Miss T: Princess Vegan

Media Watchering, and Bill Clinton, or: something reasonable

2010-12-22T12:00:00.000+11:00

Hello chickens,

The last two months have been up and down, up and down, and I shan’t say more.

Here’s a lil’ sumthin’ sumthin’ from today’s Age online healthy blog section – not to shabby and not outrageously hysterical (at this stage. Wait until the charred-chops and salty-sausage eaters consider this article a threat to their way of life, all they hold dear and the Great Aussie Dream).

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/blogs/chew-on-this/going-vegan-for-your-hearts-sake/20101220-192c2.html

Also, did anyone see the recent M Magazine (also The Age) which highlighted people who are social oddities – the asexual fellow, the childless woman, the nudist – and a vegan. I was all fine and dandy with this until the vegan bloke wrote that he is happy to each ‘happy eggs’. I don’t want to be the Vegan Police but if you’re going to put your mug in a national magazine as an example of a lifestyle choice that most people are unfamiliar with or think is a little on the beardy-weirdy side, don’t confuse the matter by saying that you’re not actually very strict and can eat whatever you want really. It makes us all look flaky. If you need to do it then just do it, but please don’t make a great big public song and dance about being vegan if in fact A) you are not, and B) you probably know darn well how often the rest us have to explain that we can’t make just one little exception on this one little special occasion for the butter milked from your delightful cows and churned by your rosy-cheeked milkmaids, and your yolky eggs collected lovingly from your feathery chickens by crooning farmhands.

Vegan products in a non-vegan brand, or: the perils of the supermarket

2010-11-01T15:43:00.000+11:00

It’s not often that PeTA and I agree. As I rule, I, like many others, feel very icky about their tactics and imagery, but they get thoroughly criticised for that if other places so if you’re interested, just go and have a google.

But to the agreement: I agree that L’Oreal are vile animal abusers and I haven’t used any of their products since veganising myself over three years ago (my how time flies when you’re busy reading every label on every product you buy …). However, I read some time ago that they had brought out a vegan hair care line, EverPure, which actually marketed itself as being vegan, and my interest was piqued.

I had a little tussle with myself when I finally saw it in the supermarket on the weekend. My personal policy has always been that through mainstreaming and the wonders of shoppering veganism would become more widely known, acknowledged, desirable and even easier for people to live with. I have always supported the power of the market in being able to bring consumers vegan-friendly, reasonably-priced and high-performing products, and I am always pleased to see any product which states its vegan credentials on the label, because this is recognition that being cruelty-free is a selling point and worth shouting about – and I usually buy one in a show of support. The EverPure line meets all these criteria.

But did I want to support a company I know to be heavy users of animal testing and derivatives? Not really. Did I want to buy a line they had produced – one of many other, non-vegan lines, admittedly – which highlighted that it was vegan? Yes.

So my next question to myself, staring intently at the shelves in the personal care aisle, was that even though the product was vegan, in that it contained no animal products and had not been tested on animals, was it ok to buy it knowing what we do about L’Oreal? This was really where I felt uncomfortable.

And then I looked around me at the supermarket where I shop every week. That supermarket sells flesh and cow breastmilk and chicken ova and all sorts of non-vegan things. In my trolley was bread from bakeries that offer honey-infused lines. I bought cereals that offer yoghurt covered raisin varieties, baked beans which have ham-filled counterparts, hummus from brands that also sell smoked salmon dip, and tinned soups which I had to hunt for amongst their chicken stock and milk solids-filled shelfmates. On a naughty day I’ll buy chips that I can eat whilst leaving the honey baked ham packets from the same brand alone, and some types of sweet biscuits but not the creamy ones. I do this all the time. I choose products that suit me, and ignore the rest. I choose to buy things and tell companies that I, the consumer, want milk and honey free bread, cereal-only cereals, bean-filled baked beans, dips made only from chickpeas and vegetable soups that only contain vegetables. I choose because I have to and I want to. I choose because despite the existence of the outstanding Radical Grocery, I cannot and do not buy all my grocery items at vegan-only shops. My belief in the power of mainstreaming and my desire to see veganism become more widely understood and accepted make me choose.

And so I chose to try EverPure.

Incidentally, it wasn’t half as good as Organic Care and almost three times the price, but I would still like to know what you would choose. I chose one way, but you may choose another. Do you buy vegan products from non-vegan manufacturers (or do you not consider those to be vegan products at all?)? Or do you draw the line at very-non-vegan companies like L’Oreal and Proctor&Gamble on principle? Or do you support companies putting a toe in the water and buying their vegan-marked products regardless?

I’d really like to know – without wanting any Vegan Policing, I think this is fascinating.

2010-10-19T14:36:00.000+11:00

Dymock's continues to impress me, even on a whirlwing whizzbang lunchtime quickie shop.

This lunchtime's haul includes the new 2011 Sarah Kramer 'Go Vegan' calendar, which will adorn the toilet wall at the T-House so that guests are held captive whilst reading its messages. No pics as only the 2010 calendar is on the website, and we couldn't possibly be that out of dat, daaaahling.

I also bought Sara Gruen's new book, Ape House. Ape House follows the bestselling( which I'd never heard of) Water for Elephants which is set in a circus (not vegan) during the Depression (neutral vegan) and according to the cover is about learning to communicate with ... an elephant (quite vegan).

Ape House, and I rip this from the blurb, features bonobos who speak American Sign Language escaping into the world and capturing media attention for doing spookily human things - not so spooky given bonobos known intellectual abilities, just spooky to those who still consider animals to little more than responsive, unsentient biological machines. I don't know what it will be like, but it seems to be compassionate at first glance, and certainly better than other books by certain authors who misunderstand and misrepresent veganism and then send very rude emails exhibiting a complete lack of manners when called out politely for sloppy research.

Review possible shortcoming, and in the interests of full disclosure I should add that I also bought a book on uses of bicarb soda around the home because I am a bit sad.

Argument not over yet, buster, or: babies in the crockpot

2010-10-13T14:27:00.001+11:00

With more from the "never ever read the comments" file:

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/from-cradle-to-crock-pot-20101013-16imh.html

I quite liked this article. It doesn't resolve anything, but it does try to pinpoint why killing and eating baby animals can be more confronting for omnis than eating adults. Speaking about the discomfort is identifying it, which is small as it is, is a step towards questioning.

My favourite new form of omni-spam is this kind of comment: "All you sooks who cry about eating baby animals, you are such hypocrites in your leather shoes and belts!". Yes you would be. But I'm not. Argument not over yet, buster.

Next stop: World Domination, or: I spread my metaphorical blogging wings

2010-10-12T15:37:00.000+11:00

For the duration, meaning for the period in which I am engaged and probably for a bit afterwards too or for as long as I have things I wish to inflict on the blogoverse's collective ears, I'll also be blogging over at PolkaDot Bride (in the Weddings section), which is a blog that leaves me with long strands of sticky saliva extending from lip to keyboard as I gaze at the prettypretties (that sounded so unglamorous, but I assure you it's the very height of style).

My first post is up and there will be more. I'll continue to write here too, focussing on more vegan-nuptially things, but remember to have a squiz and Polka Dot Weddings too.

Forcing it down your throat, or: Don't read the comments.

2010-10-05T14:01:00.000+11:00

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/making-a-case-for-veganism-20101004-163m6.html

I don't want to comment on the slightly bizarre and pointless article.

However I will say this: why is it that any article about veg*ism is responded to immediately by a number of comments demanding that veg*ns just shut up and stop telling the author of the comment to eat meat ... and why do these comments appear before a single pro-veg comment has appeared?

It is an imaginary blast against an imaginary veg*n? Is it wishful thinking, in the way that one often has verbally violent arguments with people in one's head, coming up with a number of cutting and pithy remarks that utterly fail to spring to mind in real life? Or have the authors actually met some haranguing veg*n at some time? They do exist, but thankfully I have only ever seen them online and certainly not amonst my own friends.

My experience is the opposite: I have had it demanded of me over the dinner table to explain myself. I recently had a chef tell me I had a mental illness, in a faux-but-not-really joking way. I have had friends introduce me - regularly - as "the vegan". I have had a million questions, all designed to find the tiniest flaw in logic as though the possibility that I would agree that if alone on a desert island having been shipwrecked without communciations devices with a newborn to feed and the absolute certainty that I will never escape then I might drink the milk of the cow stranded with me means that the entire agri-business structure is ethical. I've had countless "I could never ... I love cheese ...." and "Tasty tasty murder", usually while I'm eating. I've had "Well sorry, we're going to order pork anyway", without me having said a word. I've had "plants have feelings hahaha".

And this in response to what I said, which was ... nothing.

In my experience omnivores confronted with veganism are often aggressive, defensive, abusive and loud. Some aren't. A surprisingly sad number are. I will only discuss veganism with people who I think want to have a reasonable discussion with me. Otherwise I am silent.

Who is forcing what down whose throat?

Mrs B, Engaged Vegan

2010-09-25T22:09:00.001+10:00

Dear Reader,

I married him.

(Not just yet, but I will).

My absence from this blog recently has been in the most part due to my frenzy of organising after the lovely Buzz and I decided to get hitched. And the secrecy was because we were not yet engaged, and I wanted to be proposed to and he wanted to propose, so we were keeping it all under wraps. Instead of blogging, I spent my time caressing my wedding folder, emailing vendors and whipping myself into increasing fervour about bombonniere.

But now we’re official! He is my fiance and I am his fiancee. Without going into the teary details of the proposal, I will just say that it was perfect and meaningful and it rocked. And there is a rock.

Buzz also gave me the best present he could have on my 30th birthday when he said that he wanted to have vegan food at our wedding. This had been a little sore point for me, as early on our relationship I had made some sort of thoughtless generalised sweeping comment about it, inadvertently putting the omni Buzz onto a knife edge and asking him to do something he wasn’t yet comfortable with. I’d come to terms slowly with a compromise in my own head, reluctantly accepting that it was his wedding too. But blammo! Out of the blue on my birthday he said he wanted all the meals to be vegan. My heart went all butterflyey and pitter patter.

So as we embark on a planning a vegan wedding, I think this will become my fodder for the next year or so. There are of course a number of posts and blogs already which describe fantastic vegan weddings - not least of which is In The Mood For Noodles, when K and Toby had a potluck feast and hosted a truly brilliant reception - but as our wedding will be a bit more traditional, and really quite big at 150 guests, I think our trials and tribulations will be useful for any others planning an Offbeat Lite (as they say on Offbeatbride.com) wedding.

And so, Item the First!

The Grub & Booze

We were both on board with all vegan food, and as much of the alcohol as we could manage. Our first consideration was finding a venue that didn’t baulk at the idea of catering for 150 vegan meals, and more to the point, didn’t offer us a menu of salad - risotto - fruit salad.

This actually proved to be one of the most heartening aspects of all the organisation we did. Every single venue we contacted was very open to vegan meals and one of them - The Centre Ivanhoe - even prepared us an excellent sample menu before we went to inspect the venue. They will be using this on their website as an example of what they can do, so any couples looking for an Art Deco masterpiece should definitely contact them.

The other consideration was alcohol. We needed somewhere that could offer to either source vegan wine and beer for us from their own suppliers, or allow us to supply our own with minimal charge. The second option is much less desirable; the cost per head we were quoted to BYO was between $10 per bottle and $25 per head!

I had to come to a compromise on champagne. The only vegan champagne is Moet et Chandon, and maybe Veuve Clicquot, and our budget simply can’t stretch that far - and if it did I’d feel terribly wasteful. Our bridal table will have Moet - a girl has to have champers on her wedding day! - but I’m comfortable with something else being served to our guests and I would not be comfortable with not offering them champagne at all. Considering I had originally come to terms with a half omni menu, I think this a place I’m happy to rest.

In the end we inspected four venues whose capacity was adequate, and each of them was beautiful and extraordinarily accommodating about our needs. The Centre Ivanhoe, Quat Quatta and The Willows were all excellent and very helpful, and I would happily recommend them.

But in the end we chose the first place we visited, which set the benchmark for everywhere else. The Treasury Restaurant at the Sebel Hotel really captured us - it is an old bank now operating as a restaurant under a hotel , and the architectural virtues and sense of history really sealed the deal. The building is immaculately restored - nothing less glamorous than peeling paint - and offers the right balance between a sense of both spaciousness and intimacy that we want for our guests. We can hold the ceremony there (indoors is very important given it will be winter and evening!), then guests can head up to the mezzanine level for drinks and canapes while we get our photies, and then the reception will be held downstairs again. A bit of a change of scenery and no one (except us!) has to brave the dark and cold! And the best bit is that when the night is over, shoes are kicked off and eyes are closing, we can simply head to the lifts and be carried up to our room.

CheekySneakyPeekies: Hustle That Bustle

2010-09-09T18:39:00.000+10:00

As you may recall from this post, I highly endorse everyone and everyone they've ever met getting their sweaty mitts on a copy of the Veg Food Guide.

And this year it's supersized itself, morphing into the Aus Veg Food Guide - it's gone megasuperduperexplosive!

You - yes, the bow-legged one* - can get an advance cheeky-sneaky copy here: http://www.aduki.net.au/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=48

(and it's at a reduced price to boot).

Most of all though - I am one of the reviewers! So bask in my reflected glory and Hustle And Bustle over to www.aduki.net.au Pronto.

*Shout out, Salt'n'Pepa. Shout.

Adorabubbles, or: just let us have one positive article

2010-09-08T15:31:00.000+10:00

Well duh.

Yummy vegan cupcakes.

And duh, there are comments about how lovely rich melty butter and yolky sunny eggs are underneath, and how healthful and not at all cruel they are. Can't the egg-and-dairy-country-farmyard apologists even let one article about vegan cupcakes- sweet, innocent, adorabubble cupcakes - slide without raising their fists in anger to tell us how much better theirs are ... even if they admit they've never tried a vegan cupcake? Can't we just have one article about cupcakes without being told we're all going to die of brittle bones, too weak and puny to get of bed to reach 'real' (ie: flesh and bodily emissions) sustenance?

Anyway, enjoy the cupcakes. Raspberries to them.

Eating Wilbur and Patting Rex, or: re-establising the Farm to Fork Continuum in the public mind

2010-07-05T14:55:00.001+10:00

I suspect a zeitgeist.

On Sunday, perusing as is my pretentious wont, the Weekend Australian Magazine (actually I never read the Australian; it was a one-off), I read a column that I can't locate online in my lunch hour, but which I assure you exists, about the break in the farm-to-fork continuum that allows self-proclaimed animal lovers to chow down on Daisy, Wilbur or Lambert whilst simultaneously petting Fido and stroking Fluffy.

Today's Age contains this column, slightly more academic and pointed, but in the same vein. I hope that the 'conscious forgetting' of Jonathan Safran Foer that the author refers to is getting more and more forgotten itself, but it does at least seem that this issue is getting more media airtime. I hope that someone, reading the weekend paper with a cup of coffee on the couch (or beer if you're like me), glanced down at faithful Ralph or Rex or King or Duke or Bailey or Sam, and then reconsidered their plan for a pig sandwich for lunch and a baby sheep roast for dinner.

Cookering Bookering, or: I have purchased more instructional veganic literature

2010-07-01T12:17:00.001+10:00

I've oohed and aahed before over the excellent vegan cookering bookering section at Dymocks in Collins St. They seem to have more all the time, including Terry Romero's Viva Vegan for those who like Latinesque foodering (not enough pictures for me ... yet. But I do really like the cover and think it's a bit a la Nigella ... so therefore mainstreamish and more appealing to audiences. I rate that).

Dymocks' psychic pull on me is intense, because recently I have bought:

The Vegan Table by Collen Patrick-Goudreau (also of The Joy of Vegan Baking). We've made some verrry noice burgers from it. No pictures, breaking my usual rule, but beautifully laid out and fonted. (Fonted?).

