vegan goodies at the local iga

So my local IGA (located at 614 Sydney Road in Brunswick, opposite Tabet's) has recently seriously expanded its frozen mock meats range. Thanks to Lizbee for pointing this out to me one day, although returning there last night I noticed they have stuck a piece of paper to the door that says 'vegetarian meals!' to draw attention.



For those vegetarians amongst you, there's a couple of varieties of Quorn down the bottom. There's also a range of vegan mock meats, including some very fishy-tasting fish, the chicken nuggets that Lord of the Fries uses, and many other exciting things! There's even cheap tempeh in there.

I'm super pleased by the close proximity to my house of all this mock meat, and given my recent discovery that the range stocked by my usual supermarket is no longer vegan, I'm pleased that so much of it is vegan! More reporting on specific kinds to follow, once I try more of them.

[product] bare crush fruit spread

In Perth recently, Emilly and I ventured up to Fresh Provs to provision our hotel room with deliciousness for the con+Easter weekend. Within Fresh Provs' delightful shelves we found this deliciousness: Bare Crush fruit spreads. I went for the mango and passionfruit, she picked the raspberry strawberry.



These spreads were totally delicious. They're not exactly jams; they're not rendered down as much as jams, and they start to spoil very quickly so they've clearly not been preserved in the way of jams. Spreading the raspberry strawberry across my bread the first morning (no toasters in five star hotels!), I found an entire strawberry in front of me! The flavours were delicious and not too sugary for an early morning start, and I think of the two I preferred the strawberry raspberry.

These are pretty expensive, but I would buy them again if I were in Perth long enough to finish a pot.

mr nice guy neopolitan cupcakes

One of the new Mr Nice Guy cupcake flavours is neopolitana, so of course I raced out to eat it, and then failed to blog about it.



I really like this cupcake! The chocolate is good, and the strawberry icing is not too sweet or overwhelming, and the vanilla sets it all off nicely. I like it!

You can win a dozen Mr Nice Guy cupcakes via Beat magazine right now, and on the competition page you can also see my photo! The photo is fine, it is a shame the icing had gotten squished on the way home from Empire.

Previous Mr Nice Guy cupcakes in my mouth: jaffa + key west.

Other people eating the Neapolitan: Pip eating at New Day Rising.


Mr Nice Guy Cupcakes
Address: at a handy cafe (I go to Empire on Sydney Road)

[product] be natural muesli bars

I get grumpy the hungrier I get, to the point where I'm unable to function and it's pretty unpleasant. So I like to have things floating around for me to emergency snack on, and these Be Natural muesli bars have become my favourite, especially for flights and, as it turns out, single bite snacks whilst engaging in sports.



Not all of them are vegan, but about half of them are (none of the chocolate ones, sadly!). My favourite is the purple one pictured here, which contains pepitas, currents, berries, and some kind of nut.

These are available in my local supermarket, which makes them easy to find!

方便面 from global green

I picked these instant noodles up from Global Green Vegetarian, beside the Queen Vic Markets. Global Green has a great array of stuff, and all the vegan stuff is clearly marked. It's sort of a cross between a vego grocery store and an Asian grocery store, I picked up some frozen bao and a bag of dried black beans, and they sell la panella pies and sausage rolls in double packs.



I love instant noodles so much it's unreasonable. I miss my Maggi Oriental noodles so much (ps, this week is International Nestle Free Week). This brand is expensive in comparison to other brands, but not bad. I didn't really enjoy the yellow packet very much, but I quite liked the tomato flavour. This could have been to do with preparation - I did the yellow one with the broth, and Amanda (who made the tomato one for me) drained the the broth from the tomato one, which gave it a nice squishy flavouring without being overwhelming.




Other reviews of Global Green Vegetarian: around the world vegan and at where's the beef.

Global Green Vegetarian
Shop 1/33 Peel St
West Melbourne

mister nice guy cupcakes

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, whilst at Empire I picked up two Mister Nice Guy cupcakes for later consumption.



I had previously tried a mini (I think) vanilla cupcake at the Puppy Farm Rally, and was totally underwhelmed. Danni came away going on about how awesome the Mister Nice Guy cupcakes were, and I just had to disagree because I had found it bland and uninspiring.

However, given they were right in my eye line throughout breakfast, and given how everyone had been so impressed by them, and given that they sold out at World Animal Day, I thought that I would give them a second chance. And I'm glad that I did!

I took home a jaffa cupcake (front) and the key west (rear). Empire also had plain chocolate in stock. Even though I know (via facebook) that they were the previous day's cupcakes, they were still delightfully soft and squishy. The key west had this wonderful combination of lime and coconut, with crisp toasted coconut on top, and I thought that this light cupcake was delicious, and would be the superior. However the jaffa cupcake was just as light and fluffy, with just the right amount of chocolate, and though I thought it could stand to have a hint more orange flavour the combination was still delightful.

