My daily walk to and from the Kings Cross train station generally involves dodging puddles of vomit and hoping I don’t get stabbed with an errant hypodermic needle. Up until recently my favourite part of the neighbourhood has been the guy outside that dollar store on Darlinghurst Rd with the microphone yelling out deals on toothbrushes and energy drinks over a recording of himself doing the same. (True story.)

But now the KX has a brand new attraction that I can get behind: Green Lizard Vegan & Fusion Raw Food Cafe. It’s like a little oasis of yummy health food. Green Lizard is vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, and not all raw, but definitely raw friendly.

I got to come in last week and sample a bunch of different foods, starting with a yummy tomato carrot juice. Green Lizard’s proprietor explained that it would help aid in digestion. I’m sure he could explain a lot more about the health benefits, which were all well and awesome. I’m no health expert, but I am a deliciousness expert, so I’ll just serve up the food porn instead.

This was a crispy rice paper “pancake” topped with delicious fresh berries.

Spring rolls and broad beans (which were soooo good).

A raw tomato and sprout salad, made with sprouts they grow themselves.

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Back in 1985, Tina Turner may have contended that We Don’t Need Another Hero, but I for one certainly find it important to draw inspiration from the examples of other activists who are out there raising awareness about animal protection issues and veganism in innovative, exciting, and – most of all – effective ways.  Since meeting her at the 2002 Animal Rights Conference in the United States, one of my personal ‘AR Heroes’ has been the media activist, spokesperson and author, Karen Dawn.

Karen in person has so much energy, enthusiasm, and passion for promoting animal rights, but it’s matched with equal amounts of knowledge about a multitude of issues and also the communication skills to get the message across in an engaging way.  Plus, there’s a huge sense of fun and playfulness in the way she approaches the serious issues of how animals are viewed and treated, which helps to draw in those who are not already interested and involved in the movement.

Karen with Katie Manitsas, a director of Samadhi Yoga

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We’ve been promoting and organising  fundraising events here at vegaroo for the last six months, and now I’m happy to embark on our next phase: taking action. Sydney is a fairly vegan-friendly city in terms of dining out, but it could always stand to improve. Basically my goal is to make veganism as accessible and appealing as possible, and having more vegan-friendly restaurants is one step towards that goal.

We are piloting a Restaurant Outreach Campaign. For this trial we’ve chosen a restaurant, Govinda’s in Darlinghurst, which is already vegetarian, but disappointingly lacking in vegan options. I love writing positive restaurant reviews of vegan-friendly place, but I’m yet review Govinda’s because it’s hard to write much about $20 bread and soup.

I’ve emailed Govinda’s personally to inquire as to whether they could offer more vegan choices, what the barriers are, what the incentives would be, etc. As I’ve not yet heard back, I’m hoping that by adding more voices, we can show that there is a strong vegan community in Sydney and it would be worth it to them, to go all vegan – or at least offer more cruelty-free options.

Here’s how you can help:

By clicking the button above you can sign an email to Govinda’s asking them to add vegan options to their menu. Please feel free to add your own comments, as that always gets a better response. You could try highlighting the health benefits to veganism, pointing out the ways that eating dairy harms cows, and the Hindu arguments for veganism or just simply offer them more business.

We want Govinda’s and other restaurants to know that this is not about trying to force change upon them, but rather we want to work with them towards developing vegan menu options that will be good for both their ethics and their business.

This past Sunday was the VegOut picnic in Sydney’s Centennial Park, wrapping up the two week VegPledge as part of 350.org’s Global Work Party on 10/10/10. The sun came out in full force for a few hours to allow for a beautiful afternoon. Hundreds of Sydney-siders attended to form a giant 350 in the park for this awesome photo (which was featured on Ecorazzi – well done!)

It's like a real life "Where's Wally?" I am at the top of the 3, third from the left!

