Awooga Awooga! Alert Alert!

Two exciting things that have nothing to do with me:

• Today’s Epicure section in The Age has a two page spread on veganism which, thank god, is not derogatory, uninformed or sceptical. In no small part this is due, I’m sure, to the interviewer having the inestimable good sense to interview Emily Clark of aduki Independent Press, who provides honest, sensible and accessible comments. Go buy it right now!

• I might be the last blogger in the veganverse to discover Lolo at VeganYumYum, but I am very much in love, awe, inspiration and hunger reading her blog and sighing over her incredible vibrant, alive and sensationally electrifying photographs. She just wrote a fantastic and in-depth post about food photography which I intend to study like I’ve never studied before.

www.aduki.net.au

www.veganyumyum.com

From NYC - 'sNice, or: I realise that my daily skinny-soy-latte is in fact pure gold

Yes, ‘sNice. Having been described in my NYC Bible (Vegan Restaurant Guide to NYC 2008, Friends of Animals) as a café/sandwich shop/baker, I was expecting a linoleum style counter-type place with little bits of sandwich filling in individual containers. Instead, ‘sNice is a rustic, relaxed, artsy-boho eatery on par with the finest of Smith Street’s wood-filled, nod-to-the-retro faux-ho.

A combination of individual and communal tables make for a missed crowd – couples, families, groups of friends – and the provision of the day’s papers was something we hadn’t seen much of in NYC. I was, however, a little perplexed by the service arrangements – either let me take my own food to my table, or give me a table number and bring it out yourself. But don’t take my order, prepare it, and then spend five minutes shouting my name out in a busy café on a Saturday morning to find out where I am so you can bring it over. I mean, dudes!

Buzz went for a side serve of pasta salad made with red cabbage, baby spinach and walnuts, with a main of TVP-chicken satay wrap. I plumped for a vegan panini and a Blondie.
The pasta salad, although the teenisest-weensiest bit on the oily side, was a winner,. The pasta was quite al dente to compliment the combination of the crisp cabbage and walnut with the soft spinach. The cabbage, uncooked, lost the worst of its bitterness whilst retaining bite and crunch. The spinach had been softly coated with olive oil. We’re going to attempt this one at home.

The stay wrap contained TVP chunks which were spongey and textured and delicious, but in retrospect remind me a little of the KitEkat Chicken in Gravy that I feed my boys. Good thing it tasted great then. The satay sauce was subtle, lightly creamy and not at all peanut buttery. The serving was large and accompanied by a decently sized fresh salad.

My panini comprised a couple of pieces of sundried tomato, slabs of room temperature tofu and pesto in a quite satisfyingly chewy ciabatta. The traditional combination of tomato and pesto was fine, but the tomatoes were a tad vinegary and sharp and the pesto unremarkable. Imagine a pest – hold it – that’s it. The tofu was a bit of a surprise; unflavoured and unwarmed and slapped between the ciabatta. However, all combined and encased in the excellent bread, and with the same salad, it was tasty and I finished it happily.

My Blondie was big and delightfully soft and chewy. It was pretty sweet, but not being a sweet-tooth by nature it’s hard for me to judge. The chocolate chunks were just at that soft and semi-melted but not dissipated stage; the crust was not crisp or think but of just the right consistency to both hold firm-ish and break off in bite-sized chunks; and the dough inside was on the right side of light and chewy.
A word on coffee: I can see why Starbucks does so well in the States. It’s oft repeated that prior to Starbucks’ ‘third place’ concept – the idea of a coffee shop being the third place between home and work where you could relax, hang out and bide a while – there was no such thing in the US. Starbucks began its success on the backs of urbanites who appreciated its plush velvet chairs, power points for laptops, and all the other soft-warm-welcoming design features. And from what I saw in NYC, this is a market niche otherwise unfilled. There aren’t really any other chain coffee shops and certainly none of the small, independent businesses or hole-in-the-walls we’re so spoiled with in Melbourne. What this makes for is that Starbucks’ cookie-cutter coffees are in fact the best cup available. They offer a standard taste, they’re familiar, and their stores are in fact used by people as their third place, which is nice in its way. One thing that did absolutely appal us though was the shocking and abominable practice of using pre-brewed coffee from tin coffee pots and then pouring freshly steamed milk on top. Shame! Surely this is corrupting the youth of America!

