My Monthly Chronicles: May 2026

 

May promised to be quieter and we did have some busy days - Mothers Day, cafes, the farmers market, the history society, plus some interesting outings to a Distraction exhibition, art house cinema and a shop that makes its tofu on the premises.  However we had a couple of weekends that were fairly quiet, which was lovely after some interesting months but I am still feeling behind on everything.

More about our food this month at In My Kitchen: May 2026.

Smith and Deli, Collingwood 

I have been visiting Smith and Deli  (107 Cambridge Street) since its second day of trading in its first location in Fitzroy, often when we visited the Fitzroy Market when it was in the nearby school.  It has made me feel nostalgic for those days as they have been revisiting some of the Smith and Deli favourite sandwiches that I wrote about in 2016, with different old versions each week.  Sylvia has been there for a few of these back to Fitzroy specials.  She has had the Foghorn Leghorn and Maury Ballstein without me but I could not resist coming for the Home Alone.  That is definitely the best festive vegan sandwich.  

Sylvia and I bought two sandwiches and had half of each.  We got there early and had the Home Alone: house made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cabbage, gravy and cranberry sauce on a turkish roll ($21, up from $15 in 2015) and the Wiggum: fried tofu, pickles, house made slaw, BBQ sauce and aioli on fresh sourdough bread ($18, up from $12 in 2015).  They were excellent.  I was sad that the brussel sprouts in the original were replaced with cabbage and also preferred the long bread roll in the original Home Alone but it was gret to have one again.  It was so filling that I took my half of the Wiggum to eat when I met at friend at the Melbourne Connect courtyard for lunch before seeing the Distraction exhibition.

Distraction exhibition at The Science Gallery, Carlton

I had been keen to see the Distraction exhibition at the Science Gallery in Melbourne Connect  (700 Swanston Street) because I get distracted so easily these days.  I enjoyed walking through with a friend and laughing about how it affects both of us, but in different ways.  This spinning wheel offered options for Bye Bye Brain Rot.  My favourite of the solutions on the wheel were Brick Mode: "on land put your phone in airplane mode [holds up phone] 'this thing, it's a brick!'  Talk to people.  See things.  Do things" and Away Message: "When are you most able to focus?  Block your schedule during your power hours.  Your auto reply: I'm zapping distractions right now.  Sorry.  Bye."

There was lots else in the Distraction exhibition.  The video game with the message "my original game got deleted on accident so enjoy hanging out as a cute pigeon."  The cat island montage of cat videos from Ainoshima Island, Japan was quite mesmerizing.  You can see my friend playing with the option of standing on the spot and making cat ears for his shadow.  Ww also spent time in the area where we were invited to lean back and get lost in time for a while, using a simple crochet chain stitch.  It was such a zen activity to sit and crochet in a quite space.  I loved seeing the my friend who is a tall guy who loves sports and science but enjoyed sitting in an rocking chair crocheting with bright pink wool.  

Upfield bike path street art, Brunswick

Sylvia and I had a long walk along the Upfield bike path.  We almost made it to Tofu Shoten but it was getting late and we took a tram for the last few blocks so that we got there before it closed.  On the way I snapped this photo on the wall of Ima Pantry.  I just love this omusabi on the bike with a little pussy cat on it's head.

Tofu Shoten, Brunswick

Tofu Shoten (6B Saxon St) is an artisan store that sells tofu, soy milk and okara, all made on the premises.  It is not the cheapest tofu you will buy but it is really lovely.   It is quite unusual to see a bag of okara (the fibrous byproduct of making the soy milk) for sale.  We made a few purchases and sat on a bench nearby - behind the Brunswick Library - to sample the wares.  

Sylvia had a pandan soy milk which sold for $9.50 for a 500ml bottle.  Hers was by the cup but I did not note the price.  It was a lovely green and tasted strongly of soy.  The banana bread soy milk that we took home was much nicer with the banana and spices being the dominant flavour.  We shared an Okara Biscuit Sando filled with Pumpkin and Spiced Apple ($5.50).  It was really delicious and unusual.  We need to return for more of these sandos which have different fillings.  You can see more about my purchases at In My Kitchen: May 2026.

Kevabs, Brunswick

Ad we were finished at Tofu Shoten around 5pm on a Friday, I suggested we bring forward our plans to have a Mothers Day lunch at Kevabs (89 Sydney Road). I visited there years ago and really enjoyed the vegan Middle Eastern food.  It is very casual with games and a huge floral map of the world on the wall.  We tried the Fusball game while we waited but were not very good at it.  We were better at digging into the salads, especially the delicious pesto pasta salad.  The bean salad and kale cesar salad with falafel were nice but weren't fought over in the same way as the pesto salad.  

The other highlight at Kevabs was the dirty fries (with gravy and veagn cheese) .  The gravy was the real hero of the dish.  It was thick and tasty and made the fresh hot chips taste even better.  The vegan cheese shreds were ok but I am always less of a fan of cold vegan cheese compared to melted, and especially on hot chips.

