Kuala Lumpar Malaysian Restaurant

After two and a half years of blogging, I'm ashamed that it's taken this long to post about the place we eat out at most regularly. Kuala Lumpar Malaysian Restaurant (which we usually refer to as KL) has been our favourite place to dine at for many years as their delicious veg food won us over and still entices us back often. It's always worth the 10 minute car trip to the suburb of Carnegie which is bustling with so many other types of restaurants we simply cannot bring ourselves to try. 

A variety of dishes have been sampled over the years although our order rarely changes from our favourites these days. The vegetarian Mee Goreng (ordered without egg) is a pile of stir-fried wheat based noodles with some onion, carrot, Asian greens and beanshoots. The sauce can vary in spiciness on a given night so if we are feeling like some extra heat we ask for it to be extra spicy and they never disappoint us. The man loves this dish and gets especially excited by the slightly charred noodles.

Spicy salted tofu is adored by everyone who tries it, our extended family members also order it regularly too. The deep fried chunks of tofu are cooked in a salted batter with a subtle hint of Chinese 5 spice. The tofu is served on a bed of deep fried vermicelli noodles and topped with shallots, spring onions, chillies and lots of garlic. It's important to note that all of the tofu items on the menu use a homemade egg tofu by default which can be switched to a standard tofu upon request. Ask for the "white tofu" when placing your order as that's how they refer to it at KL.

Last but not least is the Claypot mixed vegetables in a Malaysian curry sauce. The claypot is full to the brim of carrots, broccoli florets, snow peas, a mixture of Asian greens and occasionally some mushrooms. It is delivered to the table with a piping hot bubbling sauce which the claypot keeps warm for ages - we learnt the hard way to let it cool down a bit before diving in. The curry sauce is spiced with star anise, cloves, curry leaves, chilli and coconut milk amongst other things. The quantity of curry sauce and it's spiciness can vary on a given night, we love it when there is loads of sauce so we can finish our meals with extra curry sauce ladled over the remaining rice in our bowls.

Some of the other meals we have sampled over the years are curry eggplant, mixed vegetables with garlic sauce, spinach with garlic sauce and other noodle dishes. A new dish called Nonya tofu was recently added to the specials board  - we haven't ordered this yet but plan to in the near future. We were advised during a recent conversation with one of the owners that they are looking to expand the veg section of the menu as their vegetarian customers have been on the rise.

Kuala Lumpar has been in operation for many years and maintains a very good reputation amongst the locals. It's advisable to book a table for dining on Friday or Saturday night as the restaurant is generally very busy. The service is usually efficient and the food is always delicious. 

Kuala Lumpar Malaysian Restaurant

123 Koornang Road, Carnegie 

9563 6707

Open Tues-Sun for lunch and dinner

Veg main meals range from $13-$16

Sweetwater Inn

There are still a few posts to be published about my recent travels to Western Australia, for now I’m taking a break to write about a new bar/eatery in Melbourne. After returning from my month away I was sad to hear that the popular vegan soul food stall South had departed from The People’s Market in Collingwood. The good news is that head chef Shannon Martinez has moved onto a new venue and developed another vegan menu for us hungry folks.

Sweetwater Inn is located in South Yarra near the Jam Factory. The small eats side of the vegan menu includes snacks like baked bean and cheese jaffles with soup of the day, bubble and squeak croquettes, beer battered chips with gravy and strass and tomato sauce sandwiches, a lunch box item you may recall from childhood. BBQ prawn skewers with aioli, chipotle ham steaks with pineapple and a crispy chicken salad are amongst the choices in the vegan main meals.

The man and I headed straight for the bigger plates, his belly could not be swayed from the beer battered fish and chips ($16). The soy based faux fish wrapped in seaweed and battered was the closest thing he has encountered to the real deal in years. The accompanying tin of salted, crispy beer battered chips rivalled the ones we are so fond of at Gasometer. A quarter of iceberg lettuce with dressing didn’t really capture his interest but overall he loved the meal.

Apologies for the blurry picture of my meal as it doesn’t do it justice at all. The rissole sandwich ($16) contained a robust pattie bursting with fantastic smoky flavours and a Tofutti cheese slice slathered in lip smacking gravy between two slices of white bread. This also came with a tin of beer battered chips and some tastefully dressed mixed lettuce leaves. These meals were perfect for sharing, I passed over half of my sandwich in exchange for a piece of fish.

Sweetwater Inn has a country theme going on with the interior decked out to suit that vibe. A word of warning is recommended for veg*ns that may find some of the ornaments disturbing. If you can grab a table outside or avert your gaze away from the hanging cow hide, horns, stuffed hawk and skull cabinet I’m sure you will enjoy a nostalgic meal if you mosey on down.

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Sweetwater Inn has also received positive reviews from The Good Hearted and where's the beef.


Sweetwater Inn
1/60 Bray Street, South Yarra
Open 7 days for dinner and on weekends for lunch

Food shopping and sights around Perth

Before we headed off on our next stage of travelling which involved more road tripping throughout remote areas, I needed to stock up on foods. As well as general supermarket shopping we made a trip into the PAWS (People and Animal Welfare Society) vegan store and cafe which is centrally located in Beaufort Street in the city. PAWS stock a wide variety of vegan goodies - personal care and household products, pantry items, confectionery, pet care products, clothing, books, non-dairy alternatives and a freezer full of a variety of mock meats and ice-cream.

