Vegan Mofo: Moment, Prague (Part Three)

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Twenty-Two:  Make a Dish Using all Seasonal Produce

It’s time to play fast and loose with the daily prompts:  this isn’t all seasonal, but the staff at Moment changed the vegetables in the omelette based on what they had in, so I’m going to call that a seasonal choice rather than anything else.  Dr HH tried this omelette when we visited Prague in May, scoping it out as a place to live.  I did not have such a satisfactory breakfast, though I thought I had a foolproof plan:  cake for breakfast!  I was on holiday, I’d already ticked the pancakes off the menu and was unsure about trying the omelette myself, and the cake counter is phenomenal.  Why not have a little breakfast treat?

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Alas, “little” was the operative word.  This was my teeny tiny sliver of bundt cake.  It was nice, of course, but I ate it in about three mouthfuls and then sat mournfully watching Dr HH devour the omelette above.  “Order another piece of cake,” he encouraged me.  “Two pieces of cake for breakfast?  I’ll never be able to show my face here again!” I protested (let me point out here that it was about 10am and there were other people eating proper slices of cake as well, so eating cake was acceptable.  But more than one slice?).

Taking pity, Dr HH fed me a bit of omelette, and it was delicious.  “Order one for yourself then,” he urged.  “No, it’ll take too long and we’ll waste half our day here,” I refused.  “Then just get some more cake, you’re never going to see these people again,” he pointed out.  “But the staff will think I’m a pig.  And you’ll never let me forget it,” I lamented.  He denied that, but he reminisces about this incident at least once a week, rejoicing in my terrible breakfast choice, my folly in choosing cake (or the smallest cake in the world, anyway) over omelette.

In the end, we got two cookies to take away and I scoffed them as soon as we left while Dr HH laughed and clutched his happy, full belly.  I learned two valuable lessons on that day:  1) cake for breakfast may not be the winning idea it sounds like, and 2) vegan omelettes are pretty darned tasty!

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Vegan Mofo: Moment, Prague (Part Two)

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Twenty-One:  What three endless food supplies would you take if you were going to be stranded on an island? (Imagine your nutritional needs have been met, these are a bonus!) 

Every vegan probably hates any reference to desert island scenarios.  How many times now have I been hypothetically stranded somewhere with only a bloodthirsty cow for company?  But finally, here’s a scenario I can get on board with.  There’s fruit and veg aplenty, the free-range tofus are running wild and I have all the lentils a girl can dream of.  So, what would my three luxury foods be?

Waffles.  Cream.  Chocolate.  I might even let that snarling carnivorous cow so often found on desert islands have some too.  I had this dish in Moment in Prague as part of their weekend brunch (it has replaced the pancakes I talked about yesterday), and it was extremely hard-earned.  We arrived just after the 11am opening and knew what we wanted, so ordered immediately.  Our drinks came, and we sipped away, trying to eke them out until the food arrived.  It could not be done.  After 30 minutes, pondering whether Dr HH’s rudimentary Czech had somehow backfired on our ordering, the waitress cleared our mugs away and we checked on the progress.  There was a problem in the kitchen, but they were on their way.  Meanwhile, other customers received their burgers without delay, leaving us to speculate as to what the problem could be.

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Twenty minutes later, at last, the waffles arrived.  They couldn’t have looked more inviting!  Alas, the waffles themselves were tepid.  Again, we speculated:  what was the problem that resulted in them taking fifty minutes to prepare, yet also being served cold?  Still, the cream was delicious and the chocolate was a nice touch, and the waffle itself was good – just not as good as if it had been warmer.  On my desert island, the waffles will be warm and the chocolate will be melted and drizzled on.  The cream will remain just like this:  cool and plentiful.  Delicious!