Melbourne Writers Festival

I snapped up tickets to see some of my independent media heroes at the Melbourne Writers Festival before realising that it was Mothers Day.  I managed to spend time with my daughter and my mum on the day so no regrets.  It was amazing to see a panel of Antoinette Latouf, Antoun Isssa and Amy Remeikis with Osman Faruki as moderator on the topid of Breaking News: The Rise of Independent Media at the gorgeous location (what is it' name) in the city.  

It was so interesting to hear them discuss the challenges of working in the mainstream media and then moving to independent news platforms.  Some of the topics were about being told their cultural backgrounds made them biased as though bias is not something we all carry; the press gallery being too close to politicians to report objectively; and the influence of billionaires on mainstream media.  I loved the hope, the intelligence, the passion and the cameraderie of the panel.  These independent journalists are well worth following (check out Ette Media, Deep Cut, The Point).

Mothers Day at Archive, Geelong

After the Melbourne Writers Festival panel and doughnuts at home with Sylvia, I drove to Geelong for a late afternoon catch up with my mum and family at Archive Wine Bar (140 High Street, Belmont).  It was great to sip on non alcoholic bubbly, nibble on the snack boards and catch up with family.  (Photo by my sister, Fran).

Tylers Milk Bar, Preston

We had a flying visit to Tylers (656 Plenty Road) before an appointment.  Sylvia had a vegan cheese and tofu bacon toastie, I had a zucchini and parmesan muffin with dressed leaves on the side.  It was quick and filled the spot.  Sylvia was very impressed the with drink special: Hot Malt Mocha Latte which was served with choc malt dirt around the rim and melting down the side.  We took away a funfetti cookie and a rhubarb, blackberry and ginger muffin that were very good.

Mister Nice Guy, Ascot Vale 

It has been a long time since I have been to Mister Nice Guy's vegan bakery (151 Union Road).  Too long!  We got a window seat where I had a Spinach and tofu quiche and a Popcorn mudslide cupcake.  I liked that the quiche had a good firm texture with a lot of unseasoned tofu in it.  I topped it with sauce and really enjoyed it.  The chocolate cupcake was lovely with a mound of frosting.  I ate more frosting than I usually would because I was busy hunting for the caramelised popcorn with chocolate drizzle on top of this mound.  Sylvia had a cheese and spinach scroll that was really soft (even a bit much) and really loved her raspberry white chocolate cheesecake that I dare to say was the pick of of purchases.

Mokum, Brunswick 

It was great to return to the Mokum (359 Sydney Road) for lunch.  Sylvia and I embraced the 'Dutch' dishes on offer.  She was excited to have some great fried tempeh with her Nasi Goreng,   I had Aruban cornbread with pumpkin puree, smashed avocado, vegan feta, radish and I ordered some Dutch cheese on the side.  E went with a plainer fried egg in a brekky bun with a rosti.  We were very pleased with our lunch before seeing Daisies.  I plan to write more about Mokum soon.

Update: I now have a post on Mokum, Dutch Café & Bar.

Daisies, Brunswick Picture House

I was fascinated and delighted to see Daisies as part of the Brunswick Underground Film Festival (BUFF) at the Brunswick Picture House (510-512 Sydney Road).  It is a 1966 Czech New Wave film made about two young women's pranks.  They take advantage of the men they date, misbehave in a cabaret audience and most spectacularly swing from the chandelier and have a food fight in a room set up for a formal dinner party.  It is a visual feast of colourful and bold images accompanied by much giggling.  The subversive political messages are a cinematic resistance to authoritarianism and patriarchy.

Market Gardens history talk, Coburg History Society

I was excited at going to a talk on the history of Chinese market gardens in Coburg by Sophie Loy Wilson.  It made me hunt out my post grad writings on market gardens history and find that long before I ever had anything to do with Coburg, I had written about Coburg's market garden history.  I really enjoyed hearing about Sophie finding information from the perspective of the Chinese market gardeners through court documents.  She is a fascinating researcher.

Coburg Farmers Market 

We went along to the Coburg Farmers Market twice in May and you can see more of what we purchased at In My Kitchen: May 2026.  I have seen the Big Springs food truck many times at the market and this month I finally tried one.  And then had another on our next visit.  You can see a photo of the innards of a Big Spring in the top photo.   There is also one in the above photo.  It is skulking in the background of wonderful Better Now Bakes baking: Pistachio and olive oil cake with strawberry sumac glaze, Smashed potato and mushroom xo sauce, Chive, pickle and dill scone,  and a lovely green Pandan and coconut cake.  We didn't get through all of it at the market but we enjoyed it all, especially the pistachio cake.

Bike pumps at the servo

I have some petrol stations that I go every now and again to pump up the tyres on my bike.  I went to one of them recently only to be told they don't have the regular attachment for the bike.  So I went down the road to another only to find it is now totally self service.  No staff on site at all.  