The Ultimate Vegan Cook Book (not Veganomicon ... I can't find a picture of it and it seems like a stock published book, but it was only $25 and it even has instructional pictures)

Clean Food by Terry Walters. This book doesn't contain the word 'vegan'. But any book that uses agar agar in dessert recipes sure darn is. Quite American as its focus is seasonal ingredients, but still looking sensational and heeeeeps of recipes.

Babycakes by Erin McKenna (even though I'm not really a bakerer, I loved the purdiness of the book and also the chance to cook something vegan and gluten free so I can share it with Buzz's mama)

Easy Vegan (again, a publisher only book, but 'easy' rings bells in my soul)

The 30 Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray (like 'easy', 'quick' is like angel wings beating against my heart).

My collection is growing ... soon to take over more shelves in the kitchen and colonise a cupboard.

'The Animal Cruelty Syndrome', or: The NY Times follows up

2010-06-18T08:57:00.001+10:00

**TRIGGER WARNING**: The article discussed here contains some graphic and heartbreaking descriptions of animal abuse. I found it hard to read. If you think this will trigger you, I advise you not to link to it. The extracts below do not contain these descriptions.

In March the NY Times reported that an increasing number of US States were passing legislation to bar convicted animal abusers from owning or coming into contact with pets, and to mandate child or spousal abuse officers and animal control officers to share information and report to each other when they find something wrong.

Today the NY Times has published an extended piece titled 'The Animal Cruelty Syndrome', which discusses the growing recognition that animal cruelty is part of a constellation of behaviours endemic to abusive households, gang activity and the psychologically disturbed.

The article is by Charles Siebert, a contributing writer, who is the author of “The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals.” The article is well-written, empathetic and unflinching - I think I'd like to read this book.

I'll try to do a more in-depth discussion when I'm not, say, at work, but for now here are some extracts.

Back in the early 1980s, Lockwood was asked to work on behalf of New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services with a team of investigators looking into the treatment of animals in middle-class American households that had been identified as having issues of child abuse. They interviewed all the members of each family as well as the social workers who were assigned to them. The researchers’ expectation going in was that such families would have relatively few pets given their unstable and volatile environments. They found, however, not only that these families owned far more pets than other households in the same community but also that few of the animals were older than 2.

“There was a very high turnover of pets in these families,” Lockwood told me. “Pets dying or being discarded or running away. We discovered that in homes where there was domestic violence or physical abuse of children, the incidence of animal cruelty was close to 90 percent. The most common pattern was that the abusive parent had used animal cruelty as a way of controlling the behaviors of others in the home. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at what links things like animal cruelty and child abuse and domestic violence. And one of the things is the need for power and control. Animal abuse is basically a power-and-control crime.”

...

In a separate study, a quarter of battered women reported that they had delayed leaving abusive relationships for the shelter out of fear for the well-being of the family pet. In response, a number of shelters across the country have developed “safe haven” programs that offer refuges for abused pets as well as people, in order that both can be freed from the cycle of intimidation and violence.

...

What cannot be so easily monitored or ameliorated, however, is the corrosive effect that witnessing such acts has on children and their development. More than 70 percent of U.S. households with young children have pets. In a study from the 1980s, 7-to-10-year-old children named on average two pets when listing the 10 most important individuals in their lives. When asked to “whom do you turn to when you are feeling sad, angry, happy or wanting to share a secret,” nearly half of 5-year-old children in another study mentioned their pets. One way to think of what animal abuse does to a child might simply be to consider all the positive associations and life lessons that come from a child’s closeness to a pet — right down to eventually receiving their first and perhaps most gentle experiences of death as a natural part of life — and then flipping them so that all those lessons and associations turn negative.

...

To date, one of the most promising methods for healing those whose empathic pathways have been stunted by things like repeated exposure to animal cruelty is, poetically enough, having such victims work with animals. Kids who tend to be completely unresponsive to human counselors and who generally shun physical and emotional closeness with people often find themselves talking openly to, often crying in front of, a horse — a creature that can often be just as strong-willed and unpredictable as they are and yet in no way judgmental, except, of course, for a natural aversion to loud, aggressive human behaviors.

A victory for Tasmania and pigs, or: a change for Australia

2010-06-11T09:42:00.001+10:00

Well that's good news! I'd like to think it was my letter, but I assume it was a critical mass ...

Dear Rachel,

Today marks an extraordinary day for pigs. It’s days like these that we are reminded that with hard work and persistence, comes results. In this case — the first state-based commitment to phase out one of the cruellest practices in Australia...

This historic development would never have been possible without the support of Animals Australia’s members. Thank You. Animals Australia relies entirely on public donations. Please give generously to support our ongoing efforts to free animals from needless cruelty.

ABOVE: Animals Australia in conjunction with Brightside Farm Sanctuary recently placed a series of high impact print advertisements in three state-wide newspapers, bringing Minister Green face to face with the animals he had the opportunity to help.

TIP: Visit AnimalsAustralia.org, or our Facebook page to see other recent campaign initiatives.

Following a state-wide newspaper advertising blitz by Animals Australia and Brightside Farm Sanctuary, Tasmania's Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green announced in parliament today (June 10th 2010) that he will ban cruel sow stalls in the state!

Pigs are among the most intelligent species on the planet, and yet have been subjected to one of the cruellest practices ever inflicted on animals in Australia. 'Sow stalls' are typically used in factory farming operations across the country to confine and isolate mother pigs during pregnancy. The national Code of Practice permits these animals to be confined in tiny crates, unable even to turn around for months on end, denying them exercise and any quality of life. As a result, pigs suffer painful physical ailments and even depression.
Recently the Tasmanian Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) recognised the unacceptable cruelty permitted by the flawed national code, and recommended to Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green that Tasmania take a leading role to become the first state to outlaw the cruel practice of confining sows in stalls. Animals Australia’s representative on the AWAC provided crucial input on the scientific and ethical arguments against confining sows in tiny stalls.
Despite heavy lobbying from Australia's intensive pork industry, Minister Green has accepted this recommendation, encouraged by a flood of supportive letters and e-mails from thousands of caring Animals Australia supporters.
This significant development, along with the recent announcement by Australia's largest piggery to voluntarily phase out sow stalls, could never have happened without Animals Australia's investigations, media exposés, and high profile public awareness campaigns.
Consistent with international precedents, the Tasmanian government will implement a phase out of sow stalls with a total ban in 2017. Therefore it is crucial that Animals Australia continues to highlight to consumers in Tasmania and throughout Australia that they have the power to help these animals right now by refusing to purchase factory farmed products. In addition, we will be lobbying other state governments to follow the precedent established in Tasmania.
Please help us maintain our high impact campaigns on behalf of animals. Hope is finally on the horizon for these intelligent animals thanks to the committed support of our members. You can help us bring about change even sooner by donating today.

Thank you for being a voice for animals,

Lyn White
Animals Australia Communication Director
P.S. If you have friends who love animals please tell them about Animals Australia. Our small team of campaigners ensure that animals in need get maximum value out of every precious dollar donated to us. With greater support, more important outcomes like this will become possible.

Things that made me teary this morning, or: Blood sports even for the smallest of creatures

2010-06-07T09:46:00.000+10:00

Under this article from today's Guardian, is this comment, which just makes my heart break.

6 Jun 2010, 2:17AM

The cruelty does not begin or end with bullfights in Spain. At 'ferias' I have been to you can pay a Euro to throw stones at a rabbit nailed to a plank; I have seen donkeys stabbed to death in the town square in Mijas on Easter parades (there is of course the infamous traddition of throwing a donkey or a horse from the bell tower as well), and in Malaga they regularily have bullfights for children where the 'matador', dressed a bit like Ronald McDonald, invites the children to join him in hacking a bull calf to death in the ring, to much merriment of the assembled parents. And if you are too lazy to participate in the stabbing, taunting and torturing yourself, you can always watch the children's bullfighting programme on Saturday morning: 'Toros para todos.'
What a lovely country. Let's all go there and pay our respects their ancient and noble traditions, shall we?

It's not right. It will never be right. Culture and tradition be damned.

Anatomy of a birthday weekend, or: My fourth decade

2010-06-06T23:57:00.002+10:00

Miss T for Miss Thirty.

Friday 4 June 2010

A party at work with artwork from Miss Erin's two girls, the Misses Kira and Breanna. Breanna has even drawn directions for how to throw a surprise party. The coolest!

The beautiful bangle from the girls at work - perfect.

A lovely brooch from Arts Victoria from Miss Veronica, who I have been friends with since were were in Form 7D together in 1993, and we now work on the same floor.

A dinner of the best food in the world: A on VT.

Saturday 5 June 2010 - the day of days

My present from my parents and myself - a white gold pendant from Canturi. I love that you can't really tell if it's modern or Art Deco. I've been lusting for years and decided if I couldn't justify it now, it would languish forever on my list of "things that I shoulda-woulda-coulda". It's for the granddaughters.

Out for breakfast at Soulfoods.

Mr Lovaah Lovaah.

And then off to Buzz's present for me ...

Designed by Buzz with art direction from Miss T, executed by Tammy at Eternal Instinct. It's new and still healing so the colours will brighten. I think I may get the pink enpinkened a little if it stays paler. You can never go hot enough with pink.

Lovelovelove.

(and I have some information on vegan ink which I'll share later).

Lunch from La Panella - vausage roll.

Homer.

That's SammyOne Puppykins' nose trying to get at my Whittaker's.

Dinner at Enlightened Cuisine with the fam, Mr and Mrs T and Miss T Junior, and the Esteemed Grandfather Mr R, and Buzz. Best dish, as before: 5 spice tofu.

And after (not snapped): drinks for Miss Leia Jade's birthday.

Sunday 6 June 2010

Sunday morning - Camberwell market felafel.

Thoughtful and generous Dinosaur Designs necklace from Mr and Mrs T's neighbours, the lovely Ms Marisa who has known me since before I was born, and family Mr Ric, Master Dante and Miss Allegra. Beeyootiful and so undeserved.

Miss T Jnr outdoes herself with baked New York cheesecake via Carla. Eaten while visiting the Esteemed Grandmother Mrs R. Do not attempt more than once slice.

Homemade Sunday night dinner with Mr and Mrs Buzz with TV, SammyPuppins and the love of my life.

Thank you everyone.

Tasmania could lead the way, or: banning sow stalls

2010-06-03T10:17:00.000+10:00

I received the following email from Animals Australia. My response is below, and I urge you to do the same. This is an ooprtunity for one state to forge ahead in making positive changes to the welfare of pigs - someone must be first.

Dear Rachel,

I'm writing to you today to share with you some wonderfully hopeful news, and also to ask for a small favour on behalf of thousands of needy animals.

Your critical support of our campaign to end factory farming has helped create the groundswell that has made it possible for the first Australian state government to consider a legislative ban on the use of sow stalls.

As you may know, the 'sow stall' represents one of the cruellest practices ever inflicted on pigs in Australia. Already banned in the U.K. and in parts of Europe, these cruel concrete and metal crates imprison mother pigs so severely that they cannot even turn around. Here in Australia, laws currently permit pregnant sows to be left in this debilitating state for months at a time.

In an incredibly positive move, Tasmania’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) recently recommended that Tasmania become the first state to ban the use of sow stalls on the basis of unacceptable cruelty. The decision to accept the recommendation now rests with one man: Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green.

The pig industry is hard at work lobbying Minister Green to ignore science that clearly reveals how pigs suffer physically and emotionally inside stalls. They would rather continue the practice of confining pigs in stalls indefinitely. So who will speak up for the pigs?

Animals Australia in collaboration with Tasmanian-based member society Brightside Farm Sanctuary have responded in force by placing a series of 18 high-impact ads across three state-wide newspapers that will bring the Tasmanian Primary Industries Minister face to face with the very animals he has the opportunity to help. You can view the ads here.

Right now it is critical that Minister Green be reminded that all caring Australians are appalled by animal cruelty and will enthusiastically support a ban on cruel sow stalls — which brings me to that favour I wanted to ask you...

You can help us bring about this important outcome by sending a personal e-mail to Minister Green to urge him to accept AWAC's recommendation to ban sow stalls in Tasmania. Your message need only be a few short lines. His address is: bryan.green@parliament.tas.gov.au

Thank you dearly for your ongoing support. A few minutes of your time today could help end a lifetime of suffering for animals.

For the pigs,

Lyn White

Dear Minister,

I write to urge you to accept the recommendation of Tasmania's Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) that Tasmania ban the use of sow stalls on the basis of unacceptable cruelty.

The United Kingdom and Europe have also recognised that the confinement of pregnant sows in a conrete and metal crate for months at a time without room to turn around constitutes severe cruelty.

It is scientifically well established that pigs are animals with significant levels of intelligence and emotion, much the same as that of a dog. Their technical classification as farm animals is insufficient justification to allow treatment of them that we would not accept if applied to domestic animals and our pets.

The pig industry will attempt to reduce the severity of suffering experienced by sows, and present economic arguments to continue current practices. I strongly urge you to consider instead the moral imperative that each of us bears to uphold acceptable standards of welfare for animals under our care.

I hope very much that Tasmania will lead the nation in banning this unecessary, cruel and inhumane practice.

Yours faithfully,

Miss T

Victoria Votes, or: political machinations and the Animal Justice Party of Australia

2010-05-30T18:20:00.000+10:00

The Melbourne Magazine - something I usually find oddly entrancing despite the intense navel-gazing - has run an article in which Ted Baillieu and John Brumby answer questions posed by Victorians.

The answers range from the straight-talkin' (here's Brumby on whether the government will raise the drinking age to 21: "I don't support that because to be honest I don't believe realistically it could be achieved or implemented") to the infuriating (how about this corker by Baillieu in answer to a question about street violence in the CBD: "We have set out a very cleat strategy to deal with it, and that's, in part, police numbers ... We've also said that we need zero-tolerance enforcement. We will get rid of suspended sentences, we'll get rid of home detention and we'll put an end to what is talked about in police circles as the notion of a free hit.").

One question posed that is very important to me is this one from Peter Singer:

"Will you empower inspectors to make routine, unannounced visits to Victorian factory farms so that the public does not have to rey on the occasional whistleblower with courage enough to report when animals are kept in cruel conditions that violate the law and the government's own codes of practice?"

Victoria goes to the polls on 27 November. The answers to this question will help me decide on my vote (I'd also love to see an answer from the Greens, whose animal policy is here - it's welfarist in position but with some excellent points) and although I am not trying to sway your vote, I hope these answers will help inform your own considerations and decision-making process (which as a responsible citizen of a democratic nation you will of course undertake before casting your vote).

John Brumby:

"We're not looking at any changes in this area at this point in time, but let me say that animal welfare is a very important issue to our state. How you ensure appropriate welfare for animals is the sign, I think, of any civilised society, and so it is fundamental that businesses that operate in our state should and must operate within the laws that are set in place".

Ted Baillieu:

"There will be, from time to time, occasions where the wrong thing is being done but I have great faith in our farming sector, and I think the system is working reasonably well, at present, to identify any inappropriate practices".

In the federal sphere (federal system of government ... three tiers of government... ) is the newly forming Animal Justice Party of Australia. Niki has already written about this new political party here. I'm really pleased that the issues I am most interested in are garnering enough support to warrant a political movement. I'm under no illusions that the AJP will sweep into office and declare the new state Veganstralia, but a political voice reflects community concern. It will be hard to present serious animal-related issues in a way that gathers general community support without coming across as craaaazy-vegans or making people think that their Saturday BBQ snags will be subject to armed raids (I want omnis' support. I would like to confiscate their snags too but it's no way to ensure our issues get a sympathetic hearing outside of Veganville), but I'm glad they're tackling it. I think I'll join .

