Vegan Feasts and Meetups

We're at the time of the year where I have to stop procrastinating and actually work for a month or two to finish my projects, therefore few updates here. There are some interesting things going on though, and a few have to do with websites.

1. HospitalityClub is a site where travellers can search for accommodation and those who have extra room can post their profiles so these travellers can stay on the couch or wherever. I just joined in recently and had my first visitors, a fun vegetarian couple of globetrotters, really great people.
2. VeganSocialClub of Beijing!!! My most recent finding, it appears there's 10 or so people gathering every week for a vegan meal, so this Thursday there shall be one more! Yay!

And since people say this blog is all about food, I shall have to post some pictures of our recent vegan feast where the veg. couple are present and so are some of my local vegetarian friends. The cooking was done mainly by one of these local friends, I made some too, including this tofu thing I just invented and was quite happy with, but maybe I'll try some further improvements before posting a recipe. Now I'm thinking I should've taken pictures of the food. Hmh.

Top 50 Restauraunts

Travelhacker has collected a list of the Top 50 Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants, certainly worth checking out. The familiar ones on the list certainly are excellent, like Millenium in San Francisco, Susie's in Edinburgh and Sanchon in Seoul to pick a trio. Most of the other places I haven't been to, must keep them in mind when going to those areas. But I want to point out a few that in my mind definitely should've made it to the list though. Btw, they have a list of places for Green Travellers as well!

North America:
Possibly the best restaurant I've ever been to, the completely vegan Caravan of Dreams in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC, definitely shouldn't be missed on a trip to the Big Apple. The atmosphere is like one of a cosy café, and the menu, also containing enough for an amazing feast for the raw vegans, is sure to delight. The excellent service tops it off as a place almost worth a trip to New York for!

On the north side of the border, Le Commensal, a chain of vegetarian buffet restaurants in Canada are definitely winners. Their ginger tofu is among the best I've tried. Vegan dishes at Commensal are clearly marked, and you pay by the weight of the plate you collect. They're around the eastern parts of Canada, I've tried a few in Montréal, Quebec.

Back to the south, Herbivore in San Francisco left an undying memory with their amazing creations for breakfast. Also completely vegan, there are several Herbivore restaurants in this city spoiled with vegetarian fares.

Asia:
There's a bunch of awesome vegetarian restaurants right here in Beijing, but as I've written about them before, I'll just leave it at that.

In Indonesia you shouldn't miss Milas in Yogyakarta, it's simply so gorgeous that you want to dine in a place like that every day! The food is good enough to justify that, even though I think it would get boring for a vegan in the long run, the vegan options aren't that many. It's also a non-profit, which just makes you feel that much nicer about frequenting the place.

And I must once again point out to Jeombongsan Mountain Vegetable Village in Sokcho, South Korea. They create amazing dishes flavoured with the local herbs creating a truly unique experience. And the service is second to none.

Europe:
Nothing is mentioned from Finland, and there is a newly opened fully vegan restaurant that just opened in my hometown of Tampere. The place is Veganissimo, and the foods are totally amazing and absolutely world class. I have some pictures linked from when I mention my visit there.

Isänpäivä / Father's Day

It's Father's Day in Finland, and given that we're Finns the rest of this is in Finnish, sorry...

Elikkä hauskaa isänpäivää! Laitanpa tähän kuvan siitä kun viimeksi tavattiin, isä ja osa lapsikatrasta Kiinanmuurilla. Näytänpä olevan ainoa joka ei yritä olla incognito. Ainahan isä on tärkeä, mutta nyt kun sitä kuulee kaikista hulluuksista Suomessakin niin täytyy yrittää tuoda esille kuinka tärkeä tällainen erinomainen isä on. Isä joka aina tukee ja välittää, vaikkei sitä tuputtaen esille tuokaan. Isä joka opettaa tärkeitä arvoja elämässä, ja joka johtaa esimerkillään niiden noudattamiseen. Isä joka ei aseta hassuja sääntöjä sääntöjen itsensä vuoksi vaan elää nykypäivää ja sallii lastensa kasvaa itsenäisesti omiksi persoonikseen. Kun katsoo miten erilaisiksi ja kunnollisiksi olemme kaikki kasvaneet, on helppo nähdä kuinka hyvin olet tässä onnistunut. Itse olen tänä isänpäivänä kovin kaukana, mutta toivottavasti toiset sisarukset muistavat henkilökohtaisemmin kuin vain näin netin välityksellä. Oikein mukavaa isänpäivää, ja kiitokset kaikesta isukille!

World Vegan Day

Today is World Vegan Day, but how to celebrate the occasion? I haven't really set up any kind of a tradition for it yet. This year I decided to adopt a bunch of animals for conservation, in the wild of course, I'm not in favour of zoos. There are a lot of organizations doing that, a friend has told me bad things about WWF, warranted or not I don't know, but it made me decide against them. Instead I went to some UK based charities, including CWI and tigertrust (since I happen to love tigers). Adopting animals in the names of family and friends seemed fun and rewarding for a vegan day activity. I'm also inviting some people for dinner at a nice vegetarian restaurant here, but really should've planned that in advance as not that many have time at such short notice. How about you, what's your way of celebrating Vegan Day?