james test

August 22, 2015 We've been intending to revisit Transformer for breakfast or lunch ever since our dinner visit way back in April . Somehow though we've failed, lazily opting for Wide Open Road or finding ourselves at Smith and Daughters instead. So it was with much enthusiasm that we join Steph , Hayley and a big vego crew for a breakfast meet-up early one Saturday morning. The space is just as impressive in the daytime as it was at night - lots of greenery, a beautiful high ceiling and a pretty relaxed vibe. It was surprisingly quiet, actually, given the shit-fight that breakfast in Fitzroy usually entails. The menu is short - just six dishes, three of which are vegan or veganisable (half of the menu is GF as well). I went with the savoury Indian crumpet with toasted corn, avocado, cherry tomatoes, quinoa, eggplant chutney and coconut yoghurt ($18) but ruined its vegan-ness by taking up the optional poached egg added on top (+$3). This is the kind of thing that Transformer ...

August 21, 2015 Melbourne makes late winter that little less bleak by scheduling in the Melbourne International  Film Festival and Writers Festival (and the Fringe Festival isn't trailing far behind!). We've been attending lots of events and sneaking in some CBD meals around them. Red Pepper and Shandong Mama are faves, Fonda saw us through one dinner and we've also returned to Flora Indian Restaurant, which we first blogged nine long years ago. Its Flinders St location is convenient to Fed Square, they're open 'til 10 or 11pm and they turn around food fast - all good qualities for a festival feed. Flora is an experience with few frills - choose from flourescent-lit menu boards and pick up your own food, drinks and cutlery. There are no markings for special dietary requirements, although there are plenty of meat-free options. There's also abundant seating, and Bollywood clips to bop along to if you position yourself in view of the TV. We picked out some ...

August 19, 2015 We needed a quick dinner before a show in the city on Wednesday night and decided to try out Fonda, tucked up the Parliament end of Flinders Lane. Fonda rode Melbourne's Mamasita-inspired Mexican wave and has since grown from its beginnings in Richmond to four locations across the city. The Flinders Lane one is massive - it was easy to grab a big table at 6pm, but things filled up as we ate and it was pretty hectic by the time we left. The menu has a decent range of vego options, including a few veganisable dishes. There's a big drinks list too - frozen margaritas, cocktails, hip beers and a short wine list. They also do an array of non-boozy options, including Cindy's choice for the night: horchata ($6). It was a very sweet version of this rice-milk based beverage, but Cindy was happy with it nonetheless. We started things off sharing around two kinds of chips: the crispy white and blue tortilla crisps with guacamole and pico de gallo ($9)... and the crunch...

August 17, 2015 I bought a bag of Maria's gnocchi on a whim last time we were at Piedemonte's without any plans for it at all. Our blog archives and my link list held a few recipes, but none of them really grabbed me. I had better luck browsing 101 Cookbooks , where Michael zeroed in on a recipe for pan-fried corona beans and kale containing a small note that Swanson was "confident you could do this preparation with gnocchi... in place of beans". We bought a small bunch of kale on Monday night and went with it. This is a single pan saute of lightly browned (not boiled!) gnocchi and shredded kale layered with the piquant flavours of walnuts, garlic, lemon and parmesan. It's winter comfort food that's assembled with little fuss, exactly what I needed at the end of an unusually long workday. Pan-fried gnocchi & kale (slightly adapted from a recipe at 101 Cookbooks ) small bunch of kale 2 tablespoons olive oil 500g bag frozen potato gnocchi, just barely tha...

August 16, 2015 We had a rare reason to be in Abbotsford on Sunday morning, so we finally returned to Admiral Cheng-Ho for a second visit. Not a great deal has changed since we stopped by in the first week they were open - it's stylish, busy and the menu is all veg (and mostly vegan). Cheng-Ho takes coffee very seriously, with an array of bean and brew choices - I'm a philistine, and just ordered a straight-up soy flat white. Cindy branched out, with a chai latte - it was a bit disappointing, with the main flavour coming from the dusting of cinnamon on top. The food menu has changed a little since our first visit, but the basic shtick is the same - the umami mushrooms that we first tried at sister-venue Monk Bodhi Dharma are still an option and there's dishes featuring beans, bircher muesli, avo on toast and chia pudding. The zucchini pancakes from our first visit are gone, replaced with the Crazy Jimbo ($16.50), which I ordered. It features a couple of discs of slightly d...

August 15, 2015 Hot on the heels of that cocoa crackles recipe , I've got another melt-and-mix rice bubble treat to share. I stirred this one up in 15 minutes to take along to a crafternoon, where I helped decorate my friend's exciting new recycling venture . This slice comes from the indolent cook . I replaced the original honey with barley malt syrup for vegan-friendly convenience to good effect. I toasted the rice puffs and walnuts in a pan as directed, but somehow that dulled their fresh crunch, and I wouldn't repeat it. The slice's dark and glossy finish suggests that this is will be an intensely sweet and chocolatey experience, but actually the flavour is dominated by tahini. It could be a fleeting disappointment, but ultimately it's a nutty, fudgy delight. Tahini rice puff squares (slightly adapted from a recipe at the indolent cook ) 3 cups brown rice puffs 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped  1/2 cup tahini 1/4 cup barley malt syrup 1/4 cup cocoa  1/4 teaspoon salt...