Testing, testing, or: The Age is discussing animal testing and makeup

2010-05-18T14:22:00.000+10:00

Today's 'Beauty Beat' blog at The Age website has a post on animal testing. I've responded and urge you to do the same. It's astonishing how often people assume that products are no longer tested on animals (because they rightly think that it's barbaric, abhorrent and ineffective) but it's just that the issue has slipped off the radar - I know this was the case for me when I started veganising my makeup and bathroom products. It's great that this important but often forgotten issue is getting an airing.

http://blogs.theage.com.au/lifestyle/beautybeat/archives/2010/05/cruel_reality.html

Skinning, or: Just Stop It.

2010-05-13T10:13:00.000+10:00

From today's Age.

Oh no no no no no bleeding hell no.

Fur is not back. Unless you like hearing rabbits scream as they are anally electrocuted. Do you?

Farmers do not shoot foxes and rabbits and sell their pelts. Most fur comes from China where animals are raised in cages for their skins and then killed. It's simple. It's not environmental.

Leather, suede, wool, angora and cashmere aren't better, but as one sensible girl pointed out to me, whereas most shoes are leather and coats are wool (as anyone who has tried to find good quality synthetics knows), there is no reason at all to wear fur and that's why it should be abhorrent even to skin-wearers.

Just stop it.

Furry fashion back in style

DAILE PEPPER

May 12, 2010 - 1:40PM

Comments 27

A fur vest by Harmony & Lawson. Photo: Luke Thompson

Fur is back in fashion.
The number of luxury labels across the world using faux and real fur to create their autumn/winter collections is huge and now a Perth fashion label’s real fur creations are flying off the racks.
Chanel sent models wearing full fur body suits down the catwalk, evoking images of woolly mammoths in ancient times, during their recent fall/winter show. Though the luxe label chose to use fake fur rather than the real thing.

Roberto Cavalli’s line of pelts, vests, scarves and dresses featuring fur have sent animal rights activisits aflutter, Gucci, Fendi and plenty more have favoured fur as both embellishment and the foundation of a range of pieces.
Now a Perth label Harmony & Lawson is creating garments made only of real fur, and finding the furry designs are much more popular than ever expected.
Designer Harmony Douglas said her rabbit and raccoon fur creations have proved extremely popular since she launched the label in December.

A creation by Chanel, part of the fall/winter 2011 collection.

“The market is crying out for it,” she said.
“We are just being inundated with sales.”
No longer are Anna Wintour and J.Lo amongst a tiny minority of fashion followers who wear the real thing.
Singer Kelly Rowland purchased a fur vest from the label during her recent visit to Perth, and models including Skye Stracke had purchased the product too. Douglas said she had customers from all over the world.
But the controversy surrounding the use of fur continues. Even those designers that do use fur, refuse to comment on their use of it.
Lisa Ho’s latest winter collection features what has been said to be rabbit fur. But ask her PR team for a comment on her use of the material and you get a quick “Lisa Ho doesn’t comment on fur” response.
But Douglas says very few people voiced concerns to her about the possibility of cruelty, though she realised that for some people fur would always remain taboo.
She sourced her furs overseas, and said government regulations meant the product was farmed like other meat products. All parts of the animals were used. The fur was certified cruelty free.
It was the luxury feel of garments made from fur that was making them popular once again, Douglas said.
“It’s the luxury of it, it's so soft, and my garments are light weight,” she said.
But not everyone in the fashion industry believes the use of real fur can be justified.
While people presume Australian luxe label Aurelio Costarella uses the material to create some of the couture looks they send down the catwalk, the designer has signed the PETA agreement against the use of fur and will never use the real thing.
“We believe you don’t need to use fur as there are so many other great materials and fabrications to utilise," Costarella brand manager Paul O’Connor said.
At the end of the day it’s about using your creativity to make a luxury product and one that is desirable to all.”

Lambkin, or: who looks at this and thinks "I'll kill it and eat it"?

2010-05-11T12:10:00.000+10:00

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/lamb-meat-prices-surge-9-per-cent/story-e6frea83-1225864742689

Some choice words from Phil Lally and Michele Prince, sheep farmers in Clare SA about how they are handrearing 50 'orphan' lambs:

"We're keeping all the lambs we can because the market is so strong we can't justify leaving them in the paddock to get picked out by crows and foxes.We want to make sure nothing is left out to die as was done in the past - we have to make sure every single unit counts".

Please note the following:

We can't justify leaving newborn, weak lambs out to die because the market is strong. But it's not wrong to abandon defenceless babies to slowly starve to death or be mutilated by crows and foxes.
Units. Not lambs or sheep but units.

Here they are, happily hand feeding small and happy lambs. Lambs can learn their own names and love to play.

It's beyond me how anyone can look at those lambs and think they are nothing more than units who deserve to die.

Today's Guardian: Why I Must Not Teach My Children What I Think Is Ethical Behaviour But Omnis Can

2010-04-21T11:16:00.001+10:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/20/veganism-safe-children - "Is veganism safe for children?"

I really don't have time to read the comments, but here's one that always sticks in my craw: "Why do you force your beliefs on to your children?".

For the same reason I will teach them to be kind to others, not to hit, to tell the truth and to share. Because ALL parents teach their kids the things they think are right. The assumption in the question is that the default - meat-eating etc - is a morally neutral default and that my wacky, crazy beliefs are intrinsically damaging.

I wonder if we might term this 'omni privilege'.

I find it interesting that when vegan parents write about their own experiences here, the response is "And here are the vegan zealots coming out of the woodwork". The question is about veganism and kids; these people have experience with it and choose to write about it, but suddenly they're proselytising weirdos. Each of them has said their kids are healthy but apparently their direct evidence is suspect because they don't take their kids to the local fried chicken shop.

Lord, hear our prayer, or: unvegan shoppering

2010-04-12T13:12:00.000+10:00

Hi Jeans Manufacturers (especially Lee and Mavi),

Could you please stop using leather labels on the back of your jeans. It makes them unvegan. It is religious discrimination because it stops me worshipping at my church, The Holy Sepulchre of the Blessed Sacred Heart of the Sainted Mercy of Shopping. I cannot lay my purchases at the feet of Our Lady of Purchase and seek her holy blessing for my next shopping trip. I will never be heard by the Archangel Amex if I cannot flagellate myself in the Changing Room of Small Sizing Horror. I cannot sing with the Heavenly Choir of Consumer Cherubim. I will never be able to join the Seraphim of Sales. Preventing me from buying jeans means that I will never achieve the Rapture of the Perfect Denim.

You are losing my business.

Your sincerely,

A Poor Penitent

Haigh's is back in my good books, or: I receive a phone call

2010-04-05T13:04:00.000+10:00

I should have written this post a couple of weeks ago when Haigh's contacted me again in response to my complaints.

Upfront, I'll be clear: I still disagree with the conclusion that Haigh's has come to. I think they've fallen on the wrong side of conservative. But ... I now have a lot of respect for their methods.

After my letters to Haigh's (here and here) I received an email asking if I would speak to a member of the executive management team. Thinking this could go either way, I agreed, and after playing a bit of phone tag I received a call from Susan.

I liked her. She was nice. She was genuine. She was really concerned to explain to me their thinking at every step, and I respected the lengths she had gone to.

My biggest gripe with the labelling chocolate/allergen issue was that it wasn't a legal requirement. Using my super-sleuth skills, I tracked through legislation and guidelines to try to find out exactly what was required, and as far as I could see, my dark chocolate frogs were being unfairly labelled and taken away from me.

Susan gave me the background to Haigh's' (how do I apostrophise that one eh?) decision. In early 2009 Susan attended a training session which used the VITAL risk assessment tool (Voluntary Incidental Trace Allegen Label), which is recommended by the Australian Food and Grocery Council. (If you're more interested than I am, you can read about it here). On testing Haigh's products they realised that if they applied the VITAL tool then they should be labelling milk as an ingredient in their dark chocolate.

So I get this. As a company Haigh's chose to use a particular analytical tool which gave them this answer. It had nothing to do with their legal obligations and everything to do with their corporate risk assessment decisions. In my view these are the actions of a company acting sensibly and responsibly. Apparently testing also showed that the level of trace milk in the dark chocolate varied so wildly that one batch to another would record ingredient-level or trace-level amounts. In Haigh's view it was not safe to label this variation as simply 'may contain'.

Susan also told me that she contacted the SA Department of Health for advice, as well as holding discussions with Anaphylaxis Australia (can you believe that parents with dairy-allergic kids will still give them foods that 'may contain traces of'? Crazy and reckless).

On the bright side, Haigh's is moving towards having a dedicated dairy-free facility. Not being a player on the scale of Cadbury this is a costly and time-consuming process, but I like that Haigh's recognises a need for it and is working towards it.

I still disagree about the ultimate outcome - I maintain that 'may contain traces of' should be a sufficient warning and is an accurate reflection of the product - but I accept that the VITAL tool renders a different result and that Haigh's has chosen, as a responsible producer, to use this industry standard. I stil want dark chocolate frogs. But I respect the process and the decision, even if I disagree with it.

So there you have it - Haigh's have gained my respect for not only their risk assessment processes but also for the way in which they handled my complaint (I even got a follow up email to check I was happy with the outcome of the conversation). I am confident that Haigh's did what they thought was best for their business and customers, following consultation and due process. I don't like the lack of frogs in my life, but I can live with it.

Tenth Muse is deeply disappointing, or: I don't finish

2010-03-21T13:35:00.000+11:00

I often leave meals languishing in my iPhoto for months before blogging them. This one's really fresh; just hours old and driven by my deep and desperate disappointment.

The Tenth Muse boasts wide range of omni, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options. I love ordering a vegan meal directly off the menu without going through all the 'no dairy' specifics. This morning I ordered the big vegan fry-up with beans and avocados.

Coffee (watery) came and went. I read the paper cover to cover. We were the only customers. The music alternated between ear-bleeding and silent.

Breakfast came. It was big.

It was the worst cooked breakfast I can recall.

The Turkish bread was doused in what must have been at least two tablespoons of Nuttelex. The tomatoes were barely cooked. The scrambled tofu was soggy and bland. Every single thing on my plate was drowning in oil.

The avocado was black and brown all the way through. The picture above doesn't do it credit. I cannot believe anyone had the cheek to plate it, let alone charge money for it.

If I want baked beans from a tin I'll go home and open one of the little tins I keep which cost $5 for 8 at Coles. If I want a McDonald's hash brown I'll go there (I won't. But if I want a hash brown like the one here I'll go to the supermarket and buy a plastic bag full of frozen ones).

Not a single thing tasted of anything but oil. If I had ordered this at Fat Eddy's Route 66 Side-of-the-Highway Cafe on Wheels at 3 in the morning, I would have been pleased. In a cafe situated in the heart of Melbourne's coffee'n'cafe streets, which has obviously taken great care to create a menu to suit all dietary preferences, this was incredibly disappointing.

This disappointing: this is what I ate.

I have rarely not finished a meal, and I've never chosen not to continue one after a couple of bites. Especially when I'm paying for it. I just couldn't bear to eat this one at all.

And when our harried waiter collected my virtually-intact plate, there was no checking if the meal was ok. Clearly it wasn't.

We didn't get charged for our coffees because of the wait. It was the small positive (along with all the same-sex marriage rally pictures on the wall. I liked them).

I left deeply disappointed and feeling ripped off. There was nothing special, nothing even passable, about this breakfast. Much as I want to support any cafe that offers vegan options, I won't be back. I went home and ate toast.

An abuser is an abuser, or: the US starts seeing animal abuse for what it is (and isn't)

2010-03-19T10:07:00.000+11:00

From today's NY Times Online.

I'm pleased that more and more US States are passing legislation that bar convicted animal abusers from owning or coming into contact with pets. I think it's great that further attention is being paid by authorities to animal hoarders, even though I think that the level of abuse usually perpetrated by hoarders - chronic neglect, lack of health care, inadequate care and shelter, leaving dead animals' bodies where they fall - would seem to stem from a place of more benign intentions than animal torture does. Nonetheless, animal hoarders do need to be identified and helped (or prosecuted) and the animals they hoard need to be removed. An abuser is an abuser.

I am especially pleased that eight states now require child or spousal abuse officers and animal control officers to share information and report to each other when they find something wrong. This acknowledges the chilling statistic (reported in the article) that in 88% of homes where children were abused, animals were abused too, and that women who have been abused by their intimate partner were 10 times more likely to report that their partner had also hurt or killed a pet. It helps place animal abuse in the same sphere as child or intimate partner violence and it reflects the seriousness of any abuse of the defenceless. An abuser is an abuser.

Although I see that these changes place animal abuse firmly in the real of abuse-response services, which is appropriate, and that it is widely acknowledged that the abuse of animals is a leading indicator of the abuse of humans, I still feel a little sad that the article implies that some of these laws are only here to identify and prosecute animal abusers as a means to identify and prosecute human abusers. It's an important link and one which has been instrumental in raising the profile of animal abuse as something to be acted upon, but we must also recognise that abusing animals is wrong because it is ... abusing animals. An abuser is an abuser.

This bit doesn't please me either: "Some states are bucking the trend. In Idaho, which is one of the states without a felony cruelty penalty, farmers and ranchers are pushing a bill that would more clearly distinguish livestock from pets and would exempt livestock from the protections afforded pets". Because the standard treatment of livestock amounts to abuse? Or because no one cares about a nameless faceless cow as long as Fluffy the Cat and Rex the Dog are safe at home? An abuser is an abuser.

Many people will see animal abuse as sitting much much lower on the scale of wrongness than the abuse of humans. I'm not going to address that; it's a huge issue. But to me it is clear - people who like to hurt defenceless beings will do it to anyone they can. Abusers are abusers.

Vancouver in the West, or: we roadtrip and discover a diamond in the rough

2010-03-11T21:23:00.000+11:00

Honestly, I freakin' hate the blogger photo uploader. Just let me put thing where I want to put them!

Buzz and I recently took a road trip to Albany, WA for our friends Mr and Mrs P's wedding. After many many hours on the road from Perth, the discovery that most of WA shops - including the big supermarkety ones - close on Sundays was a bit of a bugger, compounded by our lack of cooking facilities. I morosely accepted a few days of supermaket hummus and plain chips for me.

Thoughtfully Mr and Mrs P had already arranged vegan catering for me at their afternoon garden party - and it was inhaled swiftly. The lovely caterer was from a local cafe, Vancouver Cafe, and so post-wedding (mid-seediness), Buzz and I trouped down along with our friend Mr Stoff for breakfast.

Not often do you get to discuss veganism with the staff, nor have the chef stick his head out of the kitchen hatch to tell you he can make your rosti without egg. Along with an arts'n'crafts, shabby boho interior, this ensured a return visit the day after, before our road trip back, which is photographed here.

What a breakfast! That's local sourdough bread (guaranteed vegan and beautifully chewy), Nuttelex, avocado, homemade baked beans, rosti,, onion, mushroom, baby spinach, and tomatoes stuffed with homemade ... stuffing.

Each and every element was home made and home flavoured. Each thing on my plate had its own taste, texture and flavour rather than being just a heated up thing. This breakfast rated up there and firmly challenged the best of Smith St, not only for its mouthwateringness but also for the honest and earnest commitment to real food.

Vancouver Cafe was a little oasis in a town of roundabouts and Sunday closing. If you ever find yourself driving five hours south of Perth, rest assured that supermarket hummus is not the best you have to look forward to.

Catch me, catch me! or: I trawl the archives

2010-03-02T21:34:00.000+11:00

More catch ups, while I'm da mood.

As Buzz and I are still Champions of the Crystal Quest to End Same-Same Cookering, I'll be trying to upload pictures of some of our weekly cookering more regularly - but be warned! I cannot commit to giving a full run-down on each! You shall get quick snappy pithy descriptions and cutting insightful opinions! That is all, comrades!