So back at Chez ‘sNice, we were served coffees that were the best we’d had Stateside. The were fine by Melbourne standards, but superlative in NYC, and I mean that as the highest of compliments to ‘sNice.

If this all sounds like Melbourne-centric arrogance, hubris, snobbery and plain up-yourself-ness – it is. Melbourne’s coffee is the PhD to NYC’s crèche. NYC might out-perform Melbourne in many (many) categories, but in this one, Melbourne is the one who rawks.


Below: we returned to ‘sNice a couple of times for the comforting and warm atmosphere, drinkable coffee and range of vegan foodstuffs– here are some of our meals and a few thoughts.

From NYC - 'sNice, or: I realise that my daily skinny-soy-latte is in fact pure gold

Yes, ‘sNice. Having been described in my NYC Bible (Vegan Restaurant Guide to NYC 2008, Friends of Animals) as a café/sandwich shop/bakery, I was expecting a linoleum style counter-type place with little bits of sandwich filling in individual containers. Instead, ‘sNice is a rustic, relaxed, artsy-boho eatery on par with the finest of Smith Street’s wood-filled, nod-to-the-retro faux-ho.

A combination of individual and communal tables makes for a mixed crowd – couples, families, groups of friends – and the provision of the day’s papers was something we hadn’t seen much of in NYC. I was, however, a little perplexed by the service arrangements – either let me take my own food to my table, or give me a table number and bring it out yourself. But don’t take my order, prepare it, and then spend five minutes shouting my name out in a busy café on a Saturday morning to find out where I am so you can bring it over. I mean, dudes!

Buzz went for a side serve of pasta salad made with red cabbage, baby spinach and walnuts, with a main of TVP-chicken satay wrap. I plumped for a vegan panini and a Blondie.

The pasta salad, although the teenisest-weensiest bit on the oily side, was a winner. The spaghetti was quite al dente to compliment the combination of the crisp cabbage and wiggly walnut with the soft spinach. The cabbage, uncooked, lost the worst of its bitterness whilst retaining bite and crunch. The spinach had been softly coated with olive oil. We’re going to attempt this one at home.


The satay wrap contained TVP chunks which were spongey and textured and delicious, but in retrospect remind me a little of the KitEkat Chicken in Gravy that I feed my boys. Good thing it didn't occur to me at the time or I couldn't have spent quite so long stealing pieces of it off Buzz's plate (sharing is caring doncha know...). The satay sauce was subtle, lightly creamy and not at all peanut buttery. The serving was large and accompanied by a decently sized fresh salad.


My panini comprised a couple of pieces of sundried tomato, slabs of room-temperature tofu and pesto in a quite satisfyingly chewy ciabatta. The traditional combination of tomato and pesto was fine, but the tomatoes were a tad vinegary and sharp and the pesto unremarkable. Imagine a pest – hold it – that’s exactly it. The tofu was a bit of a surprise and I'm not sure it was all pleasant: unflavoured and unwarmed and slapped between the ciabatta. However, all combined and encased in the excellent bread, and with the same salad, it was tasty and I finished it happily.


My Blondie was big and delightfully soft and chewy. It was pretty sweet, but not being a sweet-tooth by nature it’s hard for me to judge. The chocolate chunks were just at that soft and semi-melted but not dissipated stage; the crust was not crisp or thick but of just the right consistency to both hold firm-ish and break off in bite-sized chunks; and the dough inside was on the right side of light and chewy.


A word on coffee: I can see why Starbucks does so well in the States. It’s oft repeated that prior to Starbucks’ ‘third place’ concept – the idea of a coffee shop being the third place between home and work where you could relax, hang out and bide a while – there was no such thing in the US. Starbucks began its success on the backs of urbanites who appreciated its plush velvet chairs, power points for laptops, and all the other soft-warm-welcoming design features. And from what I saw in NYC, this is a market niche otherwise unfilled. There aren’t really any other chain coffee shops and certainly none of the small, independent businesses or hole-in-the-walls we’re so spoiled with in Melbourne. What this makes for is that Starbucks’ cookie-cutter coffees are in fact the best cup available. They offer a standard taste, they’re familiar, and their stores are in fact used by people as their third place, which is nice in its way. One thing that did absolutely appal us though was the shocking and abominable practice of using pre-brewed coffee from tin coffee pots and then pouring freshly steamed milk on top. Shame! Surely this is corrupting the youth of America!

