james test

White bun. Sanitarium hot dog. Cheddar cheese spread and tomato sauce. Please don't ask me to justify it. I haven't eaten this 'food' in ten years. (It tasted as un-nourishingly good as I remembered. Uh-oh.)

A google search for chickpea cutlet veganomicon yields about 12900 English web pages. So what can I say about these patties that hasn't been said already? Actually, I'm hoping the photo above might communicate a good thousand words on my behalf. For the uninitiated, Veganomicon is the latest cookbook to come from Isa Chandra Moscowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Published only last year, it has instantly become the go-to book for cruelty-free cooking. And these chickpea cutlets are allegedly the authors' favourite recipe in said bible. The use of wheat gluten ensures that the patties won't crumble to bits, and it adds a unique texture. The brief three-minute knead forms gluten strands and I expect that some experimentation is warranted either side of that guideline to achieve your preferred texture, from soft and tender to dense and chewy. These were easy to pull together on a weeknight, and I initially tried one with a splash of lemon, and side of baked potatoes and...

Monday night looked like a good one for De Orchid takeaway, so I gave them a call as Michael walked home. Unfortunately their phone went unanswered, eventually returning a message that they were closed due to unforeseen circumstances for a week or two. Darn. It seems that someone else was having the very same conundrum, finding our blog via a google search for indian delivery carlton melbourne just eight minutes after they searched for "de orchid" carlton ! I wonder if they tried the Balti Indian Cafe as google recommended? Instead I took a look at our fridge, papered with takeaway leaflets as it is, and chose the Classic Curry Company. Michael and I first sampled the Classic's curries even before we moved to Melbourne. We were lodging nearby while attending a conference and had somehow heard of it as a local purveyor of cheap and cheerful Indian food. Like Red Pepper , it was an unadorned fit-out filled with members of the local Indian community, and big pots ...

This pudding and I have had a rocky relationship. It wasn't love at first sight, though there was undeniably an attraction there when I first spied the recipe in a weekend newspaper. The first date, only a few weeks later, was definitely a success; I even presented him to my Dad and brother after dinner. Then the seasons shifted, time passed, and I moved to a new city. When winter arrived I tried to dress my recipe up in more sophisticated ramekins, which was a complete disaster . (You know what they say about men and baking recipes - don't try to change them.) Dishes were thrown, things were said - we clearly needed another break from each other. With winter returning again I wanted to find out if this pudding and I could become 'just good friends'. I set about recreating the comfortable environment of our first meeting. Grind, grate, beat, fold: everything seemed to be running smoothly and I started to relax. Then I'd just put the pudding into the oven whe...

With plenty of time to cook on Sunday night, I set about preparing some winter warmers. First up was this cumin, carrot and cashew nut roast from Wendy of A Wee Bit of Cooking . I first caught sight of it when Johanna presented her Neb at Nut Roast blog event last month. Since I ground my own cashews and breadcrumbs they took a loooong time from pantry to plate, the four serves really are a bit on the small side, and I seriously overestimated the amount of cumin I was supposed to add. Nevertheless they were tasty and substantial, earning high praise from Michael. We topped them with a little mayonnaise and ate them alongside mixed green leaves and baked fennel. The baked fennel was a little experiment on my part - though the segments ended up looking a bit dry, they were tender with chewy caramelised edges. This has become my favourite way to get to know unfamiliar vegetables - a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and 20 minutes in the oven seems to bring out their best. If you...

It's been a long time between wwwashes , but I can confirm that they're still making mighty fine crepes. Vegetarian? Into poached eggs? You're in luck - there are five such crepes on the menu, at $10-12 each, with adornments such as spinach, roasted capsicum, dukkah and/or lemon aioli. Not into eggs? The mushroom, spinach, ricotta and lemon filling is still a winner. And then there's the sweet ones - I wish I had room. You can read about our last visit to wwwash here . Edit 13/11/08: Wwwash is now the Wick - it's neither a laundromat nor an internet cafe, but it still does crepes! Read more at fitzroyalty and unwakeable .

With my birthday fast approaching, Cindy and I sat down for our now bi-annual hunt for a fancyish place with an interesting vego menu to splash out on. Cindy recalled dmargster's recommendation , which had been followed up by raves in The Age , Tomato , Melbourne Foodie and Eating With Jack and rumours of a vegetarian degustation menu, all of which meant that Attica was the venue of choice this May. While we were forced to cross the river for our fancy feast this time, Attica is conveniently located about 100m from Ripponlea train station, which made getting there relatively easy. The room itself is dark, inviting and sleekly designed. Thankfully, the design isn't just about aesthetics - there's plenty of space and some strategically hung heavy curtains that help the restaurant from being swamped by noise. We had a nice back corner table, and settled straight into our pre-pre-meal bread with exotic accompaniments: smoked almonds, fried brussel sprout pieces and a from...

