That vegan question and answer thing doing the rounds!

I thought I better get a post up before the weekend seeing as I have almost been on a roll lately.
So I opted for this easy survey thingamy.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
I'm easy - I just go for whatever has whole soybeans/grains as opposed to isolates, the simplest ingredient list and unsweetened. I mainly use it in cooking anyway.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
This one took me the longest time to answer, and because I copy heaps of recipes from the net into a word doc I no longer know where they came from. Probably Tempeh Bacon, Tom Yum Soup, and Coconut Rice Pudding.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
I never eat popcorn but probably salt. In the old days it was butter.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Pre-vegan days I made a lemon pasta with fish for my flatmate and her boyfriend. However the fish was completely flakey and almost dissolved within the dish. And I put way too much lemon in - you couldn't taste anything else and it was barely edible. Shame!

5. Favorite pickled item?
I love pickled stuff. Probably a toss up between jalapenos and dill pickles. Oh, and I love pickled onions but don't eat them much for fear of stinking out my company! Are olives considered pickled? If so then they take first place.

6. How do you organize your recipes?
Ermmm, organise?

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Recycling bin and trash. Composting in an apartment doesn't work.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
My island is going to have a bountiful supply of native fruit and veg, so I would only need to bring gin, pasta and tofu.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
My mum's self saucing chocolate pudding. It was always cooked for dessert for our birthdays. Time to veganise it!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Purely Decadent Cookie Dough. I'm not even an icecream fan but I'm hooked on this! Or at least I WAS until I discovered I couldn't get it in Melbourne anymore. SOB! In fact, I don't even need the icecream part - just the cookie dough. MMMMmmmm.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
I only have a few and have only used one of them - so I guess it's my blender! What I would really like is a masticating juicer though, they produce twice the juice of a centrifugal juicer. Cost twice as much though!

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Chili. No, basil. No, coriander. No, cumin... argh!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Gourmet vegetarian, beautiful book but probably only made 5 things from it. I am terrible with cookbooks. I own a dozen and never use them and wonder why I always cook the same stuff.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Marmalade.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Spinach and tofu 'ricotta' cannelloni. It's not far off from a 'normal' cannelloni so it doesn't really get questioned and looked at strangely. And I LOOOOVE it.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu is the easiest and most flexible. But I do love seitan. Whenever I have cooked tempeh it tastes like the devil's *%@! - I'm still working on liking it.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Dinner. Breakfast I have no time for anything other than tea and toast and I am much too lazy to bring preprepared lunch to work.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Ermm.. no idea. Things my flatmate owns?

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Fry's Vegetarian Shnitzels, Purely Decadent Cherry Nirvana Icecream, and some strange Banana Fritters I found at Woolworths (which, btw, are divine with icecream, fresh strawberries and maple syrup... mmmmmmm). Wow, how grossly unhealthy do I sound? I could at least trade in the Banana Fritters for real bananas freshly fried!

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Fresh produce. Canned lentils, chickpeas and tomatoes. Tofu. Hummous. Does this redeem my answer for question 19?

21. Favorite grocery store?
Don't really have one. I'm a store whore. I might love Macro Wholefoods in Richmond, if it wasn't in Richmond! Bring it Collingwood way!

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
Hmmm.. the aforementioned (failed) lemon pasta with fish. And the also aforementioned chocolate self saucing pudding.

23. Food blog you read the most?
I read heaps, too many to count. I even get Google alerts multiple times a day emailed to me with keyword 'vegan'. But perhaps Planet VegMel has been handiest for me to find other Melbourne bloggers which is great! And I love Natala's Vegan Hope because she is so positive and inspiring - and she's beaten diabetes with a vegan diet. My Dad has diabetes and I wish he would do the same.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate. I wish the flavoured dark Lindt was vegan too! I wrote to Lindt asking why they need butterfat in the Dark Chocolate with Almonds flavour.. their response was pretty weak and they didn't respond again to my reply.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Loving Earth raw chocolate. Sadly I found the texture awful and couldn't finish even one small square of it.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
I'm not sure if I'm scared or just plain lazy. But if we are combining the two, anything that needs soaking overnight! Who can plan anything that far in advance?? (see question 6 above). Also, pumpkin! Not only is it an absolute bitch to cut, but what girl who goes out a lot can eat all that pumpkin before it goes off? I do love it though. Maybe I should get a pumpkin and a weeks plan of pumpkin meals. And making my own seitan - sounds tough!

