Archive for June, 2007
V Rating: VVV Day two of our trip and we were already stranded overnight, sans luggage. British Airways apologised, handed us an overnight pack, and shipped us off to the Hilton Hotel, which is connected to the airport. Normally I would have felt stupid for turning up at a Hilton restaurant in my tracksuit pants and a loose t-shirt (which bear a striking resemblance to my pjamas), but I was tired, hungry and eager to extract maximum value from a free meal. Fortunately, the airport Hotel at the Hilton has a good understanding of its clientele. The restaurant is more sizzler than bistro, with tiled floors and a buffet spread.
There were lots of vegetarian choices amongst the salad bar and hot food bain marie, and even a vegetarian section on the a la carte menu. The hot food selection was especially good for vegos, because there were lots of individual vegetable choices like baked potatoes, potato bake, steamed carrots, and a surprisingly tasty ratatouille. Rather than make a pretense of sophistication, the buffet was comfort food - just what you need after an eight hour trip and jetlag. The breakfast buffet the next day was also veggie-friendly, with mushrooms, hash browns, vegetarian sausages, cereals and fruit. I was disappointed that they didn’t offer soy milk, but aside from that thought the Hilton did a better than expected job of catering to vegetarians. Not a place you should go out of your way to visit… but not a terrible place to be stranded, either. On Sunday morning Andy and I left Sydney for Oslo, the first stage in our six month travel odyssey. Thanks to the whimsy of Qantas, we went via Mumbai, where we had a sub-18 hour stopover. This route reminded me why I love flying in Asia - the inflight menu. There was a vegetarian and meat option at every meal, so with one exception the “special” meal I’d ordered was unnecessary and I was served along with everyone else. Andy had asked for the vegan option, so was still brought out a special meal as the standard vegetarian version came with dairy food. Allowing for the fact that this was economy class plane food, the standard was high. I couldn’t contain my excitement when I saw that dinner was palak paneer on fragrant rice with curry leaves. Earlier, lunch was a chickpea curry in a tamarind sauce on cous cous. Swinging like trapeze artists from one international timezone to another, our final meal was given the non-time specific label of “refreshment” on the menu. This was because it was midnight in Sydney, early afternoon in Mumbai, and breakfast by the internal logic of of our flight. The meal of soft, lightly fried chickpea cakes and raita suited all of these occasions, and was my favourite of the trip. The decent vegetarian vegetarian food so readily on offer erased the unpleasant memroies from our last international experience with United Airlines, where their best vegetarian effort was “sweet and sour” frozen vegetables, circa 1983. If the airline food is this good, I can’t wait to come back to India and experience the real thing. Trevor from Corporate Engagement tapped me with the Rage meme ages ago (where you select the 20 music videos you’d chose if you were their guest programmer). Cue obsession. I started with the usual dilemma of do you program the video clips you like the most, program your favourite songs, or even program songs so you can see what the video clip is like. But what if your favourite video clips are not your favourite songs, or your favourite songs have bad video clips… I was also feeling a bit sheepish that strictly speaking this meme was outside the bounds of vegetarian reviews. So I Favourite clips by vegetarian musicians (in no particular order) There is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths. Sure, Meat is Murder may have been more thematically appropriate, but this is my favourite Smiths song. All You Need Is Love- The Beatles. Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, were famous for their vegetarianism and strong stance on animal rights. I like this video clip because it shows the Beatles having fun. Disco 2000 - Pulp - Tongue in cheek celebration of the ritual of going out on Saturday night featuring vegetarian lead singer Jarvis Cocker. Sabotage - Beastie Boys - They offer links to vegetarian food resources on their site and have outrageous video clips. Redemption Song - Bob Marley - a beautiful song by one of the world’s best known rastafarians. Friday I’m In Love - The Cure. Apparently Robert Smith eats fish but no meat. Close enough. Enjoy The Silence - Depeche Mode. A beautiful 80s pop classic that reminds me when I used to go out and dance all night. Martin Gore is vego. Girls and Boys- Blur. A clever song and clip. Damon Albarn is one of the vegos. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead. This was my introduction to Radiohead and vego Thom York. Still one of my favourites. New York New York- Moby. I can’t say I have a favourite Moby song or video clip, or even that I’m a huge fan of his music. But having eaten at Moby’s vegetarian cafe, Teany, in New York this one seemed appropriate. All I Want is You - U2. Larry Mullen Jr is vego. Also, whilst I know its sappy, I really liked this clip when it came out (is being in primary school a defence?) Karma Chameleon - Boy George. Longtime vegetarian and Buddhist convert. Memorable film clip. Hot in the City - Billy Idol. He’s Billy Idol and vegetarian… How could I not? Funny Little Frog - Belle and Sebastian. Annoyingly, my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands don’t have video clips, but I like the whimsy and dancing in this one. Stuart Murdoch is the vego. Good Excuse - John Butler Trio. Can’t argue with vego John Butler’s message. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan. This one is for you Trev! Planet Earth - Duran Duran. Not my favourite 80s band but I really like this song. Nick Rhodes is vego. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics. Even as a young girl I knew there was something special about Annie Lennox. Hey Ya - Outkast. Twenty songs by vegetarian musicians is a lot. And Andree 3000 is vegan. Eat it - Weird Al Yankovich - He’s vego. It’s about food. What can I say? *NB: I made this list in good faith but, incredible as this will sound, sometimes the Internet is not a reliable source for identifying vegetarians. I’m sorry if any carnivores have been defamed in the writing of this blog post. It’s not open for dinner. D’oh! Fortunately, Mother Chu’s still is (just around the corner on Pitt Street).
