How can I leave Gelati!

Yaaaaa, how could I spend my nice time in Italy without Gelati! Emmmm, VEGAN Gelati? Ya, VEGAN Gelati. It's not a news anymore. Nowadays, vegan ice-cream and gelati are everywhere. It's so much easier to be a vegan now.

I had gelati 3 times in Italy - I could have more, just I was too full from the other good food. One gelati store actually provides around 10 flavours of soy gelati. The most popular and typical flavour in Italy were pistachio and hazelnut. I tried them both, and also dark chocolate, banana and vanilla. I liked pistachio and dark chocolate most. The dark chocolate was exactly how I prefer it taste like - slightly bitter and not over sweet, not over creamy... complicated. I bought it from Perché No!, Florence, one of the oldest gelati store in Italy.

My birthday... with all the food and veggie and cooking thinggie plus @ Alley Cafe

I haven't written on this blog for a while... Cooking and tasting food run as usual; however, getting a bit lazy to write.

My friends surprised me a lot during my birth week! All the presents are about food and cooking! I received a cupcake salt and pepper set, a vegan bibibam, a vegan apple cinnamon cake, a maple candy, a 100 vegetarian recipe book and... a pasta machine!! Love them all so much!

There was a little celebration in Alley Cafe. It's a vegetarian cafe and I've been there a few times before. The food taste so homemade~ The full English breakfast, sandwiches, and CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE are my favourites! The large full English breakfast can really makes you full. There's also a half one if the stomach is not that empty. The vegan version would give us a scramble tofu instead of scramble eggs. The scramble tofu on the toast is the highlight of this breakfast.

There are so many different combination of sandwich bread and fillings and sauce, suitable for people with different dietary needs like gluten free/ vegan, etc. Just create our own sandwich! I tried the sesame bagel with cream cheese and spinach. It came with side salad with sesame sauce, my favourite as well!

This time I tried the daily special - Chilli on a baked sweet potato^^ How can I not love sweet potato? Such a nice seasonal ingredient to enjoy.

I ordered the CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE everytime if I'm having dessert. It's digestive biscuits wrapped with chocolate and served with a scope of vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce. And it's all VEGAN!

When we almost finished the meal, I introducing this cake to my friends excitingly. Then a waiter brought out a CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE from the bar, and I was so excited and shouted "Look! Look! Look!" Strange thing was, the waiter use a plane to cover half of the cake...!? It was my birthday cake! There's a candle on it!

That's the most surprise birthday for the last few years, thank you all my dear =]

Vegetarian Cookery School - Vegan pudding and desserts

終於上了期待已久的純素甜品課程，同類課程即使在本地亦很少見，聖誕大餐特別班早已爆滿，大蕃薯想報名都沒機會了><"


課堂上共製作了五款甜品和一款主菜，即場吃了兩款甜品：pancake和rice pudding，其餘三款（toffee pudding, dark coca muffin, cinnamon roll）就帶回家慢慢品嚐～最最最驚喜的是肉桂卷（cinnamon roll），味道根本是港式麵包呀！！師傅教我們用大豆乳酪和豆奶等做出鬆軟的質感，還有用糖加豆奶掃面，做出反光的靚靚包面。











另外pancake亦很不錯，只不過我組煎pancake時火候沒調校好，沒能做出像師傅的pancake鬆軟。原來除了楓糖漿外，現在市面上有好幾款糖漿供我們選擇，有海棗、龍舌蘭等，我喜歡黑龍舌蘭糖漿，就買了一支放在家裡。

Rice Pudding是很適合初學者的甜品，以椰漿和豆奶代替牛奶就可以了。這亦是大蕃薯第一次接觸Saffron這種香料，有種水果的淸甜，一小撮就能為整鍋布甸畫龍點睛！跟雲尼拿、橙香、提子乾等配合來煮飯亦很不錯。

師傅替我們弄了肉桂香橙布霖做Rice pudding的佐料，因為這步驟稍為麻煩，大蕃薯在家都懶很預備了......留待特別節日才加這佐料吧。



主菜是蔬菜批和兩款沙律，沙律的水準極高。要做出美味的生菜很有難度，將什麼生菜配在一起亦甚有學問。主角是甜品，蔬菜批和兩款沙律表過不詳。

這次大蕃薯學了好多純素甜品的基本功，以後焗糕點會很有用喔。

Country Life @ Prague

For the three days I stayed in Prague I relied on Country Life and Loving Hut. Since I don't know the language, it was quite hard to discover some other veggie restaurant/ cafe by accident.