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Vegan Mofo: Moment, Prague (Part One)

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Twenty:  Veganise an Old Family Recipe

Pancakes weren’t a big part of my childhood.  We only really had them on Pancake Day, and even then only if my brother and I badgered our mum enough to persuade her into the kitchen.  Pancakes in those days were thin and crepe-like, served with lemon juice and sugar.  It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I discovered thick, substantial pancakes, first of all when I was backpacking and banana pancakes were the ultimate breakfast in Asia, and then when I discovered Simon Rimmer’s recipe using cottage cheese to make nice American-style pancakes.  And finally last year I discovered the joys of vegan pancakes.

So this isn’t really a family recipe, but I’ve eaten pancakes throughout my life, and here they are as served to me in a cafe in Prague.  Ordering pancakes can be quite a gamble, as you never really know what to expect.  I certainly hadn’t expected to get four tiddly little pancakes on this plate, but they were so cute and tasty, and dotted with nice gooey chocolate chips.  There was a veritable mountain of cream on the plate, but also one of my five a day in the banana, so it was still comfortably healthy.  Ah, this was a good breakfast!  It’s no longer on the menu in Moment, which is a really nice vegan cafe just a few minutes from my flat in Prague.  But its replacement will be mentioned tomorrow, so stay tuned for more vegan Moments!

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Vegan Mofo: Muesli Flapjacks

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Nineteen:  Lunch (or Breakfast) on the Go

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I always aim to be well-prepared for it.  When breakfasting in a new place, I always like to know what my food options are beforehand, but sometimes this is a little tricky.  So today I’ll talk about the emergency breakfast I always pack when I’m on the go.

I’ve moved abroad several times now, and I always take supplies for the first breakfast, just in case I don’t have time to find a supermarket on arrival: a few teabags and the perfect breakfast snack, a flapjack.  Before anyone can claim that flapjacks aren’t breakfast-worthy, let me point out that they contain oats, which are a breakfast staple, ergo they’re a legitimate choice (I may have had to defend this choice before).  But they’re also a treat, which is exactly what you want on your first morning in a new place, when you’re feeling somewhat apprehensive.

A few months ago I discovered this muesli flapjack from Unicorn in Chorlton, and it is ideal.  It’s sweet and tasty, but it’s got “muesli” in the title, so it’s perfectly acceptable to eat it for breakfast.  So this is what I brought with me for the move to Prague.  The city was in the middle of a heatwave when we arrived just over a month ago, and the balcony of our Airbnb was the only place we could bear to sit for any length of time.  It was hideously hot, but a wee bit cooler in the mornings, when we sat outside with our tea and flapjacks and wondered what the future held.  Hopefully it holds more sweet, treat breakfasts like this!

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Vegan Mofo: Isa Does It (at Breakfast Time)

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Eighteen:  Honour a Human who Inspires your Veganism

It could only be Isa, couldn’t it?  Isa Chandra Moskowitz, along with Terry Hope Romero, has written some of the greatest vegan cookbooks in the world.  My favourite is Isa Does It, which I’ve already talked about here and here, but let’s have a little reminder of all the amazing breakfasts she has introduced into my life.

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It’s been a long time since I last made this coconut French toast.  Just looking at the picture makes my mouth water!  It’s another one of those that takes a while to make, and involves a bit of waiting around to have everything ready to serve at the same time, but it’s worth the effort.  I remember making this for my mum’s birthday breakfast last year, and she was very happy.  They’re really delicious with some fresh fruit.

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And Isa introduced me to the tofu scramble!  This Mediterranean Scramble is what inspired Dr HH’s excellent breakfast creation.  The flavours are difficult to argue with!

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More exotic was this Thai Scramble.  It’s an overnight one, so the preparation is done the night before and it’s just a matter of heating it up in the morning.  Easy, exotic and flavoursome!  Generally, I prefer something sweet in the morning, but occasionally a fiery bit of curry is a fantastic start to the day.

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I’ve already talked about these puffy pillow pancakes this week – they’re lovely!

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As are these carrot cake ones.  It’s such a simple way to add more flavour to pancakes.

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And back on a savoury note, the chipotle sausage hash was delicious.  Miso and tahini are great additions to the breakfast table, apparently!

