oh, glorious food.

When Vegans Eat Out: Am Nordpol

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:55:00 +0200

Vegan food pops up at the strangest places sometimes. When a couple of people mentioned that Am Nordpol, a Gasthaus (inn) that serves Bohemian and Austrian home cooking, was offering a vegan fixed menu, we knew we had to head over to Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, and see for ourselves!
The three-course fixed menu runs at 10,50€ for a small and 14,50€ for the large version; I had the large and was extremely full afterwards.
You get toasted dark bread with a flavourful red bell pepper topping as a starter, dumplings filled with minced soy meat and a generous side salad as the main course and an Austrian favourite, Mohnnudeln, as the dessert.

Except for dessert, which we would have liked a lot sweeter and not as buried under poppy seeds, food was great and definitely worth the trip. Service was slow as heck and waits between courses were way too long. When we mentioned the 30 minutes wait between second and third course, we were blamed for not reminding the waitress. okay…
I forgive Am Nordpol and will definitely return again in a few months.

Am Nordpol’s website

Reviews on Tupalo.com

This Sunday's food coma was brought to us by Schillinger

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:11:38 +0200

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

‘nuff said!

Vegan Chai Muffins in August/September Issue of Jamie Magazine

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:06:11 +0200

Look, what we came across in the current issue (# 12) of our favourite guilty pleasure, Jamie (as in Oliver) Magazine: a recipe for Chai Muffins! It’s always fun and strange to come across veganism in mainstream media.
Since not all of us can or want to spend a lot of money for a pretty food magazine, I will hook you up with the recipe. Go metric!

Chai Muffins

makes 12

75ml groundnut oil
100g caster sugar
175g plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
A pinch of grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom seeds
300g apple sauce
Cinnamon sticks, crumbled, to decorate (optional)

Spicy icing

4 chai tea bags
200g sugar
250g margarine

1 Preheat the oven to 190/gas 5. In a bowl, thoroughly combine the oil and sugar. Add all the remaining dry ingredients, plus a pinch of salt, and mix well. Stir in the apple sauce. Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cases and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool.
2 For the icing, put the tea bags in 200ml boiling water. After 15 minutes remove the bags and stir in the sugar. Bring to a boil, without stirring, then simmer for 5-8 minutes. Leave to cool, then beat into the margarine. Refrigerate the icing to firm up, then spread over the cooled muffins. Decorate with crumbled cinnamon sticks, if desired.

from: http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/

short piece on "Eating Animals" on Austrian TV

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:20:16 +0200

short piece on "Eating Animals" on Austrian TV:

Austrian TV showed a short report and interview with the writer Jonathan Safran Foer. The piece isn’t great but it is always good to get the message out to an mainstream audience. German only, sorry!

Well, looky here... healthy fast food joint Freshii to open in Vienna!

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:11:25 +0200

seems like a healthy fast food restaurant made it over the pond and will open a few locations in Vienna this summer.

& freshii seems pretty vegan-friendly, too. we cannot wait to check out what they (might) have to offer for us!

photo taken from freshii’s flickr stream

Joe Zee's column in the July issue of Elle Magazine caught our attention.

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:19:00 +0200

Excerpt from Joe Zee’s column in Elle Magazine :

Second, in the midst of this mad scenery, he showed an entire collection of rich, luxurious fur. Fur for women, fur for men. Fur coats, fur trims, fur booties, even Chewbacca-style gorilla suits for guys. But here’s the Karl catch: It was all fake. Bravo to this bold political statement! Still, I was more fascinated by the fashion statement, which echoes a belief I’ve held for years: It’s okay—in fact, it’s totally chic—to fake it.

Even though Mr. Zee’s motives are (mostly) whack - fake it! … until you can afford the real deal - we cannot help feeling slightly hopeful that Mr Karl “Disgusting Sizeist” Lagerfeld might kick off a much needed step away from fashion’s disgusting fur=luxury and totally ok!-trend of the last couple of years. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Japanese Soy Ice Cream by Kracie.