I remember when we would drive into the servo (as we would call the petrol station) and the mechanic would ask "fill 'er up?" because we sat in the car while he filled up the petrol. Self service then became filling up the car and then paying at the counter.  Now the meaning of self serve is changing again.  

I much prefer having staff on site but some aren't that helpful.  At the third petrol station I asked if they had a pump for bike tyres and was told no.  By now I was desperate and looked around again and found the pump in the picture which I was able to use to for my bike.  It was a relief to have the wheels pumped tight because it makes riding so much easier.

Croix Croissants, Flemington

We saw the specials at Croix croissant bakery (185 Mt Alexander Rd) and on a whim headed there to share the Earl Grey chocolate croissant and the Pumpkin pie cruffin.  These were excellent flaky veagn bakes.  The cruffin had spiced pumpkin puree and a custard filling.  The croissant was my favourite with a lovely chocolate filling with a pleasant floral flavour.  

Plant Based Alternative, Woolworths Supermarket, Moonee Ponds 

Another change I was surprised to notice was the sign in the Moonee Ponds Woolworth in the fridge section saying "Plant based alternatives".  It still amazes me that there is so much available for vegans and vegetarians in the supermarket these days!  Lots of tofu, vegan cheese, sausages and other mock meats.

Wild Timor, Coburg

 I have been impressed with a couple of vegan selections on the specials board at Wild Timor (282 Sydney Rd).  Now that it is cooler they have been serving soups.  I had a sweet potato and leek soup (pictured) that was served with croutons, sweet potato crisps, and sourtough toast, as well as a floral garnish.  I loved the presentation and it tasted great.  I also tried the Polenta bites with relish.  They were delicious fried rectangles of polenta with a mildly spiced tomato sauce.  

In the News

In Australia, the commentary on the Federal government's Budget announcements was mixed.  Treasurer Jim Chalmers was either a communist or had not gone far enough with the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax to improve opportunities for young people to be home owners.  Meanwhile the government chose to slash the NDIS funds that improve the lives of the vulnerable people in our society while giving huge tax breaks to the wealthiest including gas corporations.  The complexities of the political landscape are also reflected by One Nation's win in the Farrar byelection and Andy Burnham's campaign for the Makerfield byelection in the UK.  

Shaken staff and an author exodus: how a picture book plunged an acclaimed Australian publisher (QUP) into a crisis over antisemitism, The Guardian, 2 May 2026.

The rules-based order is breaking down before our eyes, Gillian Triggs speech on the 125th anniversary of the opening of Australian Parliament at the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings, in Pearls and Irritations, 13 May 2026

Big batteries took a bite out of gas generators’ evening peak party, then they ate the whole dinner (how battery storage (battery storage  is replacing the gas evening peak in Queensland), Renew Economy, 14 May 2026.

Andy Burnham runs — and Keir Starmer must oversee his own demise, Goodall and Good Luck substack, 15 May 2026.

The Gazification of Lebanon, by Ayoub Khan, in the Tribune, 18 May 2026.

5 reasons Stephen Colbert is one of the most important satirists in American history (reflections on his final show), by Sophia A McClennen, in The Conversation, 20 May 2026. 

Australians allege they were abused after IDF intercepted Gaza flotilla and Itamar Ben-Gvir taunted them, The Guardian, 22 May 2026.

"This is the most violent experience I've ever been through": Sam Woripa Watson safe after over 80 hours in Israeli detention (Wangerriburra and Birri Gubba filmmaker and activist speaks of the abuse suffered when the Gaza flotilla was intercepted), Black Witness, 23 May 2026.

One Nation Is The Wrong Answer To The Right Question, Sue Barrett: every solution becomes a conversation Substack, 23 May 2026.

Everyone Wants Reform Until Reform Arrives, by The Snarky Gherkin Substack, 25 May 2026.

Friday essay: How to Sell a Genocide exposes the double standards of reporting on Gaza, by Jeff Sparrow, in The Conversation, 29 May 2026. 

Watching and Reading

Films

• The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar - gorgeous playful sets and an impressive British cast make for enjoyable viewing of the clever and thoughtful short films based on Roald Dahl's short stories. 
• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget - fun and colourful Aardman animations.  I couldn't help but wonder if the film was an attempt to horrify children about the idea of eating chicken nuggts.
• Da Kath and Kim Code - enjoyable despite being so suburbanly silly.
• Jurassic Park - I was curious to see a classic movie I had never seen before.  It was scary and silly and makes me wish for the Sam Neill character to be running the world. Oh for a reluctant hero in politics who turns out to be brave and intelligent!  
• Madame Web: we enjoyed this Marvel film despite it's terrible reception. The action was fast and hard to keep up with at times but the interaction between past and future were interesting.

TV:

• Kath and Kim - iconic Melbourne suburban comedy about a mother and daughter - It's noice, it's different, it's unusual!
• Upper Middle Bogan - Sylvia followed Glen Robbins from Kath and Kim to this comedy about an upper class woman finding out she was adopted and meeting her bogan working class birth family.