It was nearing lunchtime and the huge selection of meals at the cafe beckoned to us to give them a try. Amongst the choices were mock meat burgers and hot dogs, nachos, pies, aromatic curries from the bain marie, raw food and falafels. I choose the latter, the young man was sold on nachos and after a lot of indecision the man ordered a Cajun chicken burger.

I didn’t capture photos of the others meals and allowed their hungry bellies to tuck in straight away. The young man’s nachos didn’t look particularly appealing – corn chips topped with a salsa, sour cream and what appeared to be melted Toffuti cheese slices. The omission of guacamole didn't bother him as he isn’t a fan of avocado and he mentioned that the nachos were slightly better than the ones he used to get from his school canteen. The man loved the spicy kick in his Cajun burger although he would have enjoyed it more if it included a larger quantity of salad.

The falafel pockets (available in small and large sizes) differed from a falafel wrap you would typically find in a kebab shop as it contained a heap of additional condiments. Fresh jalapenos, olives, grated carrot, shredded cabbage, spring onions and coriander chutney were some of the items that made this unique. My photo doesn’t show the falafels hiding underneath the mass of salad but be assured that they were present and very tasty. Although it was a challenge to eat this without making a mess, it was totally worth the effort. The man had a serious case of food envy over my meal. The small size was perfect for my appetite that day, I recommend ordering the large if you are particularly hungry.

All of the staff at PAWS were extremely friendly, some went out of their way offering Ollie bowls of water while we ate at their outdoor tables. There was also plenty of indoor seating available on small tables, communal benches and lounges. The store and cafe were constantly busy throughout our visit and I noted that the curries, falafels and raw plates seemed to be rather popular with the regulars.

The Herdsman was another interesting store we visited. They stock a range of chilli sauces the man’s family have been particularly fond of for years, so anyone who visits Perth is requested to stock up on “Hogans”. When we pulled into the parking bay, The Herdsman was a familiar sight to the man and I. His first casual (under age) job had been there squeezing oranges although it was called Herdsman Market years ago. I also recognised the store's signage from one of Kari’s recent posts about her shopping experience there.

It is basically a gourmet type of supermarket reminiscent of the Thomas Dux grocers around Melbourne. They stock many expensive boutique brands in the pantry aisles you don’t see at regular supermarkets. As well as the requisite Hogans sauces, we also purchased a lovely tomato relish and some Sheese smoked cheddar. Cheezly was also available in the refrigerated section.

The majority of our time in Perth was spent catching up with people, at the beach, by the pool and taking nostalgic tours around the man’s primary and secondary schools and houses that he grew up in. It wasn’t until our last afternoon that we made it to Kings Park and we regretted not spending more time there as the beautifully laid out gardens are enormous and it boasts stunning views over the city and gorgeous Swan river.

For many years I haven’t been very enthusiastic about travelling to Perth as I’m not really much of a city person. As it's so far from Melbourne I always insisted that this trip needed to be paired with further travels throughout Western Australia. Clear blue skies and warm weather every day combined with a rental house (including a pool) being a 5 minute stroll away from a gorgeous dog beach turned out to be difficult to leave. I could have happily kept on reliving more of those lazy repetitive days for a lot longer than we did.

Lunch at The Raw Kitchen Cafe with Kari

Just prior to my travels to Western Australia I mentioned to Kari from Bite Sized Thoughts that I would be spending some time in Perth and was delighted that she was eager to meet up. Kari and I started blogging around the same time and have exchanged many comments on each others blogs over the past two years. Kari suggested lunch at The Raw Kitchen Cafe due to their vegan friendly menu in addition to Fremantle being an interesting location for a tourist.

I was very keen to venture into a raw food eating experience as there is NO WAY I could ever see the man dining out for this type of food.  In fact, my eating preferences normally lean towards hot food and I rarely eat salads as a meal yet I’ve wanted to try raw food after hearing so many positive things about it. After reading a few reviews on Urbanspoon about The Raw Kitchen Cafe and a glowing blog post by Bex from Vegan Sparkles, I became infatuated by the concept of a raw vegan pizza. How on earth was a raw pizza going to compare with a standard vegan pizza?

Kari kindly met me at the rental house, drove us over to Fremantle and navigated our way through the streets to the bustling cafe. Whilst the raw pizza had been on my mind for weeks, my decision was almost swayed when we were in the queue as I watched an array of mouth watering meals being taken to the tables. Raw nachos, falafel plates and bowls of pasta made with zucchini noodles all looked amazing. The spinach, basil and avocado soup and a raw club sandwich sounded great too. Everything on the menu was appealing yet I knew I would be regretful if I didn't try the pizza so I stuck with my original plan.

The slice of raw pizza ($9.50 per slice, $17.90 with salads) was on a dehydrated buckwheat base spread with a tomato capsicum salsa. It was topped with mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado, onions, dollops of a deliciously creamy, tangy macadamia and cashew based cheese and fresh basil. This pizza was incredible, a mind blowing taste sensation which had so many different flavours and textures going on. It was unlike any pizza I have ever eaten before and I mean that in a good way. The buckwheat base was slightly difficult to cut into although this was a very minor complaint.  

I ordered the slice of pizza with salads which ended up being the same types of salads Kari had selected for her bowl. My favourite was the Thai Papaya salad which was bursting with flavours of fresh coriander, mint and basil amongst the carrots, snow peas and green papaya noodles. The Tarragon salad was largely based on beetroot and it was slightly too earthy for me. I thought it was interesting to begin with but my taste buds grew bored after a while. We both ordered coffees and I found my double espresso with home made cashew and macadamia milk ($5.50) to be the most impressive coffee that I tried anywhere in Perth.

