james test

May 27, 2015 For my birthday this year we decided to try Kappo, a newish Japanese place in the city. It's the fancy cousin of the lovely Hihou and Izakaya Den so we had high hopes for a good night out. The first trick is gaining access - there's a door on the Spring Street side of the building that looks like the entry, but it's closed and there's a sign pointing you up Flinders Lane. The next door you find is somewhat forebodingly shut and after pushing and pulling fruitlessly, I finally figured out that you have to press the bell and have the staff let you in. Awkward. Once we'd made it over that hurdle everything was much more straightforward - we were seated at the bar overlooking the little kitchen and given a quick run down of the way dining at Kappo works. Your 'menu' is basically a list of about 50 ingredients and all you have to do is decide whether you want 5, 7 or 9 courses and whether there are any ingredients you especially want to have includ...

May 25, 2015 This recipe is me trying to heave myself out of another breakfast rut. Our vege boxes come with a lot of apples at this time of year, some of them mealy, and I just knew that there was a breakfast crumble out there for them. I trawled my cookbooks but came up short. Isa , Heidi and Deb had muffins and waffles and eggs 'til Tuesday, but nothing that'd get apples into my workday breakfast. Once I hit google it turned out that Deb Perelman did actually have exactly what I needed, an oaty apple crisp especially designed for breakfast. I threw in a couple of pears with the apples, swapped honey for barley malt syrup and slivered almonds for raw cashews. It's not too distant from my ol' fruit crumble manifesto , though it taught me a couple of important tricks. First, you can melt the butter instead of blending it cold into the crumble. Second, it's worth baking apples well beyond my habitual 20 minutes to bring them to that collapsing, apple pie stage.  T...

May 23-24, 2015 Last weekend we joined in on a big party for a little girl's birthday. Much of the food was expertly catered by the Las Vegan crew, and another guest prepared a cake decorated with fairies and fondant mushrooms. I brought along a tray of hedgehog slice, a fairly common treat from my own childhood. I don't have a family recipe, but I knew Vegan About Town posted one that I could draw from and adapt to suit my pantry. The whole hedgehog deal was really just a plot to use up two packets of LEDA gingernuts , and it served to polish off some walnuts, cashews and dried cherries too. Best of all, it's an oven-free melt'n'mix method easily accomplished in 20 minutes. The slice has a great fudgy texture and a much darker chocolate base than the non-vegan versions I've known before. On reflection, it was probably too rich and bittersweet for the kids. In fact the little tackers barely took an interest in the savoury selection or the birthday cake once th...

May 21, 2015 We had time for a quick dinner in the city before a friend’s gig on Thursday night and took the opportunity to check out Sun Moth Canteen and Bar. I’ve been stalking them on Instagram lately and have been impressed by the steady stream of vegetarian and vegan-friendly dishes that pop up in their feed. It’s a sleek, sparsely decorated space – all clean lines and polished wood, with a few big plants and a projector decorating the front wall with silent movies (surf films the night we were there). The menu is short but still has plenty to choose from: four of the seven mains are veg-friendly (three vegan friendly) and there are a handful of options on the snacks menu as well (we’ll definitely be trying the fried bread with olives, lemon, chilli and garlic next time!). They’re big on fancy beer and good coffee too, but Cindy and I were both on soft drinks, so we’ll have to go back for a second visit to explore the beverage options more thoroughly. First up was the kale salad,...

May 17, 2015 We've had an eye on Zaatar since it opened a couple of years ago, and we've noticed it earning seals of approval from Cate's Cates , Green Gourmet Giraffe and Veganopoulous in that time. We squeezed our first visit in before their 8pm closing last Sunday night, following an afternoon gig at the Post Office Hotel . We'd spent the duration steadfastly resisting the myriad bowls of fries floating around us, focusing on the falafel to come. The set-up is accessible and family-friendly at Zaatar, with clear display cabinets and counter ordering, dozens of quick-wipe tables that can be rearranged by customers, and a grin on the face of every staff member. Dietary indicators weren't marked on the menu, but there's plenty for vegos to choose from. Given that they make their own bread products on site, coeliacs might be more wary. We shared a combination meal of 3 mezza with dip and salad ($8.50), which was excellent value. The last falafel in the display...

May 16, 2015 We had a spare Saturday afternoon and thus decided we finally had the time to commit to one of the overly complicated recipes that Serious Eats put up during their recent vegan month . I'm pretty keen to have a crack at the mapo tofu or the creamy ramen , but they both required fancier ingredients than we could lay our hands on at short notice. Instead, we went for this wintery roasted potato and cauliflower soup, with the added bonus of some mushroom bacon. This is still a time-consuming and complicated recipe - I'd guess that we spent more than two hours putting everything together and we dramatically simplified the original (no stove-top smoking, lots of stick-blending and no soup straining). The mushroom bacon could be made well ahead of time, although you've got a good hour to do the laborious mushroom slicing while the veggies are roasting, and the oven's already on so you can pop them straight in.  I'd say the pay-off was just about worth it - ...

May 16, 2015 On Friday night we were in the city for a gig at the Forum , and keen to try something new for dinner. I pulled up a year-and-a-bit-old bookmarked post from vegawesome! and suggested we give Sichuan House a shot. I had no problem snagging a table for two at 6pm, but they steadily filled up as we ate. I've since discovered that this restaurant is a favourite of many chilli-loving Melbourne bloggers (see link list below). The menu's generally very meaty but we were able to spot several veg options that correspond closely with the Dainty Sichuan menu : cold noodles, potato shreds, garlicky cucumber and the two dishes we ultimately ordered, stir-fried spicy dry tofu and chives ($19.80) and fish fragrant eggplant ($17.80). The dry tofu is firm and smoky, stacked high with lots of wilted greens and a few dried chillis. It was the right counterpart to the slippery battered eggplant, as sweet as it is spicy. A bit of steamed rice on the side ($2 per person) and we were we...