All of Isa’s books are fantastic and have seen a lot of use in my house.  The recipes are solid and her introductions are always warm and funny, but my favourite thing is that they highlight how varied a vegan diet can be.  The recipes range from healthy to decadent, traditional dishes to exotic new combinations, from mock meat to vibrant veggies.  When people speculate that a vegan diet must be very limiting, I just want to show them my collection of cookbooks and watch them change their minds.  Making veganism accessible and easy is a great achievement, and I thank Isa for that!

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Vegan Mofo: Healthy Spirit, Manchester

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Seventeen:  Make (or Eat) a Traditional, Local Dish

Here’s a prompt that fits in beautifully with my theme for MoFo:  what is more traditional than a Full English?!

This is a tolerably healthy take on the full breakfast from Healthy Spirit, a nice little cafe at the back of a health shop in Didsbury.  It was just a ten minute walk from my old flat, and I miss it dearly!  Breakfast comprised of homemade beans, a big juicy mushroom, wilted spinach, tasty avocado and a bubble and squeak patty.  I loved that it was a twist on the usual breakfast, though initially I was worried that it wouldn’t be enough to fill me up.  The beans were really tasty, and you can’t go wrong with the beautiful simplicity of avocado or mushrooms.  I’d expected the bubble and squeak to be the highlight, but found the patty a wee bit cold – if it had been piping hot, it would probably have been my favourite element.

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The breakfast was £6.95, including toast and a brew.  The toast was delicious sourdough bread from local Uprising Bakery, and it was very good.  The ketchup was tasty when I dipped my knife in, but I’m not really sure how it was intended to be eaten – the thought of ketchup in the same vicinity as toast is enough to turn my stomach, and even my fellow, who will mix all kinds of food, merely had the ketchup separately.  Much better was the other pot: tell them you’re vegan and they give you a mixture of coconut and olive oil, which was spreadable and tasty.

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And the chai tea I went for – the cafe’s own brew, available to buy right there – was really nice too, and accompanied by a little bottle of coconut milk which went down a treat.

Value for money:  it doesn’t look like a lot of food for the price.  I know avocados aren’t cheap, and I didn’t really mind paying for good fresh food, but still, for £6.95 there wasn’t much.  3/5

Speed of service:  I find it exceptionally difficult to leave the house without having eaten, so if I go out for breakfast I need my food to be served rapidly.  We went on a week day, right at the 10am opening time, and as the only customers we were scoffing within 15 minutes.  Very pleasing!  4/5

Quality of cooking:  the bubble and squeak patty was a little cold, but everything else was spot on, and it was all home made food.  3.5/5

Creativity:  it felt really fresh and a nice twist on the usual, somewhat greasy cooked breakfast.  For being unique and a touch lighter, and for the sensational bread, it’s earned a high mark.  Just a smidgen more food would have been nice!  4.5/5

Total:  15/20

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Vegan Mofo: Tri Ocasci

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Sixteen:  What’s your Favourite Late Summer Food?

Last weekend I popped along to Brno, the Czech Republic’s second largest city.  There were slim pickings for vegan breakfasts, until I sent a Facebook message to the good people at Tri Ocasci and they informed me that they have a daily all-you-can-eat vegan breakfast buffet for 50kroner (under £2).  It was warm and sunny, it was late summer, and it was a very good breakfast, so it just about fits this prompt!

It was the very essence of simplicity:  they did a few things, and they did them well!  There was a bread basket with slices of a few different kinds of homemade bread, including this nice brown one that I had and an even better yellow one with seeds scattered on the top.  These were accompanied by homemade strawberry jam and a really good coconutty spread.  Lovely!  There was also a salad plate (obviously I avoided that, but everything was good and fresh), some delicious, marinated, garlicky tofu and this yellow concoction that tasted kind of like coleslaw:  creamy, cold and mayonnaisey.  Everything was freshly made, regularly replenished, and easy to peck on.  We had two helpings, and were more than satisfied.

Coffee refills were included in the breakfast, but I stuck to tea.  My camomile brew came in this humongous pot, and was accompanied by a little vegan heart-shaped biscuit, which made for a lovely breakfast dessert.  While the food was all-vegan, Dr HH’s latte automatically came with dairy milk, so vegans should probably specify if they want soy.

