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Italy is a great country for vegetarians: there is plenty of pasta with cheese, pizzas abound, and this is the country that invented the gelato! For vegans the situation isn’t as bright. There are dishes like pasta aglio e olio, a dish very pure in taste in which olive oil and garlic are run through spaghetti, perhaps with chilli or finely chopped parsley, but this will probably replicate the nutrition you received from the white bread you had for breakfast. And the difficulties vegans experience in a country like Italy will be shared by vegetarians in areas where fish seems to come with everything, such as Scandinavia and Japan.

How to deal with this? There are sometimes vegetarian restaurants, often with an organic angle, that one can visit, but these tend to be up-market places for special occasions. Otherwise, it’s often possible to dive into a Chinese or Indian restaurant where there will probably be veggie food. Another alternative is buying dry food at a supermarket. Or one can decide to eat non-veggie food just to get by.

None of these choices strikes me as perfect. It seems somehow disrespectful to the culture of a country like Italy to be eating Asian food there.  Sitting on a hotel bed eating peanuts is no-one’s idea of a fun time. And surely the reasons that led one to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet apply wherever one happens to be.

I’d be very interested in the opinions of readers of this posting, and it will be possible to make comments for some time after it has been posted.

Break The Cycle Africa – 3 Jul to 14 Aug 2011

I think most vegetarians (not a blanket statement) would agree that compassion for animals also equals compassion for our fellow human beings. (The shame about this is that often this is not necessarily vice versa.) I am fairly certain that within our membership we are in agreement that we love animals and people and hope for better for those of the human race who suffer.

Since I am currently in Africa, this month I’d like to continue with the African theme and highlight some Aussie cyclists who are doing their bit by riding mountain bikes 5668 km across Southern Africa. This event aims to raise money for child focused projects in Southern Africa.

You can learn more about this event and how it can be supported, follow their blog, leave messages of encouragement etc, at:

http://www.breakthecycle.org.au/africa/

Good work guys – we salute you!

3/224 Hawken Drive, St Lucia Qld

While the vegetarian options on the menu are scanty, and the complimentary prawn crackers did not find favour with my non-vegetarian companion, who pronounced that they tested like cardboard, there is a very good reason to eat at the Song, and its name is Gado Gado. At the centre of the plate is a mixture of sprouts, cucumber and, in place of the more widely used potato, pineapple, over which has been poured a lightly curried peanut sauce; on top sit the quarters of a boiled egg, and around the side are pieces of soft diced tofu. This is a luscious dish of contrasting tastes, colours and textures which it’s hard to imagine not liking, but here it is particularly well done. We also enjoyed salt and pepper tofu, in which the pieces of bean curd sit on crispy noodles and are accompanied by finely chopped red chilli and spring onion, rice sitting to the side. If you don’t relish singing for your supper, I recommend the Song for lunch.

These little bites are raw, vegan, sugar and gluten free!  You can use different nuts, vegan choc chips or even add some cocoa to vary the recipe depending what is at hand.

1 cup raw nuts (I used 1/2 cup walnuts + 1/2 cup cashews and macadamias)

1 cup raisins

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons coconut

Extra coconut for rolling

(1) Rinse the nuts and fruit to make them moist and easier to process

(2) Food process everthing until a ball starts to form.

(3) Take teaspoons of mixture and roll into balls, then roll these in coconut.

Refridgerate

Thank you to John, who hosted our meeting today and provided a scrumptious lunch.  We shared some delicately flavoured lentils served with bread and salads, one of green beans and one of  cucumber dressed with coconut milk. Lovely, thank you John.

Topics discussed:

(1) We talked about our local Indian restaurants and all agreed that it would be good for each of us to post reviews of these.

(2) Helen raised that there was recent talk that Oprah had challenged her staff to be vegan for a week!  Helen to put up a brief post about this.

(3) Discussed the idea of a VVOC excursion to Melbourne to participate in Holy Week in English at the Good Shepard Australian Orthodox Mission which is based at Monash University. Helen to look into this and gather some info for the group.