After lunch Kari took me for a wander through Fremantle. We stopped off at The Round House, the oldest public building in Western Australia which was originally opened as a gaol (with 8 cells) in 1931, 18 months after settlement. It was a fascinating but slightly eerie place with loads of interesting historical information to take in. I kicked myself later for forgetting to take photos here. On the way home, Kari gave me a container of smoky roasted almonds which she had made for me as thoughtful snack for the rest of our travels. Half of the batch was demolished by the man in an instant before I insisted that some restraint be shown. The rest of the nuts did last a considerable while longer and given their popularity I will definitely be trying out Kari’s easy recipe soon.

Kari promptly wrote up her thoughts about The Raw Kitchen Cafe and the afternoon we spent together. As it was her first time meeting another blogger in person I wasn’t surprised to read that she felt slightly intimidated as it's a feeling I have experienced in previous meet ups. Kari certainly didn’t come across that way to me, I thought she was a lovely confident interesting person and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations we engaged in.

Thanks again Kari for the wonderful afternoon, the raw food experience and the lovely smoky almonds. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you in person and I hope we cross paths again one day!

The Raw Kitchen Cafe

Shop 14, The Piazza Arcade

36 South Terrace, Fremantle

Eating out around Perth

After a six hour drive from Kalgoorlie, unpacking the car and driving out to the airport to pick up the young man (he spent six nights with us in Perth before heading back home to start University), a quick meal was in order. I envisaged we would be tired and hungry on our first night in Perth and had printed a menu from Sri Melaka's website so we could pick up some take away food on our way back from the airport to the rental house. Sri Melaka vegetarian restaurant was one of the recommendations Steph suggested when I mentioned my travel plans to Perth. Steph formerly lived in Perth and is now based in Melbourne, so I used her blog as one of my resources for seeking out vegan food.  

Sri Melaka’s menu is Malaysian styled Nyonya cuisine predominately based on mock meat. It was difficult to choose from a large number of dishes as they all sounded fantastic. We ordered Chicken Kapitan, Kangkong Belacan and two of our favourite dishes Mee Goreng noodles and Lamb Rendang. The Chicken Kapitan contained chunks of mock meat and potatoes in a very spicy coconut curry gravy, the Lamb Rendang was 100% mock meat in a thick spicy coconut paste. Mee Goreng had a combination of vegetables, mock prawns and possibly some other form of mock meat I couldn’t identify and the Kangkong was Asian water spinach stir fried with chillies and mock shrimp paste. Every single dish was very spicy and our noses were running by the end of the meal. No-one could pick a favourite as we thoroughly enjoyed them all. I’ve been to a few Asian mock meat restaurants around Melbourne but none of them have managed to serve up food as delicious as this! It cost a little over $50 and there were enough leftovers to provide the three of us with a light lunch so it was also very good value.   

After reading about the Thai Vegan stall located at the Fremantle markets on Happy Cow, I put it high on my must visit list. I’ve travelled to Thailand a couple of times and haven’t been able to enjoy Thai food in Melbourne restaurants since. A reviewer on Happy Cow piqued my interest by mentioning that the food was that best they had eaten outside of Thailand. The stall is open on market days (Friday to Sunday) and is managed by two lovely women who were run off their feet pounding fresh herbs and spices, stir-frying and preparing fresh salads in addition to taking many orders. There are only a couple of seats to eat at the stall but there is a park nearby as well as plenty of benches in the surrounding streets.

In addition to a few precooked deep fried snacks, the menu is largely based on Thai salads, soups and noodle dishes (priced between $7 - $11). The man had left me to organise our food while he waited outside with Ollie and the young man ventured off to eat whatever he pleased. Salads are usually not popular with the man yet I recalled that he enjoyed the ones we ate in Thailand and boldly ordered a Larb salad, two spicy tofu sticks and a Pad Se Ew noodles. Somehow I managed to order an extra noodle dish which may have been due to the noise level in the markets and my substandard hearing. The amount of heat can be varied to your personal taste so I ordered all of our meals to be spicy.

The spicy tofu sticks ($3 each) consisted of three triangular pieces of crispy tofu on skewers, they were slightly disappointing as they didn't live up to their name in the spice department yet they were tasty enough to enjoy as a starter. The Larb salad was made up of lettuce, spinach, carrot, green papaya and cucumber topped with soy mince and was bursting with fresh flavours of lemongrass, chilli, coriander, mint and lime. It reminded us of the fantastic salads we had eaten in Thailand and I was thrilled that my brave selection turned out to be a success. Pad Se Ew was full of an assortment of vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, cabbage and bean sprouts) as well as nicely seasoned tofu and lovely wide rice noodles. I think the extra noodle dish was called Rad Na, it had the same vegetables, tofu and noodles as Pad Se Ew yet it contained more sour flavours and it was spiciest dish of the lot. We loved both of the noodle dishes although the man said that the Rad Na was verging on being too spicy for him.    

Perth is fortunate to have a couple of Loving Hut restaurants which are located a suburb apart from each other. Loving Hut at Victoria Park is open for lunches (Wednesday to Sunday) and weekend breakfasts and East Victoria Park is open for dinners (Wednesday to Sunday). I had looked at both of their online menus and after mentioning to the man that there was an opportunity to eat pizza with vegan cheese he was super keen to drive across and get some take away food.

