Birthday eats.

A few weeks ago I turned 32, which was kind of exciting for me because ever since I was little I always felt that 32 would be the ultimate age. Why? I have no idea! Although at one point I had toyed with some exciting party plans, in the end it wound up being a pretty low key event. But of course I made sure there was some good food involved.

On my actual birthday I was working a 12 hour day, but thankfully my workplace is not too far away from some pretty nice food!

Botanica is a small but amazing shop that has opened up near the clinic. This takeaway only place is a salad shop with a difference, with several amazing gourmet vegetarian salads (most of which are vegan) available everyday. Quinoa and Roasted Carrot and the amazing Shaved Broccoli are always on my rotation, but I also love the Potato Salad. Sadly the days I work and the days they have potato salad are almost never the same, but one of my friends from work brought my in a whole box of potato salad for my birthday. Yum! Unfortunately I did not get a photo.




48 Degrees Raw is new raw cafe that has opened not too far from work. I have been enjoying raw food at Orawgi lately (a post on that is coming), so I was keen to try 48 Degrees Raw. I got there just before they were closing, so there wasn't a great deal left, but I got a salad with some walnut meat, cashew cream and avocado as well as a raw smoothie. The salad itself had a lot of really bitter sprouts in it, so I mostly ate the toppings and then picked out the non-sprout bits, but the rest was very yummy.



A few minutes work from the clinic is Fundies, a great health food shop with a cafe. The cafe often has raw vegan cakes from Carrie On Raw. Normally I can't eat raw desserts because the amount of coconut oil in them makes me horribly ill, however she makes a Cherry Ripe cake that is out of this world and doesn't make me sick! I had been told they would have some on the day of my birthday, and asked for a piece to be put aside. Unfortunately when I got there they had a different flavour, but they were so excited about my birthday that I bought it anyway. It is a sticky chocolate cake and it really didn't work for me, but the raspberry sauce that came with it made it quite lovely. Though a bit too much coconut oil.

I work late, so by the time I got home dinner was just whatever leftovers I had pulled out of the freezer. Unfortunately my poor bear Sahara, who had been in hospital earlier that week, had another turn and I spent my night nursing her and running in to the clinic to pick up some injections to help her feel better. The following morning, both my girls had appointments at the clinic (Dim Sim was just for her regular senior check up). I am happy to say that Sahara has since recovered and is back to her regular self! Still, it was a bit of a tense time.

Two days after my birthday was Saturday that I wasn't working, so it was eating time!



My family and I headed down to the Gold Coast to Mandala Organic Arts Cafe for some delicious food. We started with a trio of dips and refreshed ourselves with lemon drinks and cane sugar juice. There were three of us, so for our mains we shared three pizzas - Satay, Potato and Caper, and Wild Mushroom. They were delicious! My mum finished with some raw chocolate cake with Cocoluscious ice-cream. Because of my coconut oil issues, I just enjoyed a chai to finish off my lunch.



On Saturday night I went out for dinner with my friend Lisa to Kanishk, an Indian restaurant that has an entire vegan menu. I was still pretty full from lunch, so I skipped the entree (that's the starter, for my US friends... entree is what we call the main dish here). I chose the Palak Pakori, which was vegetable dumplings cooked in a spinach, curry and coconut milk sauce. Served with some saffron rice and roti, it was delicious!

As for presents, my parents gave me a Baby Q Weber BBQ. It is adorable and portable, so I can barbeque on the deck or take it out and about for cooking in the park (no more having to use skanky park barbeques!). And finally I can bust out Grills Gone Vegan over summer and have a glorious time!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



My Sahara, the cause of all that concern, is now back to her normal self. Here she is snoozing on the foot rest in the sunroom. I am so happy she is feeling better!

Three little kittens lost their mittens.

I wish to issue a formal apology. In yesterday's post I had a momentary lapse of sanity and forgot to give you a Cute Kitty Photo of the Post. Thanks to River for pointing this out.

I offer you this photo of three kittens the clinic currently has for adoption, I hope this will make up from my lack of kittens yesterday.



