.

Below, some culinary experiments we conducted with the vegan bacon bits, all wildly successful: spinach salad with homemade vegan ranch; loaded baked potato with melted Chao; Beyond Meat’s Beast Burger with Follow Your Heart slices; and pile of the delectable bits about to be eaten total on their own, which, I warn you, is a strong temptation to overcome when these things are just hanging around your house.

An impressive cartographic map as art, employed by Portland, Maine’s Hunt + Alpine Club, a cute, new-old-world craft cocktail joint that serves predictably not-so-vegan-friendly Scandinavian fare…but great pickles.

We were particularly impressed by the Bonescrusher—a spicy, smokey concoction of mezcal, lime, agave, and red pepper created by Boston-based mixologist, Josh Gertsen.

We’re also clearly fans of their branding, thus the…borrowed map/menu. Designed by Portland’s own Might & Main, as we’re informed by Briana at H+A.

Niagara Falls, circa 2002.

Today, we’re starting a new regular piece that—for now, at least—is called “Please, Explain Sports”. In the content of said piece, we’ll employ our longtime friend and sports fan Hemal Jhaveri—Senior Social Media Editor at USA TODAY Sports Media Group—to…essentially explain sports.

In both my case and Katie’s, neither of us has ever been that into sports in the past. But I’ve had a gradual if not totally uneducated love of soccer grow within me in the past years and, in general, both of us have come to appreciate the wide world of sports much more than our against-the-grain, “ANGRY BANDS AND PIERCINGS ARE MY SPORT!” personalities. Thus this late-in-life education, courtesy of our friend, Hemal.

To the right, the author + Katie posing in Griffith Park like they’re an awesome new TV cop team.

For other…less familiar sports fans out there, we’ve linked through to explanations on a few terms below—I don’t know about you, but I had no idea what a postseason berth was, but it sounded a little gross. And yes, we even hyperlinked team names. I don’t know. Maybe someone, like, just got out of a weird cult and doesn’t know who the Mets are.

Alright, Hemal, we batted a few things around to start off with—see, I can do a moderate sports analogy—but you seem especially stoked on baseball right now. I’ll be honest—and I’m not kidding here—I’ve spent 4-7 innings of the last three baseball games I’ve attended looking for vegan nachos that I don’t think exist at Dodgers stadium. So, enlighten us on this thing you call ‘base ball’.

Baseball, of course! A lot of people will try to tell you that college football, which starts in a couple of weeks, is great, but these people don’t know anything. Don’t listen to them. With about two months left in the season, MLB is where it’s at, and right now, the Mets are occupying a huge chunk of my time and affection.

I’ve been a Mets fan for a long time but what you have to first understand about this team and what makes them so intriguing right now, is that they usually aren’t very good. In fact, they have a well-earned reputation for being comically awful. The Mets are so bad that fans invented the hashtag #LOLMets to describe the team. Trust me, it gets used a lot.

At the start of the season, the Mets looked good, but fans expected the same thing that happens every year—a lot of promise that eventually implodes as the season heads to the final stretch.

But, as of Wednesday, the Mets are leading the National League East (by one game), finished a sweep of division rivals the Nationals and have won five straight games.

This team is actually good! Strong pitching and hot bats have a lot to do with this of course, but it’s been an emotional rollercoaster that pivoted on a crucial few days last week.

About a week ago, with the MLB trade deadline approaching, the Mets set up a trade to ship right-hander Zack Wheeler and infielder Wilmer Flores to the Brewers for center-fielder Carlos Gomez..

Word got out, as these things often do, and Flores found out that he’d been traded from a fan as he walked out into the infield during the 7th inning of a game.

That’s just brutal. Flores, understandably, was crushed and unable to hold back tears as he finished out what he thought was his last game as a Met.

It was gut wrenching to watch. I don’t like to see anyone cry, much less an athlete.

But, in true Mets fashion, the deal fell through at the last minute and Flores got to stay with the team he loved. Which, yay!

But, the story gets better. In their next game, with the score tied 1-1, Flores hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of 12 inning against division rivals the Nationals and won the game. Everyone lost their damn minds. As he ran the bases, Flores kept pointing at the Mets logo on his uniform to show how proud he was to still be a Met.

That’s redemption right there.

No kidding, I almost cried.

The Mets have a beautiful history that’s built mostly on heartbreak and failure. If you’re a Mets fan, you’re not used to winning, just trying hard and falling short.

That’s what makes the last few weeks and the story of Wilmer Flores so compelling. Flores stayed with the club through some pretty lean years, and just like the fans, his loyalty isn’t built on wins but rather shared misery. For better or worse, this was his team.

