台北書店 Ｘ 素食之旅（二尋書）

續《食》

－－－－－－－－－－

《書》

人所共知，書店經營困難。在台北，不少獨立書店都行「書啡店」路線。

【伊聖詩私房書櫃】
這家書店我們拜訪了兩次，就在颱風前後。伊聖詩選書主題為環保、自然、飲食等，也兼賣少量獨立音樂唱片和雜誌。店內除了賣書和咖啡外，有賣手工麵包、手工水餃、本地蔬果、甜品等，侍應非常敬業，清楚知道每樣食品的成分，得知大蕃薯食全素，推薦了五款全素麵包，剛好都是大蕃薯愛吃的意大利麵包。

在台北，很多服務員都很細心，例如旅舍櫃枱職員會記得我們在早上登記過之類的。而伊聖詩私房書櫃裡那位侍應就更好記性，我們第二次去光顧，同行朋友想食手工水餃，剛好沽清了，他就請朋友吃另一款（私藏？）水餃，他記得大蕃薯食素，無法享用水餃，就做了一盤沙律給大蕃薯，還細心地問能不能加洋葱。店內佈置得很巧妙，利用間隔和燈光劃出不同空間，令每張枱的客人享有私隱，即使賴著不走也不會覺得尷尬（大蕃薯是打書釘常客，深諳此道，嘻嘻......）

兩次拜訪，伊聖詩店內總是播著同一張唱片，歌單只有兩首歌，我們聽了兩個下午，把旋律都背熟了......如果有伊聖詩店員讀到本誌，請考慮不時更換唱片......

【田園城市風格書店】
此店應該備有最齊全的獨立雜誌（Zine），每一本都載著創作人的心血。雖然大部份人無法理解，但茫茫人海中，總有一兩個知音人，看後會熱淚盈眶，覺得總算找到一個跟自己一樣的瘋子（誇張），然後乖乖地掏腰包付錢......大蕃薯買了《本冊別冊》和《風土痣》，《本冊別冊》由亻占空間出版，紀錄他們在台中設計工作室的過程，內裡講及好多概念，大蕃薯頗有共鳴，覺得他們蠻有自己想法的。《風土痣》是大蕃薯見過版面最大的雜誌，拉開橫幅的話，是一張半Ａ２紙。那期主題圍繞種子，能夠以所有篇幅去講述如此細微之物，創作人應該花了好多時間深入觀察和搜集資料。

田園城市店內設計就是讓客人圍著中間的展示枱走一圈，貼牆是書架，本來平平無奇的一條動線，卻因為在最後面加高地台，再加了一級寬闊的樓梯，變出半層，讓人走上再走下，動線變得靈活起來，視覺上令人覺得有兩個空間，一是站在平地上看那個，二是站在半層上看那個。那級樓梯亦兼具座位功能，拿了本書就坐在上面看，隨意率性。

【Zeelandia Travel and Books】
書店位於二樓，大閘上亦只有一個不太起眼的牌子，有心人才能找到喔。市面一般旅遊書以工具書為主，Zeelandia裡更多的是介紹主題旅行和遊記。在網絡資訊泛濫的年代，背包行也不一定要買旅行書，反而遊記的魅力有增無減，當社交網絡充斥著一幅幅同一場景、同一姿勢的照片，遊記裡獨一無二的故事就更顯得彌足珍貴。

一入門口，大蕃薯就被眼前一堆古地圖迷住了......店主親切地向我們介紹幾張精選，大蕃薯看得出她對旅遊那份熱愛。在科技落後的舊日，地圖總是三分寫實七分想像，這度想像空間，給世界添了點神秘色彩。能夠活在容許幻想的時代，是另類的幸福。

【墨品良行】
不論電子產品如何流行，大蕃薯仍對實體紙品有份執著。有這份執著的人，請抽空去拜訪，他們那份質感和詩意，只能親手去感受。

衷心希望這些小店都能生存下去，在有限的人生和生活的制肘中，能夠做到自己喜歡和開心的事，人生也不過如斯吧。

（待續：三觀城）



大蕃薯Facebook

利香茶居@上環

大蕃薯終於番到香港，用咗幾日調較時差後，就急不及待出去搵食。

坊間好食既芋絲糕已經買少見少，大蕃薯有兩、三年無食過有靈魂既芋絲糕啦。原本山上面果間酒樓整得唔錯，可惜上年換咗配方；屋企附近既素食店又整得一般，粉多芋少......

利香茶居位於上環街市二樓熟食中心，大蕃薯早已聽聞呢個熟食中心好多寶物，幾日前先去巡視一圈。去到利香茶居大概早上十一點，見到冇人坐喺度，老闆同師傅又整緊點心，諗住佢未開門做生意......