The menu begins with Asian entrees, mains are a combination of Asian meals, pasta dishes and pizza. They also offer a range of desserts and like all of the stores in the Loving Hut chain, everything on the menu is vegan. We were in the mood for pizza and pasta, the entrees also sounded great so we ordered way too much food! The spring rolls and samosas were both good but it was the crispy bites (above) that were the most popular starter. These pieces of mock meat coated in a slightly spicy batter and deep fried may not have been the healthiest choice but boy did they taste good! I've been requested to pull out the deep fryer and recreate this at home one day.

While the vegan pizza had been a draw card, it ended up to be slightly disappointing. The base wasn't great, it was thin but the edges were not rolled out evenly and it was unlike a base you would get from a pizza shop. The vegetable toppings of capsicum, mushrooms, spinach and pineapple were fine but there was a scant quantity of Notzarella cheese covering them. By the time we demolished this amount of food we were too full to tackle the pasta dishes and put them aside for next days lunch. We enjoyed ravioli with a tomato based sauce and I was less impressed with spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms as I thought the sauce had a weird flavour but the man seemed to enjoy it. Loving Hut's strengths may be in their Asian meals given the success we had with the entrees. We paid $64 for three entrees, a pizza and two pasta dishes which was pretty good value.

Beautiful dog beach at Swanbourne which had a clear blue sky every day

The Naked Fig in Swanbourne boasts a lovely view across the ocean and was on our daily walking route from our accommodation to the closest dog beach. It is one of three trendy restaurants in Perth, their other locations are in Swanbourne and Fremantle and each of them has a dedicated vego night. We ordered take away soy lattes (with extra shots of coffee) from The Naked Fig twice after early morning swims. We decided not to return as the wait times were 15 minutes one day, over 20 minutes the following day and the coffees were very weak and milky, apparently made with St Ali coffee beans from Melbourne. It was a shame as The Naked Fig had a vegan breakfast on their menu and veggie burgers with vegan options for lunch and dinner.

Ollie waiting for the ball to be thrown in the ocean (yet again)

There were several other eateries I had wanted to visit but was most disappointed that we didn't make it to Heavenly Plate in Applecross as Kari's pre-wedding high tea sounded amazing as did Steph's dining experience there. The man spent half of his childhood growing up in Perth and was astounded by the amount of vegan food that is on offer these days. Vegans who are planning a trip to Perth should check out the following blogs for heaps of food options around town: Vegan4Life, Bite Sized Thoughts, vegan about town and Vegan Sparkles as well as Happy Cow.

Ren Dao

We headed over to Elsternwick on Monday evening to dine at Ren Dao, an Asian vegetarian restaurant. The extensive menu offers a wide range of entrees, soups, curries, stir-frys, noodles, and rice based dishes. The majority of the meals are vegan and it's also possible to remove egg from some of the rice and noodle dishes. The mock meat used in the meals is based on gluten, soy or mushrooms and there are plenty of gluten free meals available. It can be overwhelming being presented with so many choices when you aren't used to having many so I left it to the man to chose the entrees while the young man and struggled to decide on a main.

The man surprised me by selecting an entree outside of his standard order of spring rolls. The 5 Spice Loh-Bak Rolls ($7.50) contained a subtly spiced taro mince filling wrapped in crispy bean curd skin. These tasty parcels got us off to a good start.

Curry puffs are always hard for us to resist and these large ones ($7.50) happened to be a fantastic choice this time. The mixed vegetable filling was blended with a perfect amount of curry spices and the sweet sticky dipping sauce was a nice condiment.

Penang Curry ($19.50) was a mild-medium spiced coconut based curry containing mock chicken chunks, tofu and potato cubes. It wasn't quite as spicy as we were led to believe yet it was still thoroughly enjoyable.

The King Do Pork Chop Hot Plate ($21.90) was a tangy sizzling hot plate piled high with a large assortment of vegetables and soy-based mock meat slices hiding underneath. This was the most realistic mock meat I have ever eaten but I actually found the flavour and texture a little disturbing as it was too close to my omnivorous recollections. The man and young man adored this and declared it their pick of the night.

Penang Rendang ($18.50) was too intriguing for me to pass up as we all love rendang and I was interested to try this version made with a variety of mushrooms. In addition to the coconut based curry sauce, it was full of grated coconut which made the coconut flavours too intense for my liking. It probably wasn't the wisest menu choice given we had already selected another coconut based curry.

The staff at Ren Dao were incredibly attentive throughout the evening and extremely helpful with making menu suggestions when the young man and I were stalling. The serving sizes were very generous, we could have easily done without one of the mains and this would have been sufficient food for the three of us. The staff offered to package up the leftovers which we happily enjoyed for lunch the next day. I'm keen to head back to Ren Dao as there are many more dishes I would like to try.


Where's the beef are the only other veg*n bloggers that have written about Ren Dao to date. Ren Dao was also mentioned by Brianna in her Southside staples article in the Planet VeGMeL zine.


Ren Dao Vegetarian Asian Cuisine
275 Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick
9523 0150
Lunch Monday to Friday
Dinner Monday to Saturday
Closed Sundays
BYO Beer and Wine

South

After reading (and drooling over) initial reviews and the general hype about South, I was desperate to make a trip to The People's Market in Collingwood to try it out for myself. South is a vegan food stall specialising in food from the southern parts of the United States. The people running this venture hail from two of my recent favourite eateries The Gasometer and The Mercy Seat (which is now closed) so I had a strong feeling it was going to be fantastic.

