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Blog world, I have not forsaken you; I am currently in Japan and have been too lazy to write. But fear not, I will have lots of food to blog about soon! And also lots of woes about accidental shrimp (there has been some surprise shrimp).

yong green food ii, fitzroy

When Yong Green Food opened just over a year ago, I raced out and dined there almost within that first week. Even though the menu was limited, everything was fantastic and I knew I wanted to go there again. Yet it has taken me a full year to return.

Last week I met up with some friends for dinner, and we were pleased to see so much choice. We each began with a cacao raw milkshake. Mine was quite banana-y, which I really enjoyed (J's, by comparison, was more cacao-y). We followed this with a shared portion of gyoza. These were okay, but nothing special, and needed a little more steaming to really soften the wrappers.



Lisa's recent post of top eats of 2010 was at the forefront of my mind, with chicken teriyaki listed at the top of her post. So I decided to order it! This was delicious, it really reminded me of when I used to eat meat and would over indulge at Nagano Japanese, just down the road from my house in Crawley. I loved the teriyaki flavour.

My dining companions chose the rawsagna and the dragon bowl. I've heard good things about the dragon bowl, but my sampling of the dish didn't blow me away. J enjoyed the rawsagna, but commented that there could have been less cashew cream and more tomato flavour.



We rounded out the meal with two cheezecakes between the three of us, and we went for the green tea and the blueberry. These were just as good as I remembered, with a wonderful nutty + dried fruit base, and delicious cake-y bits. So delicious, so worth it.

Definitely glad I made the effort to return to Yong. I hope that my next visit won't also take another twelve months!

There have been heaps of reviews of Yong Green Food, this is not even all of them: Wayfaring Chocolate (an out of town review!); The Big V; MEL: HOT OR NOT (it got a HOT); Where's the Beef?; In the Mood for Noodles; Aduki; Fitzroyalty.


Yong Green Food
421 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy

Not open Mondays

GF options available

discobeans cafe + artspace ii

You may remember my previous visit to Discobeans, where I had expected deliciousness and ended up with saltiness. However, the good reviews continue, and I decided to give it a second go.

Katie goes all the time, and we ordered to share, based on her experience. We ordered some miso soup each, as well as edamame and tempeh to start.



The tempeh was delicious. I really enjoyed the flavour of the sauce, and munching away on these little tempeh slices. The miso was not too salty, and the edmame was just right.



For mains we tried out the vegan okonomiyaki and the soba noodle salad. The okonomiyaki was super delicious, and I would definitely order it again. The salad was fine but not really my thing, too vinegary for my tastes.

So second verdict: much better than the first. And we got to sit outside in the back courtyard! Which was very nice.

Discobeans
238 High St
Northcote

high tech burrito ii: adventures in substitution

I've blogged previously about High Tech Burrito in Glenferrie and, embarrassingly, that review is actually up on the front window at High-Tech, above a giant sign calling for the attention of vegans and vegetarians: all their burritos can be made vegan or vegetarian.

My most recent forays to High-Tech have been an expedition to find out how well these meaty burritos translate to vegan.



My first modified burrito was, on recommendation from the counterhand, the Thai Chicken burrito, subbed with tofu and with no cream. This burrito, served in a tomato flavoured tortilla, was amazing. The curry had a great flavour, and was a little spicy, and I loved it. It was just like eating a red curry from the local Thai restaurant, but in a burrito. I definitely want to eat this again.



Also on this visit, I once again sampled the salsa and cornchips, mostly because I think one particular lunch companion, who ordered them, is obsessed with them. The chips are made on the premises, and there's something about them that is totally delicious.



My second burrito attempt was the Yellow Curry Shrimp, with veggies and tofu subbed in. This was okay, but nothing exciting. The curry flavour was a bit mild and the vegetables didn't really suit it. Probably won't try this one again.

Also on this visit, I discovered that people who work on Glenferrie Road get a discount! And also that there's a special, cheaper menu for students.

I'm so pleased with this whole substitution thing, and am definitely looking forward to future visits where I explore these options more.

GF options are available

High-Tech Burrito
838 Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn

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)

plush pizza vi

It has been a long time between visits for me to Plush Pizza, about five or six months. I went there twice recently, and as I gazed upon the menu I realised I had never, in all my visits, tried the margharita pizza!



