Best Weekend Ever Part I

Last Weekend was totally awesome.

It started on Thursday night. My friend Matt got some last minute free tickets to see LCD Soundsystem and took me with him. I was totally stoked because I wanted to see them but couldn't afford it. We drank Cooper's Lager cans and danced our arses off to Losing My Edge (check out this live video)/Get Innocuous/All My Friends in Festival Hall's Jurassic Park style enclosure:


Friday night, K and I went to Disco Beans again for more vegan gluten-free friendly Japanese Food. There were more choices on the menu than our last two visits. First thing that caught K's eyes was the vegan Double Decker Ice-cream Sundae Parfaits but unfortunately it was not gluten-free.

I picked the gluten-free/vegan version of Shoyu Ramen:

The soup base was authentically light and clear. There were plenty of seaweed, black sesames, snap peas, carrots, spring onions and tofu in the bowl. It tasted quite different from the Shoyu Ramen I had before, probably because they made it gluten-free for K (Shoyu means soy sauce in Japanese) and the noodles were replaced by rice noodles.

K ordered the Tofu Don (vegan and gluten-free):

Both of us loved the in-your-face flavour of the ginger sauce. It went very well with the tofu steak and Sushi rice. K normally would not eat salad greens but she ate lots of it because of the yummy Miso dressing.

Highlight of the dinner was the Strawberry Fields Forever cake (Vegan and gluten-free):

"Strawberry Fields Forever cake" was the best raw vegan cheesecake I've had. It was mainly made of cashews, coconut and strawberries. I loved the contrast of the delicate melt-in-the-mouth refreshing strawberry bits and the rich crumb crust.

Read about our first encounter with Disco Beans.

Disco Beans
238 High St, Northcote
Open Wed-Sun noon-3pm and 5.30-9.30pm

On my walkman:
This is Happening - LCD Soundsystem

Coming next:
Best Weekend Ever Part II - Daiya vegan cheese and Craig's sunday roast.

Baby Shower Cupcakes and Disaster Day

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster day, first I went for a jog (with Lisa) and came home to discover that we did not have any water, which meant nothing to drink and no shower for sweaty me. I wasted a good 45 minutes, talking to the neighbours, calling the water company and just wondering how I was going to manage to get everything done before the 2pm baby shower. It was going to be a rushed as it was, but the lack of water made it worse and I really did feel sweaty, dehydrated and gross. It also made making cupcakes tricky since we really needed to do dishes. Toby suggested that I abandon making them which in hindsight would have been a good idea, except I had stayed up the night before making baby shower decorations: prams and bottles (from a mould from here) which would have been wasted. Somehow though we got them made with lots of swearing, heaps of paper towels and antibacterial hand wipes wasted. It really did make a masterchef pressure test seem easy, they at least have water and clean measuring cups/spoons.

Although we really needed to do dishes to make icing and desperately needed a shower before heading off to the baby shower. I was all packed and ready to go to Cindy and Michael's who kindly said yes to me showering and making the icing there when the water finally come back on. It was only when the icing was done that I tried a cupcake with a bit of icing and discovered that the cupcakes had the bitter after taste of quinoa, which isn't exactly a flavour that I wanted in my cupcakes. I had made the chocolate gluten free cupcakes from vctotw, so not sure what went wrong or if it just that quinoa flour sucks. We also couldn't find a crucial part to my icing gun so couldn't pipe the icing like I normally do.

But it gets worse! I arrived at the baby shower with my pink horrible tasting cupcakes and then realised about 5 minutes into the baby shower that actually my friend was having a boy, not a girl, which meant my cupcakes, 'baby girl' wrapping paper and present were all a little inappropriate. And based on the expressions on saw on people's faces and a few comments I'm pretty sure that I was not alone in my dislike for the taste, they really did suck.

The one pic Toby took as I was running around like crazy trying to head out the door:
The leftovers, a little worse for wear:

Veg Out Time

The other day, I was with K shopping in South Yarra. I felt kind of funny in the Republic of Orange-coloured People but was happy to see an old friend on Chapel street: Veg Out Time.

We both missed the food as we haven't been back since Vegan Fitness Week. We could both enjoy their cheap, fast, yummy, vegan and gluten-free food.

You can get half a plate of brown/white rice with two dishes from the Bain-Marie for $9 or three dishes for $10.

I had Yellow Tofu, Mapo Tofu and stir-fried Chinese greens with garlic. They were all full of flavour and, relatively, healthy. Yellow Tofu is my all time favourite. It is basically a very mild Malaysian style curry with mushroom and tofu. I order it every single time I go there.


K ordered Eggplant Masala and some sort of other curry. I tasted them both and thought they are both yum but a little bit too spicy for me.


Vegan options are clearly marked but you would need to ask them what is gluten-free.

If you don't like Bain-Marie food, you can also order fried noodles/rice dishes from the menu.

