Adelaide: Queen of Cities

What’s better to do on a cold night than drive up to Windy Point and view Adelaide, the Queen of Cities, in all its night-time glory?

And after that, there’s nothing better than hot waffles and soy icecream from Eggless, or tea in a cute sakura pot or hot apple caramel cake with soy icecream.

Adelaide, laid out on a grid.

Hot apple cake with caramel sauce from Eggless.

Eggless tea cup and pot with sakura flowers.

Eggless vegan waffle with chocolate soy icecream.

Light lines.

Light lines.

Light Squiggles

Car at night.

It was quite cold at windy point.

Yep, very cold at Windy Point.

Strawberry picking

On Saturday we ventured up to Hahndorf to Beerenberg Strawberry Farm. We had such gorgeous weather and there were plenty of ripe, red, juicy strawberries on the bushes. We all walked away with huge overflowing punnets of strawberries. It’s difficult not to be greedy when there’s so many strawberries in sight!

Afterwards we walked along the main street of Hahndorf eating vegan gelati from Evercream. They had about 6 fruit flavours that were vegan, and then we found another place on the opposite side of the road that was also selling vegan gelati.

We spotted agapanthas (or is that age pan?) everywhere on our drive from Marion to Hahndorf. These are from our back garden.

Benno busy picking strawberries in the sun.

Benno and Yuka show off their pickings.

Benno and Yuka and their strawberry pickings.

Oooh! I took a strawberry!

Benno and his punnets. That’s 2.6kg of strawberries right there.

Dad tasting the strawberries.

Dad picking strawberries in the furthest corners of the farm to ensure the biggest, ripest fruit.

The icecream store (Evercream) that has vegan gelati in about 6 flavours.

The happy German family. Perhaps a little gender confused.

Enjoying our icecreams – peach, strawberry and lime, mango…yum!

Lara finding the perfect strawberries.

Lara picking strawberries in the sun.

Megan finds a shy hand puppet.

Hello hand puppet kangaroo!

Megan picking strawberries.

Found one!

More strawberries!

Mum and her strawberries.

All in the fields working…

Farmers in the fields…

Heading back with the fruits of our pickings.

No Lettuce Salads

Salads with NO LETTUCE.

There’s lots of variety without lifeless lettuce, including:

• brown rice salad with spinach, capsicum, dates and bean sprouts.
• potato salad with organic dutch cream potatoes, beans from the garden and kalamata olives.
• chickpea salad with organic chickpeas, cherry tomatoes from the garden and lebanese cucumber.
• thai noodle salad with rice noodles, bean sprouts, mango, capsicum, coriander, peanuts and a spicy lime dressing

Chickpea salad with cherry tomatoes, garlic and cucumber.

Potato salad with beans and olives.

Brown rice salad with spinach, capsicum, dates and bean sprouts.

Thai noodle salad with mango, coriander, mint and peanuts.

 

Christmas treats

While Benno sat his JLPT N2 exam today, I created Christmas truffles.

I made non-alcoholic rum balls:

Rum Balls

280g (approx. 3 cups) cake crumbs
3 T apricot jam
3T cocoa
1T orange juice (or 1T rum)

1. Mix together cake crumbs, cocoa, jam, juice (or rum) in a processor until a stiff paste is formed.
2. Roll into about 24 balls.
3. Roll the balls in cocoa or coconut; dip the balls into melted chocolate or cover with a little fondant and decorate like a mini pudding with a cherry.

and fruity truffles:

Fruity Truffles

1/4 c dates
1/2 c sultanas
1/2 c figs
1/4 c glace cherries
2T orange juice
60g hazelnuts or other nut
90g plain cake
60g cooking chocolate
1/2 c icing sugar

1. Place fruit in a bowl with 1T orange juice. Mix and stand for 10 minutes.
2. Process nuts, then cake crumbs, then fruits.
3. Place in bowl and add melted chocolate, sugar and remaining orange juice. Mix well.
4. Shape into balls.
5. Roll in chopped nuts or crushed digestive biscuit crumbs.

