Dietitian Ginny Messina to speak at Victoria Vegan Festival 2013

Posted on June 17, 2013 11:15 am by
Victoria Vegan Festival

The Victoria Vegan Festival is returning to Market Square. (Sarah Kramer on Instagram)

Got plans for Canada Day (July 1)? If not—and you’re willing to take a long-weekend ferry ride—the second annual Victoria Vegan Festival may be your best bet.

Like last year’s inaugural fest, the 2013 edition will take place in downtown Victoria’s Market Square (560 Johnson Street). The historic shopping mall is home to Green Cuisine, a vegan buffet restaurant. (Sarah’s Place, a vegan curio shop in the square, closed on June 1.)

This year’s speakers will include dietitian and Vegan for Her coauthor Ginny Messina, vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke, Lesley Fox of the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, and Dave Shishkoff of Friends of Animals and The Victoria Vegan. There will also be cooking demonstrations featuring local chefs, such as Danielle Arsenault of Pachavega. Continue reading →

10 ways to make your restaurant more vegan-friendly

Posted on June 10, 2013 9:10 am by
Vegan mini tacos

Vegan mini tacos at the Parker, a vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver. (Stephen Hui)

These days, vegan food is more popular than ever. As vegans make up a small fraction of the population, many vegetarians and omnivores are clearly helping drive the trend.

Nevertheless, there’s still a lot of restaurants out there that either don’t cater to vegans (and vegan-food lovers) or don’t do it well. If your eatery is one of them, I’ve put together the following list to help you broaden your customer base.

Here’s 10 different ways you can make your omnivore or vegetarian restaurant more vegan-friendly. Continue reading →

Poppy seed and raspberry muffins from Quick and Easy Vegan Bake Sale

Posted on June 8, 2013 10:45 am by
Poppy seed and raspberry muffins

These muffins are simple and sweet. (Stephen Hui)

When I feel like baking something, I tend to look for a simple recipe. If there’s too many ingredients, it’s just not going to happen. Continue reading →

PazzaRella fires up vegan pizza in downtown Vancouver

Posted on June 6, 2013 9:30 am by
Margherita pizza

The Margherita is topped with basil, olive oil, and tomato sauce. (Stephen Hui)

Hungry for vegan pizza? If you’re in downtown Vancouver—and aren’t craving the raw pies of Gorilla Food (101-436 Richards Street) and OrganicLives (451 Granville Street)—check out PazzaRella.

You’ll usually find this food truck at Hamilton Street and West Pender Street, on the edge of Victory Square (where Culver City Salads is set to park soon) and across the road from Vancouver Community College’s downtown campus. There it serves up wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas Monday to Friday between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

PazzaRella doesn’t use dairy in its pizza dough or tomato sauce. Even better, customers can substitute Daiya cheese for animal-based mozzarella, with no extra charge. Continue reading →

Whole Vegetarian closes on Main, starts serving meat downtown

Posted on June 4, 2013 10:00 am by
Whole Vegetarian

Sadly, Whole Vegetarian is no longer wholly vegetarian. (Stephen Hui)

With the recent upheaval at Vancouver’s Whole Vegetarian, perhaps a name change is in order. Unfortunately, “Half Omnivore” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

In all seriousness, however, there’s sad news on two fronts as far as this vegan-friendly Chinese restaurant is concerned. Continue reading →

Vegan Secret Supper cookbook to be launched in Vancouver

Posted on June 3, 2013 9:10 am by
Mérida Anderson

Vegan Secret Supper author Mérida Anderson is coming home. (Danny Rico)

Mérida Anderson’s Vegan Secret Supper cookbook is full of sophisticated recipes, such as hazelnut-crusted portobellos with caramelized fennel parsnip mash, radicchio marmalade, and balsamic port reduction. A week ago, I tried one of the simplest recipes, making crêpes using just wheat flour, rice milk, salt, and margarine.

Back in March, I interviewed Anderson about her cookbook and her vegan dinner club, which was the first of its kind in Vancouver. The self-taught chef now lives in Montréal, but she’ll be coming to town later this month in order to promote the book. Continue reading →

The Slow Bean vegetarian café closes in Vancouver

Posted on May 30, 2013 9:30 am by
The Nines

The Nines occupied the corner of West Pender and Abbott streets. (Stephen Hui)

If you were in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside sometime in the past several months, there’s a good chance you noticed the Slow Bean. It was the vegetarian café that screamed “vegan meals & baking” in huge letters out front.

This eatery, which served healthy and affordable slow food in a repurposed car-rental office at 99 West Pender Street, is no more. The Slow Bean closed last Friday (May 24), café operator Mairin Cooley confirmed by email. However, she hinted that it could be resurrected at a nearby location in the future. Continue reading →

Eat this, vegans: Cassava fries with tamarind chutney from Vij’s Railway Express

Posted on May 28, 2013 4:00 pm by
Cassava fries

Vij’s cassava fries are seasoned with fenugreek. (Stephen Hui)

Sometimes we crave fries other than the usual potato and yam varieties. In Vancouver, Heirloom Vegetarian (1509 West 12th Avenue) serves a bowl of fancy avocado frites that fits the bill. We also love the cassava fries cooked up at Vij’s Railway Express.

This food truck, part of Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala’s celebrated Indian restaurant collection, dishes out a large portion of salty, deep-fried yuca with tamarind chutney for $8. These fries are drier and starchier than the potato kind.

Cassava fries are both crispy and creamy, but it’s the seasoning and chutney that really make them something special here. The seasoning includes fenugreek, salt, chili powder, and garam masala, according to staff at the food truck. Continue reading →

Sarah Kramer to close her vegan shop in Victoria

Posted on May 24, 2013 10:01 pm by
Sarah's Place

Sarah’s Place will close on June 1. (Sarah Kramer on Instagram)

As many of you know, Sarah Kramer has been dealing with breast cancer since her diagnosis earlier this year. Since then, the vegan cookbook author and entrepreneur has faced many challenges, including keeping her curio shop open in downtown Victoria.

In April, Sarah’s Place (106-560 Johnson Street) temporarily closed while Kramer underwent and recovered from surgery. Now, Kramer says she’s made the tough decision to shut down her brick-and-mortar store for good on June 1. Continue reading →

Coconut bacon takes vegan kitchens by storm

Posted on May 18, 2013 10:00 am by
Coconut bacon

Everything really is better with coconut bacon. (Stephen Hui)

A year ago, it seemed like everyone had a soccattata in the oven. These days, we’re all about coconut bacon.

For the past several months, I’ve heard so much about this plant-based alternative to cured pig meat. Indeed, it was the talk of this year’s Vancouver Vegan Prom. Kitsilano’s Edible Flours (2280 West Broadway) is even using it in cupcakes and donuts.

In early April, I finally tried coconut bacon for the first time. It turns out the fuss is warranted. This stuff is so, uh, bacony. Since then, I’ve enjoyed it in sandwiches, on salads, and by the handful. Continue reading →