Veg Out Time
8/63 Fitzroy St, St Kilda
(03) 9534 0077
Open Daily 12pm-10pm

366 Chapel Street, South Yarra
(03) 9827 7570
Open Daily 11:30am-10pm

On the Stereo:
Good Morning Spider by Sparklehorse

Gluten free lunch options

I thought it might be helpful to share some g/f vegan options for lunch since this was one thing I was a little stuck with in the beginning. Generally we tend to make enough dinner so that we have leftovers for lunch for the following day. But when I have training at work or we eat out for dinner than lunch can be a bit more tricky since I can't just grab a sandwich. Here are a few options that I've come across and tried:

Lazuppa spinach and chickpea soup, it heats up in a can which is handy. All of the Lazuppa soups are g/f and most of the veg options appear to be vegan. This was ok, I like the protein addition of chickpeas, but I added more salt and pepper and served it with flavoured rice cakes. I think without rice cakes I would be left pretty hungry.

Rice spaghetti with tomato and basil sauce. I got this from Absolutely gluten free but they are actually made in Italy. I love this become you can just add hot water (or microwave) but the guy at the shop told me it's better when you add hot water. Also, it comes with a little fork and napkin which is great for training or holidays when you don't have microwave access. The noodles itself are quite nice and the sauce is a typical tomato based sauce, it's not amazing but it's tasty and convenient enough that I don't mind. If teamed with a muesli bar then I'm full.

Pattu Potato and Green Pea Curry with garlic papadums. This curry is way too spicy for me, but I enjoyed the garlic papadums. I know there are many varieties of these ready to serve Indian curries, so if you have tried some that are really mild, especially those with rice please let me know.

Other things that I have taken include rice paper rolls, g/f bread (with toaster bags) so I can make toast with g/f baked beans and rice cakes really are my best friend. I have eaten them with cheezly, aussie-mite, nooch, peanut butter and the flavoured ones just plain for breakfast, lunch and just as snacks.

If you have taken other g/f vegan lunch ideas for work I would love to hear about them.

Lakshmi Vilas Vegetarian Take Away

Several weeks ago, Erin and I embarked on our own little op shop tour, so she could show me her fav op shops near her new workplace, we went to about five large op shops around dandenong and Noble Park. It was a great day, but by about 4pm we had worked up a nice appetitie, so upon her recommendation decided to give Lakshmi Villas a go. It's a small Indian vegetarian cafe on one of the mains streets in Dandenong, not far from Dandenong Savers. Excuse my phone pics.

It has a small bain-maree selection of curries and a small but very affordable menu:

I had the masala dosa, which has become my fav Indian dish since going g/f since it's generally g/f although it's worth double checking since I have found one place that mixes the rice flour with wheat flour. For $7 this one comes with the usual soupy type sauce, a spiced tomato based chutney and typically a coconut based chutney. Since they had ran out of the coconut chutney, she offered me an extra side, and I choose the chickpea curry. The masala dosa itself was superb, crispy, with the right amount of chilli in the spiced potatos although I'm yet to meet a dosa I haven't liked. I could tell though that creamy coconut chutney though would have finished off the dish perfectly. It left me slightly hungry which was good since it was so close to dinner time and I was going out for dinner afterwards. But if I was going there for lunch at a regular time then I might order an extra dish, although Erin has warned against having the masala dosa and the set meal.
Erin chose one of the set menu items which comes with 3 curries, rice and papadums. And being the lovely friend that she is, she allowed me to try each of them. She had a potato curry, which reminded me more of regular roasted potatoes rather than Indian curries but was crunchy and delicious, the same chickpea curry that I had and a nicely spiced dhal.
It reminds me a lot of Ganaesha Villas, just such a shame it's so far away from the Northern suburb where I live, otherwise it really would become a regular place for me. I can't believe that I couldn't find any reference to it in a blogger search, apart from Keira's reference to their coconut chutney.

Lakshmi Vilas
5/31 Pultney St
Dandenong
9793 7726
Tue-Sun 11-8pm.

2010 Awards

This year Aduki has teamed up with Uproar to bring you the 2010 veg friendly awards. So go vote for your favourite veg or veg friendly restaurants and products here.

It took me ages to decide but Trippy Taco ended up earning a couples of votes from me.

Upcoming chocolate vegan cookbook...

Those of you who went to the g/f potluck, may remember Keira's standout amazing caramel slice. She is working on a vegan chocolate themed cookbook which includes the caramel slice recipe, as well as recipes for cheesecakes, fudge and much more. I have been lucky enough to test out a few of the g/f recipes, yes several recipes are g/f! I've made a couple of things so far but this is the only one that I took photos of. It is chocolate hazelnut slice, which has buckwheat flour in it. This was my first time using buckwheat flour in a dessert and I was pretty pleased that you couldn't taste the buckwheat. This slice was pretty easy to make and is delicious. It also makes a great dessert for sharing and is just as tasty the next day.

Between this recipe and the caramel slice recipe, I've already decided that this cookbook is a winner. I can't wait til it comes out!