Australian cooking

Empire Cafe

As I announced a little while ago, Empire has a new vegan menu and sells Mr Nice Guy cupcakes. Steph has already blogged about it here. Sadly they were out of cupcakes when we went but we did get to try one thing from their breakfast menu and one thing from their lunch menu. Toby ordered vegan HCT- ham cheese, tomato toastie from their lunch menu:

They use tofutti cheese slices which I'm not normally a big fan of but it works with the 'ham' and tomato. I know that they would could probably make this at home, if we knew what 'ham' they used but it's kind of nice to just be able to order a vegan toasty out without doing any of the work and we both really enjoyed it.

I couldn't resist ordering the french toast and they allowed us to order off the breaky menu even though it was 2pm. I agree with Steph that their french toast is good but not as amazing as Monk Bodhi Dharma, but much closer in distance to me and still very satisfying . It is sprinkled with cinnamon and served with plenty of maple syrup. I also ordered a delux vegan smoothie with banana and strawberry which was delicious.

Here are some pics of the menu, click on the pic for a proper look:

So great that there are vegan breaky options so close to Radical Grocery and where we live.

Empire Cafe Gallery
295 Sydney Rd
Brunswick

Here are some pics of the menu, click on the pic for a proper look:

So great that there are vegan breaky options so close to Radical Grocery and where we live.

Empire Cafe Gallery
295 Sydney Rd
Brunswick

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Peace Harmony Strikes Back, Sydney

I was pretty stoked to find out that Sydney has a vegan Thai restaurant. My eating crew and I had a pretty good dinner at the last night of our trip. K and I decided to have lunch there again with Bec and Craig since our flight was canceled. It is a 99.9% vegan restaurant. The only non-vegan thing is the soy milk (with milk solid).

Their lunch menu is smaller than the dinner one but still pretty big. We couldn't really decide what to get. We settled on two Mixed Entree plates ($7 each) to share between the four of us.

The satay skewers and Thai style spring rolls were pretty good but I've never been a big fan of money bags or curry puffs. Tod Mun, a pakora-like deep fried entree, was the best on the plate.

Our first plate was the lemongrass stir-fry ($12.8):

It is a double protein meal: tofu and mock meat ('chicken', I guess) with some colourful vegies, in lemongrass special sauce. It was my favourite dish of the meal.

Next dish was 'Crispy KFC' ($12.8):

When I saw the menu, I thought it will be fried battered mock chicken with the 11 secret herbs and spices, like what Vegansaurus! made before. However, it turned out to be deep fried mock meat with a sweet chill soy sauce on the side. It wasn't bad but not what I expected.

We also ordered a roasted 'duck' or 'chicken' dish($12.8):

I can't recall the name of the dish nor can I locate it on the massive lunch menu. It was a nice typical roasted 'duck'/'chicken' dish : crispy gluten with a tangy sauce.

Finally, Kristy insisted that we have Pad Thai ($12.5) again:

She liked it a lot but I agreed with what Michael said - It was enjoyable but not amazing.

So, this is the last installment of our Sydney Eat-A-Thon. Michael also blogged about our dinner there. Read what other people think on Brunch, Lunch and Munch and Diary of a Ladybird.

Peace Harmony
44 Erskine Street, Sydney
(02) 9262 2247

On my turntable:
Illuminations by Buffy Sainte-Marie

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Iku Wholefood

Iku is a vegan cafe that sells healthy style prepared dishes, there are 12 stores in total in Sydney. We visited a store in the CBD which was situated in a food court but I noticed that they had actual stores that I walked past in Bondi and Darlinghurst.

They sell a whole range of vegan dishes including lasagne, burgers, laska, cassaroles and salads and desserts. They try to use organic and local produce and are very g/f friendly too. Toby and I didn't actually have room for an actual meal so decided to share a snack pack which allowed us to sample a variety of the snacks that they sold including: a rice ball, rice paper roll, nori roll, tofu pocket, polenta slice, beetroot salad and two dipping sauces-tahini and chilli. It was either mostly g/f or all g/f. Everything was delicious, although it was all served cold. The tahini dipping sauce was great and I don't even like tahini, and the chilli was moderately spicy. The rice balls were probably our favourite. Although, next time I'm keen to try the lasagna though after Ingrid's glowing recommendation.

We also tried a friand which was g/f and made basically from almond meal, rice flour, tofu and maple syrup, it was ok but perhaps a little too healthy for me, I do like my super sweet unhealthy desserts.

I could see if I worked in Sydney CBD that this would make a great lunch option, if Sydney can have 12 stores, why can't Melbourne have 1? It would be great to have a healthy vegan cafe in the CBD!

Iku Wholefood-MLC Centre
Shop 6, Food court
19a Martin Place
Mon-Fri 8am-5.30pm

I struggled to find many blog reviews of Iku, so if you have blogged about it let me know and I'll show you some link love. Lisa mentioned their snacks here, and a cupcake or two mentioned their salads here. Edited to add Theresa's review here

Only 1 more post from Toby to complete our Sydney series.

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La forêt usagère - Vu dans la Presse

Forêt usagère : le point sur le bois

Jean Chignac dans la forêt usagère. Photo A. P.