Anyway, now I don't know which was my favourite! These cupcakes will surely just have to undergo further rigorous testing.

accidentally vegan: mr potato crisps 'malaysian curry'

Sometimes, ninja vegan food appears in the oddest of shapes. The most intriguing of recent weeks was these chips my friend W found when she was cruising her local Chinese supermarket (I believe it is in Glen Waverly). She too is Malaysian-Chinese, having resided in Australia lo these many years, and she couldn't go past the idea of a Malaysian Curry chip.



Now that I look at this poorly framed photograph, I realise I left out the most important part - the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag) border around the top! That's right, these 'Malaysian Curry' chips were in fact from Malaysia, all the writing around the back was in BM (bahasa malaysia, the national language) and everything. And yet. 'Malaysian Curry.' I don't know.

BUT HOW COULD WE RESIST.

These were interesting. They had a little tang, and a really tiny blacan after taste. But mostly they tasted like pringles.


In non-accidentally-vegan news, don't buy plain samboy chips from a vending machine when you're really hungry and it's the only thing you have time for. You'll pay your $2.50, only to discover there's lactose in them. And then you'll sulk.

kari kapitan and veaty chicken bites

One of the difficult things about moving across the country is finding substitutes or replacements for all the things you used to buy. Currently I am trying to find a good mock chicken pieces product. I used to use the same stuff that Lord of the Fries uses for their nuggets, it was amazing. Anyway, now here we are in Melbourne and I am looking but not quite there.

The most important thing my fake chicken pieces have to be able to do is perform adequately in a kapitan recipe.



I picked up something called 'veaty bites' from the grocer at Barkly Square. The chicken pieces had the right sort of texture, and are gluten free, so meaning I can still make this recipe gluten free, hooray! But the pieces were not quite right, and the packaging was extensive, so whilst these were an okay substitute, I continue my search.

accidentally vegan #1

This isn't a big thing for non-Australians, but Arnotts are The Brand in Australia, I can't think of a week of my time in Australia as a child that didn't include something Arnotts in my lunch box - Tim Tams and Mint Slice and Iced Vovos and Pizza Shapes and oh nom. Most Australian vegans (I find) have an "I miss X Arnotts product" somewhere in the back of their minds. Mine is Iced Vovos, Mint Slice, and Pizza Shapes.

I can't have any of those back (though Leda does an awesome imitation Mint Slice), but oh my word, I hope you understand how excited I was when I found out that Arnotts' BBQ Shapes are vegan.



I understand that this is old hat, apparently every other Aussie vegan already knew this, but not I, and my word did I eat a lot in a very short time. How I had missed them!



I also recently learnt that Allens' jelly beans are vegan! OH DELICIOUS JELLY BEANS, no terrible secrets just delicious sugary ness.

I'm excited.

Relatedly, if anyone knows of any vegan (or even vego) musk sticks, please let me know. It's not for me, it's for a friend. ;oP

world vegan day at abbotsford convent

D and I ventured out for our first World Vegan Day in Melbourne! For the last couple of years I've been pretty jealous of people in both Melbourne and Sydney, having delicious vegan opportunities, whilst Perth had nothing much going on for WVD. So I was really excited to have a chance to go!

There was a medium-sized crowd when we arrived, about eleven. We wandered around a bit, peering at stalls, before deciding to have a pre-lunch pie, whilst the queues were still quite small.



D had a spicy thai pie, which was delicious. I had a funky chunky pie, filled with mushroom and potato, which I'm sure was fine except that it was frozen in the middle! I exchanged it for another, which was also cold! So I gave up. This unprepared frozenness meant that the lines for the funky pies were very long later in the day, when their pies were finally warm.

We milled around inside, and met up with some bloggers (Vicki, Tahn, and Kristy + Toby), before going on a hunt for something else to eat.



D picked up a raw cheesecake from Naked Treaties (by Jemma from s1 Big Brother). This was on the recommendation of Kristy, and both Kristy and D agreed that it was quite delicious.



After eating some things noodles and fried things provided by the Supreme Master (there wasn't a lot of choice other than that), I cleansed my palate with some delicious lemon zest gelato (which really had zest in it), and D had the bounty gelato (I thought it was yuck, but D liked it).

I wasn't feeling very well, so we left shortly after this, having spent about two hours wandering around, but not before we bought some goodies.



Featured here are three dips by Australian Vegie Gourmet, oven-roasted tomato pesto, lentil spread, and chunky tomatoes + chilli. They all taste so delicious! Also featured here are three chocolates, orange chocolate + cranberries, dark chocolate with white mint choc-chips, and chocolate with raisins. Not pictured, the greatest stickers ever, and my official Greens knickers.

Overall it was a success! I just wish there had been more savoury food.

bao

I have yet to try making my own bao - given my inadequacy when it comes to folding dumplings, I have been avoiding folding bao! So it was good to find these delicious take-home bao in a freezer at a grocer in Richmond. This grocer has a half a freezer with other vegan products, such as mock fishballs and pork nuggets, though alas no cha siu!



These bao are giant, I can only fit three in my bamboo steamer at once. The curry bao is not spicy, it just has a great curry flavour (kind of kapitan-ish), and the mushroom bao is a bit cha siu-ish, a little sweet but very good.

