on second thoughts, let's just see what happens over at veganmelbourne.wordpress.com

i'm thinking of giving this whole blog business up....

sarah cooked us dinner

and have no doubt, it was amazing

entree: pizza with a base of smoked tofu and olive dip, topped with tempeh, sweet potato, pumpkin and walnuts.


















main: chicken and vegetable pie






dessert: chocolate peppermint cheesecake, which erle claims is sarah's best ever cheesecake.





yes...i have some very talented friends....

Maybe I'm Not So Shit At Baking

Maybe it's the move, maybe it's the oven thermometer I bought, maybe it's the recipe; all I know is that these chocolate and banana muffins WORKED. and tasted DELICIOUS.

If you want to be like me, achieving success in the kitchen, I recommend buying The Joy Of Vegan Baking. Bake the first recipe, then revel in being amazing at life.

Dessert

Casa Del Gelato

Casa Del Gelato is a gelateria on Lygon Street. From the outside, it just looks like any of the other ubiquitous Italian ice creameries littering the strip. But on the inside, you get to delight in the fact that they have SOY FLAVOURS. Most of the time, us vegans can eat the fruit flavours at an ordinary gelati bar, but here, we get to experience such delights as chocolate and baci. I ended up with baci and cherry, and then wished i'd chosen pistachio, as Riva had, because it was delicious, and the cherry was a little too Dr. Pepper for my tastes. Damn that buyers' remorse.

It is nice to be able to sit in the square in Carlton and watch kids on razor scooters scooting in circles and tut tut about how children are dressed these days while eating ice cream. You can get yours in a cone or a cup. Go nuts.

Where: 163 Lygon Street, Carlton

When: Probably around midday until late, but don't quote me on that.

Call: 9347-0220

Out for Lunch Friday

Trippy Taco

Trippy Taco is a Mexican Cantina (I just wanted to use the word cantina) on Smith St. It is all vegetarian and almost all items have the option of being made vegan. We got burritos. The one in the picture above is a Tofu Asada Burrito, and the one in the picture below is mine, a Black Bean Burrito.

The food is messy, as Mexican food tends to be. The burritos have beans (or tofu), onion, tomato, soy cheese and greenery. Some of the other delicious menu items include tacos, nachos and (my favourite) the vegan chocolate banana melt. Trippy have other nice touches, such as delicious Mexican and South American beverages and a variety of hot sauces. They also offer a breakfast burrito, which I am yet to sample.


Where: 48 Smith Street, Collingwood.

When: Mon&Tue 11:30-4pm, Wed-Fri 11:30-9pm, Sat&Sun 10am-9pm

Call: 9415-7711

Special Edition

Shakeaway Milkshakes

The latest buzz amongst my friends, and a few vegan blogs and websites has been the opening of the UK franchise Shakeaway in Melbourne's Knifepoint. I mean, Highpoint. There aren't too many places you can easily access a vegan milkshake, especially one with flavours like PEANUT BUTTER and APPLE CINNAMON. So, we did our vegan duty and trekked out to Highpoint.

The milkshakes were delicious. We all had peanut butter and chocolate flavour, so I am unable to comment on the other flavours, but they had a list of the flavours that were vegan and had other lists of flavours suitable for coeliacs etc.

I guess the thing about it is this: you could do this at home. They used So Good soy ice cream, soy milk, peanut butter and cocoa powder (As far as I could tell; maybe she snuck in some secret magical ingredient). I don't know how you'd make the caramel popcorn flavour, but I think if you watched them closely enough, you could figure it out. That's not to say they weren't amazing (McNabb described it as cheesecake in a cup), but at around $9.00 a pop it sure isn't cheap.

Personally, I probably won't be making the pilgrimage out to Highpoint again. (Although seeing a guy dragged off in handcuffs by the police made it totally worth it) But if I was there for some other reason, I'd totes be paying Shakeaway a visit. And if one opened in the city, I'd be all over it. Because even though, yes, you could probably do it at home, I for one am extremely lazy. And also because I think it's really rad every time another place opens where vegans are welcomed, so I want to support that.

I think I'm rambling because I haven't blogged in a while. So I'm going to stop....






Where: Level 1, Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong
When: Sun-Wed 10-5:30, Thur-Sat 10-9:30
Phone: 9317-9082