wagamama, cbd

A tale of disappointing noodles:



I'm not sure why I thought Wagamama in Melbourne would be any better than Wagamama in Perth, as it's a chain, and just as bad the country over. The vegan options are severely limited, and the only soupy noodles on the menu come with zucchini and ratty, tatty beanshoots. Zucchini, one of the most inappropriate vegetables ever. Would a little bok choy or gai lan be that hard to come by? The zucchini just didn't work at all with the broth. And I know that beanshoots get gross really quickly, but these ones were just bitter and taily and yuck. The broth was a bit boring too, we had to sauce it up with soy sauce and chilli.

Regretfully, the service was also terrible; though the juice was adequate.

We never would have ended up at Wagamama if Enlighted Cuisine wasn't closed for lunch on Sundays, truly a learning experience and a tale of woe.

Wagamama
83 Flinders Lane
Melbourne

discobeans cafe and artspace, northcote

DISSENT AMONGST THE VEGAN RANKS:

Em and I went to Discobeans for dinner. I was, I will admit, slightly inebriated on half priced margaritas from Taco Bills, but we were both reaaaalllllyyyy looking forward to trying it out, especially as it had been talked up by Toby. Delicious Japanese food! Fun space! Oh yeah!

I am sad to report that both Em and I were so disappointed by our meals that we decided not to risk it to try the dessert.



Em went for the soba noodles in soup (swapped out for rice noodles). We love noodles in soup! And yet - so disappointing! These were the saltiest soup noodles ever. It was as if an entire cup of soy sauce had been poured in to the broth. I have seen Em drink up the soup after finishing her noodles, but not this time.



I ordered the belly plate (I think that's what it's called). This dish was ok, though the rice+quinoa combo was dry and the vegetables were bland. The tempeh was nice, as was the peanut sauce. The black beans were also a bit average. So yeah - okay, but nothing special at all.

SADFACE! Good service, though. And nice that they have gluten-free options. Just - sad about the food. :o(


Discobeans Cafe and Artspace
238 High St
Northcote

gluten-free available

a whole lotta slice

Danni's parents came to town, and Danni's mum declared a preference for having some goodies baked by me, as it had been some time.

So I went for the newest standard, the coconut jam slice.



I really enjoy baking this. I've been happy with this since the first iteration, easily veganisable even with the original having all that egg; the simmering jam; all that coconut. And it always works, so long as you bake it for the right amount of time, but even that's pretty flexible. It's good! So it's a standard.

I wanted a failsafe, because Em suggested this lemon squares recipe, to which I made a couple of mods, and about which I was not sure.



It was gooey, sweet and tart, all at once. It was delicious! Would definitely make again. I had been concerned that it wouldn't work, but it did. Hooray!

Lemon Squares
modified from vegweb

ingredients

base
1 cup plain flour
7 tablespoons of Nuttelex/margarine (I found 5 was not enough)
1/3 cup castor sugar

filling one
1 pack of vegan cream cheese (I used tofutti, which I think is 400g but I could be wrong)
1 tsp lemon zest
about three tablespoons of icing sugar

filling two
3 egg replacements
almost 1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
half tsp baking powder
shake of salt
zest and juice of one large lemon (it was a really big lemon)

method
Combine the base ingredients, and mix together (perhaps with your hands!) until it's all bread crumble-y. Press into a pan of about 20cm square. I don't actually know the sizes of my pans and trays, I just tend to guess. Anyway, bake this base! I baked this for 13 minutes at 175C.

After 13 minutes, pull it out of the oven (keep the oven going, though!) and let the pan sit on your stove top whilst you beat together the first filling layer, and then the second filling layer. Don't beat them together! Mournfully look at all the dishes you have created. Then pour the first filling layer, and spread carefully out; follow this with the second filling layer, also spreading it carefully out. Doesn't it look delicious?

Now shove it all back in the oven and bake for another twenty minutes.

Leave to set in the pan before cutting.


Next time, I think I'd like to top it with some lemon zest shavings or something like that.

isms in our vegan

Vegans of Colour summarised the Morrissey thing really well, but in case you missed it, Morrissey declared Chinese people to be a subspecies, on account of the way they* treat animals, which I guess he thinks is much better than the way, say, the UK or the USA treats their animals? I don't know, I'm just guessing. He could be thinking anything. And I'm Chinese, so I probably beat my penguins. Or something.

