T.O.F.U magazine

TOFU magT.O.F.U: living and breathing vegan in a world that smells fishy is a new quarterly magazine from Canada.

T.O.F.U. is a mixed-bag of vegan articles. Issue two (buckle my shoe) features extended interviews with vegans as diverse as rocker Zach Blair from Rise Against and Marnie Feelus from Winnipeg, the founder of Fresh Option Organic Delivery (FOOD). Also in the mix were discussions on feminism, animal supremacy and new welfarism, stencil art, news and reviews. The ‘Gallivanting’ section appeals to the travelling vegan, with an account of cycling in Middle America, info on eating in Italy, and a helpful food guide to the Pacific Northwest.

Not surprisingly for a vegan magazine, food is always but a page or two away. There are quite a few quick and healthy recipes with a focus on few ingredients and simple preparation - except the banana creamtastic pie, which is pure indulgence. The ‘Fuck You McDonald’s Breakfast’ Breakfast of tofu and vegetables also looks particularly appealing.

T.O.F.U. is a thoughtful publication with a DIY aesthetic and a strong Canadian bent. It is available in book-like print format or as a digital download for just a couple of bucks.

T.O.F.U. Magazine
First published aduki mag, May 08

Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka Vegan Restaurant Pocket Guide

japan travel guideThe first book from Children of the Carrot publishers, this restaurant guide lists over forty veg-friendly eateries in Japan, a country not exactly known for its vegan credentials.

Each restaurant listed has a map, some info about the place, an indication of whether it’s vegan or veg-friendly, opening hours and select menu items with prices. The pictures included, though small, will have you drooling for everything from traditional shojin ryori (Buddhist temple food) to vegan kariage (crispy deep-fried ‘chicken’ pieces).

The guide is bilingual, listing information in English and Japanese directly side by side. This was done so Japanese people could also use the guide, though language-confused foreigners will appreciate being able to point to translations to communicate their food needs.

Although only three major cities are covered in the guide, there is a small survival guide section with tips, hints and language lessons to help no matter where you travel. How to request noodles without fish stock, what brand of icecream is vegan and which items are safe to choose from a sushi train are all invaluable tools for the travelling vegan.

Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka Vegan Restaurant Pocket Guide,
by Herwin Walravens

First published aduki, May 08

Tofu Warriors

There is a lot of annoying-to-vegans stuff going on at the moment, or so it seems. Maybe I’m having a bad hair week but these kinds of people are really giving me the shits:

Sunday Magazine, that article you published on vegan fanaticism was totally stupid. And it didn’t even make sense. I mean, apart from the fact that it painted a comfortable little picture of vegans being weird, fanatical freaks, it was really poorly written. (That offends me as much as anything.) Newsflash, not all vegans have fridges filled with ‘wall to wall soy products’. And how long was the author vegan for anyway? The start of the article makes it sound like years, the middle like a week. Stephen Lacey, did you ever think that it’s not veganism that’s freaky, it’s you and your inability to handle your diet? I guess it’s not really surprising that Sunday Magazine would run a story like that, given the attitude of their general demographic, as represented in the comments section here. But still.

Then there’s the annoying tofu-bashing going on at Thursday Night Smackdown. Tofu = freaky vegans, in case you’ve been hiding from the media and general public for the last decade. What’s really annoying about this blog post is that the author choose an especially complicated vegan recipe, used an ingredient he doesn’t even like, oversalted the eggplant for 45 minutes, then pretty much blames veganism for his inability to enjoy the finished product. Truly amazing reasoning skills, there.

The New York Times ran a piece that’s getting a fair bit of internet airplay, Putting Meat Back In Its Place. The author makes some good points, but also some shitty ones. ‘Once in a while, forget the rules and pledges, and eat like a real American; obviously you can’t do this every time, but it’s an option.’ Because real Americans (and Aussies!) eat meat. Tomato put out an Aussie manifesto along the same lines. ‘ 7. Look at restaurant menus differently. Tricky. Most are meat or fish based.’ And this from a Melbourne foodie. Melbourne, a city veritably flooded with vegan and vegetarian-friendly eateries. Sure, it’s tough if you only ever eat out at steakhouses, but why would you do that? Props to Mark Bittman for debunking the protein myth, though.

