More To Love Vegan

mock roo-bq #2

2009-04-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

I'll bet my puppy dog that (unless you were present) that title means nothing to you. Right? Right.

Well! Let me 'splain. Last year, my current residence (which at the time was not my residence) was lucky enough to play host to the first annual "mock roo-bq", basically (very basically) involving the conjuring up of (a process both lengthy and dedicated) mock kangaroo! The idea was cooked up (ha) by Philly visitors, Joe and Ryan (apparently more commonly known as Ryjoe), and with Joe back in town again (with my new friend Shannon replacing Ryan - Shanjoe), a second annual mock r00-bq was in order.

Having missed the first roo-bq (and cursing myself eternally from that day forth), i could barely get through my six hour workday without taking my mind off the mock marsupial delights awaiting me at home.

Shannon, Joe and the ever amazing Sarah put the majority of the bbq together, I clumsily knocked together a couple of salads, and we had some amazing potluck contributions in the form of potato salads (we had three all up! carblicious!), a limey lemongrassy julienned salad with tempeh (who the eff made that and why aren't we married?), and cupcakes. Dear, sweet cupcakes made by dear, sweet Chad, in the forms of mint choc and peanut butter chocolate, and you can bet your sweet muffin that I ate one of each.

I cant really contribute any recipes because, well, I was anticipatorily wriggling around in my chair at work whilst most everything was being done, but I can contribute photos. Not even taken by myself. All credit to Sarah! (ps. I'm buying a camera tomorrow!)

So. Lookit.

Check the mock roo nestled in the bottom corner. It's formation involved a three stage process utilising wheat gluten - boiling, baking and bbqing. The three b's of delicious. Atop are both prawn and chicken kebabs, both later liberally (very liberally) doused in Shannon's amazing satay sauce.

Action shot of the innards of a mock roo burger. Probably should put an MA 18+ rating on this one.

Endless kebabs. Three days after this photo was taken, I found a tray of them, forgotten about and hiding in the oven, all shrivelled and useless and good for nothing. My heart, it weeps for their lost deliciousness.

My pasta salad in the makings. Yeah ok, I know it's not mock, scroll on past, I don't mind.

Fixings for the best bbq in existence. Observe also the pink mock ham, from a ham tube/log/whatever courtesy of Vincent's Vegetarian in Footscray.

And responsible for all of the above? The ever babelicious Shannon and Joe Fox! The only thing left to figure out is whether they should move here, or I should move there? Ah, deliciouns. Oh, i mean, delicious decisions.

Vincent's Vegetarian
353 Barkly Street
Footscray

a burger, some fancy stuff, sydney and then i'm done!

2009-03-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

...at least until i am able to stimulate the economy by buying a camera. with my $900. when i get it. *taps foot impatiently*.

so, this is the remainder of the backlog that's been floating around various technological devices of mine for the last couple months. enjoy! and thanks eternally for the motivating feedback on the last post, extremely blushworthy making to know i had been so missed!

The Organic Food and Wine Deli (TOFWD)

Whilst working normal people (daytime) hours during my holidays (working? holidays? blergh), i became somewhat enamoured slash unsuitably obsessed with a certain burger from TOFWD (yes, i actually say it like it looks).

This is him.

Gorgeous, no?

That would be the tofu burger. Wholesome, sesame seed studded bun, lettuce, shredded carrot and beetroot (and i normally abhor beetroot, so we know we're onto a good thing here) and a somewhat spicy tofu patty. I wish i could remember what it tasted of a little better, but it's been sometime since we parted ways (and I resumed working hours more akin to the lazy student call centre worker I am). So let's just go with....delicious. TOFWD (say it!!) also do a really swell mushroom and tofu pie, and i am quite the fan of their sugar free/wheat free bran flour muffins. Also a cute boy works there. I'll stop now.

TOFWD
28 Degraves St
Melbourne

Shakahari

I'll tell ya something. Usually I only go to Shakahari if someone else is paying. It's kinda expensive (for my budget). But my buddy Alicia only has one birthday a year, and if she wants to go to Shakahari, and if i perhaps have to dig behind the couch for spare change to make that happen, well, that's exactly what will happen! I mean, I even drank a glass of wine! Big, huge, massive spender.

Anyway, enough about my thrilling finances and more about the food!

Whilst i cant seem to find any pictures of the eggplant avocado rolls, you can be deadset positive that we ate the hell out of them. A visit to Shakahari is well incomplete without these battered coins of delicious glory swimming in their emerald green sea of...delicious glory.

However, my brain worked just a little better when it came to our mains and i took some shitty photographs for you, observe.

That above? That was my choice. If I could remember it's most whimsical names (it's a Shakahari thing, whimsy is.) I'd tell you it, but i dont, so i wont. Basically a mushroomy risotto framed by bok choy, mushrooms and a pickled style red capsicum. And I wince as I write this, but it was kinda a little tiny bit, maybe just a smidgen boring. And bland. From the menu description, it sounded like it would cause serious mouth explosions, but - no. Not bad, but not amazing. No explosions.

Alicia went with a curry platter that contained a selection of different curries and a grain. Pleasant.

The croquettes were delicious! Crispy and crunchy and full of flavour. Sarah had this. Meal envy rising.

MEAL ENVY PEAKING PEAKING PEAKING! The spaghetti (though a fancier word for spaghetti was used, I do believe) is out of this world amazing. Some variety of lemon myrtle pesto, greens and slow cooked tomato topped with soy cheese just about blew my mind. Jacquie getting full early on was possibly the number one standout moment of my life so far, because it meant that I got to finish this amazing thing. Yes!

And then Sarah and I, in our (mainly mine) never ending gluttony, got dessert.

The creme brulee style thing. I used to get the hots for this thing like whoa back in my early vegan days, then they took it off the menu, enragedness ensued, they put it back on, and now I kinda didn't think it was anything too amazing. Unsure if the recipe has changed or if my tastebuds just demand more from life, but it was only average. Comfortingly blobbly (wobbly vs blobby), pleasant caramel sauce, not displeasing pistachios. It was good, but not mind blowing, like it used to be. Oh well.

Shakahari

201-203 Faraday St

Carlton

Guess what? I tricked you about Sydney. I've got these pictures of these glorious pancakes that I ate there, but they haven't made it off my phone yet. They will. Patience my pretties, patience.

let me catch you up...pt 1.

2009-03-07T15:23:00.000-08:00

I have no excuses for what I have become, that is, a lazy, lazy blogger. It's not like I haven't been consistently gorging myself, or neglecting to take photos, or had no access to the Internet. I've been doing all three, in spades. I just plain suck. But now that I am back at uni, I feel my life once again has the structure that it was lacking over the summer holidays. By structure I mean motivation to do anything but snooze in the backyard. So. The purpose of this post is basically to spew up a season's worth of food photography and perhaps a few lines about each of them, just to kinda sorta start afresh, and do it properly. Okay?

Let's do this.

Satay Bar

Satay Bar is quite possibly the closest eatery to my work that offers something but noodles swimming in oily slop or undercooked falafel, so it wouldn't be too far from the truth to say that I eat there often, especially now that they are open until 7pm. They offer vegetable, tofu and spicy tofu skewers as far as the vegan friendly offerings are, served on a bed of rice with cubed veggie salad and "krupuk" - like prawn crackers with, er, no prawn. But crispy. For an extra 20 cents, they'll give you an additional scoop of satay sauce. Pay the extra 20 cents. You wont never regret it.

Satay Bar

Corner of Flinders Lane and Custom House Lane, Melbourne city.

Friend's of the Earth

Despite regularly frequenting Smith Street like the trendy hipster that I am, I've never really had much use for FOE apart from using them for their noticeboards. With so many other fine eateries in the area, I've been so neglectful of FOE, so when I found myself paying for a huge plate of food with coins I dug up in my change purse (I dont actually have a change purse, just so you know) I wondered to myself why I had been such a jerk?

Though simple, the food was actually really filling and delicious. A huge variety of legumes, grains and freshly prepared vegetables, you will leave the table feeling satisfied and super healthy, smug in the knowledge that yes you did just eat a meal that supplied you with a complete protein! Oh those elusive eight essential amino acids, unsynthesisable by the human body! I have heard that the food can be a bit hit and miss, depending on whose running the kitchen on the day, but I can definitely say, this day was a good one.

Friends of the Earth

312 Smith Street

Collingwood.

Iku

Kinda greasy, undervegetabled noodles. Teensy (for me) serving? Super long wait to get them? Lack of any other veggie friendly options? Meh.

Though I must say, Kristy was mighty impressed with the banquet option, so perhaps that might be the wiser choice. But they've lost me, lost me forever. Unless you're paying?

Iku Yakitori

139 Sydney Road

Brunswick

Food my friend Mark cooked for me, and others.

I must say, dinner parties are the new black.

There's nothing quite like a mid afternoon text message, just as you're lamenting the lack of food in the house and money in your back account, inviting you to what you know will be an amazing meal shared with good folk. And it was. Thanks Mark!

I cant remember...

where or what this was. Though it appears to be some kind of muesli. With some kind of fruit on it. Possibly...pear. My powers of deduction amaze even me.

Kristy & Toby's BIG MARRIAGE DAY!!

A small selection of the food pics from the loveliest wedding I have ever attended!

Ooooh I only seem to have these two pictures. My uploading skills are lacking. Spose I'll be back with part two in oooooh, another four months. NO I KID, I KID!! Three months.

Oh and my camera is broken. Bum.

wagging class for sweets

2008-09-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

Now that the glow of mature age studenting has all but faded, it really does not take very much for me to bail on attending class. I'm having flashbacks of 19 year old me, urging others to bail on Research Methods and Statistics in order to split a bowl of fries with me at Monash Uni Caulfield's one eatery. Times were tough. Pickings were slim.

So, when it came down to eating treats with friends vs Nutrition class (ironic, no?), well, you know me well enough to know the choices I made that day were inevitable, beyond my control.

The treat eatery of choice was Sugardough bakery, on Lygon Street. A place I have wondered about ever since I heard the name. Sugardough. Doesn't it evoke all kinds of wonderful? Fairy floss flavoured bread and the like? That's what I'm getting. Anyway!

I knew what I wanted before I even set my gaze upon the wide array. But I still had a good look at what was on offer. Basically, Sugardough is heaven. From sweets to savouries, donuts to pies, breakfasts and lunches. The pumpkin pie is vegan, and I also spotted some kind of pistachio iced cake, as well as some raspberry apple number (INVOLVING SILVER SPARKLES!) but I had my mind set on the Sunshine Muffin, a muffin that I had heard much of and longed for frequently. That and a soy chai latte meant I had absolutely no regrets about skipping school for snacking.