Melbourne Vegan eats weekend

Inspired by the adelaide vegan festival, refreshed by the completion of exam marking we drove to Melbourne for a weekend of vegan eats. First stop, Keith’s landrover on a pole. Next stop, the rather ugly giant koala. First eatery on the list after being stuck in Melbourne traffic for the better part of an hour, Las Vegan bakery/cafe. Second lunch was down the street at Soul Cafe. Next, after a little drive, was Lord of the Fries where we ate at a 20% discount fries, mini-burger and fried v-chicken pieces. Needing a rest after 3 meals, we waited until dinner and ate an amazing whole v-fish at Vegie Mum. The waiter was hilarious and not true to his word “bad service, great food”; the service was fantastic as was the food. Feeling hungry again the next morning we ventured round to the very atmospheric Monk Bodhi Dharma for some great coffee, chai, french toast and banana bread with lemon tofu ricotta. The waiter had a “black coffee” tattoo on the back of his calf and eating was done on a large shared table. Lunch was at the famous Box Hill Vegie Hut for more Asian cusine including mock duck, pork and chicken and a Sunday-only dim sum menu that included 4 seasons buns and grilled dumplings. I think my stomach is still reeling from the overload of too much good food.

Retro Benno with the ugly Giant Koala that has red lights in its eyes and bizarre ear hair.

Golden Age veg store – a great place to stock up on instant noodles.

Highlights of 5am: Landrover on a pole.

Lord of the Fries – fries handcut with love.

Lord of the Fries veg-chicken pieces with Aussie sauce.

Fries with gravy and vegan cheese.

Don’t walk past, go in and try Lord of the Fries.

Original Mini-burger at Lord of the Fries

Breakfast at Monk Bodhi Dharma in St Kilda included Banana Bread with Lemon Ricotta (made from tofu cream cheese)

Decadent vegan french toast with a spiced pear at Monk Bodhi Dharma

The water jugs were old bottle, the sugar was in glass jars with cork lids making Monk Bodhi Dharma feel a bit like an old apothecary.

Down a lane behind a supermarket, Monk Bodhi Dharma was worth finding.

Santa try outs.

Vegie Hut’s 4 Seasons Buns

Mock with black bean sauce at Vegie Hut

Complementary congee for ordering 2 items off the dim sum Sunday menu.

Vegie Hut grilled dumplings

Vegie Hut noodles where the mock was made out of something like potato.

Vegie Hut v-pork.

Vegie Hut on Whitehorse Road, Box Hill.

Vegie mum free dessert of watermelon and fruit jellies.

Vegie Mum front of shop

Vegie Mum waiter – fashion designer by day, waiter by night, and after midnight, gigolo.

Vegie mum entree of skewers with peanut satay sauce

Vegie Mum special dish that took a whole day to make – whole v-fish.

Hanami in Australia

Today’s hanami in Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens.

Lemony Gingerbread cupcake (vegan) from the Organic Cafe in Stirling. Enjoyed with a hot organic apple juice infused with spices.

All in pink.

The valley of cherry trees.

Blue skies, pink blossom and green grass…what more could you ask for on a Sunday afternoon?

Under the blossoms.

Cherry blossoms.

Cherry blossoms under blue skies.

More cherry blossoms.

The valley containing cherry blossoms planted over 20 years ago as a joint Japan-Australia act.

Eating like Kings and Queens

M & M took us out to lunch on Saturday at Bliss Organic Cafe where we feasted like kings and queens. We ordered a main each, but cut it into four and shared it around so we each got to try a bit of every main. Then afterwards we stuffed ourselves with banana cake, mocha joy cake and shakes. Yum!

Bliss burger with a huge pattie inside.

Bliss wrap.

Scrambled tofu with mushroom, potato, seeds and sultanas.

Avocado and tomato bruchetta with a PEA POD!

Kyoto’s Sakura, Neko and Buddhist food

On our final 3 days in Japan we stayed with Atsu in Kyoto.

We saw beautiful sakura near Ginkakuji along the Philosopher’s Path and at night time under illumination in Maruyama Koen.

We made funny poses and made photo seals in a purikura amusement centre.

We had tea with cats in a neko cafe.

We ate lots of plates of Japanese pickles at hale Vegan Organic restaurant, hidden down a little passage in the Nishiki markets.