I don’t think you can overestimate how something like that has kind of galvanized the team and the fan base. Since the trade debacle, the Mets are playing with more passion and emotion, and it seems like a postseason berth really is within grasp for the first time since 2006.

Now, with two months left in the season, all eyes are suddenly on the Mets to see if this team is actually for real.

The thing is, they might be. Or they could implode again and miss the postseason but regardless, it’s going to be so much fun to watch. Every game matters and now is a perfect time to hop on this bandwagon.

Hemal Jhaveri is the Senior Social Media Editor for USA TODAY Sports Media, a resident of the District of Columbia, and, above all else, an awesome person. In the past, she’s worked as Executive Director of Digital Innovation at Politico, Executive Producer at AOL, and—many lifetimes ago—was a student in a Geology 101 lab I TA-ed. Feel free to contact us if you have any sports-related questions you’d like Hemal to tackle.  

Above right, the author posing with a friend at CitiField; below, author being signed by the Mets. Actual sports photographs courtesy of the New York Post + Guardian, respectively.

I’m not really a likely candidate to sing the praises of an establishment with a goofy name and Comic Sans-rich menus that include items called things like WeeBee Jammin and KaaNoodling, but, for Portland, Maine’s Silly’s, I have step out of my usual uptight aesthetic snobbery.

The restaurant had been highly recommended as a must-go-to by multiple close friends when we visited Portland a few weeks back, and—with a richly deep, vegan-friendly menu and huge portions of house-made comfort foods—it fell far from disappointing. We walked away from our lunch wishing only that our stomachs were bigger so that we could eat more.

I reached out to Silly’s owner, Colleen Erin Kelley, to find out more about the restaurant’s history recently. Read on to hear how she stepped from a long history of local food services to restaurant ownership, why having such a flexible menu is important to her, and get her twenty-nine (!) recommendations on what to do when next in town.

raven + crow: So I know that you bought Silly’s from a pair of sisters who owned it originally—what was it like back then?

Colleen Erin Kelley: Yes—Deidre and Stephanie nice. But I don’t know, interestingly enough—I had never heard of Silly’s nor had I eaten here. I fell in love with it when I saw it for the first time in July of 2002…I purchased it in November of 2002.

Love at first site then. I know a lot…if not all of the recipes originate with you, correct?

Yes they do…but there are a few that I enhanced. The only original is the lamb marinade.

Do you have a long history in the food business or has it just been a passion of yours for a long time?

I do—my parents owned a restaurant in Brewer and I started working there when I was 7. Then I went on to the Seacrest on Cape Cod at 10, getting paid through my sister’s check, sorting silverware in the dish room.  So 41 years. And yes, you have to have a passion for it because you have to devote your life to a restaurant.

Sounds like. The menu’s insanely vegetarian- and vegan-friendly, way beyond your run-of-the-mill portobello burger or pasta primavera—was it like that before or where does that come from—you?

Comes from me. A long time ago I had a guest in a large party only able to have a salad on the menu which broke my heart and she felt like a pain in the butt asking all kinds of questions about what is in things etc. I vowed that anyone with any dietary needs will have choices at Silly’s and not feel like an outcast.

That’s awesome, especially knowing how that feels so well for so many years before this whole thing caught on more. We especially loved the fried tofu in Buffalo sauce and Vegan Meltaway (both pictured below). Do you have any vegan-friendly favorites on the menu?

I love the Imperial Thai Fighter portobello with all the veggies, the meaty mushrooms, and the ginger miso sauce.

That does sound nice. We really need to come back. Then, did the Nice sisters come up with the name Silly’s?

Yes—they were on vacation to Jamaica and went to Bongo Cilly’s and, when they came back, they were looking for a name and landed on Silly’s as an honor to their favorite Jamaican restaurant.

So it’s not a direct reference to that Einstein quote?

Nope. That came later

You all state on your menus that you make everything—sauces, dips, dressings, bread, baked goods—from scratch; that the only thing you don’t make are the tortillas. True?

True–except like ketchup or mustard or cheese etc.

You don’t make your own tofu or vegan cheese though, right?

Nope. I have 2 full-time prep cooks now that can’t keep up.

And—not to find fault with an incredibly admirable system—why not the tortillas? I’m guessing it’s just a million times easier and/or cheaper to buy them?

I would have to make 1500 a week and I don’t sleep now….I truthfully couldn’t handle it.

Where does the desire to make so much food from scratch come from?

I think if you want to own a restaurant, then it is important to make your own food, not open a freezer and a bag.

We saw that you have a few walls of photos of people posing with your bumper sticker at famous landmarks. How long has that been going on for and what’s the most exciting one you’ve got?