What was probably the ugliest muffin I've ever witnessed, was brought out on a beautiful plate, counterbalanced. It also had a spoon stabbed through it's guts, officially the first muffin I've ever had served with cutlery! A dense muffin, sugary crusty muffin top, filled with such an amalgamation of dried fruits that you wouldn't possibly believe it. Sultanas, currants, dried apple, apricots and more. Now you would think that all these elements would be vying for dominance, but no, they melt into each other and deliver some delicious muffin flavour. The texture is good, well baked throughout and very filling. I had to take it home in a napkin for after snacks.

My chai was also a winner. Well spiced.

Huge, massive fan of the plateage. I have a fetish for florals and heart cut outs. How did they know?

Sugardough also carry standard breads, baguettes and loaves that all look amazingly crusty and chewy.....aaaaannnd since I'm moving to Brunswick in, oh, exactly twenty days, I'll be able to let you know a whole lot more about those products in connection with my upper digestive tract real soon.

Sugardough Bakery
163 Lygon Street
Brunswick East

by and by..

2008-08-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

Eating three meals a day again means that I'll start updating soon, and that is a promise.

Day 4

2008-07-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

Literally trapped in a small town in central NT, trying to deal with what the rest of my life will be like. I'm terrified of going back home and having to spend nights alone in my bed with only my (albeit beautiful) dog for company, no spooning, no seatbelting, and no one to keep me in bed when I actually need to get up and go to work.

I need to go through my facebook profile and delete all the photos that I cant look at anymore, I'm scared to upload two months worth of photos from my camera because there will be me and him, on holiday, eating out, having fun, laughing and kissing and me so truly believing this was the REAL thing. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Can there be anything harder than telling someone to leave when all you want is to beg them to stay? Knowing that you have to choose between your own dignity and self respect and a relationship that was 99% perfect but had that teensy, tiny 1% that would never be in harmony with what I truly wanted? That would play on my mind late at night, wondering what the future would hold, wondering if the problems were even worth bringing up. And now that is all I have to think about.

Being in a relationship with a person is, I think, about knowing them inside out, their faults, flaws. Some people dont want to be known so intimately. The choice between ignorant bliss and informed heartbreak is one of the hardest to make. Fuck I wish I was dumber, less perceptive.

I feel so sorry for myself and I hate it so much. But then again, it is the best (and only) crash diet I've ever been on, 4 kilos in 4 days? Works like a charm!

Rest assured, there will be more food posts on the way, I just need to be able to eat first!!

I am so, so, so, so sad right now. I dont want anybody else.

Apologies for not fulfilling my monthly food porn requirement...

2008-07-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

I've lost my camera cord! I'm going to have a good, hard look tomorrow so hopefully I can wile away my working hours on Sunday with a mega update! Which will include my all time favourite...falafel. Not long to go..

So..I went to this potluck on the weekend...

2008-06-11T05:27:00.001-07:00

....and it was so amazing!
It was a housewarming pot luck for my friends TJ and Alicia and also their housemate Kirk. They have rented an incredible space that was formerly a milk bar, kitted it out with couches and guitar hero, and will hopefully be hosting regular pot lucks, gigs, guitar hero championships and the like.

This pot luck was an awesome way to kick start the new place, there was a lot of people and a whole lot of foods to taste, indoor soccer, music and me having to rush the hell out of there in two hours because of exams....oh god I left so much food behind, it kills me to think of!

Here's some photographs I managed to snap before the hordes went crazy.

Garlic bread production line, courtesy of Zac!

Overeater's anonymous meeting.

It was basically a smorgasboard affair.

Alicia's quality guacamole.

McNabb's all organic mixed salad.

Rocket's pasta salad was not this blurry in real life, promise.

Dish of the tonight was without any doubt TJ's vegan take on "tuna mornay". I'm desperately trying to get the recipe from her so I'll try post it up here when I have my hands on it! Yum it was so creamy and tasty and I dont even LIKE tuna. Obviously.

I don't know who made this crazy peanut butter topped pecan fudge, but I'd like to have their babies.
Delightful roasted pumpkin pizza.

My unquenchable pastry desire was almost sated by these little mushroomy herb puff pastry cuppettes. I'm pretty sure they had some kind of...nut...there too.

Puff pastry obsession continues. A curried vegetable filled pie. Looked unassuming, tasted amazing.
Didn't try these cookies but apparently they were of the "crazy" variety containing crazy ingredients like cherries. This is what Rocket told me. Crazy.

Herby polenta bake. There was a tomatoey bolognese type sauce to go over the top too. Yum.

Oh my god! I was so ready to go on and on and realised that was the last photo! Damn I wish I could relive that night all over again, my stomach is absolutely squawking at the moment with longing. That's what I get for eating SOUP for dinner, just soup! How lousy.

My contribution you ask? The less said the better. Ok I'll say a little. Collapsed Oreo Cake.

Insightful!

2008-06-11T03:44:00.000-07:00

Found on Isa's blog

Tips for a Successful Potluck

1) Coordinate with others so that not everyone is bringing sweets.

2) There has to be at least one lasagna.

3) Bring your A-game, spend a few hours in the kitchen, now is the time to impress, not to cut corners.

4) Bring something! And not a little bag of chips, either. If you absolutely can not cook something, then call the host and see what is needed - drinks, fresh fruit. Something. But if more than a few people are doing this, that makes for a crappy potluck.

5) Don’t plan on cooking at the host’s house. What the hell is that about? If you have to do that, then call the host and see that it’s okay. Warming up is absolutely permitted, but preparing your whole dish there without warning? No. Just no, never, no.

6) Bring big portions. Some people have said they bring enough for 6, but why? Is it really that much harder to cook for 12? Like I said, now is the time to go all out. Make time in your schedule, prioritize the potluck. Mean business!

7) Help the host clean up. Or at least offer to. They will probably say no.

8) The host should not be doing most of the cooking. As the host it’s your job to really bring it because it’s your kitchen, but it isn’t your job to bring…all of it.

There are very few gripes I have when it comes to potlucks - if there is delicious food, I'm in a happy place, but this list probably takes all those little things that have irked me ever so mildly in my eight odd years of potlucking, and condenses them!

Having said that I am EXTRAORDINARILY guilty of Number 8. And I will be. Forever. You cant stop me from OVERCOOKING!!

Comfort food: a photo essay.

2008-06-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I've come a long way since the three-slices-of-Kraft cheddar (individually wrapped thanks) and white bread toasties, but not that far. The basic concept is still the same!

This was my pre 11:30am biology class breakfast some weeks back.

Start off with some super amazing impressive and fabulous Kolios vegan cheese from Queen Victoria Market's deli section.

Assemble with a great care, that leads you to be a half hour late for class. Cheeser slices, very finely diced tomato (nothing worse than a molten hot burning tomato strip leaving third degree burns on your chin as you pull it out of the sandwich), chopped mushroom (swiss brown), and fresh basil leaves from my tiny herbarium out back.
Assembled on some nice oat or spelt bread. I cant remember. One or the other. Perhaps even kamut?
Squish time!

End product! A valuable lesson. Always, always dust your toastie with salt and pepper, both sides. Will change your life, I swear it. And dont forget to nuttelex that toastie, outer ways!

Don't neglect your dog, he needs a breakfast too.

Have you ever seen such ooey gooey innards when it comes to vegan cheese before?
From a different angle you ask? How can I say no to you!

Breakfast drink. V8 enriched with oily flaxseed goodness. Mmmm, delicious. No really it is!

........I swear!

Misbehaving camera

2008-05-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

.....Or maybe its just me?

This post is way overdue, I'm in the middle of exam hell, it's midnight and I just got back from yet ANOTHER potluck ('tis the season!) so I'm going to do something really, really nasty and wrong. I'm going to post photos, bad photos, with hardly a comment.

These photos are from a potluck hosted by my lovely (and now famous) friend Sarah, who bakes the wondrous cakes at The East Brunswick Club. You know the ones. She is a lady of many talents, including hosting most amazing dinners for her birthday!

Here are the photos, just imagine me trying to elbow a horde of people out of the way so I could take photos of things in their untouched, natural state. Not easy.

Less typing more photos!

PS. I know these photos are shocking, shocking, shocking, but I just want people to see the wonderful things my friends can cook! Please, look past the blur and see the sugar stained goodness inside!

Buddha's Day aka delicious things in greasy paper bags.

2008-05-23T02:56:00.000-07:00

My slumber last Friday night was restless, fitful, anxious. Was it because of my impending exams and the millions of assignments (two) I had due in the coming days? Perhaps because my bank account is in double digits a week from pay day? Nope, neither of those, nor any other issue that keeps me awake at night (who will win America's Next Top Model? Will there ever be a vegan meringue? Is that an alien radar flashing in my room or just my phone recharging?).

I was worried that it would rain on Buddha Day. And when I finally awoke, my nightmare had come to life. It was absolutely pissing down! I stayed in bed a bit longer, thinking it would stop, but it was not to be. So! Clothes, mittens, hoodie, non-waterproof sneakers (fail) and one missed train later, we arrived at the Buddha's Day festivities and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves!

They should really rename the event "Greasy, delicious things in paper bags", but you know, maybe not.

First up, I strolled the concourse, making my decisions, in the end deciding I simply must sample one thing from every stall. So, I did.

Presenting.....drrrrrrrrum(roll)sticks!!!

Layers of gluten wrapped around a little stick and deep fried until crisp, genius!

Next? According to my photos (yes this did happen many weeks ago, I apologise for my lack of catching you up!) it was turnip cakes. Or radish cakes? White, firm vegetable cakes.

Mmmm, so delicious in their gelatinous (but with no gelatine!) bland crispiness, served with chilli sauce, just perfect!

Next up was my favourite snack of the afternoon, consisting of skewered chicken pieces wrapped in lemon leaves. Certainly a new flavour sensation for me, which I hope one day to replicate. Are these real lemon leaves? Tempted to go out and chew on one but I dont want to look like an idiot walking the streets trying to locate a lemon tree for leaf chewing purposes when they'll probably just taste like bitter gross.

Next! Appears to be a dainty little Peking duck wrap, beware you could easily eat a million of these little cuties!

A surprise sweet was next, offered up by my housemate Rebecca who had other missions to attend to, thus was desserting early. These were little gelatinous sesame balls filled with red bean paste. It looks like a tiny demented mouth, whispering sweet nothings at you, does it not? It even has a little pink spit gurgle. Yum.

Next up! Bizarrely naked dagwood dog. These dogs on a stick actually had real life white "fatty bits" in them. Disturbdog! It's really being held very tenderly in this photo, isn't it?Okay, we're finally on the homestretch, one last salty and one last sweet to go!

Deep fried oysters? WELL OKAY! Who am I to resist your greasy charms.

