Emporiodeal

Monday, 20 January 2020

The Best Vegan Nights in Melbourne for Dinner

There are a few vegan nights in Melbourne that deliver vegan cuisine to a new level. Specially crafted vegan cuisine shows the world that incredible vegan food is accessible, possible and inclusive. Supporting the vegan nights in Melbourne also means supporting those businesses that are genuinely trying to seek a vegan path if they’re not already there.

Vegan Degustation Nights at Shu Restaurant

If you think of Shu Restaurant, think of delicious Chinese Sichuan cooking with a contemporary twist. This restaurant in Collingwood in Melbourne exudes a modern gallery feel with tasty Sichuan food with a modern vegan vibe. This is the perfect location for a vegan dinner night with friends who may be omni, and are curious about vegan Chinese food. Over the course of ten dishes you can celebrate the act of enjoying a good meal with good friends, despite life differences; all the elements for a memorable get-together.

Shu holds these nights regularly (particularly Tuesdays nights). Sichuan cooking is also known to be spicy, so it’s also one of the best places in Melbourne to experience this style of cuisine. Degustation nights also give guests the option to match their degustation dishes with matched wines. And, here’s a fun fact – Shu is actually short for Sichuan, the southwest province from which this style of cooking originates. It’s an area that is known to be the ‘Land of Heaven’ where some of the world’s earliest people in China planted, harvested and foraged while using seasonal ingredients and being plant-based.

147 Johnston Street Collingwood Victoria 3066. $55 per person or $115 per person with matched vegan wines. Visit the website for more details or to make a booking. Gluten-free can be catered for.

Vegan Nights at The Independent in Gembrook

The Independent in Gembrook is hosting its own vegan nights in outer Melbourne. Diners book in to experience Argentinean food over multiple courses, with or without matched drinks, and all crafted by Head Chef Mauro Callegari. Never during my first lunch there back in 2015 did I imagine The Independent in Gembrook would host these vegan nights on regular Fridays. On further investigation, The Independent in Gembrook now features a standalone vegan section on its regular menu. Take the car through the rolling, winding hills and bushland of The Dandenongs in Melbourne’s outer east, to feast on six share courses including dessert. Luckily, all dishes are customisable so those needing gluten-free don’t miss out. The kitchen takes care of this.

79 Main Street Gembrook Victoria 3783. Phone: 03 5968 1110. Six courses, inclusive of a dessert, $52 per person. Bookings are essential and a non-refundable deposit is required upon booking. Check out the website for future dates for vegan nights.

Exclusive Dinner Events at Soulpod Foods in Croydon South

Soulpod Foods has opened right next door to Eastfield Natural Foods as a day-time all vegan café, with good friends Adele McConnell Daniela De Martino running the business to ‘bring the best organic, plant based foods to the eastern suburbs of Melbourne’. Exclusive dinner events like Valentine’s Day dinner and Tapas Nights are just a couple of the events that have already been hosted here. According to reports, tickets to the exclusive Valentine’s Day event this year sold out in less than two days with little promotion. This is testament to how Soulpod Foods has opened with impact and bringing their existing vegan direction to an enticingly fun level. Tables are regularly packed during the day for lunch, especially on Saturdays.

Adele and Daniela deliver love through food, something that seemed to be effortless at their Valentine’s Day dinner. Of course, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes on into bringing these exclusive dinners to life and to table. Over three courses, couples and friends can nibble through creative, healthy dishes while being serenaded by the tender flavours abound.

Sunday, 12 January 2020

The Most Beautiful Backstage Photos of 2019

Image may contain Collage Advertisement Poster Human Person and Crowd — Photographed by Corey Tenold

Thanks to live-streams, lighting-fast photography, and relentless Instagram coverage, you can more or less “experience” a fashion show from anywhere in the world on your phone. You’ll see every look, the models, the set, the hair and makeup, the celebrities in the front row; maybe you’ll even hear the soundtrack. But you’d still be missing a big piece of the puzzle if you don’t get a glimpse of the backstage action, too. Our behind-the-scenes photos are as close as you can get to the pre-show chaos, and they routinely become some of our very favorite photos of the year.