So back at Chez ‘sNice, we were served coffees that were the best we’d had Stateside. The were fine by Melbourne standards, but superlative in NYC, and I mean that as the highest of compliments to ‘sNice.

If this all sounds like Melbourne-centric arrogance, hubris, snobbery and plain up-yourself-ness – it is. Melbourne’s coffee is the PhD to NYC’s crèche. NYC might out-perform Melbourne in many (many) categories, but in this one, Melbourne is the one who rawks.


'sNice Redux:
We returned to ‘sNice a couple of times for the comforting and warm atmosphere, drinkable coffee and range of vegan foodstuffs– here are some of our meals and a few thoughts.

Below: Tempeh wrap with avocado, mixed greens, cilantro (that's coriander for you and me), tomatoes and spicy chipotle dressing. This was a little to smoky, and very Thousand Island Dressing-y. It wasn't as good as Buzz's satay 'chicken' wrap that he ordered again and part of which was stolen again by me.

Below: chocky-nana muffin (with free sugary bickies cos she forgot to charge me for the muffin and had to come over to our table to get more cash!). De-lish. Perfectly light, moist and banana-y. It was big but not mammoth, with more banana than chocolate - and this from a self-avowed muffin-ambivalent. The freebies were cute with their coloured sugar and animal shapes - they were quite 'buttery' but almost a little stale, although it goes without saying that they all made it into my tummy.

Below: finally, a cookie with no name, but by the loving tilt of this photo I can tell it was a good 'un. Just look at that choc-oat mix and just-crackled top.

Below: Thai salad with satay sauce, endamame and peanuts. Quite honestly, this was just a plain ol' green salad with a few beanshoots, a dollop pf stay and some peanuts. No lime, no chilli, no finely sliced nuffing' ... not really Thai at all except for the satay. A bit vinegary too.




'sNice Manhattan: 45 8th Avenue at W4th Street.

A Bit of Shameless Promtion, or: I am an easily influenced shopper!

Mandee over at Cupcake Kitteh has posted a fabulous item about helping to raise money for Animals Australia by purchasing their Lamb and Pig plushies - seeing as her post made me immediately go and buy one of each and make a donation, I hope that by putting it up here too someone else will be similarly inspired!

They're cute, huh (and totally vegan)!

Have a look at Mandee's post over here: www.cupcakekitteh.blogspot.com

... and have a look at the awesome work done by Animals Australia here (and buy something!): www.animalsaustralia.sansolo.com

WholeFoods miscellanea, or: I upload a whole lotta photos on a Friday night

Here are some out'n'about shots from WholeFoods. Big snaps to Buzz who patiently waited while I snapped everything with the word 'vegan' on it and even lent a helping hand to hold up various pieces of produce to demonstrate their size.

I'm not really a soy-cream kinda gal (or should that be ice-soy cos it's the cream that I object to?) but this ... this really takes the ... cake? Soycream? IceSoy?

Just look at the soft and sticky swirls of fudge ... this bucket didn't last very long at all. Oh no it didn't!
A meal-in-a-bowl from the buffet.

Views from above - taken from the eatering area way up above the foodering area (don't ask where those words came from. But it makes sense doesn't it? The eatering are is where you do your eating, and the foodering area is where you pick your food).

All the little soy proteins ... maybe a bit too chemically and processed, but what a haul!






My first ever food tub from the buffet - layers 1 and 2. I was a full little girl.



Buzz has fairly large hands, and even they are dwarfed (kind of) by these bemusingly large red onions.

Slightly bizarrely arranged fresh produce. It's like someone's come along with a WhipperSnipper and buzzed off all the unruly ends.

Finally - why oh effing why does the one thing ever with my name have to be effing dairy? Tragedy!