Rice Queen, June 2009. Oh jeez...

Oh jeez just because of the delay. Rice Queen's staff were able to point out a couple of straight-up vegan dishes on their menu without pausing, and a quick consultation with the kitchen yielded still more. Yes, ladles and jellyspoons, there is more than one main and entree we can eat. Below is a Masala Dosa and a Plantain Curry with lovely little crispy papadums. I'm sure you'll understand that I don't recall specifics. It was good though, and good value. Thanks.

Red Emperor, October 2009

Dislike. We thought Red Emperor was going to be upscale Chinese cuisine, but the interior is very grey-vinyl chairs, tubular metal fixtures and early 1990s furnishings. The service focusses on bringing you steaming towels, but not your beer. And when that beer is poured that it's half head, that beer is not replaced.

So yes, I remember that the beer was poured badly. So sue me.

I also remember that the food was expensive and sub-standard. Below is a cream of corn soup - adequate, and a plate which purported to be a mix of vegetables. They were mixed, but in oval shaped fried balls of ickiness. And that plate cost $32. Don't go. Just don't. Especially on your anniversary.

Prospect Park Potato Salad from Veganomicon, a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away

I'm pretty meh on potato salad. I'm very blergh on mayo. But I thought that this would be a great one to take along to a gathering of omnis because it's familiar and would probably lead to '" Oh, however did you make it without dairy you marvel you?!" comments.

Actually I can't even remember if I took it anywhere and where that anywhere may have been. But I did enjoy the seeded mustard and the explicit instruction in the recipe to grate - and grate only! - the carrot into the salad.

More dinners from the T-House, or: A Selection of Goodies

2010-02-28T14:28:00.001+11:00

Yo yo yo yo, babypop

Continuing in the grand tradition of playing catch ups, I humbly present to you two more meals from the T-House which went down a treat.

Yellow Thai Curry

A bit of a cheater. Vegan With A Vengeance set out a bewdiful recipe for homemade curry paste. Yet in the back of the pantry was a ready-made jar, ninja vegan. The recipe called for a number of separate steps to prepare the rest of the curry anyway, so the jar was opened.

And it was good. We've made it again and the jar will give us one more batch too. We added rice noodles to bulk up the curry, and you see version-topped-with-coriander below but version-topped-with-basil was also excellent. Versatility! (I also recommend frying the tofu in soy sauce instead of oil. Or both, but be warned that you will be picking at the tofu after it's cooked like chippies).

Corn Chowder

I'm usually not a soup fan, preferring my dinner to be chewable. But this one, also from VWAV, was heeeeearty. It did involve removing half of the soup and blending it before returning it to the pot, but as we are absent a stick blender it was necessary to make this thick and smooth chowder. Buzz and I spent a very lamely amusing evening arguing over 'chOWder' and 'chow-DAIR'.

Hurry Up Alfredo

Vegan Yum Yum is the recipe book that keeps on giving. Having seen a number of bloggers, including Kristy, enjoy the creamy alfredo that Lolo at VYY created, we weren't surprised when it was bloody good. A tangy, creamy alfredo - go easy on the mustard - hit many spots. However, with the great big bowl of pasta that the fatty sauce thickly coated, and topped with Parmazano, this is a meal for after you've belted it out at the gym.

Let's catch up! or, I mass upload

2010-02-24T09:29:00.000+11:00

Hi Kiddles,

Transmission has resumed!

Given the massive gap in which the T-House was offline, I've decided just to wham-bam-thankyou-blog and upload a lot of pics with little descriptions.

Buzz and I have been continuing our quest to end same-same cookering with 3 or 4 new recipes a week, which has been working well and has cemented my love of the Vegan Yum Yum recipe book.

Nuttelex Tofu (what else am I going to call Butter Chicken eh?)

It was ok - but really fatty by the time we'd fried the tofu and added the Nuttelex. A bit guilt-making. I'm loving this brand of spice pastes though - they do the Tom Yum that I was raving about and label the vegetarian packets, so there's just a little packet reading to check for vegan credentials.

Semolina porridge at The Mess Hall

Totally incredible and I've started making it at home.

Chilli Linguine

One of the coolest Xmas presents we got was from my uncle Biffs and cousin Zacman, who gave us this packet of chilli linguine. It. Rocked. Hard .

We added chillis from the chilli plant that our friends Miss Jess and Mr Lach gave us at our housewarming. I totally recommend this brand of pasta and will be giving gifts like this too!

Continued correspondence: I write again to Haigh's, or: I want my dark chocolate frogs!

2010-02-17T16:45:00.000+11:00

Thanks Lisa for the suggestion! Still confused by Haigh's reply to my letter, I emailed them again:

Hi Olivia,

Thanks for your response and sorry for the delay. I have been unable to find any recent changes to food labelling standards and would very much appreciate it if you could direct me to the guidelines issued to you by the government. Perhaps this is a Commonwealth Government guideline?

As I understand it, the principal State Act that controls the sale of food in Victoria is the Food Act 1984. The Act is also the means through which the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code is applied as the law in Victoria, but the Code's website contains the following statement in relation to 'may contain traces of':

"You’ll notice some labels say ‘may contain’ certain allergens, for example ‘may contain nuts. This is put on by the manufacturer who may be concerned that, while nuts aren’t added to the food, traces may be present due, for example, the product having been made on the same equipment as products containing nuts. Allergy consumer support groups are working with the food industry to make these labels more helpful to allergy sufferers."

I am also still confused because Standard 1.2.4 of the Code: "Labelling of Ingredients" provides the definition used in the Code and therefore also in the Act. It is: "ingredient means any substance, including a food additive, used in the preparation, manufacture or handling of a food". From your email it appears that Haigh's does not use or add milk in the preparation of dark chocolate.

I would really appreciate it if you could tell me what the trace levels of milk are when they must qualify as an ingredient. As I'm sure Haigh's will appreciate, this is an issue of interest and importance to all dairy-free people so I would like to be able to fully understand the reasoning behind Haigh's decision.

Thank you once again for your assistance and for your previous reply,

Regards,
Rachel Templeman

Haigh's responds, or: I just can't explain

2010-02-16T15:40:00.000+11:00

But here's a lil' sumthin' sumthin' - I got a reply from Haigh's, but didn't notice it for a while because it landed in my Trash. Here was my original moment of glory.

I really can barely reply. The logic is so, so twisty-roundy circular. But it's nice to know that my email was discussed in a management meeting; God I feel special (actually, one time I wrote a letter of complaint to a company because I had been misinformed by staff about the vegan status of their products and was quite huffy, and they forwarded my email to all stores to let them know that there had been a problem - not in a bad way, just to inform in case they had any other queries - but they left my full name on the bottom of the email. And how do I know this? A friend of mine who is a manager in that chain rang me!)

Dear Rachel,

Thank you for your email. We understand what you are saying, however due to new standards of labeling we now have to list milk as an ingredient. We have not added milk, but as we produce both the milk and dark product on the same machinery, we have to list it as an ingredient.

To declare on labels “may contain traces of milk” the product must contain a specific amount of milk. Unfortunately our dark chocolate products contain above this particular level, therefore due to the new standards we need to include milk on the ingredients list.

Dark chocolate was never intended to be a pure vegan product, or dairy-free, as there are trace amounts of milk in all of our dark chocolate products.

The listing of milk as an ingredient in our Dark chocolate is at the bottom of the ingredients list, as it would only be trace amount, and it varies from batch to batch.

When the labeling changes came into effect we did place notifications in all of our stores for quite a few months.

Your email was discussed at the recent Management Meeting and this issue is constantly under review, but at this stage we are following the guidelines as provided by a government department.

We will advise you if there are any changes in the year ahead.

Best regards,

Olivia

Cut off, or: where oh where has my little ADSL2 connection gone?

2010-02-16T11:54:00.001+11:00

Hello chickens,

Mea culpa … actually not really. I’ve been grave-like silent due to two things: a week long trip to visit the western wilds of WA (hello there cousins!) and also the cutting off of our interwebs at home as our provider (coincidentally also from the western wilds) needs to cut it of for up to 20 – oh yes 20 - days to move us to Naked DSL (which only saves us $10 a month because the moment you move from a paid phone line to naked, your plan – the very same plan – goes up). We’ve so far been incommunicado from 3 February until at least tomorrow night. And it’s been mighty hard yes sirree bob.

So we are desolate and in despair, and I am writing this naughtily at work just to let you know that I’ll be back and I shall rise again and take my dread sword in my right hand and my shield in my left and I shall smite mine enemies and I shall conquer. And blog.

Pip pip!

Only Planters, or: Michael Pollan and "Edible foodlike substances"

2010-01-21T14:44:00.007+11:00

I have obviously deleted some crucial piece of code that allows me to use paragraphs. Sorry about the idiotic set out. I really do know what a paragraph looks like. I really do admire Michael Pollan. I count The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defence of Food as some of my favourite, most life-changing books, and I love that he has managed to get issues of food quality, consumption and security firmly in the mainstream, middle-class eye. I love his pithy and simple mantra “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” Although I obviously favour an eensy-weensy amendment which involves the subtraction of ‘mostly’ and the addition of ‘only’, in fact it’s this inclusionary approach which has allowed his message to be understood, accepted and adopted by a far wider range of people than just us Only Planters.

In the NY Times, Mr Pollan once wrote a little blog entry asking for people’s food rules. They ranged from the popular “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise” to the amusing “Don’t eat anything bigger than your head”.

He has no released a little pocket sized book called “Food Rules – An Eater’s Manual” which presents 64 rules which elucidate “Eat food. Mostly Plants. Not too much.” A couple of rules are applicable only to the Mostly Planters, but the vast majority are applicable to everyone.

A couple of sparkly highlights (Mr Pollan’s highlights are here):

Avoid products that make health claims. Fruit’n’veg rarely need to, or have the resources to, make claims about their benefit to your heart/blood pressure/cholesterol. “Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign they have nothing valuable to say about your health”. Oh guffaw, Michael!
Only eat foods that will eventually rot.
Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans. And the related: Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.
If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t. (One for the Only Planters!)
It’s not food if it’s called the same name in every language. Think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles. (But don’t think quinoa or hummus).
Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the (Ed:soy)milk.
Eat all the junk you want as long as you cook it yourself.
Pay more, eat less.
Eat when you’re hungry, not when you’re bored. Food is a costly antidepressant.
Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.
Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does, and also: It’s not food if it arrived through your car window.

I find some sensible rules hard to follow. I eat when bored, and always have. I have told almost everyone I know that the day I found out that BBQ Shapes were vegan was the best day of my life. I don’t feel satiated unless I’ve had some simple carbs. And I just like big portions and am grumpy if I’m not full.

But I don’t get food though my car window, or buy much food from the centre of the supermarket. I cook and I use ingredients with one leg (like a mushroom, as opposed to two like a chook or four like a lamb). I have few processed foods around, and they’re not used all that often. And I would wager that 95% of what I eat is food, not an “edible food-like substance”.

If I had to come up with a few rules of my own (food-related rather than vegan, in which case I’d simply say “How could you kill and eat a living thing that feels happiness, fear and pain?”), I think I’d begin with:

Don’t eat anything that requires packaging, unless it’s for sanitary or storage reasons (seriously, cous cous needs packaging and I don’t want anyone else’s grubby hands on my bread slices).
Flourescence is not found in nature’s larder.
If it has a made-up name, it’s a made-up food. Coco Pops, Froot Loops, luncheon meat, and (shudder) BBQ Shapes are not real things. Pasta is thing. Peanut butter is a description. Vegemite is an exception.
If the packaged, easy convenient version costs five times as much as the basic staple, it’s a rip off. Uncle Ben’s Rice is not rice.
Young children should be encouraged to enjoy cooking and eating and be allowed to express preferences, but there is a reason that an 8 year old is not allowed to drive a car. Neither should they be allowed to dictate the contents of the shopping trolley.
It is parents’ responsibility to provide their children with a wide range of healthy foods. Your child’s refusal to eat is a separate issue. Seitahn has an excellent, rhyming rule about how many mouthfuls her kids must try before they’re allowed to say they don’t like it which I can’t remember but which I hope she’ll repeat.

What are your rules? What would you say?

A little bit about the current state of food law in Victoria, or: I just don't geddit.

2010-01-13T22:34:00.001+11:00

Clearly the lack of readily available dairy-free chocolate at the Paris end of Collins Street has made me a leeeedle bit cuh-raaaaayzy.

I've done some digging, using the host of I-used-to-be-a-lawyer-and-I'm-very-nosy-and-pissed-off skills at my command, and here is my potted summary of the current state of food labelling laws in Victoria in relation to 'may contain traces of' (incidentally, the most recent changes to Victoria's Food Act have to do with the reclassificaiton of food selling outlets. I couldn't find any recent changes which mentioned trace elements. If there are, please feel free to direct me to them).

And so, an act in ten parts:

The principal State Act that controls the sale of food in Victoria is the Food Act 1984 (the Act). Quite funnily, the Act is noted on the DHS website as being "the applicable legislation for ensuring the wholesomeness and purity and standards for food sold in Victoria." Oh giggling!
The Act is also the means through which the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code is applied as the law in Victoria (the Code).
The Code's website contains the following statement in relation to 'may contain traces of':
"You’ll notice some labels say ‘may contain’ certain allergens, for example ‘may contain nuts. This is put on by the manufacturer who may be concerned that, while nuts aren’t added to the food, traces may be present due, for example, the product having been made on the same equipment as products containing nuts. Allergy consumer support groups are working with the food industry to make these labels more helpful to allergy sufferers."
Under Chapter 1 - General Food Standards, Part 1.2- Labelling and Other Information Requirements, the Code has a number of provisions relevant to us. They are: Standards 1.2.3: Mandatory Warning and Advisory Statements and Declarations, and Standard 1.2.4: Labelling of Ingredients. What does each Standard say that is relevant to us?
Standard 1.2.3: Mandatory Warning and Advisory Statements and Declarations says that certain substances must be declared on labelling where the substance is present in food as an ingredient, an ingredient of a compound ingredient, a food additive or component of a food additive, or as a processing aid or component of a processing aid. (In case you're wondering, wine doesn't declare the use of milk solids or isinglass used as a processing aid as it is not longer present in the food).
So what is the definition of 'ingredient'? Standard 1.2.4: Labelling of Ingredients provides the definition used in the Code and therefore also in the Act. It is: "ingredient means any substance, including a food additive, used in the preparation, manufacture or handling of a food".
So at this point a person might, quite cleverly, conclude that this all hangs on the definition of ingredient, and that seeing as milk in the formerly dairy-free dark chocolate at Haigh's is not a food additive, or used in the preparation, manufacture or handling of the chocolate, it is therefore not an ingredient.
But then! You may encoutner Standard 1.4.2: Maximum Residue Limits. You might open the attachments. And unless you are a biochemist familiar with residues named SUM OF AVERMECTIN B1A, AVERMECTIN B1B AND (Z)-8,9 AVERMECTIN B1A, AND (Z)-8,9 AVERMECTIN B1B and ACIBENZOLAR-S-METHYL AND ALL METABOLITES CONTAINING THE BENZO[1,2,3]THIADIAZOLE-7-CARBOXYL MOIETY HYDROLYSED TO BENZO[1,2,3]THIADIAZOLE-7-CARBOXYLIC ACID,
EXPRESSED AS ACIBENZOLAR-S-METHYL and BOSCALID COMMODITIES OF PLANT ORIGIN: BOSCALID COMMODITIES OF ANIMAL ORIGIN: SUM OF BOSCALID, 2-CHLORO-N-(4’-CHLORO-5-HYDROXYBIPHENYL-2- YL) NICOTINAMIDE AND THE GLUCURONIDE CONJUGATE OF 2-CHLORO-N-(4’-CHLORO-5- HYDROXYBIPHENYL-2-YL) NICOTINAMIDE, EXPRESSED AS BOSCALID EQUIVALENTS .... then you too will have no idea what these residues are, let alone whether they affect your beloved dark peppermint chocolate frogs. (Actually, Cindy?)
But it remains: subject to the caveat that some of those hoxy-poxy-di-deca-coagulate-thingummywhatsits might indicate a certain trace level of milkiness, milk is not an ingredient in the formerly dairy-free dark chocolate at Haigh's. It does not meet the definition. And what's more, there has been no recent change that I can see to Victoria's food safety laws. Indeed, the Act nominates the Code as being of binding force in Victoria, and the Code notes that allergy groups and manufacturers are currently working together to address the trace element issue. It does not say that too much residue is classed as an ingredient. It does not suggest that the way to address the possibility of too much residue in a product is to simply pop it in the ingredients list. It does not suggest that manufacturers urgently need to change their labelling.
And if I'm wrong, which I might be; or if this is a contentious matter, which it is; or if I was just a little bit tired and woozy when I wrote this, which I am; or if this, like almost every legal matter, has more than one way of viewing both problem and solution - then why don't we know about it? Why is it so hard to figure this out? Perhaps a friendly biochemist, food technician or food safety lawyer might wish to swing by here to enlighten us. I'm sure we'd all welcome the opportunity to learn more, and I would certainly welcome the possibilty that I might get my dark peppermint frogs back.

