The vegged up 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Looks interesting are those pancakes, and how did you make them green?

They are pancakes yeah, blend a bit of spinach with water and add it to the pancake mix. They were really good.

Went to the first culinary event with Vegan Dublin Food Tours by Vegan In Ireland at Ananda with a friend last night. I was wondering how popular that would be and was pleasantly surprised to see a sign saying the restaurant was closed for a vegan tasting event as I approached.

There was about 40 people there, only 10 of which were vegan I was told upon entering, so it would be interesting to see what everybody else thought. We were seated with four other people that I didn't know but were lovely. They were really into food, cooking and Ananda in general, they were there to see could the food be good, what would it even be like and so on.

The Head Chef and Sivan from Vegan in Ireland came out and gave a talk about the night, veganism, the food and what went into it, the origins in India and so forth, a really endearing young man and great speech from Sivan to start of their series of events. The food arrived and it was "Old Delhi Chaat", the host explained what it was and how to eat it properly. I plucked it up with one hand and ate it in a single bite as advised. There was so much going on that I can not tell you what exactly was in it but honestly the flavours were still changing in my mouth after ten seconds and it was heaven. Murmurs of assent from the crowd, a really nice atmosphere. I knew I was in for a good time.

Following on from that there was the Assiette which consisted of a potato and pea galette, a fermented rice cake, pickled tea leaves with spiced chickpeas, a corn and watercress seekh kebab and a plum citrus salad. Star of the show here was the fermented rice cake if I had to choose, the chef said after that it would be the first thing from menu onto their main menu due to the feedback for it, I'm not sure what witchcraft made it fluffy, it was an lighter fermented savoury victorian sponge cake taht was left soaking flavours overnight. At this stage one of the people there piped up that this was as good as if not better than the normal Ananda tasting menu and another joined in with the fact that she really wanted to find any fault with the vegan food but everything was amazing.

The fermentation was not over as it must be in vogue, before the next course came out they brought out the most interesting component in some jars for each table to smell, and if very adventurous, taste. It was aged black limes, fermented. The jars were opened as the chef explained to the room that the black limes were dried for two months before being fermented for a year, it was pungent! My nose did not know wtf it was witnessing when I brought the jar close, it was electric. I dipped a knife in and it was some form of new taste I had never had anything like. The course involving it arrived, a Himalayan sea salt with toasted cumin seed sorbet, aged black lime on top. So strange to have cumin seeds in a sorbet, really delicious.
Next up was apricot and butternut squash koftas with textures of spinach, fresh tumeric, quinoa and wild morel pulao. With that came tandoori bread with a vessel of yellow split pea daal. Fantastic.

Final course was coconut kheer, with seasonal macerated and fresh berries, lemon verbena, crisp kataifi, raspberry sorbet and 24 karat gold leaf. Delicious, dessert, made with coconut milk instead of dairy and was a nice twist. As a woman said, in Ireland we have terrible memories of rice pudding but this changed all that. The berries really reminded me of what a difference perfect fruit makes vs the standard affair and the nest of "kataifi" was wonderful.

Finished off with coffee (I shouldn't have had this was buzzing all night.) while there was a Q&A with the chef along with feedback and so forth (first comment from a woman telling him they were all in love with him now), a few rounds of applause and things like that after a closing speech from Vegan In Ireland. The chef hung around with all the staff to talk to us about the food, was a really great experience and have felt great since. It is always good to see some non-vegan people trying food like that and being wowed.
https://imgur.com/a/pjZhRnx
https://veganinireland.com/irelands-chefs-are-going-vegan-vegan-in-ireland-culinary-event-series

A dinner I really enjoyed recently. A kind of Indian north african mix, chickpea curry on a naan. There were apricots on it which were unreal.



Shameful lunch today, got some vegan pastries from a local place to bring to my friend recovering from surgery.

A cheesy pizza roll (kinda tasted like baba ghanoush), coffee cinnamon swirl and two citron crack buns (soft brioch with a crisp shell and citron creme patisserie filling). Amazing.

Double Beyond Burger in London, unreal. A meaty vegan burger. Had vegan gouda, chipotle mayo, pickles etc. Served with rosemary chips.

It was pretty nice, well melted. The burgers themselves were definitely the star of the show though! 40g of protein from them, bam. Looking forward to them being here but they will be super expensive in Tesco. I'm guessing like €7 for two burgers in Tesco. The No Bull Burgers are excellent and only €2.50 for two.