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Tri Ocasci is such a lovely place to have a lazy breakfast.  The atmosphere is really laid-back and friendly, everything is simple and welcoming.  Our fellow patrons had dogs curled up beside them on the sofa or were working on their laptops or reading peacefully by themselves.  It was such a nice space, with mismatched furniture, origami cranes and exciting light fittings dangling from the ceiling, and (my absolute favourite thing) vintage crockery.  Go to Brno, and go now!

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Vegan Mofo: Pancakes Aplenty

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Fifteen: OMG, Barack Obama is coming over because he knows you make awesome vegan food! What are you going to make?

It’s a classic technique of students learning English as a foreign language:  tell them they’ve made a mistake, and they immediately say, “Oh, but it’s fine in American English.”  More often than not, what they’ve said is not fine in any approximation of English, but they love having that sneaky little possibility to question my authority.  In fact, teaching English as a foreign language to students immersed in Hollywood films and American song lyrics, I often find myself up against American English.  “Why did you spell ‘colour’ with a ‘u’?”, they innocently ask me.  “Why did you say ‘vitamin’, not ‘v-I-tamin’?” they wonder.  “Should I say ‘torch’ or ‘flashlight’?”  On the defensive, I sigh and jokingly tell them that British English is always, always better.  Nervermind that the spelling in American English more closely resembles the actual pronunciation of the words:  we didn’t intend to make this easy for you!  American English has become my nemesis.

The one thing I will allow the Americans, though, is that they get their pancakes spot on.  So, if Barack Obama were to pay a visit, I would serve him up some wonderfully thick and fluffy American-style pancakes.  But which recipe to trust?

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The first ones I tried were the Fluffy Pillow Pancakes from Isa Does It, which I now usually make with chocolate chips.  I made them significantly bigger and flatter than the great Isa, but that just meant there was more to love!

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Equally successful were the carrot cake pancakes, from the same book.  They take a bit more effort (is grating carrot not the worst?), but are definitely worth it.  I basically rotated those two recipes, until I delved into Vegan Secret Supper for my cookbook challenge.

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I used two different waffle recipes to make lovely thick, flavoursome pancakes.  The double chocolate ones are of course decadent, but the peanut butter oat pancakes are my favourite:  that sticky smack of peanut butter, along with a hint of chocolate from the cocoa powder.  Pancakes remain my ultimate indulgent breakfast.  Fit for a president?  Why not!

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Vegan Mofo: Iydea, Brighton

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Fourteen:  Share Something Vegan (and Delicious) with a Non-Vegan

Mr HH – sorry, Dr HH – isn’t quite vegan, yet. He is vegetarian and doesn’t eat eggs, so he’s not far off, and I’m quietly confident that he’ll give up cheese one day. But he’s the non-vegan with whom I share 90% of my dining experiences, and he joined me for the vegan breakfast at Iydea in Brighton back in March.

Iydea is just opposite Wai Kika Moo Kau and has quite a similar atmosphere.  It’s cosy inside, and the staff are super friendly and nice, and there’s some lovely artwork on the walls.  But it’s all about the food, of course!

We were very excited to try a cooked breakfast which listed avocado in the ingredients, and you can see a lovely mushroom, tomato and avocado stir-fry on the side of the plate.  It was really tasty, and so beautifully seasoned – I like a place that isn’t shy with the salt and pepper.  As there are tomatoes in the stir-fry, I don’t think it was necessary to have not one but two cooked tomatoes on the side.  Does anyone actually look forward to them?  I wish I’d had the sense to switch them for something else!

The vegetarian big breakfast comes with eggs, and we’d been expecting the vegan version to have a tofu scramble instead, so I was caught off guard when they waiter asked what I wanted as a replacement.  Fortunately I recovered my wits enough to get an extra hash brown, but it is a bit disappointing that there isn’t a tasty stand-in.  That said, the hash browns were the highlight of the meal – so crispy, and I think I detected a hint of chives in there too.  Lovely!  The sausages were surprisingly bland.  It’s nice to see homemade sausages on a menu, and the outside was lovely and crisp, but they needed some more herbs and seasoning and the texture was a little dry and crumbly.