History:

• Hitler's plan for Australia? in the Snarky Gherkin substack, May 24, 2026 - wonderful piece of historical inquiry that delves into not just what-if but explores the world view of authoritarian government on a country such as Australia.

Books: 

• Inconvenient Women: Australian Radical Writers 1900-1970 by Jacqueline Kent - this history of women writers in the Twentieth Century, learning a lot about writers I have loved, books I would love to read and books I want to re-read, and the history of radicalism, especially communisim, in Australia.  This wonderful book made me nostalgic for my days of studying 20th Centure history and literature at university.
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell - fascinating insight into the life of poverty as a dish pig in Paris and a tramp in London.  I hope that the French restaurant kitchens are no longer as filthy as described and I wish I could say that Orwell's advocacy for the poor had made greater improvements than we see today.  Of course, this is a book to read in the context of the 1920s culture's prejudices and expectations.

Article on benefits of the liberal arts education

"This is water" (on James Clear's website) is a speech originally delivered by David Foster Wallace as the 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, USA.  I loved his reflections on how a liberal arts education really teaches us how to think.  This is the sort of considerations I would love to be in the minds of all politicians when making decisions on funding universities.

Here are a few of the ideas in the speech that he fleshes out with insight and stories:

"... one part of what teaching me how to think is ... [t]o be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded."

"... learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. " 

"there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day." 

Other posts I uploaded on Green Gourmet Giraffe in May 2026:

Cloudehill Gardens, Miss Marples Tearoom and Ripe ...

Rococo Italian Restaurant and Monarch Cakes, St Kilda

Street Art in Melbourne: Northcote 2026

In My Kitchen: May 2026

How can it be June already!  This year is speeding towards the winter solstice and beyond.  In my kitchen we have mostly been revisiting old recipes with a few new ones.  There have been lots of noodles, tempeh, greens and apples.  Above is a photo of a favourite recipe for Mee goreng that I tried with tempeh instead of tofu and it was so so good.  We've had lots of interesting food from supermarkets and the farmers market, with a few fancy morsels from Smith and Deli and Tofu Shoten.  

Life has been ridiculous as usual.  I lost my car key only to find it days later in my bed under the covers.  I subscribed to the Age years ago for local news but that has got so hard to find among the click bait that I have finally cancelled it.  I bought an insert for our air fryer that looked small but like so many other purchases, once inside our small house it looked much bigger and would not fit.  I had hoped that logging my account would have given proof of purchase, in lieu of a receipt, but I found out after a long queue that it did not.  

This is how I have been frying the tempeh in thin triangles so it gets crispy.  It was really good in Mee gorang and Laksa.  As you can see our egg flip had tired of overwork on the cast iron frypan and collapsed.  Or maybe it had too many falls on the ground.  

I also tried frying diced tempeh with tofu bacon marinade.  It tasted great but did not get crisp in the way that tofu does.  I will try it with bigger slices next time.  However the diced tempeh bacon was excellent on top of the cheese on a veg pizza.

I revisited this Pumpkin Laksa with both fried tofu and tempeh.  Sylvia did not fancy that pumpkin chunks so I pureed the pumpkin and added to the broth.  I used a vegan laska curry paste to save time making spice mix (though I still added onion and garlic) but it still took a while.  I also used broccolini instead of asparagus.  We were impressed at how good it looked when served with been sprouts, spring onions, a wedge of lime (off our tree) and Vietnamese basil.

When we had unused cabbage, I decided to look at a different sort of minestrone than our usual one.    The paler Minestrone with Cabbage and White Beans was a great change.  It was also a great  opportunity to use leek from the farmers market.  I changed this recipe to have more pasta, 2 tins cannellini beans, no walnut parmesan, added a finely chopped half a cauliflower, finely chopped herbs and garlic.  

The following night when we had leftovers I made Gaarlic pizza with our regular Fast track sourdough pizza base.   I sprayed it with olive oil, spread some garlic paste, sprinkled it with Italian herbs, garlic granules , flaked salt and black pepper.  Then I grated cheddar cheese over it. This made an excellent accompaniment to the soup.

There was half a cauliflower to use.  I had bought it because it was in season and it felt like we had not had much lately.  This half was fried in the air fryer with just a spray of olive oil and some seasoning.  It took about 18 minutes at 200 C.  I was inspired by the Tinned Tomatoes blog's Air Fryer Cheesy Cauliflower Steaks.  Ours were used in a bowl of vegies and beans with the below Mexican spiced rice. 

I have made the Mexican spiced rice from PlantYou quite a bit but this was my worst one.  It was soggy and I am unsure if it was due to getting the cooking time wrong (15 not 10 minutes) or if I put too much water in or both!  Sylvia thought it great.  I had thought I had found a good recipe for Mexican spiced rice and hope this is a blip.  In the past spice rice has always burnt so I liked this with more water than the recipe said.  I will need to try again.