Both of serves vegan buffet, which was paid by weight. As I remembered, it's around 30Kč /100g in County Life and 23Kč /100g in Loving Hut. However, County Life provides happy hour discount after 3pm. Large plate costs 139Kč and a bowl costs 90Kč. They were both good =] Especially in Country Life, I had the chance to try a traditional Czech dessert - Makový závin (Poppy seed roll). I loved it so much! The texture was bread-cake like, which rich filling of poppy seed. Poppy seeds are used as a decoration in bakery in West Europe, but here it's a main ingredient for many dishes.

The menu in Country Life changes daily, especially for the dessert, it's only by luck to get the desire one. They usually make a few, and as long as it's sold out, you'll have to wait tomorrow or a few days later......


For the main course, as you can see I grabbed a bit of ten (or more) items: chili, tempeh, cuscus, salad, germinated brown rice, etc. They also sell sandwiches and burgers and take away sweeties etc in the health store next door. And there's a small store for vegan cosmetic and skin products!

Don't miss the peanut butter bagel in Bohemia Bagel if you're a peanut butter (crazy) person (like me). The peanut butter was homemade, very smooth and creamy with a lit bit of chunky peanuts inside. I finished the whole dip even there was no bread at the end! Just use the fork to eat it directly =p

Tushita @ München (Part II)

The best vegan cake I tried ever in Tushita Teehaus!!!

I tried 5 pieces of cake/ tarte/ roll in total! Not in one tea though, I ate 3 inside and took away another 2 for breakfast next morning. I could barely tell those were vegan cakes. They're thick and rich, so yummmmy and unforgetable.

The first one I ordered was apple crumble. I was craving for one for quite a while (and home-baking was not successful yet) The crumbles are really crispy, the tart is well baked. It's luscious! The thing I loved most was the apple with skin on top. The only drawback was its small size... or I just loved it too much =p

The special drink was grapefruit lemo. What a perfect match with the apple crumble! It's light and cold, with freshness from grapefruit and a well-balance between sweet and sour. Suits a hot and sunny day.

The tea house is decorated in Japanese style, with traditional East Asian teapot, etc. Pleasing and claiming.

Okay, go back to the cakessss.
Another one I would recommend is the black sesame cake. The cake itself was a normal thick sponge cake. The part needed to be highlighted was the black sesame jam on top. It's full of sesame amour, creamy and with layered texture of sesame seeds.

(The fresh orange juice at the back was my mum's order)
(Actually this sesame cake was her choice as well but I ended up finishing it)


The third one came this veggie roll. The filling was good, with mixed veggie and firm tofu.

The thing made it an average was the pastry. The layering of the pastry was not sharp and crispy enough. Also, I ate it at room temperature, may be it's better when it's warm?
So far I haven't had any really impressive vegan roll, may be someone can suggest me one ;]

Then, I was full finally......
So I took away two more as breakfast next morning.


This ginger cake is similar to the sesame cake. It had a pleasant and delight smell of ginger. The topping was icing sugar instead of sesame jam. It's not spicy even though the ginger flavour was outstanding, but managed to keep the ginger stimulation to my tongue. Definitely go for it if you're a ginger lover.

The last one was the Gouqi cake. I chose it because of the gouqi. What is gouqi? I checked Wikipedia, it has an English name as "wolfberry". It's something my mum use often in cooking and herb tea, and sometimes steams rice with some. It's good for eyes and kidney, and a common Chinese medicine ingredient.

