Eating Out: Buddha's Birthday at South Bank

I have quite a bit of catching up on my Eating Out posts... this last weekend I had friends visiting and we ate our way around Brisbane for two and a half days! However, there are a few things to get through before we get to that. A while ago, I went to Buddha's birthday at South Bank. This is held every year, and includes a vegetarian food festival as well. It isn't all vegan, so you do need to ask around, but there are lots of vegan options. It was a horrible, cold and rainy day. And I was ready to bail on the whole thing, but my Mum was keen to go, so we went. Just for a little bit of food, trying to stay out of the rain (there really were no undercover areas for eating). On the plus side there were not many people there! Normally it is packed. Please excuse the bad photos, they were taken balancing an umbrella and the food and my phone.

I started with a steamed vegetable bun from a random stall, which was hot and yummy.



There was a stall selling cups of five skewers, so I got a random assortment of the vegan offerings. I wasn't the biggest fan, the mock meats were not the greatest quality, and one of them was seafood-like, which I don't enjoy.



I also got some yummy radish cakes from the Su Life stall.



Mum ordered a Satay Burger from the Vege Rama stall, which wasn't good. The sauce was just at thin curry sauce, no obvious peanut to it. And the patty was meh.



We also found a sweet potato chips stall, and ordered some. Though instead of being the proper chips/fries that we were expecting, and that other people had been walking around with, they were more like chips/crisps... OK briefly but then just very oily.



We decided to spread out through South Bank for some sweets. Normally I go to Beach House for vegan ice cream, but I decided to give Gelare a try. Unfortunately no vegan cones, so you have to get cups. Most of the flavours are fruit based sorbets, but they did have a chocolate and a green tea one as well. I got Strawberry Fields and Banana Caramel scoops. The strawberry one had that very strong, almost too sweet taste that I find sorbets often have, but mixed in with the banana one it was like a nice strawberry ice cream.



I also stopped by Doughnut Time to try their Matcha Made In Heaven vegan doughnut. The slight bitterness of the matcha actually helped bring down the sweetness of the glaze. It is my favourite glazed one I have had from there.



Gelare South Bank - 3 Grey Street, South Brisbane, Queensland - (07) 3255 1314

Doughnut Time South Bank - 186 Grey Street, South Bank, QLD

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Just another one in my series of 'Sahara on the blanket' photos. Don't worry, next post I shall start a series entitled 'Dim Sim on her back on my lap'... you don't want to miss it!

MidWeek Muchies: Silly juice edition

I like silly juices. The sillier they are, the more I want to try them. We have had a couple of brands hit the supermarkets this year, and some of them are rife with silliness! Here is an array of silly juices I have tried! Of course, being that they are super silly, the results end up as hits and misses. Here is my silly juice rundown.

This one tastes like pear with hint of cough lolly... hmmm....



Mostly tastes like pear.



This is my favourite green juice to buy. It is nice. Served here with a Notella Doughnut. For a balanced diet.



Sometimes they have silly juices on sale, so I buy a selection of silliness to enjoy. The Carrot Top was good! Livewire wasn't bad. Chillout was very sweet and mild, pleasant. Green Keeper tasted oddly like dill pickles. I love dill pickles, but do not want my juice to taste like dill pickles. Do not recomment.



The Ginger Ninja juice is actually my very favourite juice to buy. So good! Green Light unfortunately was another oddly dill pickle experience. The Apple and Rhubarb one was tragically lacking in flavour, and I have decided that drinks with chia seeds are odd. Date Night is simple and sweet.



Berry Beets was very nice. I like beet-based juices a lot. Orange Bruce was OK (I much prefer Ginger Ninja), and Greener Bruice and Redder Bruce were both nice.



I've already discussed that Carrot Top is good, and I enjoyed the Unbeetable one as well.



My beloved Ginger Ninja, with a kale saute. Super health!



The Impressed Juices are definitely my favourite. I love Ginger Nina, and The Works is my favourite green juice. I also enjoyed the Berry Beets juice and the Date Night smoothie. They have a couple of other juices I haven't tried because they are pineapple based and I am not a huge pineapple fan. Looking at their website, they seem to have a juice called Unearthed with carrot, apple, celery, beet and fennel that I have never seen but I am definitely keen to try!

