Vego zine and bicycle maintenance manual

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Vego zine and bicycle
maintenance manual
Melbourne Hot Chip Review
with Steven Seagall
Back for its
second year, Steven
Seagall presents
the Melbourne Hot
Chip Review.
Lord of the
Fries
The Melbourne-famous LOTF has extended
to Sydney now. I was going to drop in prior
to their official opening but there was already
a queue out the door! The Lord has recently
added sweet potato chips to their menu. Their
current potatoes are crispy and golden, just the
way I like to steal them.
Gasometer
I gave the Gasometer a poo-poo review last
year, but they’ve picked up their game. Love the
vegan dipping sauces. Goes great with feminism.
Bent St, Altona
There’s this little place (I don’t think it has a
name) on the corner of Bent St and Esplanade in
Altona that does amazing chips like you used to
get, for a reasonable price too. Buy a large chips
and some sweet potato cakes and take it over to
the park or the beach to eat with my mates.
Notes from
the Editor
Cornish Arms
Do pretty great chips. Also eggplant chips if
you’re into that sort of thing. Plus I love the vibe
of the CA. Great for vegan spotting.
A
s vegans, we love picnics, but
where are the best place to have
by Danni
picnics in Melbourne?
Woah, can you believe it’s been FOUR
YEARS? I can’t. Once again we had
Edinburgh Gardens
brilliant weather until the week before the
Edinburgh Gardens is a popular location,
picnic. It’s been a busy/quiet year for me
and a nice place to people watch, but at the
in which I basically haven’t made it to a
same time, it’s practically mainstream. Still
potluck, but it’s come up to picnic season,
lots of space and well-connected to the bike
and everyone loves a vegan picnic.
network.
This year’s zine is pretty text and review
Rating: Hot (for now)
heavy. Apparently people have a lot to
review. Maybe we’re all settling down and
Princes Park (near the bowls club)
moving out of the inner-north and have no
Another popular spot in the inner north.
time to cook, but I think we have a pretty
For some reason though I don’t like it. Too
good balance of Melbourne this year.
many joggers and too small you can’t forget
Enjoy and here’s to another great vego
year.
P.S. there’s no bicycle maintenance. That
was a lie to make you read it. Maintain your
bicycle!
about the traffic.
Rating: Not
St Kilda Botanical Gardens
I really enjoyed a picnic I had at the
botanical gardens last year. The toilets are a
bit of an experience though. It’s a different
crowd to other gardens around Melbourne.
Rating: Hot
Mr Burger
This food truck does pretty great curly fries.
Not sure if they’re vegan because they’re dipped
in something, but pretty tasty. You might be
able to find them at the People’s Market in West
Melbourne.
Melbourne Picnic
Spots: Hot or Not?
Catani Gardens, St Kilda
Another popular St Kilda location. I don’t
Contributors to this zine are Danni from crosslegged
like
it though. Too much noise, boring view.
on the front lawn, Emma, Steph from vegan about
town, Hayley from ballroom blintz, K from in the
Does have lots of tram access. I wonder
mood for noodles and Fi from melbourne with the
why people don’t choose the Botanical
rocket.
Gardens.
This zine © 2013 the Authors under the Creative
Rating: Not
Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0
Front cover photo CC BY-NC-ND http://www.
flickr.com/photos/phonakins/4669012953
by Danni
Curtain Square
Curtain Square has become a new
favourite of mine. Probably because it’s so
close to my house. It’s nestled in a lovely
and quiet part of Carlton. After a great
picnic last year I strongly recommend.
Rating: Hot
Melbourne Botanic Gardens
Lots of great picnic spots at the
Melbourne Botanic Gardens. I recommend
near the lake to watch the water fowl. Be
aware though, they will try to steal your
vegan cake.
Rating: Hot
Fitzroy Gardens
I don’t know about Fitzroy Gardens, to
be honest. Similarly to Carlton Gardens
it always seems to be cold and damp. Any
time I suggest going there I always regret it.