It was good, but nowhere near a favourite, and I will be honest I picked most of the greenery off, and found that the garlic was a bit overwhelming. And with the owners selling, at this point no one knows if it will continue as an amazing vegetarian eatery, or change in to omni hands, so for now I will continue stuffing as much satay pizza in to my mouth as possible.




Previous visits: one, two, three, four, five.


Plush Pizza
85 Burwood Road
Hawthorn

GF options (including bases) available

announcing: potluck (a food carnival of intersectionality)

I love talking about food. And reading about food, and people's experiences with food. So Glass_Icarus and I, inspired by some recent posts (including but not limited to gross, weird, inedible (redux) by vi, Doodh se Dhuli by deepad, and seven things by troisroyaumes), have decided to start an ongoing food carnival, looking at multicultural and intersectional discussions of food.

There are no real limits on theme; however, the focus of the carnival is on thoughts and experiences around food through various topics that you might see around the social justice blogosphere, including but not limited to food discussions intersecting with disability, gender, sexuality, fat, animal rights and of course cultural and racial issues. We welcome you to share your recipes as well as your thoughts and experiences, but we ask that you do not submit posts with recipes only.

Wow, how much stuff did I forget to include in that list? Heaps! This is what happens when you write a blog thing when your headspace is somewhere else (writing learner guides for courses on education for sustainability). Sorry! There are many more various topics that should have been included on that list! And I want to write about them all! Well, I want someone to write about them. I probably can't write about food + being trans, or food + religion, or food + disability. FOR EXAMPLE.

The theme for the first potluck is holidays. Submissions can encompass anything you like, including holidays you might be celebrating nowish (Christmas, Hannukah), or recently (Eid al-Adha), or soon (Lunar New Year), or ages ago. Any holiday or festival.

You can submit in the original announcement post, or via email to glass_icarus AT dreamwidth DOT org, who will be hosting the first edition.

Please feel free to submit links to your own posts or to someone else's. You may submit multiple links. Links will be included at the discretion of the host. We welcome anyone to participate from any blogging platforms. The deadline for submissions for the first edition of Potluck is JANUARY 21, 2011.

This is totally relevant to you, vegans and vegetarians who read my blog! Write about intersectionality and food. DO IT.

easy brown lentil salad

As the weather warms up (not that today is that warm), I've been making some salads. My salad making has become distinctly influenced by the salads made at Friends of the Earth in Collingwood, which is not a bad thing at all; the focus at FoE is on really simple, roundly nutritional salads, and it's exposing me to all sorts of salad combinations I'd never previously considered!



Twice now I've made this lentil salad at home. If you use canned lentils (which - this was my first time!), then it's fast and easy, and delicious! It goes well as a side with pies, or puff pastry triangles.

easy brown lentil salad

1 x 400g can brown lentils, rinsed well + drained
1 carrot, peeled + diced tiny
half a punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
handful spinach, rinsed + torn
half an avocado, diced
1 - 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, preferably fresh but does not have to be

method: combine all the ingredients. serve or eat from the bowl.

red velvet cupcakes

I'd seen mentions of red velvet cupcakes around the place before, but until the cupcakes at Cupcake Central, I'd never had the opportunity to eat one. They were tasty (and I've eaten them several times since), but nothing AMAZING; I'd felt misled by the internets, which had proclaimed how amazing red velvet cupcakes were.

For fairness, I thought I would give baking them on my own a go, to keep on trying for what was supposed to be the greatest cupcake in the world.



I googled for a while, and checked out my books, for a variety of recipes. Eventually I used this recipe at Mac + Cheese. I ended up having to make two batches, because I didn't notice the tiny (but critical) 'makes about 22 cupcakes' and so made the full batter. This worked out ok, because the batter sat just fine in the fridge for a couple of days, and meant I kept myself in cupcakes for almost a week.

The batter was interesting. It was easy to mix, and fun to look at. It looks grossly awesome!



Baking was excellent - I didn't need to change anything about the timing or temperature, the cupcakes were just in and out with no adjustments, and the baking was perfect. A perfect rise, and very nice and soft.

