July 16, 2011: Las Vegan IV

July 3, 2015: Las Vegan have announced that they're closing the cafe and going to focus exclusively on catering from now on - we've sampled their catering before and it's great.

On Saturday morning we checked out Las Vegan's relatively new breakfast menu... though it's pretty unstructured as menus go! A small blackboard listed scrambled tofu on toast with mushrooms, tomato and tempeh available as sides, then pancakes. Our waiter went on to explain that there was more that they could do: pancakes come in maple/tempeh-con (i.e. tempeh bacon) and sour cherry varieties, and they could also whip up avocado on toast, spiced eggplant on toast or raw muesli.

Michael didn't think long before ordering the tofu scramble on toast ($7) with mushrooms ($1) and tempeh-con ($2). The scramble and mushrooms weren't bursting with flavour, though olives in the toast gave this a bit of a boost. And we have to join the chorus of other bloggers: the tempeh-con is amazing. Sliced very thinly, it's ultra-crisp and super-smoky. We were pretty smug about our home-made tempeh bacon but this will send us back to the drawing board.

Since Michael had the tempeh-con on order, I picked the sour cherry pancakes ($9). On the upside, they used the preserved sour cherries that I love. On the downside I found the pancakes too doughy, perhaps undercooked, with a baking powder tinge to the flavour. It may have just been a bad weekend for them - Zuckerbaby tried them the following day and made similar comments, while Vicki Vegan was more positive.

While the food was variable, the price was right - it's great to see Las Vegan offering hearty dishes for $10 and less. And it's certainly worth heading over for the tempeh-con alone!

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Las Vegan's breakfast menu has also been blogged at Vicki Vegan, sugarspoons and Tales of a Vegan Food Fetishist.

We've written about Las Vegan at other meal times one, two, three times.

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Las Vegan
22 Smith St, Collingwood
9415 9001
veg mains $9-15
http://www.lasvegan.com.au/

Accessibility: Pretty good - reasonable entry, plenty of space around tables, order at the table and pay at a low-ish counter. We haven't visited the toilets.

July 15, 2011: Taco Truck

Last Friday night Michael and I met for an early dinner in the park. It's not a great time of year for picnics but takeaway tacos are another matter entirely! The Taco Truck is regularly in our neighbourhood and we've been curious to give it a go.

Tacos are $6 each (with bonus corn chips if you order 2) and there's always a veg option. Although Jess tried a mushroom-based taco early on, I gather that this potato one is more frequently on the menu. It's a big pile of gluten-free deep-fried carbs, as demonstrated by the amount of yellow in this picture. Jalapeño ricotta, 'slaw and salsa verde on top break it up, but only just. I hear they'll go vegan on request and assume that just involves omitting the ricotta.

It's all good fun, and great that there are veg and gluten-free options, but on a cold dark night I think Taco Truck rates most for the novelty value. And then when the queues lengthen next summer, it might be quicker and cheaper to whip up some lentil, tofu chicharrone or tofu 'chicken' tacos at home.

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Taco Truck's veg options have already been covered by The Big V and That Jess Ho. 

"...it pleases us", BOX CHALLENGE and hookturns.com got onto Taco Truck in its first fortnight of opening, and it's since appeared on blogs Dave Plus Food, little lady and eat, drink, stagger.

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Taco Truck
Location announced via twitter and facebook
9023 0888
veg tacos $6 each
http://www.tacotruck.com.au/

Accessibility: This will vary mostly with location, however the counter is very high.

July 13-14, 2011: Toasty tahini granola (breakfast serial part xii)

I thought I'd done toasted muesli, that I had my best recipe and wouldn't be needing any more. Every other recipe I've ever seen before or since is full of oil and sugar and just doesn't seem right for breakfast. Then, a few months ago, Jennifer of It Ain't Meat, Babe posted a granola recipe that floored me. Instead of oil and sugar it used tahini and maple syrup. TAHINI. That is genius right there.

To be honest, the tahini isn't obvious in the end product (and I'm tempted to use a little more next time) but it is surely contributing to the unrivalled crunchy golden brown-ness of this granola. The maple syrup, pecans and coconut are just gorgeous but I'm sure I'll find myself tinkering with those too (moar coconut! different nuts! fruit juice!). But don't take these plans as any kind of slight on the original recipe - this granola has brought a smile to my face every morning I've eaten it (and for one 1am dinner besides).

Toasty tahini granola
(very slightly adapted from a recipe at It Ain't Meat, Babe)

3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup flax seeds
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1/4 cup maple syrup

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line a large baking tray with paper.

In a large bowl, mix together the rolled oats, pecans, coconut, flax seeds and cinnamon.