It was very tough deciding what to order so the man and I chose to split three meals between the two of us. The Philly Cheesesteak ($12) was served in a nice crunchy roll with tender "steak" pieces and an oozing cheese sauce with a mild flavour. It was slightly messy to eat although definitely worth the effort.

The man was keen to try out the Chilli Dog ($8) being a former hot dog lover years ago. Vegan hot dogs and sausages don't usually win my approval yet this one was best I have tried and the accompanying chilli sauce was amazing.

To round out the meal we ordered the Louisiana Beans and Rice ($9) and drizzled some extra hot sauce on top. The beans had a lovely smoky flavour underneath the array of herbs and spices. I found it difficult to stop eating when I had finished my share and reluctantly passed the rest over to my bean loving husband who adored them too.

All of these meals were so delicious and I wouldn't hesitate to order any of them again. Neither of us could pick a favourite as they were all wonderful in their own way. 

While the rest of The People's Market didn't really capture our interest, I have no doubt we will be back many times over the summer months to experience more of the rotating menu that South is cooking up.  

South created quite a stir in it's opening week. It received positive reviews from The Good Hearted, where's the beef and easy as vegan pie. 

South 
@ The People's Market
65-68 Stanley Street, Collingwood
Thursday - Sunday 12pm - 9:30pm (Closed in Feb 2013)

Bloggers night out at Gasometer

I haven't been using Twitter very long and am not in the habit of constantly checking up on the numerous tweets that people send out frequently so it was fortunate that I happened to be checking my Twitter page right when Theresa of The Tropical Vegan announced that she was coming to Melbourne. Theresa was travelling for work and her arrival on a Sunday night meant that she was free for a dinner date. After a bit of tweeting back and forth dinner was arranged at Gasometer.

It was wonderful to meet up with the lovely Theresa as I have been reading her posts for a couple of years and enjoy her recipes as well as hearing about gardening and house projects and more generally life in the tropics (Townsville) because I am quite fond of the Far North Queensland region. Which is exactly what we spent our time chatting about as well as our families, jobs, pets and of course, veganism, food and blogging.

Theresa had her heart set on the pastrami burger which is the perfect choice for an out of towner. I chose to try something different and ordered the broccoli, spinach and leek pancake with roasted root vegetables. The pancakes were light and delicious, the combination of greens in the filling tasted fantastic, the flavour of the leeks was apparent without being overwhelming and the creamy paprika spiked sauce on top brought it together perfectly. An even nicer surprise were the roasted vegetables on the side, the potatoes, beetroot, carrots, garlic and beans were delicious, cooked to perfection and presented attractively on the plate. This was the largest quantity of vegetables I've had in a meal at Gasometer.

When Theresa and I said our farewells, we both had little surprises in store for each other. Theresa made this adorable elephant for me as a thank you which has the sweetest little tail, gorgeous eyes and just look at that big long trunk. I haven't come up with a name for him/her yet but I really think it needs one. 

In the afternoon, I made a tangy lemon slice which was a recipe I had bookmarked from Kari of bite sized thoughts. I won't bother posting the recipe as I didn't change anything apart from adding a bit of lemon zest to the base. The only issue was I hadn't taken note that the slice needed to be refrigerated 2 to 4 hours prior to slicing. With just under an hour to spare, I whacked it in the freezer for a bit which seemed to suffice. I brought along some of the slice for Theresa in case she was in need of a sweet snack during her stay in Melbourne.

It's always a fantastic experience to meet up with other bloggers even for a shy introvert like me. I'm glad I got the chance to meet Theresa in person and look forward to catching up again one day, if not in Melbourne then perhaps in the tropics!

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This is the third time I have posted about eating at Gasometer, you can read my initial post about the old US diner styled menu here and the current Eastern European menu here. Since I last posted about Gasometer, I've eaten here a few more times but haven't had my camera with me.

The mushroom schnitzels are challenging the pastrami burger as the man's favourite meal, they have a lovely crust on the outside and a tasty mushroom filling inside with an interesting texture and is served with a delicious gravy. It comes with a huge amount of mashed potato which isn't terribly exciting and some garlicky green beans to make you feel good about having something green on your plate.

We have also tried the pretzel and the mamaliga fritters from the smaller plates section of the menu. The pretzel is a perfect dish for sharing between 2, 3 or more people, it's a huge freshly baked bread topped with large flakes of sea salt and fennel seeds and served with a mustard butter. The mamaliga fritters were a bit hit and miss for us but we aren't huge fans of polenta. I was expecting a higher ratio of the vegan goats cheese filling to the outer layer of polenta and the quantity of vegan cheese didn't seem to be consistent between the balls with some of them containing a very small amount. The accompanying sauce tasted great and made the fritters a bit more interesting.

I would also like to add that the waiting staff at Gasometer are very accommodating about taking home leftovers for those times when you happen to order too much food. It's a difficult task to get the man interested in trying other places these days as Gasometer's food has totally won him over.

Gasometer's new menu hasn't had much coverage since I last reviewed it. Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe is the only veg*n blogger I could find that has posted about it recently.