By my last count there were over 300 pledges on the VegPledge website and looking around the event, I saw lots of VegPacks. I did my part by ordering 4 for two people. The sacrifices I make for sustainability. The one pictured here was from Laurie’s Vegetarian Takeaway in Bondi Junction and there were others from Nourishing Quarter, and Fatima’s, a Lebanese restaurant, both on Cleveland Street. There was also a sweet pack from Addiction Food that was full of win. And chocolate.

There was also a Sydney Cyclist event called Keep it Wheel that joined in with the VegOut picnic, so it was great to know that there were vegan meals and good vibes going out to a group that might not necessarily eat vegan meals otherwise. Yay for positive veggie outreach!

Overall, it was a great day and event. Congrats to Tim, Bob, Donna and Nikki for organising it!

350 photo shared by 350.org on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.  To see a large, hi-res photo click here.

Woah. Does anyone else feel like there is SO MUCH happening right now? Labour Day weekend means it’s officially summer and I guess everyone’s coming out of hibernation and getting out there.  We also recently had a vegaroo! brainstorming session, out of which some awesome ideas sprang. I’ll have a full report on that here soon.

In the mean time, here are some big upcoming events you should know about:

Sunday Oct. 10 – The VegOut Picnic is a celebration in Sydney’s Centennial Park, wrapping up the 2-week long VegPledge. You can order one of their VegPacks which are all vegan and include yummy foods from Nourishing Quarter, and vegaroo favourite, Addiction Food. We’ll be there chowing down!

Tuesday Oct. 12 – Karen Dawn, author of “Thanking the Monkey” will be speaking at Samadhi Yoga in Newtown at 7:30. It’s a free event! And if you can’t make it then, be sure to check out Earth Cafe at Samadhi Yoga sometime for some rad vegan food.

Friday Oct. 15 – The Next Sydney Vegan Drinks is going down at The Hive in Erskineville and I have a feeling it’s going to be our best event yet! We’re raising money for Pet Rescue. You can RSVP on our Facebook event page.

Saturday – Sunday Oct. 23-24 – Following the Animals Australia AGM will be there Animal Activist Forum in Palm Beach Queensland. There will be heaps of speakers including, yours truly! I’ll be presenting on Activist Blogging on behalf of WSPA. I’d love to hear from anyone else who’s attending or speaking!

Sunday Oct. 31 – Melbourne will be celebrating World Vegan Day! Sounds like there’s going to be heaps of food and community organisation stalls. Anyone going and want to report on it for vegaroo? Let me know!

Saturday Nov. 6 – It’s the last Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010 from 8-1 at the Newtown Markets. This time it’s benefiting Charlie’s Angels Horse Sanctuary in Queensland. Deliciousness guanranteed.

Sunday Nov. 7 – All the cool kids in Sydney will be at the Cruelty Free Festival in Belmore Park. With over 60 Food and Wine stalls, you may have to drag me away kicking and screaming at the end of the day.

Whew!

What does one buy at a juice bar? Why soup of course!

When I am not busy singing awesomely to Ace of Base I occasionally have to do some work and occasionally that is in North Sydney. Altitude Juice Bar is a small shop in the food court complex located at 155 Miller St, North Sydney which I have stumbled upon during one of these occasions.

Soup!

The shop itself is not vegan, however they do offer several vegan options, which are clearly labelled as vegan, including 3 delicious vegan soups which change every day! (They offer 4 different soups. The sign advertises that they are all vegan, however one each day will usually say it has chicken.) They also have vegan muffins and rice paper rolls. I assume one could also get a vegan wrap or juice, however I am yet to partake in such deliciousness.

The muffins, while not the best vegan muffin in North Sydney, are still pretty good and come at the bargain basement price of $1.70 per muffin. WOAH VALUE! They come in several fruity flavours including blueberry, raspberry, banana and orange and are perfect for pre/post lunch snack or maybe even a post breakfast snack or even a pre dinner snack. So many possibilities!