(4) Melissa kindly offered to host the next VVOC meeting.

(5) Our August meeting will hopefully be a Skype talk or online chat to include Melissa and Jacki, who will both be working on the Mercy Ship in Africa.

113 Queensbridge St, Southbank, Melbourne Vic.

A statue of the Buddha, inscrutably calm as usual, presides over this restaurant. The 13 entrees on offer when we were there included spring rolls of pastry stuffed with minced soy and vegetables. There is the same number of soups, all of them offered with or without egg; the three mushroom soup, peppery with lots of lettuce, is particularly fine. (Westerners never seem to cook lettuce, but its texture and colour when cooked are lovely.)  The ten tofu dishes include the spicy Kung Po Tofu, in which tofu and a Chinese mix of vegetables (capsicum, baby corn, carrot, mushroom) are livened up by ginger and chilli, and the eleven vegetable dishes include the luscious spicy egg plant, which again incorporates a fair amount of tofu. The number of dishes is remarkable, and that’s not counting the many imitation meat offerings; one would enjoy working through more of them. The food is traditional Chinese, served in attractive surroundings by highly efficient staff; I was amazed how quickly we were in and out. But if you want to linger, a glass of dry white wine is just the thing to accompany food of this quality.

Visit the West End markets for a delicious sugar free vegan snack – the date roll. Made of date and coconut, they somehow manage to whip the dates into a light and fluffy sweet. Enter the markets from Jane street and you will find an organic fruit stall on your left into the shady area just before the entrance to the Leagues club. I have also found at my local fruit shop in Sunnybank Hills, a date, coconut and almond roll, but have yet to try them. They are both products of the USA.

12-14 Buffalo St, Singapore (Little India MTR)

This vegetarian restaurant, the offshoot of a famous establishment just around the corner in Serangoon Rd, offers a range of light meals which, despite the unexpected appearance on the menu of mini chocolate dosas, described as a kids’ special, is basically traditional. The long dosas come with small dishes of dahl, a coconut paste and a tomato and chilli paste, which compliment them perfectly. They are also available with various fillings, but you don’t really need to order one, as the waiters prowl about asking diners whether they’d like refills of the accompaniments.  There is a range of fruit drinks available, and you end up with a satisfying and very cheap meal which, if you’re as lucky as I was, you will enjoy in charming company. Little India is the headquarters of the Indian community in Singapore, and should be on any visitor’s list of places to check out.

161 Drummond St, London NW1, UK

While this well-appointed restaurant caters for omnivores, its vegetarian selection is extensive and excellent. I recommend the bright yellow, gently textured mulligatawny, and another yellowish dish, the tarka dahl which, despite coming with thin slices of garlic, is subtle rather than aggressive in its taste. From there you can go on to a very pleasing dish hitherto unknown to me, aloo jerra, in which soft potatoes swim in a sauce of tomato and spices in which cumin bulks large. The aloo saag is similarly good. This is one of those Indian restaurants where the cooks, while happy to throw chillis into the mix on request, produce very tasty and satisfying food without relying on heat.  It should be on everyone’s short-list of places to visit in Drummond St!

This completes a series of reviews of Indian restaurants in Drummond St…I had hoped to review a sixth, but it was closed at the time of visit. This street is not as well known as Brick Lane in the East End, but seems to me preferable for those seeking Indian food: there are no touts hassling passers-by, on balance the food is better, and being immediately to the west of Euston Station it is easier of access. The restaurants have been reviewed in the order in which you will encounter them walking away from the station.

International Veg Week Challenge October 1 – 7

“Vegetarian as a general concept is a brilliant thing… We’ve got to stop eating so much meat. We are eating too much meat.” — Jamie Oliver

Can we encourage our non-vegie friends to save the lives of two animals in the next week by taking the challenge of being meat free for at least one week??

International Vegetarian Week celebrates a compassionate choice for a kinder world.  If all Australians went meat-free for just one week, we could spare almost 10 million animals from the horrors of factory farms.

Check out the campaign at: http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/veg-week/