大蕃薯：老闆，請問幾點開檔？

老闆（定伙計？）：三點。

大蕃薯：（心中默想）哦？下朝三點？

老闆（好似聽到大蕃薯心裡面諗乜嘢）：喺凌晨三點。點解咁問呢？

大蕃薯：小妹喺附近番工，想問朝早可唔可以嚟飲早茶。

老闆：梗喺得啦。唔好見冇人坐喺度，我哋開緊架。

大蕃薯：小妹食素，請問有冇素食點心呢？

老闆：哦，食素架，我哋有芋絲糕、齋腸粉、奶皇包、馬拉糕。

依家已經好少茶樓會開咁早。芋絲糕、齋腸粉都喺無蛋無奶，奶皇包、馬拉糕就與大蕃薯無緣啦。

今朝特登早一個鐘出門去利香茶居飲早茶，老闆居然認得大蕃薯！！佢記得大蕃薯食素！

（隔離枱既公公婆婆都好奇咁望住大蕃薯，次次一個人去飲茶都會惹來注目。）

開茶之後，大蕃薯點咗一客芋絲糕，一見到賣相已經好感動......搵咗幾年終於又見到有一條條粗芋絲既芋絲糕。芋絲糕煎得非常香口，邊邊既芋絲脆卜卜，有啲似炸芋條。

除咗食味味道之外，大蕃薯頗睇重師傅／廚師既熱誠同心思。整嘢食喺一門藝術，同音樂、舞蹈、繪畫一樣，可以感染身邊既人。藝術雖然喺無固定標準，但喺藝術家有無熱誠、投唔投入、鐘唔鐘意佢自己既作品，呢Ｄ都喺觀眾可以感受到既素質，正如我哋去睇陳奕迅演唱會既時候，會聽得出佢真喺好鐘意唱歌一樣。呢件芋絲糕雖然未去到有團雄雄烈火，但喺食得出師傅既熱誠同專注，呢位師傅對做點心喺有要求既，唔會求祈整，亦都食得出佢既個人風格。好味既食物並唔難搵，但喺要搵到一份有靈魂既食物，就要些少緣份、些少觸角。

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.

Best Pizza@ Roma

What a nice Easter holiday in Italy!
I visited eight cities in twelve days! They are Roma, Pisa, Firenze, Viareggio, Siena, Venezia, Verona and Milano.

I wasn't a big fan of Italian cuisine, but now I am! I realised that the REAL italian food are hard to make outside the country. Once the oil, the spices, the vegetable and the weather are different, it's very difficult to reproduce the same taste. And most important, the mood and attitude of the chefs. From their dishes I could taste a strong passion, hard work, and respect to the food. Unlike the fast food pizza and frozen spaghetti, their food has a soul.

Most pizza I ate/ saw in Italy aren't seen outside the country. Traditional Italian pizza are usually thin and made in a long rectangle and sliced to serve in a pizza bar/ take-away store, or a big circle if it is served in a restaurant for one person. And there's a few vegan option and plenty vegetarian option! On the left was my favourite - sliced potato pizza! The ingredients (that I could distinguish) were just potato, salt and rosemary! (And the pizza dough of course) It's that simple and that lovely. Other vegan options are tomato with aubergine or spices.

This pizza bar was located two streets from our hostel. This is the approximate address: 20 Via di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

One night we went into a wine bar for dinner, without noticing it was specialised with wine. I kindly requested a vegan pizza and this came out......
It's a 16-inch pizza with tomato SAUCE only... not even tomato meat.
Anyway it's a wine bar only. This added laughters to our journal =]

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 =]

Gentle Gourmet Cafe (and more...) @ Paris

How can we miss croissant in France? I found the BEST vegan croissant! A MUST-try in Paris!!

Gentle Gourmet Cafe is a fine dining vegan restaurant in the 12th district of Paris. I went there for a French breakfast. It's better to make a reservation a day before even for breakfast. The cafe opens at 8am. I was there at 8.15am, but it wasn't ready. Luckily, they let me in and waited.

I was very hungry and the kitchen was still warming up. I decided to order something quick: croissant and a cup of coffee with heavy cream =]

The croissant really surprised me. A vegan croissant is difficult to make well, as it requires a lot of butter to give the layering and fluffiness and the pleasant smell. Usually vegetable margarine can't replace it well, but this one has almost the same taste as a normal croissant!!

Plus it had a blink blink surface, which is usually a brush of egg. I guess it was a brush of soya milk and sugar mixture (learned in the vegan dessert class, write about that later).

A chocolate dip came separate. It tasted so much like nutexxx!! That's a bonus to me.

The coffee is good as well, and I was very satisfied with the heavy cream on it. It was smooth and light sweet.

The cafe was serving a late summer menu. Half an hour later my full breakfast came to the table. I ordered a creamy scramble tofu with baguette.