Also it kind of feels like its in the middle of
nowhere, which is strange given it’s in the
middle of the city.
Rating: Not
Royal Park
There are some really nice spots in
Royal Park. I personally recommend the
Flemington Road side although this is
a little hard to access. Even close to the
road you can forget you’re in a major city.
Hopefully they don’t put a freeway through
it!
Rating: Hot (while tunnel free)
favourite vegan cakes
of the inner north
W
hilst I adore turning on my
oven and baking some biscuits
or cupcakes when I’m feeling
nibbly, sometimes I also feel nibbly and
too lazy to measure and stir and bake and
clean. When that happens I turn to my
trusty friends: my bike, my wallet, and the
bakers of the inner north.
Sugardough Bakery on Lygon Street
in Brunswick East was my first ever
Melbourne cake experience, way back
before I ever moved here. They don’t have
a huge range of vegan options but I do
love their raspberry & apple cake, which
most and rich and flavoursome and I can
rarely finish it. It is available not only at
their bakery but also at Pearl Oyster in
Thornbury. 163 Lygon St Brunswick East.
Merry Cupcakes is new on the
Brunswick Street block, but since opening
last year has rapidly become one of my
favourites. They’re an all vegan bakery
run by a dietician, with the nerdiest of
cake names. The cupcakes are lovely
and soft and their insides are filled with
unexpected things, such as beetroot (in
the Beet It, the red velvet) and zucchini (in
the Bruce Banner, my favourite and way
more delicious than it sounds). Also Mary
is super lovely and lets me sneak in before
they’re open to buy emergency cupcakes.
Gleegan/GF available. 261Brunswick St
Fitzroy.
by Steph
Friends of the Earth in Collingwood,
inner north vegetarian stalwart, has a
sweets counter that is usually 100% vegan.
They sell my favourite chocolate cake (the
Crumbs choc + sour cherry) and also often
sell sweet goodies baked by me. If you
haven’t tried my signature ginger + chinese
5 spice cookies you haven’t lived, is all I’m
saying. Gleegan/GF available. 312 Smith
St Collingwood.
Crumbs Organic Bakehouse is based
out in Ascot Vale but has a small bakery
in North Melbourne. Try the cake or the
sourdough donuts. Or the lemon and
sultana scones. Or the apple scrolls. You
get the idea. Don’t try the gingerbread
animals, they’re way too sweet. Gleegan/
GF available. 16 Errol St North Melbourne.
Crafternoon cafe + crafting place has a
vegan tart on its menu that’s a surprise for
its location in the wilds of Nicholson St,
and the added bonus of crafting supplies so
you can draw or craft a vegan cake, too. 531
Nicholson St North Carlton.
Mr Nice Guy with their vegan cupcakes
have expanded to brownies, cheesecake,
coffee scrolls and sour cream pies. How is
such deliciousness possible, I cannot even.
Gleegan/GF available. 151 Union Rd
Ascot Vale, also available from the Radical
Grocery (though not the GF) 6 Wilson Ave
Brunswick.
Eating the Eastern Freeway
L
by Fi
iving in the east is great—not that I
would know otherwise, I’m eastside
born and bred, and have followed a
kind of wonky line along Canterbury Road
from where I grew up to where I am now.
The east has me, so, you know, lucky east,
but what it doesn’t have is an extensive
range of vegan food. So what can you do?
Well, starting up the mountain (assuming
you’ve descended from the heavens),
there’s Earthly Pleasures in Belgrave (1627
Burwood Hwy), a beautifully outdoorsy
cafe with a mean and sweet tofu scramble.
On your way into the city, you can drive
past Knox City (425 Burwood Hwy,
Wantirna South), shopping centre of my
youth and hiding a decent Go Vita food
market in its walls (and Bar Bosh in the
outside food O-Zone has a couple options
too.). Go Vita (Shop 1063, near a Coles)
is the source of vegan grocery delights
like facon and Botanical Cuisine and an
emergency run of chocolate.
