Christmas

Breakfast BBQ

Christmas was thankfully very low-key this year and began with T & I having a breakfast BBQ with eggs from T's workmate's yard, tomatoes, hash browns, vegie bbq steaks, and mimosas! We spent some time watching the crazy hail storm, I baked some hot soft pretzels, and then of course it was necessary to cook up some vegan cheese dips for said pretzels out of Cheezly and vegan cream cheese! We spent the rest of the day hanging out with our animals and watching movies. Santa was good to me this year and I got some nice things. I'm particularly excited to try some recipes from my two new cookbooks - American Vegan Kitchen and Vegan Diner!

I hope everyone has enjoyable holidays that are as stress free as possible!!

Fresh hot pretzels with salt, jalapenos,
roasted garlic, and different herbs

Jenny's had too much Christmas Cheer

Another Awesome Dinner at the East Brunswick Club

One of my favourite places to have a meal out at is the East Brunswick Club. The EBC just looks like any Melbourne pub that serves great beer and pub meals-but there's a twist. The twist is that there is an all vegan/vegetarian menu that allows us cruelty-free eaters to take part in the full Aussie pub experience- parmas, burgers, even fish and chips (and their chips are really moreish)! Almost every time I go there I order some version of the parma, which is a slab of amazing wheat gluten fake chicken covered in crispy golden breadcrumbs, vegan cheese, and whatever toppings said variation includes! The Americana Parma that is pictured to the right is topped with vegan ham and American-style mustard. All parmas come with a side of chips and salad to round out your meal.

Vegan Americana Parma

Vegan Fish & Chips

T's Vegan BBQ Burger & Chips

Vegan Choc Peanut Butter Cheesecake

The quality at the EBC is always consistently high- the only thing I've noticed is that the wait can be a bit long when they are busy, so it's best to get there early. The EBC also features $12 Jugs, Parmas, Burgers & Pastas on Mondays (vegan & regular) and $12 Parmas on Tuesdays during trivia. And by the end of your meal, if you haven't filled up on a parma, burger, or other yummy vegan pub fare, there's even an exclusively vegan dessert menu! This time I shared a slice of decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with T. It was to die for!!

THE EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB (Click for website & menu)
Address: 280 Lygon Street, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Phone: (03) 9388 9794 ‎

PROS: Great food selection, $12 Buck Mondays, Trivia Tuesdays, Good beer, High quality vegan food, Amazing cheesecake, etc.

CONS: Sometimes quite slow when busy, Hipsters frequent this place.

Lilypad Cafe - Veggie Breakfast in Cairns

On the last night of our holiday in Cairns, we stayed at Gilligan's Backpackers, which was incidentally across the street from the Lilypad Cafe. I had found a few good reviews for their coffee and food so we made it a point to stop there for our last holiday breakfast. I was starving and while the cafe is not exclusively veg, the plethora of vegetarian & vegan breakfasts was slightly overwhelming for me! I settled on a big veggie breakfast, while T ordered an open sandwich with mushrooms, avocado, tomato and capsicum in a takeaway

box in case he couldn't finish it.

Firstly, the coffee was very tasty and met our snobby Melbourne standards :). And the food, well, let's just say we were amazed by the generous servings but still managed to make all that food disappear quite quickly! If I'm ever back in Cairns this will be the first place I go to from the airport!

Lilypad Cafe

72 Grafton St (Opposite Gilligan's)

Cairns, QLD 4080

Pros: Great food, Huge serves, Affordable prices, Meat meals for those who desire them, Above-standard coffee, Convenient location for backpackers, Outside seating

Cons: Perhaps only the strangers who could walk by and harass you if you are sitting outside, but we didn't experience this and actually enjoyed people watching!

Lord Of The Fries does Breakfast!

Ohhhh Yes! Can't wait to try these!! Why oh why doesn't my morning commute take me past Flinders St Station??

Winter Veggies!

Coming from the Northeast US, the idea that anything can survive (and on top of that, grow!) during winter is totally amazing to me. Before moving to Australia I never knew that winter gardening existed, or that some of my favourite veggies were specifically winter ones. Arriving in Melbourne and starting my own veggie patch was a real eye-opener for me, and nearly 4 years later I am getting pretty good at the whole winter-gardening thing!

One of my favourite veggies to grow is Silverbeet/Swiss Chard (click for nutritional info), for a few reasons. A) It's so easy. Like, "put it in the ground and forget you planted it" easy. My favourite kind of gardening. Now onto reason B) It's gorgeous. I like to buy Rainbow Silverbeet seeds because they end up looking like ornamental plants but are really edible! Which brings me to C) Silverbeet is delicious! I can't seem to find "Collard Greens" in Australia so for whatever recipe I used to use Collards in, I now use Silverbeet. Chiffonade-cut and sauteed with garlic? Yep. Chopped and sauteed with sultanas and orange juice a la Bryant Terry? Oh yes!! The list goes on and on but it's great for baking, steaming, sauteeing, etc. and very healthy for you too!

Above is our veggie patch in June, with Rainbow Silverbeet, Cauliflower, and Broccoli seedlings. On the right you will see the first of many Silverbeet harvests that will occur this winter. These were picked in mid-August. How gorgeous are they??

See below for my favourite way to use these greens, by one of my favourite chefs! If you don't know about Bryant Terry and his book Vegan Soul Kitchen, you need to get educated!!

Mmm... Vegan Gelatinous Meat Substitutes!