August 12, 2015 Cindy and I had a Wednesday night free and decided to freshen up our restaurant game a bit by heading into the city to try somewhere new and buzzy. Magic Mountain Saloon fit the bill - it's run by the people who run hipster-magnets Cookie , The Toff and Revolver and is getting a lot of blog attention (see the link list below). We turned up at 6:45 without a booking and were relegated to a pretty uncomfortable corner of the bar, so the word is clearly out - it's definitely a place you should book for. The venue's split over three levels - the ground floor is restauranty, with tables and a longish bar, the mezzanine is small with a couple more tables and the top level feels more like a bar with some tables - a lot more people hanging out and drinking rather than sitting down for dinner. It's moodily lit, with a red glow cast over everything and clubby music pumping away at a volume just below 'really annoying'. The staff are friendly and reasonab...

August 9, 2015 We were invited to celebrate the first birthday of our youngest friend last weekend. Her party had a rainbow theme, and the savoury food was provided by the wonderful Las Vegan Catering (I ate so much pizza ). A week ahead I asked how I could help, and I was enlisted to make chocolate crackles. Chocolate crackles are always vegan and very nearly gluten-free, but these ones have the 2015 treatment. There's coconut oil instead of copha, of course, and coconut sugar instead of regular icing. I even had gluten-free brown rice puffs on hand instead of Kellogg's bubbles. This version appeals to 2015 me much more than the original recipe - although it's a little crumbly, it's got a stronger cocoa flavour and none of the greasiness of copha. The party wasn't exclusively new age mama mania - there was plenty of lurid colouring in the vegan-friendly Skittles and the spectacular six-layered rainbow cake prepared by a pro. Cocoa crackles (slightly adapted from a...

August 8, 2015 From Steam Junkies to Addict - I'm not sure I care for cafes naming themselves after compulsions but it seems I'll eat their brunch. Addict has the typical trappings of an inner north cafe - a communal table and drop lights, longnecks for water pitchers and a small queue. Luckily for us, the 10 minute wait estimated by the waiter was more like 2. It was barely enough time to stare hungrily at the doughnut display before we were seated at a sunny window bench. The Addict menu has abundant Vs and GFs, but doesn't offer much in the way of information or eating for vegans. The coconut & lychee porridge and the citrus-spiked chia pudding might pass muster, but conferring with staff would definitely be needed. By contrast, the vegetarian options are varied and take up half the menu, from buttermilk pancakes to corn fritters and a mega Go Green breakfast. The Chai Boy Latte's ($4.50) paraphernalia took up most of my table space. For all its name-dropping an...

August 4, 2015 We had a big chunk of pumpkin leftover from our most recent veggie box and, after considering a few old favourites , decided it was time to bust out a new recipe. The bowls in Isa Does It have proven pretty successful so far , so when we discovered this recipe on a scan through the index, we were sold (added bonus: it used up a wilty bunch of coriander also leftover from the veggie box).  Like the other bowl recipes, there's a fair few components - you're baking pumpkin, cooking pasta, heating up beans and making a spice paste - but none of them are very complicated. The issue is more the mess you leave behind than the difficulty involved in throwing it all together. And the results are definitely worth it - the garlicky chimichurri proving to be a surprisingly perfect accompaniment to the sweet, roasted potato, with the beans and pasta adding some bulk and protein.  We went back for a second round on this - the spice paste recipe makes much more than you...

August 2, 2015 Our vege deliveries tell me it's kiwi fruit season, so I bookmarked Emma Galloway's recipe for raw kiwifruit + ginger 'cheesecake' the moment I saw it. With melting oil and maple syrup going on, it's not strictly 100% raw, but it's that little bit more workable. I blended this one up on a Sunday morning, with some equipment that was distinctly inferior to Galloway's. My food processor struggled to break down the dried dates in the base layer, so mine was rather coarse (pre-soaking the dates might yield better results). It didn't fare much better with the cashews in the filling, even though they'd been soaked overnight - there were soft but discernible flecks of nut throughout the mixture. The food processor was completely incapable of pureeing the sly spinach leaves that colour the third layer, so I transferred this last mixture to my spice grinder for a finer result. I added an extra kiwi fruit, too, to intensify the flavour and work...

August 1, 2015 It's been too long since I last did some extended, just-for-fun weekend cooking! The half a huge head of cauliflower delivered in our recent vege box inspired me to try one of J. Kenji López-Alt's battered-and-fried cauliflower recipes, which he published more than two years ago on Serious Eats . I'm not in the regular business of battering or deep-frying, but its never quite as bad as I imagine. There's always a bit of dripping, and disposing of the oil isn't great, but it was well worth it for these tender, golden cauliflower bites. This particular batter includes sesame seeds and dessicated coconut. To my surprise they separated from the batter once it hit the oil, floating up to the surface to form a fragile, nutty lace. It was kinda fun and tasty to nibble at, but a hint that I shouldn't bother including these ingredients in the future - I'll just keep some sesame seeds aside for garnishing instead. The key point of interest and flavour i...

August 1, 2015 Last weekend we headed up to Florence St for a late breakfast before running some errands around Brunswick. We've had half an eye on The Commons for a couple of years - it's a unit block by the railway tracks that has sold itself on its sustainability measures. On an Upfield walk last year we noticed that the ground floor cafe, Steam Junkies, has a few veg options and they've been given a thumbs-up on Green Gourmet Giraffe . The odds for vegetarians are good, with thirteen of the twenty-two regular menu dishes boasting a V (and almost half the menu including a gluten-free friendly *). Looking beyond the plain toast, though, there's not a lot designed for vegans. Poached eggs and cheeses abound, and there's also a curious preponderance of quinoa. Michael's plate captured their poached eggs-on-superfoods style, starting with quinoa toast and a mound of garlic sauteed kale and spinach, dotted with dried cranberries, almond flakes and goats curd with...