I always enjoy reading about hypocritical people! It totally makes my day!

Here is my pull quote from the VOC article:

Probably my two biggest gripes about these near-sighted race politic expressions of animal rights are that:

1) they really perpetuate, particularly amongst people of color, the misnomer that veganism can only be narrowly defined as a white, middle-class subculture and that;

2) vegans of color are further marginalized within the discourse of animal rights whether or not we cry foul at the egregious white-supremacist twists on these representations of animal rights politics.

As with Morrissey as well as the rest of the white animal rights crowd, here’s a itsy-bitsy tip when attempting to articulate a discourse about animal rights: a little nuance goes a long way in figuring out where the root of the problem lies and where the solution can begin. The intersection of race and ethnicity between veganism is much more complex than you might make it out to be.

The comments to the VOC post include a charmer about how China should be wiped from the earth is...well, that's lovely, but until you wipe every other country from the earth I'm just going to sit here and try to dull my hatred of hypocrisy, you know?

I'm working on a post about classism in the veganism and ethical food movements (I know you can't wait, you're just lucky I've been sick), but in the meantime, here are some tumblr and other links that you might be interested in reading:

• more vegans of colour: Veganism and the Class War
• seaponies' original post, on privilege and veganism, and two responses (interesting for what they bring up; I do not necessarily endorse their points): the discussions a lot of (white) vegans are having aren't good enough for me... by faketrain; and by meanibeani.
• some comments by thingsmreading and radeicallyhottoff on classism and racism in veganism

GOOD TIMES!

Leave exciting linkies in the comments.




*WE HELLO

reloving vctotw with almond cupcakes

So, it turns out I really like baking.

And one afternoon I was cruising about the Australian vegan blogosphere and came across ML at Drossolaila baking the apricot glazed almond cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and I thought about them constantly for a couple of days. I think it was the photo, which tells you the importance of good photography!

So when I was inspired to do some baking a few days later, I knew exactly what I wanted to bake.



These were good! Not too difficult to make, though I had trouble with an ingredient or two and had to make substitutions. They held up to the ravages of time, and were still tasty three days later, which I like in a cupcake. And they looked cute! It didn't make as much batter as I thought it would, and they were very sweet, but I liked them. And it was nice to come back to VCTOTW, which I avoid for long stretches of time between failures or disappointments, and have something nice.

Maybe I will add dried apricot pieces to the batter next time, though that might make it over-apricoty.

They're in green pattycake papers because I baked them the day before the federal election, and I had hopes for the Australian Greens.

A++, would make again!

brunch at green tambourine, brunswick

At the beginning of July, posters started appearing on poles around Brunswick. Green Tambourine! Middle of July! Well, middle of July came and went, and finally, at the very end of July, Green Tambourine opened up on Albion Street.

Just after it opened I had wandered in, on a quest for vegan muffins (they are closer to my house than A Minor Place), which they allegedly had, but they had sold out, and I promised myself that I could go there earlier in the day eventually. But funnily enough, I don't really go out for brunch that often, unless I have a reason. I rarely organise to meet people for brunch just because.

And then, Danni's parents came to town for the weekend! So it seemed like a confluence of events! A SIGN!



I went for beans. The beans come all on their lonesome, so I ordered some toast to go with it. I totally didn't need the toast! The beans were so filling and delicious on their own (though the toast was quite nice too), that the bread was nothing but a delightfully unnecessary aside! But I ate it all up anyway - I do wish, however, that it hadn't been plain, which I assume is a side effect of asking for no butter. The beans were filled with chickpeas, white beans, and kidney beans, and had a mild tomatoey flavour. Lovely!



Danni went for the mushrooms, without the feta. The mushrooms were also very lovely, nice flavour.

All in all, a nice experience. The decor and ambiance is fun, too - a wood fire in one of the rooms, and the cabinet filled with goodies by the door. Lots of outdoor tables, too, for milder, less cold days.

Prices were ok. My beans cost $9, which is a bit pricey for a bowl of beans and no toast, but given how filling it was, I'll forgive it. Will definitely return again (I still have to try the muffin), especially as it's so close to my house!


Meveg at Eat More Vegies has also reviewed Green Tambourine!


Green Tambourine
179 Albion St
Brunswick

gf available

carmel valley chocolate

While I was in Perth, I took the opportunity to stock up on one of my favourite chocolate brands, Carmel Valley Chocolates. Carmel Valley is a locally made Perth chocolate, which I have not been able to find anywhere else. All of their stuff is vegan and gluten-free. They make cocoa chocolate, and carob chocolate, but I far prefer the cocoa chocolate.