On our way to Game On the other week , I noticed the original Lord of the Fries (on the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth Streets) selling new nuggets! However, after getting our game on, we retired to the newer LOTF stand across from Federation square at Flinders St station - there were no nuggets to be found here. So Lisa beat me to blogging them , sampling the nuggets on the same weekend that I had hoped to. A few weeks later I was offered a second chance while running a few city-based errands. These are advertised as vegan, gluten free, and $3.95 for 8 nuggets and a classic sauce. I actually received 11 of the little fellers, which is more in keeping with the asking price. I'm really surprised that these are gluten free, since the springy texture reminds me of the gluten-based faux meats I've eaten elsewhere. Hot and deep-fried, they are salty and delicious. The Thai style sauce, tasting of peanut butter and curry powder, is an ideal partner. Props to LOTF for packag...

On our recent visit to Casa Iberica I picked up a large can of tomatillos. My one previous brush with tomatillos, where they constituted a broth , didn't reveal much about the fruit's flavour. So the first step was undoubtedly to drain them and have a little taste! I've learned how my mind and senses combine to fool me , and it's difficult to know how the signals of tomato-texture and definitely-not-tomato-colour influenced my sense of taste. These canned tomatillos struck me as tangier than tomatoes, though otherwise very similar. Michael prepared a dinner of black bean tofu tacos , while I decided to adapt Kurma's easy-bake salsa recipe to my green alternative. Mashing the tomatillos roughly; combining them with a chopped green chilli, a glug of olive oil and a few spoonfuls of brown sugar; baking the lot in a hot oven for half an hour; this was all it took to achieve the sweet and sour condiment you see above.

Pam has generously passed on the Yummy Blog Award to where's the beef? . The Yummy blog award is an award given to blogs with yummy recipes/photos. Even though our being vegetarian is closely linked our personal ethics, the main purpose of this blog is to show that vegetarian food is just plain yummy! So we're mighty pleased that Pam reckons we've succeeded. Winners of the award are also asked to nominate their favourite desserts. Michael doesn't have a long history of dessert preparation or consumption, though he does seem to have a soft spot for fruit pies and pastries, as well as baked cheesecakes . I, on the other hand, was born with a dessert spoon in my mouth. I bookmark and try new dessert recipes often and only occasionally repeat them. However I have an abiding love of dark chocolate and home made ice cream - the peanut butter chocolate balls and raspberry ripple ice cream I made last summer are good examples. Now as winter rolls around I'm get...

Many months ago one of Cindy's friends had passed on this recipe for broccoli and blue cheese soup - with winter properly upon us (it was 3 degrees when I was riding to work this week! 3!), Cindy dug it out of her email and set me to work on it. It's remarkably simple - a bit of chopping, some simmering and a run through the food processor - and pretty tasty, with the blue cheese flavour really shining through (in contrast to this effort , where the cheese flavour was a bit too subtle). The downside of the cheesy flavour was the removal of any pretence that this is a particularly healthy soup, in fact it sat a little heavily in my stomach by the end of the meal, and might work better in smaller bowls to start a multi-course meal off. Broccoli and Blue Vein Soup Oil 1 Onion 2 large potatoes, chopped 1.1 litres vegetable stock 350g broccoli, chopped roughly 80g blue cheese, crumbled 150mL milk Salt, pepper and juice of half a lemon (opt.) 90mL (6 tablespoons) cream, to serve 1...

Orange, coffee, mint, fruit and nuts: these are the flavours I'm accustomed to pairing with chocolate. But what about beetroot? It seemed like a match made in purgatory when I first heard it. Yet I was impressed by the agreeable earthy flavour once I sunk my teeth into that dark, moist chocolate and beetroot cake about 12 years ago. I was in high school and it had been baked by my friend's older sister - the cake probably contributed some way to my image of her as cool, alternative, and galaxies away from my closeted life. Not being much of a cook at the time, I wasn't curious to try my own hand at it. It's only since I've been blogging that I've started collecting recipes that pair chocolate with beetroot. And here's my first trial of the odd couple at home, a recipe for brownies that recently appeared in Karen Martini's section of the Age 's Sunday Life magazine. I baked them for the occasion of another guest speaker at work, and I was a ...

Dinners of knishes and bangers and mash yielded extra shredded cabbage and mashed potato. I figured that they could easily be transformed into some kind of patty, and a wander around the internet produced this recipe , Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's version of the Irish peasant food colcannon . Though I wasn't aware of it at the time, the chopped deli slice I added to the mix was entirely consistent with the traditional addition of boiled ham or bacon. It was a struggle to keep the mixture together in one piece, but of course the crumbling edges didn't affect the taste at all. Paired with mushroom paprikash , it was a fine, warming winter meal.

