Anna Loka: A Review

October 25, 2015 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

Anna Loka is a brand new vegan restaurant in the Roath area of Cardiff. I had been hearing some great things about the day time cafe menu, but they didn’t have an evening opening so I held back on visiting.

Recently they started to open in the evenings from 6pm. We booked for a table of ten to celebrate my imminent marriage to the bearded one.

They offered 3 courses for £19.95, so of course we had the full lot. Here’s what was on offer:

I had the pumpkin arancini. It was crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. The sweet tomato and herb sauce really complimented the the richness of the arancini.

My friends and family all had different dishes and were very happy with their choices. I had a few bites of everyone else’s, including eating the pansies from my mum’s salad, which the whole table found amusing.

Falafel.

Beetroot Cappaccio.

Southern fried vegetables.

The main course was something altogether. Mine was absolutely mind blowing! I had the seitan steak. It was like roast beef, smothered in a beautiful gravy with perfect mustard mash and crunchy green vegetables. They even made the seitan themselves.

My brother had the baked aubergine. He said it was good. I didn’t like it. I thought the aubergine was under cooked and the flavours didn’t seem quite right. Mismatched almost. It looked great though.

The rest of the family had the raviollo. I tasted some and it was herby, fresh and full of flavour. It was a great dish, but I preferred my steak.

We tried each other’s puddings and agreed that they were all amazing. I’d order any of them again. Personally, even though I ordered the creme brulee (and it had the crack when I broke the crunchy topping) , I thought the parfait was the star of the desserts.

I give Anna Loka a 9.5 out of 10. The 0.5 will be remedied when I can have a nice glass of red wine with my steak. (They intend to bring in alcohol in the future.) The service was excellent and the food outstanding overall.

I’ll be popping in to try the breakfast and lunch menu at some point in the future too.

Vegan Poached Egg

April 14, 2015April 14, 2015 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

As someone who has been vegan for near on a decade, I’ve never really missed eggs. It’s only because a newbie vegan said they were missing them, that I even considered making them.

I can’t take all the credit for this. I got a lot of inspiration from the internet on ways to make this actually happen.

Also because of where I live, lots of fancy ingredients just aren’t available here. I wanted to make a poached egg any one, anywhere could make. I’m also unable to eat the Vegg due to production methods. (Made in the same factory as crustacean products which I am allergic to.) With that in mind, here are the ingredients for the yolk:

120 ml water

1 teaspoon of vegetable stock powder

1 teaspoon of cornflour

1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric

2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast

1/2 a teaspoon of English mustard

1/2 a teaspoon American mustard

1 tablespoon of vegan butter (I used Vitalite.)

Blend everything in a food processor, except the butter and pour into a hot pan. Turn the heat off and melt the butter into the mix straight away. Drain into a small bowl and leave to cool.

Ingredients for the white:

600 g of firm silken tofu

3.5 tablespoons of arrowroot powder

2 teaspoons of vegan gelatine powder (I used vegan non-sweetened powder.)

1/4 teaspoon of salt. (If you can get black salt, even better.)

Blend all the ingredients until entirely smooth. Now get your poaching device and fill it with the white mixture. Make a well in the middle and fill with yolk. Depending on the size of your device, 1 or 2 heaped teaspoons. Cover the yolk with white until it isn’t visible and drop device into boiling water.

Cover the pan with a lid so the top is also cooked. (For about 15 minutes.)

The first egg was actually crap. Why? I put the yolk in whilst it was still warm.

The second one I thought I’d cracked (no pun intended) so I served it on spinach, maple bacon and an English muffin. It fell apart because I only cooked it for 8 minutes.

Then I made this little diamond. 15 minutes, gently simmered and lovingly turned onto a plate without breaking.

The yolk is thick and mustardy, just like a chicken’s egg. The white is soft but bouncy. It’s also not as fatty as an egg because you are not adding much fat, but it is still high in protein and B12.

I left some of the 6 I made, in the fridge and heated one up for later. Although it fell apart a bit, it was very tasty with a home grown herby freekah salad.

I hope this helps anyone craving chicken’s eggs as a new vegan and changes the lives of those of us long term vegans who never dreamed this would be possible.

(N.B I know it doesn’t look pretty. What do you want? A perfect vegan egg? Hahahahhaaha! 😛 )

Amy’s Breakfast Sandwich: A Product Review

October 2, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

I was scrolling through Facebook as you do and I came across a picture of this breakfast sandwich. Hallelujah! A lovely big juicy breakfast muffin with tons of flavour and certainly enough to fill you up. It turns out that I was deceived by clever marketing. The box is very well designed and about the size you’d expect a breakfast muffin box to be.

