VEganmofo! Apple Pie Smoothie from Chow

Veganmofo: Chow foods Cute hummus Appetizer!

Veganmofo; HRM Hidden Gem: Formosa Tea House

If you know me, you have probably heard me take place in Darthmouth Bashing. It happens, the bridge thou shall not cross etc. However, let me tell you about a magical Vegan Heaven that exists across the bridge of doom.

Formosa's Tea House.



This place specializes in Vegetarian Foods, ingredients are listed on the menu so vegan items can be found out. They import all kinds of funky fake meats and their portions are huge for the prices.

Plus they have tea! Lots and lots of tea and other gifts.

Their snack menu contains a million different Vegan Delights, dumplings steamed or fried are my favourite. Mock Ham, Cabbage, Mushrooms, Tofu and all kinds of goodness lurks inside. Plus Vegan Oyster Sauce. Amazing.


They do Wontos, soups and curries. Steam buns of all kinds (many vegan ones like the BBQ Bun and Red Bean).

We had a mini vegan party to celebrate Blake Graduating. I forgot again to take photos, too busy eating Sorry!.


Here's my Vegan Red Curry Mutton with rice (all meals have rice or noodle option).

And the 20 dumpling order we split around the table, this is half way through the feasting is up top.

The owner is adorable and amazingly helpful, our tea is always re-steeped and he does the neat Green Tea Pouring with the ceramic shots and encourages you to try it.

You can also get their meals tax free and frozen to go. And the offer complimentary candies and fresh fruit with your meal! One of my new favourite places.

Veganmofo: Halifaxs Eats Backlog Sushi style!

Hey folks,

I have some older mofo photos for you from earlier this month when my friend Geoff came to town and we hit up B-Well Sushi Cafe. One of the best things about this place is there prices, all the rolls are around 4-6$ including dragon rolls. Mind you they do up all their rolls in smaller pieces, but they list exactly what is and is not vegan on their menu and their sushi pizza is amazing!

Very good place to relax, sip coffee or tea and enjoy some light tasty Japanese food.

I sadly forgot to photography all of the meal so I wound up missing some goods like the adorable and super tasty sushi pizza. But I did manage to get this shot of some rolls, so not all was lost.

They also added some new menu items like iced plum wine and udon bowls which can be made vegan. Mine accidentally came with imitated crab, but everything else was amazing.

It's one of the few places were getting an assortment of vegan style rolls won't break your bank and Edamame is 3$ instead of 5$. I love, love, love Edamame but somehow paying 4$+ turns me off it every time. So I enjoy getting an order or two while I'm here.

They also have wifi so you could get some work done or hang out for longer.

I believe The right is the Yam Tempura and the left is a veggie delight roll with Kanpyo, shitake, cucumber, avocado and possibly some other tasty stuff.

Overall for clear menu marking and pricing, B-well is a great place they also offer soy so you can get Matcha Lattes or amazing ginger tea. Be sure to ask about the lattee mix, one has dry milk but I always forget which.

Sadly their Salad Dressing and Miso Soup are not Vegan,  but Props for writing that on the menu and labelling vegan items as Vegan. The one thing I hate about hitting new or haven't-been-here-in-a-while sushi places is remembering what comes with bonito, what has Dashi/fish stock and whose dressing is mayo based etc. Clear menu labels make B-Well super accessible and their selection goes beyond the simple cucumber roll without breaking the bank.

Veganmofo: lazy baking

Been a bit of a lazy day, but before I headed off to class last week I whipped up a batch of Banana bread from 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes.

Like a good banana bread this one came together easily and quickly with lots of down time. The result was a soft subtly sweet centre and light crust. Great morning snack!

Sadly I had no walnuts to ad and didn't feel like chocolate chips. Eat Warm with Earth Balance and cold coffee.

Veganmofo: Squash Ribz time!

 

 Sorry about the delay in posts midterms and life has been kicking my butt. I have been eating and photographing though, so expect some food porn to appear eventually.

But enough about excuses, today is about ribz! My awesome Vegan Pal Blake was down for a week and made plans to make his famous ribz, unfortunately we got side tract with other adventures and never got around to it. This is one of those recipes someone talks about, but they don't really have a recipe for it. Here are his instructions to me and I'll give you some precise details about what I did and how.


Blake's explination: no recipe. I wish make BBQ sauce while I cook thin strips of squash to get them all crispy (coconut oil/butter works best), cover in sauce then cook some more.

So with his words of wisdom in mind I set off to slice my squash

Blake's Acorn Squash Ribz

• 1 Acorn Squash

• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil (I don't have coconut butter sadly)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/3-1/2 BBQ Sauce (I got lazy and used some old stuff, I imagine Tequila Cherry from this post would work great though!)

• 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice ribs along indents in squash, space across your baking sheet, use a basting brust to coat the squash in oil on all sides. Bake for 30 minutes, turn over and bake another 30 minutes until crispy.

While the squash bakes, sort through the guts to remove the seeds. I'd recommend popping them into a dry or lightly oiled skillet with some coarse salt and chili powder to snack on because these ribz are gonna take a while. If you don't have BBQ sauce laying around, you could also prep that and sides while the ribz cook.

This one was baked directly on the rack

Once the squash is crispy and cooked through, bast with BBQ sauce (liberally!) on both sides and bake at 450-500 for another 10 minutes, flip and re-baste and bake again until the sauce is caramelized. I feel as though continuing this process earlier on with numerous flips/bastes would produce even better results, but these came out great. Extra points for a broiler finish.

Serve with your choice of sides, I did mashed potatoes and steamed veggies!

Veganmofo: Autumn's Seed roastin

Autumn is a great time of year, brilliant colours, bounty harvest of produce and above all Squash, Pumpkin and more Squash.

Veganmofo has been going crazy for pumpkin recipes and it's only fitting. These babies are cheap and boy do they scream fall when you bite into cupcakes, pies, pastries, doughnuts, biscuits, soups, stews, roasts and anything else infused with this orange goodness.

As you will likely be gutting all kinds of these seed filled gems, I figured I do a quick post on how to prep your seeds for roasting and eating.

1. Gut your squash. Spoon all the stringy seedy mess into a light mess straigher.
2. Running warm water over the mess, squish with your hands to seperate the seeds form the orange muck.
3. Remove orange muck into compost and continue rinsing until seeds are clear and clean.
4. Allow seeds to fully dry.
5. Pre-heat a cast iron skillet with a light coating of oil.
6. Add dry seeds and toast over medium high heat 5-10 minutes or until browned. Tossing with seasoning of choice. Splatter guards are your friend!

And Voila! super tasty snack to munch while you wait on the squash/pumpkin.

Seasoning options include

• coarse sea salt
• dill and thyme (and salt)
• Coarse pink and black pepper with salt
• Chili powder, paprika and garlic salat
• Cinnamon and sugar, finely ground
• Cinnamon sugar and cayanne
• Cajun mix
• Cumin, Coriander, Salt, ground mustard seed and curry powder
• Oregano, thyme, sage, poultry spice and vegan-chicken-stock-powder
• Nooch, salt, paprika and garlic

But don't limit yourself to the list! Try all kinds of combos!

Note: these can also be baked, sans oil at 400 but watch them carefully!