world vegan day

it's today! if you're in melbourne, you could brave the rain and venture out to abbotsford convent for (hopefully) lots of fun times.

i am going to wander around, and then i'm on the friends of the earth stall from 1 - 3 so come visit!

i really really want a mustache badge from mr nice guy vegan cupcakes

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

dangerously close cupcakes at cupcake central, hawthorn

Recently, due to a random conflation of circumstances, I started drinking coffee.

Also recently, as I blogged about previously, Cupcake Central opened near my office, and sells at least one type of vegan cupcake a day.

So every now and then, I drop by to pick up a coffee and/or a cupcake. They've got bonsoy going on, too, which is just the best.

I'm trying to restrict myself to one cupcake a week, but I will be honest, some weeks you just need more than one, and this was one of those weeks.



Monday I picked up a soy latte and a peanut butter and chocolate gluten-free and vegan cupcake. I took a mug from the office kitchen, because I don't have a keep cup, and they were a bit confused about me having a mug! But that was fine, and then it rained in my coffee on the way back to the office.

Fi has a post (to which I can't link, as LJ appears to be down) about the chocolate peanut butter cupcake, and how it was nothing special. I absolutely must disagree. I thought the peanut butter to chocolate ratio was just perfect, and the icing complemented it wonderfully. To work out who is right, and decide which cupcake is better (the peanut butter chocolate or the red velvet), we have decided that we have to adjourn to Cupcake Central and sample them both at the same time; however to do this Cupcake Central would have to make them both on the same day. Maybe if more people eat vegan cupcakes they will do this?



Last night I had to go to a work thing until 2030, so I allowed myself a consoling late afternoon cupcake (and then, later, a cone of poutine from Lord of the Fries). Available was the chocolate chocolate (gf), which is a good, serviceable cupcake.

I am really enjoying having Cupcake Central so close: I just wish they'd bake more than one vegan flavour per day, so I could have a choice!



previous visit.


Cupcake Central
Shop 7, 672
Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn

easy bean + potato curry

One of the things I love the most is curry. I love simple curries that require nothing further than throwing some things from jars into a pot, and I love complex curries that require me to start thinking about it a full day in advance, and are a lot of physical effort. I love sampling new curries at restaurants, and curries at new restaurants. I love them all.



I threw this potato and bean curry together when I was feeling a bit down and just wanted a whole lot of delicious things, and didn't have to put in too much effort. There was no grinding involved, no pounding together to make a paste; it was fast and simple, with a handful of ingredients and some time simmering on the stove. It was something I made up, and I am definitely going to make it again. I loved the sauce especially - three days later as I was eating the leftovers, it was super delicious.

This curry is medium spicy.

easy bean + potato curry

ingredients
oil
1 brown onion (diced)
2 clove garlic (minced)
a small amount of ginger (grated or minced)
1 tablespoon ground coriander seeds
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala (make your own if you need the meal to be gluten free)
1 teaspoon tumeric
2 small tomatoes (diced)
4 medium sized potatoes, white or red, scrubbed well and diced
a handful of snake beans, tailed and chopped in to halves or thirds
1 can coconut milk
some stock or water (a few cups at least)

method
Fry the onion in some oil until it's getting soft, then add the garlic. Follow this with the ginger, coriander, cumin, garam masala and tumeric, and quickly fry until fragrant, then throw in the potatoes. Let them fry for a minute, before adding the tomato and some water. Bring to a boil, then reduce and put on the lid. Simmer for ten fifteen minutes, until the potato starts to soften, then add the beans. Add more water if necessary, then simmer for another ten minutes. The potatoes should be super soft. Add the coconut milk, simmer another five minutes, and then you're done!

Serve with lots of mushy rice.

back blog: election day sushi

Many weeks ago we had a federal election! As is my preference, I headed off to an election night party, to eat food and watch Mr Anthony Green (Australia's most awesome election commentator) talk about the results as he analysed them live to air.

Unrelated to my love of Anthony Green, but related to my love of the Australian Greens, I made green sushi to take with me to this election night party!



I was worried that this would be weird, but in fact it was not. It didn't change anything about the sushi, except imbued them with awesomeness.

These sushi were also filled with some green things, such as avocado and cucumber, and some non green things.

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.

new vegan menu at empire cafe, brunswick

The news is all over the internets - Empire on Sydney Road has a new vegan menu in place! So this morning, I ventured down Sydney Road and met up with J for breakfast.

The vegan menu is excellent - it is its own separate menu, breakfast and lunch, with lots of yummy looking options. I deliberated for a while, drawn by the idea of the Spanish eggs (without the eggs), but in the end went for the French toast, with ice cream and a vegan honey and the most giant strawberry perched on top. I supplemented this with a serve of hash browns, because I can never go past potatoes.



The French toast was massive. Ordering the side of ice cream (Tofutti) was the right choice, as I smothered it in the vegan honey and then added the ice cream - the toast was crispy and had a subtle flavour (could maybe have done with a little bit more cinnamon), but the combination of toppings and french toast was oh yeah. Deliciousness. Not as O M G as the french toast at Monk Bodhi Dharma, but deliciousness and no where near as far to travel.



