[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!

intersectionality 101: addressing racism and classism in animal rights activism (a talk)

As you may remember I went to the Gold Coast for a couple of days to present at the Animal Activists Forum. I presented, with Katrina Fox on intersectionality in animal rights. It was mostly a primer, a basic introduction to intersectionality. Going in, I assumed that it would all or mostly be new concepts for people, which is why I made it really basic and really casual, lots of chatty examples and things. No jokes, because I'm not very good at that sort of thing.

If you're interested, the text of my talk is up at The Scavenger: Addressing racism and classism in animal rights activism.

Overall I was quite happy with it. It was very condensed, as we only had thirty minutes between the two of us, so there were lots of leaps and gaps and so much covered, but still, I understand it's the first time this sort of topic has been brought up at the forum, and lots of talking came out of it, and I hope that it's a conversation that can filter through AR in Australia and keep moving, because I find that intersectionality is severely lacking in Australian AR.

halloween cupcakes

Speaking of Halloween (as I was just yesterday), I went to a Halloween party and at the last minute I made some cupcakes, which were themed with my costume.



I didn't have time to do anything fancy with the decorating, because I arrived home at five and had to bake and ice the cupcakes, as well as finish making my costume, including painting my nails, before leaving at seven. So cardboard cutout bats it was! Actually I think they turned out quite well.

Shame about the cupcakes themselves, which were a bit dry because I converted a recipe to gluten-free and forgot to increase the liquids, but oh well! I will know better for next time.

Also: thanks to Aldi for lots of ridiculous lollies that just so happened to be vegan!

world vegan day

Two Sundays ago, I ventured out on a wet and windy day to Abbotsford for World Vegan Day! It was wet and windy, and to be honest I didn't get much of a chance to do stuff, as I was mostly there to hang out on the FoE stall.



I did, of course, find some time to sample some food. From Crumbs I picked up a pizza (AMAZING) and a chocolate doughnut (heavy, with a tart after taste). The doughnut is pictured above - please note my nails, all done up for Halloween.

Before getting stuck at the FoE stall, on a whim I decided to enter the raffle. And then, later in the afternoon, when I discovered I'd won a raffle prize, I headed over...



only to find this giant basket waiting for me! So I left pretty soon after that, so I didn't have to carry the basket around! I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with all this stuff, but it's pretty exciting!

Does anyone want some curly hair shampoo?

hanging out on the goldcoast

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Animal Activists Forum, which this year was held on the Gold Coast! I plan to talk more about that when I can get the words right, but for now I want to talk about the food that we ate.

We stayed at the Tallebudgera Active Recreation Centre. Part of the centre is a generic sports and rec centre, with public swimming pool and sporting facilities. The rest of it is a gated centre run by the Queensland government for camps and retreats. It's got climbing facilities, and a couple of conference rooms, and a whole lot of basic shared accommodation. What this meant was that, aside from the conference dinner, all of our meals were cooked by the chefs at the Centre.

I didn't take photos of everything, but amongst the breakfasts, lunches and morning and afternoon teas, food included: pancakes, toast, a big cooked breakfast, noodles, rice and vegetables, dumplings, and burgers. Afternoon teas included muffins and biscuits and a whole lot of fruit. And all of it was vegan!



I know the organisers were concerned about mixups, given they'd never catered for a fully vegan group before, but aside from honey on the first day (honey was put on the condiments table, and honey-os were included with the cereal options), and one instance of a carton of cow milk being hidden amongst the several cartons of soy milk, everything was good! Nothing was mind blowingly tasty, but some things were good, and everything was vegan, and we were separated from the other groups staying at the Centre so we didn't even have to see their animal products! So it was quite satisfactory.



There were two evenings unaccounted for, though: the conference dinner, and the night before it all started, when there were only a few of us loitering around. I wanted to use this opportunity to try at least one of the vego-only restaurants along the Gold Coast, so on the way from Brisvegas R dropped in to Threeworlds Organic Pizza Cafe. All the pizza at threeworlds is vegan and organic and made on bases of spelt. At threeworlds they also make their own cheese, and although I'm not sure what this cheese is made from, consensus on the evening was that it's probably nutritional yeast.



I know they look the same, but there are three different pizzas under there! J ended up ordering the Mediterranean pizza, the pesto perfection, and (I think) the satay sensation. My favourite was the pesto perfection, I really liked the pesto and pumpkin combination, and the broccolli on the pizza was a pleasant surprise. I didn't really enjoy the flavours of the Mediterranean. The spelt bases were okay, but nothing special.

Also a pleasant surprise was the roar (sic) desserts that R bought to accompany the pizza. These were so delicious that R, a stringent dissident when it comes to raw desserts, was completely won over by the berry cheezecake! I also found the berry very delicious, and the orange was also very tasty. I can't remember what the third one was (the white one in the photo below), but it wasn't very nice and in fact remained unfinished.



Overall: threeworlds was nice, and handy to have nearby, but I would choose Plush over it any day.


The conference dinner was held at Zullaz Restaurant in Burleigh Heads. Zullaz is not a vegetarian restaurant - my understanding is that, although there were a small handful of vegetarian restaurants within walking distance of the accommodation, none were able to accommodate the number of people required. So we went to Zullaz and, as far as I could tell, everything worked out okay! We had a buffet specially for us (everyone else in the restaurant was ala carte), and it was just generic, mostly South Asian food in the usual way, with a dessert of bread and 'butter' pudding (which was actually really tasty.



