monday melbourne roundup

I am still roaming the town with no camera hence no restaurant updates (and very little updating in general) why do I have to be so TIGHT! argh! still waiting on my battery charger but it should be here this week.

eats.drinks

movida aqui
Still wonderful. still the love of my life.

gingerboy
Met some friends there for post Movida cocktails (a good thing to know the are both open on Monday nights). The cocktail lounge is tiny and cramped but we had a few nice drinks. For previous Gingerboy experiences click!

lord of the fries
I'm going to go out on a limb and say lords of the fries is pretty disgusting. I know a lot of you like them but I find their food too greasy, not enough straight up vegan sauces, too expensive and substandard mock meat products (Toffuti and I have NO IDEA what dogs they used for hot dogs). I think marketing to meat eaters turns veg*ns away. Having said that, they ARE feeding a lot of meat eaters vegetarian food. I dont know just not for me, I guess I'm just disappointed that for a vegie place theres such little amount of things I want to eat. Cant please them all!

Monk Bodhi Dharma
My charmed first visit wasnt as charmed the second time around. I realised the pistacio creamy stuff for the french toast is Tofutti (I know I know I HATE TOFUTTI OK - probably years of it being my only option) and this is going to sound dumb but the french toast is so hard to cut into it goes everywhere. Next time I'm going to try something different. I do love the space and going to Mexico is an exciting excursion! (and Tofutti or not I think its great they offer so many vegan options). and pps that poached pear.. actually.. it is pretty incredible.

Vincents Vegetarian Supermarket
I finally went there and what a dizzying array of food. I think you've all gathered by now I'm not really a mock meat (or mock dairy) fan. I like my food unprocessed. However I got some cool lycee jelly and some mock chicken (for the rare time I feel like it). More expensive than Radical Grocery however! Makes me appreciate Anikee even more!

First monthly Vegan drinks @ the Sporting Club

So great! we had about 35 people and raised just over $120 for RSPCA QLD Flood appeal (which my work is going to match dollar for dollar). Met so many amazing people (vegans tend to be right!), if you want to come along to the next one either watch this blog or become a fan on facebook and look for the updates! If you're in Sydney Vegaroo do one too (where I got the wonderful idea from!)

roasted pumpkin with tahini dressing and fresh lime

This is another loosely adapted (read too lazy to do a few steps) Ottolenghi recipe. Totally gorgeous.

ingredients
Butternut pumpkin sliced 1cm wedges
2 fresh limes
100 ml of tofu sour cream
30 ml of tahini
salt and pepper
corriander leaves

method
1. Roast the pumpkin slices with a drizzle of olive oil and liberal amounts of salt and pepper.

2. While the pumpkin is roasting make the dressing by juicing one lime and mixing with the tahini and tofu sour cream. With the other lime trim the skin off and cut into small pieces to scatter on the pumpkin. Drizzle the dressing on top and sprinkle with a handful of fresh corriander leaves. Voila!

onion jam

A post. A real cooking post! Sorry for the rubbish photo, I still don't have a charger for my US camera so I'm going to have to do mobile pictures for a while.To illustrate how long its been my last recipe post was on the 1st of December! I cut this recipe out of the Age a million years ago so I dont know who to credit. I made a huge batch of this and nanna pats tomato relish to give as gifts for Christmas. They really went down a treat. I love eating this on toasted sandwiches with cheezly. nom.

ingredients
1 kg of brown onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 kg of sugar
75gm mustard seeds
400 ml red wine vinegar
300 ml sweet chilli sauce

method
1. Cook the onions on medium heat until they are soft and translucent.

2. Add the sugar until dissolved and thoroughly mixed. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to the boil then simmer until reduced and thickened (about 30 mins). Ladle into sterilised jars.

monday melbourne roundup

Back into my usual swing of things. This semester I will be going to school on Monday nights so I'm trying to squeeze in as many Monday Nova sessions before I go back. I've had heartbreak over the past couple of weeks so I have been trying to take it easy, sleep as much as a I want and be kind to myself. I put in an application to the CAE to teach vegan cooking courses so I'm hoping I will at least hear from them one way or another, I'm sure this time of year they are swamped with people applying. I finally got back into the kitchen on the weekend so there should be a full week of food posts coming tomorrow and onwards. It will be poor (camera phone) photography but I think we've all waited long enough!

out.

the kings speech

I took my mum and we both thought although it was interesting it was also boring and too long. 2.5/5



Catfish

Interesting but not interesting enough. 2.5/5



eats.drinks

Markov Place

I am no longer the Mayor! BOO HOO HOO. Still love you Markov though *paws* even though you sell terrible cider on tap.

dumplings plus - melbourne - city

"Its not very vegetarian friendly" was the warning, "it's my favourite dumpling place in Melbourne" was the echoed sentiment, murmured around the Milk Bar Christmas table. Fresh, homemade dumplings, slightly more expensive than Camis*? I had to go! A dumpling bar with few vegetarian options? Rubbish! Arriving before my friends I was crestfallen when I scanned the dumpling menu several times and found none. They were right, there is very little labelled vegie options on the menu. On the chaulk board specials menu I spied "vegetarian spinach steamed buns", at least I wasn’t going to starve. Our server arrived "do you have any vegetarian dumplings?", "how many do you want" and like that, I was in love. Dumplings Plus is indeed ace. Fresh dumplings (you can watch them being made through the huge kitchen window), steamed to perfection in ridiculous amounts for change. Vegans, it gets so tedious quizzing servers, but this was a huge win!

*Camis vegetable and mushroom dumplings are reportedly not vegetarian. When bought frozen they have chicken stock listed. To be fair they are not advertised as "vegetarian" dumplings (and having said that, this could also be the case from Dumplings Plus).

deets: 269 Swanston Street Walk, Melbourne, web: none
$$: like $7.90 for a plate of 6 dumplings

other voices, other times:
fitzroyalty
food addicts anonymous
suck my radish
cheap eats food trek

I only grab the first two pages of Google, if you have a Dumplings Plus review you would like added to this list please comment :)

monday melbourne roundup

For the next few months I am only seeing people who ask me out and honouring my social commitments. It meant that this weekend was intensely busy with friends. An album launch, a hens night and my mother being in town. I did manage to go to the beach and do some gardening though. I'm hoping the next couple of weeks are going to be quieter. I'm easing my way back into Melbourne. So if you want to see me ask me out to dinner cause I aint askin for AGES. xxx

out.

blue valentine
Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are just stunning in this. 3.5/5 (I thought it was too long - a recurring theme in my film loving world now)



store bought cool - 7" launch @ newtown workers club

I love newtown workers club and they have rekorderlig. I also love my friend dave. Win. Check out Daves band Store Bought Cool here.

eats.drinks

the penny black

woo! I haven't been there in ages and they've completely done up the back with new toilets and decking. quite like the place indeed.

the brunswick sporting club

It seems I got it wrong, my flatmate keeps talking about this place in Brunswick that sells Rekoderlig (best VEGAN CIDER EVER) so I finally went down to the Sporting Club to suss it out and talk to them about vegan drinks, and they dont sell it. So I'm thinking about moving it to the Brunswick Green. The Sporting Club is great, the food isnt great though.

berlin bar

love it. still the biggest wank in melbourne but the cocktails are to die for. its so nice when someone gets something so right.

dumplings plus

There will be a post on Milkbar Magazine about this soon. Stay tuned!

Shakahari

Still amazing. My camera is dead so I couldnt take any photos but had much of the same stuff as these times.

Maha

I've been to Maha once and found their pushing of the 'sofra' quite intense (5 dishes for each person). We ordered it but it was WAY too much food for 2 people. This time I went with my mother and we ordered 4 vegetarian dish sofra for one person and it was more than enough food. MoVida provides better value for money and better food however. Maha is way too expensive for what it is. I would go back, but only if someone else was paying.

the essential vegan pantry

You may be all 'damn it! post some recipes!". SOON! I promise! I bought a new camera in the US, but of course I need to get an American to Australian adapter before I can start taking photos again! So next week kidlets! In the meantime its been forcing me to think up new and wonderful ways of entertaining you. So here it is, what I consider to be kitchen essentials, if your pantry is stocked like this you can immediately cook ANYTHING YOU WANT from my blog. Yep. Any missing ingredients? Please comment! x (you can find this post in the right hand bar from now on under 'click me click me).

In other news I'm gathering momentum and am almost ready to start reviewing the recipes I sent out last year to be tested for the cookbook I am writing. After that I will be looking for more testers. So if you would like to test for me please shoot me an email! easyasveganpie@gmail.com xx

hellenic republic - east brunswick - melbourne

On a very hot and sunny Melbourne day, Hellenic Republic was one of the last places open in Melbourne. With a hungry belly and a forgiving heart we dove in*. You don't have to book for the outside tables and we sat in the sun gorging on magnificent food being serenaded with Greek pop songs (I can only assume its the version of Greek pop music/traditional songs). We enjoyed the melitzanosalata - eggplant dip, dressed with red wine onions the cypriot grain salad - freekah, coriander, almonds, lentils and yoghurt (on the side for my friend) and the tiganites patates - hand cut potatoes cooked in olive oil, oregano. Everything was lip smacking delicious. The salad in particular was pure joy. The service attentive, with good knowledge of what was veganisable. I've since been again and had the same with the donuts for dessert, if you eat honey they are completely magic. I look forward to a new year with new possibilities! Hooray!

deets: 434 Lygon St, Brunswick web: Hellenic Republic
$$: small dishes all around the $10 mark, three dishes adequately feed two semi hungry people

* The one and only time I had gone there I had a bad experience.

monday melbourne roundup - twenty legs eleven!

And so begins a new year! Did you have a fun break? I am back at work today, I could have done with another week off but I would have been bored after that. Thankfully I have many public holidays and RDO's to look forward to before I get a week off at Easter. This year I start again, forgive all bad service given to me (except for chronically bad places) and give everyone a chance! The first cab off the rank was Hellenic Republic and it was GREAT! Ive eaten there twice. Amazing. I'm currently churning through all the 2010 films I feel I need to see in order to complete my film list. I'm about 5 films away so I'm hoping by the end of the week. Look forward to posts soon about Hellenic Republic, I also spent a lo tof time in the water on the New South Wales coast while I was away. Had some heartbreak, spent some time with my family, not as much time in Sydney as I should have but it’s a new year and I am washing away the past.

Some cooking posts coming this week, I'm slowly getting back into it. I'm also going to apply to the CAE to teach a vegan cooking course!

Happy New Year!

Films I've watched (to keep count)

Somewhere

Gorgeousness - 4/5



Inception

I actually liked this (didnt think I would) this is the kind of action film I can get behind! (what is with leo di caprios premature coked out ageing?!?! hes 35 and looks 50!) 3.5/5



Please Give

An interesting look at white middle class guilt (LOVE Catherine Keener) 3/5



Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Too long! Absolutely gorgeous to look at, but ultimately I found it boring and turned it off about half an hour before it ended 3/5



Toy Story 3

I am really REALLY enjoying childrens films lately, I loved Up and the other one oh yeah Wall E, I feel like these films are really telling important stories to children. So beautiful I loved it! 4/5

jivamukti yoga school - union square - new york

Hidden in what looks like an apartment complex, on the 2nd floor is the Jivamukti Yoga school. I wasnt going for a class, my friend Gordon told me they had an amazing vegan organic cafe attached to the school. Its everything you want out of a yoga school, light and airy, happy and serene. The menu is huge, I almost wept after days of living on beans and rice. My lentil soup was full bodied and lovely, my ceasar disappointing like so many in the USA. The huge chunks of tempeh were filling though and tasty, I just havent found a ceasar with imagination outside of Real Food Daily. Jivamukti is one of those only known to locals places but its complete gold and I highly recommend going there. Think the Vegie Bar in a yoga school, but after days of only finding fake meat or beans and rice wherever you go you almost cry at the sight of so many fresh vegetables. Stay for a class, apparently its amazing.

deets: 841 Broadway, 2nd floor, New York web: Jivamukti Yoga School
$$: I cant remember I think our two soups plus a shared salad was $20