Sweet potato rice paper rolls with sweet chilli sauce

The rice paper rolls are not your standard boring bland town rice paper rolls with rice noodles and blandness, but instead a journey to delicious county. The vegan rolls include: classic vegetarian (cucumber, rice noodles, carrot, peanuts and more); a very delicious basil and tofu; and finally my favourite sweet potato, which is similar to the classic vegetarian however surprisingly have 2 slices of sweet potato. Ingenious!

Muffins and rice paper rolls are all fine and dandy, however the soups are what I get all up ons about. Just in the last 2 days I’ve kept a delicious list of the delicious options: Lentil and green vegetable; Spicy dhal and pumpkin; Lima bean and mixed vegetable; Indian spicy lentil; Green pea, pumpkin and spinach; and Cannellini and mixed vegetables. There are new ones every day. I have been known to spend upwards of 4 minutes deciding on which soup to purchase, as it is a very important decision that should not be taken lightly. It also comes with a slice of bread which comes in several different varieties, another decision not to be taken lightly.

In conclusion I like soup. True story.

You guys! This month marks a very momentous occasion – the 6 month anniversary of vegaroo! Since we launched back in March, a lot has happened. I’ve now eaten my way through Sydney, we’ve had new writers come and go, and we’ve launched the first Sydney Vegan Drinks event. (Next one happening 15 October!)

I thought it would be a good time to reflect and see what our readers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, etc. would like to see happen with the site.

Unfortunately I started this site while I was new to Australia and still unemployed. Since starting work full-time I’ve had significantly less time to invest in the site. So while I love to dream big, I also want to be efficient about what I can accomplish with my limited time, so that means I want to focus my efforts on the things that matter most to the community.

That’s why I’m asking for your feedback! This Thursday evening I’m having a very informal vegaroo! brainstorming session!

When: Thursday 30 September at 6:30-8:00ish

Where: Iku Wholefood, Darlinghurst location at 62 Oxford Street

Anyone is welcome to come by and give feedback on what they’d like to see more of on the site, or just generally what they’d like to see in the Australian vegan community. And grab some yummy, healthy vego food from Iku! You can RSVP on our Facebook event  or just leave a comment.

If you’re unable to attend, I always welcome feedback. You can leave comments here or email me at sharon@vegaroo.com. Please let me know if you’re interested in contributing as well. The more we can collaborate, the more I think it benefits the community. Hope to see you Thursday!

Lately I’ve been indulging in a lot of waffle and pie based meals. It’s not something I’m proud of. Oh who am I kidding, yes I am! In fact I started a new blog for all of the meals I’ve been cooking and ravishing recently and I make now efforts to hide how awesome they are.

But, it’s going to become hard to hide how fat I am becoming unless I start balancing out the chocolate drizzle with a few healthy meals.

Enter, Nourishing Quarter, a new vegetarian restaurant on Cleveland Street, on the border of Surry Hills and Redfern. Nourishing is such a great word to describe it, because the dishes, though healthy don’t have that bland, crunchy “healthy-tasting” feeling to them, nor does the warm atmosphere. Everything we ate was chock full of flavour, starting with these fresh veggie rolls…

We also had  a yummy “Humble Pie” with a side salad…

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A group of four vegetarians and vegans that met at a Sydney V Star breakfast and the Walk Against Warming got to talking about ways we could make small changes in our lives to improve our commitment to sustainable living. The next thing we knew, VegPledge/VegOut was born!

Conceived by Donna Frith as a way to join in the 350.org global work party on 10/10/10, Donna was soon joined by Nikki Durr, Bob Ratnarajah, and myself. VegPledge/VegOut has a simple idea: “empowering individuals to make one of the most significant personal contributions a person can make to the green cause—making sustainable food choices.”