Having now seen all these pictures together, I think I have also seen why I was so manic and determined in photographing all the special vegan food I could find. Certainly it was partly to demonstrate the range of products we simply don't have in Australia, but seeing now that so many of the items are those that are made in-store, I think my unrealised motive was to show that where there is a critical mass of people who are interested not just in veganism but in organics and other non-mainstream eating choices, market forces will lead to the creation of a new and expanded form of operation which sees these choices as crucial to their business.

Despite the concern about the role of WholeFoods as yet another giant supermarket chain - concerns that are valid and worth remembering - it's still pretty damn cool to get the incredible range of bakery treats above, bringing them out of the health food store and into a supermarket environment, which is the kind of food market where the vast majority of people in the US and Australia purchase their food. My position is that if this kind of ubiquity can help someone to think that veganism is something 'normal' enough to be catered for by a large supermarket chain, not impossible for that person themselves to cater for, and part of a movement large enough to command these things, then I say that this is a damn fine thing.

zuzucooks, this one's for you, or: I Hate Melbourne's Trains

Melbourne Central is a shopping and transport hub on the east side of Melbourne's CBD. One would expect, wouldn't one, that at 7:50pm on a Friday night (note: not 4am on a Tuesday morning; a high-traffic time at a high-traffic venue on a high-traffic day) that one would not encounter this:

(The screen flickered as I took the picture and I was too scared of being set upon by Connex staff for being a suspected terrorist taking photos of Melbourne's vital infrastructure that I hightailed it away before getting a clearer shot. Both trains are on the Hurstbridge line - the next train is in 20 minutes and the one after that in just 50.)

See, zuzu, even though Melbourne is in fact bigger population-wise than Chicago and also operates on a stupid spoke-and-wheel system, this kind of kind of rubbish is far from unusual and, embarassingly and infuriatingly, is totally to be expected. It's hardly fitting for the kind of international city Melbourne wants to and could be. Actually, it's not even fitting for a poxy crumbling backwater riddled with stinking swamp mosquitoes and jungle vines growing over rusted decaying tracks.


On a slightly more cookering note, below is a reason why you shouldn't bake your ceramic dishes on high and then put them in the sink and run cold water over them.

Whizz, grind, whip and pulse, or: I finally acquire a food processor only to discover disappointment and heartache (sort of).

For the longest time I have coveted a food processor. Many are the times I have had to flip on by a recipe in Veganomicon because it called for an item of kitchen electronica that I simply didn't possess. But no longer! I finally got sick of my own dithering, marched on down to Myer and chose one that just 'did' - a Breville Overhead Drive Wizz with blender and processor combined. Bliss! I even lugged the enormous box to an after-work meeting such was my desire to Just Get It Done.

On its first outing the blender performed bee-yoo-ti-fully, blending me both a chocolate *and* peanut butter & chocolate soyshake with ease. I experimented with pulsing, different speeds and times - and all were pretty darn drinkable.

Below: peanut butter, chocolate So Good soycream and VitaSoy Soy Milky Lite ... it was lite peanut butter damn you! Don't judge me!


Delighted and excited I took out the food processor. Dah-doowwww.

It's a big bowl, 2L, and I realised that I'd need to scrape down the edges regularly to make sure that all the contents got an even go at the blades. After a disastrous first attempt at Veganomicon's basil pesto (let me tell you that golden syrup is under no circumstances an acceptable substitute for maple syrup), I tried a beetroot and walnut creation of my own ... it looked very purdy in the bowl:

But I didn't expect this:


...or this:


(The beetroot and walnut dip with garlic was delish, and got garlickier over the days. The avocado whip was great, but I don't think the whippiness outshines a simple lumpy fork mashing).

Being my first ever food processor, I'm willing to accept that I've not necessarily done everything correctly, perfect though I am in every other way of course. But really - two massive beetroot slices escaped the merest whisper of all four blades, and this after more than ten minutes of processing with at least five readjustments of the contents. If it can mulch up walnuts surely it can slice'n'dice some thin soft pink beetroot. I was cross! And I sulked! So there!

In fact, I was so cross that I even gave Breville more of my money to buy a MiniWiz, which is (apparently) better for dips - and the pinenut pesto I made processed without issue.

So what's the story Morning Glory? Must I be condemned to a life of soyshakes forever? And is that a bad thing?