This is a humble but delicious salad sandwich made with a potato sourdough bread from the supermarket.  Inside is cheese, mayo, grated carrot, sliced purple cabbage, rocket and mayo.

We walked most of the way to Tofu Shoten in Brunswick where they make fresh tofu.  Sylvia was excited to have the banana bread milkshake with fresh soy milk.  We tried the tofu balls which were nice by themselves but fairly plain and probably better in soup as recommended.  Best of all was the smoked tofu.  It was a lot softer than most tofu I cook with.  This was a challenge.  I wanted to feature it's fresh smoky flavours.  I found a fairly simple crispy breaded tofu nuggets recipe that was an excellent way to eat it.  I needed about 2 tbsp more of the milk.  It was much quicker than my usual tofu nuggets.  Next time I need to plan a recipe to add in the tofu nuggets.

We had another go at making a spanikopita.  This one was bigger and better. I used a bunch of spinach and a bunch of curly kale so it was packed with greens.  It never ceases to amaze me at how little greens are left after cooking. Next time I will also add some fresh dill.  

Here is my final spanikopita.  We made a lot of changes to the previous spanikopita attempt.  As well as lots of greens, we used tofutti cream cheese (which seems to have made a resurgence in the shops) and the rest of the almond feta from the Damona factory.  It was probably double the size of the last one and I had worked out that I needed to bake the scroll in a round dish to keep its shape.  I liked the Damona feta more than Sylvia.  She is keen to try one with homemade feta so that is the next step in the challenge.

We were at KFL for sticky rice.  Sylvia has enjoyed it in the microwave pouches from the supermarket but it is neither the cheapest or most eco-friendly way to buy it.  So we headed to the KLF Asian supermarket.  While there we also bought Lychee and passionfruit Lady boba bubble tea (enjoyed), Vincent vegetarian food's vegan super vegie balls (still in our freezer), Surasang Japchae Gyoza (oops found they had shrimp paste in them and gave the rest away), Passionfruit popping boba and Pandan Chendol (these two were for a sticky rice dessert that is yet to be).  

We have only made the sticky rice once which involved soaking the rice overnight and then steaming in a steamer basket lined with cheesecloth.  I want to try this 16 minute method for cooking sticky rice in the microwave.

I ended up in Thornbury High Street after an appointment and visited Naturally on High.  I love a fancy health food store.  I got tempeh for Mee Goreng, a packet of Keogh's Guinness Irish potato crisps and Stroopwafels.  After the gyoza vegan fail I suddenly remembered that Guinness had once been not suitable for vegans but was relieved to find online that it is now suitable.  Which was just as well because the chips were really tasty and moreish.  They reminded me a bit of Marmite crisps (if I can say that without offending Guinness and Marmite fans!).  The stroopwafels were to share with Sylvia but I forgot to to check these and found they were not vegan.  So I had to eat them all by myself.  A delicious mistake!

 
I brought home this Snickers doughnut from Smith and Deli in Collingwood.  I was too ful after half a sandwich to eat it there.  I had expected a lots of gooey chocolate on top as well as caramel and peanuts.  In fact it was more like a chewy chocolate caramel fudge topping scattered generously with chopped peanuts and drizzled with a peanut sauce.  Although not as expected, it was excellent.  I loved the fudgy topping that was a lovely contrast to the soft doughnut.

We love our kombuchas and have enjoyed some of the Remedy Small Batch series.  Sylvia really loved the Lychee and Strawberry flavour and I really loved the pomegranate and cherry.  I also really enjoyed the Twinings Sparkling Tea with Raspberry Lemonade and White Tea.  It was fizzy and had a nice light fruity flavour.  However, I don't think it would replace my love of kombucha.

Carmen's protein pistachio delight - on special and nowhere to be seen the next week - sylvia annoyed that she gets drawn in by pistachios but then finds it has peanuts

These Zucchini, Pea and Danish Fetta Fritters were just for me as they were Vegetarian but not vegan.  I cooked them in the airfryer and they were beautifully crisp and light.  I ate them with hummus, red pepper, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach and our favourite Turkish bread from the Melbourne Kebab Station.

On Mothers Day, Sylvia kindly went out and to buy us doughnuts fromAll Day Doughnuts while I was out at a talk.  She chose Choc fudge, Coconut lime and Orange and rhubarb fritter.  (Yes, they had been sampled by the time I took a photo.)  Also in the photos are some presents from op shops including a replacement copy of a favourite book from Sylvia's childhood that we can't find.

Here are a few more supermarket purchases.  We were amused by the message on the vegan Oatly cream packet that we bought for leek and potato soup.  The dill was for the soup.  Sylvia wanted to try the Health Lab Mylk chocolate juicy cherry bars.  She liked them but I found they has an odd taste of added flavours.  I think they are like a healthy version of the less healthy Cherry Ripe chocolate bars, which I must prefer.