The hash browns were great too, freshly deep fried and crispy and oily.



J went for the 'ham,' 'cheese' and tomato toasted sandwich. I sampled this, and it was really good. Melty cheese, and (we think) the Redwood ham, and it was good.

Prices are a little up there - $10 for the toastie, and $19 for my toast + icecream + hash browns, but worth it for a breakfast treat. Would nom again. And they gave us our coffees on the house! Which was nice (Empire uses Bonsoy).

Empire keeps all its vegan cooking separate from its meaty cooking; and they're stocking Mr Nice Guy cupcakes (I bought key lime and jaffa, but have yet to eat them so a review later).


Previous visits: here.

Empire Cafe
295 Sydney Road
Brunswick

Open from 10am weekdays, and from 8.30 on weekends
Closed Tuesdays

shakahari v

My friend Matthias is in town, and I went to meet him at his hotel in Carlton...sadly there was no booking for him! But he was fresh off the plane and really hungry, and had to lug all his stuff around until he could find a new hotel, so we stayed close to Carlton and nabbed a table at Shakahari last night.

I was super excited to find out that next week is a new menu, and they are easing it in! The old menu has some items crossed off, and we were presented with a hand-written replacement! It was a bit hard to read, fair warning, if you go there before it gets typed up.



Off the new menu, Matthias ordered the new couscous dish, which featured really delicious chickpeas in a great sauce, with almonds, roasted tomatoes, and a lot (A Lot) of parsley. This dish was really tasty, and I look forward to ordering myself some time.



I went for the risotto pot pie (gf), which has been on the menu for a while but I had yet to actually sample. I really liked it! Not an overly exciting flavour, but the addition of pine nuts made it really fun, and it was a nice dish. The accompanying vegetables were good, except for the mushrooms, which were half cooked and not that nice to eat.



For dessert we both ordered the vegan almond panacotta (gf), which is new to the menu. This was an interesting dish. I liked the flavour of the panacotta, which was very mild, but it had a gritty texture which was a bit unexpected, and not at all like the beautiful smoothness of the tofu caramel. The panacotta is accompanied by an almond toffee and a very sweet citrus sauce. Both of these were way to sweet for me - I had to very lightly drizzle the sauce, otherwise it was too much for me, and I barely ate any of the toffee.

Overall, the new additions to the menu seem interesting, but there are still more things to try off it. The new dessert is fun, but I'm not sure it's really my thing. If you want to try the panacotta out, I recommend sharing it, it's a bit overwhelming on its own.



Previous shakahari visits one, two, zero, zero prime, three, four.

Shakahari
201 Faraday St
Carlton

cupcake central, hawthorn

(please note: this post contains blurry photos)

On Thursday, I found out that this new cupcake place, recently opened near my office, sells a vegan cupcake! I wasn't at work again last week, so I then spent the whole weekend watching as what seemed like everyone in the world adventured over to try this vegan cupcake! My jealousy grew.

So today, even though we were full from our spud lunch, Emilly and I ventured through the rain for cupcakes.

There is only one vegan cupcake currently available at Cupcake Central: the red velvet cupcake.


i know it's blurry icing - it's focused on the cake!

I have never had a red velvet cupcake before, though I know that many people love them, so I can't really compare it to that. It was nice. I had been warned that it was a bit dry, but the icing helped with that, as I sort of mushed it in to the cake.

Speaking of mushy, whilst I try to open my mouth wide in order to fit the whole cake, icing and all, into my mouth, here is what Fi does:



SHE SQUISHES IT.

The cupcake was good, though it could be more flavoursome, but at $3.80 a cupcake, probably only an irregular treat. Which is good, as it's right beside the train station and I'd have to walk by it EVERY DAY.

I'm thinking of baking my own red velvet cupcakes so I have something with which to compare it.

Cupcake Central
Shop 7, 672
Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn

exclusionary language; or, we're not all coming from the same place

Being an outrageous vegan, I am against the slaughter of animals. I am hip to all those rallies and I am all there for signing your petition. I am already boycotting those shitty animal products, and I am talking about the crappy things done to animals. But I can't get behind the language that is frequently and commonly used, that is exclusionary, sensationalist and othering. Sometimes it's subtle, and sometimes it's overt, but it is always totally unnecessary, and demonstrates just how easy it is for single issue vegans to gloss over the fact that there is diversity amongst us.

For example, this petition currently up at change.org: The Australian Government Must Ban Brutal Ritual Slaughter Right Now. I can ignore the odd and slightly unprofessional presentation of this petition, because to expect perfect grammar from everyone would be for me to assume that everyone has the same level of education as me, which is classist (for example); or to assume that nobody can be ESL or be unfamiliar with my dialect of English.

What I cannot ignore is language like this: NO, instead it allows this abhorrently cruel ritual slaughter to continue, a practice that should never have been accepted in Australia in the first place. When this language is used in a discussion of religion, particularly in discussion of a religion that is currently being maligned, marginalised and attacked in the media and constructed as a religion of foreign otherness, it creates the suggestion that the religion itself doesn't belong here. More directly, it ties the act (barbaric slaughter) to the religion (Islam), and finishes with the phrase 'should never have been accepted in Australia in the first place.' You can claim all you like that it clearly talks about the practice, but the reality is that it is an othering, unnecessary addition to the petition, and it assumes that all in AR are coming from the same place.