Haigh's chocolates - now with added (non-existent) milk, or: My Friday arvo chocolate fix is over.

2010-01-11T20:58:00.002+11:00

Some time ago Pip alerted us all to a change in the ingredients of Green & Black's chocolate. G&B had begun to list whole milk powder as an actual ingredient in their previously-dairy free dark chocolate, because, according to them

"A recent audit revealed that traces of milk residues can still be found on manufacturing equipment despite intensive cleaning"

but

"... there is actually no change to the risk to allergy-sufferers as the recipes and ingredients that go into the making of the bars have not changed. What we are now clearly stating on pack is that we cannot guarantee the absence of milk. It is almost certainly going to be present – albeit at a low level".

It was all very confusing, and I stand by what I wrote on Pip's blog at the time:

I think that G&B are confusing problem and solution here. If the problem is that very low level residue remains, this may need to be indicated on the packet. However, to include milk powder as an ingredient clearly indicates that the milk powder is used in significant quantities to actually produce the chocolate, rater than potentially being present due to cross-contamination.

Use in production is very very different to the presence of allergens remaining on the production line. A statement to the effect of there being a measurable residue in the region of x in the product would be more accurate and would probably allow people allergic to milk to make a more informed choice - and for vegans to happily buy the product. I now won't.

And now there's more. on a recent Friday afternoon expedition to buy some Haigh's chocolate frogs (ok, a whole bag of choclate liqorice balls, even though it sounds like a song the Chef would sing), I found out that Haigh's is now also listing milk products as an ingredient on all of its dark chocolate, even though previously some lines were dairy-free. A staff member told me this was purely for legal reasons and that there was no change at all to the actual ingredients. She also confirmed that this change occurred without even information being passed on to staff - she only realised because as a non-dairy-eater herself, she noticed the inclusion on the packet.

This really annoys me. I understand the reasons for including allergen information on packets, as anyone who knows a peanut-allergic child will attest. But to include an allergen as an ingredient is schtoopid. A person who is so highly sensitive to a certain ingredient that they will react to a trace element would't be stupid enough to take a punt on a product that 'may contain traces of' despite the clear warning.

Here's what I wrote to Haigh's. I am so grr-arr about this. I have bolded the points that I think are particularly salient, although I didn't do shouty-boldness to Haigh's.

Dear Haighs,

As a vegan I have long appreciated the range of dairy-free dark chocolates available in your stores. A small dark peppermint frog was often the highlight of my Friday.

I was surprised and very disappointed to discover that you are now listing milk products as an ingredient in all your dark chocolate. A staff member told me that there had been no change to the ingredients used, but that concerns about food allergies had led you to make this change.

I was surprised because there was no signage or information available to let customers know about this change. And I was disappointed because I consider this change to be illogical.

My understanding of the term 'may contain traces of' is that even after commercial levels of cleaning of shared food manufacturing equipment, some residual chemical traces of an ingredient may remain. In some cases this will test above a specified detectable level.

It is of course important to place warnings on food labels so that people with food intolerances, sensitivities or allergies can take appropriate action. This is what the phrase 'may contain traces of' is intended to do.

If a person is so highly allergic to any ingredient - dairy, gluten, soy, nuts or any thing else - that the mere presence of a residual chemical trace will adversely affect them, then the warning that a product may contain traces of that ingredient is more than sufficient to let them know not to consume it. It tells them that exactly the level of allergen that can affect them may be present in their food. It is completely accurate and clear.

Anyone so highly sensitive as to be impacted by a trace amount would surely take the warning that trace amounts may be present as reason enough to avoid that food. It is illogical to assume that people who are sensitive to trace amounts need to be told that there is far, far more than just a trace amount in their food before they will respond to the warning.

For people with lower level sensitivities, who are not likely to be affected by residual chemical traces, the warning would be moot. But for people like me, who avoid dairy for ethical and health reasons, the presence of milk products in the ingredient list - even if the ingredient is in fact not used - entirely rules out that product.

As an ex-plaintiff lawyer practicing in injury law, I am fully aware of the need for food companies to disclose potential allergens not only for the safety of consumers but also for the protection of the company. Green & Black's have already done the same thing. However, what I find most disappointing is that although this change appears to be motivated by a desire to be extra cautious in food labelling, in fact, in pursuit of increased disclosure, you have misled customers as to the real ingredients of your products.

I can no longer eat any Haigh's products. I cannot choose to eat anything that lists dairy products as an ingredient, nor will I have any way of knowing if you ever actually do start using milk in the formerly dairy-free dark chocolates. I am concerned that no public notice was made available about your change of policy - which I confirmed with a staff member - and I am extremely disappointed that Haigh's has chosen to list a non-ingredient as an ingredient in many of its products when an accurate, precise and clear warning label was already present.

Yours faithfully,

Miss T

A Candle re-lit, or: the next stage in our campaign to end Same-Same Cookering

2010-01-05T19:39:00.002+11:00

Is anyone else having problems with the new Blogger settings? Photos are very strange to upload and I can't seem to position them properly. Spaces are also weird and hard to control.

I have previously waxed lyrical about the joys of Candle 79, the organic vegan haute cuisine restaurant in New York that Buzz and I eatered at twice, and fell desperately in love with. We didn't get a chance to visit its younger, chilled out sister, Candle Cafe, so I was thrilled when Miss T Junior (with connivance from the tricksy Buzz) gave me the Candle Cafe cookbook for Christmas. She had helpfully tagged the recipes she wanted to me cook for her first.

It's a plain-paged cookbook with only one section of photographs, but with over 150 recipes there will be enough to keep us going for a while. As part of the T-House's campaign to rid itself of same-same cookering, we chose Tex-Mex Tostadas with Coriander Tofu Sour Cream as our first attempt.

The Coriander (Cilantro if you're from Noo Yawk) Tofu Sour Cream was a doddle to make. We skipped the optional agar agar and didn't bother to blanch the tofu first, and then whizzed tofu, lemon and lime juice, olive oil, sunflower oil, coriander, sea salt, cayenne pepper and minced garlic. It turned out to be one of those strange concotions that changes as you taste it more. At first try, this was seriously awesome, but it went downhill from there until it just tasted a bit wrong. Not sour creamy, not tofuey, and not like dip. Next time I would just use Tofutti Sour Cream (or even the Better Than Cream Cheese) instead of tofu and skip the oil. However, Buzz really liked this one so it's probably worth a go.

The tostadas fared better, although not until I discovered we have a faulty timer buzzer on our new oven, which failed to go off and resulted in cindery-burnt tortillas. In a fit of annoyance I had to go and buy more.

The recipe was reasonably involved. Firstly, it called for seitan to be charcoale grilled and then shredded in a food processor. This we replaced with diced fried tofu.

The fried tofu, onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, salt and kaffir lime leaf mixture.

Secondly, it called for the sauteeing of various ingredients (including kombu, which we immediately struck off), to which the charcoal shredded seitan should then be added. We did this, but next time would combine these two steps. We also subbed kaffir lime leaves for Pico De Gallo.

The recipe also wanted refried pinto beans. Nothing doing. After purchasing an imported can of pinto beans at vast expense, all they got was a quick heat through and a mashing.

My little salad with the yellow tomatoes.

Finally, I chose to make a little salad with cos lettuce, cucumber and yellow Roma tomatoes, as I couldn't really see enough greenery on my plate.

The three main ingrdients for layering on the tortillas.

Having finally secured some baked but not burnt tortillas, we spread them with the bean mixture, topped it with the tofu mixture and some salad, and then dolloped some tofu sour cream on top.

All combined, it was an enjoyable, varied and filling meal. Next time I'd definitely make things simpler, which is more in line with how I imagine something simple like toasted tortilla wraps to be (which is essentially what this is). Nonetheless, it was a definite success in the campaign to end same-same cookery. Same-same cookery is marked by the regular appearance of the same type of meal, along with the regular appearance of the same ingredients. This was something entirely different to what we'd usually make (our burrito attempts to date have been fairly pitiful) and actually tasting like something different too.

We're looking forward to trying more recipes from the Candle Cafe cookbook; we just might try some where we don't have to sub quite so many ingredients and skip quite so many steps.

End KeepCup Prejudice Now, Snobaristas! or, Keep On Keeping Up, KeepCup!

2010-01-05T14:25:00.000+11:00

Lisa Dempster has written an excellent article on I eat I drink I work exploring the intricacies of the coffee surcharge, from decaf to mocha to - the main interest of this writer - soy milk. I have always hated but accepted with grumpy surliness the soy surcharge imposed by almost every coffee shop, but Lisa's interviews with various coffee vendors has shown that soy really does cost extra, and despite the call that the extra cost should be averaged out over all beverages, the imperative of the business owner to, you know, make a proft from their business makes an end to the soycharge (ha!) unlikely.

But what really grabbed me was a comment on Lisa's blog that some Melbourne coffee shops have taken to placing a surcharge on, or even refusing to use, KeepCups.

I love KeepCups. They're well designed, they're environmentally loving, they're cute, they'r easy to clean, and they have really caught on with consumers. And what's more, they save the vendor money in not using a disposable cup and not costing them washing up resources. Big shout out here to my regular coffee vendors, Espresso Depot at 1 Collins Street, who after noticing my KeepCup got really excited and started selling the cups themselves.

I was outraged to hear that some businesses aren't behind the BYO cup surge sweeping the city. But I was even more shocked to experience not hours later my own instance of KeepCup Prejudice!

I went to a team meeting at - name and shame! - City Wine Bar on Spring Street. I asked for my coffee to be put in my KeepCup so I could take it away in case I didn't finish it. I can only surmise that the City Wine Bar's cultivated European atmosphere would be offended by the interloping plastic of my KeepCup, as I was told that store policy was to not allow KeepCups on the table - but they would do takeaways. Quelle bloody horreur!

I kept my KeepCup on the table throughout the meeting - empty, but who was to know? - for over an hour. No staff member asked me to put it away. No uber-too-cool-for-school trendoids fainted. No coiffeured besuited ladies sniffed. No one spat. And then I left, having bought nothing, to go and get my coffee on my way back to the office from the place I like best.

In Grade 4 my teacher banned the phrase "I don't get it" from his classroom. But I don't. There's nothing particularly nice about 100-washes old glass tumblers (and if you Snobaristas think that my coffee will just taste better in one, then leave that to me to decide). There's certainly nothing nice about single use cardboard cups. If you want to impose an aesthetic standard, then start with banning skinny jeans that reveal circumcision status and faux-Rihanna mohawks.

So get on board. Bringing your own cup is sensible, less costly to the vendor, promoting environmentally sustainable choices, and just doing your bit.

*Disclaimer: I have two KeepCups (Small: white with chocolate trim, light mushroom lid and matt chocolate plug. Medium: white with light green trim, dark mushroom lid and chocolate plug). My sister has two (One medium like mine. One medium: white with fuschia trim, chocolate lid and aqua plug). Buzz has one (Medium: black with chocolate trim, black lid, chocolate plug). Toby has Darth Vader (Black. Just black). Lots of people have them. Speed up.

Big Up, Dymocks, or: Veganic Literature Abounds

2009-12-30T14:37:00.002+11:00

A small but heart-felt hands-in-the-air to Dymocks in the Australia on Collins Arcade, who are currently stocking 13 - THIRTEEN - vegan cookbooks. And that's not vegetarian, not general vegetables, bot philosophical analyses by Pollan, Schlosser et al. Vegan Cookbooks (and two and a bit shelves of vegetarian ones too).

I bought* Vegan Yum Yum by Laren Ulm, notwithstanding PPK scragfights about it. I am a big fan of cookbooks with pictures and colour - is there anything that makes you feel less like creating food than a dull page with dull font and dull black ink and no illustrations or even a little swirly decoration? This book is full of photographs of the food on every single page - very helpful when you're trying to work out what your meal should ideally look like - and easy to read instructions. Having had some success with Vegan Yum Yum pasta and tarts before, and having seen the many posts debvoted to her Hurry Up Alfredo, I'm looking forward to giving this one a whirl.

*I have acquired three new cookbooks in the last week. But no** new handbags so it's ok.

**Just one very cute, very useful tote for carrying all my extras to work, at a reduced price, with Rs all over it and kanagroos.

Lisa's Vegan Murphy's Law, or: But I ...

2009-12-30T12:23:00.003+11:00

In response to Lisa's Vegan Murphy's Law:

But I only eat salad.
There is no protein in my diet.
I am anaemic. So wan.
I cannot lift the spoon to my mouth because I am so weak.
I have wasted muscles.
I only eat organic, biodynamic fruit that has fallen from a tree.
I sneer at Level 5 vegans.
I crave bloody flesh and secretly devour it at any opportunity.
I cannot truly envisage a life without chocolate and cheese.
I am mightily tempted by "but it's a just a little bit of ...".
I cannot cook.
I do not enjoy eating.
I do not understand the Circle of Life (although Simba has promised to explain it to me).
If only I got to raise a lamb as a child and then slaughter it for Sunday dinner I wouldn't be squeamish.
I cannot satisfactorily answer the question "But if we all stopped eating meat then what would happen to all the cows, huh?".
I am swayed by your arguments about our dominance in the food chain.
Because I care about animal rights I automatically do not care about human rights.
I am "just going too far".
I enjoy criticising my hosts and their food.
I love to preach and lecture.
I never encounter obnoxious omnis who bait me and wait for just one response, which qualifies as preaching and lecturing on my behalf.

Korean Vegetable Pancakes, or: I cause an oil-slick in my stomach

2009-12-29T15:55:00.006+11:00

I can't pretend this was a success, in either execution or taste. Excited by the new cookbook that Father Christmas brought me - Asian Vegan Kitchen by Hema Parekh, which is filled with a huge variety of recipes from across Asia and beautiful photographs - we chose the Korean Vegetable Pancakes as our first foray.

Oh sigh. We got all prepped for this one, with ingredients for the batter, the veggies and the kochujang sauce. The batter recipe called, amongst other things, for rice flour and potato starch. Although the rice flour was easily found, after three supermarkets yielded mountains of potato flour but no starch (which the interwebs informs me are quite, quite different), I subbed arrowroot as a replacement starch.