It's the first time I tried it on a dessert! The filling was similar to cheese cake, with a thin jelly-like topping and a few whole wolfberries. Again, the pastry was crispy. The tart was a bit citrious. May be because it stayed overnight outside fridge? It's difficult to decide it's good or not...

Continue in München......

橄欖這東東

最近大蕃薯愛上了中東食品！所謂「中東食品」其實只限於橄欖、古斯米（couscous）、蔬菜球（falafel）、鷹嘴豆泥（Hummus）和麵包，因為大蕃薯對中東食品的認識很有限公司=p而且搞不清起源國家是哪個.....

有些人都不喜歡橄欖，覺得味道很奇怪。大蕃薯一開始也不喜歡，但後來發現高質素的橄欖比一般超市貨式要香許多，但不容易遇上，要找些家庭式小店，小店通常會有自己醃製橄欖的秘方，要逐家逐家試過才能找到自己最喜歡的口味。平時會等到星期六市集開放才會買，之前吃過不同城市的幾個攤檔，始終喜歡自家的～但昨天實在很想吃就去了鎮上另一家隠閉小店：

買了蕃茄味的，市集那檔沒有這款，很不錯呢。
除此以外辣椒味和裹著杏仁的也是位列三甲之內^^

另外還買了兩款麵包，分別是基本款的土耳其麵包和芝麻卷：（可惜不是純素）

差不多一次過吃光一百克橄欖，只剩下幾粒，今早就吃完了～
有空想試試弄Hummus。

à La Soupe @ Luxembourg

~ Spoonfull ~

Veggie Soup

Finally I recovered from the Luxembourg trip... It was quite exhausting, but also joyful~
The weather was nice with intervals of sunshine and cloud, and it didn't rain until the last day before I got onto the train.

During the trip I enjoyed plenty of veggie food! Some from EXKi, and the most remarkable one was the soup from à La Soupe! I didn't asked about the ingredient, though I managed to figure out some - potato, onion and maybe some zucchini?? And No dairy! It contained no salt and fat as well, which is a pretty healthy option.It was served with a piece of organic bread as well. The bread was fluffy and natural , good enough for a bread-lover like me!

The size was huge - I guessed more than 1/2 liter... With the bread and potato, definitely fills you up! And don't forget its interial design. It was elegant, bright and warm, like its soup =]

Besides, if you are staying in the Youth hostel, its canteen Melting Point provides a buffet salad bar which 7~8 sorts of veggies plus bread plus 2 choices of soup. Sometimes the soup is vegan (the one I saw was legume). It's just 5 euro and ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT! The day I tried the salade bar there was cus cus, lettuce, carrots, cucumber with sweet corn, raddish, shallot, etc. They also provided a few kinds of sauces. I liked the spice sauce most - truely spice!

脆脆素肉鬆

星期六那天在廚房「玩」了四小時，做了這個可口的素肉鬆^^
這是大蕃薯第一次做，但也相當不錯喔！

大蕃薯參考了這兩個食譜：
健康省錢料理－－自製素肉鬆
豆渣大變身－－素肉鬆

因為屋裡沒有太多的調味料，所以一切從簡：
黃豆（乾）　一杯
芝麻　　　　三湯匙
紫菜　　　　適量
麻油　　　　兩、三湯匙
鹽　　　　　一茶匙
豉油　　　　兩湯匙
黑醋　　　　半湯匙
黑胡椒粉　　適量

約可做成一杯肉鬆（未加芝麻、紫菜）


做法：
１。黃豆室溫浸六至八小時，用攪拌機打成豆漿
２。將豆渣隔開，盡量擠乾，剩下的豆汁可煮成豆漿
３。用白鑊炒香芝麻
４。先用白鑊、中火炒豆渣
５。轉文火兜炒至八成乾（略為金黃色），加入油、鹽、豉油、黑醋，試味

６。最後加入黑胡椒粉炒至完全乾身
７。鋪平放涼，加入紫菜碎和芝麻

PS1 　素肉鬆要放涼才有香脆口感
PS2　這份食譜做出來的肉鬆稍咸，適合拌飯或包三角飯團，如果做小食就可不放鹽。
PS3　沒有麻油可用普通生油代替，但用麻油較香。油的份量可隨意加減，因為是自家製的所以少落油～


整個過程大概需要一個半小時。
那麼還有兩個半小時呢？嘻嘻，下回分解......