I took this photo of some of the stuff hanging around our kitchen.  We had bought a variety of apple s from the Coburg Farmers Market.  (I still miss the Three Bridges apples we used to buy there.)  They were great with muesli.  The limes in the cup are from our tree and were mostly used in limeade.  Not as many as we have had from our tree in the past but better after the trees have been battling citrus lime miner and gall wasp.  I only got one lemon from our other citrus tree this year.  Slim pickings.

Also in the photo  is a vase that Sylvia found in an op shop, a smart little tartan case where I keep my phone's headphones, a sparkly bracelet that Sylvia put back together with gorilla glue, some chimes that make music in the a garden, birthday cake candles that I washed individually after the ants got them, sweet little glass covered stand, and our score for a Scrabble game (Sylvia won)!

We had another visit to Coburg Farmers Market when we met a friend.  Our haul included the bread, tomatoes, leek, kale, eggplant, babaganoush, sauerkraut and pickled grapes.  On the way home we dropped into Terre Madre for a large bag of wholemeal flour and also purchased kombucha, Damona cheese and Love Love's Pistachio mylk praline and Double chocolate truffle.  All good stuff!

It was a long queue to buy Psomi bread but well worth it.  This former Australian masterchef contestant makes amazing bread.  The previous week, we had queued only to find that they only had their regular Farmers Bread.  So I got there earlier and hoped I could try the Black sesame porridge bread.  It was sold out again but we bought some wonderful olive bread.  Just look at that open crumb and shiny crust.

Even more amazing was the Mulled Wine Pickled Grapes from Acide.  It is not a stall we usually go to but Jo stopped to taste some of the wares.  We did too.  And walked away with a couple of jars.  The sauerkraut was great but these pickled grapes were amazing.  I've never seen any like it before.  The grapes are pickled in vinegar, sugar, star anise, mandarin peel, clove and cinnamon.  Slightly sweet with a bit of acid and lots of warm spices, they are begging to be on a fancy cheese board.

In case you are wondering about how we ate them, the olive bread and the mulled wine pickled grapes were wonderful on a grazing platter of red capsicum, cheddar cheese, fried eggplant, sauerkraut, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach.  Such a good dinner!

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her delightful seasonal hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this even that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.  

In My Kitchen: April 2026

April was a busy month of Easter celebration food, including hot cross buns and vegan Easter chocolate ,and lots of easy meals.  We were eating more stews and baked potatoes as the weather cooled in the first half of the month before it returned to the balmy mid 20s in the second half of the month. I made old faves (zucchini slice, lentil soup, mock tuna salad) and had fun with some new recipes (a polka dot nut roast of sorts, miso bean pasta and spanikopita).  Sylvia made lots of scrambled tofu lunches.  

As always, I will also write a My Monthly Chronicles post with more about outings and eating out in April. I also celebrated my 19th blog anniversary with post on the Coconut and chocolate layer cake that I made for the Cake picnic last month.

The above picture is from the polka dot nut roast I made for a bit of fun at Easter.  I was inspired by my Christmas nut roast and my Aboriginal flag nut roast but needed to make it vegan for Sylvia.  So I added some tahini as well as besan and aqua faba.  Then I had to work out colours for each of the polka dots.  They all needed tweaking.  The beetroot colour was the best once I pureed it, I wanted the kale to be a brighter greener and the saffron was better in the Aboriginal flag than using turmeric. Another challenge was arranging the coloured dots and finding I needed more "white" batter around them and then realising I should have made the colours random rather than in a row.  It took a few hours at night and was quite an achievement.

I took the polka dot nut roast to my parents place in Geelong for the Easter Sunday roast.  I also made one for Sylvia and E to have for their Easter meal back in Melbourne.  Sylvia did not like this nut roast as much as the Christmas one that inspired it and I will have another go at veganising it.  However I was pleased with it and loved how the polka dots gave it pops of colour when slicing.  I would love to try it again and really want to play more with colours in nut roasts.  I just need more time for it.

On her first vegan Easter, Sylvia was able to find quite a few treats.  Clockwise from top left: Nomo cookie dough chocolate bunny and Mummy Meegz chucki chocolate (vegan creme egg); Plant Cocoa Hot Cross Hazelnut Easter eggs; Nomo chocolate egg with crispy pieces and a cookie dough bunny; Barbie Vegan gummy carrots (package); the gummy carrots; hot cross buns.  Sylvia loved all of it, though was disappointed she did not find any pana chocolate hot cross bun bars of chocolate.  The Planet Chocolate eggs were the best.

I baked the Sourdough Hot Cross Buns - my fave HCB recipe I make each year and experimented with (and posted) a recipe for Matcha, white chocolate and coconut hot cross buns.  They were pretty good except the matcha was too old to be very green.

