I lost my virginity to a fermented soybean cake
November 10th, 2007 @ 7:31The whole ‘it’s veganmofo I should be posting every day’-thing isn’t going well. The truth is I’m pretty busy these days. There’s work that’s taking time (and lately I’ve been so exhausted once I’m home from work) and then there’s the upcoming veggie fair that i need to prepare things for. We’re still pretty much only planning things, although I’m working on a few small things.
Two days ago we went to one of the biggest shopping places of Sweden. It was quite an adventure that took us all day. I got out of bed at five in the morning and at 6 we were on the road. On the way there we were almost hit by a truck, that idiot was busy texting or talking on his mobile phone and was about to ram us. On the way back home (several hours later and very poor) mum’s car broke down and we had to be towed back home. Bleh!
I’m also feeling incredibly uninspired when it comes to food and food photography. We’ve mostly been eating pizza, sandwiches and fast food lately. It’ll be back soon I’m sure. I haven’t even tried anything from my new cookbooks yet, I got Eat, Drink and be Vegan not long ago and this week Veganomicon arrived. What’s wrong with me!?
And to not make this a useless post,
Veganmofo : I was once a tempeh virgin!
This country has a big problem. Huge! It’s very difficult to find tempeh. So difficult in fact that last week was the first time I ever tried it. We tried looking for tempeh when we went to England this summer but I couldn’t find any. I’ve been looking for it for so long now that I actually had started giving up. And then there it was, right before my eyes in all it’s glory. I figured I needed a really good recipe for my first ever tempeh encounter so I made Katie’s Tempeh Wingz (buy her new zine!). Everyone’s been going crazy over them and the definitely didn’t disappoint. I made 4 portions and had one myself. The other three portions Alex devoured. I swear, that man could eat an entire fridge full of food. Now I wish I could have tempeh everyday. I can’t remember the first time I had tofu, but the first time I had tempeh was definitely one to remember.
i never seems to find tempeh here too, but yesterday i found a little packed, i really dont know what to do we it, i never taste it so i really dont know how this will turn out!!
Comment by johanna3 - November 10th, 2007 at 1:58 pmI’m with you on the daily veganmofo posts, Emmie–I knew from the start I wouldn’t be able to keep that up, at least not right now. As it turns out I’ve been posting even less than usual! Yikes. Ah well…I say anything is good, it’s all in a spirit of fun.
I remember Josh saying tempeh was a little hard to find and a little $$$ in Austria too. I still have to try the whole tempeh wingz/ribz thing–sounds tasty. Glad you got to try it at last.
Comment by Anna/Veganista - November 12th, 2007 at 10:14 amdon’t worry about posting everyday for VeganMoFo – this is why I didn’t even attempt to participate, since I don’t have time to post that much (busy schedules don’t allow for too much blogging, I’m afraid). any time you get the chance to blog is perfectly acceptable – I will still read your blog each day, checking for updates, as always :0)
I’m sorry that tempeh isn’t readily available where you live – thankfully it’s quite plentiful here; but I’m glad you finally got to try it!
Comment by VeggieGirl - November 12th, 2007 at 7:46 pmI understand where you’re coming from. It’s tough for me to post every day because I simply don’t have the time to do all that cooking! I wish I did. I’d be a lot healthier and happy, but I don’t. Besides, buying all those ingredients would cost an arm and a leg!
I actually just tried tempeh recently, myself. Without any sauces or seasonings, I think it’s kind of gross. Then again, one could say the same about tofu and we all know what a miracle worker tofu is!
Comment by Suzie - November 12th, 2007 at 8:35 pmI love tempeh!! I prefer its taste to tofu or seitan, and it’s really versatile and healthy too. I’m sorry it’s difficult to find for you…I wonder how hard it would be to make at home. I’ve always fantasized about doing that, I think you can buy the culture on-line and then ferment away. Hmmmm. Well, if I ever come to Sweden, I’ll smuggle you a suitcase full of the stuff!
Comment by bazu - November 13th, 2007 at 2:49 pmxo
hey emmie!
so do tell, where did you end up finding some? i want to know how the great tempeh mystery was resolved…
xo
Comment by kittee - November 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pmkittee
Kittee – I found a block at one of the small asian stores in a nearby city. There’s two asian stores there, one is great, they’re cheap and friendly. The other one is run by really unfriendly people and they’re so expensive. I found it in the expensive store
. The tempeh itself wasn’t badly priced, just everything else is. I can only get it on Wednesdays and Thursday though and I rarely go to that city. Euuuuh. I’m getting it again as soon as I have the chance. There WILL be tempeh in my house! 
Comment by Emmie - November 15th, 2007 at 7:02 am