I couldn't find any kochujang sauce or paste, which I suspect is much more common in the US than Australia. A quick Google revealed that the key ingredients were soy sauce and chilli, and in the interests of breaking 'same same cookering', we subbed Sambal Oelek for crushed chillis. Oh, throw caution to the winds!

My first gripe was making the kochujang sauce. It took Buzz as long to prepare the sauce as it took me to saute the veggies, whisk the batter and cook four pancakes, and not because he's slowpokish. The sheer number of ingredients and steps in the process were just too many to make this sauce worthwhile (although it was yummy ... just aggravatingly labour intensive).

The recipe called for you to pour the batter (which required much more water than stated), frizzle it for a minute, and then press some of the previously sauteed veggies into the top before leaving it another minute, flipping it over, and frizzling it again. Here is the pancake with the veggies patted into the top ... but there is no picture of when I flipped it over because the veg fell off! This technique was not particularly effective and very, very annoying.

I made two pancakes following the recipe, which turned out slippery and pale despite a lot of frizzling.

Frustrated, Buzz called for a radical rethink and suggested that we mix the veggies and batter together to make fritters. We gave it a go, and the new mixture did stick together pretty well. However, it did require masses and masses of oil to keep frittering, so let's not pretend that this is in any way a healthy kind of veggie dish. Look at the sludge around the edge of my poor Magic Pan!

The huge quantity of oil we used in the sauces and the pan was enough to make a whale feel sludgy. To add a bit of blandness to fatness, the batter itself was as blah as beige can be, despite the addition of my lovingly toasted sesame seeds. I ate these pancakey-fritters with a growing sense that I was heavily moisturised and had slapped on a full tube of lip gloss as the oil started seeping out of my pores. I am completely uninterested in your feedback that it was I who poured the oil into the pan. Don't care, won't care, will complain.

In all, the idea of fritters came out a winner, with Buzz declaring an intention to make some again soon. However, out will go the sesame oil, sesame seeds, sauteed vegetables, floury batter, and the death of a whole field of canola to contribute the amount of oil needed to mix and fry. In will come more vegetables, a soy-flavoured batter, and spray oil. And out with the rocket-science level sauce-making.

Tom Yummo, or: I swish open a packet sauce and put an end to 'same same cookering'

2009-12-28T18:00:00.005+11:00

When Lunchering with Lisa as CityWorkers, one of our favourite kitchens is at Chatterbox. Lately we've been gulping down the Tom Yum soup, made with huge chunks of fresh tomato, tofu and very orange indeed.

Chatterbox's Tom Yum

It was with great excitement that I seized this packet of Tom Yum paste at the supermarket, noting with glee that it was approved by the Vegetarian Society and displayed their tick. Further inspection proved it vegan friendly as well, which was miraculous given the ever-present fish sauce, shrimp paste or other fishiness in most Tom Yum sauces. In line with my policy of giving products which choose to present their veg credentials as a selling point, I chucked it in my trolley.

Although I'm generally loathe to resort to pre-packaged meals, which taste even more of plastic than the masses of it that they are covered in, a bit of ready-made sauce is hardly a Lean Cuisine. Having this packet on hand, for all of $1.99, allowed me to make something new very easily that I otherwise wouldn't have even begun. As far as a bit of a helping hand in the kitchen goes, I am choosing to place this sort of pre-prepared package on the same level as readymade pastry: a bloody useful convenience and a boon in the busy kitchen.

I assembled some simple ingredients, wary of my tendency to throw all my favourite ingredients into everything I make, regardless of cuisine, dish or intention. This is known as 'same same cookering' and it pervades my kitchen. To wit, I am quite capable of making tofu scramble, roast veggies, pasta, cous cous and a curry with exactly the same veggies and spices, rendering any difference between them negligible and me highly annoyed and eating the same dinner like Groundhog Day.

I selected some fresh chillis from the plant given to us by our friends Jess and Lachie at our housewarming; fresh tomatoes; fresh coriander; kaffir lime leaves (which I feel really uncomfortable about saying); rice noodles; red capsicum; lime juice (which didn't make it in after all); and field mushrooms. I left out the baby corn and bok choy of the Chatterbox version because they ain't much loved around these here parts (by which I mean my tummy). Next time I'd add some tofu and onion as well, but I'd probably ignore the broccoli and carrot of the Chatterbox version as they don't strike me as very Thai.

Although the sauce packet called for four cups of water for the stock, I used six knowing that I'd be adding rice noodles whereas the packet's recipe did not. This was an excellent amount and didn't dilute the sauce too much at all. I added Vegeta stock and dropped in the tomatoes so that they'd start peeling nicely. The tomatoes are the only vegetable that you actually want cooked; the rest should all be fresh and only a little soft. I let the stock come to a boil and then stirred in the the Tom Yum sauce. Taking it off the heat, I added mushrooms, finely chopped chillis, capsicum slices and some torn up lime leaves. I threw the rice noodles in at the last minute with a handful of chopped fresh coriander, letting them cook for just a couple of minutes. I garnished with some more fresh coriander, fresh chillis and lime leaves. You may discern a red-and-green theme here; I wonder if Tom Yum might replace biscuits and milk (or gin in my house) as the food left out for Father Christmas? Oh, facetiousness.

And here it is. No coconut milk, and less orangey and more browny than the Chatterbox version, but absolutely delicious nonetheless. The packet sauce was extremely well balanced and hugely easy to use. I can't really imagine preparing the sauce from scratch on a lazy Sunday or a frantic Thursday, but I can imagine tearing open the packet and adding a few readily available fresh veggies and noodles to some hot stocky water.

This one will go on regular rotation in our house, although I'll be careful not to remove my contact lenses while I still have chilli on my fingers (hours later, I might add)! It was a quick, easy and enjoyable meal to make, and I'm very pleased that I succeeded in not turning it in to my usual variation-on-a-theme cookering. In fact, there are now two more of these sauces in the pantry, along with a couple of other V-ticked sauces from the range.

Shout Outs to Omni Cooks, or: A Christmas Miracle

2009-12-20T21:24:00.004+11:00

Today is a shout out. My cousins Heath and Kes, along with Heath's rockin' girlfriend Claire and our cousin Gregor, pulled off a family Christmas today that was just about as good as it gets. In particular, I wanted to give them public snaps for the extra effort they put in for me and my food - almost everything came in vegan and omni varieties, including grilled eggplant, salads and gravy, as well as two meat alternatives for mains. It was a massive undertaking to feed our our entire family let alone making sure that almost everything had a veganised option. I think perhaps that because Heath and Claire appreciate good food, they can also appreciate that vegan food can be just as good.

In general, I've found that people with limited variety in their omni diets and not much interest in good food are the ones who can only imagine that I eat lettuce leaves and carrot sticks, whereas people who explore and enjoy food can much more easily see the vast array available to me because they are used to exercising their palates and experiencing new things. So thanks, guys. It was a lovely, special day anyway, but the extra effort you put in for me was was really touching. (*also, credit to Heath for finding the right name for the Where's The Beef vegan sausage rolls: vausage rolls!)

My plate - oh so so good.

Here are some table shots:

I want to shop vegan, or: Comrades, Viva the Consumer Revolution!

2009-12-14T12:06:00.006+11:00

I’ve sounded a little like a roadshow soapbox spruiker lately, sharing my favourite shoppering. I maintain that having vegan labelled products available in commercial shops is a great thing – it normalises veganism, it brings the idea that consumers should think and care about what goes into their products and what they are tested on back on the agenda, and it makes the idea of vegan products more accepted and acceptable. Also, I like to shop. I want to be able to shop vegan.

I am a fan of the Organic Care range of shampoo, conditioner and hand wash, and of the other household products made by the same company, Nature’s Organics. I like that they have great (and biodegradable) packaging, are widely available in commercial supermarkets, and are not too pricey for the average shopping trolley. For me, this shows that it is possible and profitable to produce high quality, vegan, eco-friendly and non-toxic products at a reasonable price, and as I peek into other people’s laundries, bathrooms and kitchens, I see these products abounding which is testament to their broad appeal (in our house the Earth Choice brand t gets a pounding, but they also have ranges that don’t look quite so hippie-ish, for those who prefer their dishwashing detergent vividly fluorescent).

I have always preferred the Organic Care brand of the Nature’s Organics range as they are free from SLES, SLS, ALES, ALS, parabens and petrochemical cleansers (these things are really worth a Google). Until recently there was a great range of haircare (I know Tahn has tried them and that some people find them too scented, but for my very thick mane of 80s style boofiness, they’re fantastic) and handwashes under the Organic Care banner, but no body washes. No more! I found three varieties at Woolworth’s (are any other Victorians as excited by the rebranding of Safeway as I am?) and bought them all. They don’t yet appear on the Nature’s Organics website, but there is a deep clean, an exfoliating and a moisturising wash, and for a little over $5 each, they’re not a special purchase buy.

And that’s what I like best: these are normal, everyday products for normal, everyday people with normal, everyday budgets who shop at normal, everyday stores. I love supporting small and new brands, but I am lucky enough to have the resources and interest to do so. I am thrilled that products which tick so many of my important purchasing boxes – vegan, eco-friendly, and not afraid to say it – are available in the mainstream. Surely this is how our message will reach more and more people who will casually reach to pick up a nice looking product, see that the manufacturers are proud to say that their product is cruelty-free, and realise that this is something desirable that other products don’t have. And they’ll buy it. And they’ll look for it next time. And eventually more and more producers will cotton on to the importance of these qualities, and they'll follow suit. And I think that's important.

A Warming at the T-House, or: we make and eat yummeries to celebrate

2009-12-09T20:52:00.007+11:00

Buzz and I had a party to celebrate both my renovations and that we are living happily in lovely sin.

With a strict schedule of cooking and cleaning we managed to tidy up the T-House and prepare enough food for an open house on a sunny Saturday.

Table, laden, groaning.

I cooked a variety of foods and supplemented them with plenty of Ninja Vegan goods, viz: Skittles, Allen's jellybeans, Arnott's Jam Tart biscuits, Arnott's Nice biscuits, Oreos, Coles salt'n'vinegar and BBQ chips, Turkish Delight and mini spring rolls.

Veganomicon hummus.

My beetroot dip.

Handmade with love were: hummus from Veganomicon and my own beetroot, tofu and sweet basil dip on veggie platters; a fruit, nut and dried fruit platter; Cindy and Michael's vegan sausage rolls; gluten-free rice paper rolls; peanut butter blondie from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar; and two types of chocolate peanut butter balls from VCIYCJ and me.

Peanut butter blondies from VCIYCJ.

The PB blondies were enough to make you cry. I was very chuffed when my friend Miss Carly, baker extraordinaire and foodie supreme, asked me for the recipe. You'll note that they are in crumbly pieces in a bowl. Despite my efforts to pretend that this was how they were meant to be, donchaknow, the fact was that I was too impatient to let them cool properly after baking them and started trying to cut them while they were hot. So I could eat them. Let this be a lesson to you, Greedyguts.

Above in the foreground are some of the chocolate peanut butter balls from VCIYCJ. These are an adpation of a recipe that I first tried when Caroline made them for a potluck, and I immediately set about making my own. I found a recipe, and through trial and error made my own notations to the original recipe. In the renovations I lost my recipe, which absolutely galls me.

When I first bought VCIYCJ I was thrilled to see a take on the Choc PB Balls. I made a batch following the recipe exactly, but found it much too oily (1/4 cup of canola). In fact, not only were my hands covered in oil after kneading the dough, but the dough wasn't stable enough to roll, squash and wrap around the PB filling. Reducing the PB filling enough to allow the chocolate dough to enclose it left me with half the PB filling left, so I made up my own dough and held a bakeoff with myself (you can see the Choc PB Balls that I made in the blurry background below). On the whole, I still preferred the VCIYCJ version (although Clag was kind enough to give mine a win), as they were chocolat-ier and mine, although much easier to make, were a bit plainer and doughier. Next time I would halve the canola oil!

Cindy and Michael's vegan sausage rolls, served with sweet chilli sauce and Fountain Tomato & Onion Sauce - which as far as I can tell is only available in the Balnarring IGA. I've looked all over Melbourne, so last time we were in Balnarring we came home with five bottles. Yup.

I can't tell you how many people have been infected with the obsession that invades the mind after eating those sausy rolls. I have been sending links to the recipe left right and centre, mostly to omnis (ahahaha!) and even though I must say that Buzz and I are smugly pleased with our now-standard substiution of Orgran corn crispy crumbs for breadcrumbs, full and fawning credit must go to where's the beef for this unbelievable, lip-lickin', tongue-smackin' recipe. Snaps!

My rice paper rolls, with tofu fried off in tamari to make them gluten free. I had plain tamari and a chilli dark soy mix for dipping.

We had a lovely, happy afternoon with our friends and family, sitting in the warm sun with a cool drink and nattering. Thanks everyone!

Sam awaiting the guests at his party.

Gourmet Pearl Cous Cous, or: A freebie came in the post

2009-12-08T19:38:00.008+11:00

In the grandest traditions of journalism, I was offered the opportunity to try out a new product by an old school friend who is now in marketing. Awooga Awooga! Yes I got it for free. Yes I am blogging about it. And I liked it. Otherwise I would have quietly 'forgotten' to post about it. Unlike Cindy and Michael, who put on their scientists' hats and devised some fiendish experiments to compare various cous cousses (cous cousi?), I am not so gifted, and so I merely present my cookering. Deal.

The blu Gourmet Peal Cous Cous, with a picture of the dashing Gabriel Gate on the packet, is, somewhat oddly, subtitled, direct quote, "A unique Mediterranean toasted pasta Specialty". Uncooked, the grains are much larger than the standard cous cous, and quite pale. Cooked, they're creamier and yellowier.

Not being much of a cous cous cook myself - mine always turns out a bit gluggy and stodgy, never fluffy and light like when Lisa makes cous cous, parsley and cucumber salad - I was a bit apprehensive about my ability to cook the pearls. Thankfully, it was extremely easy - I poured boiling water on (the packet recommends 1 cup of pearls to 1 1/4 cup of water, but there's about 1 1/3 cup of pearls per packet so I used a bit more) and let it simmer. Ta dah - gave it a stir and done.

We cooked it in some Massel stock, which I'd go easier on next time. I think it'd be fine on its own or with just a little salt. The pearls expanded by about a 1/4 to a 1/3 in cooking, so the one packet made a quite substantial serve for me and Buzz. We served it with a red cabbage and various veggie fry. Pretty eh?

Freebies aside, I really enjoyed this. The mouthfeel is soft and round, quite different to normal cous cous, and softly smooth like well-cooked pasta. It didn't feel too filling like an equivalent amount of pasta or normal cous cous, although I note that the servings per package is meant to be 5: well not in this house!

There is no ethical ice cream, or: Knock it off, Nat

2009-12-08T15:02:00.005+11:00

Natalie, Natalie, Natalie.

I love you. I loved your vegan shoe range fo Te Casan - I bought two pairs in New York. I love that you went vegan after reading Jonathan Foer's book 'Eating Animals' (a copy of whoch sits pristinely on my bookshelf, awaiting my consumption) and I love that you wrote an accessible, sensible and intelligent piece for the Huff Post about how the book turned you into an activist. And you're pretty.

I thought it was great that in this (admittedly fairly insipid) interview by Australian Brad Blanks you directly credited what you learnt about factory farming from Eating Animals with turning you vegan. I like - a lot - that you said you were "horrified", because horrible and horrific it is.

It was also good that when you were asked "So no more ice cream?" you said there was rice cream, and soy ice cream, and having seen the incredible, knock-your-socks-off range available in Whole Foods, I know there is no shortage of vegan frozen desserty things available to you.

So why did you follow it up with this: "But if you can find dairy that's ethically produced, then that's ok and you can have some then".

