the loving hut - richmond

Like most people I comfort myself with food, sometimes too much. Life being extremely stressful last week I thought I'll stop my day and sit down and have some comfort food. Like actually sit down and enjoy a meal. It was magical. When The Loving Hut opened a year ago it met with a bit of grumbling in the veg community but I don't know why. Perhaps it's just settled into more of a routine now because I find the service excellent, the food arrives super quick and is amazingly delicious (also the Supreme TV had the sound off while I was there).

I had the sweet and sour soy chicken, it was golden deep fried and so sweet it makes your teeth hurt. Exactly what I needed that day. With Miss Finas Vietnamese Cafe having just opened a few shops down (and both being 100% vegan), Victoria St is packing a punch with some amazing veg options.

deets: Shop 10, 242 Victoria St, Richmond web: The Loving Hut 
$$:  My meal with jasmine tea was $17

other voices, other times:
in the mood for noodles
where's the beef?
veganise this
damn right I want a cupcake!
chomp and slurp

monday melbourne roundup

Whew! I meant to do this yesterday but life has been CRAZY. The project I've been working on for the past 6 months went live on the weekend, not without big hiccups. I was also in Sydney to do godmother duties at my nieces christening. I have Emerging Writers Festival this Sunday so have been frantically figuring out my speech. I have exams starting next week and a major assignment due the week after not to mention a very sick flatmate at home. I also had my wallet stolen out of my bag on Victoria St last Thursday which made a difficult week beyond stressful, I was supposed to hire a car in Sydney to make life easier for everyone.. well it just made everything worse. Track work on the East Hills line meant I had to catch a train to Kingsgrove then a bus to East Hills then another train to Holsworthy which my Mum had to drive 20 minutes to come and get me from. It was my own personal John Hugues movie.

So yeah that's why it's been quiet around here.  Are any of you coming along to the  Town Hall Conference for Emerging Writers Festival? I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures yesterday so there will be some posting this week. Without further ado here is the roundup.

eats.
Purple peanuts becomes my crutch when things get too frantic, I got takeout three times last week.  I went back to the Loving Hut for deep fried sweet and sour comfort food and it was deelicious, post coming soon. Walkers Doughnuts for some serious hotdog action (a couple of times) I should try out one of the many new hot dog places around town. Many many places for nourishing coffee but too busy to list them.

out.
the laramie project - ten years later
My review is up on milkbar mag.

monday melbourne roundup - the sydney edition

You know what I miss about living in Sydney the most? Home-friggin-delivery. All amazing all the time all you want home delivery. Dead from the purple man and nested with a roaring fire who the hell could be bothered going out to eat? So whachoo do?  Order in the most amazing Nepalese food and gorge watching video clips in our socks. Boom.

I've been spending a lot of time back in Sydney party party partying. It's been fun. Lotsa fun. Friends weddings, south coast beach party times, purple people party times. It's nice to love going back to Sydney, who the hell ever thought that would happen? It's not what you know it's really who you know. So it was a short week here with things crammed. No theatre (boo) I hate going a week without theatre. Will more than make up for that over the coming weeks, Emerging Writers Festival AND Next Wave both at the same time. Woo.

out.
maha bar and grill
Marieke held a a fundraising dinner for her friend Gen. It was a great night, a post coming this week.

prince - allphones arena - sydney
I mean Prince is Prince but this was all over the shop. Too patchy and the 20 minute Purple Rain gave me I'm too fucking hungry for this rage. It took me a while to calm down, all in all it was a great night but 2003 was better. This review sums it up. Side note: What the HELL IS WRONG WITH SYDNEY why do they have to demolish everything that was any good? The Entertainment Centre was great, great location and sentimental for all of us who grew up there. Allphones is fucking disgusting. Nice one dickheads.

rozelle markets
PROPER flea market, loads of great finds. I got a gorgeous bundt tin for $3 and loads of books.

l'atelier de monsieur truffle - brunswick

On a sunny Saturday afternoon we waddled up to l'atelier de monsieur truffle for a very late brunch. Interest firmly piqued by Cindy and Michaels post I was super excited however I was still slightly skeptical, well labelled gluten free AND vegan options? How many can a chocolatier have? The answer is enough for me to have a hard time choosing.