Before my time, although I have added a lot. I think Easter Island or the one above the erupting volcano on Reunion Island.

How long have you lived in Portland?

I actually live in Standish, but 22 years.

Have you seen it change a lot in that time?

An immense amount, but definitely I like change.

Our first visit was just a few weeks back, but the city—which we loved in our few days there—seemed to be undergoing that somewhat familiar change that’s happened over the years in Brooklyn and the other Portland and so many other cities of young people moving in, driving up real estate prices, bringing in craft breweries and artisanal this and that. Any opinions on any of that? I love pickles and beer, but I know it’s a complicated issue and one that’s got a lot of perspectives to be considered.

I think it is a natural progression of a city. I frankly don’t know what to think although I love a place that has so many small businesses. I am just hoping Portland doesn’t make too many decisions that will cull the rise in them.

Agreed. Favorite thing about this city?

It has something for everyone to do, see, and eat.

For anyone visiting from out of town, besides coming to visit Silly’s, any sites you’d recommend seeing or things you’d recommend doing?

Walking the back cove; Victoria Mansion; the museum; duck tour; lobstering; Sea Dog game; farmers’ market; an afternoon picnic in Deering Oaks; ice cream at Beals; Portland Observatory; walking the Old Port and Congress; going to see a movie at the Nick; Bull Moose music; Longfellow Books; SPACE Gallery; the wine and cigar shop; Miccucci’s; Portland Pottery; Bayside Bowl for some bowling; frisbee at the East End Park; following the Freedom Trail; the Jewish Museum; Coffee by Design; Standard Baking; the Bakers Bench in Westbrook—you can get their cream horns at Coffee by Design; Brown Trading; Union Bagel; Holy Donut; and my all-time favorite is the Armory Lounge in the Regency for shrimp cocktail and lobster bisque.

Wow. So, nothing, then…? Thanks so much for taking the time to talk, Colleen—hope to see you again soon.

Thanks so much for coming to Silly’s and take care.

Silly’s is located at 40 Washington Avenue, open Tuesday-Friday, 11AM-9PM; 9AM-9PM on Saturdays + Sundays; and closed Mondays. We’d highly recommend it to omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans alike.

Pictured above, a local draft IPA in Silly’s aluminum mugs; Pity the Fu—Buffalo-style fried tofu; and the Vegan Meltaway. Below, the loaded Vegan Nachos. You can see Silly’s full menu on their site.

A friend sent me and a few other Los Angeles-area people a message a few days back about this local visual artist—Joe Sola—and his recently opened solo exhibition, A Painted Horse by Joe Sola, at TIF SIGFRIDS in Hollywood. According to a recent Huffington Post article, Sola was inspired by a horse he saw painted like a flower at the Kentucky Derby a few years back.

The gallery’s write-up on the exhibit goes out of its way to explain how well Riba, the horse, is being treated, stating that she “will only be in the installation for opening hours.” They continue:

“For the duration of the exhibition she will be shuttled to and from her loving home in the San Fernando Valley by a professional horse wrangler who will look after her general health and provide her with fresh water and choice hay throughout the day. During the exhibition she will receive daily Reike treatments to both measure and support her well being. The artist, working with a leading professional animal groomer, used creative grooming hair dye specifically designed for use on animals. Only four visitors at a time will be permitted into the gallery to view the exhibition.”

On a friend’s Facebook post regarding the exhibition, someone tied to the show/gallery explains further: “Both the gallery and the owner of Riba could not love animals more, we would never dream of putting an animal in a situation where he or she is not completely comfortable and happy.”

We could go back and forth until the end of time, I imagine, as to what we think the animal thinks about all of this. The closest analogy I can personally make is how my dog would feel if I did this to him. I have no doubt that I could use these special vegetable dies designed for animal use to get him looking pretty funky in a similar manner without harming him or causing him much discomfort. And he might even like it—as far as I could figure, since he can’t tell me—assuming we gave him enough dog treats and told him he was pretty enough, Pavlov-style.

But I think that’s all a bit beside the point and gives clarity to the gallery + artist’s need to oversell the lack of cruelty by hauling in an animal grooming specialist and Reike practitioners. It’s not about physical harm; it’s about exploitation and humiliation. We’d never do this to a human who couldn’t communicate consent or lack thereof because it would be a clear violation of their free will and violent disregard for their humanity—it’d be active humiliation of another being.

Violence doesn’t have to include the use of physical force—though I imagine Riba would have walked away if given the option to do so while being painted and prepped for this exhibit and likely had to be physically restrained. Point being though, violence can and does, every day, involve both physical force and/or power to harm or deprive a being of its rights.