And last but not least (not least because I actually ended up visiting again the next day while I was at work! YEAH! DOUBLE BUDDHA DAY!) was coconutty rice balls filled with saaaalty peanut butter. Two worlds collide. One amazing.

I had to violently shove these down my throat to get them down. That's how full I was.

Squiddy cooks: Thai green curry with soy curls!

2008-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Food cravings are pretty much what gets me up in the morning. The thought of the food ahead spurs me on, urging me through the dull in-between-eating moments, keeping the smile on my face and the stride in my walk. On topic, Sundays at work can be devestatingly boring. Planning my meal for the night is my one salvation, along with looking at pictures of puppies and spinng around in my chair.

Last Sunday was a Thai kinda mood day, and since I haven't cooked much Thai food I immediately thought to go out for dinner. Then I realised upon the dire state of my wallet, and my plans crumbled.

Could I cook Thai food?

Yes. I could. And my horizons have broadened once more.

Thai green curry with soy curls

I found this recipe from a most unlikely source About.com which I'd only ever used before to fuel my varying obsessions with serial killers and balloon animals.

It included making the paste from scratch, which was immensley appealing to both myself and my buddy Thermomix, which wizzed up the most beautiful green curry paste in a matter of seconds, nay, microseconds. No, scratch that, it was definitely seconds. You could easily do the same in your blender though!

The paste went a bit like this:

1 stalk lemongrass, sliced finely
2 tsp. ground coriander seeds
1 tsp. brown sugar (optional)
1-3 green chillies, deseeded
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb-size piece galangal (or ginger), peeled and sliced
2-3 kaffir lime leaves (fresh, frozen, or dried), snipped into strips or small pieces with scissors
1 cup (or 1 bunch) fresh coriander leaves and stems
3 tsp. dark soy sauce (substitute 1 Tbsp. wheat-free soy sauce for gluten-free diets)

And the rest?

2-3 kaffir lime leaves
1 can coconut milk
1 package firm tofu cut into bite-size pieces (for gluten-free diets), OR 1 package wheat gluten “chicken" cutlets
1 red bell pepper
1 cup snow peas
1 cup fresh holy (or sweet) basil, chopped roughly
1 small yam or sweet potato, cubed
3 Tbsp. oil for frying
optional: other vegetables of your choice, such as carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc...

To make the green curry paste, place all paste ingredients in a food processor or blender. Add a little of the coconut milk (enough to keep the blades going). Process well.

Place oil in wok or deep frying pan. Turn heat on medium-high and add paste.

Stir fry until fragrant (about 1 minute), then add coconut milk.

Add wheat gluten or tofu and stir until everything is well mixed.

Add kaffir lime leaves and cover.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes.

Add bell pepper and yam/sweet potato.

Cover and cook another 10 min.

Finally, add snow peas, stir, and continue cooking for 2-4 minutes.

Do a taste test for salt and spice. If not salty enough, add up to 2 Tbsp. more soy sauce or sea salt. If too salty, add a little fresh lime juice. If too spicy, add more coconut milk until desired mildness is reached.

Accompany with your grain of choice.

Things I did differently:

Well I had a hell of a time finding kaffir lime leaves at the local supie, in that I didnt find them at all, so I subbed lime juice....because, well, lime connection!

Whilst I was making the curry paste I rehydrated about a cup of soy curls (I bought mine from Minh Phat supermarket, just off Victoria St, Richmond) with some chilli sauce and Massel "chicken" stock. This I used instead of wheat gluten or tofu as called for in the recipe.

I fried them up prior to adding the curry paste.

Added zucchini, red capsicums, broccoli and mushrooms as my veggies of choice. Chickpeas and cashews too. Garnished with a pretty lime slice.

Served the whole thing on some wholesome brown rice. Yum.

Enjoy!

..and pot lucks are back in fashion!

2008-05-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well, this wasn't quite a pot luck, but last Saturday I attended my darling Harriet's birthday drinks at the East Brunswick Club, and besides the most excellently gluttonous food on the menu (I partook in a -wait for it- bacon cheese burger! No way! Yes way!) which I absolutely neglected to take photos of in my inexcusable piggish rush to get it in my mouth, there were byo birthday cakes (and pie).

This was them:

What you have there is a very badly photographed pair of sweets worth saving some room for. even when confronted with a bacon cheeseburger.

The hairy fluffball on the left is my own stolen creation, a Coconut Custard Pie. An amalgamation of several recipes (two) from Veganomicon and My Sweet Vegan this pie was definitely worth the sitting around and waiting time it took to construct it! Basically a hobnob base with a tofu based topping, it rendered my 25 years worth of coconut adoration into a single pie slice, and it was beautiful.

Enough about my pie!

Check this!

I believe this was called *clears throat* chocolate peanutbutter somekind of chocolate chippery cheesecake with spelt crust (gluten free oyesmygod!). It was lovingly prepared by my brilliant friend Sarah, who truth be told is one of my vegan idols. I continue to be amazed and awed by the wondrous gastronomic creations that come out of her kitchen, and, hot off the presses, you too can be amazed and awed. How so? Her cake was so impressive to the staff at the East Brunswick Club, that Sarah will now be absolutely devestating their kitchens with her cake cookery on a regular basis, so be sure to check it out! You will not be disappointed. And if you are, well you will have me to deal with, wont you? Probably not. But it doesn't matter, you wont be disappointed!!

Also, dessert special of the night?

Badly photographed vegan banana split. Yes, you read right.

And apologies in advance for the sheer influx of East Brunswick Club related posts. My bestie works there now, so I'm sure to be a frequent guest of the establishment. And how!

East Brunswick Club
280 Lygon St
East Brunswick

Squiddy cooks: Tempeh Bolognese!

2008-05-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'll just make a quick announcement before I duck for cover. I'mnotahugefanoftempeh. There I said it. I'm waiting for my letter of dismissal from the vegan police, but at least its out there, in the open, shaming me with its every syllable.

Despite this, I wouldn't quite call it abhorrence, but lets use that word for the sake of wordsmithery, I still purchase a huge lump of the stuff every time I visit the Asian grocery, and it sits and sits and sits in the refrigerator, being poked my curious housemates and thoroughly ignored by myself.

Then I found Veginity.

I was pointed towards this website by an equally obsessive vegan foodie, and promptly directed Kristy's attention to it. She, in all her Sherlock Holmesesque wisdom, put the puzzle pieces together. Vegan chef + ponytail = Mark from Vegetarian Orgasm (R.I.P). If you ever experienced V.O, you would have been a fool not to sample the delicious cakes on offer, and I'll assume that no fools are reading this blog, because we all know fools cant do Internet. So it was most exciting to learn that Mark is still out there, cooking up a storm and keeping the fires of vegan goodness glowing, or whatever.

Whilst some of the recipes require a membership to view, quite a few are free! And on of the freebies was for a delicous sounding tempeh bolognese. Delicious to everyone except me, I was thinking, but hey tempeh needed to shift out of the freezer, so lets give it a stab!

Tempeh Bolognese

Sauce ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

1 packet of Tempeh

2 onions

½ red chilli (to Taste)

50 mls Balsamic vinegar

1 can chopped tomatoes

100 gms Tomato paste

10 gms capers

100 gms artichokes

50 gms chopped sun dried tomatoes

water

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil on the stove.

2. Place the spaghetti into the water and cook until a knife inserts easily into it.

3. Dice up onions and mince the garlic.

4. slice the tempeh up into small pieces

5. Heat up some oil in a pan

6. Sauté off the onions and the chilli and cook off until the onions start to caramelize.

7. Add the tempeh and the garlic and continue cooking

8. Splash some balsamic vinegar in to the pan and coat the tempeh

9. Add some chopped tomatoes and tomato paste.

10. Add a little water if needed.

11. Add the capers, artichokes and the chopped sundried tomatoes and allow simmer to cook and reduce the sauce so it thickens nicely.

12. Take the spaghetti fruit and chop it in half.

13. Scoop out the seeds from the middle and taking a fork run it around the inside of the fruit to remove the ‘spaghetti’

14. Place the spaghetti on a plate a then top it off with the hot Bolognese sauce.

15. top with some capers as a garnish.

The only substitution I made was using proper spaghetti (actually it was buckwheat fettucine - which is just divine) instead of "spaghetti fruit" because I dont like my luck in sourcing things like that at the last minute. And I added a touch of white wine at the end.

In conclusion, the bolognese was delicious. I cant argue with facts, I actually enjoyed tempeh..perhaps it was because it was all crushed up and indistinguishable (I do believe its a texture associated issue) perhaps because the whole thing was incredible, with a good bite, richness and taste that just got better over time. The mouthfeel, also quite pleasant.

You should really suss out Mark's page for some quality sweet and savoury recipes. I'm currently saving my pennies for a membership!

Brunchy mc brunch brunch #2

2008-05-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

Apologies for taking a long, long week to post this. I'm pretty sure the food from last week's brunch took that long to digest.

So, whats the benefit of inviting a boatload of strangers over to your house on a Saturday morning?

Let me show you it.

The spread in its entirety. A multitude of sins, including but not limited to refined flour, sugar, and mass quantities of nuttelex. Hellfire never tasted so good.

And now for personal portraits of the guests. The food guests!!

Lemony baked potatoes, courtesy of Veganomicon

Mushroomy wellington, shaped in convenient bite sized sausage rolls. I would have had at least 10 bites, at least.

Cinnamon scrolls, couresty of Bittersweet blog. The easiness of this recipe balances out the 100 odd years required to prepare it. So worth it, when you're stuffing these little babies into your mouth at gluttonously rapid pace. Also I adapted the recipe slightly and included crushy walnuts and shredded coconut in random scrolls, for a suprise factor.

SMLove Pie, from Veganomicon. The future bane of my existence and precursor to my new obsession with all manner of pie.

The "other things" photo. My housemate's pumpkin hedgehog (roasted pumpkin, rolled in hommus seeds and then tamari) - nice to have a vegetable make its presence known! Also La Panella donuts, and some Asian marinated baked tofu cosying up in the corner over yonder.

As the sign proclaims, "pink hommus". We ran out of chickpeas halfway through so subbed borlotti beans. It worked.

Pies courtesy of Emily Aduki. Burn marks courtesy of my shitty oven. So amazing.

Almond jammy cuppers and chocolate banana cuppers courtesy of Kristy and Toby. Despite rumoured cooking malfunctions and flavouring hazards, these treats went down incredibly well. I beleive both recipes are courtesy of VCTOTW - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!

Red lentil dahl courtesy of Janice. Some much needed vegetable content there, soaking in its pool of curry delicious.

Barnacle balls as done by Sarah. I'm not even going to try to remember what was in these!

More balls, this time a take on vegan arancini, which absolutely blew my socks off. Thanks Grant, what a champ he is!