I went for the warm chickpea salad with tahini dressing and moghrabieh, served with sourdough toast. Swimming in a light broth it was more soup than salad but was all amazing. Complete with all the expected trimmings of a middle eastern style dish - zucchini, roasted capsicum, artichoke heart.The tahini dressing in particular was mind blowing. Ordinarily, on paper, I would be bored by such a vegan offering but GET IT IN YOUR FACE IMMEDIATELY.

I'm not sure because of the time of day or our sickening display of romance but our communal table was quite empty and so was the rest of monsieur truffle. It made for a sublimely lazy meal, one of the best Saturday afternoons I've spent in a long time. Sometimes I feel like such a Brunswick snob, Lygon st is just toooo faaarrr aawaaaayyy. Which is really stupid because Wide Open Road is the only decent place in walking distance to my house. Get on the bike you lazy bitch because Lygon st (east) is really killing it.

deets: 351 Lygon Street, Brunswick East web: monsieur truffle
$$: $14 (?)

other voices, other times:
where's the beef?
little eats
fitzroyalty
bean there read that
mel: hot or not

menya ramen - city

OH HELL YES. I'm really, really into noodle soup at the moment. Yong's pho tipped me into soup monster mode. Melbourne really is the perfect city for it though, it's cold (most of the time), blustery and dreary. Slurping on a big bowl of noodle soup is like eating liquid sunshine. I actually ate this entire bowl and thought I was going to die for about 24 hours but it was SO DAMN GOOD. You'd be surprised, there's quite a few veganisable dishes at Menya (unlike quite a lot of ramen places that only use chicken or pork stock). Menya on Elizabeth st is like a little noodle cavern of awesomeness. Light filled with a great fit out that surprisingly absorbs the noise from a bajillion people noisily faceplanting into their bowls, hogging for all and sundry. MENYA GET IN IN YA (sorry).

deets: 437 Elizabeth Street  Melbourne web: no website
$$: super cheap like $10?

other voices, other times:
couldnt find any vegetarian blogs


ps: is this the same as the chain in Sydney? It's confusing

yong green food - fitzroy

MOAR YONG. Again this was *exactly* what I needed. It was the first time in years I wanted to hug my plate from the nourishment and love it was giving me (stay with me). Seared "soy tuna" with brown rice, vegies and soy dressing. It sounds so boring but its the complete antithesis. So tasty and healthy. Yong... yong yong yong. I LOVE YOU.

deets: 421 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy web: no web site
$$: soy tuna was $14? I can never remember

other voices, other times:
me
wayfaring chocolate
in the mood for noodles
hot: mel hot or not
fitzroyalty
eat and be merry for tomorrow we diet
where's the beef?

monday melbourne roundup

A pretty busy but relaxing week for me. Lots of catching up with friends, sitting around eating and drinking coffee, la dolce vita!  In the last couple of weeks the blog has been getting a lot of attention. The Emerging Writers Festival program was launched with myself as one of the participating writers. I'm really really excited (and nervous) about this. I will be on the Digital Writing panel at the Town Hall conference on Sunday the 27th of May. If you are coming along let me know!

That leads me to ask, for any budding writers out there do you have any questions about blogging? Please give me some ideas about what to address in my presentation. The other exciting piece of news came through on Thursday when the SBS fortnightly food newsletter was published with me in it! I am their "featured foodie" and it kills me that on the front page of the SBS food website under the headline "going vegan" is my quote "I became a much happier person almost instantly". It's been driving quite a lot of traffic here *waves to new readers* I am excited that my wee vegan website is getting such great attention.

food: I got some garlic bread from Glicks Cakes and Bagels (best bagels in Melbourne and great garlic bread too), hoed into some Mad Mex (the chapel st store is definitely the best one), visited my local cafe Acoustico (which is just the cutest darn cafe in Brunswick), almost cried with pleasure at Movida Aqui, had a calming coffee and fruit toast at Munsterhaus, visited Hoboken which is now open Thursday/Friday/Saturday (their beans and rice are exquisite and perfect for when you are starving and don't want to wait the 3 hours to get in anywhere on a Friday night), went back for the first time in almost a year to Fo Guang Yuan (things have changed! will be writing about them this week), finally hit The Moat (is AMAZING and could be my new favourite place in Melbourne, very like Journal but with a full menu not sure of its vegan capabilities yet), and finally I went twice to my newest place of discover SALFORD LADS CLUB. I work in Port Melbourne and I can't believe I've never been there. Boom. New coffee haunt.


out.
emerging writers festival program launch

OOOO! It's almost here and it's very exciting. I wish I'd hung around to chat with people after the panel but I was so hungry I was going to stab someone. Can't wait for the fest!

albert st food and wine - brunswick

gnocchi with hazelnuts, heirloom carrots and mushrooms $28

ancient grain salad, pomegranate molasses $9
 
mango and pear sorbet $10 (argh sorry for the blur!)