The icing was a tad difficult, and I required assistance. The task was not aided by the hot weather, which led to the icing sliding off the cupcakes. I took to keeping them in the fridge.



I found the texture, especially after keeping them in the fridge, very pleasant. The cupcakes were firm but light, and the icing was perfect. The flavour of the cupcakes was a tad tart, I suspect this was due to the apple cider vinegar. Next time I might reduce the amount a little, and see how that changes the flavour, because I didn't enjoy that after taste, though I did enjoy the flavour of the eating.

Overall, a good experience! Not the world's greatest cupcake flavour by far, but delightful, and I would bake these again.

empire iii: wherein i order too much food

Went to Empire on Friday with Lisa, who had yet to try out the new vegan menu.

Having heard so much about them, I finally got around to ordering the Spanish eggs with no eggs. Although I had been warned that it would be massive I still ordered a side of hashbrowns; in the end, the serve was really big, and I couldn't quite finish it. I didn't even attempt the bread, though I bet it would have been great. Happily Lisa had just enough room to sample some of the remaining beans, but I still felt folorn at leaving some behind. The spanish no-eggs are beans, mushrooms and vegan cheese in a rich and flavoursome napoli sauce. Mine was topped with avocado, which was just perfect, but usually it's topped with more vegan cheese.

It was delicius, and I will definitely order it again - and for $12, with such a massive portion, I think it's good value.



I love Empire. Tamara is great fun, and always accomodating of vegan requirements, and they stock Mr Nice Guy Vegan Cupcakes! I like to buy one or two to take home. And I'm going there again on Friday.




previous visits: one and two.



Empire Cafe
295 Sydney Road
Brunswick

Open from 10am weekdays (but give them time to set out the tables), and from 8.30 on weekends
Closed Tuesdays

me + usacentrism + monday morning links

I saw Frente yesterday! Everything else that happened over the weekend pales in comparison. Even the odd election (did you get to vote? I know people who couldn't get to any voting points because of the flooding!).

I realised that, two weeks after the fact, I had yet to post a link in my other blog about my intersectionality talk being up at The Scavenger, so I just did that, and took the opportunity to ramble a bit about the USA-centricity of AR (and other social justice topics) online. If you wanted to come over and weigh in, or give me your thoughts, that would be great! intersectionality 101: addressing racism and classism in animal rights activism (a talk) + USA-centrism.


This slightly odd article has been doing the rounds: The Rise of the Power Vegans. It's an interesting enough read, but I found it odd and I'm not sure why.

Unsurprising but interesting to have in a study: Animal-welfare news sways meat consumers:

News coverage of animal-welfare issues causes U.S. consumers to cut back on meat purchases and spend their money instead on non-meat items, a study indicated.

Cows, Goats Escape from Slaughterhouse, Only to be Forced Back In

I meant to link this a few weeks ago, but: Poultry producer's workers claim intimidation. Miscellaneous worker intimidation might not seem that relevant, though it is in a chook production facility, but I've started collecting these sorts of articles in Australia. One of the barriers to effective AR in Australia (I've found) is that all our information for back up comes from the USA or from Europe, so I think it's important to document the patterns (whether they are similar to those famously documented overseas or not) in order to have solid evidence.

One of the things that frustrates me about working in the environmental/climate change sector, as a vegan, is the fact that people are often really invested in not being vegetarian. This article frustrates me: Eco Friendly Fur or No Such Thing? Not necessarily because I'm like 'no fur no fur!' (though I am): but because an argument that starts with 'but they're a rodent! and they're doing environmental damage!' ignores the suffering aspects. Here is my confession: I totally prioritise reducing environmental damage. And I am very critical of introduced species. But humans, you know, did the introducing! So maybe it is our responsibility to not kill them in the usual painful methods used for getting fur. I'm there for reducing their damage on the environment, but pain is not really the answer.

mushroom + roast pumpkin lasagna

The weather has suddenly jumped from long coats and scarves to ice creams and trying to stay cool, but one of the last things I wanted to do before the weather changed was to cook a lasagna. Lasagna is not really a great thing to cook in summer, not only because it needs to be baked in the oven; this lasagna featured roasted pumpkin, so it required an extra long oven time.