It's not ok. It's not ok in my opinion at all, but it is especially not ok to say that you're vegan and then make exceptions for "ethical ice cream".

I doubt you would make an exception for "ethical meat'" (happy meat, schmappy meat), so I wonder if you have in fact grasped that it's not only huge factory farming operations that exploit, abuse and discard dairy cows and their offspring. An ethical cow in an ethical field eating ethical food milked with ethical hands producing ethical milk has still been kept in a state of perpetual and enforced pregnancy so that she will lactate; had her male calves taken away and killed as they are useless; her milk which is intended for her babies taken away for your ethical ice cream; and at the end of her milking life - which, like human women, is long before the end of her natural life - she will still be taken away to die. Not so sweet.

And in any case, on a purely pedantic level (because I know you are a bright person who is multilingual and went to university and is not a fool), you can't be vegan-except-for-when. You can be a vegan who makes mistakes. You can be a vegan who is learning. You can be an aspiring vegan. You can be a vegan who accidentally ate dairy and egg-filled cake at Vegie Bar when they got her order wrong and her poorly attuned palate didn't pick it up. But you can't be a vegan with permanent non-vegan exceptions.

Knock it off, Nat.

U Little Beauty, or: I shop and consume in a rainy lunchtime

2009-12-08T14:19:00.005+11:00

Although I'm a low-maintenance kind gal, I am a sucker for a beauty product. During a lunchtime whizz around Priceline today I came across, in their excellent organic section, a brand called U Little Beauty.

(image from the U Little Beauty website in the interests of me not having to load photos)

On principle I tend to give anything a whirl that actually has the word 'vegan' on it, in the interests of promotion and support, and U Little Beauty has it in droves. It's vegan credentials are plastered all over its products and website. As well as being cruelty-free, the it's SLS and Paraben free; has no artificial preservatives, colours or fragrances; has no petrochemcials; is made in the capital of hippiedom, Byron Bay; and carries the 'against animal testing' bunny and the vegan sunflower logo on its recyclable packaging.

I bought the 'kiss me quick' lip balm - something that usually has beeswax- and it tastes delicious. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's lemony-sorbety and not too greasy, not too thick.

The 'butter me u' body butter looks and smells like chocolate mousse, and unlike some that seem to waterlog your skin, sinks in quickly and lightly.

So another addition to the overflowing bathroom cabinet- but a nicely smelling one that's not afraid to use 'vegan' as a selling point.

My first-born for a pair of shoes, or: Stella and Morrissey, Shoe Elves

2009-12-08T12:50:00.003+11:00

I'm not sure what to make about the tone of this article, but if the Shoe Elf saints on high wish there to be another celebrity-led range of vegan footwear, then I promise them my first-born.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/03/stella-mccartney-morrissey-vegan-footwear

McCartney and Morrissey: a match made in heaven?

FASHION DILEMMA

Stella McCartney and Morrissey. Photograph: Ferdaus Shamim/Alex Sudea/WireImage.com/Rex Features

What's the best designer collaboration of all time?

We heard something amazing this week. And when we say amazing we're not talking vaguely interesting water-cooler conversation about X Factor Olly's tight, shiny trousers. We're talking earth-shattering, jaw dropping, 'I've found life on Mars'-type news. See if you can guess who it's about from the following quotes (although the picture and the title of this piece MIGHT have given you a clue):

I do maintain that if your hair is wrong, your entire life is wrong. (1984)

As I grew up I used to love stationery and pens and booklets and binders. I can get incredibly erotic about blotting paper. (Star Hits, 1985)

Yes I have had a tan, actually. I went to Los Angeles and got one there, but it didn't make it back to Britain. You're not allowed to come through customs with a tan. (i-D, 1987)

Oh, the wit! It could only be that super vegetarian and songster of high renown, Morrissey (or Mozza to those who adore him and are too lazy to say his full name). And the big news is that APPARENTLY he is teaming up with Stella McCartney to produce a range of vegan footwear.

We're finding the whole thing quite hard to believe. Especially as Stella was also said to be in talks with warbling vegetable - sorry, we mean vegetarian Leona Lewis (who we couldn't give two hoots about), but this turned out to be just a rumour. Now we're praying to all the gods on our radar - currently Zeus, Buddha, Shiva and the Almighty - that the same is not true of the McCartney-Mozza collaboration.

According to the blogosphere (I think that's the first time we've used that word in Fashion Statement), the footwear will be leather-free (nothing that died with a face, we assume) and they hope to launch it next year. Stella's known for refusing to use leather in her collections, but Mozza has not had quite such a clean track record, as we were helpfully informed by Grazia:

"Despite being a staunch supporter of animal rights, the singer was often spotted wearing leather and suede footwear, and once said of his favourite shoes, (a pair of suede moccasins that were a gift from Pete Burns) 'I find shoes difficult to be ethical about - one just can't seem to avoid leather. One is trapped, ultimately.'"

Trapped, like a wild bear, caught in the barbarous toothed grip of an iron clamp, perhaps. Unable to break free from the allure of a soft, foot-cushioning animal skin … the poor man.

Despite his shady past, Mozza was honoured at Peta's 25th anniversary celebrations in 2005, where he was awarded the Linda McCartney memorial award for acts of kindness towards animals (one of which including calling for a boycott of the entire country of Thailand because of its mistreated elephants).

Anyway, we're expecting great things from the man who came 45th in GQ magazine's best-dressed chart, and the woman who single-handedly brought us the boyfriend blazer.

We'll leave you with a verse from Mozza that we're sure Stella will appreciate as she slices into her nut roast Yule log this Christmas.

And the calf that you carve with a smile
Is murder
And the turkey you festively slice
Is murder
Do you know how animals die?

(From Meat is Murder)

Dear The Retreat, or: no peskytarian sauce

2009-12-07T16:39:00.001+11:00

Dear The Retreat, Sydney Road, Brunswick,

I would email this to you directly, but Google tells me that the only way to contact you is by the tellingphone or MySpace. I don't do MySpace.

I ate at the Retreat on Sunday afternoon and wanted to tell you how great it is that there are a number of vegan options on the menu. It certainly makes pub meals a lot easier!

I also wanted to mention that I was surprised to learn that the 'Vego Curry' has fish sauce in it. Given that the title of the dish makes it appear that it's a vegetarian meal, putting fish sauce in it is definitely not! If you stopped using fish sauce, not only would the curry actually be vegetarian, but vegan too. Can I suggest that you make this small modification and add the Vego Curry to the impressive list of veg options at the Retreat?

Cheers,
Miss T

*peksytarian = pescetarian. I can spell, losers.

More lemon in my meringue please, or: Tart'n'Round, Northcote on a Friday night

2009-11-23T21:39:00.007+11:00

My ability to consume Tart'n'Round Cherry Bliss and Peanuty Caramel chocolate balls is second to none. To none! Having been well behind the eight-ball on this one, with Kristy, Cindy and Michael, Johanna and Steph all having visited already, I went to the Tart'n'Round cafe in Northcote with the lovely Miss Jose.

We started with chocolate soyshake, which was made of ickysoy (*a technical term), was not very chocolately at all, and had one huge floating chunk of soycream with almost condensed chocolate flakes in it. Given that a good whizz of So Good or Vitasoy chocolate or vanilla soy milk, with some So Good soycream, makes a pretty thick and cocoaey soyshake, I couldn't drink more than a few sips of this one.

Our mains were an improvement, especially Miss Jose's. She had the vegie burger which came on some flat bread (I think because it was gluten free), and was filled with diced veggies. It wasn't really a burger but more of a veggie mix, but we rated this one.

My lasagne was also nice, although a little too potatoey for me. I couldn't really taste any different vegetables; the layers seemed quite squasyh, perhaps leading to squashification of individual flavours. Nonetheless, it was hearty and enjoyable.

Knowing that I am not a cream-liker, I bypassed the Black Forest cake, and another very creamy looking cakey thing, and ordered the lemon meringue for dessert to share. It looked fantastic - heaps of whippy cream and a homemade pastry cup. I chose choc-orange soycream to go along with it, and I am happy to say that the soycream was seriously good, with a lovely soft - but not soft serve soft - texture and a very well balanced, un-Jaffa-like flavour.

Upon some digging into the meringue. we discovered that the cream on top descended about 6/8 down the shortcrusty pastry cup, which was pretty diappointing given that the lemon part underneath was fabulous. Smooth and tartly sweet, it was our mutually-agreed favourite bit. After a couple of bites I could clearly taste Nuttelex in the whippy cream, which was offputting (and I have a terrible palate, as if I 'd been a two pack a day moker for 30 years. At a recent ill-begotten trip to the Vegie Bar where a few of us were served the dairy and eggy chocoate cake instead of the vegan one, when everyone else could taste the animal products, I was blissfully unaware). The pastry crust was dry and crumbly; perhaps a result of it being gluten-free, but enough to cause sticking-in-the-back-of-the-throat coughing. We left quite a bit of it which was sad as we knew that Tart'n'Round is rightly famous for its ridiculously delicious desserts.

So, it was hard to reconcile my passionate, greedy love of the Tart'n'Round chocolate balls with the just-slightly-off dishes I tried at the cafe. That said, eveything was nice and the service friendly; I just think it still needs a few tweaks. You can't help but respect a company that is vegan, wheat and gluten free, and I hope that the cafe, in its excellent location and with a store of ready-made fans, really takes off.

Followers, or: hey hey

2009-11-23T21:37:00.001+11:00

I tend not to officially follow blogs; I just read the ones I like. So I'm also kinda slow off the mark at noticing my own followers (I feel so important saying that!).

I just noticed I have a few who I don't recognise, so hiya, and in the word of Patsy, yeah, cheers, thanks a lot.

Togg, or: Tofegg, or: Eggfu, or: Tegg

2009-11-23T20:43:00.005+11:00

When I was a Little T, my family always called eggs 'oggs'. In fact, Mrs T still does. I don't know why; perhaps it was a nod to our Cornish heritage, or just one of those family words that passes into lore. Nonetheless, it was oggs.

And here, I present: Togg.

Readers will know that I am much more in favour of shoppering and eatering than cookering, and my skills in the kitchen reflect my preferences. Today, however, as I ruminated in a very boring gym class about what to have for dinner, a recipe popped into my head unbidden and complete, and it was Curried Togg Salad Sammywich.

I don't crave eggs, and even though I enjoyed them, I certainly can't abide how they get to be fried, scrambled, poached or boiled on a breakfast plate. But I was immeasurably happy to recreate an egg salad sandwich, a pregan standby and especially welcome on white bread.

This is what you'll need: (plus some soy milk)

Mush up some tofu in a bowl and sprinkle some curry powder though it. I think that you can't really get away from using something to flavour the tofu, but I guess you could use stock cubes if you wanted to. I used a little too much powder, and next time will make it a less flourescent shade of orangey-yella. Splash a little soy milk round to help it stick together, and lightly warm the mixture in a frying pan just to kick it off.

In a bowl - the same one if you like to minimise washering up - mix up some vegan mayo and mustard. Choose whichever you like; I'm a fan of chunky grainy, in-ya-face mustard, but I also whizzed in some Frency Dijon.

I added some spring onion, because it was on hand and seemed appropriate.

Combine the mustardy-mayo mix and the tofu mixture. You have Togg! I chopped my lettuce and stirred through, but you could also keep the Togg separate and layer it on top of lettuce.

And voila, Curried Togg Salad Sammywich.

Eating good things in a good place, or: The Moroccan Soup Bar.

2009-11-19T21:40:00.005+11:00

To use a whole lot of non-vegan phrases, what really gets my goat; what really irritates the monkey on my back; and what puts a bee in my bonnet, is restaurant reviews who say something like: “Even though it was vegetarian, it was really good”; or: “Even meat lovers will agree this vegetable dish was tasty”; or “For a vegetarian restaurant, the food is great”; or “I’m a total idiot with no imagination and deadened tastebuds” .. oh, that was me translating what those kind of writers really mean.

It was with great annoyance that I read a couple of such reviews of the Moroccan Soup Bar, a vegetarian, alcohol-free venue on St Georges Road. Not only did the Moroccan Soup Bar’s hefty reputation precede it on my first ever visit, making me envious of the food which inspired the rave reviews I had read, but I like a restaurant with a bit of grunt. And by grunt I mean ethics.

The Moroccan Soup Bar is run with some down-to-earth principles about eating local food; employing women who can benefit from the experience and training; and not charging the bloody earth (or using plastic containers for the stream of take-away orders that file in and out. People bring their own, which can lead to the amusing sight of two large empty vodka bottles being carried in; for what, I’m not sure).

I was not entirely ready for the onslaught of patrons and queue-jumpers who alighted from the 112 tram and teleported themselves to outside the restaurant at 5:55pm. I had heard you had to be speedy to snare a table, and was able to stake my claim while I waited for the others to arrive. with some judicious application of the hip'n'shoulder.

The verbal menu at the Moroccan Soup Kitchen, delivered by staff while you sip sweet, gently minty tea, is designed to allow for discussion between waiter and eater. Buzz and my dining companions were old hands and wisely counselled us to forgo hearing the a la carte menu and just go for the $20 banquet.

I also like a restaurant where when I say that I am vegan, the response is “That’s fine”, and nothing else. We know what you want, we can make it, it will be delivered to you. Done!

The entrée plate (mine was separate and generous) contained a hummus base with smaller dips and similar pastes surrounding it, with pickled carrot and pita bread. It was a lovely cold plate for a hot day, with a soft and runny hummus and some excellent antipasto pieces.

My entree plate - bright and beautiful

The mains arrived in a flurry of bowls, five in total of which four were vegan. Score!

A potatoey curry with saffronny rice.

Vegetable chunks.

The rices were cooked with individual flavourings and the slightly baked, tomatoey one (with eggplants perched on top) was a little bit crunchy and a whole lotta good. My favourite rice was cooked with tumeric and saffron, and came with some simply cooked brown lentils.

Brown lentils and yellow rice.

Incredibly soft, sliding eggplant with fresh salad.

Desserts were a little oasis of hot nights in the desert. The vegan option was a beautifully soft and squidgy piece of Turkish Delight, which reminded me all over again of how much I like it.

Puffy powdery Turkish Delight.

... and with bite marks.

The sweets were accompanied by thick, goopy, sweetened black gold coffee poured from a brass coffee pot, which was more strong caffeine that I’m used to but which I shotted to get into the spirit of things.

Full and content, only $20 per person poorer, and with plans to return with our own plastic containers for takeaway soon, we enjoyed not only the simple, unpretentious and satisfying food, but we also felt like we had had ‘an experience’, and that we’d done something good.

The end.

Dear ShoeSellers Betts, Novo and Zu: I Want To Shop

2009-11-09T15:18:00.004+11:00

I wrote to the Shoe Elves about their sneaky practice of slipping leather quarterlining into shoes that are otherwise all synthetic and vegan-ok, but the force of my tantrum and the flood of my tears as I rejected pair after pair of shoesies that I wanted to wear to weddings, parties, anything, was not enough.

So I wrote to their bosses at various shoesie emporia.

Hello,

I would like to bring to your attention an issue about the labelling of some shoes in your stores.

As a vegan I do not use any animal products, including leather, and I am always pleased to find a wide range of synthetic shoes in your stores which look great and suit my needs. However, I have noticed that a number of shoes which state that they are made from all synthetic or manmade materials have leather quarterlining, which is not disclosed on the shoe.

It may be that product disclosure laws only require manufacturers to state the composition of the main lining material, but for people like me who avoid leather and suede it is terribly frustrating to discover that an apparently animal-free pair of shoes in fact has leather quarterlining.