Apple pie crumb something something muffins! By Caroline. Yay fruit!!

The SMLove pie in all its internal glory. Can you see it, see the peanut butter caramel ooze? Get jealous.

I couldn't be happier with how the brunch turned out. Everyone had a great time, sitting around and clutching their bellies, occasionally staggering over to the food table to snack on leftovers only to curse themselves for trying to jam more food in. We sat around til 4pmish chatting about food, food, music, food, food and food, until everyone left, leaving me with leftovers!

So. When's the next one?!

What I ate in Hobart.

2008-04-25T01:37:00.000-07:00

So due to the thoroughly inconsiderate scheduling of my university, I was due to face three exams mere days after my return from what was supposed to be some variety of relaxing 'holiday' in Hobart. I bitched and moaned, but what could I do? Ten kilograms of textbook ladden hand luggage later, we were in Hobart.

Knowing that we were to be largely confined to the hotel room, we did choose quite the grand affair - the Executive Suite, where everything is big and fat executive sized, from the plasma tv, to the king size bed, and hell, they even put a spa in our bedroom! Before all that, however, we had to find ourselves some lunch!

With the adeptness of feeble minded undifferentiated stem cells (see, I did end up doing study!) we managed to wander over to the wrong side of town. Packed full of bogans and craptastic cafes, I did comment to Rocket that perhaps we should have visited his hometown of Ballarat instead of spending all that airfare money. Eventually we stumbled upon Phoenix Cafe, which listed a handful of vegetarian options on its menu. I sent Rocket in to explain the concept of veganism, and a mere ten minutes later he returned.

We were then presented with the vegetarian noodles and the vegetarian laksa, see here.

and here

I'm quite sure that the noodles were of the Maggi variety, with some carrot strips and spring onion decor, but the laksa was actually quite decent, apart from the getting to the bottom of the bowl and finding a piece of chicken factor, but it happens. As responsible vegans, we reported this fact to the amazingly kind owner, who pressed a $5 note into our hands and promised that if she had been in charge of the kitchen at the time this WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.

Phoenix Cafe
47 Elizabeth St
Hobart

Continuing from lunch, was a visit to the Safeway (sorry, Woolworths) to stock up on unmentionables (okay, lots and lots of shitty junk food that I wouldn't normally eat unless I was on holiday or studying, or both) which resulted in oven baked frozen chips for dinner that night. Nutrition plus!

The next day, approximately brunch o'clock, we found ourselves wandering the lower end of the Salamanca markets, where we just happened upon (I planned it, okay) a truck selling delicious fresh breads and a selection of vegetarian pies, two of which were vegan!

Lentil Sheperds pie

and a Madras pie! ...as modelled by that hottie Rocket (available for catalogues and runway).

The lentil shep pie was definitely the pick of the two, and I'm getting a little upset looking at the picture of it, not only because I may never get to sample it again, but also I can see something in the background of the picture that says "nondairy soy whip" and even though I have no idea what that means or what it is, I didn't get to try it! Bummed. Out.

Approximately six hours of nap related studying later, we made our way to Siren's Restaurant, which I've heard is the equivalent to Melbourne's Shakahari, only in Hobart.

Walking in was just that little bit intimidating, the low lighting, fancy waiters, double ($$) digit menu and the fact that we were the only kids there meant that my flanny, skinny leg jeans and vans sneakers didn't quite cut the most mature dining picture that there ever was. No matter, we were there for the food, not a fashion show. The menu only had a small selection of vegan options, and due to the price, we decided to skip the entree and share a dessert instead.

Apologies in advance for the terrible photography, I was somewhat reluctant to completely f**k with the ambience of the place by blinding other diners with my photography, so I kept the flash off.

I selected the smoked tofu dish

and Rocket, the millet croquettes teamed with a fancy sauce that I forget, and a preserved lemon and rocket salad.

Oh my goodness were these dishes completely out of this world amazing! From the presentation to the quality of ingredients to the overall taste, they were both spectacular! The tofu was seared, complete with grill marks and served on a bed of steamed broccolini (one of my favourite veggies), with a very umani-ish type sauce, salty and pungent but so delicious. Rocket's croquettes (rhyme!) were beyond description. Something I could never even hope to conceptualise, let alone cook, they were so well textured and the salad was the perfect accompaniment.

Our waiter, upon noticing we were vegan, offered to put aside a slice of the dark chocolate mousse cake for us, and who were we to say no to such a generous offer?

My friends, that cake was the best sweet I've eaten since Vegetarian Orgasm shut its doors, if not better. Coconutty crumbly cookie base topped with thick, oh so rich dark chocolate mousse that simply melts in your mouth. I'm going to use a whole lot of words that are totally not in my vocabulary right now: divine, heavenly, celestial. That's all I can come up with. The sauce you see in the picture was not caramel, as I'd immediately imagined, but a floral jasminey type reduction. I probably would have preferred caramel, but we cant have everything in this life now, can we? Despite that, oh what a cake! Seriously guys, ticket to Hobart. Book it. Eat cake.

Then we staggered home and spa'd it up whilst watching Harry Potter.

Sirens
6 Victoria Street
Hobart

Did you know most everything is shut on Sundays in Hobart? Well it is. So it was an assortment of cereal, mandarins and lady grey that kept me going all day, not blogworthy. The Internet pointed us towards a nearby Indian place, Annapurna Indian Restaurant, that was open that evening, so we wandered down quite early and got seated.

It's a lovely looking restaurant in an A1 location, so I guess thats why you pay top dollar for Indian food, which is usually rather cheap in Melbourne.

We started off with onion bhaji entree

This was really a great dish! Despite the sheer deepfriededness of it, the onion rings were actually really light and fresh tasting, probably due to the lemon juice I doused them with. Plenty to share, thank christ, and very filling, we probably should have just gotten one curry to share....but we didn't.

We got two. An eggplant one..and a pumpkin...one....remind me to take notes next time.

I'm not the world's biggest Indian style curry fan, but these were both fairly decent, if not a bit samey (or maybe I just cant tell the difference between pumpkin and eggplant?). Massive serves though, and this did end up being Rocket's breakfast the next day, even then there was too much to eat!

The star of the show was most certainly the garlic naan.

Just yum, is all I can say really. Soft, chewy, fresh. The deity of all Indian style breads. Yes.

Annapurna Indian Restaurant
93 Salamanca Place
Hobart

All in all, Hobart surprised me with its vegan friendliness, and I'm sure I would have been even more joyous had I had more time to wander around and find other places. But I'll be back, dont you worry. I'll be back.

Vegan brunch part-ay!

2008-04-25T01:13:00.000-07:00

So a bunch of vegan nerds (and by nerd, I'm really only including myself) decided to get together and partake in the consumption of shared foods. Nerdlier still (once again, just me) this was to be an internets sponsored event, as we had all "met" on the Post Punk Kitchen forum.

Boy, am I glad I dragged the dog, my housemate Rebecca, a manual car and half the contents of the kitchen to Marybyrnong!

This is what I got in return

What you've got there is some chickpea cutlets, pesto scroll, sundried tomato and basil muffin, scrambled tofu, soy bombs, seitan sausage, mushroom and walnut pate and some sundried olivey deliciousness.

Present and accounted for (in my belly) but not photographed were four (yes, 1..2..3...4!) different types of dumplings - differently shaped too (small things amuse..yes you know)! Pancakes with fresh strawberries and maple syrup and oatmeal raisin cookies rounded off perhaps the finest brunch in my existence.

To force myself away from foodcentrism just slightly, I cannot sing enough praises for the brilliant sunny weather bestowed upon us that day for a little alfresco dining, and more importantly the unparalleled loveliness of the other vegan ladies who attended the brunch! It was so nice to be able to chat between bites of food and give my tummy a rest, and to find others who get so maniacally excited over farmer's markets and talking about their own dogs, well, there was definitely some kinship there.

And thankyou Emily for your gracious hosting duties!

We'll be brunching it up at my place next, on the 3rd of May. If you're interested in sampling the cooking of others and also showing off your own cooking skills, leave me a message with your email address and we'll see what I have to say about that. I'll say yes, you can come. That's what.

Squiddy cooks! Black eyed peas and mustard greens stew

2008-04-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

Mustard greens are just about the most visually attractive vegetable in the whole entire world of the local Asian grocery. They just look so neat and crisp and fresh, all tied up in their neat little bundle, and at $2 a pop, well I just cant resist.

....if only I knew what to do with them, once I got them home. Something that preferably doesn't involve leaving them in the fridge for a week, fretting over what to do with them, whilst they rapidly wilt away.

After the enlightening discovery of a bag of black eyed peas that I've been hauling around for some years and a length consultation with Recipezaar, the fate of the mustard greens was decided.

They would become a stew.

Specifically

Black Eyed Peas with Mustard Greens and Rice (stew)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
3 bay leaves
2 celery ribs, diced
3 garlic clove, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons celery leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups black eyed peas (from 1 cup that has been soaked for at least 8 hours)
1.5 litres massel "chicken" stock
sea salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 bunch mustard greens
1 cup cooked brown rice

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a wide soup pot over medium heat until it becomes fragrant

2. Add the onions, bay leaves, celery, garlic, thyme, chile flakes, smoked paprika, cumin and celery leaves.

3. Cook stirring occasionally, until the onions have browned, about 20 minutes.

4. Stir in the tomato paste, then add the beans (drain them first if you used soaked dried) and the 1.5 litres of stock

5. Simmer, covered, until the beans are tender. Season with salt and pepper

6. Cut the mustard greens off at their stems and wash them. Add directly to the beans and let simmer for approximately 3 minutes.

7. Make your final seasoning adjustments.

8. Add a few spoonfuls of rice to each bowl and top with the stew. Serve with tabasco or hot sauce of choice.

It was a really easy recipe, made even easier by preparing the whole thing (bar rice) in the trusty Thermomix. A great rustic flavour and extremely hearty, the combination of beans and rice providing a complete protein for vegans.

Now. Any recommendations with what I should do with the second bunch I got sitting in there?

The laksa wars - Nasi Lemak House

2008-04-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

I've often relied on Chatterbox for my (very regular) laksa fix, in desperate times the noodle shop across the road from work does the job. Chatterbox does keep me happy though, large servings, super quick service, and a great product, all the boxes ticked..then why am I such an unfaithful lover, brazenly trying to search out a superior laksa? I cannot answer, only that I am hopelessly polyamorous when it comes to my laksa love.

Thus, Nasi Lemak House. This was a recommendation from a trusted source, and the minute I heard of its "superiority" I was already looking for openings in my lunching diary. I finally got myself there (a whole three days later) and dragged my friends Harriet (of This is Vegan Melbourne blog) and Erle (renowned laksa expert) along for the ride.