五個方法愛上黑芝麻

上次提及過黑芝麻是我最喜歡的堅果類之一，今天就分享一下私房黑芝麻食法：

平時有空可將已炒熟的黑芝麻磨成粉末，可釋放黑芝麻的香氣，比原粒吃滋味多了，磨碎後可以保存一段時間（數星期，視乎存放環境）～沒時間的話可以在超級市場或保健食品店買到現成的黑芝麻粉。以下都是用黑芝麻粉：

一。香蕉多士
早餐必備！非常簡單的組合，一分鐘就可以預備好，很適合忙碌的學生和上班族。先烘熱多士（不烘也可），鋪上一層黑芝麻粉，香蕉切片放上去，就成了！多士用餐包代替也可，但試過還是兩片麵包夾起來口感最好。平時用全麥的多士，不知用白麵包會有什麼分別，感覺上口感沒那麼豐富......

二。蕃薯
這個可以做茶點！也是很簡單的小食！像平常一樣蒸熟蕃薯，只是額外灑上黑芝麻粉，這樣可以帶出蕃薯的甜味和香味。蕃薯選用黃心的，這種配搭蒸的蕃薯比烤的好。要趁熱吃喔。

三。南瓜
輪到甜品！南瓜跟蕃薯的質感和味道相似，可以烤熟再加黑芝麻粉吃，不過我更愛做南瓜糊：南瓜切件，加水至沒頂，直至南瓜煮成糊狀，按個人喜好加入適量豆漿，煮一兩分鐘就可熄火，最後灑上黑芝麻粉^^

四。紫椰菜沙拉
紫椰菜很有營養，不過生吃就不是那麼容易啦。與其說是愛上黑芝麻，這食法是讓紫椰菜沙律更易入口，如果要減肥的話，這份沙律的卡路里會比一般加沙律醬的要低。將沙律的材料如蕃茄、生菜、紫椰菜等跟芝麻粉混合，醬汁就用黑醋，是很好的前菜。

五。白飯
用黑芝麻粉撈飯，猶勝以前的豬油撈飯！更少了油膩飽濟感。平時一般都吃糙米，但如果是黑芝麻撈飯的話，軟綿綿的白米更能突顯黑芝麻的香氣，會不自覺地添飯=p

另外可做黑芝麻醬～
黑芝麻醬用來塗麵包做冷麵都很適合，配搭可參考：
五個方法吃花生醬（平凡篇）
秘撈。二。黑芝麻醬（南瓜亞麻籽）撈麵

士多啤梨香蕉奶昔^^ Banana-strawberry Soyashake

Remember the banana milkshake from Lombardia?

Last night I was making one at home =]

It's spring time and strawberries are getting sweet and fresh now, so I added some. The cashew nuts (another most favourite nut) were added to enrich the texture! Or add your favourite nuts!

The soya milk was homemade as well. Using those from supermarket can work also.

Ingredients:

Soya milk　　　　　125 mL

Strawberries　　　　3

Banana　　　　　　1 (small)

Cashew Nuts　　　  10

How:

Just blend the banana and strawberries with soya milk + 5 cashew nuts for around 20~30 seconds and it's done! Crash some nuts and put them on top. Enjoy!

______________________________________________________________________


士多啤梨香蕉奶昔^^

材料：（一人份約250毫升）

士多啤梨　　三粒

香蕉　　　　一根（小）

豆漿　　　　125毫升

腰果　　　　十粒

做法：

１。香蕉、士多啤梨切粒，放入攪拌機。

２。加入豆漿、五粒腰果。

３。攪動二十秒，倒出。

４。另外五粒腰果磨粗粒放面即成～

很簡單的春天特飲。春天我來也～～