We don’t have a microwave in our house because we have no need for one so I followed the oven cooking instructions to the letter on the reverse of the pack. It came out like this:

It was absolutely tiny! I think my little sister might even struggle with that as a snack let alone a full breakfast. So it tasted amazing right? Nope!

The bread was chewy, the tofu flavourless and the sausage patty did not have nearly enough meatiness to it. There wasn’t even really that much sauce with it. It’s a good job I made a breakfast hash to go with it otherwise I’d have been starving!

I’ve seen some people raving about this new product and don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that one is now on the market. It’s just a shame I think it tastes like cardboard and so will any non-vegan who tries it. Good try though Amy’s. I look forward to trying your other new products soon.

Whilst I personally didn’t enjoy it, people have different tastes. Try it and let me know what you think!

Score? 2/5

What I Ate Sunday

February 16, 2014February 16, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Today has been a really productive and non-stressful day and for the first time in what seems like forever, the sun was out. I woke up at around 07:15 but didn’t bother to get up until 08:30 due to having lots of snuggles of felines, a large white woof and a beardy man times. I left the bearded one in bed and made an epic smoothie, which subsequently I spoiled him with in bed.

This is a banana, mango, spinach, peanut butter and raw cacao powder smoothie. It tastes like a peanut butter and banana milkshake.

That did me for the whole morning because it was so filling, however on return from our 6k walk with Bailey Woof I was getting a tad hungry so I made a wholemeal spinach and pasta “cheesy” bake with a cucumber and tomato side salad.

A little while after this we hit the gym where we lifted some seriously heavy shit. I needed a protein hit after that so when we got home I rustled up some cashew nut cheese on some wholemeal sweet onion crackers. (I’ll be posting a recipe for this soon.)

For dinner Mykey made a kale, bean, mushroom, spinach and breaded tofu stir fry which totally hit the spot.

So there you have it. Simply, tasty and healthy vegan food. 🙂

Super Secret Scrambled Tofu Recipe: The Best You’ll Ever Have!!!!

January 30, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

I think people are a bit lost when it comes to tofu. It’s this white squishy block which doesn’t taste like anything. I saw an episode of Come Dine With Me once and a vegan guy on there served his dinner guests raw tofu and avocado. What the hell was he thinking? YUCK!

The number one rule is flavouring: herbs, spices and marinades are the best but sauces, bread crumbs and oils can also be great too.

On Facebook I’m constantly raving about how amazing Mykey’s scrambled tofu is, so I finally caught him in the act on Sunday morning and took some pictures.

First let’s get these ingredients down:

A large handful of fresh baby leaf spinach (frozen is far too watery.)
6 large button mushrooms
Tumeric
Black salt (not essential but will make the tofu smell and taste more like egg.)
Terriyaki sauce
1 pack of chilled firm tofu (not silken)
A dash of oil
Wholemeal sourdough bread to serve
Nutritional yeast

Method:

Heat the dash of oil in a frying pan.

Slice your mushrooms and place into the pan, stirring every minute or so.

In the meantime, drain your tofu over the sink.

When the mushrooms have begun to soften, add the tofu by squeezing it through your hands so it crumbles. Break any extra bits up with your mixing spoon.

Now add about a tablespoon of powdered turmeric, a glug of teriyaki sauce, two tablespoons of nutritional yeast and two pinches of black salt and mix together.

Add your spinach and mix in until wilted.

Now you can turn off the heat whilst you wait for you bread to toast.

Spread generously with vegan butter, add tofu and then get it all in your face, with ketchup.

Oh and be careful, other’s in your house may want some too! 😛

What I Ate Saturday

January 30, 2014January 30, 2014 / Frankie Mouche / 2 Comments

Saturday can be a lazy day for us when it comes to food, but we still try and make it as healthy as possible.

For breakfast Mykey made blueberry and banana pancakes drizzled in maple syrup. He has a way of making them really thin and light so that they aren’t overly filling, but still really tasty. I don’t like to feel too full up in the morning, especially if we are going out for a long dog walk straight afterwards.

For lunch we had two whole meal pitta breads sliced into pockets and stuffed with cucumber, fresh tomato, sun dried tomato and hummus.