Nasi Lemak House is squish tiny. A scattering of seats inside and a couple of pigeon infested tables outside. You order and pay for your meal inside, receive a ticket and come back to collect it later, which does require some guesswork as you're never actually told to come in and get it! Luckily I have keen senses when it comes to food, so I was up right before our meals were ready. The wait time, though by no means extreme, certainly cannot be compared to the lightning fast speed of laksa delivery at Chatterbox. An unfortunate minus. The price tag, at $10, is also a few bones more exxy than that at Chatterbox.

The product itself? It was quite far removed from that of Chatterbox, so its not quite fair to compare. A copious quantity, curiously vegetabled with green beans, fresh tomato, and bean shoots. An interesting combination. A definite plus in the sheer quantity of deliciously spongy tofu. In my experience, the pieces of tofu you receive in soups and stir fries can usually be counted on one hand that has already lost two fingers in a horrible ballooning accident, so to be overwhelmed (ie. to lose count) by the amount of tofu in any dish is a bonus. The noodles involved the usual combo of hokkien and thin rice, so no complaints there, and the whole thing was adorned by a pappadum. Novel. The soup itself was oilier than I'm used to, and after I'd picked out all the veggies and floaty bits, it was a bit too slick like to consume on its own, however it was very nicely spiced and added a great flavour kick to the soup overall.

In summary, a good and decent laksa - well tofued, interesting choice of veg, but my heart will always belong to Chatterbox, no matter what indiscretions may occur between me and other tall, dark laksa strangers.

Nasi Lemak House
113 Grattan Street
Carlton

Squiddy cooks: Pumpkin 'roni and cookies!

2008-03-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've been way, way into cooking this year. Since returning to school -which I love, by the way- my number one method of escapism (read: procrastination) has been getting into the kitchen and cooking up a storm. I'll do it all, soups, bakes, stir fries, sweets! And my new penchant for farmer's markets and organic foods (thanks again, school!) has meant the fridge is always full of fresh produce begging me to hack it the hell up and expose it to high temperatures.

Also I got a machine.

This, boys and girls, is what is known in the overexcited housewife trade as a "Thermomix". It's basically a blender on steroids, in that it chops ANYTHING in seconds - be it breadcrumbs, garlic, herbs, ice, mills grains...bla bla. It also can heat things up, make icecream/sorbet, knead dough and kinda sorta cleans itself. It has a timer, and also levels of chopping speed and intensity. I like it best for making soups because you dont need to transfer to a blender, and I also use it for things like dips, pesto, crumbling up tofu, chopping nuts, mixing up muffins/cake/cookie dough and what have you.

Yes, revolutionary indeed.

BUT this is not the homeshopping channel, so lets resume with last nights dinner!

First up

Pumpkin 'roni with sage breadcrumb topping and a side of kale with garlic and capers and white beans and zucchini

Basically, it's two Veganomicon recipes (oh god how I love it). The pumpkin ziti, well I had no ziti so (gluten free) macaroni it was! I also topped it with breadcrumbs made with rye caraway bread so they were extravagantly tasty!

The green bit is done by replacing escarole (whata?) with kale in one of the recipes. YES I FOUND KALE! After days that seemed like years of searching, I located it at a farmer's market yesterday (the brand new Docklands one, check it out!) It's a brilliant recipe, quick and so healthy, and I love kale so much I must get more. I also topped it with "Liquid Gold" dressing recipe from Becoming Vegan nutrition book. Apparently it supplies you with wonderful doses of Omega 3 fatty acids and B12, and is also wonderful!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Look at this little cookies all lined up like soldiers prepared to die for their country, ie MY STOMACH.

This recipe was from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreen Burton. YUM! Maple syupy, chewy, easy cookie goodness.

Yes. I'm going to end this post now, as its started to sound like I have multiple sponsorships from all manner of cookbooks and spaceship like cooking machines!

End now.

Ancient stuff from old digicam (R.I.P)

2008-03-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

So I swapped the 1 gig storage disk from my old camera into my new camera, y'know, for the days when I really eat alot and need the extra room both in belly and in picture storage.

Subsequently, I found a couple of bits of really old food pornage, so I'll post it here without too much fanfare just to get it out of the way!

Laksa Me

I'm big into laksa, huge into it, so I was really looking forward to visiting an establishment that actually wanted to laksa me! I'd turned up once and it was shut, and heartbreaking as that was, it was nowhere near as disappointing/ed as I felt when it was open.

To ease you in, let's start with the entrees? We had them, and they were incredible!

Coming out on a fancy schmance platter were little veggie filled money bags, and the second thing, not sure what, kinda samosa looking thingies...my memory escapes me, but it was six months ago!

Now these entrees were up there with the best of them, easily comparable to the stuff you get at Shakahari, but cheaper. Special looking, beautifully presented and delicious.

However, I was here for the laksa, and felt much glee at seeing it on the table in front of me...that is until I dug in.

This was more of a swampy quagmire than a laksa, truth be told. It was very, very heavy on too soggy rice noodles and very light on veggies and tofu. The soup was awfully spicy hot, and I'm no chilli baby either, but I could not handle it! Also it had a kind of grittiness to it, not like sand..more like undissolved icing sugar. I like my laksa juice smooth and fully liquidized thankyou!

I dont want to get too snitchy, it may have just been a bad day on the laksa front, or perhaps I just dont know good, authentic laksa? I was well and truly bummed. And jealous of Rocket's pad thai, which was amazing, by the way. No photo though.

Laksa Me
Shop 1, 16 Liverpool St
Melbourne

Montsalvat

So I went on a drive with my mother, and somehow we ended up at Montsalvat. Montsalvat was originally an artist's community, but now its mainly used for seminars, weddings, exhibitions and other such activities.

There is a cute little restaurant on site though as you can imagine, the vegan options are scarce so I ended up with the mixed mushroom pizza, drizzled with truffle oil and topped with lots of deliciously fresh rocket leaves. Hold whatever trendy cheese it also contained.

Mmmm it was so good! The mushroom mix was something I've never had before, so many strong tastes and interesting textures, each mouthful was slightly different. However, I will have to keep my adoration under wraps, as the price was (if I remember correctly) close to $20. I guess thats the price you pay to eat in a location once inhabited by starving artists.

If you do come, make it a sunny day. Then you can go for a swim at the most excellent swimming hole down the road, Laughing Waters. Be aware that it is the Yarra though. And there's snakes. Apart from that, good!

Monsalvat
7 Hillcrest Ave
Eltham

And I'm back with a BANG!!

2008-03-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

....quite literally, you could say!

The good news is twofold. This morning began with me picking up my brand spanking new (BLUE!) camera (if only I could use it to take a photo of itself you would be so enamoured with it! Stupid physics) aaaand within that same half hour, I was sitting down to a delicious breakfast preceded by some eager and crappy amateur (food) photography.

Bomb Cafe in Abbotsford was the carefully selected establishment in question. Many moons ago (last year) I resided just behind Bomb Cafe, the residence itself was actually a real life hovel, and the only good thing about it was the location. Well that and the possum that died in the cavities of the walls and produced odours and maggots. But if I had to choose one thing, it would definitely be the location!

Despite Bomb Cafe being so close to my house, it took me quite some time to visit it. You see, it looks really mysterious, one of those places that takes guts and determination to initially enter. On a strip of Johnston St, largely full of abandoned laundromats and old European man style coffee shops and no signage (except a little wingdings bomb) it took a fair few walks past to actually suck it up and go in. Anyway to cut a meanderingly long story short, I did go in! And discovered that they actually have the word "vegan" on the menu! As in, vegan fry up and vegan scrambled tofu!

Okay, onto this most previous visit! Probably the best thing about walking in after a years absence (besides the thought of tofu scram made by someone other than me) was being asked where we had been for the last year. It's nice to feel memorable!

So..the scram! We shared tofu scramble with sides ($8.50 ish) of avocado, mushrooms and spinach ($2.50-$3.50 each). For the tofu haters out there, you can choose to have a vegan fry up, a plate full of fried tomato, mushrooms, spinach and other assorted breakfastish vegetables.

But anyway...this is the scram:

And this is the bev. Long black and soy chai:

And it was allllll delicious! The scramble, big enough to share between two! Slices of sourdough bread soaked with tofu scramble juices (much better than it sounds), firmly crumbled tofu with sweet caramelised red onion, mushrooms and sizable quantities of spinach and avocado. The chai blend was just right as well.

Bomb Cafe are also more than happy to whip you up a vegan lunch! You can have a massive baguette filled with roast and marinated veggies (ask for the mega garlicky artichoke spread, dont forget!), and apparently they also do a mean risotto if you ask real nice.

There is a whole bunch of seating as well! Front inside is nice and cosy, and chatty if you want it to be as well, there is a middle ish area to spread out with your paper or buddies and make a good couple of hours out of it, and a gorgeous courtyard (that almost backed onto my hovel, exciting stuff).

And I forgot how to conclude these things, so here's a picture of my dog.

Bomb Cafe
229 Johnston St
Abbotsford
Ph (03) 9486 0699

promising update...

2008-02-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

I'm making and eating so many good things it kills me not to be able to post them.

A new camera is definitely on the horizon.

I'm back, presently.

2008-01-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yes! I have been bad and lazy, and so selfish, eating so much delicious food and not taking photos or even reviewing it, how rude! I know!

My camera is currently on the fritz, I'm fixing it this week, and I've also gone on a vegan cookbook binge which led to a cooking, particularly sweets baking, binge! Such things need to be documented!

So watch this space and expect some action!

PS. Can you get nutritional yeast and vital wheat gluten ANYWHERE in Melbourne?! I'm at a loss. :(

Roasts...Tuna...delicious

2007-09-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

So I cooked some stuff over the last couple of months (of slack absenteeism).

Sanitarium Roast served with herbed wedges and avocado cucumber salad.

I was quite bemused upon opening the Sanitarium Roast packet...the cylindrical "roast" appeared to more resemble what I feed my dog (also known as "dog log") than something I would willingly choose to eat myself. But, being the brave warrior for the vegan cause that I am, I rolled that thing in the provided (luridly orange) herb and spice mix and wacked it in the oven, cosied up to some potato wedges.

Whilst baking I prepared a simple salad consisting of an avocado that was going mooshy, 3/4 of a cucumber that was just wasting space in the fridge and some random tomato, spiced up with a healthy dash of balsamic and some olive oil. Simple, but delicious.

The roast emerged from the oven looking surprisingly edible, brown and crusty on the outside, a somewhat springy texture was revealed to my forky probings. Sliced and generously doused in packet gravy, it actually tasted not too bad! Not sure that it would have been quite so consumable minus the lashings of gravy and stuff on the side, but it worked well in this instance. I'd like to try it maybe in some sort of sandwich, with some sort of mustard..perhaps a pickle.

