The Vegan Butcher

Since I moved to London in October I have lived in the predominately Pakistani East End neighbourhood of Upton Park, or, as my friends and I lovingly refer to it, Upton Parkistan. I live in a house share with Indian and Pakistani housemates and have learned a lot of new things since being here. I’m going to share one of those things with you now.

This is the rough recipe for Pakistani Cauliflower Curry, as taught to me by my lovely former housemate, Hana. (more…)

It’s not always easy being vegan in a non-vegan world. In this post I will not cry you a river about never being able to eat in social situations, blah blah. This post is about the amazing and heartwarming times you find omnivorous restaurants that are willing to go out of their way to ensure you get a delicious vegan meal in their non-vegan setting. Here are some stories about places like that. (more…)

This weekend Canadians from coast to coast to coast are celebrating Thanksgiving. Here’s a little excerpt from our friends at Wikipedia regarding the Canadian roots of Thanksgiving:

“The origins of the first Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher’s Thanksgiving celebration was not for harvest, but for homecoming. He had safely returned from an unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland to give thanks for surviving the long journey. Years later, the tradition of a feast would continue as more settlers began to arrive to the Canadian colonies.”

Well, I’m a Londoner now, so technically this week is a homecoming for me, right? Time for a feast?! (more…)

Today was a mad day in Londontown! It would have fulfilled any vegan’s dream. Well, this vegan’s dream, anyway. And it’s finally coming true!!! AHABSFHJNSLGNLSA!!!!!!! Now that I’m a London girl, I can explore its vegan community as much and as sloooowly as I want. That hasn’t quite settled in yet (as illustrated below). Aaaanyway, it’s now waaayyyy past midnight in jolly old England, so let’s recap this day swiftly. (more…)

I was sitting at home one evening after work last month when an unknown number came up on my cell phone. I normally don’t answer numbers I don’t recognise, but something compelled me to do otherwise that night.

“Hello?”

“Is this Tracy?”

“Sure is!” I answered, not knowing who it was, but thinking it could possibly be my friend Jana.

“Do you like vegetables?”

“You know it! What have you got?”

“This is Annik.”

Well, then. (more…)

For the past three years I have worked at a leading health insurance company and it has been wonderful. I love my company and I am crazy about my coworkers. This is my last week working with them because in a week and a half I will be hopping across the pond to live in London. I will miss my company terribly; it just happens to be on the wrong continent.

Whenever we have something to celebrate in the sales department we always, always have a “food day” (potluck). These food days are the perfect way to share recipes, show off cooking skillz, and socialise. We love ‘em! (more…)

In honour of passing 666 followers on Twitter, here is a post on seitan. (Ahahahaha. Oh, SO CLEVER, Tracy!) Big up to my 666th follower, @nubiandread!

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I have a vegan buddy in England who wants me to teach him some new kitchen skills when I move there this fall.

“I can totally do that!” I thought to myself as we chatted, feeling confident in my skills, “Just as long as he doesn’t request lessons in making seit—“

“…especially if I can learn to cook seitan!”

Melonfarmer. (For those of you joining this programming in progress, that is the curse I use instead of “motherfacker”. It’s friendlier for my Mama, whom I know reads this blog.) (more…)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. He created the first man and named him Adam. When He was about to create a companion for Adam He addressed him and said, “Adam, I can create you the most beautiful of all creatures and she shall be your partner, but it will cost you an arm and a leg.” Adam considered, and then said, “What can I get for a rib?”

AHAHHAHA. Okay, I seriously hear that terrible joke in my head every time anyone mentions ribs in any context. You had best believe it was being hollered over and over in that echoey and empty cavern upstairs when I was making these bad boys. To drown it out I jammed my earbuds in, put Prince’s Very Best Of album on loop, and cranked it up.

I saw this recipe a couple months ago and immediately wanted to tackle it. It’s fairly labour intensive, so I needed to be in the right physical and mental place to do it. That day finally arrived last week. (more…)

My last post was about the meals we ate at the restaurant Fresh while I was on vacation in Toronto. This post is about all the other meals from that vacation, both in Toronto and back in my brother’s city of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. (more…)

Ahoy, mateys! Disclaimer: I plan to make pirate references throughout this entire post (as this will most likely be one of my few voyages to the sea and I plan to take full advantage of it, read on to see why).

Even before I went vegan I was never a fan of seafood. Growing up on Cape Breton Island (a.k.a. God’s Country, The Most Beautiful Place on Earth, or Down Home) I was often seen as a bit off for not joining in on lobster boils and fish fries and other such seaside rites of passage. The idea and especially the smell of fish have always disgusted me.

My first mate Jimmy and I were parleying the other day about how whenever someone points out something smelling of fish it is never in a positive context. You never hear anyone say, “Mmmmmm! What smells like fish!?!” It’s always, “Uggghhh….is that….is that fish? Do you smell that? What smells like fish?!?” That is because it’s disgusting. Straight up. No sharp, tiny, hidden bones about it.

Now, with all that said, I hypocritically would only ever want or eat fish one way, and at that only about every 2 to 3 years. Every few years I would get a hankering for fish and chips. I would head down to the Halifax waterfront (or if I were down home, one of the countless seafood restaurants on the island), get fish and chips, and be done with it for another 2 to 3 years. Well, it’s been probably 4 or 5 years since I’ve last eaten fish and chips, so I was long overdue. (more…)