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm going to try and head to the Rose St Artist Markets in Fitzroy on Saturday to check out some vegan bits and bobs, (thanks Miss T!)

Vegan Meetup Group in Melbourne

After getting all excited about World Vegan Day in Abbotsford and then getting all gutted that I can't make it cos I'm away that weekend I decided to get a little more proactive about meeting fellow vegans in Melbourne - I don't know any!

So in case any of you are feeling the same, there is a new Veg*n Meetup group on meetup.com. They are meeting up this Saturday (which I also can't make) but I thought I would spread the word! I could always do with some real life vegan friends who exist beyond blogs!

Vegan 100

Ok, I have buckled and joined the masses in doing this Vegan 100. But I was feeling a bit left out about the items that were dependent on being in the USA so have changed a few of those to Australian places so I could join in! (and perhaps so my list wouldn't look so pathetic...)


Rules:
1) Copy this list into your blog or social networking site profile, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment on this post linking to your results.

The Vegan Hundred:

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Coleslaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. Hot chips with cheese and gravy from Lord of the Fries, Melbourne
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - Ginger wine??
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic Australian Mango
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet or Habañero pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan wholemeal pizza from Mr Naturals, Melbourne
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice…with Extra Ginger
50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Coconut Sticky Black Rice Pudding from Passion Foods, Melbourne
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Vegan Fish 'n Chips from The East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless ‘Pixie’ Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

42 - not as bad as I thought!
It's certainly inspired me to try more stuff.

World Vegan Day

Hooray! World Vegan Day is coming up!

I have never been before - I thought about going last year (I was vegetarian then, vegan curious) and now I'm EXTREMELY keen to go. I am yet to recruit anyone to come with me though... probably go on my lonesome which is fine, at least I can revel in the vegan glory without having to feel silly and obsessive in front of my omni friends!

Having checked out the list of sponsors I'm definitely interested in popping by a few of their stalls assuming they have them. In particular Animal Liberation Victoria as I am a member but yet to do anything productive to help them, despite my lame attempt at offering my help.

I don't really know what goes on at this thing. Has anyone been before? You going again this year? I did see that last year they had Speed Dating. Hahahahaaha! (I laugh now but I will probably be first in line on the day...)

Review: Gurkha's Nepalese Restaurant on Lygon St

I do love finding restaurants that are not marketed as veg*n but cater as well for vegans as they do for omnis.

Gurkha's is one of these. They have heaps of vegan options.

I went there last night for a quick meal before a Fringe Festival show (Philip Escoffey - mind reader if you care) and was actually a bit overwhelmed with all the options! Usually choosing from the menu is a simple process of picking one of perhaps two or three options.

Gurkha's had a dozen vegan mains, half a dozen vegan sides, and about 5 vegan entrees! Wooohooo! I opted for the vegan steamed dumplings, spinach and potatoes, and potato chickpea curry all of which were vegan. I did forget however to check whether the roti bread was vegan or fried in butter - oops!

And with all that and half a bottle of wine, at just under $50 I will be back for more!

I would love to know what your favourite 'normal' restaurants are that have heaps of vegan options.

The Laziest Argument

There are few anti-veg arguments that bother me more than those that are lazy and miss the point entirely. Uneducated views about protein, iron and calcium I can handle because we get told from day 1 that you need meat and dairy for optimal nutrition and some people just haven't discovered that's not the case.

But arguments that say being veg is pointless because rodents get killed by harvesters is just defeatist and misses the point that we should all do the best we can to reduce animal suffering. People who go veg realise they can't save all the animals in the world from suffering but that does not mean we should contribute to more suffering! To be fair, he does point out that vegetarians may use dairy and eggs, etc, but rather than suggesting going vegan as an option he suggests we just protest against seal clubbing!

Imagine the author of this piece had a sick child - would he be satisfied if the doctor told him "We can't save everyone, so we won't bother trying to save your child either"?

Surely doing what you can is better than doing nothing at all. It sounds as if he has never given serious consideration to animal suffering and is happy to have found an argument where he can relinquish all responsibility and wipe his hands clean of the whole debate.

Tempeh or not tempeh? That is the question.

