We recently said goodbye to Christina Bjarvin, our environmental outreach specialist for the last year, but she left us with a parting gift: one final episode of her YouTube series In the Kitchen with Christina.
In the Kitchen began in March as the team at Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association went into lockdown along with the rest of Seattle. Christina developed the cooking series as a way to showcase easy, plant-based recipes. In June, her role, along with the rest of the Nature team, shifted to field work. But In the Kitchen continued as a way to encourage plant-based eating, which can reduce environmental impacts without any sacrifice in deliciousness.
The final recipe is for pad thai. Christina’s take on pad thai uses tofu instead of common meats such as chicken and duck, and excludes fish sauce in order to make the recipe vegan. Pad thai is a dish with a fascinating history: during World War II, a national rice shortage prompted the Thai government to incentivize people to cook with rice noodles instead of rice, since noodles use only 50 percent of the rice grain. The dish was created by the government and distributed widely by its Public Welfare Department, which resulted in an astonishing popularity among Thai communities and tourists alike.
Past episodes of In the Kitchen:
