monday melbourne roundup

No wonder I don't have any money this is the list of places I ate last week (and some I went to twice). Busy, getting my final assignments in for the year, can't wait for SUMMER! I hit wide open road, my sister says, purple peanuts cafe, trippy taco, von haus, veggie kitchen, wood spoon, movida next door, miss marmalade and joes shoe store.

out.

halloween party @ the owl and the pussycat
The Owl and the Pusscat (home to 5pound theatre) were having a wee little halloweeny party so I thought I'd drop by. They had a zombie beauty pageant. It was awesome.

men of letters - thornbury theatre
The annual men of letters did not disappoint with the full gamut of 'the thinking womans crumpet' on stage. Waleed Aly (the audience collectively sighed), Shaun Micallef (swoon fase), Hamish Blake, Justin Heazlewood, Henry Wagons, Adam Elliott, Julian Burnside, Ronnie Scott, Max Walker and Kamahl all writing a letter to the women who changed their lives. It was amazing. Everytime I go to the Thornbury Theatre I always day dream about having queer prom there... AMAZING.

a1 bakery - brunswick

My best friend Clare has moved away. For 3.5 years we lived one street apart and now we live 2 TRAIN STATIONS apart (although still in the same suburb). I can't lie... it's been hard. We're trying to make the best of it by still spending our Saturdays together exploring her new hood (otherwise known as "fatty takes solace in finding food - again"). Although I live in "Brunswick Lower" (according to the post office) I rarely go beyond Albion st. For me this move is actually perfect we can spend our days eating amazing middle eastern food and shopping for exotic ingredients. I've been to Tabets and A1 (whose cusine reigns supreme?!) but I just keep going back to A1. Look at that plate of goodness, perfectly fried falafel, delicious pickles, fresh salad all for something ridiculous like $7. A1 is an unreal place for people watching as well, such a wonderful cross section of everyone who lives in this massive suburb.

We bought orange blossom water, rose water, pomegranate mollases and turkish delight. I want to make a vegan version of semolina cake. So much inspiration. A1 is hustling and bustling and reminds me of hanging out in Newtown when I was a kid in the 80's. Love it.

deets: 643-645 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
$$: crazy cheap

other voices, other times:
a place a day
the hungry lawyer
mel: hot or not

vegan easy challenge - november

It's 3 days away! Have you signed up? Hosted by Animal Liberation Victoria, the vegan easy challenge website is brilliant with so many amazing recipes, inspiring stories and meal plans. It's a great way to get you into and through the month of November and show you how easy being vegan is!

There is also great prizes to win:

1st Prize - $500 worth of gifts & vouchers
2nd Prize - $250 worth of gifts & vouchers
3rd Prize - $100 worth of gifts & vouchers

Watch some great videos at the challenge website and get inspired. Good luck and have fun! And remember you can do this anywhere in the world! xx Carla

rawsagne

I've been meaning to experiment with more raw food. I had a dinner party coming up and couple that with discovering the Russell James' absolutely amazing website I did the whole party raw. First problem was I didn't read the recipe properly and the original serves 9 people! (who does that?) so I have halved the quantities here. Also I did a 4 course raw meal which took almost 5 hours to prepare so probably won't go that far again OR will prepare the dessert the day before so I'm not spending so much time in the kitchen. It was nice on such a hot day to not have the oven on. Small servings of each went a long way and these core recipes taught me so much about raw food. Hit Russell James' website, sign up to his newsletter and get the free recipe book.

ingredients

walnut meat layer
3/4 cup walnuts, soaked 1 hour or more
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 1 hour or more
1 tbsp dark/brown miso
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried sage
2.5 tbsp nama shoyu (I used tamari and would use less next time)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp agave nectar (I used maple syrup)
1 tsp sea salt

tomato sauce
3/4 c sun dried tomatoes, soaked for 1 hour or more
1 soft dates
1 cloves garlic
1 cup tomato, seeded and chopped
3/4 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

basil pesto
I like my recipe better so use this one.

nut cheese
1 cup macadamias
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 yellow capsicum
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tsp salt
1⁄4 cup water as needed

spinach layer
3 cups torn spinach
1.5 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

lasagne sheets
5 medium zucchinis

method
1. walnut meat layer - pulse ingredients in a food processor till combined but still quite chunky.

2. tomato sauce layer - process in food processor until smooth.

3. nut cheese layer - process all ingredients until fluffy using as little of the water as possible (I found I needed to use it all).

4. spinach layer - toss the spinach in the salt and olive oil and leave to marinate for an hour or more (the spinach should wilt).

5. assembling the whole lasagne - Assemble individually on plates. Slice the zucchinis as thin as you can on a mandolin. Build the lasagne with zucchini, walnut meat, cheese, tomato sauce, pesto then spinach on top. Top with more thin lasagne sheets. Refrigerate to firm up.

notes: Next time I will add more lasagne sheets into the process. I'm still getting the hang of my new mandolin so the sheets are too thick.

winner - kambrook slow cooker

Congratulations katiepie! (love the name!). I'll be emailing you shortly to pick up your prize.

tom phat - brunswick

So it was about May when I had my last meal at Tom Phat. Six months down the track I decided to give it another go. It wasn’t as *appalling* as it was the last 4 times but it was nowhere near *neutral* either. First up the waiter was like a distracted ferret, showed us to our table outside, told me he would check if the scrambled tofu could be made again (it’s not on the menu anymore) and only returned once we had waited for what seemed like an eternity and had already gone inside to order our food.

He returned only to lay out the cutlery and while I was asking a question WAS TEXTING ON HIS iPHONE. Seriously. Our food arrived and it was just what I needed actually, bland and full of vegies (the tofu and tempeh salad - with loads of vegies and a light coconut milk broth). If it was any other day I would have been disappointed. The vegetables were overcooked and the broth was too hot to eat. After having empty plates for about 20 minutes someone came to clear them and I ordered a coffee. It came out luke warm but I just downed it because I couldn’t be bothered going inside and asking for another one.

Overall I won’t be going again for another 6 months. It’s a real shame, Tom Phat were so good, like remarkably good. Once the “good chef”, as we called him, left it went seriously down hill (in all honesty it was only him because on the days he wasnt there the food was average). All the staff stopped caring, there is no pride anymore. It’s a Derryn Hinch shame.

other voices, other times:
I have only included reviews from 2011. I think that's a fair parameter, though most of them are not vego.
where's the beef did a VERY comprehensive post a few weeks back
I'm so hungreee
vegan about town
brunch addict
tune into radio carly
pampered housewife
mochii eats

giveaway - kambrook slow cooker

Now this is *used* and by "used" its been used twice (by its two succesive owners). This is a great slow cooker it's just far too big for one person. So if you have a family or even just two people in the house this would be great (with a fair bit of left overs). Some deets on it:

- Large 4.5 Litre capacity
- Auto setting - set in the morning and dine at night
- Low and High temperature settings
- Dishwasher-safe removable crockery bowl
- 'Cook and look' glass lid
- Cool touch handles

I still have all the instructions etc. Please leave a comment with contact details (email addresses use the format carla[dot]sammut etc so spam bots don't catcha) by Friday 21st October 5pm. Must be able to pick it up from Brunswick, Victoria.

monday melbourne roundup

hello! how are we all on this fine and sunny day? It's been a busy week here at EAVP headquarters - Arts Festival is in full swing and I've been loving *every second* of it. News, well I had a stressful day on Friday trying to reconfigure my URL to my new domain host. I learned something new out of it which is exciting but yeah blah! So that wont happen again thankfully as I will be staying with godaddy forevs.

Cooking class is going swimmingly. The first date is selling quickly, there are 7 seats available so let me know if you would like to come. The second date (27th November) has only had a few bookings so far so that is wide open. There's been a few bookings as birthday presents which I just think is the sweetest gesture ever. Gift vouchers are available for Christmas, I will be publishing January and February dates really soon.

Due to being sick a few weeks ago I haven't really been cooking so it's going to be restaurants for a while until I get some recipes under my belt to share with you. Well that all taken care of let's get to the outs.

out.

political mother - arts festival
I'm trying to go to more dance things, expand my understanding of it all. Political Mother was a lot of fun, it was pretty camp and sat near rock opera kind of territory but I liked it all the same. The dancers were of such exceptional skill I was completely blown away. I found this a bit boring with some very interesting parts.

aesop rock with kimya dawson - arts festival
Aesop Rock is pretty much my fave rapper so almost shat myself when I found out he was coming here for arts. He is touring with Kimya Dawson (yes she of the Juno soundtrack/Mouldy Peaches fame) so it's a really bizarre little duet thing they have going there. Their love for each other is undeniable but really I think you sat in two camps, one you were there for Kimya or you were there for Ace. Kimyas not really my thing so we just waited until the Ace solo set. He was U H M A Z I N G. Totally blew my mind. I had the best night and most fun I'd had in ages. It was at the Forum and there was plenty of room to move, the crowd was very chilled out and respectful it was awesome.

sun rings - the kronos quartet - arts festival
A collaboration between NASA and the Kronos Quartet. I found this so moving and so beautiful. The visuals, the singers the score. Just breath taking.

ps: I went back to Tom Phat review coming soon.

my sister says - port melbourne

In our listlessness for lunch time coffee expeditions we are trying new places. My Sister Says has never really been on the list as it occupies the space where the beloved and much missed Bowl of Soul used to be and I just felt too sad. The boys wanted to try something new (well I didn't want to go to Melbourne Bakehouse *again*) so we finally went and was pleasantly surprised.

The fit out is in that new Melbourne cafe language, lots of wood and glass, communal dining table, apothecary jars etc. The menu is small but hearty. Only one vegan option but boy gee was it delicious. Tomato, barley and lentil soup with two crusty pieces of glorious sourdough bread. I like this cafe, like it a lot. Their coffee is pretty incredible too. Watch this space.

deets: 118 Bridge Street, Port Melbourne
$$: $11.50 for the soup

other voices, other times:
cafe photo blog has great photos of the fit out
spencer's guide to port melbourne
foodie about town

Sorry about the camera phone picture!

monday melbourne roundup

Well bye bye Italian Film Festival and Fringe Festival and hello International Arts Festival. Seriously can we get a couple of breaks please? like one month on one month off? I need to do some washing, homework, studying, work work, writing, theatre reviewing. This week I was dead sick, picked up a parasite god knows where so now it's Sunday night (yep getting the jump on this thing) and I'm jumping out of my skin to go back to work. Being sick I had to cancel *loads* of stuff for Fringe I'm so sad but happy I'm better so cest la vie as they say. Without further ado lets start with film because being home sick I got to catch up on some of this years movies:

out.

hanna


un.real. how spunky is Eric Bana? Straight up action film with all the trimmings. Chase scenes, massive body count, loads of knives, guns, weird characters and some grimms fairy tales thrown in for good measure. This is gutsy action lightly hung together with an almost not needed plot, totally kick arse and awesome. 4/5.

drive


Straight.up.porn. Everyone keeps their clothes on, there's one kiss in the entire film and yet this is the hottest, steamiest movie I've ever seen (where there's no lovin). Pure genre and perfect. Absolutely, 100% perfect. I'm just blown away. Ryan Gosling is pure porn, silver scorpion driving jacket, aviators, tooth pick, black leather driving gloves. Everything about this movie is perfect, the costumes, cinematography, direction, editing, dialogue (especially lack thereof), timing everything. Seriously. This movie is amazing, one of the best genre films I've ever seen and my favourite film of the year. 5/5.

clyborne park - MTC
As this is my personal blog I can have a straight up bitch and say exactly how I feel, I am sick to death of MTCs plays - they are only about crazy mothers(and the families who suffer them) and rich middle aged people problems. This time its a "delightful play" about race and gentrification. Seriously... a play about gentrification... for rich white people. Pray please to the gods for them to program a slightly daring season, I promise you your subscribers wont hate it, they are far more intelligent, curious and willing than you give them credit for.

orphans - red stitch
review on Milkbar mag.

assembly - MIAF - the recital centre
A collaboration between Chunky Move and The Victorian Opera was either going to be appalling or amazing, thankfully it was amazing. Seriously. It jumped the shark there in the last 10 minutes when Paul Capsis came out and sang Diana Ross but that aside I was truly moved by this performance.

the manganiyar seduction - MIAF - the arts centre
Hypnotic and transfixing this was absolutely unreal. So powerful it was breath taking. The pipes on those kids, the flute player (something like a piccolo) played a melody non stop for 5 minutes, that is some serious circular breathing. The crowd went nuts, I've never heard a crowd like that in the main hall, I dont have words for this it left me completely speechless. I'm so juiced by Arts Festival now I'm booked in for 3 others but I'm going to book more.. right.. NOW!

psst.. did you see me on three thousand yesterday? yay! people love the cooking class :)

the vegie bar - fitzroy

yes! At first I thought that this was it, this was the last raw meal to document at the vegie bar, that was until I saw Ceri (Healthy Party Girl) post this week with so many dishes I havent eaten yet! NOOOOOOO *clutches chest* I can't wait to get them in mah belly.

This is the fixed main meal for dinner (they only do the full raw menu before 3pm), the living stack. With portobello mushroom, beetroot puree, sundried tomatoes, cashew cream and lots of other goodies. This is nice, not as great as all the other raw meals but perfectly fine and hits that spot when you want a massive hit of vegies. I want their raw restaurant to open NOW! NOW NOW NOW.

Deets: 378 Brunswick St Fitzroy, 03 9417 6935 web: the vegie bar
$$: $12 for the living stack?

Other voices, other times:
me: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
vegan about town
healthy party girl
losing my love handles
melbourne vegetarian
melbourne food files
insatiably healthy
wheres the beef? 
in the mood for noodles

milkwood - brunswick

New home to my cooking classes, Milkwood was exactly what I was looking for. Warm, cosy, light and bright it's such a lovely space. Milkwood have a small menu so not many vegan options but with all of their dishes every single one is a knock out. I had the white beans on toast - reminiscent of henrys beans but equally delicious. This portion was huge, it's too much food for me to eat - it usually comes with avo as well, next time I think I will just get one beans toast and one avo toast. Milkwood is lovely, go.

deets: 120 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East web: site is down
$$: $12?

other voices, other times:
hookturns
saturday mornings in melbourne
the quince poacher
the chronicles of ms i-hua

it's rawesome! - rosemount - sunshine coast

beetroot ravioli

falafel wrap

sun burger with apple mint relish

key lime pie

tiramisu

Do I really need to say more after those pictures? It's Rawesome is out in the middle of nowhere on a kind of highway road in what used to be a fruit shop. It's an odd place to find such a gem but thankfully we sought it out!

The owners are a lovely older couple (I assume they're a couple I could be wrong) who were completely SLAMMED on the day we went. A local animal rights organisation were having a meeting there, coupled with a few other tables and it was a lot of work for two people. They handled it really well, I didnt end up getting my iced coffee in the end but I didnt mind, it was awesome to sit on the patio soaking up the sun eating some really great raw food. The funny thing was because there were SO many cars parked out the front and bursting at the seams it attracted more and more people to stop by so while we started out getting our meals and service quite quickly it became non existent once reached capcity. No bother I wish them well and I hope they keep getting busier!

The food, just quickly, was great. The burger in particular was a stand out as well as the ravioli. The desserts were incredible and not pictured was our first drink which was a "pina colada" of fresh pineapple juice, new coconut water and fresh lemongrass juice. The falafel lacked something, I don't know what it is, having said that I've only liked one raw falafel roll and that's at the Vegie Bar. I really want to learn more raw food techniques and integrate it slowly into my diet I just feel so great after eating it. If you're ever on the Sunshine Coast definitely go and check them out!

deets: 522 Petrie Creek Road, Rosemount
$$: falafel wrap $16, burger $14, beet ravioli $14, desserts were $6 and pina colada was $7

monday melbourne roundup

As the year is wrapping up I too am wrapping things up. I FINALLY have a venue and dates set up for cooking class, I am so grateful and happy! I feel like this is only the beginning, my dream is to have a suite of 4 or 5 classes and travel about teaching them in each capital city. But that is next year, at the moment it's all about getting started.

This week was a bit of Fringe Festival madness. I tried ignoring it for too long then my fear of missing out disorder snapped into overdrive and I booked 9 plays. Hooray!

Food wise I hit all the obsessions, Purple Peanuts, Simple Affair, Walkers Doughuts, MoVida Aqui, Borsch, Vodka and Tears and my new cooking class home Milkwood.

out.

rhinoceros @ 5pound theatre
You can read my review over at Milkbar Mag.

real eyes @ chapel off chapel
Firstly I'd never been to Chapel off Chapel before so it was a suprise, what a lovely venue! It's huge! Real Eyes was wonderful, the city and experience of told through the eyes of people with disability. A few of the performers I'd seen before at Fringe about 4 years ago (incidentally was the most amazing thing I've EVER seen). This performance really moved me, each player got a solo and the difference in performance style and content was just wonderful. I can't speak highly enough of this, it's over now so sorry I didn't get it to you sooner.

stop the press! vegan cooking class is now available!

hi friends! I have finally gotten it all together and I can now offer dates to my first cooking class.

These will be the only dates for this year as I'm away for December so if you want to get in get in quick!

Dates are Thursday the 3rd of November and Sunday the 27th of November. Please head over to the cooking class page for all the details. Any questions please give me a shout, carla[dot]sammut[at]gmail[dot][com]