Praise the Non-Seitan

Usually I'm not a lover of fake meats, I try a new product for the novelty of it, and if it's good, maybe have it every 2-3 months. But a few weeks ago, in Wing Yip, I found my addiction:

TKC is a Malaysian company that makes fake meat/fish that tastes pretty authentic and is very easy to cook with, but doesn't freak you out because even if the texture is good, it's clear it's not real meat. Plus, they don't include a billion additives, most is soy-based.

I'm addicted to the "chicken breast" and the "Satay", and last week I bought their fake cod, which is flavoured with seaweed and the "skin" is a sheet of nori- pure heaven and finally something to take care of my fish cravings.

Couldn't take any pictures of the cod because it was scoffed instantly, but here's the prawns (not authentic-looking at all, the other varieties you can buy with their intense red/pink colouring are quite creepy, no?) with soba and some stir-fried mizuna:


And today's breakfast (miso soup not photographed), pretty easy to tell what's what. The chicken is seriously addictive!!!


I haven't seen the products anywhere else, but if you're in the UK, Wing Yip has their megastores in London (Croydon and Cricklewood), Birmingham and Manchester.

Purple risotto and mock duck from hell!

It sounds vile, and it was. Anne and I had another geeky computer night planned- with a trip to the local Christmas market with co-workers and then some cooking before.

I found this awesome-looking recipe for purple risotto with red cabbage and oranges at chefkoch.de ( I have to admit, it was the orange monster in the picture that intrigued me) and thought the mock duck fillets I had ordered from veganwonderland would match it perfectly.


Hell, somebody told me to buy them because they were supposed to be awesome. Looking at the package, I was slightly scared because although they were made of seitan, they looked too "real" to me.

Anyway, it had a horrible smell - and taste- like some chemical that shouldn't be in there according to the ingredients list. It turned nice and crispy on the outside, but stayed rubbery and yucky on the inside. Anne only tried a bit, but I was brave and at the whole thing, mainly because I had the price in the back of my mind. Half of the package is left, and I tossed it deep down into our freezer at work...

The risotto has some potential, though, I think I'll toy with the recipe at bit during my Xmas holidays (did I mention? 2 weeks off, including Xmas in Munich and New Year's Eve in London! Please don't tell my ecological footprint *_* ).

But there were tasty things too, this week:

Quick veggie paella that I came up with last Sunday, without a recipe. I've never really made paella before, but I liked how this turned out.

The biggest surprise was when my omni-co-workettes made cookies the weekend before, they whipped up a batch of vegan ones for me! Actually, three different sorts of cookies. Isn't that awesome? Boss liked them, too!

My Vegan Asian Takeaway

- well, almost, if I lived in Düsseldorf. But good news is that Jade's also delivers within the city so I could order in from work :)

As couple of weeks ago I read that a Chinese diner in Bilk had changed to all vegetarian (mostly vegan) options after being a regular omni place for ten years or so.

Two weeks ago, I finally went there and was thrilled- though it's got the size and atmosphere of a small greasy takeout place (there are five or six seats available, ok but far away from comfortable or fancy), they've got all the fake meat/fish options, authentic Thai cuisine and some creative own fusion food dished at reasonable prices.

Not to forget a slightly wonky but charming chef and a piggy on top of the fridge:


For starters, I had the second-best Tom Yum soup in my life, and I've had a lot of it. I nearly choked on this one when Chrissy asked me who this "Tom Yum guy" is and told me it sounds like it's the name of an Asian foodie ^^


Then I ordered a Thai curry with seitan and fake bacon... I know, boring choices but both are my favourite Thai dishes and it's easy to judge a restaurant's quality by these items. The fake bacon was a bit too realistic to me, the seitan good and the veggies awesome.

Chrissy had some mock duck and veggie stir fry dish with an ovo-vegetarian fish patty that I can't review (the only downside of the place- fake fish is made with egg, anything else is or can be ordered to be made vegan).


I also had a Bionade, paid 10 € and left the place stuffed and happy, planning to return very soon (hopefully this Friday!).

Sorry for the crappy pictures, we went directly after work so I didn't take my camera.

For anybody who's in the area and would like to check out the place, this is their website with the complete menu.

Au lac

I'm not a big fan of fake meats- or protein-food in general, but have this urge to try any vegan product available on the market.

Now that I've grown fond of the fake meat dishes many London restaurants have to offer, it seems one of the Asian grocery stores in Krefeld started carrying products from Au Lac- a company of whose products I recognized many as the ones I ate in London.

It's a Vietnamese company that seems to export foods all over the world.
I've at least tried some of their chicken, beef and shrimp alternatives. Some seem to be great, other gross ("vegetarian intestines of chicken"... excatly what we were waiting for, huh?)
Does anybody else use their products and if, what can you recommend?
I'd love to here the recipes.

I tried cooking with the mushroom/seaweed dumplings last week and it wasn't a big sucess. The texture was very gum-like and they wouldn't heat through. At least the dish made a pretty picture.

Yesterday I tried the shrimps which I had marinated in olive oil with garlic and chilli and they were amazing (sorry, no pics yet!).