Sadly, when I ventured in to Fresh Provs to stock up, they only had a couple of cocoa varieties, and a whole stack of carob varieties! I ended up going with three: my old favourite the hint of orange; and two new flavours, lime and coconut, and pistachio and mandarine.



Choc Mint: this is an old favourite, it is delicious. It has just the right amount of orange to chocolate flavour for me.

Lime and Coconut: I liked the coating of dessicated coconut over the top, that was a nice touch; sadly it tasted like cough medicine, and the block has been languishing in the pantry, as neither Danni nor I can bring ourselves to finish it.

Pistachio and Mandarine: the mandarin is so subtle as to be indistinguishable, but the chocolate is nice enough to carry it through, and the pistachio additions are nice. Without the pistachio additions, though, I suspect that this would be a bit bland.

Hannah has also reviewed the coffee bean chocolate.

happy meat served up by the greens; or, on not leading by example

On Sunday I ventured down with Danni to the Australian Greens' fundraiser at the Noise Bar in Brunswick. There were some nifty bands, and I had been a bit excited in advance to know there was vegan and gluten free food available. Some of it was provided by Anikee at Radical Grocery! Awesome!

Anyway, given they're the Greens, I was a bit disappointed to find out there was also meat being served. The MC spent a while talking about how great this organic, free-range meat was, and where you could purchase it, and then was all 'also, Radical Grocery' without mentioning its awesomeveganness, and I know it's all about outreach and not alienating people but seriously. The organisation I work for is filled with people who get really sulky when the catering is all vegetarian, but nobody complains because it's always prefaced with, 'this event is vegetarian so that we're a bit better for the environment,' so if they can do it, why can't the Greens?

I am sure everyone is sick of us dirty filthy vegan hippies going on about how great it is for the environment to cut out animal products (or at least meat), so here is just one link! It is all about science! At Science Daily, Conscious Choice of Food Can Substantially Mitigate Climate Change, Research Finds. OH YEAH.

OH GREENS. It would not have been difficult for you to set an example! Debunk the happy meat myth!

linkies

I know this won't come as a surprise to anyone, but: Pampered pigs 'feel optimism'. PIGS are capable of feeling optimism and pessimism, depending on their environment, a UK study revealed overnight.

As you know I was in Perth recently! So I blogged a vegan to-do list at Vegaroo!

Hey, so do you like Planet Veg Mel? Now you can like Planet Veg Mel on Facebook! Yeah, we're nerds. What of it?

At Vegansaurus: Surprise! Another quest for “ethical eating” ends in an omnivorous diet.

in house easy malaysian cookery

Danni was recently away for a bit. I didn't really cook very much, because in the middle of it I went to Perth, but when Danni's away I almost always just spend the whole time eating Malaysian food, cooking experimental dishes, and/or eating corn not-on-the-cob, the latter of which Danni doesn't like.

I started with a char kuay teow, because it had been a while and I love ckt.



I've cooked this and blogged ckt approximately fifty bazillion times, but if you're looking for a recipe I've got one here.

The night before I went away, I spent a while emptying the bins, using up leftovers, and psyching myself up to head across town for a late-night gig at onesixone (my friend Alwyn is in a Perth band, Boys Boys Boys!, and the band was in town for one night only!).

I had some rice, a tomato, and some mushrooms, so it seemed like a good time to make tomato fried rice.



Here is an important thing to remember: tomatoes are not really in season in Melbourne at the moment. As a result, this rice was not that good. SADFACE.

For your interest, if you've never made tomato fried rice before, it's pretty simple: slice your tomato in to wedges, and throw in first with whatever else goes first (carrots, if you have them, and a little garlic maybe). When the tomato goes soft, throw in the rice, as well as some tomato sauce (translation: ketchup, not soup or paste or anything), pepper, and a tiny smidge of ketjap manis, fry it around until it's all the same colour, then you're done.

adventures in utopia, northbridge

I was only in Perth for five days, so it was hard to see everyone that I wanted to see. With that in mind, I organised a drop-in dinner at Utopia in Northbridge. I've posted about Utopia previously, and have mentioned before that people either love Utopia, or they hate it. It is all fake meats and deep-fried mushrooms, and karaoke, if you're in to that sort of thing. It's a very Taiwanese place, and everyone loves their bubble tea, though you should be wary of the milk in some of their tea products. And the whey in some of the beef products - to be on the safe side, I never order mock-beef at Utopia.

