Vegan Hot Pot

So after we went to lunch on Sunday, Susan and I hit up the asian grocery stores in the valley.  We visited a Thai grocer and Burlington.  I stocked up on the lamyong fake meats (they had the 'good' veggie 'ham' FINALLY) and bought this interesting package:

Mixed!  Woo!

So I made it for dinner on Monday night after my usual bike ride (72.1km so far this year).

I opened the package to reveal this tiny ziplock bag:

Not suspicious at all

It was the hot pot broth.  I added it to 2000ml of boiling water (why not say 2L?) and then chopped up the hot pot 'meats':

There's fake prawns ('frawns'), fake sausage, tofu and other more seafoody things

It didn't say to chop them up, but I'm a cheapskate.

Added to the broth:

BLURRY!

I chopped up cabbage, cauliflower, pak choy and carrots to put in with the soup and then put it all together.

Hot! Pot!

It was pretty good.  We added a dash of Kikkoman Soy sauce to each bowl.  We only use Kikkoman as directed on the little bottle ;)

The broth: could have been a little saltier (thus the soy), but pretty much reminded me of hot pot/won ton broth.  As a carb freak, I knew I should have added in rice noodles (we definitely need bigger soup bowls - not enough depth to add noodles on top of the veggies you can see sticking out).

The fake meats: tasted pretty much the same as other fake seafoods I've had (the non-seaweed based ones).  Reminded me a lot of the fake meats you'd find in the Laksa at the now defunct ID Cafe in the Valley (sniff).

It was a nice change for dinner.  We have leftovers for dinner tonight, so hopefully it will be just as good.

Kuan Yin revisit

Kuan Yin has been a favourite of ours ever since we discovered it at least 9 years ago.  Late in December I discovered that they now have a blog (and a Gold Coast outlet that we have yet to try - when there's Yum Cha to have at Mermaid Beach, why would you go elsewhere? ;)).  They now do desserts!  So Susan (of Eating for Animals) and I decided to go and try out the desserts.

Of course, they were out of desserts today (sigh), but we still ate all the foods (WARNING: photos taken with my Galaxy 2, so the photos only give you a vague idea of how good it tasted).

First we had the intriguingly named Phantom Chips - taro and sweet potato rolls.

Phantom Chips

This is the Peking 'Duck" roll.  The 'Duck' is quite crispy, but the roll is done up fairly loosely so the filling is want to escape.  If I was making it I'd be rolling it up a lot tighter....

Peking 'Duck' Roll

'Duck' Roll close view

This is the 'Chicken' Wings.  They serve it with a side of chips, so perhaps they should be renamed 'Chicken' Nuggets?

Spicy, and good

They also do a Spring Roll.  It's significantly longer than the Spring Rolls you're used to.  They're served with a spicy sauce and served in a champagne glass.  Kind of hilarious for a non-alcoholic Asian cafe.

Spring Rolls

We also had the classic Fried Dumplings.  Always tasty.  Always falls apart.

Dumplings

Michael (the owner) said that they should have the Chocolate dessert on the menu next weekend.  I'd suggest going on Friday/Saturday so you can actually get one!