In addition, it ties this practice with 'foreign' in a way that is not necessarily correct - there have been some pretty shitty slaughtering practices in Australia, unrelated to slaughtering for halal, and to claim these practices only exist in Australia because of those dirty filthy foreigners is presumptious.

It is hardly the first AR campaign to do so, and it is unlikely to be the last. There was the PETA 'Save the Whales' campaign, that clearly came from a place of assuming that no veg*ns are fat, and that fat is shameful.

Veganism and the AR movement are often seen as white/Anglo-saxon, middle-class movements, and stuff like this just contributes to it.

After all, there's a reason why I use 'single issue vegan' as an insult.

SOME READERINGS:
s.e. smith wrote a blog post a while ago, I Used to be That Annoying Vegan, that talks about the baseline assumption that everyone has the same access to things, and the same social class, and the same privileges.

On ableism, there was some discussion in the comments of this post at VoC that really highlights it - lots of people basically erasing the experiences of people with disabilities by saying 'well you were doing it wrong,' rather than acknowledging that not everyone is operating from the same base level.

Royce posted at VoC on resisting invocations of coloniality, on the way in which the AR movement often approaches indigenous groups re: treatment of animals; ie, in a really shitty way.

One of the earliest posts on this blog was about the exotification of non-Anglo cultures in the vegan movement, and the othering use of language.

puppy farm awareness rally

i'm planning to go to the puppy farm awareness rally being held tomorrow (sunday 19th) at parliament house, melbourne.

anyone else planning to go?

tofwd + crumbs organic bakehouse

Crumbs Organic Bakehouse is located in Ascot Vale, if you need to google it. I've never been there, and I don't know if they sell direct to the public, but I do know that they stock the cake displays at both Friends of the Earth and TOFWD.



During Worldcon I brought some friends across to DeGraves Lane in order to introduce them to the wonders of cakes as provided by Crumbs. I love this chocolate and sour cherry cake most of all: it is usually moist and rich and super delicious. They also do a citrus cake, and a tropical cake, and all three of these cakes are gluten-free and vegan. They are expensive pieces of cake, but they are totally worth it!

If you are looking for a nice piece of cake, I definitely recommend the cakes provided by Crumbs. They are good. Very Good.

enlightened cuisine for lunch; or, things about noodles

AS PROMISED: MOAR NOODLES



The reason why Em and I ended up at Wagamama eating crappy soup noodles was because we reaaaaally wanted soup noodles, and we'd walked all the way to Enlightened Cuisine only to discover they don't do lunch on Sundays! SUPER SADFACE. We really wanted soupy noodles! Really truly!

So the next week, when I spent five days in the MCEC for Worldcon, I took the opportunity to visit Enlightened Cuisine on a quest for soupy noodles as many lunchtimes as possible! In the end, this was two.



Buried in the depths of my gross cold, I decided to try EC's laksa on my first lunch visit. This was spicy, which was excellent, but not quite assam-y or coconut-y. I did really enjoy the soup, and drank it up until my tongue was numb from spicyness. Oh yeah. Pleasant, and would eat again; but my search for the perfect vegan laksa in Melbourne continues.



On the second lunch visit, in the company of my friend Dr G, I tried the wonton noodle soup, which regular readers of this blog might recall that I adore. These wontons were pretty good, but I think the wonton noodles were the egg-based kind, which was unfortunate, and impacted my mood for the rest of the day. I may have lost my Awesome Vegan Powers! (temporarily) The broth was good, though. I would order this again, but swapping the wonton noodles out for rice noodles or something.

On this visit, Dr G ordered the cha siu noodle soup. This looked delicious, but due to my cold and potential contagion I elected not to steal any.

Oh how I love soupy noodles. They are great, especially when you're sick or sad or anything, really.

Previous visits: one; two.

Enlightened Cuisine
113 Queensbridge Street
Southbank

urban burger, richmond

a post that is not about noodles! (it is but a brief respite only, dear readers; there are noodles approaching upon the horizon)



I've now been to The Corner Hotel to see gigs twice; most recently, to see The Whitlams. How I ♥ The Whitlams. And do you know what they opened the show with? I make hamburgers! HOW CONVENIENT. ETA: CRUELLY, Danni has pointed out that they in fact opened with 'I will not go quietly,' thus undermining THE ENTIRE PREMISE OF MY PARAGRAPH. Whatever, I love that song. ("That's a salad roll, I said, and we started going out.")

Convenient because, before the show, there was some Urban Burgering. They've got a vegan burger; they've also got a couple of vego burgers that are easy to veganise, and still pretty tasty (unlike certain vego pubs I could mention).

And the chips were nice! Also it was pretty quiet for a Friday night, so the service was fast.

Would nom again!

Urban Burger
174 Swan Street
Richmond

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