And finally we come to PETA and KFC Canada. The main thing here is, why is PETA (dedicated to animal rights) supporting a move by a giant corporation to be less cruel and less exploitative? Less cruel is still cruel! It’s like saying that a little bit of paedophilia is ok. ‘Well, um, he’s going to molest small boys less often… that’s good, right?’ Right. And what vegan in their right mind is going to walk into KFC and order a fake chicken burger anyway? The whole story just blows my mind. (If you’re interested in the story, I suggest downloading the latest episode of Vegan Freak Radio. Bob and Jenna make some excellent points.)

Right, I’m going to go and breathe into a brown paper bag for a while.

Dispatches From Hell

Part tongue-in-cheek self help guide, part love memoir, Dispatches From Hell: a vegan’s guide to love, sex, relationships and other suicidal tendencies goes where others have feared to tread: the world of vegan dating.

This is not an annoying how-to guide, though it is packed with helpful tips and ideas, from where to find vegan butt plugs to meeting non-vegan in-laws. It’s about love from a vegan perspective, though the ruminations on what love is and how difficult it can be to find it would strike a chord with most twenty–and thirty–somethings, regardless of their dietary status.

Dispatches From Hell makes a refreshing change from many books which focus solely on veganism. Sure, it’s an important topic but vegans are people too – music, sex and friendship are probably just as prominent in our priorities as our food choices are. Daniel Peyser understands that, and as a result his book comes from a place which is about loving as a vegan rather than veganism itself.

Sound serious? It’s not. Hilarious would be the more appropriate word. Daniel Peyser’s narrative style is conversational (one might say ‘zine-y’) and immensely enjoyable, even with his gratuitous use of footnotes. Not sold? There’s a whole chapter dedicated to sex, which settles the age-old ‘are blowjobs vegan’ debate – and more.

So whether you think you might get a voyeuristic thrill out of reading about the author’s failed relationships or want information on pleather bondage gear, grab a copy of this book. You’ll laugh all the way to the bedroom.

Dispatches From Hell: a vegan’s guide to love, sex, relationships and other suicidal tendencies
by Daniel Peyser
First published aduki, May 08

Savoury

I’ve been loving the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon that have been storming the vegan interweb. Theresa does hers fried and makes interesting variations, Cindy and Michael like them fried then baked and it seems that most people make them thicker than me. I like them made into small patties, pounded thin and straight-baked the best, though I’ll take them any way. I make them pretty much to the original recipe, except I usually use Weetbix instead of breadcrumbs and I leave out the sage.

chickpea cutlets

They taste great hot, or served cold with lettuce on toasted grain bread slathered with chutney (my preferred hangover cure). I also like to make cheesy pumpkin cutlets, where I use leftover mashed pumpkin and nooch instead of chickpeas.

sesame roast veggies

To go with them last night, I made a roast double potato bake based on this Nigella recipe. Well, it’s less of a recipe than it is a suggestion for how to do roast veggies. I left off the haloumi bake at the end and considered making a nooch sauce replacement, but I didn’t want to stuff around with the healthy and tasty qualities of the roast veggies too much. I added sesame seeds about halfway through the baking for a little extra zing and dressed them with a bit of salt from the roast onion (below).

baked onion

To cap off the meal I made a recipe adapted from one published in the Donna Hay liftout in yesterday’s Herald Sun. Her recipe called for four brown onions and five cups of rock salt (!) but I used one onion and half a cup of salt. Basically you just wash the onion and throw it into a baking dish, cover it in salt and roast it for about an hour and a half. It comes out very soft and sweet, almost caramelised-tasting. I ate the whole thing by myself, it was too good to share!

dinner

The result: a tasty long weekend dinner.

Sweets

Yesterday I was in the mood for baking. I made this amazing Raspberry Chocolate Cake (from fatfreevegan), except I used plum conserve instead of raspberry jam. It’s a really simple recipe and the cake comes out quite dense, incredibly moist and just the right amount of rich - satisfying but not too chocolately. The recipe calls for a minute or two of blending, but I didn’t have my trusty Bamix and couldn’t be bothered getting out mum’s massive Kitchen Aid so I did it by hand. There was still chunks of jam when I poured it into the baking tins but it ended up ok because the finished product had little pockets of jam in it. Yum.

chocolate cake

The recipe makes two 8″ cakes but rather than stick them together with jam as suggested, I iced one and popped the other one in the freezer. The icing was just sugar, Nuttelex, cocoa and hot water, mixed to a runny consistency and drizzled over the cake. It would also suit a simple dusting of icing sugar though.