Vogue Runway published thousands of backstage shots in 2019, spanning two couture weeks, two months of ready-to-wear coverage, and major Resort and Pre-Fall shows in between. Here, we distilled them down to the 32 absolute best images, which also help to tell the story of the year: There’s the mind-boggling beauty looks we saw at Gucci (prosthetic tears), Valentino (feather eyelashes), and Rick Owens (body modification c/o Salvia); Rodarte’s otherworldly Los Angeles show; Dries Van Noten’s collaboration with Christian Lacroix; Jonathan Anderson’s experimental new look for Loewe; and so much more. Relive all 33 of the year’s best moments below, and come back later this week when we start covering the men’s fall 2020 shows in London.

Image may contain Festival Crowd Human Person Clothing Apparel and Tribe — Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Loewe Fall 2019

Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Erdem Fall 2019

Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Gucci Fall 2019

Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Simone Rocha Fall 2019

Image may contain Face Human Person and First Aid — Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Loewe Fall 2019

Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Erdem Fall 2019

Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Gucci Fall 2019

Photographed by Corey Tenold

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Simone Rocha Fall 2019

Saturday, 11 January 2020

Best 3 Capital Cities in Australia to Travel Vegan and a GPSmyCity giveaway!

One of the problems facing travelling vegans is choosing a suitable destination. The food aspect for vegans will almost always dictate the decision on where to travel. Travelability is crucially important for vegans. When travelling to, or within, Australia, the capital cities are the key focus, and the best capital cities in Australia to travel vegan are Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. These are the best three Australian capital cities where you can feel confident in finding vegan food, culture and experiences.

Adelaide in South Australia
Adelaide falls in South Australia, voted as one of the planet’s Top 10 regions by Lonely Planet this year. Adelaide is also well-known throughout Australia’s vegan community as one of the best capital cities in the country to reside or travel to. No wonder Adelaide is sometimes referred to as ‘RADelaide’!

Just by staying within the city’s fringes will lend you to Adelaide’s ever-growing list of restaurants and cafes. Some of the best places to travel vegan in Adelaide for delicious meals and sweets and treats are Nagev, Pollen 185, Vego n Loven It, Zenhouse Vegetarian Teahouse, and Two Bit Villains Soda Bar. If you need location for groceries, then Everything Vegan has you covered.

When travelling to Adelaide during November, there’s a strong chance the city’s Vegan Festival is happening. Keep informed on the date, then book your Adelaide visit to coincide with the festival. Just make sure there are enough days on each side of the festival to explore the eateries that are booming during Vegan Festival time. Also consider hiring a car to get around easily and explore the city’s fringes, too. You may want to explore some of Adelaide’s sanctuaries such as Freedom Hill Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills.

Melbourne in Victoria
Melbourne, my beloved hometown, was voted as the most liveable city in the world in 2016 for the sixth year. Recently, I argued that Melbourne is the most liveable city in Australia for vegans and here’s why. Melbourne has a restaurant and café culture that underbellies the city’s vegan multi-cultural food experiences. There are food truck parks hosting vegetarian and vegan weekend, and streets dedicated to food culture. Just a wander down Brunswick Street or Victoria Street, for example, and you’ll uncover vegan restaurants or restaurants with vegan options scattered throughout. Inner city hubs are the best when uncovering vegan food spots, from Smith & Daughters and The Fox Hotel in Collingwood, to Fina’s on Brunswick Street, and Loving Hut on Victoria. The Cruelty Free Shop is a hub in its own right, selling over 2,500 vegan products and groceries (now in Sydney, too). The Cruelty Free Shop hosts their annual Vegan Day Out; a vegan self-guided walking tour of Brunswick Street. For specialty items, shoes, bags and belts can be found at Vegan Wares.

The city also hosted its first Big Vegan Market this year, bringing in the queues of people vying for vegan products available on the day, not to mention a sub-hall filled with food stalls. You can also plan your visit around World Vegan Day so you can celebrate the day at Melbourne’s World Vegan Day festival-style day out. Want to experience a tour of one of Melbourne’s most well-known sanctuaries? Take a roadtrip to Edgar’s Mission Lancefield. Need to stay and experience an all-vegan bed and breakfast? Another excuse to hit the road and travel regional to a vegan B&B. Head to Bed & Broccoli in Elphingstone, The Beet Retreat in Warrandyte or Forest Haven B&B in Beaufort.