Once you are crushed by financial
greed, the next few suburbs are sadly
barren—though reportedly Barclays Cafe
in Heathmont (196-198 Canterbury Rd)
has a vegan cake—until you arrive in Box
Hill, home to a large Asian-Australian
population which means 1) great
supermarkets 2) dumplings 3) Dainty
Sichuan for hotpot (L1, 2a Cambridge
St) and 4) most importantly Vegie Hut
(984 Whitehorse Rd) for a) yum cha or
b) any of the things, because they are
amazing *cough*roast mock duck is the
greatest*cough*. Just wander around if
you’ve got the time, all of these things are
located kind of around the train station
area. Once you’ve left Box Hill behind, you
can head north-ish to Doncaster, which
hides Haveli (31-33 Tunstall Square,
Doncaster East), a tasty Indian restaurant
with vegan options and lovely service,
and then to Doncaster Shoppingtown
(619 Doncaster Rd) for a movie and a Joy
cupcake (and a Go Vita, for more groceries).
If Doncaster doesn’t float your boat—
possibly because it’s not on the sea, I
don’t know—then maybe you’d catch the
109 tram from Box Hill and find yourself
eventually passing Glenferrie Road, where
you’d stop for Mexican from High Tech
Burrito (838 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn).
They don’t do hard shell tacos, which is
sad for me, but they make the best burritos
I’ve eaten, so all credit to them. Then
you can run down to Cupcake Central
(7/672 Glenferrie) for another cupcake
(they do salted caramel and jam donut
flavours, squeal!), and then roll back onto
the tram for a trip down Victoria Street
in Richmond, home to delicious foods
including Loving Hut (10/424) and Fina’s
Vegetarian Cafe (268). After that, you’re
pretty much in Fitzroy, home to all the veg
food, and, well, if you’re still hungry at that
point, maybe you should see a doctor.
Gleegan Guide to the Inner West
Where to shop for speciality
groceries:
A. Bongiovanni & Son 176-178
Victoria Street, Seddon.
A. Bongiovanni is a fancy supermarket
which stocks a variety of vegan and
gluten free products including black
ruby bread, coyo yogurt, gluten free
flours and cereals, arlington tapioca
desserts, raw chocolates and bars,
Mexican products like hard to find
chillies and canned black beans.
They advertise as a ‘organic and
gluten free specialist’. They are a tad
pricey though and close early for a
supermarket (5pm on Sunday and 7pm
on weeknights).
KFL Supermarket 176 Barkly Street,
Footscray.
This is almost the opposite of A.
Biongiovanni, it’s cheap and a little
messy. Their Footscray store has one
of the biggest ranges of tofu I have
ever seen which includes brands like
yensons (my personal fave) and extends
to tofu desserts such as jelly tofu. They
also sell very cheap asian greens and a
range of mock meats.
Replenish 20 Douglas Parade,
Williamstown.
Replenish is a medium sized health
food store which stocks a range of
vegan products like cheezly, Botantical
by K from in the Mood for Noodles
Cusines’ nut based cheezes and
desserts, and kale chips. They also do
organic fruit and vegetable boxes and
can deliver.
Where to eat:
Bopha Devi 27 Ballarat Street,
Yarraville.
Their Yarraville restaurant is much
smaller than their Docklands location.
Bopha Devi is a Cambodian restaurant
which is slightly upmarket and a little
pricey, but they have clearly marked
vegan and gluten free dishes. They sell
a range of curries as well as crunchy
deep fried garlic chive rice cakes. I
recommend their saramann - a tasty
lemon grass coconut curry or the char
choo aim, a sweet and sour dish with
pineapple. Make sure you book ahead.
Reverence Hotel 28 Napier Street,
Footscray.
Reverence hotel is an old school pub
which has live bands and a typical pub
menu, but with plenty of vegan options
on the menu; their fries come standard
with vegan aioli, vegan burgers,
pizza, nachos and more. Visit on taco
Tuesdays for $3 tacos and $3 Tecate
Mexican beer. They have two vegan
taco flavours available - black beans
and tofu and both are delicious but you
will need a few to fill you up.