Tempeh. I just can't work it out. I don't think there is anything I don't eat in the vegan world, I'm open to it all - but I just can't figure out how to cook this so that its not mushy and slimy and just plain hideous. And I have never had anyone else cook it for me so don't really know how it's meant to turn out.

I have tried steaming, then marinating and frying but it still remains an unpalatable mess. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to fry it in a LOT of oil? Is it possible to dry fry it? Slow cook? Really hot pan? When should I marinade? Should I use premarinaded stuff? Before or after? Thin or thick slices? Crumbled like a mince substitute? If anyone has great tips on tempeh I would love to hear them. I would prefer not to have to shallow fry as I'm not overly keen on frying everything in oil.

I am happy with tofu and seitan as it seems they can work out well regardless of my lack of cooking skills. But tempeh? Help!

Passion Foods and Purely Decadent Icecream

Wow! I just discovered an exciting health food and organics store in South Melbourne called Passion Foods. I am a little bit pathetic and get excited discovering new stores like this because there is usually something new I can add to my array of 'weird vegan foods'.

And the best thing about Passion Foods is that they stock Turtle Mountain Purely Decadent vegan icecream. Perhaps I have not been privvy to this information that there is still somewhere in Melbourne that stocks this stuff - but I haven't been able to find it since I first tried (and devoured in record time) their Cookie Dough flavour over a year ago!

Admittedly, they only had one flavour at Passion foods - Cherry Nirvana. But I will definitely be going back there and asking if they can get in other flavours for me. Has anyone else found a stockist in Melbourne for this stuff?

Oh, and Passion Foods also make their own Coconut Black Sticky Rice PUdding. No weird ingredients, preservatives or numbers, and freshly made. I ate a whole tub of it for breakfast (ok, not the healthiest breakfast food. But it WAS my birthday!)

Review: The Palmerston Hotel - could it be more vegan unfriendly?

The Palmerston Hotel in South Melbourne

I don't always expect the best vegan fare at your average Melbourne pub but usually I can get by on turning up without researching it first. And when a colleague picked this spot for his birthday lunch I assumed I would be fine.

Despite the decently sized menu at The Palmerston the vegetarian options were slim, and the vegan options non-existant. I'm somewhat used to this and have found that in veggie-friendly Melbourne you can usually let the waiter know you are vegan and they can whip up something for you or adapt a recipe from the menu.

Not so at The Palmerston. After a shocked "What?!" from the waitress when I told her I was vegan she proceeded to ask what that means exactly and did an appalling job at hiding her near disgust at my eating habits. Which I probably wouldn't have minded if she came back with some decent options or at least pasta in napoli sauce. Instead she returned asking if I could eat fish and when I said no I was presented with the following choices:

Fries
Salad

Resignedly I opted for both. But in hindsight should have opted for neither.

The salad was shredded iceberg with a few slices of tomato and cucumber on top. I was actually insulted by how bad it was and how boring it implied my tastebuds to be. And the average fries came with a nice generous dollop of sour cream so obviously it was only the 'boring' part that registered in the waitress' head as opposed to the 'no dairy' part.

And all that aside, it was embarrassing having such an unsatisfying meal in front of everyone. For those who didn't really know what vegans eat I was ashamed to have that sitting in front of me as an example.

The Palmerston Hotel
0/10 Service
0/10 Food

Can vegans eat flour? Coffee? Alcohol??

Since becoming vegan I have had countless weird looks and questions assuming that a vegan diet isn't just about avoiding animal products but avoiding anything nice or normal. It’s quite amazing how misinformed the general public is about what vegans do and don't eat. I think many do actually know that vegans don't eat animal products so I'm not sure about where these weird questions come from.

If I went by the misinformed publics' understanding of vegan, in the 6 last months I would have eliminated the following foods from my diet:

Yeast

Flour

Bread

Pizza

Alcohol

Crackers

Sushi

Curry

Pasta

Chocolate

Coffee

Fried foods


Even when people know that it means no animal products there are still questions like "What about flour, can you have flour?" and comments that we can go get a dandelion coffee assuming I can't have normal coffee.

It seems that many of the foods that get questioned are just yummy things or possibly unhealthy things as opposed to animal products. Is it just that everything yummy in peoples' minds can't be vegan? Or is it just that people have no idea what is in their food and where their food comes from? What is the weirdest thing you have been questioned about eating?