The ingredients in the scramble tofu was a perfect match: smoked vegan ham, mushrooms, shallots and asparagus. Especially the asparagus made a well balance with the  sauce. One fresh and light, one creamy and heavy. The smoked vegan ham was firm tofu strips actually. If you expected something resembles ham, that might be a bit disappointing. I'm a big fan of tofu products, so again that was a bonus for me! The baguette was herbed rather that just plain.



The meal was quite cosy, but imagine how many times you can try a vegan croissant! At least chill for an hour or two with a coffee and the vegan croissant there!!

I had a nice Italian pizza and ice-cream... Check the ice-cream store and you may be surprised how many vegan flavour they had... the one I went had 6~7! The pizza was a take-away near the Sacre Coeur. Simply order a vegetarian pizza without cheese, then it turns into a vegan pizza =] The ingredients were abundant: aubergine, olives, tomato, mushrooms, pepper, etc. The pizza was baked fresh after the order. The base was a medium.

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

Köstlich @ Wien

There was not much time to look for a veggie place in Wien. Asian fast food is quite common in the city centre, and most of them provide veggie options. On the 2nd day I walked away on my own for a veggie lunch. The 1st place I visited was Treff cafe. It is a small cafe with only the daily special (as I could read from the menu standing outside). It's something vegetarian with cheese. I didn't feel like having its daily special, and decided to move on to another side of the town. When I arrived another veggie restaurant Bio Bar von antun, it was not open. I was quite hungry by that time......

Luckily there was another veggie cafe at the back of Bio Bar von antun. It's Köstlich Reformhaus.





It was 1 o'clock and the house was full of customers. They served one vegetarian and one vegan soup/ main course/ dessert everyday. They served it like a fast food chain, which the food was prepared, we order and pay and take the food at the counter all at once. I ordered the vegan option in normal size, which was a mixed veggie in tomato sauce and soy feta cheese! There were aubergine, zucchini, potato, etc. It came with 2 scoops of jasmine rice (ya they used an ice-cream scoop to measure the proportion of rice). The amount of rice was too little for me ><" Luckily, the organic brown bread was all-you-can-eat. I was filled up properly with an extra 2 slices of bread. I liked the bread, it tasted nature and soft.

The vegan dessert was sold out ><" Since the house was so crowded, I left soon after the meal was finished...

Continue in Praha......

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......

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!

Random and surprising veggie day

Today was a "random" day - like my friend said I did what ever pops up in my mind =p Today the idea was revisiting EXKi Cafe! I had my first trial a few weeks ago and since then I couldn't forget its nice atmosphere and wide choice of veggie food! It was so unforgettable that I don't mind if it took me 3 hours to go to the nearest one! Besides eating it was shopping time! My town is so residential that there's only one street with small shops. (Luckily with a few supermarkets which I shop most often) I was really looking forward to shopping!

I got a grilled veggie sandwich as morning tea from EXKi. During lunch time I was looking for a bagel store I saw last time, then I found something else - LOMBARDIA!!! At first sight I couldn't tell it's a cafe except by the "Pompoen Soep" stand next to its door. It's super colourful! The menu is so colourful that it kind of "merged" with the graffiti outfit of the cafe O.O There were plenty veggie options (around half on the menu!!) and some are vegan as well! And organic =]

The "banaan vegan melkshake" attracts me to give a try.

With a nice balance between banana, milk and vanilla, it was smoother and thicker than I thought! I wonder what kind of milk they use (forgot to ask), I guess soya~  They also have vegan coffee (4 options!!) and ice-cream. Next time I will try the ice-cream... Vegan ice-cream takes some effort to make at home

.\ /.

For the main entrée I picked sandwich Tofu Totall. The bread is whole-wheat and organic, they looked like a big mouth and the salad between were exploding from it XDD It's tall - I guess almost 20cm!? Between them are tomato sauce beneath the top slide and spicy onion sauce on the bottom slide, lots of lettuce, carrot and sprout and tofu! Here comes the gimmick: what is the dark thing??

It's actually black sesame crackers =]

Black sesame is one of the top three seeds/ nuts I like most! The cafe also sells the crackers (black or white sesame) in packets and I brought one home. Go there and check for other take-away bio snacks~

The interior design has its own style @@ Full of photos, graffiti and news press. I sit at the corner with all the new cuts. Gember Thee (ginder tea) is the selling product and it was introduced in many newspaper before, unfortunately I had no more space to try ;| Next time!

Oh, almost forget the salad. A huge amount! I saw the plate on the next table and it was as big as HALF of the table O.O Very likely to be full from the salad if I ordered one. Try also next time...... By the way, lombardia is very popular during lunch time (around 12-13.30). Very crowd and almost full... Go after for some quiet moments.

I finished the day with EXKi Loiret salad (legumes, beans, lettuce, red pepper, onion, etc) and fresh fruit mix (orange, mixed grapes) at home^^

It was a big chill out... Sometimes we need a breakthrough and perhaps doing something random can help ;]