Vegan Napoleon cake and Couchsurfing birthday party

When you are far away from home, it's hard to feel lonely. How come? Because of CouchSurfing!

I have been on CouchSurfing since 2007, I have hosted people from all over the world, I have been hosted in three continents and two islands. And I have always had one rule about it: if you are a guest, please, share a nice dinner (breakfast, lunch, etc.) with your host/hostess. So as soon as I started traveling and using CS, I've cooked a lot of vegan meals for my vegan/vegetarian/omnivore hosts - starting with the very first soy goulash in Helsinki (2007).

Now my obsession with food and CouchSurfing went even further and I am using this platform not only for traveling and meeting people, but also for sharing food. That's probably the easiest way to travel the world and try foods from all the planet Earth without even stepping outside.

CouchSurfing goes well with birthday parties!

While spending my spring of 2015 in Amsterdam (Netherlands), I met a lot of amazing couchsurfers and shared some nice meals together. Even my birthday party was related - almost all my guests were couchsurfers. And of course the food was vegan - we ate in the friendliest squat in A'dam - Joe's Garage. Every Monday and Thursday they serve three course vegan meal for only 4€. That's probably the cheapest you can get in whole city. 

Main course @Joe's Garage: sweet couscous with tahini sauce, salad and grilled veggies.

Every year I cook a vegan cake for my birthday. This year, however, I did not have any proper tools and equipment for cooking or making a raw nut cake. So I came up with a solution - "Napoleon" cake. You don't even need an oven to make layers for this cake!

Vegan "Napoleon" cake, yumm!

The recipe:

BATTER

3 cups of flour

200 g vegan margarine

3/4 cup of soymilk

a pinch of salt

CREAM:

0,5 l soymilk

1 cup of sugar

2 spoons of starch

250 g vegan margarine

vanilla (optional)

Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients for the batter. Knead it well and put in the fridge for an hour. Then separate it into 6-7 parts and roll each into a round sheet, ~2 mm thin. All the sheets must be the same size, so cut off extra batter from edges.

Heat a big pan, do not add any oil. When it's heated, add one sheet of batter and bake it. Pop the bubbles if you see any. Turn it around. It's done in a couple of minutes, so be careful and don't burn it!

All the leftovers cut from the sheets should also be baked. Then when it gets colder, crush it to crumbles.
Prepare the cream.

Mix the soymilk, sugar and starch. Bring it to boiling temperature while constantly stirring. Boil it till the mass becomes creamy. Turn the heat off and let it cool down. Add the margarine and whip it well.

Make the cake by spreading cream over the layers. Add more cream on top layer and sprinkle with crumbles.

Allow the layers to get softer. It's better to put something a little heavy on top of the cake and keep in in the fridge during the night.

Secret vegan paradise in Ukraine (2013)

In August, 2013 I went on a hiking trip in Crimea, Ukraine with a group of fellow vegans and vegetarians. The plan was to hike all the way from Bakhchysarai to the sea. All the food cooked on the trip was vegan!

Nice "propaganda" poster, telling to eat more fruit and vegetable: 500 grams / 5 portions a day!

Ukraine is a secret vegan paradise: you can get fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere in the markets or from some vendors just on streets. And the prices are so small!

Nice lady selling veggies and fruits on the street of Bakhchysarai

Dried fruits, berries and chalva in Simferopol. The vendors knew some words in Lithuanian!

Amazing watermellons in the market in Crimea. You need to learn a few tricks to pick the best and a ripe one!

Don't miss churchkhela - amazing fruity "sausage" candy made of wallnuts and fruit juice.

Spices sold in Simferopol

Honey, nuts and weird fruits sold in Simferopol.

Since vegan and honey does not go together, I got myself the fruit.

Momordica charantia, or a bitter melon looks really nice, but the taste is not so good.

 

When you go to the market, everyone tries to sell you their products, so before buying, you can try almost anything.

We saw a small vietnamese stand where a nice lady was selling pickled food. She had a variety of pickled or grilled veggies and mushrooms, was waving us and inviting to see what she has to sell.

We could not resist : )

The vendor gave us a lot of food to taste, so after stuffing our stomachs with a piece of each veggie, we left the market with two boxes of grilled eggplant, korean carrots, pickled mushrooms and pickled garlic sprouts.

Yes, it was the day when I fell in love with pickled garlic sprouts - it is so sad that these are hard to find!

 





Our friends told that it is hard to find vegan food outside in Kyiv. So we tried the foods that the capital city of Ukraine had to offer.

The day we arrived to Kyiv, we were invited to a birthday party with vegan shashlik made of fresh veggies, spiced tofu and marinated soy chunks. Tofu is great and cheap in Ukraine!

 

You can buy some vegan sandwiches in kiosks. They are made of rye bread, olive oil, fresh veggies and smoked seitan sausage. 

I believe that this vegan sausage was the best I have ever eaten im my whole life!

If you prefer a proper lunch, you should look for Eco Buffet restorant. They serve vegetarian food and have vegan options as well.

The chain is more of a canteen style, but food is nice, delicious and cheap. At least the bean "steak" with veggie mix (on the left) I ate!