For dinner we were really lazy and went to the Toby Carvery. Now I know what you’re thinking, however both of the big UK carvery chains have vegan options. Crown has one and Toby has two. You can read more about the Toby Carvery on this great blog site: http://veganvoxblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-ordinary-vegan-toby-carvery.html?m=0

I had the vegan shepherd’s pie with loads of veg, but sadly I didn’t take a picture. I found this one online though, so I hope it will suffice. (It’s almost what I had anyway, but with much less potato! :P)

Stay healthy.

Seriously Tasty Time Saving Porridge Topper

November 10, 2013November 10, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

Oats are amazing! They are great for the bacteria in your gut, give you loads of energy, keep you full up and are loaded with fiber. Being vegan I don’t really need to worry about fiber because everything I eat has it in, but you can always do with more right?

Mykey and I live a very hectic lifestyle. We are guardians to five cats and one very lively American Bulldog called Bailey. We also work full time and train twice a day everyday at the gym. A little while ago I decided we needed to cut down on the amount of time we spent getting ready in the morning for work, so I came up with this great time saving idea that gives porridge an extra health boost and tastes great.

I make up a jar full of super foods that I then sprinkle on top. Before I used to spend and extra twenty minutes in the morning making sure our breakfasts were as packed with nutrients as possible. Now I stick my spoon in my jar and throw it on top of my bowl of oats, before smothering in soya milk and sometimes heating in the microwave.

Yum!

The jar lasts about a month if two of you are eating porridge everyday for 5 out of 7 days a week. I also like to put different things in it each month, but this month I’ve gone with flaked almonds, pecan nuts, pumpkin seeds, dried goji berries, shredded coconut, walnuts, milled flaxseed, chia seeds and if I put anything else in there, I can’t remember!

Enjoy! 🙂

G’s Cafe Bude

August 13, 2013September 13, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Vegan Camp this year was held in a camp site about five minutes outside of Bude, in Cornwall. We are often not very hopeful of finding restaurants or cafes in the remote villages and towns that usually surround camp, but this year we did.

Our first dealings with G’s was after I had seen the group communal meal menu, that was organised for later in the week. It was raining pretty hard outside and I really couldn’t be bothered to cook, so I convinced my little sister Charlotte and my partner Mykey to have breakfast out in Bude. The cafe wasn’t very hard to find and had clearly marked outside that it had vegan options available.

Mykey and I ordered two pots of tea (with soya milk) and Charlotte ordered a soya hot chocolate.

Mykey also took a hell of a lot of photos of us messing around. *STANDARD*

The cafe was clean, tidy and not very busy when we first arrived however customers seemed to start arriving around 10:30. The atmosphere was lovely and the staff were very knowledgeable and friendly.

We of course could not help ourselves and had to order the biggest breakfast on the menu. It was called, “The Veggie Ansom.” At £8.95 you certainly got value for money. The breakfast contained, two Redwood’s sausages, two rashers of Redwood’s bacon, three hashbrowns, two slices of toast with soya butter, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. Charlotte had a smaller version, but couldn’t finish it so we ate the rest of her’s too. I’ve not had a breakfast like that for years. A proper holiday treat and absolutely exceptional. We revisited once more for breakfast and once for lunch with sandwiches (spaghetti for Char) and scones and jam with redbush tea. I also haven’t had scones in years because I am rubbish at baking.

The staff began to know us by site and always asked how we were and if we were enjoying ourselves.

The best night for food however was when the whole of Vegan Camp went to G’s for a communal meal. The owners and staff really pulled out all the stops.

To start Mykey had a creamy mushroom bruschetta. (Closed cup mushrooms with red onions, port, soya cream and herbs £4.95.) I had a carrot, orange and ginger soup. ( served with warm bread £3.80.)

Both dishes were full of flavour and tingled the taste buds. We’ve eaten in more expensive restaurants that have not served us starters this good.

Do you know what else is great about G’s? They have an alcohol license and sell traditional Cornish vegan cider. 7.3% I’ll have you know! 🙂

For the main course, Grandma, Mum and I had the lentil and butternut squash tagine (served with salad and cous cous £7.95.)

Grandma doesn’t do peppers, but she ate this lot. In fact she wolfed it down the same as my mum and I. It filled us all up, but was light enough to leave space for a pudding.

Mykey and my Dad had a falafel and hummus wrap (served with mixed salad and sweet potato fries £7.25.) Mykey described this dish as, “a massive tortilla stuffed with everything. Yum!” I tried a few bites and I was blown away with the textures and flavours in my mouth. Who ever thought something so simple could be so tasty?

Then oh my goodness, there was pudding. A rare treat for my family of vegans who are constantly trying to stay fit and healthy.

