Bye-bye, Brunch!

... at least for the next two months, the potluck-style vegan brunch that I've come to love in the last months will be closed.

One thing I like best about veganism is socializing with other vegans, though the capitalism-critical little punk in me tells me not to do so in commercial places. Plus, I consider myself a good home cook so I'm mostly dissappointed by the bland, hippy-reminiscent food most vegetarian places in Germany sell for mucho €€€.

In January, I discovered the monthly vegan brunch in Düsseldorf, which is organized by a former VoKü group (something like the German FNB, though I'll talk about FNB later). It's non-profit, though they charge 2.50 € (which is nothing compared to another vegan place in town that takes 12.90 € O_O !!!), and anybody can bring their own stuff as long as it's vegan.

The venue is the sort of run-down autonomic leftist centre which also has a lovely yard where you can sit when the weather is great- as it was last weekend, also perfect lighting for food pictures (we tried photographing the buffet inside, but it was waaay to dark).

Beware of messy food pics!

Kick-ass tiramisu. Must remember not to mix it with couscous and chickpea salad on a plate next time. The recipe is the best! You can find it on their website (among other recipes, if you read German), but I plan on making it myself sometime soon and posting about it.


Rachel knew better and got herself tiramisu AND streusel cake:


A small relief considering the summer break is that they had a little zine with recipes on offer- post to come for sure (yeah I didn't mean to promote Vegan Fire & Spice again, but so what?)!







It was an amazingly hot spring day, so we decided to walk through the infamous Altstadt and by the Rhine, where I took the picture of the day:


On Sunday night, we're off to Bochum to see what their Food not Bombs group is up to (anybody who'd like to join us is more than welcome!).

Now do tell me all about your brunch/potluck/whatnot non-commercial vegan thingies, I'd love to hear about it!

Picnic at the BM

That's right. When I had planned my birthday meetup with people of veganforum, I thought of a mellow springy picnic in the park.

Alas, spring played a trick and surprised us with cliché London weather- foggy, breezy and raining at times.

Still, us stubborn vegans wanted our picnic, so we found out there's a picnic area in the British Museum. When we arrived, we had to learn that said area is actually UNDER the museum and meant for families with kids, being called the "young visitor centre".
Dammit, we ARE young, aren't we?

And so we wandered off to the catacombs of the British museum where we were greeted by mice, winged children and healthy vending machines.

I didn't take any pictures of the grub, so thanks for Michael for letting me borrow some of his.

Everybody brought sausage rolls. Or at least three people.




Coleslaw


We also had falafel, chocolate (see the above picture of Mon Cherie- German alcoholic chocolates that had an unexpected effect on some usually non-drinking vegans), crisps, wieners, muffins, a quinoa pilaf, guacamole and crackers, various fruit... and Stu's infamous Poo cake of which I regret not posting a picture. You must know that Poo cake is a dessert-y gluten-free cream cheese cake that looks like poo, but tastes like chocolate goodness.

Please post lots of comments so there's enough pressure on the bloke to finally share the recipe (he told me it's made of poo and cake. helpful, huh?).

To put in a nutshell, the day was awesome, certainly one of the best bday parties I've had.
I also brought my mystery girlfriend (mind the eyelashes, it's a girl):

This week in bento

It was one of the biweekly weeks where I have to attend vocational school twice- Wednesday and Fridays, which makes both my work and private life totally stressful and crazy.

What makes those teachers think it's a good idea to give people who already work 10-12 hrs a day homework?
(probably the fact that they are teachers and have never worked in events management...)

I barely cooked at all this week, but at least I managed to pack a proper bento on the days without school.

The laziest of them... when I went to denn's last week, they had a special offer for mexican-style tofu "spring rolls". They are huge and filled with seasoned tofu, corn, tomato and red bell pepper.
While I usually don't use those vegan convenient products, I had to try them and have to say that I don't regret it. It's 100% not authentic Mexican, but that's probably what I loved about them.
The roll was so filling that I only had some olives, apple, tomato and cucumber to munch along.


I picked up the simple 800ml white bento box at Muji in Düsseldorf. I had planned to go there for ages, but never got round to it. Call me an official Muji addict now!
They also have shops in many other cities, so check those boxes out.

This one has rice, tomato quarters, TVP and bok choy sesame stirfry, kiwi and apple dice and some coconut bread.