Gasometer
484 Smith St, Collingwood
Ph: 9417 5538

Gasometer

Gasometer (also fondly known to us as Bloatometer) has become one of our favourite places to grab a quick, tasty meal and a refreshing beer. Gasometer has only previously been mentioned once on my blog in a post filled with other eating out experiences, yet we have enjoyed eating here five times in the past six months. Vegan options are plentiful with around five main meal options to choose from as well as a selection of entrees and sides. Upon hearing that the menu had gone away from the original US diner style food, I anxiously waited to hear other peoples impressions about the change of menu to Eastern European food before making the trip across town.

After Cindy and Michael from where's the beef delivered with a comprehensive review, we were back to try it out for ourselves within the week. There was no variety in our selection of meals as we both went there with the exciting promise of a vegan pastrami burger and after perusing the menu, nothing could change our minds. The pastrami burger certainly delivered on taste and wasn't as unbearably filling as some of the previous mock-meat items had been. The pastrami seitan was sliced extremely thinly and contained so much flavour on it's own. When paired with coleslaw, beetroot relish and vegan goats cheese, the burger was a taste sensation! The only thing we would have liked a bit more of was the goats cheese as it tasted fantastic when you got a hit of it.

The fries were almost the same as they had been with the old menu, crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside and perfectly seasoned. There was no aioli to accompany them this time, but I'm more than happy to eat them without.

Gasometer pulls in quite a crowd so if you're dining with children or needing a quick bite, I recommend going before 7pm to secure yourself a table. Oh and the latest on their Facebook page is that vegan pierogies are on this week!

The new menu at Gasometer has only been reviewed by where's the beef so far.

Gasometer
484 Smith St, Collingwood
Ph: 9417 5538

Purple Patch

Purple Patch is a relatively new vegetarian cafe in the bayside suburb of Sandringham. It has been on my radar to visit since where's the beef recently reviewed it. There aren't many vegan friendly cafes on my side of town and although this one isn't really that close to home, it's in an area that we pop into frequently to purchase coffee beans.

The staff at Purple Patch were very friendly and extremely thorough in explaining all of the menu items and how they could be made vegan. I had my heart set on a breakfast styled meal as we rarely go out to a cafe for brunch and was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a big brekky fry-up, tofu scramble or some home-made baked beans on offer.  

After much indecision I settled on the flatbread with lentil hummus, avocado, tomato and olives (without feta). Whilst the bread was lovely, fresh and warm and the hummus had a nice flavour, everything else on the plate was very simple and underwhelming which made the whole meal feel lacking. My soy latte was filled with a lot more foam than milk yet I didn't mind as it meant that the coffee was nice and strong.

The man ordered the chilli bean and cheese quesadillas which were made with vegan cheese on request. He enjoyed the quesadillas and kindly gave me a few bites to sample. The beans were delicious, mildly spiced for chilli lovers like us and the tortillas were lovely and crispy. The man's long soy macchiato was strong and well made which kept him happy.

It wasn't until paying the bill that I looked over the options again and regretted not trying something on the lunch menu. Perhaps a Thai curry or Ethiopian stew would have suited my taste better!


Purple Patch hasn't had a lot of attention in the blogosphere and only seems to have been reviewed by where's the beef so far.


Purple Patch
19 Bay Road, Sandringham
9598 2378

Nostralis Wholemeal Vegetarian Pizza

Nostralis has been on my radar to try for quite some time as it's the closest veg*n pizza place to my house. On a Saturday evening when the man and I were on our way home from doing errands, he wanted to know what was for dinner. As he didn't seem enthused with any of the quick meals that were on offer, I suggested that we try Nostralis.

I wasn't feeling very hungry until we walked through the door and were overwhelmed with the glorious aroma of pizzas. It's been such a long time since we last had pizza from a store (at least 18 months!) so my stomach changed it's tune immediately. When the pizzas were ready we had a 15 minute drive home yet we couldn't quite wait that long to try some. After stuffing down several slices of pizza in the car, we had to put a lid on it (pardon the pun) and bring some home to the young man who was waiting patiently with the oven preheated.

The Vegie pizza was similar to what standard pizza places would offer on a standard vegetarian pizza; onion, mushrooms, capsicum, olives. It had a substantial covering of tomato on the base and also included a decent amount of garlic and herbs which gave it so much flavour.

The Mexican pizza was topped with beans, onion, capsicum and chilli. The chilli kick in this was nice although I was disappointed with the lack of tomato in the base.

We always used to love a Margherita and couldn't pass up one of our old favs. This was just the way we like them to be - tomatoey, cheesy and herby.

Nostralis has 20 veg pizzas to choose from which are all made with wholemeal bases. Vegan cheese (cheezly) is available on request as are gluten free bases. We played it fairly safe with our selections on this visit, the vindaloo pizza sounded really interesting although we weren't sure if we would like the banana and sultanas that came with it. Maybe we'll be more daring next time around...  

I'm also looking forward to visiting over warmer months as there is a huge park over the road which would be perfect for enjoying pizzas in!


Nostralis doesn't seem to have received many blogger reviews. In the Mood for Noodles gave it the thumbs up twice a couple of years ago which is most likely how I found out about it!


Nostralis Wholemeal Vegetarian Pizza
55 Hawthorn Road, North Caulfield
9528 4961
Open Tues-Sun 5:30-10pm
Pick up only and payment by cash only

Recent eats around town

As someone who blogs about food, I do an extremely poor job when it comes to posting about eating out experiences. This is something I aim to improve on which means I'll have to remember to take my camera with me more often. My dining companions aren't the most patient people and generally want to chow down as soon as the meals arrive which can be another problem at times.