My mum and dad had the summer pudding (served with soya ice cream £4.95.)

I’ve never eaten summer pudding before, but I was so happy when loads of berries came flowing out of the middle when I nicked a spoonful from them.

Mykey had an ice cream sundae with summer fruit (£4.95) I thought it was a little basic for the price, but it tasted great none the less. An improvement could have been some chocolate sauce or even some chocolate chips. 😉

I think I had the best pudding of all; dark chocolate and ginger torte with ice cream. You can see the look on my face as I’m eating it, that I am enjoying it beyond words.

This place is a must visit. Thank-you for making our holiday…and the extra 2 kg on our waistlines. See you soon!

9.5/10

Savoury Breakfast Pancakes

July 16, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

Mykey and I have recently taken so eating low fat, minimal ingredient pancakes one day a week. We often have ones stuffed with fruit, for example today I have blueberry pancakes. We actually mixed the blueberries in the batter and it came out an absolute treat. It also fuelled my gym work out perfectly. I’m hoping to move away from wheat pancakes soon and experiment with rice flour etc.

On Sunday we had a busy day planned. A baking hot car boot sale and then the rest of the day doing the garden so having a very large breakfast was certainly on the cards. (We burnt it off, don’t you worry!)

Ingredients:

Self raising flour 250g
Oat milk 500ml
Two rashers of Redwood’s tempeh bacon
Half a can of reduced sugar and salt baked beans (or your own home made version if you have more time than we did.)
Two cloves of garlic
A large handful of fresh babyleaf spinach

Method:

Mix the self raising flour with the oat milk until you get a thick batter like mixture. Add more of each ingredient as appropriate.
Leave to sit for 1 minute.
Pour a teaspoon of rapeseed oil into a hot pan and make sure it runs over as much surface as possible.
Pour about half the mixture into the pan and leave to cook until the edges start to change colour and bubbles appear in the middle and then flip and repeat on the opposite side.
Place on a plate whilst you prepare the second pancake.
Once both pancakes are cooked, start heating your beans and gently fry your baby leaf spinach with the garlic and tempeh bacon until soft.
Pour over the top of the pancakes and sprinkle with some nutritional yeast for extra flavour and nutrition.

Clean Eating

July 8, 2013 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

The below table explains perfectly how I feel about exercise and what has been working for me for about a year now.

High intensity cardio:

Running/sprinting
Interval and circuit training
Spinning
Mountain biking
Fast paced swimming

Strength and core training, Weight Lifting and Plyometric Exercise

Yoga and Pilates for strength
Core exercises like planks, crunches etc.
Weight lifting such as bicep curls, squats, pull-ups, dips, bench press etc.
Burpees, mountain climbers, ninja jumps and bear crawls etc.

Clean Eating

Whole foods and natural foods to be eaten whilst eliminating processed, in packet foods.
Whole grains like brown rice, millet, amaranth, and quinoa are great as unrefined carbohydrates. You should avoid all refined carbohydrates such as white bread and white pasta.
The more raw fruit and veg you can eat, the better.
Lessen your intake of fat, salt and sugar. This becomes easier when you cut out all processed foods.
Eat 5 to 6 small meals a day, keeping your blood sugar steady. (I like 3 meals with 2 large snacks.)
Just drink water, smoothies and homemade juices / not from concentrate juices. (Lots and lots of water.)
Don’t eat things which are full of growth hormones, adrenaline, mercury, saturated fat, cholesterol and nasty antibiotics. (Meat, fish, shell fish, poultry, game, dairy, eggs etc etc.)
Get active. Not only does it decrease fat, strengthen and build muscle, and help you burn more energy at rest, it keeps your heart, lungs, and bones healthy and strong.

In summary, a plant based clean vegan diet will fuel you through the top two tiers. What you eat is 70% of the effort required. Don’t make it a diet, make it a lifestyle change and never look back.

Here’s a typical 2 day’s food:

	Monday	Tuesday
Breakfast	Porridge	Blueberry pancakes
Post Workout	Protein shake	Protein shake
Snack	Nakd Bar	Banana and orange
Lunch	Spiced Eggplant-Lentil Salad with Mango	Tofu and broccoli stir-fry with rice noodles
Snack	Banana and peanut butter	Baby carrots with hummus
Dinner	Kale, avocado, tomato and courgette salad	Bean chilli with cauliflower mash

Please feel free to ask any questions!

Queer Vegan

Food, fitness and culture from a queer, vegan, metal head.

breakfast