VVOC.org

8/259-269 Unley Rd, Malvern Village, Malvern SA

This smart restaurant, which occupies two floors, is highly recommended by people in the know, and it’s easy to see why. For starters we enjoyed the vegetable samosas, fat and full of potatoes, green peas and a good spice mix. Our main meals included the Peshawi Aloo, in which the potatoes come with onion, tomatoes and a what is clearly a generous helping of spices, and Egg Plant; on the day we were there it was beautifully soft and red…there is always something immensely satisfying about fried aubergine, and the cooks here handle it superbly. Sometimes it seems a good idea to eat something fresh to balance the flavours of an Indian meal, and we went for the Katchumber Salad of tomatoes, onions, cucumber and capsicum, which turned out to be oddly sweet, apparently a consequence of its being flavoured with both vinegar and lemon. While this restaurant may look like a standard suburban Indian dive, in reality it serves very fine food indeed.

15 Tribune St, South Bank, Brisbane Qld

I think I’m getting the hang of Turkish restaurants: while there’s always plenty of very satisfying bread, you should nibble it slowly so as to leave plenty of room for other things. The Mado offers artichokes as a starter, soft with lots of lemon, and the more substantial white bean salad, which comes on a bed of lettuce with parsley and red onion; this is a heavy dish for a starter, and perhaps could have used a little more dressing.  For a main course you can’t go past the oven cooked vegetables which are served in a litle pot, straight from the oven. The dish of potatoes, green capsicum and mushrooms is not heavily spiced, and the mixture of natural tastes works well. It comes with bread, rice (does it really need both these accompaniments?) and a welcome salad. This is a flavoursome and simple cuisine; people after something a little more spicy should go on Friday or Saturday, when a belly dancer performs.

Shop 5, Harries Rd, Coorparoo, Qld

The menu at this comfortable restaurant allows a good range of vegetarian dishes to be sampled. For starters you can try the fattoush, an old Middle Eastern favourite of greens, cucumber, tomato, parsley and toasted bread (ours came without bread, but the staff brought another bowl.) There is a wonderfully tasty dish of aubergine and tomato served with thin Persian bread, or you could try the falafel and hummus that come as part of non-vegetarian platters. The main meals include Addas Polo, made up of rice with almonds, dates, sultanas and brown lentils; it’s obviously bursting with goodness, but some may find the taste a little bland. Quite the opposite is the intensely sweet Faloodeh, in which strips of vermicelli come with lots of rose water and some lemon sorbet. Strong coffee, which they do well here, goes well with such a dessert! There are all kinds of veggie possibilities in Persian food, which can be enjoyably sampled at this appropriately if unimaginatively named establishment.

My apologies for skipping November and December 2010 – Please don’t take the lack of a campaign posting to mean that I can’t find a good one to mention…  There are so many groups out there campaigning on a variety of issues which are important to vegetarians and vegans.  Let’s start 2011 by highlighting a campaign which has a very simple message:

Meatless Mondays Australia  – Check out their website at http://meatlessmondays-australia.com/ 
The Australian arm of Meatless Mondays is one of ten around the globe,  including in USA, Canada and Britain.  Aiming to promote the benefits on both the environment and on health, Meatless Mondays is encouraging people to at least eat meatless one day of the week.  Reducing meat consumption by 15%, ie one day of the week, lessens the risk of chronic preventable illness and helps slow climate change.  The website has some easy to read facts on the state of Australian’s health and our environment.  The site also has some great vegetarian and vegan recipes, highlighting how delicious vegie food can be.

How can we support them?  Spread the Meatless Mondays message – the more people who take part, the greater the difference that can be made.  So get your family, friends, school, workplace, organisation, cafe, restaurant, shop, EVERYONE, involved.  The website has downloadable posters, flyers and pamphlets.