I keep forgetting the name of the grocer because it's something very generic, like 'Richmond Asian Grocers' but it's at 200 Victoria St in Richmond. The bao is about $5.00 for a packet of six giant bao.

birthday chocolate haul

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I received a whole lot of chocolate. My parents gave me this awesome chocolate-coated oranges, which we nommed straight away.



Sheebaface picked up these from PAWS, I look forward to future nomming.



Vegetus brought these raw chocolates back from the UK. I tried the Mint Conscious Chocolate this afternoon, and it was awesome. I love raw chocolate! And the bag it is on says 'Secret Society of Vegans.'

mid-afternoon snack

Quick mid-afternoon snack, Green Farm char siu bao. Left to defrost for a bit, then ten minutes in the bamboo steamer. One day I'll try making my own!

quick mid-week meal: fry's vegan schnitzels + salad punctuated by fruit

Sometimes, you just can't be bothered spending more than ten minutes in the kitchen.



Fry's has this great range of vegan products, schnitzels and burgers and things. They're individually wrapped, which makes me frown quite a lot, but as an occasional lazy treat I can deal with that. I've found them for sale in Woolworths, in the freezer section.

D has never been a big fan of "meat in a lump," (how D grew up in a mostly English household, I'll never understand) so we had this in a bun, spread with avocado, hommous and some delicious fried mushrooms. We also served it with a great salad, brimming with deliciousness (ie, avocado, spinach, carrot and mushrooms) and punctuated by some orange. I love adding fruit to salad, I don't know what it is, but a little fruit really adds something great to salad. I also like adding plum or pear to salad (but it always has to be fresh, it can't be canned).

apple danishes of awesome and chocolate

I'd like to talk about my love for apple danishes.



They're delicious. They're quick and easy, all you need is some puff pastry, some apples, and some cinnamon. They are a great, OMG WHAT ARE WE HAVING FOR DESSERT dessert, and I almost always have all the necessary ingredients available. I've blogged a recipe before here, but it's pretty flexible. Last night I made apple danishes, but I made a few very delicious modifications, skipping the sugar and nutmeg in the mixture, and cutting the apple more roughly into thin slices rather than dicing.

Last night I smoothed a dollop of the Sweet William chocolate spread into the centre, then a spoonful of the apple mix, then I folded, brushed and baked as usual. Baking time extended an extra five to seven minutes. That dollop of chocolate was amazing, careful of the molten chocolate when you're biting into it fresh from the oven!

leda golden crunch and choc chip biscuits

Leda makes these great gf fake tim-tams and mint slices. They're not identical, but they're better than nothing. I've blogged about them before!

D was out and about recently and found that Leda has started producing more varieties of biscuit.



These biscuits are okay, but not brilliant. Both the Golden Crunch and the Choc Chip are quite dry and flaky, and the Choc Chip leaves a funny aftertaste, I do wonder if it's due to the choc chips in the biscuit. It's nice to have a choc chip biscuit we can now buy in a shop, but my home made ones are far tastier, so I'll probably stick to just making them. These are about $5 a pack. D found them at Coles in Claremont Quarter.

orgram chocolate mousse

We had a friend over for dinner last week, and we didn't want to have yet another meal with no dessert, so we rummaged around in the pantry and found a packet of Orgram Chocolate Mousse. We cut it with triple sec, and chopped up some chocolate-orange pieces which we added to the bottom and sprinkled on the top. It was pretty awesome! I love the Orgram stuff.

hot cross buns

Hot cross buns are delicious religious iconography, a sweet spiced bun with fruit inside and a cross on top of sugar; or scandalously with no fruit or even with chocolate (SCANDAL) (delicious, delicious scandal).

Hot cross buns are an Easter thing, but I don't think they have a specific symbolism. Certainly I can't remember any details from my seven years of Catholic primary school, and wikipedia doesn't have anything constructive to add. Whatever the reason, they are super delicious, and it is a shame they are only available in the lead up to Good Friday. These are storebought, standard from Coles. IGA also does a vegan bun. Please note that many other hot cross buns are not vegan (Woolies and tiptop, for example).

samosas

Wandering one day through Kongs (our local Chinese grocery) in Northbridge, I found the auntie behind the counter was packing these tiny vege samosas into little bags. I've seen them for sale at Lotus also, so someone local is clearly making them. They're filled with potatoes and peas and just a mild amount of spiciness, and cost about $3.50 for a pack of ten.

They sat in the freezer for a while, and yesterday afternoon, looking for a Boxing Day snack as we watched the cricket, I shallow fried them in a little vegetable oil (having first defrosted them for a bit). They were bite-sized deliciousness!

leda choculence

I miss timtams something ridiculous. That chocolatey goodness, using them like a straw to drink up my milo drink, these were the things I used to love. Leda Choculence aren't as good as timtams, but they make a tasty substitute.

You can find them in the healthfood section at Coles/Woolies/IGA etc.