I love, love, love halva but have never thought about making it myself. So I was thrilled when Vegan Dad put up a recipe for banana halwa. I was surprised to see that it has so few ingredients and is so easy to make. The result is a creamy, sweet, soft dessert that tastes great hot or cold - though as Vegan Dad points out, it’s hard to make it look good photographically.

halva

I halved Vegan Dad’s recipe, subbed agave for sugar (reducing the amount - it came out sweet enough). Adding some tahini gave it the real halva taste that I love.

Ingredients
1/2 tbs Nuttelex (or vegan margarine)
3 ripe bananas, sliced
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 tbsp tahini
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup toasted almonds

  • Melt Nuttelex over medium heat, add banana and fry for 5 mins. Take off heat and mash til smooth.
  • Return to heat and add 1/4 cup of water. Cook for 5 mins, stirring constantly. Add agave and the 1/2 cup water and bring to a low simmer. Cook for 15 mins, stirring almost-constantly until it becomes a thick, paste-like substance.
  • Remove from heat and stir through vanilla essence. Top with almonds and serve hot or cold.

Soup

Kristy has already written about the amazing soups from A Soup For All Seasons. Previously my soup repertoire was limited to pumpkin soup, mixed veggie mashup soup and dahl so it was a timely book for me to get coming into winter. I gravitated instantly towards the Suzy Q’s Sweet Potato and Lentil, those two ingredients being among my favourite things to cook with. I didn’t have any sweet potato handy though, so I subbed pumpkin. Like Kristy, I wondered if the soup would be a little bland because it doesn’t have much in the way of spices but the naturally sweet flavour of the ingredients was totally delicious.

pumpkin & lentil soup

The colour of the soup was kind of boring until the end, when I mashed the pumpkin and a glorious orange seeped out into the soup.

The next soup I made was Dutch Pea which totally blew me away. Again, simple ingredients of green split peas, celery and carrots created a hearty and moreish taste sensation. It was so good that mum cooked up a second batch the next day, doubling the recipe. I threw in some Sanitarium hot dogs (smoked vegan sausages are recommended in the recipe) but to be honest, I prefer it without. The dutch pea flavour is good enough by itself!

dutch pea soup

What I love about both of these recipes is that there’s no special ingredients required, and there’s no blending, just mashing. It’s really quick and low-fuss, and I love a chunky soup. Next up I might get a bit adventurous and try something more ambitious, like the Udon Miso.

There’s an aduki group on flickr if you’d like to post your own ASFAS soup pics!

Doll Story

OYBDLast night Love Me, Love My Doll aired on SBS. I caught it by chance and I’m so glad I did. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a documentary about men who use Real Dolls, extremely life-like silicon sex dolls, not just for sex but for companionship.

A few months ago I read ‘Oh, You Beautiful Doll’, the title piece in a book of essays on altruism (cover pictured). Written by J.C. Nicholls about the doco and Real Doll users, the essay made me furious when I first read it, and doubly so when I read it again today after having seem LM,LMD.

Basically, her essay is about the sickos who rape their Real Dolls (her slant, not mine). She believes that men who use Real Dolls must be anything from socially inept to a real and present danger to society, and that there is no justifiable reason why the world needs the dolls - except, she suggests somewhat bizarrely, maybe to use as life models. Her disapproval is full and unforgiving:

[T]hese dolls are not just some sex toy that is hidden away. They are not for secret, shameful sexual acts only. … Despite the lifelessness of the object of their particular desires, Dollators - as they like to be known - are still acting out something that is obviously not healthy and ideal.’

Continue reading ‘Doll Story’

Melbourne Food Weekend

I was in Melbourne over the weekend and really appreciated having so many excellent food choices! And by food choices, I mean junk food. Bendigo has great produce but it’s a bit light on the ground for mock meats and greasy vegan goods.

Thursday night was aduki’s A Soup For All Seasons book launch in Collingwood. It was a fantastic night as usual and the book is gorgeous, I can’t wait to get into the recipes. I was working the book table:

(Missing from picture: a pile of La Panella party-sized sausage rolls, which went down a bomb with the vegos and omnis alike.)

