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)

nyonya noms lotus sri melaka vegetarian restaurant, northbridge

I got off the plane, collected my luggage and my mother, and the first thing we did after leaving Perth Domestic Airport was head in to Northbridge and be Very Chinese.

We went to visit the aunties* at the Chinese grocers along William Street, where I had to say hello and 你好吗** and yes Melbourne is good and 四日***. I eyed off the Mister Potato Crisps and the mooncakes, but decided I could wait until I got back to Melbourne. I also wandered up and down the aisles whilst my mother did some shopping, lamenting the loss (to me) of my favourite Chinese-Malaysian grocer. As I have well documented, I have yet to find every Malaysian thing that I require from Melbourne.

We then moved on to be more Chinese-Malaysian, with lunch at Lotus.

Oh Lotus. I have loved you frequently and loved you long, as the only provider of vegan Nyonya noms in Perth (aside from my mum). I remain so sad that there is no equivalent to you in Melbourne. I used to visit you several times a month, to eat the comfort food I love; your 'beef' rendang and your laksa and your kapitan and your char kuay teow and your deliciousness. Oh yeah.

Danni's mum joined us, and we had a bit of a noodle extravaganza.

My mother went for the Penang Laksa (please forgive the overexposed shot).



This was very rich, as always, and filled with lots of beans, tofu, and mock char siu, and my mum had it with beehoon (rice) noodles. It was good, but not super spicy, and she didn't finish it all.



Danni's mum went for the Hokkien Mee. Hokkien mee is one of my favourite things to cook, it is quick and easy and delicious, and so must this one have been because she ate it all up (and did a stellar job with her chopsticks). This was filled with lots of vegies, which is just the way it is best.

What is with all this single dishes? perhaps you are asking. Well, it is my fault, because I knew exactly what I wanted, and what I wanted was the wonton mee. Whilst I had a perfectly reasonable wonton noodles at Tinh Tam Chay in St Albans, it was not perfect, and what I really wanted, above all else, was the wonton mee soup at Lotus. It's not on the menu, but you can ask for it and oh yeah. Oh yeah.



LOOK AT THAT OIL. I drank that all up. Delicious. I picked this over all my other favourite dishes at Lotus, and it was totally worth it.

Finally, we ordered a kapitan + three roti to share.



The kapitan ('chicken' curry) was super spicy. My nose started running and my tongue was burning, but OH WOW. DELCIOUSNESS. Totally perfect, oh how I have missed it.

Oh Lotus. If only you were open on Mondays, I would have had lunch at you again yesterday. And I would have eaten the satay. And the fried wontons. And the Assam fish. And the char kuay teow. And and and.





Lotus Sri Melaka Vegetarian Restaurant
Unit 1, 220 James St
Northbridge

not open Mondays
GF dubiously available (need advance notice and have to order off menu)


*'auntie' here means, 'older Chinese lady who scolds but is not related to me.'
** sup?
*** 4 days

[vgml] plane noms

Hey, so, I've been in Perth! Qantas one way, Virgin the other, so only one plane meal provided. For your interest, a very bad photo:



Featuring: rosti and beans, and that same berry muffin that Qantas always serves. Before takeoff, as we were idling in the queue, I read the inflight magazine's review of a Masterchef challenge, where participants were divided in to teams and had to create an inflight meal in 90 minutes. The article says, Taste changes at 30,000 feet, so big flavours are needed. The meals must be really interesting and well-crafted, but not so idiosyncratic that passengers find them confronting. Isn't that lovely! Here is what I think of that, in the form of a letter to Qantas. I will not be sending it. :o)

Dear Qantas,

I would like to talk about breakfast! My rosti, though I was excited by the peas it contained, was bland. Not big at all! The beans were ok, again, not big in flavours. I would like some variety in my muffin, it is always the same berryful. Also the banana was underripe. Thank you for the juice.

