james test

May 27, 2016 This year we celebrated Michael's birthday in Stockholm. I had organised a couple of gifts for him while I was in Melbourne and he was already travelling. I hid a proudly home-sewn shirt for him in the lining of my backpack, but didn't want to carry the weight of the cookbook I'd ordered all around Europe. Instead I photographed a few of the recipes that might plausibly be made in a small foreign kitchen, and prepared a couple of them for him as a birthday preview. The cookbook was Street Vegan , a collection of recipes from the Cinnamon Snail food truck that won Michael's affection and appetite in New York City two years ago. There's a detailed review and recipe trials on Veganopoulous posted late last year, and she kindly let me browse her copy while we were hanging out around then. There's lots of tasty-looking seitan that draws on our whole pantry-full of supplies and an entire doughnut chapter. It'll be fun stuff for weekend cooking pro...

May 14-19, 2016 As we've hinted in our last two posts , Michael has some colleagues in Helsinki. They welcomed us to their city for touring, eating and working, and we set aside extra time for our own exploring. I've got a couple of Finnish colleagues of my own, and they were wonderful sources of information for sight-seeing and vegetarian food. We lodged in Kallio, less than a block from its striking Lutheran church (pictured above). ____________ Our first stop was Kahvila Sävy . Here Michael was glad to buy the kind of coffee he drinks daily in Melbourne and I enjoyed dark, frothy hot chocolates that are harder to come by back home. Most customers are here for the hot drinks (and perhaps the wifi), but there's also a small selection of sandwiches, pastries and cakes for the hungry. We shared a sweetly homely apple slice with vanilla sauce on our second visit. ____________ Michael did just enough forward planning to secure us a 2pm Saturday booking at Sandro Kallio . Whil...

May 16, 2016 Before we cover eating around Helsinki, I want to talk about Tallinn. It turns out that Estonia's capital is no more than a two-hour boat ride from Helsinki and our airbnb hosts and Michael's Finnish colleagues urged us to take a day to visit its Old Town. Indeed we were completely charmed by Tallinn's architecture, from its 13th century walls (pictured bottom of post) to the well-maintained pastel-hued shops and the orthodox churches. Happy Cow also pointed us towards the instructively named Vegan Restoran V for lunch. Even as we arrived at their noon opening their cozy indoor seating was almost booked out - clearly they have a good reputation. We started out with bubbly drinks in fancy glasses and distinctly Estonian nutty brown bread; Michael made sure this was all gobbled up before our meals arrived and the staff kindly supplied more. As we picked through the rest of the menu, I wasn't sure what to order. The dips and cashew cheeses of the starters lis...

May 1-14, 2016 Weeks 3 and 4 of my Stockholm trip were split by Cindy's arrival and our long weekend in Basel . Before we met up I ate my way through a big pile of leftover Singapore noodles and squeezed in a couple of quick outings. I worked at home on Wednesday and wandered the neighbourhood in search of lunch, settling on Bengali street food at Gossip . It's run by the same people who run Shanti (see below) and was buzzing at 12:30 on a sunny Wednesday. I nabbed a seat in the window and ordered the Monsoon rain sabji from the lunch menu - it's a combination of veggies (carrot, zucchini, sweet peas, pumpkin), lentils, papaya and a mildly spicy sauce, served with salad, rice and a fried egg. The standard lunch also includes a mango lassi and at 90 krona ($15), it's pretty decent value. That evening I met up with some work friends for a speedy bird photography outing to Djurgården and we continued on afterwards for dinner together at Calexico's in Hornstull. It of...

May 9, 2016 In Stockholm Michael's been living in a cute airbnb lined with books. The kitchen is small but handy, and a much cheaper alternative to eating out. There's a supermarket just across the street. On my first full day in town he set off to the university and I stayed in to do my own work, agreeing to organise dinner.  I noticed that Michael had a packet of mock chorizo sausages in the fridge. They inspired me to do something I don't do often at all - look up recipes that contain meat. A page on BBC Good Food gave me a pretty good idea of what omnivores tend to do with chorizo. The recipe that most appealed to me seemed intended for brunch. It's a simple but substantial saute of baby potatoes, capsicum, onion and chorizo, all topped with a fried egg. It reminded me of the fabulous hashes served up at Smith & Daughters. Since we didn't need to eat all four serves straight up, I did all of the chopping and potato-boiling but held over half the ingredie...

May 5-8, 2016 Michael and I have reunited in Basel, sharing a long weekend with some old friends who've been living in Switzerland for a decade. It was especially warm and sunny so we went on walks, visited museums, played games in parks and indoors with cards. We ate barbecued vegetables, breads and cheeses and ice creams. We also ate out a few times - here are the cafes and restaurants we tried. ____________ While the kids had swimming lessons, Michael and I roamed the town, taking in the markets, the architecture, and a youth choir festival running events in numerous nooks. We stopped strategically for lunch at Tibits , a chain of vegetarian restaurants with outlets all over Switzerland, plus one in London. Most of the food is buffet style and many labels included English translations on the back. It wasn't too daunting to pick up a plate, serve ourselves what appealed, and pay by weight at the counter. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of fresh, colourful vegetables...

April 29-30, 2016 Good Days has opened so unobtrusively next to the Cornish Arms that I was at risk of overlooking it. Luckily for me, several friends tagged me into their Broadsheet coverage so I was soon in the know. I even managed to catch a cold, all the better to assess the restorative properties of their vegan pho. The menu and venue are both small but carefully curated - there are rice paper rolls, pho, noodle salad and chicken rice, with well-marked vegan options on the former three. No hints for coeliacs; I'm hopeful the rice paper rolls might suit. On my first visit I tried the mushroom pho ($15). The overall effect was very gentle, from the subtly flavoured broth to the lightly braised and grilled mushrooms, bean sprouts and herbs (there was chilli and a lemon wedge on hand for a bit of bite). My favourite part was the thick, slippery noodles. I was also delighted to order and pour my own Vietnamese iced coffee ($4.50, pictured back). It wasn't as bitter as I...

April 23-30, 2016 Week 2 in Stockholm involved a little less eating out - I cooked up a few old favourites in the kitchen at home, but still found time to get out and about a bit. I took advantage of a gloriously sunny afternoon on Tuesday to revisit Herman's - a classic stop on any veggie tour of Stockholm. The key attraction is the beautiful view over the harbour, but the 120kr ($19.70) buffet is excellent value as well. I had two full plates of deliciousness, including a couple of different curries, some pizza slices, lasagne, salads, veggie sand some weird little sweet mock-meat cubes. There's nothing fancy about the Herman's dining experience, but there's a huge range of food and the prices are very reasonable (at least when you approach with the two-plate enthusiasm that I did). Wednesday I had a gap between work and netball, so I dropped by Lao Wai to see if it was still as excellent as I remembered it . It's definitely still as popular - even turning by...