melbourne food adventures.

Stolen from my other blog - vegawesome!

So I just got back from my bi-monthly Melbourne trip and it was amazing, as always.

The most vegan-friendly city in this country always ensures that we eat about six meals a day to cram as much goodness in as possible.

This visit was too short to explore and try some new eateries off my list (getting longer all the time) so we just stuck to the ol' faithfuls;

Bimbos

Cnr Brunswick Street and Rose Street, Fitzroy

1 x vegan pizza - pumpkin, pine nut, soy cheese, rosemary and olive oil

1 x mushroom pizza minus the cheese and plus garlic

Soulfood Cafe

273 Smith Street, Collingwood

1 x pot of AMAZING soy chai

1 x monster vegan breakfast - delicious sourdough grain toast, spinach, grilled spiced tomato, homemade hash brown balls, marinated mushrooms, tasty relish and THE MOST AMAZING SCRAMBLED TOFU I HAVE EVER HAD! It's filled with spices and caramelised onion. Not all shown as Jeff stole a lot of it on his plate as we shared this epic meal.

The Veggie Bar

380 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

1 x Crispy baked brown rice balls with satay sauce (holy CRAP these were amazing)

1 x Moroccan pizza with pumpkin, eggplant, olives, mushroom, onion, sesame seeds etc.

1 x portabello mushroom with a rich onion stew, melted soy cheese and quinoa topped with fresh salad

Lord of the Fries

Corner of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street (also one in Flinders Street Station and one coming soon to Fitzroy!)

Over multiple visits we had;

1,000,000,000 x chips

1 x mini parma burger with napoli, vegan chicken, bacon and cheese

many x original burger - lettuce, mustard, pickles, vegan beef, cheese, mayo and onion

1 x hot dog with mustard, ketchup, pickles, onion and vegan sausage

Camy Shanghai Dumpling

25 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne CBD

1 x serve of 20 steamed veggie dumplings

1 x serve of 20 pan fried veggie dumplings (both serves only $6.80ea - BARGAIN!)

Kitchen of Mai

Mai is my friend (and an amazing vegan baker) and does not have an address, sorry!

1 x orange and poppy seed cupcake

About half a cake of apple tea cake - SO. GOOD.

Melbourne - get in it.

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dynamo.

chocolate - check.
cool packaging - check.
cool typography - check.
dynamo win? - yes, yes it is.
via the dieline.

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vegawesome!

 

do you live in brisbane?
are you vegan/vegetarian, animal/planet-loving or health consious?
i've put up some new reviews on my other blog - vegawesome!
we found some tasty new places to eat in brisbane over the holidays and i want to share the awesomeness :)

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vegawesome!

my friends and i started a new blog.
it's called vegawesome! and is all about vegan food finds and cruelty-free products.

it all started over talks about how many secret vegan things there are.
random stuff you would never think - like iced finger buns, nesquik and cottee's topping!
there are also cruelty-free products that aren't on the eco/green/boutique trend like radox body wash and face of australia make-up.
all my vegan friends and i were finding and sharing all these great non-typical finds.
so, the blog was born, i made a cute banner and we're off!
it will be updated when ever new things are found or great recipes need to be shared.

take a look and please comment or email if you have any secret vegan/cruelty-free finds so we can share it with all :)

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weekend.

i had an excellent weekend of gigging, drinking, picnicing, shopping, dining and being generally happy.
one thing that made me very, very happy, was a visit to the Asian grocer.
there's a whole isle just of frozen vegetarian/vegan food!
heaven!
edamame at home, i will never leave the house again!
...1 x impromptu $40 grocery shop later, things were looking good.
a tasty dinner of veggie dumplings, steamed rice and garlic fried greens followed, naturally.

oh i also got this amazing tiny ceramic bowl and saucer.
one day it will house a tiny perfect succulent.

