Kyoto Vegetarian Festival and Zine

Our second zine is coming out. We are finalizing it this weekend and will be distributing it for the first time at the Kyoto Vegetarian Festival on October 5th. You can check out the festival here. We went last year and there was so good food and lots of free pamphlets to pick up.

Zineの２番目はもうすぐ出す！楽しみに待って下さい。京都ベジタリアンフェスティバルは１０月５日なので来てほしい。あそこで、２番目をゲットできる！

--Pamela

We've Joined the Ranks!

For the month of October Sarah and I pledge to post at least 20 posts. We will do our best to fill this challenge as part of the Vegan Mofo.

We've already got some posts in mind. Be warned!

Here are some of the ideas provided, so maybe you'll be seeing some of this.

* Your first vegan/vegetarian restaurant memory
* Something you used to cook but don’t anymore
* Try to cook/bake something that intimidates you
* Write about your grandma’s holiday cooking
* your favorite dish to bring to a potluck
* your favorite meal to cook for people who are scared of vegan food
* your favorite meal to cook for your parents/in-laws
* use an grain you’ve never used before
* use a fruit or vegetable you’ve never used before
* veganize a recipe from your childhood
* cook dinner for a friend as a surprise and drop it off right after work
* cook an all-local ingredients meal
* Write about your favorite songs to cook to
* Keep a photo food journal for the entire day
* Veganize a recipe
* Tell the story of the first time you tried tofu
* Take a cookbook that you don’t use very often and make one new recipe out of it every day for a week
* Post pictures of yourself wearing nothing but Earth Balance and a smile

--Pamela

New Vegan restaurant in Kyoto!

A while ago, me and Pamela (I know it's "Pamela and I" but I feel like a pretentious twat when I use correct grammar so deal with it!) met up with two very lovely Vegan Freaks from New Zealand. I live in Osaka and Pam lives in Shiga so it was easy for both of us to make it to Kyoto and try and hook them up with some tasty vegan fare.

We planned to meet them outside a famous cafe called Sunny Place. I'd been wanting to go there for a long time since I heard that their "chicken" kara-age (deep-fried chicken) and "pork" burgers were delicious. However, when we got there and checked the menu, it seemed like they were actually selling meat not the vegan analogs we expected. In the end, we all decided just to have drinks and then head to a nearby tofu restaurant (which worked out great, check the pictures at the end of the post).

I'd kind of forgotten about all that meat/fake-meat confusion until today. So I set about finding out the truth! Or at least I tried to and then gave up. The websites and pictures that I found, seem to show a very different restaurant than the one we went to. I know that Sunny Place moved so I presume that they are old pictures but, the menu is also different and used to have a clear mark stating "Vegan & Vegetarian" which is doesn't have now.... Oh well.

"Better is a dish of vegetables where
love is, Than a fattened ox and hatred with it"

My research did yield some unexpected happy results though! I discovered that a new vegan restaurant has opened in Kyoto. Yay!! Cafe Proverbs serves, amongst other things, teriyaki tempeh sandwiches, spicy curries, veggie meat miso ankake, nasi goreng, taco rice, various kinds of ramen bowls, gyoza and "meat" satay. They also have some delicious sounding drinks such as the maple green tea latte, soy spice tea, organic tropical cocktail tea and a premium cafe latte made with rice and soy milk. Oh, and of course, they have desserts ;)

Here's the link to the menu for your perusual: Cafe Proverb [15:17]

Food photographs from the first (??) Vegan Freaks meet-up in Japan!

-- Sarah