ANYWAY, Utopia. I used to go at least every second Monday with my friends Alex and Liz, and we'd order approximately the same things every time, and then Alex would proceed to eat everything in large quantities. As a result, I started ordering on reflex when I got to Utopia, even though Alex and Liz couldn't join us!

We all shared, of course, because that's the way you do Chinese food.

I started by ordering us a whole lot of salty fried 'chicken' and crispy fried mushrooms, because that's always my primary reason for eating at Utopia. The salty fried chicken is, well, salty and fried and crispy mock chicken pieces. They are sort of like the LotF nuggets, but a lot crispier and thinner. The crispy fried mushrooms are so soft and squishy when you bite in to them, coated in a crispy batter. It is my favourite, and Liz and I are both on a mission, from opposite sides of the country/planet from Utopia, to try and work out how they do it. Because it is the best.



Also the best: the spicy houtou mushrooms. The I love how spicy these mushrooms are, and I always fight over the cashews at the end because they're so delicious.



Other things we shared included more mushrooms, some bok choy, some curry, an assam 'fish,' and a laksa and a char kuay teow. The ckt is ok, but the laksa is pretty good, and it was fun to share. The laksa is a see-through-time sort, so be warned if you can't take it!



Oh Utopia, how I have missed your mushrooms and your crispy 'chicken.' You continue to be delicious. If slightly expensive. I worried for half a second that you had changed your menu, but my fear was for naught: I don't think you ever will.


utopia/formosa
utopia square
shop 14 (upstairs)
109 james street
northbridge

roasted nomliciousness at the perth squid house

When I was in Perth, my Mum was not the only person to cook for me! Towards the end of my sojourn in Perth, and a mere four hours after my good friend Dr G had returned from European Adventures, I meandered across the city to have dinner with Dr G, Gilli, Paul, Kandace and Rick, and sleep over the night. Sleepovers are the best!



We sat around and chatted for ages, before we sent Rick off to the kitchen to prepare a roasted feast, for which I had (in advance) declared my desire. Rick is an excellent roaster of noms, and on this occasion he was no less excellent than usual.



Our roasted feast featured potatoes, pumpkin, field mushrooms, and carrots, with some last minute peas for some extra colour. We also went old school, with some white bread and thick lashings of, well, in my case, nuttelex, but I believe in their cases some sort of dairy containing margarine.

I love a good roast, and the potatoes and pumpkin were perfect oh yeah. Coincidentally (or not, actually, it's just a good place for a story), it was Dr G who first introduced me to the joys of roasted field mushrooms just over a year ago. Since that initial introduction, I have not looked back, roasting field mushrooms with every roasting opportunity, though Dr G continues to make fun of me for always taking the stem off first (I find it tastier, as the stem can roll about in the pumpkin juices this way).



After a brief pause, we moved on to dessert. Kandace had modified a lemon and poppyseed recipe for her first attempt at vegan cupcakes, and I am pleased to report that these were a success. We ate these with mango sorbet and chocolate soya (the soya was from the Junction Icecreamery, which remains my favourite icecreamery ever). We conducted some tests to determine the exact proportions of icecream to cupcake necessary to get a hint of icecream flavour without overwhelming the cupcake, a task at which I think all of us succeeded. It was a pretty delicious taste combination.



Sleepovers! I highly recommend them. Also roasted noms.

curries + recipe by my mum

So I was staying with my parents! And my mum loves to cook for me. SO SHE DID. Not heaps, because I was only in town for almost but not quite five days, but every cooking was a delight.

Because we're super Malaysian, it was mostly curry. And that's totally okay, because my mum makes some really great curries.



On Saturday night she cooked a pumpkin curry and a mixed-vegetable curry. OH YEAH.

On Tuesday, I was concerned that maybe I would be eating bread all day (toast, then sandwiches, then more sandwiches on the plane), so my mum cooked me a delicious eggplant curry for lunch.