In the past couple of months we have ventured out of our South Eastern suburban haunts on numerous occasions to sample some of the plentiful vegan food that the inner suburbs have to offer. Buying a pair of shoes from Vegan Wares has been a great way to entice us into tasting food around Collingwood as my one purchase has resulted in three visits; the initial selection, a second for a fitting and finally to pick them up.  

Trippy Taco has been one of the stand-outs so far and you could say that I'm slightly obsessed with their Tofu Asado Burrito (ordering the same meal 3 times in a row is only a mild obsession, right?). I would love to be able to replicate the way they cook the tofu as I find that the smoky, char-grilled flavour is to die for. It took me ages to convince the man to return to Trippy Taco as he had a memory of it being just average when we first went there years ago, but now he's been converted! Our son has been with us once and thoroughly enjoyed a small but deceivingly filling plate of nachos. The smoky seasoning on the trippy fries is sensational too!

Trippy Taco
234 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
9415 7711

Gasometer is a fantastic pub to sample some American styled diner food with plenty of vegan options on the menu to choose from. The man and I both tried the Southern Fried "Chicken" Burger on our first visit several months ago as I had read so many glowing reviews about it. I found that the burger was nice although the herbs in the seitan were a bit overpowering and it was incredibly filling too. The crispy seasoned fries with their soft fluffy interior were sensational.

On our second visit I spotted a Buffalo Tofu salad on the menu and thought that it would be a lighter meal. Upon ordering I was advised that it came with cornbread and not a choice of 2 sides as stated on the menu which was a bit disappointing. I'm not a fan of cornbread so I ordered some fries as well as my meal. The tofu was amazing, buffalo seasoning is not a flavour I have tried previously but it was so delicious. The salad comprised of lettuce, carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, corn chips and facon although it was slathered in too much dressing for my liking. As suspected, I didn't like the cornbread! I found it to be a bit dry and didn't appreciate the sweetness of the corn nor could I detect any heat from the jalapeno so I was happy with my decision to order a side of fries. Again we walked out of there feeling too full and have fondly being calling it the Bloatometer ever since!

Gasometer
484 Smith Street, Collingwood
9415 7711

It was exciting when I heard a few years ago that Lord of the Fries had just opened a new store at Chadstone. I usually detest shopping centres but it's wonderful for us to having a place selling all vegetarian and vegan food 10 minutes from home. We have sampled different burgers, hot dogs and nuggets as well as chips with various sauces over the years and now have settled on the original burgers and chips with gravy as our standard order. I love that they offer mini sized burgers because it's not the healthiest food going around but at least I don't feel as bad eating it in a smaller size.

Lord of the Fries
Chadstone Shopping Centre
Check their website for the store closest to you

Shakahari used to be one of our favourite places to dine and has been our choice to celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries over the last few years. After a disappointing experience for my birthday in December, I'm not keen to go back again soon. December is usually a busy month for restaurants with Christmas celebrations but I was advised that the table would be ours for the night when I made the booking for a later time. It certainly didn't feel like that was the case when we arrived. We felt under pressure to order quickly, drinks were extremely slow to arrive after ordering and there were several kerfuffles with the service. I'm generally easy to please when eating out but was rather annoyed that our main meals were plonked onto the table and the waitress didn't even take note that there was no cutlery on the table. Some of the items on the menu that haven't changed are ones that I have ordered and not enjoyed. The latest additions didn't really appeal so I ending up playing if safe and ordering an Indian curry which I have liked previously. There are plenty of other veg*n restaurants around town that I still haven't been to yet so I'm certainly not in a rush to go back to Shakahari.  

Shakahari
201-203 Faraday Street, Carlton
9347 3848

We have also revisited The Mercy Seat a couple more times which I have reviewed previously. The tofu scramble didn't seem to have as much flavour the second time I ordered it, so the blackened tofu and avocado burger remains as my favourite pick. Then man is still enamoured with the Creole "chicken" soul burger and won't order anything else. The Mercy Seat has expanded their menu to include some other items, the details of which I can't recall but I think they now have a range of focaccias.

The Mercy Seat @ 99 Problems
31 Johnston Street, Collingwood
0406 290 353

The Mercy Seat

The man enthusiastically showed me an article from The Age about the 5 best vegetarian burgers last Saturday night. Before he had scrolled down the page I immediately knew that the vegan Southern Fried Chicken burger in the list was going to be the one from Gasometer that everyone has been raving about. We had planned to grab something to eat after the Ban Live Export rally the following day but unfortunately Gasometer isn't open for lunches so I suggested that we try The Mercy Seat instead.

We had a quick look at their small but interesting and almost totally vegan menu and made up our minds pretty quickly. The man was dead set on ordering the Creole Chicken soul burger (I don't think he even looked at the rest of the menu) and after some deliberation, I selected the blackened tofu burger. When our burgers arrived we were both blown away by how delicious they were. My tofu burger was full of tasty morsels of salty, spicy tofu chunks along with tasty mushrooms, avocado, salad and a tangy mayonnaise. When asked whether we would like a bottle of hot sauce to try, the man eagerly grabbed the opportunity and has not stopped raving about it since.

The coffees were also an impressive standard so we made plans to go back the following Saturday. This time I ordered the scrambled tofu but the man couldn't be swayed from the chicken burger. The amount of spinach present in the scramble had me smiling as I do enjoy my greens and these ones were perfectly done, just wilted and not soggy at all. The scramble flavour reminded the man of curried eggs when he had a bite of it. Perhaps it did have some curry powder included but I'm sure there were a few more spices to it than just that.