This lasanga is a sum of things that I love in lasagna, and rather than overwhelming with flavour, I found that the textures and flavours worked together to make something totally delicious. There are two distinct layers, a fried mushroom layer and a roasted pumpkin layer, and these two layers are padded with lasagna sheets, sun-dried tomato pesto, and a tomato sauce. So it goes sauce, pasta, pesto (spread thinly across the entire sheet/s), mushrooms, sauce, pasta, pesto, roasted pumpkin sliced, sauce, pasta, and the rest of the source. This was all topped with a mixture of Cheezely and nutritional yeast.

It wasn't too complex; the sauce was a very simple one, made using about 800g (two tins) of tinned tomatoes and some fresh and dried herbs, though I do wish I'd used maybe an extra half a can. Ordinarily I'd make the pesto, but I'd picked up some pesto from world vegan day, and worked that in. Roasting pumpkins is always a delight, and it's no trouble for me to slice and fry the mushrooms.

I sort of wish I'd made some sort of cheeze sauce, combining the Cheezely and the nutritional yeast with some tofu and milk or something, just to make it a little more moist; but the Cheezley and nutritional yeast combination was a perfectly serviceable last minute topping.

single issue / protest voting: don't do it

There's a line in the talk I gave at the Animal Activists Forum. It was a last minute addition to my talk, but I included it in my edits for the Scavenger because I think it's really important and I feel very strongly about it.

This Saturday is the Victorian state election, and the Coalition Against Duck Shooting is spearheading a voting tactic to 'vote Greens first and Labor last,' based on Labor's policies (or lack thereof) regarding animals. I heard Laurie Levy speak on this at the Animal Activists Forum, and he said that this tactic was based on the success of the Shooter's Party (or something, I can't remember the name) campaigning and voting as a bloc to get things done. He said that this was specifically a campaign targeting the four seats that could potentially fall to the Greens: Northcote, Brunswick, Melbourne and Richmond. And the idea is literally to put the Greens first, and put Labor last. And that's it. That's the strategy.

Protest voting on a single issue is dangerous. It is too simplistic, and too short term. And one that is so targeted as this - it's targeted at these four electorates, as 'vulnerable' electorates, but there's no way to prevent a message like this from spilling over boundaries. And it assumes that - well, specifically, it assumes that the Coalition's promises on animal stuff can be trusted (it can't - look at their history, even just recent history), and it ignores the impact that the Coalition's environmental policies have on habitats, and it ignores all the other issues. It's single issue! If you put the Greens first and the ALP last because of the ALP's failure to act on animal rights issues, you're ignoring every other issue and every other impact.

Vote with your ideology. Vote for someone because you think they might be able to speak for you. Vote for someone because you want them to speak for you, or because the things they say resonate with you. Maybe not all of the things, but most of the things. Don't just do it for one of the things. And your second preference is often just as important as your first, so think about that, too. It's not just a throwaway number in a box. If you want to put the Greens first, do it. And if there's someone else you want to put after them, because they speak to what you believe in, then absolutely do it. This isn't about me making fun of your political party. You vote for who you need to. But don't protest vote. It's dangerous, and it doesn't work. Tactical voting can easily backfire.

Think about your vote, don't just protest it.

eggplant chips at the ebc

Found this deliciousness on the EBC's menu; I'd never noticed it before, and was excited to try eggplant chips. I expected something cut more like wedges, but instead we received these thin rounds, coated in a batter and deep fried. They were greasy and really oily, but very crisp and the eggplant held this amazing flavour. Shared these with some friends (and, of course, had the parma). Big recommend.





previous EBC visits: one; two; three; four, five.

East Brunswick Club
280 Lygon Street
East Brunswick

yet another scrambled tofu

I must scramble tofu at least once a week - in fact, I have some tofu in the fridge which needs using up, and maybe there'll be scrambled tofu in my near future. I've blogged about scrambled tofu before, and given the weekly occurrance of tofu in my kitchen I don't usually blog about it, but I loved this one because of the colours.



There was some purple cabbage and some coriander amongst the half used veggies rolling around the bottom of the fridge, and they turned out beautifully. I chopped the cabbage in to fine slithers and started by sauteing that before adding the other ingredients (to give it some extra time to wilt), and threw some coriander in at the last second, before using a little extra as some garnish. Beautiful colours, and a great flavour!