One can argue humanity—or a similar concept—is one that remains unique to humans and even that animals have no inherent rights. But that’s where my ilk in the animal rights + ethical vegan community would diverge from anyone holding such a point of view. That’s why we don’t eat animal flesh, it’s why we don’t partake in animal milk or other products made from it, and it’s why many of us see this exploitation of animals for the sake of humans’ entertainment as abuse and violence, regardless of all the good intentions, well-meaning words, carpeted floors, air conditioning, and channeling of equine healing energy in the world.

It’s violent and wrong.

The exhibition itself ends after this Saturday. I’m not usually one to wish negativity on others and certainly don’t for anyone involved in the show, but here’s hoping it did terribly and travels nowhere.

Photographs by Joe Sola.

Posting our eighth consecutive monthly mixtape today, featuring new songs from some longtime favorites like Oxford’s Foals, Danish prog-rockers Mew, and Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, newly renamed Jr Jr (which evidently the real Dale Earnhardt Jr is kinda bummed about).

We’ve also got some great songs from newcomers like Swedish folk trio Small Feet, North Carolina’s emotively, blissfully chaotic Adjy, and Stolen Jars, who we interviewed early this year and who’s planning their full-length debut later this month (free downloads of the three singles from that album on the band’s site, by the way).

Enjoy!

Another from our old Web site’s photo portfolio—a manually overlapped panoramic shot shot with a Holga of the California coast near San Francisco, circa 2004 or so.

From our photo archive—the former portfolio of photography that we culled from our old Web site design: Flowers + light in Brooklyn.

A while back, in preparation for the wedding that I recently officiated for friends in western Massachusetts, I sought out some new wedding duds, starting with the pocket square and building out from there.

I ended up finding a beautiful one that I ended up buying at Modern Folk in Ojai, made by a company I’d been aware of but hadn’t really known previously—Kiriko out of Portland, Oregon.

To say that Kiriko is obsessed with the materials they work in is putting it mildly. As they state:

“Textiles tell a story. Long ago, patterns had meaning. Cloth was hand-woven and dyes were seasonal. Each scrap of fabric brought back time and place. We cycled through seasons, not trends. We made memories, not mass-produced goods. Then we began to lose touch with tradition. We stopped treasuring our clothes. At Kiriko, we believe fabric is everything. We searched Japan for centuries-old denim, hard-died shibori, and vibrant kasuri. Our scarves and ties showcase traditional craftsmanship and care. Wear them. Love them. Hand them down.”

Most of us can relate to the idea of a treasured garment—a memory-soaked jean jacket handed down from your father, for instance; something made to last, not be replaced. It’s a concept that had been all too rare before recently. Now, it’s a popular one in many circles, but one that usually caries a hefty price tag, wether you feel it’s justified or not.

One recent trend that’s been a bit enigmatic in my mind is the obsession with indigo dying; an obsession very central to Kiriko’s core principals and one they explain with far more expertise than we can claim:

“Ai-zome is a natural indigo dyeing technique originated in Japan. The Ai-Zome process spans over three hundred days, from planting to the creation of the dye pigments.

Artisans are deeply involved in every step in the process, from seeding, reaping, desiccating, and fermenting to make these deep indigo pigments. While most dyeing techniques are seasonal, using raw plants to extract pigments, Ai-Zome pigments use a dried indigo and can be used and made all year round. The dye liquor is free of chemical products as the artisans use only lye and coal in the pigment mixture.

Ai-Zome is traditionally only used on natural fabrics. Usually cotton, the fabric is repeatedly dipped and soaked into the indigo liquor over twenty times over the course of many weeks to bring out the rich color. Ai-Zome has a particularly exceptional dark blue compared to other indigo dyes. This traditional, natural technique unfortunately has been diminishing by the development of new dyeing techniques. Today, less than 1% of indigo dyed garments are using natural, chemical-free indigo dyes similar to that of Ai-Zome.

Why natural dying is better than chemical? Fabric fibers bond with natural indigo cells, allowing the dye to adhere more effectively. While chemical indigo cells will take, the weak bond creates a dye that easily washes away and bleeds onto other materials. The larger, natural indigo bonds hold strong, and are less likely to transfer through day-to-day use.”

So, this is way beyond Rit Royal Blue.

Kiriko certainly represents one of these new, heavy-in-process, return to artisan quality companies, some of whom seem to be profiting off cyclical trends, some of whom truly seem to have a passion and reason for what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. This company strikes me as one that falls more in the latter category than in the former and—though I’ll avoid the products they choose to pair with animal leather—I definitely plan to purchase more of their ties, pocket squares, and other textile products.

You can watch Kiriko’s promotional video below. All images, save the one of my pocket square, from Kiriko’s Web site, from which you can order products directly.