After watching an episode of Jamie Oliver’s latest tv show 30 Minute Meals (which allegedly take 60 minutes to make) where he made Portuguese Custard Tarts, I couldn’t get the idea of vegan custard tarts out of my head. I took inspiration from Jamie’s recipe & this vegan recipe & hit the jackpot! I used orange rind because it’s what I had. It was really good but next time I’ll use vanilla instead.

Vegan Custard Tarts

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup tofu
• 1/3  cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons tapioca
• rind of 1 organge, grated
• Puff pastry
• Cinnamon

1. Heat oven to 200°C.
2. Take a sheet of puff pastry & sprinkle ground cinnamon over it. Roll the pastry up into a Swiss roll shape & cut into six pieces. Put them into the holes of a cupcake tin & mould them so that the bottom is flat & the pastry comes to the top. Cook on the top shelf of the over for 8-10 or until lightly golden.
3. Combine coconut milk, soy milk, tofu, sugar, tapioca & orange rind in a food processor & blend until smooth.
4. Take the cupcake tin out of the oven & use a teaspoon to push the pastry back into the sides & bottom. Spoon the custard mixture into the pastry & return to the top shelf of the oven for 8 minutes.

I think this is about the third year in a row that I’ve made moussaka for Christmas & it continues to rule. My Mum made everything else on the plate. She also made me a vegan chocolate mousse dessert that I ate with fresh berries.

I am happily still eating leftovers!

This photo is terrible because my food came out half an hour after my friend’s food so I was so freakin’ hungry after sitting & watching her eat that I barely even wanted to snap a shitty photo before stuffing my face. Having been to EBC for gigs & beers I wasn’t expecting amazing service but my friend & I both agreed that we would have preferred to wait 50 minutes together rather than eat at different times.

That said, this was my first time eating at EBC & the vegan “fish” & chips really hit the spot.

East Brunswick Club – 280 Lygon Street, East Brunswick

These cupcakes aren’t the best in the world but they’re close to my workplace & enjoyable enough. Plus the staff are super friendly & I have been there a couple of times when the baker has been out & about & she asked if I liked the vegan cupcakes & told me about the things she was going to do to try & improve them. Usually they only have one vegan (& gluten-free!) selection & it’s usually chocolate cake with chocolate frosting or chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (yum). I do wish they would experiment with the vegan cakes a little more because the non-vegan varieties look amazing!

Cupcake Central – Shop 7/672 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn

My parents told me that they wanted to have scrambled eggs for dinner one night last week but they didn’t have enough eggs. So they made tofu scramble instead! Awesome! This isn’t their one, it’s one I made after they told me about it.

A really bad photo of the Veganomicon cheezy sauce on macaroni with some broccoli. (I would have thrown in some more veggies but all I wanted to do after work today was get straight home out of the sun without making any stops so broccoli was all I had.)

I like nooch, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t usually eat it in mass amounts & I’m not really a huge fan of cheezy things like this. But lately I have been craving nutritional yeast like you would not believe & I have no idea why. Maybe I’m low on the ol’ b vitamins. My doctor told me that b vitamins are a natural antihistamine (Google tells me b12 in particular is) so I’m happy to oblige my cravings if there is a chance it is going to ease my itchy hayfever for a while!

On Saturday morning, after an evening of drinking & dancing, we thought we would give Grumpy’s another go. Maybe we were being too harsh on our previous visit? Surely we can’t judge a place by one bad meal? Maybe I was being unreasonable by thinking all day breakfast meant into the evening? The first thing I noticed when we walked in was that they now have a separate breakfast menu that finishes at 3pm (or thereabouts) & that the main menu has changed a bit. The second thing I noticed was that there were no Vs next to any of the breakfast items & everything contains eggs &/or cheese &/or sour cream. When I asked at the bar whether I could sub eggs for ‘fu scram the woman seemed shocked that it wasn’t printed on the menu. After checking with the kitchen she informed me they don’t do that any more, all I could do was order something minus the eggs. I pondered it for approximately .009 seconds before coming to the conclusion “fuck this, let’s go to Soulfood”.

And, boy, am I glad we did! I ordered the monster vegan plus avocado – tofu scramble, mushroom, tomatoes, hash browns, toast,  spinach & chutney. This really hit the spot & washed away (most of) my annoyance that a vego place doesn’t cater to vegans. It’s not like I’m starved for choice in the area but I really like supporting all-vego places & having to go in & order something without x & y animal products & ask a million questions to make sure I’m getting something vegan just makes me sad. I really, really, really want to like Grumpy’s but my hopes have been dashed too many times. On the up side, hooray Soulfood!

Grumpy’s Green -125 Smith Street, Fitzroy

Soulfood Cafe – 273 Smith Street, Fitzroy

A quick & easy meal I’ve had this week: portobello mushroom burger with homemade chips.

Blogging about food is hard to do when you’re busy & don’t have the time/energy to try anything new & exciting!

Sushi is possibly the best food in the world. Lately I’ve been making a big pot of rice & keeping it in the fridge so that when I get home from work, all I have to do is cut up some avocado, grate some carrot & slice some tofu, roll it all up & stuff it my face. Quick, easy & delicious. (This is an old photo that has carrot, some sort of sprout, sesame seeds & tempura tofu.)

First course was Apple Sprout Soymilk & Lettuce Delight. This was my favourite of meal. The crisp lettuce & the crunchy filling of tofu & enoki mushrooms were perfect.

Fried Tofu with Pickled Cabbage & a Spring Roll. The difference between fresh tofu & not-so-fresh tofu is crazy. It’s like a completely different food.

Five Element Veggie Pot – “This special, healthy, colorful vegetable mix pot is created based on Chinese food therapy principle.” I could happily eat this soup every day. The veggies were cooked to absolute perfection & caused one of my dining companions to exclaim “everything is just melting in my mouth!”

Red Rice Yeast Marinated Wheat Meat on Forbidden Rice. According to the menu, this rice is called ‘forbidden rice’ because “it was considered the Emperor’s rice and was literally forbidden for anyone else to eat it”. It tasted really healthy & not in a bad way.

Clockwise from top: Baked Pumpkin (this usually comes with cheese & is the only thing on the menu that had to be veganised); Ah Gei “a famous Taiwanese local food, made from our stuffed tofu with green bean noodle, black fungus, cabbage and sealed with tofu paste”; Veggie Cutlet that tasted a bit prawn-like & was served on top of sprouts & an apple sauce; & a Spring Asparagus Wrap which was wrapped in some sort of mock ham that tasted so convincing my friend couldn’t believe it wasn’t actually meat.

Dessert was some sort of sweet soy bean concoction that had silken tofu hiding in the bottom of the bowl. It was sweet without being too sweet & finished the meal nicely.

My friend also had a Pink Lady & Raspberry lemonade which she drained within about five seconds of it hitting the table & instructed me to “blog that!” after finishing. She enjoyed it, to say the least.

I can’t get over how amazing this meal was. Everything tasted fresh &, as completely corny as it is, full of the intended love that is promised in the subtitle of the restaurant. It was filling without being uncomfortable. I didn’t need to loosen my belt & didn’t feel heavy & ill afterward; I just didn’t need to keep eating. I was satisfied rather than full, I guess. Add on top of that the staff were so informative & lovely, so passionate about the food they were delivering, & this is my new favourite place. I can’t wait to go back again!

Veggie Kitchen: Intention Of Love – 159 St Georges Rd, Northcote