The Bruce Juice is also pretty good, though not as good as Impressed. I've also had their Red Bruce (Apple, raspberry, lemon), which was nice. And they have two others I haven't tried - Green Bruce (apple, spinach, mango) and Golden Bruce (mango, peach, passionfruit... I am not a fan of passionfruit in drinks so I will skip trying this).

The Juice Lab I am not a huge fan of. The Carrot Top and Unbeetable were both good juices, but most of the other ones I have tried either just taste like pear or taste oddly of dill pickles. I am meh on the brand.

I have tried that Apple Rhubarb Chia juice from Parkers, as well as an Apple Watermelon Mint one (refreshing) and an Almond Milk and Date smoothie one (OK) and their Carrot Orange Ginger one (also not as good as Ginger Ninja).

So, there is a bit of a silly juice round up for you! The downside to a silly juice addiction is that, even if they are on sale, costs add up quickly, so I have cut way back on my juice purchases lately.

Do you have a favourite brand or type of silly juice? What is the silliest juice you have ever had? Please tell me!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Remember last post when Sahara was fast asleep on the blanket? I woke her up taking photos, because I am a jerk mother.

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Without Borders

Before we get started, fellow blogger Hillary from My Cat Loves Daiya needs some help to get her kitties home. If you have even a few dollars to spare, or if you could share her GoFundMe page, that would be amazing. She is so close to reaching her goal. You can learn more about her wonderful felines and read her story over on her blog! And contribute to or share her fundraising page here. Thank you!

Now, on to business! Everyone knows I am a big fan of Robin Robertson (and her kitties), and I am a big fan of her cookbook Vegan Without Borders. It is a very beautiful book! With lots of very lovely food inside. I have blogged previous things I've made from this book here.

White Bean Goulash (Eastern Europe): This recipe calls for a 16 oz tin of sauerkraut, drained, which I feel would be a bit too much. I only had it in a 32 oz jar, and using half of that would have been so much sauerkraut... and I love sauerkraut. Probably just use one cup, unless you are a sauerkraut fiend.
Rating: :)



Migas Burritos (Mexico): These were good, though I thought needed a bit more flavour in the tofu mix. This recipe says it serves 4, and while you do get 4 burritos, I ate two. I skipped the jalapeno in this recipe, and added extra fresh coriander.
Rating: :)



Black Bean Caldillo (Mexico): This is a tasty potato and tomato based stew. My potatoes ended up a little on the al dente side, so I would cook for a bit longer next time. Fire-roasted tinned tomatoes are super expensive here, so I used my faux method of regular tomatoes and a little sprinkle of liquid smoke. This says serves 4-6, I say serves 3-4.
Rating: :)



Panang Vegetable Curry (Thailand): This was a hit for the household. Rather than using a food processor to make the sauce in stages, I just put it all into my blender and whizzed it up to smooth perfection, using a sprinkle of chili powder rather than dried chiles. This uses jackfruit as the base, and also has mushrooms and peas, and I used a carrot instead of capsicum. Highly yum.
Rating: :D



Eggplant Kabayaki (Japan): This was very yummy. I used only half the amount of eggplants (1 pound, which was about 5 small eggplants... the recipe calls for 3 small Japanese eggplants or 2 pounds... that seems a little off) but the full amount of sauce, which ended up being even a little bit too saucy! A half recipe of sauce would have been fine. It was super tasty, though. Served here with some sushi rice, Japanese marinade tofu (from the shops) and sesame spinach (from Robin's other book 1000 Vegan Recipes).
Rating: :)



Sesame-Spinach Donburi (Japan): I got to use our donburi bowls for this! This has a coconut based sauce, and I used a blend of half light coconut milk and half water for it. It calls for 10 ounces of chopped spinach, I used 320g of baby spinach, and I used dried shiitakes instead of fresh because I couldn't find anything else that day at the shop.
Rating: :)



Yakisoba (Japan): I love this noodle dish. I shredded my cabbage in the food processor, which I think ended up a bit too fine for this dish, think next time I would slice it thinly. It also has carrots and tofu in it (I used the baked tamari togy from 1000 Vegan Recipes). A very satisfying dinner.
Rating: :)



Sizzling Saigon Crepes (Vietnam): So... my crepes didn't work. The batter ended up really thick, and then just kind of crumbled when I was cooking it and tried to fold it over. So these were kind of deconstructed. They were filled with mushrooms, tofu, bean sprouts and herbs. I left out the chiles.
Rating: :|.... need to work out the batter situation.