Mock Tuna Salad

I first spied this recipe whilst browsing http://yeahthatveganshit.blogspot.com/. I think mainly because the photo on Lindyloo's blog had a potato chip in it, and I quite like potato chips.

The recipe is remarkably simple to prepare, makes a decent amount, and you could probably use it in a whole heap of recipes

INGREDIENTS:

1(15 oz.) can chick-peas, drained (or 1.5 c. cooked)
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise (I use 97% Fat Free Praise, which is vegan)
1/3 cup minced celery
2.5 T. minced dill pickle (about 1 pickle-slice, give or take)
1/2 T. nutritional yeast
1 green onion, chopped
1 t. soy sauce
1/2 t. kelp powder (optional, I didn't, though I'm sure it would give it that tunaish taste)
pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mash the chick-peas coarsely with a fork. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Use on sandwiches or on a bed of salad greens.

I served it in some cos lettuce leaves with some (rather pale) lemon fries. Just chips with herbs and lemon zest on them prior to baking. Tasted good but not enough crunch. I need to work on my baked chips routine, either that or resort to deep frying them. Any hints? I did parboil them first but it helped not a thing. Le sigh.

Anyway regarding the mock tuna, I've never actually tasted real tuna so I dont know how similar it is, but Rocket said it had a similarity, and it looked a damn sight like it! It was really tasty, tangy and nicely textured, would go well in sandwiches and just as a snack, and seems like it would be something that would keep well in the fridge over time.

You should try it!

Green Field Restaurant

2007-09-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

It was one of the freezingest days of winter and I was feeling rather indecisive. I had made Rocket stroll up and down Sydney Road with me (from Albion St to Brusnwick Road and back again) searching for a yet undiscovered dining gem. Nowhere in particular, just something delicious. In the end, it was my bladder that made the decision and when it all got much too much for it, we entered the nearest establishment, which happened to be Green Field Restaurant.

Immediately it smelt like burning. But hey, burning means cooking, and cooking means food, so we sat down (after brief interlude with bathroom) and perused the menus. The vegetarian section was quite pleasing, and I did have difficulty deciding what I wanted. It was a toss up between some variety of eggplant deliciousness (I'm always tempted by eggplant dishes because it is something I am entirely shite at cooking whilst at home) and the incredibly genius sounding "tofu satay stack" or some such. I went the stack. Look at it!!

I was really, really impressed with this meal. For the most part, I'm used to meat serving Asian restaurants having a fairly okay range of stir fried vegetables with beancurd, or satay vegetables or some such, but I was so chuffed to be presented with this creative and delicious meal created exclusively for the enjoyment of vegetarians. Basically, it was a stack of about 3 square slices of deep fried tofu, layered with a spicy, coconutty satay sauce and a bed of vegetables on the bottom, included shredded carrot and lettuce, broccoli, some random peas, carrot, capsicum and baby corn. The vegetables were fresh and crunchy, the tofu crisp and the satay just bound it all together. I understand its not too far removed from the usual satay and beancurd dishes, but I am pretty easily impressed and it was a cut above the usual.

Rocket decided to go with the Monk's Bowl because he often strives to eat like a monk but then fails because I make him eat peanut butter chocolate icecream.

It was a simple and soothing dish of broth, noodles, puffy tofu and vegetables, exactly as described in the menu and delightful in its own way. Not as delightful as TOFU SATAY stack but hey, monks cant have everything.

We enjoyed some delicious asian broccoli with garlic sauce on the side, and this is what it looked like.

Mmm..delicious and most generous garlic studding.

Green Field Asian Restaurant was a pleasant surprise, well priced food and really a great variety for vegetarians and vegans alike. And the burning smell went away eventually.

Green Field Asian Restaurant
378 Sydney Road
Brunswick

Spelt Pizza

2007-09-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

One day I came home from work, and whilst perusing the takeaway menus that I have amassed over time (I do this on a regular basis, sheerly for kicks) I came across one that had never seen before! And nobody could tell me where it came from, how it had made its way into my pile...though I suspect it was...through the letterbox.

It was for a newly opened pizza place on Bridge Road (just a walk away from me) called Spelt. All their bases are made on spelt flour, which is a special flour that can often be consumed by people with wheat intolerances. Now, I have no known intolerance to wheat, but I do have an intolerance to not eating pizza on a regular basis, so off I went.

The restaurant itself is rather nice, lots and lots of seating areas, including outdoors and a cute little courtyard. The service was friendly and helpful which is always pleasant. We ended up ordering a roasted vegetable pizza to share (without the cheese) and a garden salad.

They arrived in good time, and consisted of certainly enough food to feed two hungry vegans. The pizza, though somewhat nakeder than what I'm usually used to, was delicious - not too oily despite the roasted/marinated vegetables, and the pizza crust was lovely and crispy and spelty. Well it really tasted like a normal flour base to me, which is the point I guess. The salad was also great. They do that thing where they slather it in an amount of olive oil that I personally would never use on my salads at home due to guilt factor, but makes the salad ingredients taste just awesomely amazing. It was very fresh and there was heaps of it and I did enjoy it.

The meal total came to about $20. They have a few vegan/veggie pizzas on the menu including a mixed mushroom one which will become my next victim. They also have pasta and a pretty decent salad menu.

As a side note, whilst spelt bases are generally okay for people with wheat intolerances, they still contain that pesky gluten so are not suitable for coeliacs. However, Plush Pizza do offer a gluten free base for a few bucks extra. Its a shame it tastes a tad cardboardy though. But hey! Options!

Spelt

14 Bridge Road

Richmond

Tofu Soft Serve. Indeed!

2007-09-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

The day that I discovered that the Tofu Shop had possession of a soft serve machine was truly, truly unsurpassed. Except maybe by the time I absolutely by accident walked into a vegan gelati place in Rome; that was rad too. I only wanted to ask directions but instead I gorged myself! Off topic.

The Tofu Shop does own a soft serve machine in which they make tofu based soft serve, sweetened with fructose....that means its healthy and good for you right? Fruit sugar? Could be consumed daily, right? Yes? Hm. Regardless, this stuff is just wonderful, reminiscent of the days of 30cent cones but less pig fat. Okay no pig fat. And they change the flavour every week! The flavours range from old reliables (such as vanilla malt, pictured above) to the exotic and then some (such as the vivid green coconut-pandan I had the other day).

I also know, through tofu related gossip, that one can request flavours. I also know that they have a rosewater flavour. One day I will combine these two important items of factual knowledge and request rosewater soft serve, until then I will just be shy and eat what they give me.

You can have the soft serve for takeaway or eat there, they have some nice outdoor seats, and that can be a good option as often times it can take a few minutes to rev up the machine. Also you can be regaled by very interesting monologues by a man who works there, and you will not really understand what is going on but you still listen.

The Tofu Shop also has bain marie style eating with revolving dishes of really delicious looking vegetables, and house made tofu-based cakes and slices. I will report back at a later date.

The Tofu Shop

78 Bridge Road

Richmond

Fraus Hot Chocolate..

2007-09-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

..is essentially a solid not a liquid. It could probably even be served on a plate, thats how remarkably thick it is.

I'm not really much of a coffee drinker, so hot chocolate (particularly during the dreaded colder months) is my warmed beverage of choice to consume outside of the home. At home I'm quite lazy, soaking a teabag in hot water seems to require herculean efforts on my behalf, thats why I surround myself with helpful tea making friends.

Anyway! I had heard much gushings regarding Fraus' amazing hot chocolate drinks, their supreme thickness and creaminess, variety of flavours, and vegan-ness!

My first visit involved a sumptuous experience with a coconut flavoured hot chocolate. Intense cocochoc flavours, thickly studded with shredded toasted coconut bits, this was definitely more of a dessert than a simple drink! I did consume the whole thing with a spoon, with is really the only way to do it. Trying to drink that stuff would most certainly result in a cardiac shock of some variety and/or hot chocolate milk moustache becoming crusted to your face and resulting in comedic embarassment and bugs attacking face.

Other flavours in my extensive, yet still meagre, experience (considering the broad flavour list) include strawberry (tastes like Roses "Thankyou very much" strawberry heart shaped chocolate of days yore. You know the ones your parents used to get, that would inevitably be regifted unless you so happened to tear into them whilst they were out) and vanilla (which was incredible), but mainly I have stuck with the coconut.

The hot chocolate comes in two different sizes. Cup - for the weaker more lame people among us, and mug - the obvious choice for champions. Mug size with soy milk sets you back about $4.40, but well worth the money spent. If trying an unexplored flavour, be sure to ask whether its vegan friendly, as some flavours may contain milk solids.

Fraus also serves sweet and savoury crepes, of which I have no experience. Just putting it out there. Much, much respect to you if you can handle both hot chocolate and a crepe. Simultaneously.

Fraus

345 Victoria Street

North Melbourne

Random June Snackage

2007-06-28T03:51:00.000-07:00

Lord of The Fries

Oh we all love it. Whether it be a snacky lunch eaten standing up, eyeing off the benches in proximity, or a post midnight chips and mini burgers feast that never tasted so good, eaten slightly slumped in a tram/taxi/train whatevs.

And they now have lettuce in their very sneakily vegetarian burgers too. Wow!

Here are some chips I ate in one of those 2am situations.

Usually I'm not the biggest fan of LOTF fries. You see, they are based on the Belgium/Amsterdam version of fries (or frites) which is basically fries in a cone, random toppings (from gravy, cheese, satay, etc.) and teensy scooping forks. The inherent problem is that I have fortunately experienced the real thing in Amsterdam, and they were literally genuinely amazing. Also in Amsterdam every "fritehaus" had the option of mustard...or moutarde..alas LOTF offer no such option, so they lose major points. However, on this late evening, LOTF F's were deliciously pleasing, crisp, adorned in gravy and also upsized free of charge.

Their burgers are good too. Plain but amazing. And they have mustard, which I do love.

Lord Of The Fries

Corner of Elizabeth and Flinders St

Melbourne City.

Cafe Rosamond

Cafe Rosamond is a cute little package nestled off Smith Street, Fitzroy. Contained within this package there are (usually) amazing beans. Rich and tomatoey, wonderful served alongside their gloriously decadent herby avocado salad and chewy sourdough bread. However, on the occasion that my camera and I were both dining at Cafe Rosamond they had sadly sold all their beans, every last one!

I consumed a baguette instead. It had avocado within its realms, so I was sated. And nice crunchy, sharp, pointy, occasionally ouchy bread.

Camera and I will return at a later date for beans. But you dont need photos to prove their incredibleness. Go eat them this weekend!

Cafe Rosamond
Rear 191 Smith St
Fitzroy

Gaylord Indian Restaurant

I am much too grown up to say anything about the name. And it is definitely not the reason that this restaurant appealed to me, no way, never, at all. Nah uh.