In addition, I'd like to address the matter of the options available to those who did not order special meals. These were given as scrambled eggs or cereal. This was the only description given to anyone. Perhaps some further explanation is required, as you served the lovely Muslim woman behind me the scrambled eggs, which upon opening she had to return, as the eggs were thoughtfully served with bacon. Perhaps you might have mentioned this to her, since she was wearing her headscarf, which I know you noticed.

Also, the smell of bacon. Wow. I find that pretty confronting. Not my favourite way to spend half an hour. At least there was no-one directly next to me.

Thanks,
S Penguinface

I read Eating Animals on the plane. Review to follow shortly! (It is only half written)

some sunday reading

Sausage-addicted kookaburra too fat to fly

TOO many tasty sausages almost killed this kookaburra.

But health worries weren't the threat. She became so obese from barbecue handouts she could not fly when attacked by dogs in a Mosman park.

THANKS, HUMANS, is what the kookaburra should be thinking.

Animals Australia: Exposing poultry's dark side, a broiler chicken investigation.

An investigation into one of Australia's largest chicken meat producers that supplies major retail outlets has revealed routine and shocking animal abuse. Every year in Australia 488 million chickens endure brutally short and undeniably cruel lives inside factory farms. Animals Australia's investigation video shows baby birds suffering from heart disease, lameness, thirst, starvation and trampling inside a shed packed with over 40,000 birds.

Telling An Old, Old Story: Animal Cruelty and Human Violence at This Ain't Livin'.

At the Huffington Post, Veg and the City: My Beef With Locavores, on the growing anti-vegetarian component of locavoreishness, and what that means.

And Be Happy About the Octopus, about Paul the Octopus and how he started receiving death threats, and what that means.

I finished reading Eating Animals, and I have plans to watch Food, Inc this week. So more on those soon!

gujarati, hawthorn

My preference, when I'm at work, is to bring something from home, leftovers from the night before or something. But sometimes that's not possible, and at those times it's handy that there are some possibilities around. I've tried Penang Coffee House (not good enough for a repeat), and High Tech Burrito (totally delicious). But my favourite might well be Gujju's Cafe and Chaat House, which is nearly the closest restaurant to my office.

For $5 I can grab two curries from the bain marie and some rice, and this is sufficient for a filling lunch. On the day of this photo there were four totally vegan options; I went for a yellow dahl and a cauliflower and potato curry.

Cheap and easy and delicious!

There is also Gujarati Rasoi around the corner from Gujju's; it is also vegetarian and apparently cheap and delicious, and I plan to give it a go soon!


Gujju's Cafe & Chaat House
424 Burwood Road
Hawthorn East

gluten-free derby snacks

On Saturday Jo, Em, Danni and I joined K and Toby and two of their friends at roller derby. Well, maybe they joined us. Or something. WE ALL WENT TOGETHER.



Derby bouts are always a bit epic, having to stand in the queue for a million years, elbowing away for space, having to put up with the smell of sausages and really bad toilets, but this one was twice as epic, because there were two bouts, starting at five and finishing about nine. RIGHT OVER DINNER TIME. So we prepped up with goodies.



I made some rice balls. There were more than featured here! I basically smushed together some cooked rice with some tomatoes, a little bit of onion, some herbs and some mashed chickpeas. Cashews would also have been a good addition. Then I baked them for a while, until they were golden. Seen here with some sweet chilli sauce that Vicki left at my house and I keep forgetting to give back.



Jo made some sushi. Mmmm sushi.



Em made some citrus cookies, that were light and fluffy and kind of like eating cake. CAKE COOKIES. It's like a world of revelation.

K made some of Cindy's peanut butter rice bubble chocolate slice things, maybe one of them will link me to the recipe (I always seem to be saying that lately...). These were delicious! Whilst I was at friends of the earth earlier in the day, I picked up some raw chocolate truffles to go along with the snacks.

Bringing food makes it a lot more fun! Yay!