Vietnamese Noodle Salad (Vietnam): I made this during summer, and it is perfect for hot nights. I used tofu instead of seitan, which was super yum, and 190g of thin rice stick noodles. It made three big serves with left over salad, and was very refreshing.
Rating: :)



Singapore Mei Fun (Southeast Asia Islands): I do enjoy Singapore Noodles. I left the capsicum out of these, and used small rice stick noodles, and kept the curry powder mild and low. It is full of onion, carrots, snow peas and tofu.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



We had a few unseasonably warm winter nights the other week, and I took the blanket off my bed. I didn't put it away though, because nights were due to get cold again (and they did, it is now back on my bed). Of course, Sahara couldn't let this opportunity to sit on a giant balled up blanket pass her by!

Eating Out: Charlie's Raw Squeeze Everton Park (and Ashgrove Express)

I haven't forgotten Charlie's Raw Squeeze, I just haven't been going as often. Especially given that there is a new Thai place right up the road from work that I am in love with (more on that in a future post). This post is a combination of a few different trips to Charlies. These first ones are from the Everton Park branch.

A while ago I got the Marinated Eggplant Salad, which is no longer available. I really liked the roasted cauliflower, sweet potato and quinoa components, but the eggplant itself was way too oniony. I also picked up a yummy Neopolitan Cloverly cupcake from there. They no longer serve it with the wafer, because they get soggy so quickly, but I was lucky enough to get one from the first batch. I loved the wafer!





A while ago I went to order a bunch of new drinks they had available. First up, the Red Velvet Veggie Smoothie, which has beetroot, avocado, celery, red apple, maple syrup, frozen banana and coconut milk. It was delicious! This was on special for $5 when I got it because it was a new flavour. I also got a $9.90 juice and salad combo. For the juice I tried the new Give Me A Mandy juice, which is mandarins, carrots and ginger. I LOVED it! It is my new favourite juice from there. I also got my favourite Black Bean Falafel Salad.







Another time they had a special for a free juice with any salad (follow them on Instagram for their daily specials if you are in the area), so I got the Taco Salad. I had had it once before, and I loved it, but it is expensive ($15.99 if not part of a salad special... though I have noticed they have them for $9.90 taco Tuesdays now), so I don't get it often. Unfortunately it was not great like the previous one. The walnut meat really just seemed to be crumbled, dry walnuts (yuck), and the sauces were just blah. Disappointment. (I got another Mandy juice for my free juice.)



Charlie's is opening up a bunch of new locations in addition to their Everton Park and Greenslopes ones. They recently opened an Express location at Ashgrove, which is a teeny bit closer to work than the Everton Park one. We went for a $9.90 salad and juice special one lunch to check it out. As an express location, they don't have the full range of juices, smoothies, bowls and nice creams that the regular locations had. This meant that tragically I couldn't get my Mandy Juice. I got another juice, and I got their new Baba salad to try. It seems to be an updated version of their previous eggplant one, but without the cauliflower. It has rainbow salad, sweet potato and corn, kidney beans and rice, and baba ghanoush. It was nice.



I think in the future I will still go to the Everton Park one, as it has my favourite juice and is really only an extra five minutes compared to the Ashgrove one. Also a vegan bakehouse has opened up right next to the Everton Park one, so there's that. More to come on that new development once I have visited it!

Charlie's Raw Squeeze at Charlie's Fruit Market - 473 South Pine Road, Everton Park, Brisbane - 3855 3966

Charlie's Raw Squeeze Ashgrove Express - 486 Waterworks Road, Ashgrove, Brisbane

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sleeping sisters. Two kitties, no waiting.

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Vittles

It's been a while since I have done a recipe round-up, but I still have a million photos to share so it is time to get back on that... not a horse... back on that bench? Today's book, Vegan Vittles, was one of my earlier books. The link above will take you to the second edition, but I just have the first one. I still have a special place in my heart for this book. I made my first scramble with it, my first 'ribs', my first 'pot roast', my first cheese sauces... you can see other blog posts I've done for this book by clicking here.

