After a whirlwind weekend of vegan events, I’m finally catching up. Sadly, our final Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010 got rained out and I only got to snap photos of the baked goods my housemates and I made. Luckily, some of the goods were able to be transported to Naked Espresso where the wonderful staff sold them, and we still managed to raise $361!

And the timing worked out well, so that anything we didn’t sell we could bring to the Vegan Society NSW stall at the Cruelty Free Festival!

The event was a huge success! It was my first one and I volunteered to be there at the butt-crack of dawn to help with load-in, which was cool because I got to meet a lot of awesome vendors and community organisations.

Some of my favourites were:

Rubyfruit! I pretty much raved about their cheesecakes to everyone I saw that day. They’re based in the blue mountains and don’t have a storefront, but sell out of local cafes. They also do cupcakes and muffins and while they don’t appear to have a website, you can find out more info on their Facebook page.

The Cruelty Free Shop always hooks me up with hard to come by vegan products, like my beloved Go Max Go bars.

I didn’t get to attend a lot of cooking demos, but I went to Leigh Drew’s biscuit demo, which was unsurprisingly fabulous. Somebody get this lady a cooking show! And while I was a non-participant in the vegan speed dating, I think it was an awesome idea and hope there were some vegan love connections made.

I also walked away with a lovely dress, child’s colouring book, bottle of garlic infused olive oil, a jar of mustard pickles being sold by an adorable little old lady at the MAWA stall, and a tummy full of spring rolls, bliss balls, quiche and gozleme.

A huge round of applause to Sarah and Animal Liberation for organising such a wonderful community-building event!

This past weekend, over 4,000 showed up for World Vegan Day in Melbourne! In the rain! SHUT UP! That is a crazy turnout. So it’s up to us in Sydney to step it up this weekend. We’ve got two great events on!

First up on Saturday, it’s the last Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010. I’ve hear rumours of cinnamon buns, donuts, the usual delicious cupcakes – maybe even some CUPCAKES IN ICE CREAM CONES – WHAT???

I will also definitely be making some of these bad boys:

Those are caramel apple muffins, slightly modified from this recipe. And since I’m planning on making roughly 4,000 of them, y’all better show up and buy!!! As usual the sale is from 8-1 at the Newtown Markets across from the train station. This time we’re raising money for Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue in Queensland.

Then you can work off some off that sugar by walking to Belmore Park on Sunday for the 2010 Cruelty Free Festival! From 10am-7pm there will be over 60 stalls, many of them food-based, including vegaroo favourites, Funky Pies, Addiction Food, Nourishing Quarter, and many more!

Hope to see you all there!

I typically find it disappointing when I go to a place recommended to me as vegan, that turns out to largely cater to omnivores but have vegan selections, or to understand what ‘vegan’ means. Doesn’t count in my book.

That said, Yulli’s Bar in Surry Hills was a pleasant surprise. I’d been told by friends it was great; I was also thankfully warned that it was busy, and hence had a reservation. We did have to sit outside on what as possibly the coldest, windiest day in the history of Octobers in Sydney, but such is life. And while Yulli’s caters primarily to vegetarians, they had a vegan menu, which included more than one option for each course, which is honestly about all it takes to make me happy in life.

The mixed chips plate, consisting of pumpkin, beetroot, taro and other unidentified deep fried goodies, was crisp and delightful with a side of seasalt, although I do subtract points for their forgetting the ‘vegan’ nature of our request and serving a tzatziki like sauce. I was sad that it was quite so spare – approximately 30 ‘chips’ for $13.50 – but it was also delightful.

We chose to follow this up with ginger and leek dumplings, and a falafel plate. To be fair, these were also sparse; four dumplings and four falafel does not a hearty meal make, but they were also wonderful. The leek dumplings were definitely my pick of the night, steamed and tender with an amazing plum sauce. The falafel were also great, if not quite my thing; I have an uneasy relationship with coriander, and they were laced with it. Served with a spicy relish and pineapple, wrapped in betel leaves, they were an unusual treat.

It’s worth noting that all of our selections were from the entree section of the menu, which might explain the scarcity of actual food on our plates; however, neither my girlfriend or I could see the point in ordering Pad Thai or a Vegetable Sambal when we were trying to branch out and try something new. Still, judging by other’s plates, servings of mains continued to be small.