There's something about a good eggplant curry that's just really awesome. Done well, the eggplant falls apart and is all squishy and kind of fatty, and it soaks up all the flavours and it's delicious. And my mum does a good eggplant curry. Which I am going to attempt to share with you! I say "attempt" because I sort of kept looking over to see what mum was doing, but my mum very rarely actually measures things out so it's all a bit of guesswork. Just go with what works best!



eggplant + mixed vegetable curry

Slice a couple of Lebanese eggplants lengthwise into strips. They don't have to be super thin. In a little bit of oil, fry these until they colour, then set aside. You'll add these in again at the end.

Pound together two large shallots and three large red chillis, and in the remaining oil, start to fry this. As it becomes fragrant, add some water and two lengths of lemongrass. After five to ten minutes, add two diced potatoes, one diced carrot, and two diced tomatoes, as well as some fresh beans (if you're using them - or add them in ten minutes if you're using frozen). At this point, also add a bay leaf and some fresh lime kaffir leaves. Add some more water, and some garam masala (you will need to make your own if it needs to be gf), and leave to boil, lid on.

My mum has a lime kaffir tree, and at this point I'm pretty sure I stared at it, longingly.

After twenty or thirty minutes, the vegies should have softened. Add one small can of coconut milk, and the eggplants. Leave to simmer, lid off, for another ten to fifteen minutes.

Serve and eat.

chatters cafe, midland

I've been to Chatters once before, in Morley. It was a perfectly serviceable visit, though nothing special: Australianised vegetables, a reasonable char kuay teow, terrible spring rolls.

So as it turns out, on weekends you can get a moderately sized yumcha menu at Chatters.



Having just had a fabulous and gigantic brunch, I was not especially hungry, so as I joined my mum and my sister for a late lunch I slowly perused the menu. And broke a glass.

I managed to get four dishes, three on the menu and one off, and this was more than enough food for me, even with my mum sampling everything. In fact, I had to take some home, for breakfast the next morning! It's okay, this was no great hardship.



From the menu, I ordered the vegetable bao and the mushroom dumpling. My mum decided to order the lotus paste bao, because she loves lotus paste. These required no mods, being already vegan.

My sister was eyeing off a meaty chee cheong fun, so I convinced the staff to do one for me, animal free. The staff were very helpful, but they did advise they'd never done one animal free before, so it was going to be very experimental.

The best of these four dishes was the vegetable bao. The bao itself was light and fluffy, and the filling was warm, fresh and tasty. I accidentally ate the paper on one of them (yucckkk). A rookie mistake. The mushrooms were also pretty good, and crunchy with water chestnuts. The lotus paste was ok.

The chee cheong fun was heavy. My mum did a comparison taste test, and the noodles of the meaty cheong fun were definitely lighter, which was odd. The vegetables were cut too thick, so didn't cook all the way, and you don't want crispiness in the middle of the chee cheong fun! Still, points for effort. Maybe they could work on it, or something.

Anyway, not the greatest yum cha ever, but nice to have something to eat.


Chatters Cafe and Restaurant
ShpT58
Midland Gate (cnr The Crescent and Cale Street)
Midland

brunch at source foods, highgate

My favourite place to have brunch in Perth is Source Foods. They know what vegan means (they call it 'NAP' - No Animal Products), which is rare enough in Perth; and they serve tempeh, which is also pretty unusual.

Anyway, it's my favourite, so Alexa and I went there on Saturday morning.

We took advantage of the lovely Perth weather to sit outside. Usually in winter I find it too cold to sit outside in Perth, but one winter in Melbourne and suddenly it is glorious! I didn't even have to wear a scarf! Or a coat! It was amazing!



I ordered, as I have many times before, the vegan heaven: tomato, two (two!) types of mushrooms, wilted spinach and baked beans, served on crisp bread with hommus. I also ordered it with a side of soy-marinated tempeh. It was so amazing. SO AMAZING. I ate it all up.

Alexa ordered the mushroom crostini, mushrooms with wilted spinach on hommus and crisp breadishness. She was indulging in mushrooms in her mushroom-hating housemate's absence.

Not pictured: our juices. Alexa ordered orange + ginger, and I ordered the 'zinger,' which contains orange and ginger and asomething else that I can never remember, maybe apple.

After brunch we went adventuring: to North Perth, where we visited Little Design Horse; and then in to Mount Lawley, where we visited Planet, primarily so we could visit the greatest bookstore in the world. I know some people prefer Oxford St Books in Leederville, but I can never go past Planet.




Previous visit: here.


Source Foods
289 Beaufort St
Highgate

gf available (this post is tagged gf because the menu can be very gf)