Los Latinos, Pupuseria and Latin
America Cafe 128 Mitchell Street,
Maidstone.
This small cafe also has a larger store
in Ascot Vale. You can’t go past their
bean pupasas (ask for them minus
dairy) served with salsa and salad.
Pupusas are corn based pancakes,
kind of like tortillas but stuffed with
ingredients. You can also try their tasty
fried pupusas (minus sour cream).
Book ahead, and ask about availability
as sometimes only bean and cheese
varieties are available.
The Abyssinian 277 Racecourse Rd,
Kensington.
I’ve tried a few Ethiopian restaurants
in Footscray, but the slightly more
expensive Abyssinian is my favourite.
They don’t use any dairy, so I strongly
recommend the chef’s vegetarian
plate, which is $35 for two people and
comes with a range of curries, salad
and injera. To make it gluten free
simply have it with rice instead of the
spongy excellent slightly sour savoury
pancakes (injera). If you have to
choose just one curry the lentil based
tumtummo would be my pick.
Salaam Nasmaste Dosa Hut 604B
Barkly Street, West Footscray.
Barkly street in West Footscray is lined
with about a dozen Indian restaurants
but whilst many remain pretty empty,
Salaam Namaste Dosa Hut always
seems busy. It’s not fancy, and there
are limited vegan options but their
masala dosa is possibly the best I’ve
ever had and well worth a visit. Their
crunchy thin savoury crepe surrounds
a most addictive potato inside which
you dip into a coconut sauce, a mild
vegetable curry and a spicy curry.
It’s possibly the best $8.95 you can
spend. If you are feeling hungry, go
for the masala dosa meal with vata, a
spiced lentil-flour donut-shaped patty
and idli, a soft rice-based dish, both
are great for mopping up extra curry.
If you’re still hungry, you can add in
some samosas (not gf).
The following place is not gluten
free friendly but worth a
mention for their vegan options:
Tan Truc Giang 36A Leeds St,
Footscray.
Only a short walk from the station is
this omni Vietnamese place which sells
vegetarian banh mi, a roll with bbq
seitan, pickled carrot, coriander and
chilli. Just make sure you ask for the
vegetarian roll or vegetarian banh mi
because they also sell a regular meaty
variety. They also have a range of
vegetarian stir fry dishes and vegetable
rice paper rolls.
VEGAN JOKES
by Hayley
Why did the vegan cross the road?
To get to the Brunswick IGA because Radical Grocery was closed and where else were we going to get
tempeh at this time of night, and no I can’t just sub in tofu, tofu is not THE SAME THING AT ALL, for
god’s sake, Judith, pull it together.
How many vegans does it take to change a lightbulb?
Is it one of those ‘smart’ energy-saving bulbs? God, I hate those things. Energy efficient should in no way
mean ‘your lounge room will be rendered an endless dark cavern’. Gerald collided with the TV cabinet the
other day and lost half a black bean burrito behind the couch. The house smells like a Salsas now.
Knock knock?
Who’s there?
Seitan.
Seitan who?
Look if you were expecting me to do some word play on Satanism that’s honestly just offensive on
multiple levels.
What’s the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan?
Well, on a basic level, a vegetarian eschews meat products, while a vegan generally avoids all animal
products. Of course, there are myriad variations when you get down to individuals – some vegetarians may
not eat dairy, or eat fish or white meat, and with vegans some may eat things like honey or gelatine while
avoiding other more obvious animal products. Of course, these diets are often influenced by other dietary
creeds such as freeganism, or raw food, which splits the possible definitions further…
Oh.
Oh, you were expecting a joke.
Oh.
Have you heard about the explosion at the cheese shop in France?
The area is covered in de brie.
Wait, cheese isn’t vegan…
FOR FUCK’S SA- *line disconnects*
What do you call a vegan post-punk band?
SOY DIVISION.
Yes, fair enough, I’ll be leaving now.