Please don't get me wrong, I am Australian and I like being Australian, but no way am I going to *celebrate* the invasion and subsequent decimation of a people. It's disrespectful, and it erases our history, which for good or bad is still our history.
Also, as vegans, we are already incredibly unAustralian, just ask the Lamb industry and Sam Kekovich. So we took advantage of the day instead, and had an 'unAustralian' brunch (ie, no animals were injured in the makings of our brunch).
We had a small but very convincing array of sweet goods.
Cate's cinnamon scrolls were where most of us started, and where some of us sadly thought we'd have to end - covered in molten sugar and filled with the same, this sent me into a sugar coma. However do not fear, I was not defeated by this deliciousness! I soldiered on.
Kristy provided lamingtons, I believe because Toby has never before eaten their coconutty deliciousness. These lamingtons were supposed to have soyatoo whipped cream in them, but there was some sort of cream dispensing failure. They were still delicious! ETA these were in fact jelly cakes! Which I ALSO have never before had! INTERESTING.
I woke up early to my alarm this morning, in order to bake some gluten-free berry cupcakes - six strawberry, and six blackberry, freshly purchased from the Queen Vic Markets. I did this by splitting the plain batter, and then carefully mixing into each half. This was the first time I have split a batter for this purpose, and it was lots of fun!
The savouries were also worth getting up for!
Craig and Bec, after cycling all the way from Richmond, appeared with these freshly made dips: one carrot, and one capsicum, to go with Bec's freshly baked bread. It was still warm! And it was very delicious (and gluten-y. and crisp. and amazing).
Craig also provided aoli and tempeh chips. These tempeh chips were super delicious and (allegedly) super simple, I am definitely going to give them a go!
We were super lucky to end up with two potato products. I say super lucky because I LOVE potato products, so I was very interested in eating these all up. Kristy and Toby brought these potato and pea hashy things (I don't know if they had an official name). They were awesome! ETA Kristy informs me these were in fact samosa pancakes. Fantastic!
Chris concocted this baked hash thing (officially, a baked hash thing), topped with nutritional yeast/savoury yeast flakes. It was very squishy but very tasty!
At first I was really conflicted by the 'unAustralian' theme of our brunch. I mean, such a term is immediately fraught with problems and opportunities for parochial crap, and, you know, the positioning of anything that isn't meat pies or anything that is 'foreign' as being, well, foreign.
But such complications didn't prevent me from making only my favourite breakfast food ever, char kuay teow. It is the best. I eat it as often as I can for breakfast.
To round things out (or more accurately, to begin it), Lisa provided us with miso soup and some okonomiyaki. I haven't had miso soup in an age, and it was a delicious and refreshing way to start our brunch. It was great! The okonomiyaki was also pretty tasty, and as Lisa said, clearly nom because it has nom in the name!
full set of nom photos here. I will update this post with recipes as they appear on the internets. Cate has a post up about brunch.
17 comments:
Oooh cute little dog! The char kuay teow - yum!
And it's a very difficult day to navigate, isn't it. So many people feel so patriotic, and it's hard to convey that this day is about so much more than feeling 'Aussie' by drinking beer and eating pies. I tend to just skip it, really.
xx
That's Kimba, Lisa's dog - tiniest dog in the universe, and absolutely adorable!
When I was still in uni I was a lot more blase about the day, and almost certainly fell into the 'celebrating' side of things, but just with all the things that have happened (and continue to happen) it's just difficult to justify celebrating it. And I can be Aussie by not eating pies, you know?
Ooh, I'm curious to hear the secret to veganised okonomiyaki. I've only ever had vegan okonomiyaki fail-- the flax seed egg substitution I usually use doesn't seem to work that well, and they have a tendency to be flat, sad, and prone to breakage.
Tevere, I am pretty sure that Lisa used this recipe.
it amuses me that you started with the sweet food - glad you were able to continue brunching after that cinnamon rolls as it all looked delicious
Johanna, what can I say - the sweet food was just there! And the cinnamon buns were a stellar effort, I couldn't resist going for them first!
I may not be vegan, but I abhor the term "unAustralian" and I didn't even know who Sam Kekovich was before those ads, so I have no desire to start valuing his opinion now.
This is the kind of "Australia" I want to be a part of - delicious food, good company, and (hopefully soon :P) good recipes!!
Yay, someone else who feels the same about "celebrating" Australia Day! The sad thing is, I actually don't think that a lot of people "remember" what Australia Day is for and if they do, they don't care. I know I didn't think about it much until I studied Australian history in depth at university and realised the full extent of the implications of the day. Now, it seems as though most people think that Australia Day is for a) drinking copious amounts of beer, b) eating copious amounts of meat and c) acting like yobbos. How insensitive the the Indigenous Australians can you get?
I personally treat it as a day off to catch up with my good friends who I don't get to see nearly enough of.
Oh, and your noodles, as usual look incredible. As does the rest of your breakfast - especially the savoury stuff - yum! :-)
Oh wow, that all looks amazing!
Thanks Hannah! Hopefully there will be some recipes soon. :o)
Little Aspects: I agree, I think many people don't really think about or "remember" what the day actually means. And yesterday a "friend" (ex-friend) admonished me to just "enjoy the day" instead of blogging about Indigenous Australians! I think it is such a ridiculous showing of privilege to switch off, denying our history and this terrible thing in order to enjoy the day. Especially if celebrating Australia is about acting like a dickhead! How is that enjoying? Argh.
Noodles for breakfast are the best.
vegan.in.brighton, thanks!
i made jellycakes which are a tiny bit different from lamingtons and toby made samosa pancakes, we will post recipes soon!
I didn't realise you made two types of muffins, I must have got 2 of the strawberries one, please post the recipe! Also I missed out on miso soup, darn!
Oh what a nice picture of Kimba!! Yay.
And that is indeed the right recipe for the okonomiyaki, Steph.
Good brunching!
@lisa: Thanks.
That all looks awesome - yum!
Oh thanks Kristy, I will edit the post accordingly. I am sad you missed out on the blackberrie muffins, maybe I will make you some soon! I hope to post that recipe tomorrow :o)
Good hosting, Lisa.
Vicki, it was deliciousness. As potlucks are.
Shame I missed this one - the food looks great!
But Tahn you're coming to the next one!
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