Zullaz is mostly GF and dairy-free, which is a good start for getting some vegan food if you're in the area. It was perfectly fine, but nothing special, and there is a Govinda's and a vegan raw restaurant just around the corner, so maybe just if you really need to (as we did for the size), or want somewhere that serves cocktails.






Threeworlds Organic Cafe
2558 Gold Coast Hwy
Mermaid Beach

Zullaz Exotic Cuisine*
21a /50 James Street
Big B Arcade
Burleigh Heads






*I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that exotic is a word that is usually totally inappropriate, because it works to effectively and efficiently other anyone who doesn't fit in to an anglo-discourse. And that is exactly what it is doing to this restaurant!

[book review] thanking the monkey

I came to Thanking the Monkey with some skepticism. Karen Dawn was recently in Melbourne giving a talk as a fundraiser for Edgar's Mission, and at the last minute I decided to go, prompted by some enthusiasm from J. I liked the talk well enough; I wasn't blown away by it, but I decided to pick up a copy anyway (all the profits for the copies sold on the night went to Edgar's Mission, too!).

I like to think I know a lot about animal issues, but some of the stuff I was reading totally astounded me. I had to start bookmarking, and now my copy is filled with post it notes and little sticky bits (which I'm going to remove as I type this, so I can lend the book out).

Dawn has an interesting, conversational writing style. She talks up her book as an accessible gift book, and certainly it is very accessible. The book is illustrated with pictures and comics, on the premise that even if you give the book to someone who can't bring themselves to read it, they might flip through and see some of the comics, and take away at least a part of the message.

Thanking the Monkey was written as an all-around animal rights book: at some times it's an introduction, covering the basics, and at other times it's quite in depth and confronting.

There are lots of suggestions of other books to read, as well as video and other online links. The book is heavily (though inconsistently) referenced, which I always enjoy. It's also very easy to pick up and put down, as it's filled with lots of separate sections. This means I felt comfortable putting it down for a week and a half and then coming back to it again.

The chapters are set out in a nice way, too: there's an introductory chapter, one on pets, animal entertainment, clothing, as food, animal testing, green/conservation groups, and 'compassion in action.'

One big thing for me was that, it led to me revising my opinion on zoos. I've always struggled with zoos, not liking the voyeristic/trapped components of it for animals, but recognising the need for conservation. Halfway through the section on zoos, I changed my mind. I'm still there for the conservation efforts, but why do we need zoos to fit in to urban areas? Anyway, me and zoos are definitely over.

The book does have some problems. Like many vegan / animal rights texts, there's some fatphobia. At some points there's an undertone of cultural cluelessness. There's also a sort of something, for certain people. "And some human mothers will hand over a baby for a vial of crack," (pg 254) for example, is a statement that I would like to challenge. The book frequently uses terms like 'normal,' which regular readers of this blog will know I dislike, as it positions some of us as not-normal.

However, I learnt a lot of things that I didn't know. I don't know if it was naiveness or overlooking or what, but as the book went on I was blown away by how much I was bookmarking. A small sampling:

• "...unlike other mammals, dolphins are not automatic breathers; every breath is a conscious choice, and when life becomes unbearable they can choose to take no more. They commit suicide. He says that much of the early mortality rate of dolphins in captivity is a result of suicide: "We literally bore them to death."" (pg 84)
• There's type of fur (from lambs - not sure why it's not wool), where the baby lambs are killed at a few days of age, and sometimes even the skin of unborn lambs is used. I'm not sure why unborn lambs horrifies me more than born lambs - maybe because the mother has to be killed too? (pg 107) In the USA (not sure if this extends beyond the USA) coats with less than $150 worth of fur don't have to be labelled as having fur (pg 110).
• Farmed salmon requires about 2.5 times the same amount of wild fish as food.
• The WWF, as a conservation society, sometimes positions itself squarely against animal rights (pg 295) - this was cool to read because then, when I was talking to the Wilderness Society people at World Vegan Day, I was able to ask so many questions I'd never previously have considered.

Another thing: Stephen Colbert has an adopted turtle daughter: her name is Stephanie Colburtle. Adorable name!

One final benefit of reading the book, for me, was being able to quote from it for my recent talk at the Animals Australia Forum. I gave a talk on intersectionality, and I had wanted to give examples of why intersectionality is needed in AR. Advised against this, I went the other way: I used Dawn's 2005 article ' Best Friends Need Shelter Too,' reproduced in the book, as an example of how intersectionality takes things in to account. So that was nice.

I recommend the book. It's an interesting read, and I learnt a lot, but I recommend reading it with caution. I'm not sure I would give it as a gift book to people who weren't already interested in AR/AW.

ooh it's melbourne cup day

one of my least favourite holidays. at least now that i'm in melbourne, and it's a public holiday, i don't have to find excuses to not go to work / not join in the "celebrations" (i used to hide in my office whilst everyone else ate chicken and watched the race).

instead of making a bet on the cup, maybe you could make some sort of appropriate donation, or sign the pledge to never bet on cruelty.

at the punch, ward has written about the brutal truth about the horse racing industry; and up at vegaroo, sharon has a list of other alternatives you can do today (including options for cities other than melbourne). there's a protest picnic near flemington (with free mr nice guy vegan cupcakes!).

or you could post one of these links on your facebook wall, and see if it starts a verbal fisticuffs, like it already has for some people. :o)

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