In a separate small bowl, whisk the oil into the tahini until smooth and then whisk in the maple syrup. (If the tahini is lumpy, try melting the mixture on the stove or in a microwave.)

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix them together - try to get an even distribution with as little stirring as possible. You might even like to leave a few clumps.

Spread the granola out evenly onto the baking tray. Bake it for 30-40 minutes, until evenly golden, stirring the granola at 10 minute intervals for even baking.

July 13, 2011: Bean burgers

We like to think that we're pretty responsive to our readers - responding to their comment queries, checking out places they recommend and generally being all 'round good bloggers. Which is why I'm embarrassed to admit that Sophie-Lee emailed us this recipe a full nine months before we finally got around to making it. At least we got there in the end.

This is a relatively simple burger recipe, loaded up with beans and nuts for protein and bound together with some flour. One of its key advantages is the option of grinding up double or triple batches of the dry ingredients and keeping them on hand for nights when you can only be bothered cooking for 10 minutes. The burger patties themselves are kind of similar in texture to those just-add-water falafel mixtures and have a nutty, garlicky flavour (depending on how much garlic you load into them!). They're healthy and filling and, as you can see above, an excellent vessel for chutney.


Bean Burgers
(via reader Sophie-Lee, who based it on a recipe in Alison Holst's 'Meals Without Meat')

1/2 cup dry chickpeas
1/2 dry haricot beans (this apparently works with any kind of dried bean bar kidney)
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds (the original recipe called for toasted)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup chickpea flour (we couldn't find pea flour easily, and subbing with chickpea flour seemed to work well)
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 tablespoons tamari
1 cup water

Mix the chickpeas, beans, peanuts and sesame seeds in a bowl and then grind in batches until it's all turned into something the texture of breadcrumbs.

Combine with the parsley, salt, oats and chickpea flour.

This will make about 2 cups of the burger mix, which is enough for 6-8 patties. You can put some aside and use it later or just make it all up at once. The quantities of the garlic, tamari and water above are for the full mixture - proportion them down if you only make up half the mix.

Stir together the dry mix, the water, the tamari and the garlic powder and leave to soak for 15 minutes.

Shape the dough into burger patties and fry until each side has browned up nicely.

July 11, 2011: Royal Park Hotel

This year the Royal Park Hotel was acquired by the folks from Grigons & Orr and they've fitted the venue and the menu out in a similar nostalgic retro manner. This had us both curious and concerned - would a 70s-style pub menu have anything of interest for vegetarians? G&O's vegan-friendly menu kept us optimistic and we booked the Royal Park in for Pub Club.

Our optimism was well founded - a quarter of the entrees and mains are clearly marked as vegetarian. Sadly none of them look straight-up vegan, so I reckon it'd be wise to call ahead if that's what you need.

The early birds shared a bowl of onion rings ($8). These were whoppers, thick with batter and just a tad greasy. The accompanying thick lemony mayo was perfect for dipping. Thumbs up all round.

Once everyone had arrived and we'd migrated from couch to table, I tried the mushroom volauvent ($16.50): nice golden puff pastry, a pleasant cheesy cream sauce and plenty of mushrooms. The balsamic reduction didn't do a lot for it, and the small handful of watercress hinted that this might be intended as an entrée rather than a main.

Michael's vegetable pie ($19.50) was better - he was highly impressed with the thick lentil and pumpkin filling and the traditional pea-and-mash sides were solid.

As we finished our mains we were treated to complementary port and truffles! A cute custom, but unfortunately timed since they arrived while I was at the bar ordering dessert...

... because they had deep-fried ice cream ($12). I think this cured me of my nostalgia for the dish - I was already full of rich food, and the batter was painfully thick.

The Royal Park Hotel is a nice space with more going for it than just retro novelty. The staff were friendly but not completely on top of the food and drinks on offer. We encountered both hits and misses amongst the vego options, and may have felt more forgiving if they'd been a little cheaper. While they're comparable in price to the Fox and Gasometer, they're just not quite as numerous, interesting or consistent ...and they're certainly not as vegan.

Edit 22/11/11: Today's Age reports that these folks are no longer running the pub. The circumstances of their departure and the pub's future are shrouded in mystery.

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The current incarnation of the Royal Park Hotel has been reviewed at Ale of a Time; they loved the food and atmosphere but were less impressed with the beer.

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Royal Park Hotel

405 Queensberry St, North Melbourne

9329 4519

veg snacks, entrees and mains $8-19.50, desserts $12

http://www.grigonsorr.com.au/royalpark/

Accessibility: There are small single steps on entry to the pub and between sections within the pub. Tables have average-to-high space between them and there are a few couches. Food and drinks are ordered at a high bar. Toilets are unisex but not particularly spacious.