On Friday I was moseying towards FAD Gallery, thinking I should probably eat before I started drinking, when I passed Ten Ren Tea Time, a Taiwanese cafe selling tea and meals. I remembered from where’s the beef? that this place has vego options so popped in for a quick meal. The vego menu was small and cheap and I was assured there was no dairy or egg in the curry rendang so I went with that.

ewf rendang

It comes as a little set! Yes, I’m easily pleased. The ‘meat’ was the usual tender glutenous fare and pretty tasty. The sauce was a little fiery for me and unfortunately somewhat oily. I ended up picking out the meat and eating that with rice. The accompanying salads were kind of bland in a good way and included green beans, tofu and cabbage, and corn and mushroom - but they all tasted sameish. It was a pretty decent meal for under $9.

On Saturday morning I went to hang out with the hipsters at Mag Nation for a coffee and wifi fix.

ewf magnation

I do love that place. And they do amazing soy coffee - bonus points. It’s astounding how many baristas don’t know how to pour a simple soy latte, but that’s a rant for another time (and don’t even get me started on charging more for soy…). Plus they’re still stocking The Sex Mook on their counter and have sold over 60 copies in a mere six months. Did I mention that I love them?

Later in the day I ducked out of the Emerging Writers’ Festival to lunch with a poet at The Organic Food and Wine Deli. It was another first for me but it took me but a minute to decide what to eat - a beetroot and hommus sandwich on spelt bread. I love how everything is clearly marked vegan or gluten-free and whatever. The sandwich was really tasty but the coffee was kind of ordinary. It was good but it cost over $12; for that price a little salad with the sandwich would have been nice.

ewf ofwd

That night I went to an event called Scrabble at Fed Square’s BMW Edge. It was a spoken word/performance gig inspired by the lyrics of classic Paul Kelly songs. Interesting premise, but really, was I ever not going to a show that advertised that a ‘Scrabble Bar will be open until the conclusion of the show’? I think not.

ewf scrabble beer

Stand-outs for me were drag king Beau Heartbreaker and comedian librarian Nick Earls. (Although the next day there was a fiery discussion about how Earls’ exploits geek culture by hamming up his geek/librarian/indie credentials; too funny.) I got to imagine the sound that a full stop would be and nearly wet my pants laughing at a play featuring an ashtray and a door. Plus lots of other funny stuff but my memory is a little hazy towards the end… though I did stop at Lord Of The Fries on the way home to try their new nuggets:

ewf lords nuggets

They are juicy on the inside and crispy fried on the outside, but they are tiny! Bite-sized would be pushing it descriptively, even. Supposedly it’s 8 nuggets for $3.95 but when I ordered them I got about 12 little pieces.

On Sunday morning I picked up breakky/lunch for the zine fair at Flinder’s Organics. The Fuji’s were fresh and crunchy, and the date and almond slice super-sweet and nutty. The Cob’s popcorn I couldn’t resist. Yes, it’s ridiculously expensive but I love the sweet/salty flavour and have been unable to replicate it at home! Usually I just drown my popcorn in nooch.

ewf zinefair

My food-filled weekend ended back at Lord Of The Fries when I introduced a Sydney vego to the magic of their burgers. I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I think I’m junk-fooded out. Roll on the soup.

Ten Ren Tea TimeTen Ren Tea Time, 146 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Mag Nation, 88 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
The Organic Food and Wine Deli, 28 Degraves Street, Melbourne
Lord of the Frieds, Cnr Flinders & Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Flinder’s Organics, 260 Flinders Street, Melbourne

The Frugal Vegan’s Holiday Harvest Survival Guide

The Frugal Vegan’s Harvest & Holiday Survival Guide may well be the ultimate vegan cookzine. Firstly, it’s huge, with 88 pages filled with over 80 winter-themed recipes, gift ideas, dog treats and ways to keep warm. Secondly, its cute commentary and mini-articles are highly entertaining. Finally, the recipes totally rock.
Divided into sections, there’s definitely something for everyone in this zine – cookies, soup, drinks to warm your body, desserts, breakfasts, main entrees, side dishes – even ‘hurricane recipes’ to cook if your power goes out. Never baked a cake or casserole on the bbq? This zine tells you how. Seriously.

The recipes are mostly simple and practical, utilising stuff found in most pantries. They include: spicy sweet potato-bean burritos, tofurky, basic muffins, french toast, tomato and lentil soup, peanut butter banana and molasses sandwiches. There’s enough ideas and know-how to get all of your friends coming back for more… and more, and more. Be sure to keep an eye out for the hidden bonus recipes as well!

The author, Lisa, has created a sequel to this zine, as well as other cookzines that adhere to the principal that you can still have fun and eat well when you’re broke.

The Frugal Vegan’s Harvest & Holiday Survival Guide
First published aduki online, May 08