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vinyl.

i often need things pointed out to me and my dear friend did that this morning by letting me in on eat your greens thursday at vinyl.
i love the hi-fi and have attended many a gig there but have somehow managed to never visit the bar attached.
not only does the regular vinyl menu look a treat, but eat your greens thursday includes vegan and vego meals!
i have locked in next thursday and plan on eating/making others eat;

• sweet potato falafel burger, cos lettuce, skordalia, pickled chilli salsa
• cauliflower, spaghetti, pine nuts, parmesan
• bruschetta, smoked mozzarella, cherry tomatoes
• zucchini fritter, mint yoghurt
• smashed chat potatoes, chili rosemary salt, vinegar or blue cheese dressing
• chip butty, aioli, tomato sauce
• harissa pumpkin pie, chèvre, walnut
• steamed greens, skordalia
• miso eggplant, sesame, greens and;
• blue cheese polenta, leeks, mushrooms

um, yum!!?
the hopes are high, i'm coming for you vinyl.
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shiny things.

i had an awesome weekend and was oddly productive.
i finally repotted my plants, went to some markets, ate delicious food, partied with my peeps, saw an awesome film, bought an awesome piece of art and exercised!
considering i normally spend 50% of my weekend swigging vodka and the other 50% regretting i swigged vodka, this was an epic win.

i walked to the city on sunday and to my delight, found that the suitcase rummage was on!
as there were at least 365,000 people there, i very swiftly strolled through and one thing caught my eye.
there on the ground in an art folder were some original pieces from amy commins.
i quickly snapped one up and carried it carefully home.
it's watercolour and ink and i love it.

last night my friend and i visited our favourite sushi kotobuki and saw never let me go.
it was amazing, and devestating.
beautiful cinematography.



i also found that catherine campbell's etsy store was updated this morning and treated myself to my new favourite print.
her amazingness never ceases to delight me.

it's over...

...and it ended with the best roast veggies and onion gravy i've ever made.
i just finished the thirty day vegan easy challenge.
i consumed/purchased no animal products (including products tested on animals) for a month and it was a sinch - hardly a challenge at all!
if you click the vegan easy catagory at the bottom of this post, you'll see a zillion delicious things that i cooked and ate over the month of march.
i didn't miss or crave meat or dairy once, i lost two kilos, my insides feel amazing and my heart is happy!

i blogged this month long challenge to give an inside scoop on veganism and try to shake the common myth of vegans eating rabbit food and living off salad and lentils.
i think i sucessfully proved that you can eat amazing (and junky) food without a single animal or their by-products being used or killed!
veganism - easier than you think, and the earth will love you for it :)

rant, done.
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food guilts.

i ate a fair bit of take-away yesterday, tried to make myself feel less guilty by eating grapes...
i even brought leftovers for lunch and everything but the smell of indian, it was too much!
i had a chickpea and potato curry and some spicy eggplant and potato curry with a pakora.
post-pakora and thieving two pappadums from my friend's plate, i ate about three mouthfuls of curry... extra guilt.
dinner was thai sweet potato curry puffs, spring rolls, satay veggies and black bean tofu.

guilty, but satisfied!
p.s pictures are horrible but there was no time to focus, mouthwatering food was waiting.
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tasty yesterday.

lunch - avocado and vegetable (lettuce, avo, carrot, cucumber, mushroom and tofu) sushi with chilli and lot's of soy sauce.
dinner - stirfry with onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, brocolli, pak choy, zuchinni, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, coriander, chilli and soba noodles.
i use a mix of rice wine vinegar, light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil for the sauce.

easy vegan weekend four.

 

 

argh!
28 days of vegandom already, only 3 days left!
that was very very quick.
anyway here's some food from my weekend, it was tasty and good.

• felafel wrap on wholemeal lebanese bread with hommus, lettuce, avocado, felafel, snow pea sprouts (my fave!), tomato, spanish onion and sweet chilli sauce
• lunch the next day, same thing minus the wrap
• turkish toast with avo and shrooms
• deep fried goodness and beer (it was the weekend after all!)
• toast, grilled tomato, spinach, avo hash brown and basil garlic marinated shrooms

dumpling night take two.

second go at making dumplings last night and ooooooh my goodness they were fantastic.
tastiest little things in the world.
drowned them in chilli and soy and was in heaven.

also the tree outside my bedroom window is flowering, isn't it pretty.

p.s this is my 500th post, i can has life?