We enjoyed vegan parfait and lunch at Mumokuteki, off the Nishiki markets.

We met up with Benno’s high school Japanese teacher at Cafe Proverbs.

We enjoyed vegan kara-age, gyoza and a huge curry at MikoAn, a Buddhist vegan pub/cafe that is even more hidden than hale, down a long alley behind the main street front.

Cherry blossoms and lanterns in Maruyama koen

Sakura over a bridge in the Gion area of Kyoto.

Sakura, Gion area.

Mumokuteki: no meat, no eggs, no milk, no suger [sic]. Very popular and busy- we had to line up for a table but it was worth it!

Mumokuteki curry lunch set.

Mumokuteki fried tofu balls with a great tofu tartare sauce and salad

Mumokuteki vegan parfait. Worth every 800 yen.

Mumokuteki can be a little hard to find – the cafe is on the second floor and below is their shop. It is on a side street off the Nishiki markets. About 2 streets to the left past the traditional knife shop in the markets (also on the left)

Can you find the neko cafe? We had trouble too. It’s on the second floor above the red sign in the middle building. neko is written in hiragana on the window, and if Lara couldn’t read her kanas we wouldn’t have found it.

A little house for cats to sleep in.

Lots of fun places for cats to play

Hiding in the cat house

A nekobasu cat bus clock from Totoro

Sleeping in a hidey hole

Cats are only interested in food

Sleeping in a bucket on the counter

Cat behind the sign advertising cat food for sale. Feed me!

The cat cafe (neko kaigi)

Cherry blossoms along the Philosophers Path near Ginkakuji

Benno gets arty

Lara and sakura

Sakura hanging over a river near Ginkakuji

Cafe Proverbs – tempeh sand XD

Cafe Proverbs- fried tofu bowl. The tofu was soft yet crunchy. Yum

Cafe Proverbs- tofu banana maple cheesecake

hale hidden down a short passageway off the nishiki markets

Miko An- a huge pottery bowl of curry for only 800 yen

Miko An- dinner set with ‘fried chicken’ and brown rice

Miko An- a little place with lots of atmosphere

Miko An- second serving of ‘fried chicken’ kara-age. Yum says Benno

Benno eats kara-age while Atsu looks on.

Miko An – cats have a special place and can eat at the counter

The alleyway down to Miko An…easy to not find it

Illuminated cherry blossoms in Maruyama koen

Benno and Atsu with the illuminated cherry blossom tree

kawaii Atsu

Final days in Japan- Kyoto

On our final 3 days in Japan we stayed with Atsu in Kyoto.

We saw beautiful sakura near Ginkakuji along the Philosopher’s Path and at night time under illumination in Maruyama Koen.

We made funny poses and made photo seals in a purikura amusement centre.

We had tea with cats in a neko cafe.

We ate lots of plates of Japanese pickles at Hale Vegan Organic restaurant, hidden down a little passage in the Nishiki markets.

We enjoyed vegan parfait and lunch at Mumokuteki, off the Nishiki markets.

We met up with Benno’s high school Japanese teacher at Cafe Proverbs.

We enjoyed vegan kara-age, gyoza and a huge curry at MikoAn, a Buddhist vegan pub/cafe that is even more hidden than Hale, down a long alley behind the main street front.

sakura over a bridge in the Gion area.

cherry blossoms, in the Gion area over a river.

Mumokuteki, no meat, no egg, no milk, no suger [sic]. Off a side street to the Nishiki markets, maybe 2 streets down from the knife shop on the left.

Mumouteki curry set.

Mumokuteki salad and tofu balls set. Yummy tartare sauce.

YES! Vegan parfait! Mumokuteki WINS!

Hana yori dango

We’ve been clearing out the cupboards and eating leftover food this week.

We’ve eaten eggplant lasagne,

chickpea and coconut curry,

DANGO!!!

Made with love by us… a packet of mochi flour, 190mL water, stir it up, roll into 2cm balls and put in boiling water for 3 minutes.

Cooked mochi balls...parfait?

Cooked dango drizzled with golden syrup. I think it needs a skewer.