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 23:04:22 +0200

None other than my vegetarian mother found Japanese vegan ice cream at the Korean supermarket, Nakwon, the other day. We sampled chocolate and vanilla and really enjoyed all the creamy goodness. I’ll have to get back to you about how much one small tub is, but whatever the price, it’ll be worth it.

Thanks, mom!

Kracie’s website

Nakwon’s website

Nakwon reviews on Tupalo.com

Photo

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:25:06 +0200

Keep Shoes Sale at Stil Laden!

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:19:00 +0200

you have one more week to pick up a pair of cheap (minus 60%!) vegan sneakers. they are comfy and super stylish, to boot! and did I mention 60% off?

Stil Laden homepage

Reviews on Tupalo

this and that: morsels of information

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:28:00 +0200

wanna look all pretty and no longer lose sleep over whether your make up is vegan-friendly or not? Melisser, of The Urban Housewife fame, comes to the rescue with Cruelty Free Face.
this is old news by now but this can not be repeated enough: Catalonia bans bullfighting!! Let’s hope the rest of Spain follows!
the former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is getting married and we care because the affair will be (almost all) vegan.
We like Ed Templeton and we like reading about what all he and his wife eat on their many travels. Here’s their vegan food blog!

for the vegan on the go!

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:14:55 +0200

this broccoli roll filled with margarine, shredded carrots, leeks, zucchini and soy sprouts makes a mighty fine snack when you are on the go and your stomach is growling. it’s available at the bakery chain Bäckerei Ströck for around 2, 50 € and quite filling.

Ströck can be found here and even has a handy pdf list of all their vegan products online. Enjoy your carbs!

cleaning out the Saturday lunch buffet at Xu’s Cooking!

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:37:00 +0200

cleaning out the Saturday lunch buffet at Xu’s Cooking!

it's summer at the farmers market

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:19:00 +0200

summer means that farmers markets are finally exciting again. we love and don’t wanna knock beets and cabbage but we are definitely ready for lush tomatoes, colourful carrots and fresh herbs and all of their delicious friends.

when vegans eat out: Makro1

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:18:00 +0200

(don’t call it a comeback!)

I have the tendency to stay away from overly hippie, macrobiotic, health food store-ish type restaurants and what a silly tendency that is. especially if it means that I am missing out on wonderful spots like Makro1.

Makro1 serves an all vegan lunch plate with or without a bowl of soup (choose between small or large portion) from 11:30 am to 14:30 pm. Make sure you show up around noon because their food sells out almost daily or call ahead and reserve your lunch.
Portions are very generous and and the lady cooks are charming and very helpful. In summer you can enjoy your lunch plate, that always contains grains, vegetables, a fresh salad, in the garden or join your fellow guests at the big community table inside.

Make sure to sample some of their desserts before you leave! All cakes and other sweets are also vegan and agave sweetened.

See you there!

makro 1

the soy milk chronicles continued.

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:34:08 +0200

one of our favourite cafes in the 7th district has finally a soy milk option and we have been taking advantage of it like woah!

Cafe Espresso

Spirali, a new favourite in the same hood is taking care of the lactose intolerant & vegans, too and we love them for it!

Spirali

Vegan Mania June 5th, 2010

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:28:52 +0200

The Vegan Summer Fest (we prefer this name) came and went. we were there and enjoyed the food and giggled about the posing body builders.

Vegan Mania; the beloved Doener stand from Munich

Doener, glorious Doener!; check out my buns

Vietnamese “duck” sandwich; strong vegan menz

green smoothies at Naschmarkt

Thu, 27 May 2010 17:15:07 +0200

it was a little hard to believe our eyes when we stumbled upon a green smoothie stand on Naschmarkt. Vienna is always a little behind, but it seems “raw” is coming to town.