May 3, 2015 We spent a lovely weekend down at Ocean Grove with a gang of friends and the drive back through Melbourne seemed like a good excuse to stop by Bo De Trai for some lunch. It's a cosy little Buddhist vego place in Footscray, and one that we visit far too infrequently. On this visit we stumbled across their special monthly full moon menu, which offers a narrower range, presumably for religious reasons . Cindy ordered the Com Ga Sa Ot, imitation chicken in lemongrass and chilli on rice ($10). It was just what Cindy was after, tender and nutty with a mild curry powder flavour. A watery sauce tipped over the rice brought it all together well. I ordered off the specials board - a mock duck noodle soup with greens, mushrooms, some little berries (maybe goji berries?) and a few other bits and pieces ($10). It was rich and warm, with a powerful kick from the birds-eye chilli pieces I sprinkled through. Bo De Trai is a decent vego option in Footscray - the staff are friendly (alth...

May 1, 2015 Well, of course I couldn't set off on a weekend away without taking something chocolatey. I went for another recent locally published recipe, this one for brownies on quinces and kale . I prepared it late in the evening, after the lentils had simmered and the biscuits were cooling on the bench. I ground up the flax seeds, perhaps not quite as finely as I should have, and set them to gooifying with some water. I piled up the almonds in the grinder but they weren't so keen to powderise. After a couple more attempts I powered down the grinder and discovered this.... I'd snapped the seal, and it was performing some kind of python move on the blade. I sent Michael this frustrated photo, set the grinder aside and retrieved our hand blender. It struggled to smash the almonds, and they were pretty chunky. I proceeded with the rest of the recipe, causing a little mess but no more mishaps. I wondered if my lax grinding might make for coarse, badly textured brownies. Whe...

May 1, 2015 I made these cookies from Vegan About Town for late-night card games (and, it turns out, some brutal Pictionary) on a weekend away. It's a handy, pared-back recipe requiring only a small number of ingredients and minimal utensils - I bet you could even pull it off with a fork and a strong arm instead of an electric beater. It's a while since I've used lemon myrtle and in the interim it's become much more accessible - I found my supply in the ground spice section of our local supermarket. I like its balance of bright citrus and earthy flavours, and I used a generous hand when adding it to this dough. The biscuit base is buttery like shortbread, but if you retrieve the biscuits from the oven early they stay soft and doughy instead of setting hard. On the other hand macadamias are all the tastier with toasting, so it's worth letting 'em get a little gold around the edges before cooling them off. These biscuits are plain in presentation but a bite confi...

April 30, 2015 We've been using this easy-prep spice mix for years, and I've decided it's finally time to stop googling Best Tofu Tacos!!!! site:inthemoodfornoodles.blogspot.com and record it here on our own blog.  Instead of making tofu tacos, we tend to make lentil tacos with it. They're savoury and warm and a little bit smoky, comforting rather than complex. We simmer the lentils on weeknights and wrap the leftovers into lunchtime tortillas. I've packed jars of the seasoning on field trips and weekend getaways, sneaking the extra lentils into cheese toasties and onto salsa-slathered pizzas. It's a great stand-by seasoning, and I've pleased many a crowd with it. Taco seasoning (a recipe found on In The Mood For Noodles ) 1 part garlic powder 1 part onion powder 1 part Mexican oregano 1 part smoked paprika 1 part salt 1 part pepper 1 part chilli powder 2 parts cumin Stir together all the ingredients in a jar. Use to season tofu or lentils; we use 1-2 tab...

April 26, 2015 At the end of April, we hosted the fourth gathering of Ottolenghi admirers in our home. Without a bike ride constraining our cooking choice, Michael and I committed to preparing the extravagant mushroom and cheese lasagne from Plenty as the autumnal centrepiece. But of course I couldn't leave dessert alone, flicking through Plenty More and jotting down simple rhubarb and quince options on the end of the shopping list. The quinces won out in the end. You probably already know how to poach them, and I've done it before too . The vanilla, orange and star anise in the poaching liquid here aren't anything surprising, but using pomegranate juice instead of water is a very Ottolenghi tweak. It lends a deep crimson to the dish where the quinces can't - they're poached for just 20 minutes and retain the translucent colour of a pear on the inside. On their own, the quinces are rich, velvety, vegan and gluten-free. Ottolenghi serves them with clotted cream ...

April 17, 2015 Fitzroy's veg restaurant hotspot, at the northern end of Brunswick St, is approaching boiling point with the opening of Transformer. Situated off to the side on Rose St, this converted warehouse won't have any problems luring customers from the main drag with its bright lights and huddle of hopefuls out the front. Transformer accept both reservations and walk-ins, and appear to be running two fairly strict sessions per night. At 6:40pm on their first trading Saturday there was a 2 hour wait for a table, so we planned ahead and reserved our 6:30pm spot a few weeks later. Inside it's cavernous and moody (in the evening, at least) with spotlights centred on each table. The light pine tables and decorative plants hint at lighter, brighter brunches by day. The menu is entirely vegetarian, with vegan, gluten-free and adaptable items well signed. Your waiter will recite the inner-city restaurant mantra: The Plates Are Designed To Share. Before we picked plates, we p...