I returned from Geelong with some good stuff, which is seen here with a couple of treats exchanged at home. Sylvia got the Nomo easter bunny from E, the Mummy Meegz Chickee Eggs (mini eggs) from me and I received the Health Lab Aussie lamington jam filled balls (amazing).  My sister Susie kindly found a bar of Lindt vegan milk chocolate for Sylvia, my dad organised gorgeous personalised glass Easter eggs to be made for each grandkid (Sylvia's is green and came in the unicorn bag), my mum made hot cross buns and my sister Fran gave me a jar of her Frankly Raw peanut butter.

Organising to buy vegan Easter eggs was more of a challenge than the regular milk ones in the supermarket.  I rode to a few places one afternoon to find them.  Pickles Milkbar had a good range of vegan Easter eggs.  While there I purchased a cheeseymite pastry scroll.  I asked about the sausage rolls and was given one to sample - it was a bit much mock meat for me but Sylvia loved it.  

On my travels I also purchased the Sweet William white chocolate melts, were was disappointingly thin an so sweet and the DJ&AShitake, oyster and nameko mixed mushroom crisps.  We have had the shitake crisps before and preferred those to the mix as the oyster mushrooms did not taste great.

I went to a work symposium and had a lovely time chatting to people in the breaks but did not spend much time getting myself food.  While riding home I found I was quite peckish and so I stopped at Cheaper Buy Miles in Sydney Road.  It is a grocery store with cheap remainder stock.  I bought all of this for $13: a packet of (tiny) vegetable mom, two dairy free almond Magnum ice creams, a tin of chunky pumpkin and chickpea soup, a packet of oregano Zeus Street Greek pita crackers, and a huge bag of mini potato cakes.  

Those mini potato cakes were a delightful indulgence.  I usually only have potato cakes with orders from a fish and chip shop.  These ones were so cute and lasted a while in the freezer.  They were great as a snack, a side and on pizza.

A friend offered me a monster zucchini and I could not resist.  It was from her friend's garden but she could not convince her kids to have zucchini fritters.  I made it into a vegan Zucchini slice.  Traditionally zucchini slice has been made in Australian households as an easy way to make dinner with surplus zucchini.  

I weighed this zucchini by chopping it into parts.  Initially it was more than I needed for the slice. I was surprised that the bulbous end weighed about 700g - and I thought the zucchini was much heavier than the 1kg I needed - but once I scooped out the seeds in this part, it weighed about 400g.   

This zucchini slice was much slower than the traditional one with eggs and bacon.  This one took a few hours by the time I had made a batch of tofu bacon, the tofu besan omelette mixture, grated and squeezed out the zucchini, mixed it all up and baked it.  It was amazing.  Well worth the effort.  While I used the Zucchini slice recipe from my blog, I added a bit of extra flour, besan and nooch which meant this time it was firm enough to slice.  I wish I could say how much but it was a bit of this and bit of that.  I also added panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds on top.  This is the best zucchini slice I have ever made.  

I made my first vegan spanikopita.  I used a traditional spanikopita recipe from Somebody feed Seb with a bit of cross reference to the Lazy Cat Kitchen's vegan spinach and ricotta rolls.  I also used this vegan cashew feta recipe with olive brine that I have made previously.  I cooked it a bit longer this time and it was better for crumbling but still needs to be a bit thicker.  Sylvia was keen on making the spanikopita as a coil.  I learnt that a coil needs to be baked in a tin or it will crack and flick out at odd angles like a broken spring.  It was pretty good.  Could be better.  I am determined to try this again.

Sylvia's favourite lunch at the moment is scrambled tofu.  She fries up some chopped sausage or tofu bacon, crumbles in unpressed firm tofu and adds in lots of seasoning: nutritional yeast flakes, stock powder, dijon mustard, turmeric, smoked paprika, garlic powder, black salt and black pepper.  Then it just needs to be stirred for a few minutes until well combined and sometimes baby spinach is added after the gas jet is turned off.  It doesn't take long at all.  We had had it lots of ways.  Above clockwise from the top are scramble and lettuce in a tortilla wrap; scramble and baby spinach on toast: scramble, tomato, lettuce and rice;  and scramble with mini potato cakes and spinach.  All were excellent.  Sylvia told me that the rice bowl presentation was very la-di-dah!

One lunchtime when we had a good sourdough bread I made a Mock tuna (chickpea) salad and stuffed it into a sandwich with lots of scramble and a generous handful of baby spinach.  It was so good.  I put a skewer in it to hold it together for the photo because it was so stuffed that it was struggling to fit together.

I love tempeh but Sylvia is not so keen on it.  She has been trying some dishes with tempeh that tempts her.  tempting tempeh!  This Creamy Orzo with Tempeh Crumbles was a great dish for the tempeh doubters.  It had vegan cream, cannellini beans, roasted eggplant and sun dried tomato.  I forgot to check the eggplant while roasting and it was pretty charred.  Again I am more of an eggplant lover than Sylvia and was less fazed by her by the char.  I hope we make it again - maybe with peas for a touch of green next time!