Chocolate Milk: This simple recipe gives the option of using cocoa or carob... because I think carob is basically like eating dirt, I chose cocoa. I made this with hazelnut milk, and that is a very good thing to do.
Rating: :)



Breakfast Tofu Scramble: I loved this recipe so much when I first made it, I apparently thought it was just like eggs. I've since made it again, and it doesn't really (which is a good thing, eggs are gross), but I still love it as a scramble. Served here breakfast plate style with kale, hashbrowns, tomatoes and cheezy sauce.
Rating: :D



Banana Flapjacks: This is quite a thick batter, and I found it hard to cook all the way through without it starting to burn on the edges, so you might want to thin it out just a little bit with some extra liquid. It is a very simple recipe, and the flavour comes from mashed banana. Great with maple syrup! But small on the serving sizes.
Rating: :)



Sadie's Vitality Broth: This soup will cure what ails you if you are a bit under the weather. It has pasta and chickpeas, but most importantly a very yummy noochy broth.
Rating: :)



Hungarian Mushroom Soup: A combination of mushrooms, dill and paprika, three of my favourite things. It yields about '1 quart'... oh imperial measurements... that works out to about two servings.
Rating: :)



Tofu Marinade #5: The book includes a whole list of marinades for tofu, tempeh or seitan. This is marinade number 5, which has soy, lemon, ginger, garlic and sesame.
Rating: :)



Spicy Peanut Sauce: Finally for today, a couple of things to do with spicy peanut sauce. This is a very rich sauce, which is great as a hot dish or over cold noodles and salad. Hilariously, in my notes I have written 'could be spicier', which I would never write these days. Funny how our tastes change over time!
Rating: :)





I've actually made heaps from this book, but a lot of it was before I started taking photos. Kind of inspired to remake some of my favourite things from it after looking through it again, and see if they stand up to the test of time!

Do you have any favourite cookbooks from years ago?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Toes!

MidWeek Munchies

There isn't an official link up for Midweek Munchies anymore, but I've got a whole bunch of random photos of things I've been saving so I am going to resurrect it a little here to share some of these with you.

First up, some impulse chocolate buys from when I was at The Green Edge getting some bulk nooch a while ago. The Booja Booja Rhubarb and Vanilla Fool Truffles were absolutely divine! I love anything rhubarb, and these were just the right mix of sweet and tart. They were pricey ($10 for a small box), but worth it for a treat. I also enjoyed the No Whey chocolate bar, which was kind of like a Mars bar. I find the Go Max Go bars way too sweet for me, but this was a good sweetness level (though I still could have done with the chocolate being a bit darker). I haven't had the NuGo Dark Peanut Butter Cup bar yet, but if it is anything like the NuGo Skinny Chocolate Peanut Butter bar I had when I was in the US last year, it will be amazing.



Sausage rolls often left me feeling a bit queasy in my pregan days, so when I could never find a vegan one that was worth eating I didn't feel like I was really missing out on anything too much. However my friend Leigh has the best sausage roll recipe in the world! The recipe is available in her book Wrapped in Pastry, though that is out of print. It is based on lentils and quinoa, which I love! She has also created a simplified version, which is still a tester recipe, and it is also delicious. These sausage rolls here were gobbled up so fast!



I tried some of the Tofurky Lightly Seasoned Chik'n Pieces (I've had a few flavours now). They were OK, but I am not in love with the texture.



I picked up this frozen strawberry mochi cake from a Japanese grocery, which was very nice.



This was an outstanding snack I made one day when I was just super lazy. It is a celery stick with vegan Kewpie and a rolled up Tofurky slice. Trashy, yet wonderful.



The Noosa Chocolate Factory Dark Rocky Road is vegan and delicious. They have perfected vegan marshmallow and jelly, and it is so satisfying to munch on a big, beautiful slab of it.



Going waaaayyyyy back to Easter, I love hot cross buns. You can get hot cross buns pretty easily here at Easter, both in the supermarket and from Baker's Delight. Also from some vegan-friendly cafes as well. Enjoyed with juice or a hot chocolate, hot cross buns are always welcome!





I was given some Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg. So far I have only used it once to make a scramble. I had heard it needed seasoning, and a small taste confirmed this, so I stirred through some locally made cashew cheese and herb spread. It was nice, but not amazing. The texture was not really scrambled eggs, which is a plus if you are me because I find eggs disgusting and approached the Vegan Egg with suspicion. I definitely still prefer scrambled tofu. I am keen to make a quiche with it.



And finally, a marvelous toasted sandwich. It has vegemite, tomato and cheese (Daiya Swiss slices), and it is glorious and savoury.



What snacks have you been enjoying recently?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Flashback to this little cutie and her sheepie in hospital. Her name was Oz.