Eating In

Hello friends! Long time no blog, I know. Things have been things. I am on the final push to finish my PhD by the end of June, and work is also taking a lot out of me at the moment. I mentioned I while ago that I had various news, and one of those bits of news is that I have been formally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It makes a lot of sense, given what my life has been like the past few years. And it was very validating to get the diagnosis, but it is also sad because it means that this really is my life now. So between work and PhD and trying to rest and recover from the two, I haven't had a lot of brain power for blogging.

But, here I am! With a blog post about some fun food that I have had delivered. I am happy that there are more fun options becoming available, so let us see!

First up, Chili Coco Thai! It is hard to find a Thai place with vegan options, as a lot of them use fish sauce and shrimp paste as a base for a lot of their sauces. So when I find a place with a vegan menu section, I get very happy. This place had a limited selection of non-spicy vegan options. I got Vegetarian Dumplings with Peanut Sauce. The dumplings were good, but the peanut sauce had a bit too much spice in it for me! I also got the Ginger Vegetarian Stir-Fry and some Coconut Rice. The stir-fry was extremely expensive for what was essentially a fairly small bland container of vegetables with a few bits of soggy tofu.





Much more fun was discovering Okuman Karaage and Ramen Bar! This place is in West End, so the delivery times can be a bit longer... plan ahead! But it is so good! This is the first of many times I have ordered from there. This was their Agedashi Tofu, which is incredible and very generous with the tofu! I also got their Gyoza and their Tofu Yakisoba, both of which were also good.



And a couple of things I ordered from Vietfood Springwood, which is a Vietnamese place with a heap of vegan options. This is the Vegan BBQ pork rice paper rolls and the Buddha's Delight (vegetable and mushroom stirfry... it said it was meant to have tofu, but it didn't). They were both really good.



When I ordered delivery from Vietfood, Doordash sprung up with 'do you want to add a drink from another place, the same driver can bring it to you'. So I ordered Lemon Roasted Melon Tea with Basil Seed from Gong Cha, a bubble tea place. But then Doordash had a second driver bring me that, and I felt bad because they order was split and I could only leave a tip on the app for the first driver, so I won't do that again. But ethical quandaries aside, the drink was lovely.



Finishing up this post with some food from Motto Motto, which is a chain of Japanese restaurants that has a few vegan options! Including their Teriyako Tofu Don bowl, made vegan by leaving off the kewpie mayo. So when I got it home I transfered with to a bowl and added my own vegan kewpie! This bowl is good, and I have ordered it a number of times now, normally with extra tofu and extra pickles! The downside is it doesn't have any veggies, so I will often add some baby spinach at home. I also got some seaweed salt fries to try, which were nice but needed more seaweed flavour.





Hope you are all hanging in there!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Poor Boo has had some more health problems over the last couple of weeks, but thankfully I am able to get the very best veterinary care for her. She has picked up a bit now, thankfully.

Midweek Munchies

Yes, it is Sunday today. That is the end of the week, not the midweek. But you can munch anytime, so let's midweek munchies today.

V2 is one of my favourite plant-based meat brands. They hit that sweet spot for me between meaty enough but not super realistically meaty. They came out with some new sausages recently, including these Garlic & Herb ones that I scored on sale. Definitely do recommend.



At the end of last year I did an online conference, which started at 11am and didn't really have a proper break until 2pm. So I packed a lunch to snack at while I was watching on my computer. This has sliced cucumber, grape tomatoes, oat crackers (that a friend sent my from Scotland... important update on Scotland coming soon!), Field Roast slices, gherkins, and Sheese.



I got these Veggie Snags on sale at The Green Edge. They had caramelised onions and balsamic vinegar, which sounds delicious. They were chickpea based, and that definitely came through in the texture. My mum really liked them! I thought they were OK. Definitely only an on-sale buy for the future. I served them with roasted potatoes, some frozen vegetable mix I needed to use up, and BBQ sauce.





I found this vegan cookie dough at a random IGA that had a lot of cool vegan stuff. You can't see it in the photo, but the tub proudly proclaimed that they were made using aquafaba. Also, no coconut oil. Very important. It was expensive, but I couldn't resist buying it. And you know what, they were pretty good! Not quite as good as homemade, but much less effort. I love to see more products like this coming out.





I was able to buy a bunch of Pana spreads on sale that I have been slowly working my way through, including this chocolate orange one. I love chocolate and orange together! And this tastes like a jaffa! Though I have noticed one way my tastebuds are changing is that I find that things with orange oil in them are leaving a funny aftertaste on my tongue that I am not loving, which is a shame. Anyone else had weird things like this happen?



My friend got my this Lindt vegan chocolate to try. Although Lindt has traditionally had some vegan-friendly dark chocolate, I tend not to buy them because I do my best to stick to FEP approved chocolate to avoid slave labour and Lindt is on their 'cannot recommend, did not respond' list. But they do have some information on their website about their chocolate sourcing. As for this chocolate, I guess it is fine for those who like milk chocolate. But why would I buy it when I could be eating their 99% dark chocolate if I was going to buy Lindt? For any new readers, I famously like my chocolate dark, bitter, and angry with the world.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Friday the 31st of March was Mirabelle's fifth birthday! Happy birthday to my squeaky beaky criminal squirrel, stinky alien baby!!