Sydney in New South Wales
When travellers think of Australia, they think of Sydney and the icons associated with it – the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. There’s no excuse for travellers not to think about Sydney as a top Australian destination in a vegan light. It’s easy to travel to Sydney, almost always the gateway into the country for those flying in from faraway. It’s easy to ‘pitch your tent’ – booking an apartment – in inner city Sydney and walk to many eateries for more brilliant vegan food. Bliss & Chips for vegan fish and chips, Golden Lotus for all vegan homestyle Vietnamese food, Gelato Blue (an all vegan gelato bar) and raw kitchen Sadhana Kitchen are a handful of spots to try for Sydney vegan cuisine.

One stop that can’t be overlooked is all-vegan traditional pizzeria Gigi (you have to try the cannoli!) Sydney exudes a food culture that’s stemmed from its worldly influences, much like Melbourne sans the bitterly cold weather. If you do need to head out of town from the hustle and bustle, sanctuaries to travel to include Where Pigs Fly and Peanuts Funny Farm that welcome their travelling vegan friends.

Travelling (Almost) Waste Free at the Gluten Free Fest in Preston

What I love about The Food Truck Park in Preston is its themed food weekends. Food trucks and mobile food vendors travel across Melbourne to park their vehicles so travellers can feast away in confidence. The Food Truck Park’s Vegetarian and Vegan weekends are incredible, in the sense that local favourites and new makers on the block sell their culinary creations for those needing vegetarian and vegan options.

Earlier this month, the Preston Food Truck Park decided to host a Gluten Free Fest over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. Gluten-intolerant and/or coeliac Melburnians could travel here and feast on favourite food truck foods without worrying about becoming sick. Another bonus of the Gluten Free Fest was that vegan vendors, and vendors with vegan options, featured on the day. Savoury and sweet options were available for those wanting a bit – or a lot – of both.

When I travel for an eating trip to a food truck park or market now, I’m starting to cringe at the amount of single-use rubbish that ultimately accumulates. Thankfully, vegan food vendor Woking Amazing decided to take an initiative. They invited travellers to bring their own containers and cutlery to the Gluten Free Fest. It was a brilliant way to reduce my waste without compromising on serving size and taste.

When Woking Amazing is around, tasty and inventive 100% vegan, Asian-style street food is always prepared, though the gluten-free options are a little slim. At the Gluten Free Fest, I wanted to try all their options – all gluten-free – and it was easy for the coeliac in me to do so when I packed multiple containers in different sizes into my bag.

Just the simple joy of eating amazing meal choices without caution made my day – pulled ‘porkies’ pulled mushroom roll with crunchy slaw, a side order of smoky, zesty chunky chips, and crispy sweet ‘honee’ soy ‘chickn’ chicken-style morsels topped in spring onions and sesame seeds aside fluffy steamed rice. Even a sample of their mock fried ‘calamari’ dusted in zingy spices and dipped in a vegan mayo dressing, all with a wedged of lime squeezed throughout was enjoyed. At the same time, I was grateful for Woking Amazing to take the plunge and allow customers to use their own containers.

To put it into perspective, this small initiative saved me from using four single-use containers, biodegradable cutlery and serviettes. Woking Amazing use biodegradable packaging, yet to eliminate this waste in one day was ethically empowering for both vendor and customer. Imagine the power of all of us who attended the Gluten Free Fest if we were all invited to bring our own containers? It’s a rhetorical question, especially when I re-assessed the impact when it was time to purchase sweet treats.

From the gnocchi doughnuts rolled in cinnamon sugar from The Gluten Free Gnocchi Bar to the scrumptious vegan chocolate crackles and chocolate cupcake drizzled in toffee syrup from Sweet Forbidden Journey. Using BYO containers at those moments wasn’t an option. Some vendors are reluctant to do so, as they can’t control potential cross-contamination or it might be tricky at busy times for example.

Sure, they’re valid reasons. But there comes a time when travellers need to assess their impacts and start to minimise said impact they are exerting onto the world. Give travellers the option to BYO, create a conscious action in which travellers can minimise their impact, give customers the choice and our world will become a cleaner place through which to travel. Small scale events such as the Gluten Free Fest are the ultimate starting points. Start with small steps, to create a healthier habit that barracks for a better world. Ground level is where such change can thrive.