V Rating: Super V Iku is a successful chain of healthy vegetarian takeaway restaurants. It’s like the Sydney vegetarian equivalent of McDonald’s. Only better.
I recently hopped in the buzzing queue in the food court in the MLC Centre at Martin Place. Laid out in front of me in all of its macrobiotic, organic, gluten-free options glory, were salads, rice balls, wraps, soup, hot casseroles, pasta dishes, and dessert. I felt healthy and virtuous just looking at the food. Despite the myriad temptations, I couldn’t go past the takeaway mixed salad for $8.50. There were ginger noodles, steamed vegetables, white beans with mixed seeds, beetroot and cabbage in a vinegar dressing, and sesame brown rice, topped off with the house specialty creamy tahini dressing. The salad looked and tasted spectacular, and although it was a filling meal it didn’t leave me with a sleepy carbohydrate low come 3pm. The Iku menu changes weekly, though you’re always guaranteed of finding favourites like black rice pudding. Most stores open from lunch until dinner, but the central city outlets servicing the white collar crowd shut by 4pm. The size of the resturants (and opportuniy for eating in) varies. The Darlinghurst store is very big, Glebe has a peaceful courtyard, while the MLC Centre is just a counter operation within a busy food court. Iku also has a catering business, and distributes a range of food (including the aforementioned creamy tahini dressing) throughout health food shops. Iku doesn’t flaunt its vegetarian credentials, selling itself on the health benefits of its food, rather than its meatless menu. It’s a godsend for vegos and vegans who want a quick, tasty and stress-free lunch, and proves once and for all that vegetarian food can be sexy. With our six month trip starting next weekend (and no kitchens on the itinerary), I decided to tackle an embarrassing gap in my cooking experience: sushi. My kitchen has been sushi ready for a long time. I had the sushi rolling mats, mirin and rice wine vinegar, sushi rice and two whole packets of nori (my feature ingredient this week). How hard could sushi be?
I decided to make two types of sushi: carrot, avocado and cucumber, and tofu and shitake mushrooms. Ingredients One packet of nori sheets, cut into halves. Method Rinse the rice in cold water a few times, then cook the sushi rice according to the instructions on the packet. When ready, remove from the heat and place in a ceramic bowl. Carefully mix through the rice wine vinegar, mirin and a pinch of salt. Let it cool down for maximum stickiness. Sautee the shitake mushrooms in sesame oil with a teaspoon of soy sauce to taste. Now you’re ready to roll! Get out a bowl of water. Spread the sushi mat on a flat surface with the slats running horizontally. Lay out your first sheet of nori, with the shiniest side down. The nori end closest to your body should slightly be even with or overhang the end of the mat. Dip your fingers in the water, then take a handful of rice, and spread it evenly about 1 cm high on the nori sheet. Leave about 1 1/2 cm at the bottom, and 3-4 cm at the top. Dip your fingers in the water to wash off the rice. There should also be a small gap on each side. Place a couple of pieces each of carrot, avocado and cucumber (or tofu and shitake mushrooms) in the centre of the rice. Carefully lift up the end of the sushi mat closest to you and roll it over the filling. Use your fingers to contain the filling and make sure the nori has wrapped around it. Dip your fingers in the water and pat the open end of the nori to make it more sticky. Pull the roll back to the start of the sushi mat, and roll again to finish off the sushi roll. While the mat is still covering the sushi, press down lightly. Remove mat and behold your roll! Serve with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger. P.S. Our rolls were not perfect on the first try. Or on our 15th try, for that matter. I’d love to hear from any sushi masters out there who want to share some tips about rolling technique. Nori
For more information, see: Wikipedia and Sushi Links This weekend herb blogging round-up is hosted by Rachel from Rachel’s Bite. Check out her blog for the full list of entries.
V Rating: VVV Hickson Road in Walsh Bay has morphed into a mini-theatre strip, with the Sydney Theatre Company and Bangara Dance Theatre calling it home. It’s the kind of area where you drop by before a show, looking for quick, cheap food, not demanding the best quality but needing to eat something to stave off hunger (and loud stomach noises) during the performance. But thanks to the area’s industrial past and knockout harbour views, quick, cheap food is not easy to find.
Fortunately, there is one restaurant that caters to the theatre crowd. Its name is the Walsh Bay Cafe. You probably wouldn’t guess this from the “Chinese Cuisine” sign hanging out the front. That’s why I’ve helpfully posted a photo here.
The small inside room is surprisingly cute and modern, with vibrant red tablecloths and bold Chinese character wallpaper. The restaurant is BYO, and you can scoot next door to a bottle shop if you’re after wine with your meal.
Walsh Bay Cafe offers 12 vegetarian choices, including Chinese classics like salt and pepper tofu, ma po tofu, garlic baby spinach and tofu and snowpeas in black bean sauce. We tried the stir-fry vegetables and noodles, along with a tofu and vegetable stir-fry. The dishes weren’t going to set the world on fire, but they came quickly and had a fresh, healthy flavour.
Afterwards we ambled across the road to the Bangara Theatre to see a Sydney Writers Festival event on China called “Is Communism All Bad?” The main speaker on the panel was Diane Wei Liang, a Chinese author now living in Europe who was a student activist in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests. There were some fairly sobering observations about the state of democracy and human rights in China, mixed with optimism for the future. Diane’s description of how Tiananmen Square unfolded inspired me to read her autobiography, The Lake With No Name. Having only seen Western reporting on Tiananmen, it was fascinating to read about it from the perspective of someone who was there. Wei describes how the protest grow from a spontaneous outburst, to a youth-fired mass movement, to a violent end when the army entered the Square. Definitely food for thought as we plan our trip there at the end of the year. |
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