German Soy Pudding

After mixed success on the soy milk front, I decided to brave the soy pudding frontier. As you can see, I went a bit overboard and bought all four varieties. Again the results were mixed. The vanilla is mediocre, the dark chocolate is decent to good, the "milk" chocolate is very good, and the caramel ist die Bombe! This may be my lack of recent sugar intake speaking, but it's one of the best puddings I've ever had.

German vegan tip of the day: look for food with the 100% pflanzlich symbol. All plant, all the time. Unfortunately, it's found almost exclusively on soy goodies, but that's a good enough place to start.

This will be my last food blog for a little while. I've got a big piece coming out on pokerfuse tomorrow, and I'm getting some poker sites up and running. More on that soon.

Soya Milch

Quick update on the German soy milk front: The banana soy milk is awesome. The chocolate soy milk as well. The plain...well, let's just say I can see why soy milk is not a heavily consumed product in Germany. Yikes! It's time to try another brand.

On a more positive note, I managed to find seitan, soy yogurt, soy cheese, and blocks of tofu. Last night I fried up some seitan with fresh onion, peppers, garlic and ginger for a hearty vegan meal. Right now I'm trying to force down the soy milk for some protein, but I may relent, take the loss, and buy some more of the banana variety.

Ich Bin Strikter Vegetarier

Well, that's what Google Translate tells me, anyway. On Day 2 of my journey, I did a little language research to prepare for the supermarket. It turns out there are a decent number of soy products, including banana soy milk! It's quite tasty. I'll buy some seitan and soysages tomorrow. Sadly, I haven't found any black beans. They're all kidney and baked beans, and all with sugar added. But I got a nice bag of apples for only .99€. The euro is losing steam on the dollar, so my money's going a bit further than I'd anticipated.

My attempts at opening a local bank account were thwarted by my lack of registered address here. I'll try again tomorrow at HSBC, which advertises exceptional service for expats. Hopefully sleep will come for me now and erase the insomnia of yesterday.

Grilled Cheese, Eh?

I just ate a grilled cheese sandwich for the third time in 15 years. The other two times were this past week in Toronto. The time before these three was over 15 years ago in Montreal. I'm not from Canada, but I guess it's kinda like the land of grilled cheese for me.

There was a big difference between the two Canadian grilled cheese sandwiches, though. The Montreal was a regular grilled cheese sandwich, eaten by a hungry vegetarian searching for protein options. The Toronto was a tapioca cheese sandwich, eaten by a gluttonous vegan at the 8th vegetarian restaurant of his week-long trip.

Soy cheese has come a long way in the past decade and a half. It went from practically non-existent in the nineties, to not very good in the noughties, to pretty good in the past couple of years. Now, it may be on its way out with the introduction of tapioca cheese.

There is a brand of soy cheese that melts (Vegan Gourmet), but there is no non-dairy alternative that compares to Daiya's tapioca cheese. It's the first vegan cheese that I would describe as awesome. I've frequently said that cheese is the only thing I miss as a vegan, particularly on pizza. Now there is nothing that I feel I'm missing out on. In fact, I enjoy tapioca cheese considerably more than I ever did traditional cheese, particularly after a decade plus of soy cheese.

Chucking Blueberries:A Recipe For Fun

In what may quickly become a Sunday ritual, I spent this morning cooking up some blueberry vegan pancakes. I'm not sure what non-vegan ingredients one would desire in pancakes (besides regular milk), but I'm convinced they're thoroughly unnecessary. These pancakes are fluffy goodness and taste great with or without blueberries, raspberries, or whatever else you want to throw in there.

The following recipe feeds two:

Preheat your non-stick griddle (or greased up sticky old thing). In a mixing bowl, whisk together:

1¼ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar (or substitute)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Then add:

½ cup water
1 cup soy milk (vanilla or plain)
2 tablespoons apple sauce

Stir it up and plop it on the griddle in whatever shape you fancy. Add the blueberries. Cook evenly on both sides and douse (or drown) in maple syrup.

It works a little better if you kind of chuck the blueberries down into the batter. It's all in the wrist. Perhaps you could just mix the blueberries up with everything in the first place, but I like to control how many blueberries are in each pancake. Besides, what's more fun on a Sunday morning than chucking blueberries?