On balance, it was a lovely meal and a pleasant experience. However, the dark room and somewhat haphazard service take away from what was otherwise quite lovely. And we had to stop for vegan icecream on the way home, so factor that into your budget.

Yulli’s Bar

417 Crown Street, Surry Hills

9319 6609

Baulkham Hills is probably the best place on earth, filled with god-like people who were recently gracious enough to allow me to walk amongst them. Imagine, me, a lowly city dweller even being allowed to walk amongst the suburbanites. TRUE STORY!

Ok, actually, that is fake story filled with sarcasm. Sometimes the internet is a confusing place where sarcasm is mistaken for sincerity and it’s probably much better that you jump to making ridiculous assumptions about a person than try to discern the difference.

Now, here is my very earnest review of a very nice vegetarian restaurant in Baulkham Hills called Fountain!

Fountain is hidden in an office park, so you probably wouldn’t just stumble upon it, but if you did you’d be in for a pleasant surprise. Although it’s fairly standard pan-Asian fare, the menu offers a lot of unique dishes that pack a lot of flavour. For our entree, we ordered what was described as Crispy Yam Knots but that wasn’t very accurate. They were more like Noodle Explosions! Topped with chilli and ginger.

I couldn’t resist ordering the Tropical Fantasy of Cashew Nut which was an interesting dish of sweet and sour veggies and battered and fried cashews. Admittedly, my tropical fantasies tend to involve Mai Tais delivered to me on a beach by this man. (You’re welcome, ladies.) But you know, fried cashew nuts… also good.

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I just wanted to put together a quick post thanking everyone who came out to our first Sydney Vegan Happy Hour last week. Despite the terrible rain, we managed to have a pretty good crowd of about 25 people or so at The Courty. It was great to see some familiar faces and also meet some new Sydney vegans. Thanks of course to Inner West Live for co-sponsoring and helping us promote the event, and to Michelle and Elizabeth for bringing some tasty treats to share!

I had also hoped to make it to the Sweet Tomorrow Dessert Competition this weekend, but I was too exhausted Friday night to cook. From the sounds of it, I missed out on some great entries! From judge, Leigh Drew, here were the winning dessert results:

Overall Winner – Full High Tea, including tea, soy milk, tea service, cupcakes, Oreos, scones, lemon cake, Florentines, choc dipped strawberries, gingerbread, cucumber finger sandwiches, cheez/tomato/basil finger sandwiches, sundried tomato/pesto/cheez filo tarts, and mini versions of the sweets. [Pictured below left]

Open Winner – Citrus Cake with Tofu Creme and Walnuts [pictured below right]

Raw Winner – Sesame Cocoa Slice

Special Mention – Strawberry and Raspberry Chocolate Creams

Special Mention – Many Many Cupcakes (one entrant)

We’ll have more photos from both events up on our Facebook page shortly. Stay tuned for news of upcoming happy hours and other good times.  This weekend in Sydney there’s a Gluten-Free Expo   in Olympic Park! Since there tends to be a lot of overlap there with the vegan community, I hope to check it out and report back on the vegan goods!

The next Sydney Vegan Bake Sale will be Saturday August 28, 2010 at the Newtown Square Markets from 8am until 1pm (unless sold out sooner).

The proceeds will be donated to Donkey Welfare and Sydney Pet Rescue and Adoption.

If you’d like to bake something for the stall please contact me first via sydneyveganbakesale at gmail dot com

Drop by to make a purchase and help us raise money for some animals in need.

I’ve alluded to it, but not made official announcement of my new job working as a Campaign Officer for the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Yup, somehow I’ve convinced an awesome animal-helping organisation to pay me to be a blogger and social media wank. Not a bad gig!

When I first heard that their offices were in St Leonards in Sydney’s North Shore I was nervous about what my lunch choices might be limited to. Getting off the train on the first day led me through a food court with pretty sparse options. Some dodgy looking Indian and Thai takeaway were about the best I could scope out at first glance.