To make change feel achievable, we’re starting with a two-week challenge from 27 September to 10 October to make some small but significant changes in your food consumption habits that will reduce your carbon footprint. This can be anything from using reusable coffee cups and water bottles, to reducing use of a car to go shopping, to bigger steps such as growing your own herbs or vegetables. There are fifteen suggestions on the VegPledge.org web site that you are encouraged to choose from and share your pledges with the world, but of course you are welcome to invent your own pledges as well.

The best part, however, comes at the end of the two-week challenge: on 10/10/10, the date 350.org is holding their global work party, we are holding the VegOut at Centennial Park in Sydney. VegOut will be a huge picnic, with blankets arranged in the shape of the number 350 in solidarity with the groups working to make a difference around the world. You can order VegPack lunch boxes made by Sydney restaurants and caterers with a dedication to sustainability on vegpledge.org prior to the event, or you can bring your own vegetarian or vegan food, preferably to share!

We hope that  many pledgers will choose to push themselves to try things that might seem difficult for them, but we also hope that some will decide to continue their commitment after the two weeks are over. The important thing is to choose pledges that are meaningful to you. I’ve pledged to spend the two weeks cooking all of my own meals with organic vegetables purchased at farmers’ markets and groceries bought from bulk food stores. This won’t be easy, considering how often I opt for cheap takeaway, but I think I will feel pretty fulfilled at the end of the two weeks!

If you’re interested in getting more involved, we do need your help! A picnic this big will need a lot of blankets, and we are trying to collect as many as we can in advance so we can be prepared to set up the big 350 on the day of the event. If you can donate a picnic blanket for the day, please get in touch with us using the contact form on vegpledge.org. We will also need some help handing out the VegPacks on the day of, so if you’re willing to chip in, that would be lovely!

Most of all, though, we want to get the word out: not just to Sydney, and not just to Australia, but to everyone, everywhere that is interested in making the world a greener place. So, please, go to VegPledge.org, make and share your pledges, and tell all of your friends! We’ll see you at the VegOut!

P.S. If you’re not in Sydney, we hope you will consider organising your own VegOut picnic, big or small, on 10/10/10 or whenever you can. If you do, let us know and we’ll put the information up on the site.

Not that we needed further proof or anything, but I just felt like it needs to be said: Sydney Vegans Rule! I’m feeling all kinds of warm and fuzzy after our second successful Sydney Vegan Drinks  night on Friday evening. After some more donations came in after the event, we ended up raising $350 for Monika’s Doggie Rescue!

Considering all we asked for was a $5 suggested donation, that is an amazing result and makes me so proud of the generous community here.

And speaking of generosity, there are a number of people I need to thank for their contributions. A million thanks to Georgie of Addiction Food who kindly donated several boxes of ridiculously delicious  Bliss Balls and Macadamia Nut Brownies (and went out of her way to drop them off at my office – what an angel!).

A million more thanks to Derek of Inner West Live  for his ongoing support and promotion of our Sydney Vegan events and coverage of animal welfare issues. Derek is one of the most passionate and generous people I know, and brought in some great folks by way of Tim from Pet Rescue. Thanks, Tim for bringing along a great crowd!

More food donations came by way of Kelsey’s hummus (thanks for giving us all garlic breath!) and Jim’s mini-quiches. You guys are champions! And so are all the awesome people who stopped by, hung out, and generously donated. CHAMPIONS OF MY HEART!!!

We had way more people turn up than I’d expected, and I have no doubt that Sydney Vegan Drinks will keep getting bigger and better. I talked to a number of people about some more optimal venue ideas for our next event. (Though the drinks at Kuleto’s were lovely! The Lady Boy cocktail is amazing and they lit strawberries on fire!) 

But if you have any suggestions for larger or more private spaces that won’t cost us an arm and a leg, feel free to leave them in the comments or email me at sharon@vegaroo.com. I’ve put up some terribly blurry photos on the vegaroo Facebook page.

We’ll keep you posted and hope to see you all next time!