The size of the box is just perfect for me- my regular 2-tier boxes hold 580 ml, and I always need ~200-250 ml more for fruit and a treat in order to be full. 800ml boxes rule. I think I should get one of those "men's" bento boxes as they typically hold 700-900 ml.


Wednesday's school bento had a quick calzone with mushroom, zucchini and dried tomato filling cut in half, more apple, tomato and cucumber and some whole hazelnut chocolate. I wasn't satisfied with the looks of it, though. There's so much empty space!


As a bonus, two more bento I made last week.

Leftover Vegan Fire & Spice Asian Fusion noodles with hot sauce in the teddy container, two slices of banana bread (better than cake, better than bread... it's banana bread!) and some kiwi.


This might look boring and is not kawaii at all, but I loved the flavours. One tier has rotellini with garlic, olive oil and nutrional yeast, the other pesto-marinated olives, Julie Hasson's Italian sausage slices and quickly sautéed zucchini with balsamic vinegar. Even the thought of this one makes my mouth water again, so I'll probably try a combination like that again for Monday's bento.

Vegan Fire and Spice

It's been almost two months since I received my copy of Vegan Fire and Spice, Robin Robertson's "new" book.
"New" because it's actually a reprint of an ovo-lacto cookbook she released a couple of years ago, though now it's all vegan and 25 new recipes have been added.

As I said when writing about the V-con, I mainly cook ethnic foods and try to be authentic. I will cook and eat more "traditional" Western foods, but to make me a happy foodie, give me Asian/Africa/Middle-Eastern/whatnot.
If you like this way of cooking, you will love Robin's books ( I also own Vegan Planet and Quick-Fix Vegetarian, which is actually all vegan).

As I love hot and spicy foods, I had to get this book, even though I had vowed not to buy any more cookbooks in 2008.

I don't regret it, not at all. Vegan Fire and Spice totally hit my foodie spot.

The book is divided in different chapters geographically, so there is:

• the Americas
• Mediterranean Europe
• The Middle East and Africa
• India
• Asia

It also has a lovely introduction with info about all sorts of different chillis, peppers and spices and some basic cooking information (think tempeh, seitan, tofu, vegetable broth).

Still, I realized I'm really spoiled when it comes to the terms "spicy" and "hot", due to Indian and Thai friends.
The recipes themselves are not searing hot, but I assume still unusual to the "standard"
Western palate.

Anyhow, here's a selection of what I made (and managed to snatch photos of). Enjoy!



Curried Mushrooms with rice, from the Indian section. This has shrooms, coconut milk, tomatoes and ginger. Need I say more? It was so easy and tasty. I had the leftovers with pasta in my bento the next day. This will become one of my standard recipes, I'm sure.



Another standard recipe of mine is harira. I have a friend with Morrocan heritage, so I know many variations of this traditional soup eaten to end the fasting month of ramadan. He approved of Robin's version and so did I. It's a very simple soup with chickpeas and red lentils, a nice staple-no-veg-at-home-dish, though totally unphotogenic.


Asian Fusion Noodles. As the title suggest, not authentic. I found it bland and didn't really like it, but friends and their kids did love it. I'm a total Asian food snob, sorry.

I also made the Hunan Fried Rice that everybody was raving about. That's why I followed the recipe very closely... and to be honest, it was ok, but I don't see what's so special or amazing about it. Maybe Asian restaurants in Europe make their fried rice totally different?
However, it was good in my bento the next day with some hot sauce in the birdie container. The other tier has steamed broccoli, tomato and some carrot strips.



This is the most versatile, tastierst and easiest recipe I made from the book so far.
Middle Eastern Chickpea soup with tomato salad and olives. I didn't amp up the heat in this recipe because it was 150% percent perfect as is.
This was so easy and made a lovely meal with some warm pita bread. I can imagine leaving out/ using less of the cayenne and feeding it to kids.

Ramen Noodle Days

If life gives you lemons, have yourself some MSG-infused student noodle soup!

Just when I thought I'd start a blooming life as a celebrity food blogger, some unexpected shiitake came into my way. I have to sort out how to make lemonade of it this week but hope to post some food stuff soon, only need time to upload those pics and all.

Until then, have fun with 101 Things to Do with Ramen Noodles!