Les propriétaires d'une partie de la presqu'île sont conviés, lundi, à une réunion d'information sur les droits à la délivrance du bois d'œuvre et de chauffage de la forêt usagère de La Teste (1) . La zone concernée est la partie située entre Pat-à-chou et la pointe du Cap-Ferret qui avant juin 1976, dépendait de la commune de La Teste-de-Buch.
Cette réunion aura lieu le lundi 11 octobre, de 15 heures à 17 heures, dans la salle des mariages de la mairie du Cap-Ferret. Elle est organisée par l'Association de défense des droits d'usage de la forêt usagère (Addufu), en présence des syndics de la forêt usagère de La Teste.
On entend par bois d'œuvre (le pin) celui qui peut servir à construire une maison, à construire ou reconstruire une cabane ostréicole, un quai, un bateau. Pour prétendre obtenir ce bois-là, il faut justifier de dix ans de résidence sur cette partie de la commune concernée.
Quant au bois de chauffage (chêne ou pin), il suffit de justifier d'un foncier sur ce même territoire, que ce soit en tant que résidence principale ou secondaire. Seule obligation, il faut aller faire son bois soi-même (abattage, sciage et transport).
Pour plus d'informations, contacter Jean Chignac, correspondant local, tél. 06 11 80 85 67.
(1) Forêt usagère de 3 500 hectares située entre la dune du Pyla et le lac de Cazaux.
SUD OUEST 9 octobre 2010 06h00 | Par Annie Peyras

Forêt usagère : le point sur le bois

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Vegan friendly places in Geelong or Queenscliff?

Does anyone know of vegan friendly brunch places in Geelong or Queenscliff that is opened on Sunday?

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Basil Pizza & Pasta

As we made our way to the airport I commented to Toby that the only place I was slightly sad about missing out on was Basil Pizza. We arrived at the airport and discovered that our flight was cancelled so was given the option to get a refund and make our own way back or get on a flight the following day and our accommodation would be reimbursed. We decided to abandon Cindy and Michael and stay an extra night since it was going to work out to be a financial loss if we made our own way back. Also, it meant we got to stay and have Pizza with Bec and Craig. After our massive breaky and yum cha, Toby and I were originally planning on going without dinner but since we were in Sydney for another night we planned to make the most of it.

Naked Expresso is a omni pizza place at night, which offers several vegan pizzas. While the guys popped out to get beer, Bec and I were given ordering responsibilities. We didn't hesitate in ordering the Hawaiian pizza with 'ham', pineapple and a decent amount of cheezly, it was exactly as I remembered Hawaiian pizza and I'm really not sure why more of the vegan friendly pizza places here don't put 'ham' on their pizzas, this was the group favourite:

We also ordered the 'Sheree and Neridah' with dijon mustard, artichoke hearts, roasted red capsicum, olives and sun dried tomatoes. It was tangy but worked well together as a combination:

We also ordered some garlic 'pizza bread' which kind of reminded me of crisp focaccia:

We were impressed with how straight forward their pizzas were, no strange combination or fancy sauces just simple old fashioned pizzas with a vegan touch. They have g/f bases too!

Also see Cupcake Kitteh1 & 2, Tropical Vegan and Vegan Underground.

Basil Pizza & Pasta
126 King St
Newtown
02 9519 4880

Btw, we discovered after a couple of trips via public transport back and forth between Newtown and the CBD that it is actually really cheap to get a cab and might work out better if there are 4 of you.

We also ordered the 'Sheree and Neridah' with dijon mustard, artichoke hearts, roasted red capsicum, olives and sun dried tomatoes. It was tangy but worked well together as a combination:

We also ordered some garlic 'pizza bread' which kind of reminded me of crisp focaccia:

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Yum Cha at Bodhi

It really is amazing that we managed to fit in so many yum cha dishes, but we did. It was such quick eating that I can't really do a comprehensive run down, but here is what I remembered:

Spring rolls and spinach and tofu rolls. I loved both of these and was sad that the spring rolls didn't come around again. The spinach and tofu rolls were like spinach/cheese pastries.

Beetroot ginger dumplings were kind of weird according to Toby, but I think Bec liked them

Veg dumplings

These sausage rolls were surprisingly good, with home-made pastry, like 'sausages' in batter.

One serving of Cheung fun (it's called fresh rice noodle fold on the menu) with 'prawns' and one with vegies. I liked the veg one and Toby liked the 'prawn' one which he said was like the omni one that he grew up with.

Spicy tofu and crispy tofu skin

BBQ 'pork buns' were a fav and we got a few serves, whereas only Toby liked the steam rice in lotus leaf in the background.

Veg with tofu skin

Crispy wantons

siew mai

Tofu skin and tomatoes stuffed with salad. These two were disappointingly cold and just pretty average.

For dessert, we had

Baked custard sago, chinese doughnuts filled with yellow bean paste and crispy sesame balls with sweet peanut. I enjoyed all these. Toby was super excited about the baked custard sago but was disappointed that there was no lotus seed paste as a filling.

There was a fast rotation of food and was great to have the proper yum cha experience where they bring you dishes and you say yes/no instead of ordering off the menu, but Toby was particularly disappointed that it was quite pricey and he thought that nothing really stood out apart from the cheung fun and dessert. I really liked the outdside dining aspect but agreed with Toby that our previous dining experience ordering off the menu was more enjoyable.

Here is a picture of the menu (click on photo for proper view):

:

:

See Cindy's take here.

It really is amazing that we managed to fit in so many yum cha dishes, but we did. It was such quick eating that I can't really do a comprehensive run down, but here is what I remembered:

Spring rolls and spinach and tofu rolls. I loved both of these and was sad that the spring rolls didn't come around again. The spinach and tofu rolls were like spinach/cheese pastries.

Beetroot ginger dumplings were kind of weird according to Toby, but I think Bec liked them

Veg dumplings

These sausage rolls were surprisingly good, with home-made pastry, like 'sausages' in batter.

Spicy tofu and crispy tofu skin

BBQ 'pork buns' were a fav and we got a few serves, whereas only Toby liked the steam rice in lotus leaf in the background.

Veg with tofu skin

Crispy wantons

siew mai

Tofu skin and tomatoes stuffed with salad. These two were disappointingly cold and just pretty average.

For dessert, we had

:

:

See Cindy's take here.

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