London Photos: London life in images by Kim Gilmour

Bizarrely, this simple photograph of a few sticks of tofu on a stick has been ‘liked’ by 207 people. It’s part of the Tofu fan page on Facebook I created a year or so ago. To date, more than 16,000 people around the world are self-proclaimed fans of the bean curd, posting images of a range of foodstuffs. It started off with just two.

It is a bit odd when you post a photograph of your dinner online and random people start commenting on it, as a friend said when I explained the tale of the skewers. Within about two minutes of posting, I had immediate responses and comments (all good!).

But that is the power of social networking. I’ve not had much of a chance to update this blog recently, yet people who are always connected to their ‘networks’ can’t get themselves out of the loop for fear of missing something important (in this case, a photograph of deep fried tofu on skewers; marinated in vegetable oil, garlic, turmeric and soy sauce).

Facebook is now the most popular place for sharing photographs, but these are often dumped straight from the digital camera on to the site, with minimal editing, and not too much context.

What about good old photo blogs – do people still visit them anymore, now we have Flickr and Facebook?

First time we’d gone here to the Shepherdess Cafe on City Rd, despite going past it many times. A little more expensive than other nearby places, but service was good and quick. Felt absolutely stuffed afterwards – chips, eggs, beans, mushrooms, toast and coffee, which I was unable to finish only because the serving was so massive – I did my best though!

If anyone can help me find out how to turn off the very loud CLICK sound emitted by my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson K750i) when I try and take a photo with it, do tell.

Anyway, what else? Oh – we got free chewing gum afterwards.

At the Whole Foods Market, High St Kensington. You had to pick these yourself. Maybe the process was supposed to make you feel like it was a more ‘natural’ experience, but I was too afraid of picking one and causing the entire mound to collapse.

After our amazing 3 month journey in South East Asia, we are back in London (see our Slow Way Round journal to read about our travel adventures and see a selection of our photos). Of course, we had not eaten a massive unhealthy English fry-up in all that time. So when this arrived, I had to capture it with my cameraphone!

Where are the London photos, you ask? Well, they are still here – browse the archives or use the search box. Where the new photos are is another story! I’ve just come back from holiday seeing family in Sydney, and I’m still getting over jet lag and contending with work again! I do hope to take a few photos on Tuesday which should be interesting – another series of secret bunker photos

In the meantime, I don’t actually have any new photos to include. But stay tuned, I haven’t forgotten about this site!

Other things we’ve been doing is trying to make bak chang (vegetarian style). Whenever we go back to Sydney we get lots of home cooked family meals. Family and family friends always make some veggie variation on a typical meat-based theme. Hiang, for example, makes her own veggie spring rolls, bak chang, tempeh choko based meals and jackfruit-based curries, which come from her Indonesian locality, Cirebon. Maria makes tempe and tofu gule, lontong, sayur lodeh and gado gado.

Hiang’s tempeh
Ingredients:
Garlic cloves
Small onion
Tempeh
Couple of cups of water
Lemongrass to taste
Galanggal to taste
Bay leaves
Sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
Peppers
Tomatoes
Coconut milk (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the garlic and onion. Cut the tempeh into cubes, mix it in with the garlic and onion, then add a little water, the lemongrass, galanggal, bay leaves and a few generous dollops of the sweet soy sauce (you can buy it at most Asian grocery stores; in London go to Tawana supermarket on Chepstow Rd, Loon Fung or New Loon Moon in Chinatown, Wing Yip near Edgware, or Oriental City in Colindale).
Add the pepper and tomato, then a small amount of coconut milk if you want. Cook until there is a small amount of sauce left which has been absorbed by the tempeh. Serve with boiled rice.

You can see Hiang’s tempeh in the photo above; it’s the top left dish.

It may look like a typical suburban backyard barbeque, but it’s in London, and the sausages are vegan (no animal matter of any sort) and made in South Africa (Fry’s brand).

We’ve got a strawberry plant in our garden and, although the poor thing was about to collapse during last week’s winds, we managed to salvage two strawberries from it this afternoon. There was some nice light in the garden, so I took a photo… These guys are in our stomachs now, but here’s a photo of them before we ate them… not actual size, of course
If anyone wants these strawberries on a T-Shirt (white bg) let me know. I’ve ordered mine from T-Shirt Zoo. Okay… just thought I’d ask…

Indonesian yellow rice (turmeric), chick peas and curry, mock abalone (fried gluten), tomatoes and raisins.

Tempeh- fermented soy – is a vitamin rich source of food and our creation was inspired by the tempeh ruebens at the Organic Harvest Cafe in New York City. You will need a slice of tempeh available at health food stores (usually in the freezer!) Click below for the recipe. Recipe by Rob.

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After a low key London Sunday we decided to go home and make some pizza. We make vegan pizzas, which means there is no meat or cheese on them. But contrary to what you may think, our pizzas are always delicious, full flavoured, moist with a crisp base and easy to make (as you can see from the image). Find out how to make them here…

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