Please meet (clockwise from front): Julia, Penny and Quentin. Can anyone guess the theme of their names? These three ladies are super adorable and sweet and snuggly, though super playful! Quentin is still looking for a home, so if you are in Brisbane and ready to help a kitten find her forever home, come and meet her. :) 

Brisbane Eats: Urbane Vegan Degustation

Urbane is a fine dining restaurant in Brisbane that has become famous in vegan circles for holding occasional vegan degustation nights. These nights often sell out very quickly, and I had always missed out. A few weeks ago, I was at work when I got asked if I might be free that very night to fill in for someone at the dinner. Ummm... YES!

The night was a collaboration between Urbane chef Alejandro Cancino (who won Chef of the Year and is a vegan at home), and raw food cafe owner (It's Rawesome! Cafe on the Sunshine Coast) Susanna Stavenhagen Short. Though certainly not everything was raw.

I apologise now for the absolutely appalling photography you are about to witness. The lighting was low, I only had my camera phone and I didn't feel right blinding the people across the table from me with the flash. So get ready for some truly terrible photos.


First up was a very yummy Sweet Pea Terrine. This was one of my favourites of the night.


Followed by a yummy and super cute Beetroot Ravioli.


Coconut Soup with Teriyaki Almonds. This fell a little bit flat for me, the almond was nice but I found the soup a bit too sweet and lacking in much flavour.


I was a bit suspicious about this Happy Salmon Pate because the base was capsicum, but it was actually very nice. Served with some purple carrot chips, however there was a much greater dip to chip ratio that saw most of the table scooping up the extra with their fingers. We can be so classy. ;)


I was expecting Sea Congee to be similar to miso soup, but it had a much more subtle flavour. I found it a little bit watery.


Glorious warm crusty bread! Served with sesame butter (not tahini, I am not sure what it was but it was great). I love bread!


Egg and Toast Tartar was a bit meh for me. The tartar was made out of minced capsicum, which tasted pretty much like that evil vegetable of doom. I'm not sure what the yolk was made out of, but it was fairly flavourless. I did love the crispy toast, though!



This beautiful little combo was called Spring. First there was a cracker with pickled spring vegetables, which was then followed by that beautiful bowl of tomato water, tomato and basil caviar. I love tomato water type dishes.


This was my absolute favourite of the night! Pasta with healthy dollop of cashew cream, olives and pine nuts. I could have eaten a huge bowl of this.


Titled 'Green', this looked much better in person than in this murky photo. I've forgotten some of the elements, but I think it was cucumber water with balls of apple, cucumber and avocado, this was very refreshing.


Mushrooms! It is actually called 'Egg: Eggplant, Shimeji, Quinoa'. The mushrooms were delicious, the quinoa was crunchy. The egg was interesting, apparently it was made out of pumpkin. The eggplant mousse was lovely too.


Tart and refreshing grapefruit jelly set into lemon peel to cleanse the palate.


The first dessert was Coconut with Fruits. Freeze dried and fresh berries with some sort of dried coconut (I don't know what they did... it was kind of like they made it into candy but it was just coconut) and grapefruit sorbet. The sorbet was pretty tart, and didn't quite mix with the rest of the dish. I loved the coconut and berries together.


The final dessert was Deconstructed Banoffee. I loved the banana and caramel paste, but the coffee ice cream was not to my taste. But that is because coffee anything is not too my taste, so that is really my issue.

To end we were given a Native Fruit Infusion. I do have a photo of it, but it is so so so bad I just can't bring myself to post it. And this is at the end of a post full of bad photos, so just imagine. It was a cup of sweet, warm liquid. There was a bowl of dried husks in the middle that no one was quite sure what to do with - were they for crunching, dipping or decoration?

I was so happy to finally get to attend one of these nights! A big thanks to James for the invite. Also thanks to Pip at work who whipped home to loan me a shirt I could wear to the restaurant so that I didn't have to wear my work clothes to a fancy restaurant!

Japan 2012 - Part 6 (Kyoto)

Back to some Japanese adventures. Day six dawned with another hotel breakfast - some more rice bread and jam, some green tea and some fruit from my mother's hotel breakfast (nashi, persimmon and a peeled grape).


Breakfast is always a time for planning the day. With Lonely Planet on my kindle and my much consulted map of Kyoto.


Our day started at the stunning Kinkaku-Ji, known as the Golden Pavillion for obvious reasons. This was quite stunning to behold, though it is very busy and packed with tour groups.