€ 3 for a delicious medium Green Gorilla smoothie. I am not making that name up!

impromptu dessert sampling party at loving hut

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:35:00 +0200

Schaumrollen; cheese cake with fresh strawberries
coffee cheese cake; at Loving Hut 1070

nothing better than a sunday dessert party! not a thing!

vegan shopping tips: Nakwon Supermarket

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:29:00 +0200

this big Korean supermarket is the place to go for your soba noodles, coconut milk, sesame oil, rice vinegar, bok choy, tofu, yams, spices from all over the world and so much more! take some time, the staff will help you with translations, when in doubt about ingredients.

Nakwon Supermarkt

manner reacts to the numerous complaint emails

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:39:00 +0200

the Manner company finally reacts to the numerous complaints from the vegan community after the ingredient “milk sugar” started showing up in their ingredient lists.
the form letter states that the recipe has NOT changed, that the wafers in the cute pink wrappers do NOT contain any animal products.
since their production process changed they legally have to list milk sugar to warn people with allergies.
why they didn’t just stick with “may contain traces of…”, we don’t know. EU food laws, we are guessing. Manner also promises that they will try and figure out how to not share equipment in the production of the wafers but to give them a few months to figure stuff out.

so, is that a sigh of relief we hear? I’ll personally try and stock up on the old vegan version and hope they’ll figure out how to change their production process.

Here is the form letter, German only, sorry!

___________________________________________________________

Sehr geehrte Damen, Sehr geehrte Herren,

vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage zur Manner-Schnitte und der „geänderten Rezeptur“.

Gerne können wir Ihnen mitteilen, dass sich an der Rezeptur der Manner-Schnitte nichts* geändert hat, d.h. wir setzen nach wie vor bei der Produktion der Original Manner Neapolitaner Schnitten keine Zutaten tierischen Ursprungs ein. Aufgrund geänderter Produktionsabläufe sind wir aber gesetzlich daran gebunden, „Milchzucker“ nun auch in der
Zutatenliste auszuloben, da für den Gesetzgeber die Möglichkeit, dass
das Produkt mit – wenn auch nur sehr geringen Mengen - Milchzucker in
Verbindung kommt (z.B. durch das Benutzen von Rohrleitungen und Tanks,
die auch für andere Produkte wie Milchcreme etc.
verwendet werden)
durch die neuen Produktionsabläufe erhöht ist und wir auch auf die
Laktose-Allergiker Rücksicht nehmen wollen. Diese geänderten
Produktionsabläufe sind für uns notwendig, um im immer konzentrierteren
und internationaleren Wettbewerb bestehen zu können und so letztendlich
Arbeitsplätze in Österreich zu sichern.
„Kann Spuren von anderen
Nüssen und Milchbestandteilen enthalten“ war bereits seit jeher auf der
Manner-Schnitte ausgelobt und ist auch auf unserer Internet
Nährwerttabelle unter http://www.manner.com/index.php?idp=57&l ang=1zu sehen.
Jedoch
nehmen wir Ihre Anregung gerne auf und sind gerade intensiv dabei,
gemeinsam mit der Produktion an einer Lösung zu arbeiten – so könnten
wir eventuell die Produktion auf eine andere Produktionsanlage
verlagern - die es uns unter Einhaltung der gesetzlichen Anforderungen
erlaubt, „Milchzucker“ wieder aus der Zutatenliste zu streichen und zur
bisherigen Kennzeichnung zurückzukehren.
Wir gehen davon aus, dass
es allerdings einige Monaten dauern kann, bis wir - nach Aufbrauchen
der Packstoffe - zur Kennzeichnung „Kann Spuren von anderen Nüssen und
Milchbestandteilen enthalten“ zurückkehren können. Wir bitten um
Verständnis, dass eine solche Maßnahme etwas Zeit in Anspruch nimmt.
Wir geben Ihnen Bescheid, sobald die Maßnahmen umgesetzt sind.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
JOSEF MANNER & COMP. AG
Wilhelminenstraße 6, 1171 Wien