But lo and behold, it turns out that St Leonards actually offers quite a bit for vegans. Perhaps even more than downtown Sydney. My first exciting discovery: Green Gourmet!

I’ve been to the one in Newtown and quite enjoyed the variety of food offered at their buffet, and its value. The St Leonards location doesn’t stack up quite as well. Far fewer options especially if you’re not into fake meats – which I’m not. But you get a good sized portion for $8 or so and it’s chock full of filling, healthy brown rice.

And while it’s nice to have a vegan restaurant just blocks away from the office,  the majority of my lunches take place at the cafe at Nature Care College. I’m not positive, because they don’t advertise it as such, but I think it may be all vegetarian. And I’d guess at least half of their food is vegan and marked as such. Plus it’s all healthy, tasty and varied. You usually get a small main and a side salad. The mains range from curry pies to nori rolls, to Thai risotto, to the spiced lentil pattie pictured here. Again you’re looking at around $8. They’ve usually got vegan desserts as well.

There are other reasonable options. Christie’s has some nice salads and wraps. They don’t mark things as vegan so it can be hard to know for sure whether not not there’s hidden whey in their tortillas, but it’s pretty easy to tell with the salads. Likewise at the fruit and veg shop just outside the train station. They sell a lot of lentil and chickpea based salads on the cheap that you can grab to go.

Any St Leonards-working vegaroo! readers have other lunch suggestions?

Otto Ristorante is located in Sydney’s Wooloomooloo. A friend told me of their vegan menu and I knew I had to visit Otto to see what they had to offer.

The vegan menu consists of four meals that can be ordered as an entrée ($24) or as a main ($34). I chose the Carpaccio di Fichi for my entrée and the Risotto con Verdure Verdi as my main.

The carpaccio was layers of sliced figs, pine nuts, mint, baby rocket, chives and Mugolio which is an oil made from pine nuts. The serving looked beautiful but it was far too large for an entrée portion and I was lucky to be able to give many of the figs to the people dining with me.

The risotto included baby green vegetables, salsa verde and herbs. The rice was cooked perfectly and the dish was delicious, one of the best risottos I’ve ever eaten.

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Ok, kids, let’s do this! Get ready to throwdown! It’s a vegan dessert competition near Sydney.

WHAT??? That’s right, it’s a battle of the baklava! A flan fight! A rugelach rumble! A biscuit brawl! A cupcake clash! A scone scrimmage!

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. Here’s the pertinent information:

Saturday 31 July at the Cabravale Leisure Centre on Broomfield Street in Cabramatta. Judging takes place from 1-2 and entrants must arrive with their dishes between 12 and 12:30.

There are three categories: gluten-free, under-16 year olds, and a general open category. It sounds like just about anything goes in terms of type of food (ie. it doesn’t need to be a baked good necessarily) just so long as it’s sweet and vegan!

More details and the application form can be found at Aduki Press. So far I can tell you that Leigh Drew is one of the judges, and I hope to get some more dirt soon.

If you’re planning to compete let us know what you’re making! So that I can cream you in the competition! Haha, just kidding. I don’t need to cheat to win this thing. But seriously, who am I up against here?

Sometimes I buy cookbooks and they sit on the shelf until I finally get around to using them. Recently I used a cookbook for the first time after owning it for three years.

This was not the case with Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero, co-author of Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

I’d seen photos from recipe testers and everything looked delicious. I pre-ordered Viva Vegan! from the Book Depository (free worldwide shipping!) and patiently waited for the book to be released.

The day it arrived I eagerly sat down to mark recipes that stood out to me, I found myself marking almost every page as each recipe sounded better than the last.

Viva Vegan! consists of over 200 vegan latina recipes, being a Venezuelan-American, you can tell Terry really knows what she’s talking about. Each category has a detailed description of the food you’re about to make including how it’s traditionally prepared and eaten.

The first meal I made consisted of the Basic Onion-Pepper Sofrito, Venezuelan-style Black Beans, Creamy Avocado Tomato Salsa and Crispy Fried Green Plantains (tostones).  This was such a delicious and filling meal. The smell of the sofrito cooking will make your tummy rumble in anticipation and adds so much flavour to the black beans. The tostones went perfectly with the zingy salsa.

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