The restaurant is enormously, charmingly garish and the menu, as with most Indian places, offers a vast range of curries to choose from.

As this was quite some time ago, I cant remember exactly what was eaten, though there was some eggplant, and also something else with lentils, and possibly the best roti/paratha/naan I have ever eaten. In fact, chuck the curries into that mix as well. They were spectacularly delicious, and you can choose your heat level as well, which is comforting.

Best curries and breads this side of Chinatown. At Gaylord. Yep.

Dregs.

Gaylord

4 Tattersalls Lane

Chinatown, Melbourne

Slow Cooked Onions. And Eateries.

2007-05-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

Yes yes I am horribly, horribly slack and did you know it has been over one whole month since I updated this? And its not as if I stopped eating, god forbid, or even taking photos of every morsel of food I shove down my gob. I just got the laze. I do weep at my sloth.

So..this is going to be just a quick run down of a few things I have baked, consumed, dined..so on!

Portobello Mushroom Burger with Slow Cooked Red Onions (and other stuffs)

This was a little something I prepared (about 10 days in a row, due to the delicious) for lunch, dinner...snack...not breakfast though. There's not really a recipe as such. The only essentials are some mushrooms, a red onion and some burger/sandwich/tortilla trimmings.

What to do with the mushroom: You can either slice it up or keep it whole, douse in a nice swig of balsamic vinegar and a tad of olive or sesame oil, nice sprinkle of pepper and salt, and whatever herbs strike your like. I like thyme, dill...so forth.

Now you place this all in a baking tray and in the oven goes. I dont really know much about temperature, so medium is fine. Bake/roast for about 15-20 minutes.

Now the onions. You can use red, or white, but I like red best. You chop it into rings, heat a bit of olive oil in a fry pan and this is the part that is amazing. You slow cook them for a half hour. This is quite annoying to watch over in order to not burn onions and/or your house, but do it and you wont be sorry. At the 28 minute point, you have to douse the onions also in a splash of balsamic in order to encourage the process of caramelisation.

Maybe you should start the onions first, they take longer.

Anyway. Assemble using nice burger bun, bread like something. Lettuce, baby spinach, tomato, mustard, no tomato sauce I hate it, Israeli pickle (the best) and whatever you gots.

The inspiration for this recipe came from http://herestheveg.blogspot.com/ which is brilliant!

Updates as the evening progresses....and one more picture just because.

I Also Cook Awesome: Recipes.

2007-05-22T09:10:00.001-07:00

Eating other people's food always inspires me to get wiggedy wack in my very own kitchen and see what I come up with. Usually I'll peruse a variety of recipes, combine a little of column a and a dash of column b and come up with my own creation, basically consisting of me chucking things into a saucepan and jabbing a it with utensils. Here's a few dishes that I've forced onto others in the last week or so. I'll do my best to include the recipes, but when your methodology involves shunning measuring devices, it might be best if you play around a bit to suit your own tastes!

Corn, Coconut, Lime and Herb Soup

4 fresh corn cobs
1.5 litres of water/veggie/massel stock.
5cm long piece of ginger
2 shallots
4 garlic cloves
1 red chilli pepper
3 tsp sesame oil
1 potato
1 can of coconut milk
handful of fresh basil and fresh coriander
salt and pepper.

Using a very sharp knife, remove the corn kernels from the corn cobs, run the blunt side of the knife along the kernel to get any bits you missed. Snap corn kernels in half (you'll feel tough, serious) and boil them for a half hour or so in the stock. Mince the ginger, shallots, garlic and chilli pepper. Heat the sesame oil in a frypan, and cook them until soft and fragrant.

Add diced potatoes, corn kernels, and stuff from the frypan to the boiling water (after removing corn cobs!) and leave until the potatoes are soft.

Leave to cool, then add to your blender bit by bit until soup is of a smooth consistency. Reheat and add coconut milk and roughly chopped basil and coriander. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve topped with more chopped herbs!

Marinated Tofu Schnitzel, Garlicky Autumn Mash and Red Cabbage and Carrot Salad.

Tofu Schnitzel

block of very firm tofu (Soy Belle brand is A1!)
2 tsp massell chicken/beef/veg stock
good glug of soy sauce, sesame oil, dill, oregano, chilli sauce..etc.
1 cup soy milk
cornflour or lemon juice
2 cups herb and garlic breadcrumbs (diy or buy them preseasoned)
olive oil for frying

Slice the tofu to your desired thickness (I go extra thin, so at the end it works out that you get more individual schnitzels per person...score!) Get about a cup of water boiling in a good sized saucepan, add the stock, soy sauce, chilli, sesame oil and anything else you like to use when you make a nice, strong marinade. When dissolved and at a rapid boil, add your tofu slices and leave them for about ten minutes. Remove, leave to cool, and reserve remaining marinade fer makin' gravies.

In a bowl, gradually add cornflour or lemon juice to the soymilk until it is thick enough to coat the tofu slices. Use your best judgement on this, as it is easy to go overboard..or underboard.

On a flat plate or large bowl, mix up your breadcrumbs with herbs to your liking, including lots of black pepper and some dill. Heat up some olive oil in a frypan, the amount of oil you will need depends on the non stickability of your frypan. Go more nuts with the oil if your frypan tends to make stuff stick to it. Coat each tofu slice first in the soymilk mixture, then roll in the breadcrumbs. Immediately add to the heated oil. Fit as many slices as you can comfortably in the pan, turning when golden brown. Remove when both sides are deliciously crispy coloured.

Serve with gravy and/or lemon wedges. Amazing. Get Jacquie to make it for you, serious.

Garlicky Autumn Mash

potatoes
pumpkin
sweet potato
diced garlic cloves
nuttelex
good quality dijon or other spicy mustard (i use awesome gourmet horseradish mustard)
soymilk
salt and pepper

Dice up your vegies whilst you get a good sized pot of water boiling. Add vegies, boil 'til you can poke a potato right through with a fork. Drain and mash using a nice quantity of garlic, mustard and nuttelex. Add soymilk until you reach your desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Amazing.

Coconut -Vanilla-Cinnamon Rice Pudding

1 can of coconut cream
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
zest of half an orange
zest of half a lime
3/4 cup of arborio rice

Place coconut cream, sugar, cinnamon and zest in a medium saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Add rice and turn heat to low. Cover pan and cook gently for 35-40 minutes. Stir the rice. You should have a creamy, tender mixture. Spoon into individual bowls or one big one, depending on sharing; for or against.

Serve warm or chilled, with coconut shavings, strawberries, vanilla icecream, any other combination of delicious.

Garlic Parsley Spirals with Pumpkin Oregano Sauce

1 smallish pumpkin, diced
1.5 cups of soymilk
2 tablespoons freshly oregano
half a nutmeg nug, finely grated.
salt and pepper to taste
pasta of your choice (i used special expenno spelt garlic and parsley spirals from the farmer's market)
good handful of toasted hazelnuts or pine nuts

Dice pumpkin and add to saucepan along with the soymilk. Simmer until soft, about ten minutes. Add fresh herbs and nutmeg, and mash with mashing device of your choice. Salt and pepper to taste, over hot pasta. Top with the hazelnuts and pine nuts. Oregano sprig for decorative purposes.

Stroganoff on Soft Polenta, Cabbage and Avocado Sesame Salad

1 brown onion, roughly diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

half a mushroom bag of mushrooms (button or portabello) chopped

250ml of pasta sauce (any flavour)

1 cup of stock

1 cup of vegan gravy

can of Sanitarium tender pieces/tvp/seitan/meaty something

3 tablespoons flour

1 small container of hommus

paprika spice

salt and pepper

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan, fry the onions and garlic until soft, add mushrooms and continue frying until these are also soft. Add the cup of vegetable stock and put a lid on it, leave for about 20 minutes until the water has half evaporated, then add the cup of gravy (still quite watery), pasta sauce and also the flour. Add the meat sub. Mix it all up and leave to simmer for about a half hour or so, until it reaches a desired consistency. Before serving add the hommus and stir through, season with salt and pepper and paprika to taste.

Serve over anything from rice to noodles to cous cous to polenta to mashed potatoes to rice.

Catchup Eats Vol II

2007-05-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Penang Coffee House

Walking along Burwood Road at lunchtime can be a tad graveyard like. Restaurants and cafes open, but empty. And then you reach Penang Coffee House. Bursting at the seams with businessmen, students, Hawthorn mums and me and Rocket, it's almost unbearably noisy and squishy. Almost. The menu boasts an expansive selection of Malaysian vegan dishes, from laksa, to curry and lots of noodle dishes.

The impossibly cute waitress hooked us up with some mee goreng and vegie curry with rice and roti on the side. Arriving in no time at all, the mee goreng was full of the pleasantly spicy goodness of noodles, broccoli, onion, cabbage and other stuffs (those were what I tried because it did not belong to me so I could not try everything contained within its realms)

My vegetable curry was quite a production, arriving on three (omg yes three!) separate dishes, one for rice (but also lots of room to mingle the rice and said curry together), a little bowl filled with absolutely diarrhetic looking curry, and a roti bread different to any other in my entire life experience. Observe.
The curry, though aesthetically revolting, was unbelievably delicious. It was that subtly sweet spicy that can only be achieved through the copious use of coconut cream. The vegies in my curry were mainly cauliflower and green beans, definitely two vegetables that are certainly not in my top 8, but they were fresh and delicious and suited the meal perfectly.

The aforementioned roti bread was most certainly a distant, thrice removed cousin of the usual roti we've all had with our curry. It was the flakiest, crunchiest roti of all time, all crackly and angry looking and had pointy sharp pastry bits that hurt with their crisp deliciousness, really awesome, really.

The dishes set us about about $8 each. And I could hardly even finish mine. So that's good. And the coffee? I was so distracted by the food, trying it didn't even occur to me. But I don't drink coffee anyway. So. Not applicable. Anyway. Oh my god also did you know they have ice kechang? I just found out! Come with me soon to try?

Scene of demolishment below.

Penang Coffee House

549 Burwood Road

Hawthorn

Chatterbox

Chatterbox is the home of some absolutely stupendous laksa. I dont know, nor do I care, about any of their other dishes, bar the laksa. I walk up to the counter of this cramped, hidden gem of an eatery and ask for a vegetarian laksa. I've never perused the menu (though I have heard whisperings of Chatterbox's chef's abilities to vegetarianise anything and everything on the menu) and I think once I tried someone's noodles, and they weren't laksa flavoured, so I wont even bother wasting the stomach room again.