Albert St Food and Wine is the latest darling of the Brunswick dining scene. Open since November and helmed by Philippa Sibley, Albert St focuses on local produce and sustainable ingredients. The space is cavernous, all wood, low lighting with black block accents. We took a chance in a getting a bar seat which was easy enough and particularly snuggle bum on a drizzly, Autumn Saturday night.

Not much is identifiably vegan on the menu but having been highly recommended by Marieke, I was confident and they gave me a few options to choose from. I chose the gnocchi with the ancient grain side salad (minus fromage blanc) and a couple of scoops of sorbet. My gnocci was *delicious*, I'm drooling a little bit thinking about it. Light and fresh with hand made gnoccis it was dreamy. The grain salad was good, but without the fromage blanc they should dial back the pomegranate molasses as it was all I could taste. The sorbet was lovely, particularly the pear, not too sweet and a perfect end to the meal (though I would recommend only one scoop, that was enough for me).

I had a perfectly lovely meal at Albert St, the wait staff were helpful and attentive. I wasn't sure why my gnocchi was $28 and Daniels' spanner crab risotto was $26 but I didn't ask. Albert St is a bit too rich for my wallet, Hellenic Republic and MoVida are both comparable dish wise and more reasonably priced.

deets: cnr of Albert St & 382 Sydney Rd, Brunswick web: Albert St
$$: 2 mains, 1 salad, 2 dessert, 3 glasses of wine, 2 coffees $140

other voices, other times:
only other veg bloggers have been Where's the Beef?

 

monday melbourne roundup

Busy week but also relaxing, Aprils a bit of a piss take isn't it? I've worked 3.5 day weeks for the past 6 weeks. A girl could get used to this. Had pretty much my perfect week, lots of theatre and food and enough time in between to rest and do my laundry. What did you get up to on Anzac Day? I have this giant ass tub of golden syrup perhaps I'll make some belated Anzac cookies? any favourite recipe links?

food: I went back to Hellenic and had an outstanding meal (the same meal however, what is with so many restaurants not mixing up their menus? I'm looking at you Gingerboy). Though I'm not keen on Greek wine, I find it too astringent. Hellenic was a dreamy, warm, delicious place to be on a wintry, wet night.

I found moar noodle yumminess at Menya Ramen, they actually have a lot of vegan options! Post coming soon. Albert St Food and Wine was also hit (post coming this week) the food was great but I found it too expensive.

out.

red - MTC
I loved this, it was total art wank philosophy for an hour and a half. Rothko is my favourite painter and I'm glad to see the play reflects what a brilliant and conflicted man he was. Not recommended if you're not in love with the material.

stockholm - red stitch
review on Milkbar

enlightened cuisine - southbank

kung po chicken - chilli "chicken" with mixed veg & cashews served in a potato basket. $20.90 stir fried mixed vegetables - $16.90 satay chicken - $17.90

A rainy Saturday night took us on a trip to Enlightened Cuisine. I was craving their chicken satay and keen to see the restaurant after their recent renovations. The space is lovely! Light, large (they've knocked down a few walls) and a gigantic happy Buddha to great you as you walk in the door.

The kung po chicken was delicious and super spicy (just what I wanted). The potato basket was quite strange, but it soaked up the kung po juices nicely. We should have just eaten that as it was so large but of course restraint doesn't seem to happen at Enlightened. I didn't like the stir fried vegies, I prefer Thai stir fry, dry and crisp not covered in a gooey sauce. The chicken satay, as usual, was amazing.

On a side note there was a wedding reception there that night, it was SO awesome. Everyone looked so happy and joyous. It's just that kind of place - a Chinese wedding, a huge table of goths all sharing amazing food. Enlightened is becoming a serious comfort spot for me.

deets: 113 Queensbridge St, Southbank web: enlightened cuisine
$$: we paid about $60 - you can BYO as well

other voices, other times:
me: one, two
where's the beef?
vegan about town
mel: hot or not