We have enjoyed our meals and the service has been prompt and friendly on both visits. I'm happy to pay $10 - $12 for such tasty good quality vegan food and wish I lived closer so I could visit more often.

The Mercy Seat has also been given the thumbs up by Where's The Beef twice, In the Mood for Noodles, Vetti and Garden of Yoda.

The Mercy Seat
31 Johnston St, Collingwood
Open Wed-Sun 8am - 4pm (The Mercy Seat closed down in 2012)

Enlightened Cuisine

The Crown complex is somewhere I usually try to avoid like the plague and have only had the displeasure of attending on a few rare occasions. When the man mentioned taking our son to see the last Harry Potter movie there, I agreed straight away as this would be my chance to introduce us to a nearby restaurant I had been wanting to go to for so long - Enlightened Cuisine.

Enlightened Cuisine is a popular and well renowned Chinese vegetarian restaurant that specialises in mock meat meals as well as a variety of tofu and vegetable based dishes. The man and I were very impressed when we sampled a selection of their dishes at World Vegan Day last year and ever since I had wanted the chance to choose from their full range of meals.

Rendang love extends throughout the three of us as our son made us proud and settled upon this as his choice almost straight away. The man and I were in debate mode for quite some time. My initial thought had been to order a tofu or vegetable dish so we weren't just eating mock meat. The man thought that if we were taking the rare opportunity to go to a mock meat restaurant we shouldn't be choosing tofu or vegies as we already eat them on a regular basis. We eventually put ourselves on the spot, ordered without final consultation and ended up with two Kung Po's between us; chicken and lamb. 

Apologies for the poor quality phone pics throughout this post...

The Beef Rendang was served with potatoes, the sauce was nicely spiced and the mock meat full of flavour. Our son is not vegan nor vegetarian but declared this to taste better than meat. From memory the rendang at Loving Hut had a slightly superior sauce (although I can't put my finger on why or how it was different) but their mock meat slices were not as nice as the chunks that Enlightened Cuisine use.

The Kung Po lamb was also delicious with a wonderful spicy sauce that was full of whole chillies and thankfully, a good selection of vegetables. The Kung Po chicken was a bit different to the lamb as it was served in a nest of fried potatoes and topped with cashews. It also contained a large amount of whole chillies and the same selection of vegies but the sauce was much sweeter and lighter in colour than the Kung Po lamb sauce. Of these two dishes, we all preferred the lamb over the chicken.

The service on the night was prompt and attentive and the meal was deemed to be a success in all of our eyes. Now that we have finally made it to Enlightened Cuisine, I'm sure we will visit again to sample more of the extensive menu as my boys do love their mock meat!

Enlightened Cuisine has been reviewed in the past by many bloggers but more recently by Where's the Beef,  Vegetarian Life Australia, vegan about town and easy as vegan pie.

Enlightened Cuisine
113 Queensbridge Road, Southbank
Phone: 9686 9188
Web: www.ecuisine.com.au

Loving Hut

A trip to Ikea last Friday evening had me in two minds for dinner options - back to Thanh Nga Nine for some delicious Vietnamese food or to give the Loving Hut a try. I'm satisfied with our choice to visit the Loving Hut despite not being blown away by all of the dishes we tried...

The traffic into Richmond was horrendous and by the time the man and I arrived at the Loving Hut we were extremely hungry. The place was only about 1/4 full when we walked in but became progressively busier during our dinner.

We started with some spring rolls and fried dumplings. The spring rolls were incredibly crispy and along with their dipping sauce were a fantastic start to the meal. The only problem with the serve was the odd number of rolls which meant that it couldn't be split evenly. The fried dumplings were OK but the ginger and 5-spice in the filling was too overpowering for my liking. 

Then we were onto the mains. The man selected the rendang which arrived first so we tucked into this straight away and it was sensational. It's a meal I wouldn't recommended if you are not a mock meat fan as this makes up the majority although there were a few potatoes and carrots included as well. The sauce had a wonderfully spicy coconutty flavour, of which I could have drank a whole bowl and I would have indulged a lot more if I wasn't waiting on my laksa... 

When the laksa finally arrived, my stomach was getting to the point where it really didn't need much more food and I could tell that the man was not going to be very helpful with assisting me in tackling this almighty bowl. The laksa turned out to be a disappointing choice, mainly because the broth seemed to be lacking in the blend of intricate flavours that makes a good laksa shine. My other gripe with it was that there was only one type of vegetable included, green beans. The other components of the bowl were fried tofu puffs (not my favourite type of tofu), different varieties of mock meat and two types of noodles.

The service throughout was attentive and cheerful, however the wait staff were a little bit confused about which meals were ordered at each table. The sequence of meals was also rather strange, one entree came out first, followed by the other entree served with one of the mains and then a long wait for the laksa. It was a cheap feed, the bill coming in at a bit over $30 for 2 entrees and 2 mains! The rendang and spring rolls are definitely an incentive for us to revisit the Loving Hut and one of their many tofu dishes might be a better selection next time.

Unfortunately there are no photos to share as my camera wasn't with me and I'm blaming my hunger for forgetting to take some phone pics. ;-)

Loving Hut was also reviewed soon after it's opening by Shawna, K @ In the Mood for Noodles and Katie Carrot.

Loving Hut
Shop 10, 242 Victoria Street
Richmond
9427 8916