So you find it behind a cafe on Swanston Street (Il Consomethingortheother) next door to what used to be the only skate store in Melbourne city circa high school baggy jeans and DC's wearing era, Melbourne Skate Store I believe it is called. You walk into Chatterbox and are immediately confronted by the super happy super friendly man behind the counter. Place your order, receive your numbered raffle ticket, load up on free hot tea, chopsticks, and spoons, take a seat. In the time it took the perform these motions (one minute, approx), you'll have your meal in front of you before your bum hits the seat.

I can only comment on the laksa at this stage, I care not to comment on anything else. The laksa is a thing of amazement. Big enough to share between two people, it is a veritable swamp of fresh, crispy vegetables (broccoli, baby corn, carrots, slimey mushrooms and those eyeball squelchy mushrooms, and various others), udon noodles, thin rice noodles, and puffy tofu soaking up delicious coconutty, chilli, oily, brothy juices.

Sit outside amongst the seagulls, garbage bins and RMIT students and enjoy.

Chatterbox Curry & Noodle Bar

U18/235 Bourke St

Melbourne

Kaki

Kaki is a teensy tiny Japanese joint on High Street that does wonderfully cheap meals for vegetarians and vegans. For $6.50 you can gorge yourself on a more than adequate variety of noodles, rice dishes and whatnot. They also serve most meals with a tempura cake. Reminiscent of the more traditional okonomiyaki, but infinity times more deep fried (therefore better? Discuss). On this occasion, my dining companions all ordered the vegie curry on rice with tempura and tofu, whilst I went with the udon noodle soup, with tempura cake on the side.

Served quickly, with the nourishing goodness of frozen vegetables (green beans, carrot, corn, the usual suspects), the food is basic but filling.

Kaki Japanese Restaurant

265 High Street

Northcote

Las Chicas

Jacquie and I needed to pay an essential and regular visit to Balaclava, home of Rishon's Grocery Store. However, before tackling this home of Jewishcentric orgiastic snacks, we had to nourish ourselves with a hearty breakfast. At 1pm. Yes. I had wanted to visit Las Chicas since reading about it on thebreakfastblog.blogspot.com and also in the Age Cheap Eats Guide. Also it was the closest vendor of hashbrowns in the vicinity of Balaclava train station, so that's key too.

Las Chicas has both indoor and outdoor seating in copious quantities, however unless you dig lining up for some toast (exquisitely gourmet as it may be) stick to visiting on weekdays.

The menu is based mainly on breakfasty stuff, and separated into vegetarian (offering about 10 different options) and meaty stuff. If you're a vegan, you'll have ample choice from the listed extras. Jacquie and I decided to go halvies in a plate due to the sheer volume of extras we were ordering.

We ended up with two thick cut slices of polenta and pumpkin bread, spinach, hashbrowns, mushrooms, avocado and baked beans. The bread, magical. As soft and fluffy as cake, only without the sweet, studded with crunchy chewy pumpkin seeds. The baked beans were on the more chewy side, but still delightfully saucy. Spinach and mushrooms cooked to perfection. Hashbrowns were of your typical frozen food aisle variety, but any fried potatoey product (mass produced or no) is a-ok by me. The avocado was served pre mashed so that saved all of 2.3 seconds in getting it down my gob. All in all a both aesthetically pleasing and tummy filling breakfast.

Expensive, yes. $28 including coffees (between the two of us), but not even all the nutty chews I ate from Rishon's, or the stupid hats we tried on at the party shop next door were able to make me as happy as that breakfast did.

Las Chicas

203 Carlisle Street

Balaclava

The Great Food Porn Catchup

2007-05-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

I'm way into procrastinating. When I was in uni, my favourite anti study procrastination was to update my livejournal some four times a day, to report all manner of exciting events. Dog making a cute face, toast burning, contemplating dropping out and/or faking major illness/accident to get out of exams. Now that I do no learning whatsoever, I procrastinate by NOT writing in my blog. Usually I have a nap instead.

But my mouth it keeps eating, and my camera, it keeps taking pictures, so I'm going to catch everyone up with my last two months of eating in a brief, perfunctory manner so then I can start anew, fresh, etc.

Bowl of Soul

Forcing Brendan to rise early during school holidays, not eat breakfast, and buy a tram ticket the quickest he ever has (all whilst I'm holding the beeping tram door open with the weight of my buttocks leaned against it) actually turned out well. Bowl of Soul delivered the goods. They are a relatively new eatery in Port Melbourne, and its a bit of a walk to get there from the tram stop, but keep your head averted, eyes out front, and ignore the gaggle of gourmet burger joints and keep walking 'til you reach it. Will not be sorry. Though the chalkboard menu is limited, the fact that everything is vegan will find you in an overwhelmed state of rapture.
Bowl of Soul offer a mainly burger/sandwich based menu, with the option of soup and a few cakes as well.

You order and pay at the counter, choosing from such amazingness as "Steakout Sandwich" "Veggie BLT" and "Cajun Chicken Burger" amongst others! All burgers are veganafiable (can be made vegan, new word, learn it). Take away or eat in, you can choose to sit inside on some nice dark wood chairs with crimson walls, or outside. Which is just outside. On this occasion I purchased some sort of prawn based burger, with lettuce, tomato and a vegan friendly mayo sauce. It was quite spectacular, but even better was Brendan's Steakout Sandwich, which had some kind of pinky "steak" mock, a slice of vegan bacon, and also one of the best flavoured vegan cheeses I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. The burgers themselves were spectacular, but I also don't think it would hurt to have some kind of side dish accompanying...something..maybe..like chips. Delicious chips. It's so nice to have an occasional break from burger munching, to just put it down for a moment, chomp a few idle chips, and continue. Really a nice thing to do.

The price of a burger is approximately $7.50 from memory which in my opinion is rather fair for an occasional treat.

We followed up with slices of cake and a most obscenely enormous cup of hot chocolate. Quite good.

Bowl of Soul

118 Bridge Street

Port Melbourne

Spudbar

I visited Spudbar twice in as many days because I was in a non fried potato (unusual for me) kinda mood. One potato is more than enough to share between two people, particularly if you do like myself and go fully sick on the toppings. Also they do cost about $8 a pop, which is a tad on the pricey side for a root vegetable wrapped in foil. On the last occasion I visited this haven of non fried potato goodness, I have lentil dahl, brocolli, mushrooms, corn, avocado, hummus, baby spinach and spring onion. The offerings for vegans and vegetarians are vast and also include, but are not limited to, beans, carrot, pineapple, olives, tomato and so on and so forth. The flavour combinations are endless. Other spudtastic stuffs about Spudbar are the vast array of delicious beverages available and the diy toppings at the end, such as tabasco, chilli flakes, soy sauce, garlic flakes and also onion flakes that look astoundingly like toenail cuttings. Flavoursome toenail cuttings.

After my last visit, Rocket made me go to a computer swap meet. Not so spudazing.

Spudbar

Hawthorn - 638A Glenferrie Rd

Richmond - 226 Swan Street

Also in St Kilda, Prahran, Docklands and Collins St.

Hy Hy Restaurant

Venturing out westside almost consistently guarantees amazing eats. Jacquie and I sampled a duo of dishes from Hy Hy restaurant on our most recent visit. We were seated and brought menus swiftly, probably because we were the only customers, chose our food (spring roll salad, made veg, chinese brocolli and rice substituting oyster sauce for garlic sauce) and then had the option of speaking amongst ourselves, checking each other out in the wall to wall mirrors, or watching Dr Phil on the teev. Before we even had time to do all three, our meals were brought out!

The spring roll salad was good, as good as it is anywhere in Footscray or Victoria Street. I guess adequate would be another way to describe it. Adequately crunchy, adequately salady, adequately peanut studded. Nothing above or below adequate. Just adequate. The brocolli on the other hand, outstanding! Lightly steamed and retaining almost all of its natural crunch and flavour, liberally doused with a well clinging, garlic rich sauce, you would not believe a dish that looked so much like plant on a plate with a side of rice could taste so good!

Washed down with a free pot of jasmine tea, we left satisfied and full, pockets about $15 lighter, hearts happy as we headed to Savers. I got some socks that say "Cutie" on them.

I like this photo because it shows the impatience people have with truly dedicated epicurean photographers such as myself. Uncross your arms.

Hy Hy Restaurant
112 Hopkins Street
Footscray

Tibalicious!

2007-05-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I visited Tibas on Sydney Rd some weeks ago now but the memory of crispy falafel, tantalising dips and fresh salads lives on in my mind forever....ever...ever.

It was a last minute Saturday evening decision to pay a visit to Tibas, and I must admit to being a touch concerned regarding seating availability, but luckily this place is huge, two large rooms with tables seating anywhere from two occupants to several more, to suit the requirement of any party.

At first we were seated against a wall with a scary mirror that kept swinging back and forth, threatening to collapse on us, perhaps decipate use, at least slam shards of glass through our eyes. We moved tables without much fuss.

Though there is a definite huge focus of meat at Tibas (evidenced by giant revolving spits upon entering the establishment) the menu offers several options for the discerning vegan or vegetarian. There are two or three dips, vine leaves, falafel, salads and your usual middle eastern orientated suspects. Our table of five opted to order four "falafel plates", which required a slight amendment, as the falafel plate listed on the menu contains a yoghurt dip, decidedly non vegan. And besides, I hate yoghurt.

Speedy service is another admirable quality possessed at Tibas. Our meals (along with free bread in copious quantities) arrived within ten minutes. The oval shaped plates contain an abundance of falafel balls (okay, six), chickpea salad, tabouli, a green salad as well as both babaganoush (eggplant) and hommus (chickpea) dips, not forgetting the brightly coloured and flavoursome turnip pickles.

As a seasoned falafel consumer who has consumed falafel in at least ten different countries, i would go so far as to say, in terms of falafel balls alone, that Tibas is up there with the best of them. Well flavoured and with a deliciously crisp exterior, you know this falafel has been deep fried to all hell, however the balls are not at all oily, instead they are light and delicate, like some sort of falafel cloud, perhaps. All the salads are very fresh, dressed with a simple lemon, olive oil and salt n pepper dressing, the dips smooth and smokey.

The most popular method of eating is to take a pre quartered slice of pita bread, lay it out, smother with dip, salads, squish falafel and wrap awkwardly, deliciousness and drippings ensue but that's why you have plates so its fine.

Four plates of falafel plate fed five fittingly. We were all stuffed but satisfied, and from memory it cost each of us under $8. Amazing. Definitely a contender for best Lebanese restaurant on Sydney Rd, if not Melbourne..though there are still many, many for me to try. Tibas also does a falafel wrap for takeway, which I have not tried, but looks fat and good. On another occasion I sampled their hot chips, and they were incredible. Try them. Then walk up to Alasya for several varieties of vegan turkish delight. Gummy.

Tiba's Restaurant

504 Sydney Rd

Brunswick

93808425