james test

July 16, 2016 I spent much of this week eating badly - pizza, toasties and other kinds of yellow food lacking any real vegetables. Desperate to get something a bit fresher into my body, I turned to Isa Does It - a book loaded with wonderful fresh recipes. Isa's bowl recipes are particularly sure-fire, and this had just the combo of simplicity and pizazz that I was looking for. It's super easy - even easier if you don't make your own guacamole (although I can recommend making the version in Isa Does It - it's worth the small amount of effort). Otherwise you just cook the quinoa and speedily heat up the rest, with the wine and garlic being absorbed into the spinach as it wilts. Adding some hot sauce brings some boldness to an otherwise pretty mild dish, but even without it this is a winning dish. Spinach and black bean burrito bowl (slightly adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Isa Does It ) 2 tablespoons olive oil 200g baby spinach leaves 2 cans black beans, draine...

July 11-17, 2016 From Washington DC, I took a bus to Morgantown, West Virginia. I'd spend the week working in a quiet office, and the nights lodging in a cottage just across the border in Pennsylvania. I did not expect that I'd gather any material for this food blog. How wrong I was! In Mount Morris PA I met Jenny. Jenny runs Rising Creek Bakery , a business that's preserving a little-known traditional of salt rising bread. Rather than yeast, salt rising bread uses some combination of potatoes, cornmeal, flour, salt and/or sugar in hot water or milk. These ingredients form a starter, fermented at around 40°C to form the bread leavening. By all accounts it gets very stinky! But a stinky starter leads to a distinctly appetising, aromatic loaf that smells like toasted cheese. I picked up one of these loaves and also borrowed a copy of Jenny (aka Genevieve Bardwell) and Susan Ray Brown's brand new book, called Salt Rising Bread. The book is an affectionate and well-researc...

July 7-9, 2016 As my week in Washington went on, I ventured a little further on foot and via the Metro. This allowed me to track down some of the more hip veg-focused eateries hidden around the city. ____________ The first was the aptly-named HipCityVeg , an all-vegan burger joint near Chinatown. It's light and bright, with an emphasis on nutrition, sustainable practices and keeping it cruelty-free. The burgers are based around mock meats, mushrooms or tofu, fries are made from sweet potatoes, and their kale lemonade is promoted over the modest range of sodas. I got myself acquainted with a Disco Chick'n burger (US$9.55 ~ AU$12.75). I loved the sturdy multigrain bun, bit o' spice on the mock chicken, smoked tempeh strips, pickles, soy mayo, lettuce and tomatoes (and picked out what little raw onion was included). It was the fun kind of messy, not turning soggy or disintegrating completely. My soy-based vanilla milkshake (US$5.65 ~ AU$7.55) was sweet and slushy. I could bare...

July 9, 2016 We had a pretty decent breakfast at A Fan's Notes last year , but it was a pretty low-key brunch place at the time, so I was surprised when I read on facebook that they'd started doing fancy degustations on the weekends. They take it week about: meaty one week and vegan the next. I hit up the vegan night with a couple of friends to try things out. You get five courses for a very reasonable $40, and they've got a good selection of vegan beer and wine to accompany the food. The staff are casual and friendly, and the atmosphere is still more dive bar than fine-dining, which suits me down to the ground. Onto the food! The first course was a sesame and peanut crusted rice paper roll, with enoki, pickled cucumber, burnt eggplant and miso dressing. This was a fancy twist on a a classic - crunch from the cauliflower and peanut, and a lovely mix of smokiness and umami from the eggplant and miso.  Next up was probably my favourite dish of the night: heirloom carrots, pol...

July 4-6, 2016 This year I was in Washington DC for the 4th of July. Lodged in a hotel just blocks from the US Capitol, I anticipated garish, crowded celebrations and mawkish patriotism. I found little of it, just the floats pictured above and a glimpse of the evening's telecast. At this time of year the National Mall actually hosts a Folklife Festival that casts a spotlight on another country and culture. In 2016 the festival presented Basque culture. We witnessed metalsmithing, pottery, stone-cutting, boat construction, weaving, painting, cheese-smoking, sports, singing and some truly unique performance. It was tough to imagine what was to come as we watched a troop of men (pictured above, click to embiggen), in what looked like petticoats and soft dancing shoes, lacing each other into furry coats as if they were corsets and strapping enormous bells onto their backs. Joaldunak proved very entertaining, and gave a friendly, generous translated interview about their village tradit...

June 28-July 3, 2016 I didn't just cloister myself away in Seattle's all-veg restaurants (or indeed, the city itself) during my stay. I was also inducted into the world of baseball, witnessing the Seattle Mariners defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates. I'd expected that the refreshments would be restricted to hot dogs and beer and I swooped on these Dirty Tots as soon as I saw them - the 'tater tots are scattered with surprisingly sharp, soft cheese, pickled peppers and, if you're not me, bacon. I washed them down with the smallest Mountain Dew I could find and tried not to notice the oil pooling in the bottom of the tray. Actually, there was a broader variety of food than I'd expected - I noticed wood-fired pizzas, tacos and even a Thai noodle stand further around Safeco Field. I was delighted to match up the real baseball experience with what little I'd learned from The Simpsons - the organ music, the spruiker throwing bags of peanuts and, on my way out, evidence...

June 25-30, 2016 Hello from the U S of A! I'm visiting four places for a week apiece for work reasons, and finding scraps of time around that for sight-seeing and fun eating. My first stop has been Seattle, a new city for me. I was based in the U(niversity) District, which had a relaxed school's-out-for-summer atmosphere and affordable, veg-friendly restaurants. Here's a run-down of the exclusively-vegetarian places I checked out. I arrived on a Saturday evening - the late sunlight allowed me time to shower and get my bearings, then settle in for a modest meal at Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe . With mosaics on the walls and sprouts on the menu, this place has clear hippy roots. It offers the distinctly American suite of soups, sandwiches and salads, plus some bowls and breakfasts. There's French toast and a little seitan, but the vibe is overwhelmingly wholesome.... just what I needed after 26 hours of airports and planes. I tried an Artichoke Melt half-sandwich (US$10.20 ~...