One day we'll have sampled all the breakfast options in our surrounds. It might take a few more years given how long it takes us to visit places as highly recommended as Green Refectory. A few of our friends have spent months raving about their affordable and delicious muffins and the quality of their coffee, but we've been too lazy to make it all the way across to Sydney Road. After some missed opportunities , we'd booked in a post-breakfast ACMI trip, and Green Refectory was as good a mustering point as any. There was a shortage of tables inside we trusted that the weather would hold, made our way to the back alley, and pulled together an impromptu group table. It's all counter-service so, after downing some very impressive coffee, we wandered back in and browsed our options. There were plenty of veg meals, some sweet and some savoury - I decided to brave the rather hefty sounding breakfast stack ($9): a potato cake, slabs of haloumi, tomato chunks and spinach, ...

On Saturday night we had a spontaneous meet-up with my aunt Carol and family friend Jens for dinner and a movie. We floated Thai , Vietnamese and Ind ian as options, but Jens had a hearty appetite and a preference for Italian so I suggested we try to get a table at Cafe Italia. Set in a laneway away from the spruikers on Lygon St, it still has no trouble attracting diners through its closed doors. In summer the open courtyard is delightful and in winter the same area is snugly closed up, housing just as many people. Cafe Italia's menu is adequate for vegetarians if not inspiring. There's bruschetta or dips to start, plenty of side dishes, four pasta plates and a pizza on offer. Disappointingly the mushroom risotto is made with non-vegetarian stock, but the waitstaff are clued up enough to know that kind of thing. (On a previous visit a waiter offered, without any provocation from me, to find out what kind of stock was in the soup of the day. I was impressed.) We conce...

Time to dive into that bag of exotic mass-produced treats yet again! I think Matt chose these entirely on the basis of their funny name. Actually, my colon is probably one of the digestive organs I'd like least to dwell upon while eating. Instead I concentrated hard on the snacks before me. They're little wafer tubes filled with sweet white goop. There's not much to say about these other than that they're sweet. A study of sugar in two textures. I stoically munched my way through the entire box (Michael couldn't face more than one) and I can say with confidence that there are no nuances to be savoured. These are just sweet . Actually, they're most likely not even vegetarian. Like the Pocky before them, a stroll around the internet indicates that they most likely contain animal-based shortening. So no more Collons for my taste buds, my stomach or my colon.

May's calendar dish of the month is a light but vibrant and intensely flavoured watercress salad from Laos. As with most salads, there's little more involved than a quick vege slice and dressing shake. Substance and that little extra prep come from hard-boiled eggs. This salad was playing a losing game from the start - I can't handle hard-boiled eggs any more than Michael enjoys raw tomato. We took a courtesy bite each of our respective nemeses before playing swaps. Otherwise the dressing and fresh herbs were most agreeable, so there may be a future adaptation of this salad that Michael and I could both enjoy. Watercress salad 2 eggs 2 tomatoes 12cm cucumber 1 tablespoon fresh mint 1 tablespoon fresh coriander 225g watercress 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon sugar 2 teaspoons sesame oil 2 teaspoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon peanuts, toasted Put the eggs on to boil for 8-10 minutes, until hard. While they're boiling, quarter the tomatoes, slice the cucumber i...

After watching others cook and eat , Michael and I were in need of a bit of sustenance ourselves. Thankfully, we needed to do little more than climb the stairs to the Corner Hotel Kitchen. Having spent the last few hours in the typically dingy environment of the pub gig venue, I was surprised by the sophisticated look of the restaurant. Then I was surprised by how few people were utilising it at 9pm on a Sunday! This was to our benefit if not the kitchen's, guaranteeing us swift service and a calm quiet environment in which to enjoy our meal. The menu offers vegetarians a reasonable amount of choice amongst 350g rib eye and fish'n'chips. The snacks cover the usual chips and garlic bread and stretch further to vegetarian nachos piled high with guacamole and tofu kebabs with miso pesto; the mains include a calzone, pasta, a burger and a pizza. Michael ordered the veggie burger with wedges ($16). He wasn't much impressed by the patty, it being an uninspired mash-up...

Last year's Good Shepherd Circus Pie Classic probably ranks as the best night out Cindy and I have had in Melbourne: a great selection of bands, some frantic and shambolic cookery, drunken restaurateurs and breast-milk sauce - it had everything. So of course, when The Corner announced this year's event, Cindy and I immediately ordered tickets. We'd lazed around Rathdowne Street all morning post- breakfast , so by the time we wandered in to the band room, the rock 'n' roll had already begun, with the country-rock stylings of Downhills Home . They were an excellent start to proceedings, catchy and twangy. Before I'd even made it to the bar, Cindy had purchased raffle tickets in the hope of picking up the 1st prize - a $200 dinner at our favourite flash restaurant, Three, One, Two . Once the band had wound up their set, MCs Clem Bastow and Angus Sampson wandered on and let us know how things were going to be. The programme had been cut down from last time ...