There seem to be two camps of vegetarians and vegans: those who are into eating vegetarian "meat" substitutes and those who think such things are totally blasphemous. I fall into the former category- I stopped eating meat because I loved animals and wasn't morally okay with eating beings that weren't really any different than my cat or dog, not because I particularly didn't like the taste of meat. The fact that there are foods that I can eat (in moderation, just like everything else) that replicate what I would be missing out on is, for me, awesome.

That being said, I still am totally amused and amazed by what meat substitutes people come up with. Recently while shopping at a vegetarian food store, I found this:

Now I can see how someone would really miss, say, chicken wings, schnitzels, ribs, and burgers. What I can't comprehend is someone thinking "man, I like being vegan but I sure do miss my gelatinous chicken feet and snails!" I've also seen (and once tried) vegetarian "intestine", from which animal it was supposed to be I'm not particularly sure. This kind of stuff just comes down to cultural differences in diet, but it still makes me giggle. To each their own, right? Hope you newbies to the world of vegetarianism/veganism find some amusement in this as well :)

Bagels!!

So now that we have our new kitchen stand mixer, I've been really keen to make more dough-related goods. It was a cold morning and I couldn't think of anything more perfect than to have fresh, hot bagels for brunch.

After some quick research I settled on this recipe:

New York-Style Bagels | New York-Style Bagels Recipe | the sophisticated gourmet

It was easy to follow and the only thing I can really say about it is that I'm sure it would become easier to handle the dough with more experience. My bagels didn't come out as puffy and gorgeous as the ones in those photos, but they still tasted amazing!! The ones with roasted garlic flakes were my favourite, but I think T liked the jalapeno ones the best.

P.S. It was a fiddle-with-phone-camera-settings type of day!

Rose Petal Jam (or Sauce, as it turns out)

Being that I have a stunning and fragrant rose bush in my back yard, I thought it would be clever to put it to good use and try to make some Rose Petal Jam. I found a recipe that detailed step-by-step instructions, and away I went. First I picked the petals, then boiled them down into a syrup, added the magical colour-reviving lemon juice and sugar, and boiled again. Unfortunately I must not have boiled enough (or over-boiled, I can't tell!) because it never set into a jam but is instead a delicous rose syrup now. Next time I will use a sugar thermometer and find a recipe that includes a gelling agent, and see if those factors help me out a bit. Overall it was a very interesting experience, being my first foray into jam making, and gave me a taste of delicious floral summer in the middle of winter!

Vegetarian Phở Hunters, Rejoice!

With the cold weather in Melbourne making me reminiscent about my time in Southeast Asia last year, I was really craving some Vietnamese food. The problem was that vegetarian/vegan phở is not easily found amongst the countless Vietnamese shops around Footscray (my local mini-Asia) and Richmond (the closest/most accessible east-side version of Footscray). Experiencing a motivating craving and being the relentless researcher that I am, I was determined to finally get the job done. I read review after review of noodle restaurants until I found one that seemed suitable and had a good amount of vegetarian options- Thanh Nga Nine, 160 Victoria St, Richmond.

After a short tram ride from the city, T & I arrived there a bit earlier than expected and while the staff was still eating their own dinner (oops!). We ordered a couple drinks and had a look through the menu, slightly overwhelmed by how many items were on it! While there is a dedicated vegetarian section, there are also other vegetarian dishes scattered throughout the regular, gigantic menu. Luckily the staff member serving us was helpful and explained what the specialties were and what we could eat. We ordered the vegetarian version of the "Vietnamese Pancakes" (see below) as a starter, a bowl of vegetarian phở for me as a main, and Salt & Pepper Eggplant for T as a main.

The "Vietnamese Pancakes" came out first, and I'm using quotes because I've never seen anything like these before and they didn't resemble what my American mind conjures up when I think "pancake". They were crispy rice flour based half-shells filled with a custardy mung bean paste, smooth coconut cream, crispy fried onions (I think) and a few other ingredients I can't remember, and were served with amazing dipping sauces (one was coconut based and the other chili based) that allowed you to tailor each pancake to your particular preference. These ended up to be a perfect mix of crispy, soft, sweet, salty, and hot for me. I imagine they would be a love-it-or-hate-it dish for most people as the texture combination and taste are quite foreign to Westerners! Luckily I loved them, even though they were a wee bit more oily than I usually like my food to be.

When I was presented with the platter of bean sprouts and lime that signified the impending arrival of my Phở, it was a similar anticipatory feeling to when the house lights go down in a venue just before the band you've been waiting to see is about to play. Nerdy and excited? Yes. Warranted? Also yes. I had been wanting to eat vegetarian phở for years, and my time had finally arrived. Although I don't have many previous experiences with vegetarian phở in Melbourne, I thought my soup was great! It really hit the spot on a cold and grey wintery evening. There were a few different types of mock meats in there, more noodles than I could probably eat in 24 hours, and a deliciously spiced broth.

T's salt and pepper eggplant was also amazing- a great juxtaposition of crispy batter with silky eggplant, garnished with spicy and fresh chillies and herbs. No complaints there!

Overall, we both enjoyed ourselves and will have a hard time deciding whether to order the same things because they were great, or new things just to try them!

Pros: huge portions, good variety for vegetarians, helpful staff, interesting and delicious dishes, affordably priced.

Cons: the hunt for vegetarian dishes littered throughout the menu in non-vegetarian designated areas is a bit exhausting, and some dishes are slightly too oily for my liking, but that is extremely subjective.

Thanh Nga Nine

160 Victoria St, Richmond

03 9427 7068

You can find their menu online here-

http://www.agfg.com.au/guide/vic/melbourne/melbourne-eastern-suburbs/richmond/restaurants-dining/thanh-nga-nine-vietnamese-restaurant-bar