I urge you to contact your manufacturers and suppliers and request that they use non-leather quarterlining on shoes that are otherwise all synthetic. As well as broadening your market it would ensure that the actual components of the shoes match the product disclosure, and bring consistency to the labelling of your shoes.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

Miss T
Shoe Enthusiast and Lover of All Things Shiny

Letter to Madison magazine - PetRescue.com.au

2009-11-02T14:17:00.001+11:00

Dear Madison,

Thank you, thank you for your feature on the animal rescue organisation PetRescue. Anyone fortunate enough to share their home with an animal knows the joy that connection can bring, yet so many companion animals are killed each year, sometimes abandoned or abused by humans, or dumped from pet shops when their cuteness factor expires.

Pet shops that sell animals are responsible not only for many of the thousands of unnecessary animal deaths each year, but for the cruel puppy mill industry which provides a never-ending stream of puppies and kittens for their windows, most of whom will not find homes and will be put down once past their ‘use-by’ . I urge all Madison readers to boycott pet shops, and when looking for their next animal friend, to bypass the shopping mall and look to a rescue organisation instead.

It’s wonderful to see a magazine such as Madison highlight these serious and heartbreaking issues.

Yours with thanks,

Miss T

A response from Kerry Greenwwood.

2009-10-11T15:30:00.003+11:00

Sadly, I think this is what I expected in response to my post about Kerry Greenwood's latest book Forbidden Fruit which was an open letter and an invitation to potluck.

I am quite capable of distinguishing author from book; but I don't like confusing inaccuracy.

I didn't take issue with the Christian extremists because it's not my bag. I am taking issue with the inaccurate and unimaginatively stereotypical portrayal of my own community. Also I reckon I could find far more extremists Christians who fit the bill than vegans who eat Brie muffins and tzatziki.

I don't intend to debate, but I will just note that while extremist websites may well tell young girls that eating meat will give women breast cancer, the link between eating red meat and increased risk of bowel cancer is not an extremist viewpoint at all but well accepted by medical professionals. So it's hardly a ridiculous example to use to illustrate the terribleness of extremist vegans; it's mean and rude but really not so far from the truth as to be completely laughable.

I don't really want to stop reading the books because I enjoy them, but its a bit of a trite answer to tell me to look away if I don't like what I see. Seeing as Kerry says she is denouncing things she thinks needs denouncing, I am really just doing the same about things that I don't like too.

So here, in all it's sighing glory, is Kerry's response:

Dear Rachel
(sigh) here we go again. I do not have it in for Vegans or vegetarians. My best friend really is a veggie. I ate one of the best meals of my life in a veggie restaurant in Bristol. I never met a vegetable I didn't like (except okra. One must draw the line somewhere). You are confusing the author's opinions with the book itself.
However, the animal liberation/extreme vegans do have a lunatic fringe - as do the Christians, to the depiction of which I notice you haven't made any objection. The websites of those extreme people do, in fact, tell young girls that if they eat meat they will get breast cancer. No scientific proof, no qualifications. I read them myself, with increasing horror. Just like I read the Chiristian fundamentalist sites, which told me that unless I sent them a lot of money now I would be going to hell.
I dont like fundamentalists of any sort. I denounce them when they need denouncing. And if you do not like my work, you can always stop reading it.
Thank you for your invitation to dinner. Most civil.
cordially

Kerry

Vegan Votering, or: Enlightened Cuisine as voted by the judges

2009-10-05T21:00:00.008+11:00

Throwing themselves into the swing of things, recently newish Melbournians Steph and Danni organised a dinner at Enlightened Cuisine to celebrate the New Moon Festival. Sadly Danni was sent leaving on a jet plane, thereby missing the mock meat madness.

Having slavered over the 'lamb' curry last World Vegan Day, I was keen to sample more (and from now on I'll just drop the ' 's. You know I don't mean the real and nasty stuff, although I do actually feel a little uncomfortable writing meaty names which is interesting). The table of 9 decided to order from two of the banquets, very reasonably priced at $32 per person for 8 dishes.

So how to review 16 plates shared amongst 8 people, with Jo chipping in too?

By exercising our God-given right to vote and my geek-given ability to count on my fingers.

So here, voted by your judges (me, Buzz, Craig, Bec, Jo, Cindy, Michael, Sarah-Jane and Steph), are the winners of Banquets B1 and B2. Due to some confusion as to when the dishes arrived on the table, and which was announced as belonging to which, not each face-off consists of a B1 vs B2. Rearranging them would have sullied the total votes, but at the end I have tallied total votes for each Banquet to declare a Banquet Emperor. I also recommend you check out Steph's post and especially her fantastic pictures, which have me seriously considering the purchase of a fancy up-towards-the-ceiling flash attachment and even dragging my SLR around instead of just whipping out my little, damaged-because-I-dropped-it-lens-first-into-miso-soup-at-Peko-Peko point'n'shoot.

So to the count. Australia Votes!

In the fried entree section, no photographs were taken, but the spring roll (B1) trounced the curry puff (B2) 7 votes to 2.

In the souping, Shark Fin Soup (B1) played nicely with Sweet Corn and Crab (B2), 4 and 4 votes respectively.

Moving to mains, the Kung Po Prawn (B1), which squiggled in a way I imagine real prawn guts might, lost mightily to the fried Sweet and Sour Pork (B1), which was served with the very authentic tomato and pineapple chunks, 2 votes to 7.

In the Battle of the Tofus, the warm, rich and spicy Ma Pu Tofu (B1) lost to the overwhelming 5 Spice Tofu (B2), small artery-cloggers of pure cripsy fatty dollops, 2 votes to 7.

Next into the arena, the Sweet and Sour Prawns (B2), little fried prawnies in batter, were crushed by the immensity of the Kung Po Chicken in Nest (B2), which was cashews and chicken in a little basket of French Fries, 2 votes to 7. Yes they were fries. And yes, I forgot to take a picture of the prawnies because the 45 minute wait between entree and main had frayed my nerves a little and I was ready to jump on the table, perform the Stompy Troll Dance, gather all the plates in my Troll Apron, and run away into the night.

Each Banquet came with a serve of Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables and Fried Rice, which we didn't vote on even though I was really liking the power of wielding the pen.

Finally, the Lychee Longan (B1) took on the Banana Fritter (B2). Michael declared his interests as a fully paid up member of the I Hate Nanis Club, of which Emily and he are Founding Co-Chairs and Chief Cheerleaders, and absented himself from voting because of his perverse aversion, and votes came out even at 4 each.

I am fully aware of the image that the picture above presents. Not only do I love crass, cheap humour, but it was the only picture that worked out and I love crass, cheap humour.

Geeking it up, we then voted for Best Entree (Shark Fin Soup tying with Spring Rolls at 4 votes each, with Jo not voting); Best Main in a two stage process (5 Spice Tofu finally scoring a massive 8 votes against Jo's Beef and Black Bean Sauce, a late entry); and again, a dead heat for dessert.

So to tally the Banquets (trumpets, drum roll, the envelope please): Banquet B1 scored a total of 27 points, and Banquet B2 scored 26.

But, as Red Pen Bitch, I have the veto! Banquet B2 also contained the two most popular dishes of the night, the 5 Spice Tofu (Overall Champion) and the Nest, and I therefore declare by the power vested in me by the State of Victoria and the Power of Greyskull, that Banquet B2 is the OVERLORD and WINNER.

Finally, calming me down from my voting bossiness, thoughtful Steph had brought us all Moon Cakes and told us the story behind the festival. Moon Cakes are ornate and decorative, and inside the sweet wrapping they are filled with sugary squidgy red bean. They were sweet in more ways than one.

Shoe Elves, or: labels are very important when a girl is communing with her God by shoe shopping

2009-10-04T23:59:00.003+11:00

Dear Shoe Elves,

I love it when you make pretty twinkly dancy shoesies that say 'Synthetic Upper, Lining and Sole' on them. Especially when they are hot pink satin and have a gold metallic strap. They make my want to do twirlies and skippies and long-forgotten ballet steps and sing.

But can you please stop using leather for the quarter lining because it's breaking my heart and it's lying.

Thank you,
A Shoe Lover

Kerry Greenwood's latest book 'Forbidden Fruit' - thoughts and an invitation, or: an open letter

2009-10-03T14:36:00.004+10:00

Dear Kerry,

I write as a long time fan of both the Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman books. One thing that I have always admired about both series, particularly Earthly Delights, is the sensible and inclusive way that you handle people and groups who are often misunderstood by society - Wiccans, S&M, recovering addicts, goths and the homeless for example.

I was surprised to read the portrayal of vegans and animals rights groups in Forbidden Fruit. While I understand that artistic licence can be invoked for literary means, I found the portrayal of the motivations, philosophies and people confusing and disappointing.

I am vegan and focus very heavily on making sure that my decisions and ethical positions are reasonable, rational and accessible to others. Even the most 'extreme' liberationists I know, of which there are very few compared to the mainstream midground, fall well short of the characters in the book. I am concerned that these characters, untempered by some exposition on what most vegans are really like, perpetuate the myth that we are all foaming-at-the-mouth fanatics about to launch ourselves over the dinner table to wrestle the steak from your fork. We really do cop a lot of criticism from the uninformed and the belligerent, and we work very hard to engage and explain to the interested.

I was surprised that there was no point at which any reasons for veganism were put forward even in explanation, even though these reasons range from animal liberation to welfare to environmentalism to health. There are as many reasons to be vegan as there are vegans, but I didn't read anything that might imply that these reasons might be valid and rational. Vegans do not eat, wear or consume animal products not because we are slightly unhinged and extremists, but because we care deeply about animals, the environment and our health, and because we have thought deeply and carefully about our decision. I would have loved to have seen some acknowledgement of this in the book, even in a small way to counteract the perception that we are all Sarahs and hopeful cannibals, or Janeens who secretly crave and sneak dairy.

And we love food! I am yet to meet a vegan who is not obsessed with food and, particularly, baking. We have regular potlucks and most of us blog about food too. I would love to suggest a few blogs that you might consider reading, if you might be interested in reading a little of what we do (and cook)? I attach a list below, as well as some sites which try to explain why we feel that eggs and dairy are just as objectionable as meat, which seemed to be a sticking point in the book.

I would also like to extend an open, and very warm, invitation to you to attend one of our potlucks. I promise that the food will be delicious, and the company unextreme! We love to share our food and cooking with one another and recent triumphs include tiramisu, sausage rolls, tequila cupcakes, savoury watermelon salad and (my own) peanut butter ice cream. We would love for you to come along; we have a great community and appreciate the opportunity to share it. You would be most welcome at any time.

With thanks for two wonderful series of books, and in hope that you will have a read of our blogs and perhaps admire the baking,

Warm regards,

Rachel

PS: I am writing this as an open letter and publishing it on my blog in the interests of my own transparency. Please feel free to respond publicly too.

Blog roll:
www.misstprincessvegan.blogspot.com (my own blog)
www.bluerthanpink.blogspot.com (Kristy)
www.cupcakekitteh.blogspot.com (Mandee)
www.lisadempster.com.au (Lisa)
www.fairestfeed.blogspot.com (Pip)
www.veganabouttown.blogspot.com (Steph)
www.veganyumyum.com (USA - Lolo)
www.herestheveg.blogspot.com (Cindy and Michael)
www.theppk.com (USA: website of vegan chefs with massive baking component)

Other sites:
www.animalsaustralia.org
www.voiceless.org.au

A letter to Living Nature, or: 'honey' is what I call Buzz, not what I expect to find in makeup labelled 'no animal ingredients'

2009-09-28T16:31:00.001+10:00

Dear Living Nature,

Hello,

I was surprised and disappointed today to see that your product range, whilst containing Manuka honey, is labelled as being free of animal ingredients. Your products are correctly vegetarian, but they do contain animal ingredients. I may be mistaken but I thought that you used to say that your products were vegan. In any case, it is inaccurate for your labels to state that you do not use any animal ingredients and I suggest that you amend this statement to reflect the use of Manuka honey.

Regards,

Miss T

I am two! or: Veganniversary

2009-09-22T16:48:00.002+10:00

On the second anniversary of my veganism – my veganniversary – I have been noticing how my understanding has changed since mid-September 2007, when I had a Skinny Bitch-inspired epiphany at my desk.

I have broadened, and somewhat deepened, my understanding of animal rights and welfarism; I have read and read about food equity and down-the-chain cruelties to humans and animals alike. I am better informed and more widely read – and so I suppose it is inevitable that I have noticed changes in how I feel.

I am, two years on, both more and less committed to mainstreaming. I began with the firm conviction that I would do best if I was open and calm, and I still believe wholeheartedly that if I am the only vegan many of my friends know, then the example I set is especially important. I can be most influential when I am most approachable. To this end, I try to be reasonable, rational and intelligent about my positions, and relaxed about social eatering situations. I try bring food to share, and not put my hosts out. I try to adopt an equitable discussion style and I believe very much that although I decry the happy meat-schmappy schmeat movement, that when someone is proud enough of the changes they have made in their lives to buy organic meat or free-range eggs, that I should tell them that I am proud of them too. I believe that to critique someone else’s choices in these situations is counter-productive and plain rude. When they are ready to talk more, I will be ready to talk with them.

I want veganism to become mainstream so that it is accessible and understandable, and a market force. I want veganism to be normalised and demystified and I want it to become as widespread as possible. I see this as the way in which what was originally such a tiny, fringe movement can spread its message and practices to people who may otherwise have no understanding or knowledge of what we do and why we do it.

But I have also noticed that I have developed a small resistance. I find it harder and harder to be silent and I find that my thoughts as I watch someone devour their meaty dinner are more and more filled with disbelief and frustration. I feel this more keenly and more often that I did two years ago. I am more aware, and I am more committed, and I think this has lowered my tolerance threshold.

I have also found friends. Through blogging, potlucking and writing I have found a whole community, spread beyond the Veganville of Brunswick to Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville, Chicago and those who I know only through their comments. I have found people who I both like and admire, and to meet people who you not only respect but whose company you enjoy is a pleasure.

Although my primary motivation is animals, I know and believe that I am also doing the right thing for the environment and for my health, and that sustains my belief in veganism as a lifestyle, not a diet like locavism or a practice like recycling. It is an everything. There is nothing that would make me want to go back, and there is nothing that would make me feel that I had to.

This is especially relevant as I look towards the next few years of my life which I hope will contain babies and little creatures running around a noisy house. I am certain that having a vegan pregnancy will only benefit both me and my baby, which stems from my deep conviction that a typical vegan diet is three quadzillion times better for you than a typical omnivorous one, and that a consciously healthy vegan diet (the one in which I give up BBQ shapes, beer, chips and spring rolls) will give me the healthiest pregnancy possible, and my babies the healthiest body and mind I can give.

I like to think that I spread a little understanding amongst those I know who don’t know any other vegans. If I can at least cause one omnivore to say to another “Oh, I know a vegan. She’s ok”, then I’ve done a little dance and made a little love, and next time, one omnivore might say to another “Oh, she’s not a pain in the arse”, and the time after that, one omnivore might say to another “I don’t agree with her, but maybe she’s got something sensible to say”, and the time after that, one omnivore might say to another “Let’s not order steak tonight”.

At least, I like to think that I debunk a stereotype. That is, there is a place for the peace-loving, mung-bean-eating, hemp-wearing, loopy-doopy hippie, and there is a place for the activist, militant ALF types. But their place is where they are, and my place is here.

I have never doubted nor wavered in my knowledge that this is it, forever.

Harmonious Unison, or: Planet VeGMeL

2009-09-16T14:11:00.003+10:00

Steph and Danni have turned Godlike and created a planet.

It's a planet where you can read all the Melbourne vegan/vegetarian blgos in one place - and I have to say that I think the snappy name is inspired.

It's called VeGMel - clearly Veg*n Melbourne - but also VGML is the international airline code for a vegan meal. Geddit? Goddit? Good.

Clever eh?

You can check all of us out in harmonious unison over here.