Birds are awesome. There are awesome birds to see in Japan.



After the glitz of Kinkaku-Ji, Ryōan-ji was a peaceful change. This is the famous stone garden, which is considered one of the best zen gardens in Japan.


There is also a beautiful moss garden there.


However the real draw for me was Yodofu, a traditional tofu restaurant. By default, Yodofu is completely vegan. The tea house and garden dates from the 17th century. As you sit on the floor (traditional style), you look out over this tranquil garden.


We ordered the full Vegetarian Dish with Yu-Dofu, which centered around this giant steaming pot of silken tofu and vegetables in 7-herbs. This was amazing, the tofu is just mind blowing.


It also came with this wonderful tray of assorted goodies. This included an amazing sesame coleslaw, pickles, beans and garlic, rice, an amazing block of silken tofu (I can't even describe how good this was) with wasabi and a plate of assorted little bits and pieces that were delicious, though I am not sure what they were.


After our tofu feast, we caught the Randen (like a tram) out to Arashiyama. We visited Tenryū-ji, the famous temple and garden there.


I just really love this photo.


Arishiyama is famous for the beautiful bamboo grove. It is such a peaceful place to stroll through, though it tends to be quite crowded. There is also a beautiful little priestess shrine there you can visit (the Nonomiya Shrine).


Heading back to Kyoto on the JR train, I picked up some vegan snacks from the 7-11 for afternoon tea.


I spent the rest of the afternoon back in Kyoto, wandering around the Imperial Palace Gardens. You can't actually go in to the Imperial Palace most of the time, but there are some lovely gardens surrounding it and you can go up to the walls.


I made friends with a kitty! This lovely lady was smooching around a park bench, getting love from people who passed by. She was a very plump, healthy looking girl, I suspect she lived somewhere nearby.


For dinner I went to the all-vegan Morpho Cafe. A nice little place with a yummy menu. There is also an English menu and the staff speak excellent English, we had a great chat about Happy Cow.


I had the cutlet set, which was delicious. Though that grey stuff in the little oval jar... I have no idea! It was tasty.


I ordered a banana juice, which was like a smoothie.


Dessert was a seasonal tart, which was apple tart served with ice cream, whipped cream, pistachio and a Happy Halloween Cookie. They also had a great selection of baked goodies to take away, so I picked up a few for future snacks.


All finished off with a chai.

Adventures in testing - Veganissimo by Leigh Drew

It is VeganMoFo this month, so I know most of you will be in a flurry of writing and reading blog posts. I am not taking part in VeganMoFo this year, I am just trying to get back in to blogging on a semi regular basis.

Earlier this year I was able to test for a brand new cookbook, written by Australian vegan cook extraordinaire (and my friend) Leigh Drew. The book comes out in November, but I am able to share some photos of what you can look forward to! I know everyone has a lot to read this month, so I present to you just some glorious photos!


Lentil Burger with Peanut Sauce, Pickled Carrot and Daikon

Roasted Tempeh and Vegetable Burger

Soft Gingerbread Molasses Cake

Cashew Chive Creme Cheese

Mozarella - this is seriously amazing! You will love this! Plus gluten free.

Chocolate Mousse Tart with Raspberries

Cheese Onion Scones

Chocolate Raspberry Muffin (with a gooey chocolate surprise)

Corn Fritters with Tartar Sauce

Farinata

Potato Waffle

Scallion Pancakes

Potato Gratin; Green Beans with Garlic, Tomato and Olive Oil

Macaroni and Cheese Stuffed Butternut Squash

Lemon Garlic Dal; Steamed Basmati with Sweet Spices

Baigan Bharta; Tandoori Cauliflower Cheese
The book is called 'Veganissimo! Beautiful Vegan Food' by the amazing Leigh Drew and it will be available on the 15th of November. It is already available for pre-order on Booktopia.

I had a lot of fun testing for Leigh's book. Over the last couple of months I have also been testing for Julie Hasson's new casserole cookbook. Hopefully I will have an upcoming post to share with some photos from that soon!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post




The lovely Lucie is one of Leigh's beloved kitties. Leigh has looked after Lucie since she was teeny and tiny, and now Lucy is a grand old lady. She is gorgeous.