It was just as well there were some beans on hand!  These were smoky beans, and the hint of paprika was really tasty (though my fellow felt they needed more punch).  Alongside the main plate was a slice of toast, which was nice but, you know, only one slice.

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Of course, I went for a chai hot chocolate accompaniment which was heavy on top of the breakfast, but worth it.

Speed of service:  it’s a canteen-style set up, so all the hot food is there ready and waiting to be piled onto plates.  However, the speediness here meant that the main course arrived before the toast or the hot drinks, which is never ideal, so we’ll knock the score down a notch.  4/5

Value for money:  it was £6.95 for the big breakfast, and I’d say that’s about right – it was a hearty plate of food!  4/5

Quality of cooking:  the sausages were disappointing, but everything else was tasty good!  4/5

Creativity:  there were a pleasing number of homemade touches, making this a breakfast that can’t be duplicated in any other cafe.  The stir-fry was a lovely original touch, and the smoky beans were a definite winner for me.  But why ruin it all with two tomato halves?!  4/5

Total:  16/20

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Vegan Mofo: Mango Smoothie

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Jenny

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Day Thirteen:  It’s Kitchen Tour Time

This is the MoFo prompt I was the most excited about, because who doesn’t love nosing around other people’s kitchens?  So in the interest of fairness, I’m playing along too, and throwing in a smoothie to keep it breakfast-related.  This is where all the breakfast magic happens.  This is HH HQ.

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We’ve only been living here for about a month.  We found it two days after we arrived in Prague, and moved in two days after that, which was better than we’d expected.  It’s the biggest, nicest kitchen I’ve ever had, and I love it.  It looks like there’s loads of space, but actually the sloping ceiling to the right means that we don’t get much use out of that area (and I will let you imagine how many times I bang my head on there every day).

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The whole room feels really light and spacious as we have three skylights and a dining area as well.

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Here’s the food, including my melted coconut oil – it was very hot for the first two weeks we lived here.  I’m still getting to grips with the shops of Prague and figuring out where to buy my essentials, but I think I’ve made a decent start at stocking up the pantry.

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We brought quite a lot of herbs and spices over with us from Manchester so we could get straight into cooking.  Here they are all lined up and pretty.

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And we have a great big fridge!  So big we haven’t got it fully stocked yet.  There’s a lot of bottled water in there, not that we are fans of it in places with drinkable tap water.  These are just bottles that we refill and keep chilled at all times to take on hikes, cool us down during the heatwave earlier and provide for us when the water supply cuts out.  This has happened a few times, most notably on Tuesday when our entire area woke up without water.  Dr HH felt vindicated for keeping water in the fridge at all times, and I felt vindicated for always filling the kettle before bed.  I can start the day without showering, but I can’t start the day without a brew!  Fortunately Prague has a great selection of dairy-free milks and yoghurts, and we always have a big pot of food for packed lunches and a pile of home-made, foil-wrapped snack bars to sustain us at work.  And chilled falafel, because I am a vegan.

All in all, it’s a great place to cook and eat and make breakfast every day.  The oven is my nemesis, though.  It’s the first time I’ve had an electric cooker, and I find it frustrating to use the hob, which is unbearably slow to change temperature.  The oven is the worst though, because the symbols on the knobs have completely faded, leaving us no idea what the settings are, or the temperature.  It’s taken some trial and error, a tepid shepherd’s pie and some singed granola, but we seem to be getting there.

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Still, if you can prepare food without the oven in the summer heat, so much the better!  I brought my little blender over with me from home, and I’m very glad of it.  Here’s a nice summery breakfast smoothie, combining some good tropical flavours.  You just need to chop a mango, peel a banana, scoop in about 120g yoghurt (coconut yoghurt is best, of course) and pour in 2/3 cup of coconut milk.  Blend and drink!

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