Another delicious new meal was this Bean Miso Pasta with a creamy sauce made by blending a tin of butterbeans, including the liquid, with white miso, sesame oil, nutritional yeast flakes and lemon juice.  It was so easy and tasty that it was made two weeks in a row.

I have made this Creamy lentil and vegetable soup two weeks in a row.  It is a great way to use up vegies in the fridge.  I wonder how it would be with some pumpkin in it!  I found it in a favourite Alison Holst cookbook years ago when I cooked from cookbooks so much more than online recipes.  It has been so lovely that I have an urge to return to my cookbooks.  I just need to find more time for them!  I was pleased to update the photo in my original blog post as the first one was not pretty!!!!

I returned to this Gnocchi, Cabbage and Sausage recipe that I had made from a couple of recipes and wrote about in last month's In my kitchen post.  I tried it a different way by adding water after the initial frying so the cabbage was partly boiled and greener than when I had just fried it.  I preferred it this way but Sylvia didn't.  I think it might have had something to do with the gnocchi being cooked too much but can't remember.  This needs more work but it is a good easy meal that I want to develop.

We make pizza with my ridiculously easy Fast track sourdough pizza dough most Friday nights.  This pizza pictured was a fantastic vegan pizza I made that was topped with  tomato sauce, mushroom, capsicum, olives, chopped leftover baked potato, Damona almond feta and grated Damona American cheese.  I usually put dairy cheese on mine but occasionally make it vegan so I can share with Sylvia.

This picture is from my bed when I had pizza leftover on a Saturday morning and was reading in bed.  I don't do it too often but I am finding that occasionally reading in bed on a weekend morning is a great way to get more reading in.  Perhaps this is why I have finished as many books in 4 months as I read in the whole of 2025!  I started a couple that I could not finish as I kept losing track of them with infrequent reading.)  In April I have enjoyed reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer, with Annie Barrows) and Inconvenient Women: Australian Radical Writers 1900-1970 (Jacqueline Kent).

(I have passed on my copy (from the op shop) of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to my dad who is on driving around Tasmania with my mum and family friends.  He highly recommends it for holiday reading!) 

This Crispy rice salad is becoming a summer favourite.  This time we made it with lettuce, avocado, edamame, cucumber with the dressing from the Japanese cucumber salad and a sprinkle of fukikake. It is really good.  I think it wont be made much over winter but I hope it comes back into our meals again when it gets warmer later in the year.

I wrote about buying panisse from the Vegan market in My Monthly Chronicles: March 2026.  This is one of the ways we ate it.  I air fried the panisse while Sylvia fried diced potatoes.   (She preferred the panisse fried on the stovetop in our cast iron frypan).  I served mine in a bowl with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red cabbage, red capsicum, leftover Easter nut roast, yoghurt and pickles.  I really love bringing together bits and pieces in a bowl.

Here is our cat Shadow trying to work out how to open the kitchen door.  My regular plumber (not the cheap one who is no longer answering my call and I fear has retired) came to fix some washers and leaks in the bathroom taps.  He had installed my air con and checked if I was cleaning the filters.  The shame!  After a stern talking to, I smeared them with washing detergent and soaked them in the laundry sink before scrubbing them.  He suggested they get cleaned whenever the season changes!  Must try harder!

I moved a kitchen chair to get the filters out.  Shadow will jump to grab at the round door handle to try and open it when he is desperate to go out. Yet he lives in hope and was happy to get closer where he could try and work it out.  We were laughing to much to take a photo of him jumping to try and open the door.  Sylvia managed to take a photo of him standing.  He is such a long cat!  He is more successful with door handles that we push down to open.  We sometimes hear that thump as he jumps at a door handle.  As the weather cools and we shut the doors more, I expect we will be hearing more thumping soon!  

 

My sister finally flew out from Ireland with her son, 6 weeks after her plane was turned back on her first try.  We went to visit them in Geelong at my parents' home where they were staying.  It was good to see them.  My sister kindly brought presents.  Fruit candles for me.  Percy pig lollies from Marks and Spencer for both of us.  Vegan chocolate truffles from Marks and two gorgeous hair clips that you can't see well in the photo - a peacock and a parrot.  I also brought home leftover fried rice with tofu that my mum had made for lunch; it made a great work lunch.  Sylvia declared the chocolate truffles were wonderful and made her feel so much better that Lindt balls are not vegan.  

My sister also visited us in Melbourne while she was on our side of the world.  We had all sort of plans which changed as her plans changed.  There is never enough time for her on a quick visit home.  Sylvia and I went to Terre Mardre in Sydney Road where we bought lovely hummus, grapes, salad leaves, vegan tomato deli meat slices and a great sourdough baguette.  We served these with some tofutti, carrots, red capsicum, and celery.  The snack platters were great for my sister to fortify her for the epic journey back to my parents' on the bus that was so much slower than the train it was replacing.  Sylvia grazed on them platters with Chris and ate the rest for our dinner!

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her delightful seasonal hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this even that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.