The fabulous foodie holiday

Warning to all - many, many words and photos ahead! So settle in!

I got back yesterday from a brief holiday down at Broadbeach, on the Gold Coast. It was basically an eating extravaganza of fabulous proportions! And thank goodness for the food, as I ended up witha ground floor unit and a fabulous view of the building's pool, and could listen to the soothing sounds of other people in said pool and the traffic outside. Mmm.... restful! Moral of story - don't internet book. Always book over the phone so you know what you are getting!

I got down on Monday afternoon, and immediatey went out for stocking up at The Oasis Shopping Centre. I haven't been down for a couple of years, and I was thrilled to find out that opposite Woolworths there was now a Wray Organic shop had opened up! So I happily went in and impulsed bought up a storm! Below is my booty.



Clockwise from left: Redwood Vegan Thai Style Fish Cakes, Pure Harvest Oat Milk, Spoil Me Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, organic Swiss Brown mushrooms, Cheddar Style Cheezly and Absolute Organic Beetroot Chips.

That night I headed out to Tian Ran, a fabulous vegan asian restaurant in Mermaid Beach, about 5 minutes drive from my unit. YUM! I had the mixed deep fried entree (curry puff, wonton, dim sim and spring roll), the hot and sour soup (excellent!), chicken in satay sauce on brown rice and, for dessert, lychees in vegan ice cream. The hot and sour soup was one of the best I've had, which is important for me because this is my favourite soup!The chicken is made out of soy protein, and was very nice. And a good peanutty satay sauce as well! But my favourite part was the vegan ice cream with lychees - something I haven't had for ages, but which I truly love! It was all beautifully presented. I wish I had some photos, but I still feel a bit funny taking photos in restaurants.

Tuesday morning dawned, and with it - awesome breakfast number one! I had come prepared for awesome breakfasts, with pancake batter pre-prepared and tempeh bacon marinating. So here it is:



It is Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes from Veganomicon and Tempeh Bacon from Vegan Vittles, with fresh berries and smothered in maple syrup - YUM! One of the fun things about staying in these units is going from a fully stocked kitchen to a marginally stocked one. So all my frying was done in the one electric frying pan (ick). I enjoyed my first ever glass of icy cold oat milk with this - and I love it! I rapidly consumed most of the pack, I confess.

I spent the entire day reading with my non-view. Very nice to spend all day reading. Come lunch time, and the pancakes had finally worn off. So I made myself a TBLAT:



Tempeh Bacon, Leaves (in this case baby spinach and fresh basil), Avocado and Tomato (in this case a Cherokee Purple variety from my market frolic) with some soy mayo for extra fun all sandwiched between two slices of Sol Bread's Pumpkin And Pepita loaf. YUM!

For dinner I headed down to Threeworlds Organic Pizza Cafe, a vegan pizza shop down in Mermaid Beach. Fabulous atmosphere! And it is a pay what you feel concept. I got takeaway, so I do have photos.



Here's my pizza! I got the large zised half and half. Half was the Margarita and the other half was Potato And Herb. It smelled amazing and tasted great! The cheese is the yellow spiral stuff. It seems to be a liquid cheese that is then baked. Tasty! It also had rocked leaves and sprouts sprinkled all over the top. Scrummy!

I enjoyed some more Heirloom Tomatoes - here is Green Zebra, Yellow Peach and an unknown red variety. Let me just say, the flavour in these tomatoes in mind blowing! Especially compared to the watery red things pretending to be tomatoes in most supermarkets and green grocers.



Threeworlds also has raw vegan desserts! They had two while I was there, so I just had to get a piece of both!



Raw Chocolate Avocado Tart. With my raw vegan ice cream and fresh strawberries. OMG - NOOOOMMMMMMMM! It was so rich, chocolate and decadent!



The other one was a raw coconut, banana and lemon tart. I was not such a fan of this one. It definitely tasted like it wanted to be baked!

Wednesday morning dawned, and it was cold and raining! I prepared another awesome breakfast:



Here we have scrambled tofu (firm tofu, baby roma tomatoes, baby spinach leaves, basil leaves, parsley leaves, mushrooms, kipfler potatoes, nooch and apple cider vinegar), more tempeh bacon, fried mushrooms and a slice of pumpkin bread with avocado. All washed down with some take away fresh juice - apple, carrot and ginger (the best combination ever!).

Eventually I decided to leave the dry hotel room and venture out for some lunch at Magic Apple Wholefoods down in Burleigh Heads. Yummy! This is a vegetarian place with a lot of vegan options. Because of the cold and rainy day, I opted for a lentil and mushroom pie, which came with a homemade tomato sauce. They have a great selection there - pies, pasties, a selection of yummy hot meals (thai curry, morrocan bean stew and dhal were all on offer) and some of the largest and yummiest wraps ever seen! They also have sweet stuff!



This is my piece of Orange Almond Cake. It had a kind of cream cheese icing. I took this down to Point Danger, on the QLD/NSW border. It is one of my favourite and prettiest places ever. Don't believe me?

Here is the point itself from up above on the lookout.



And here is the beach next to it, also from the lookout.



The weather abated to allow me to walk down to the actual point itself.




Then I headed back up, just in time as it started raining again, and spent a couple of hours reading in the car, listening to Hamish and Andy on the radio and watching the beautiful view. I stopped off form some more Tian Ran take away on the way home. Tonight I had some lovely Shanghai Pan Fried dumplings, which were truly tasty. For the soup I had the Sweetcorn and Vegetarian Chicken Soup, which was a bit lacking in sweetcorny taste to be honest. The star was the main - beef in black bean. They make their beef using soy protein and mushrooms, and it is delicious, melt in your melt stuff! For dessert I enjoyed some of their sago with coconut milk and palm sugar with soy ice cream. Even though I had this at the unit, I forgot to take photos - doh!

My final morning. Before check out, I had a quick breakfast snack of vanilla soy yoghurt, berries and maple syrup. YUM! This was just to boost my energy, before packing up, checking out and heading off to One World Love Cafe for the breakfast proper. I had the sausages (really nice, I think some sort of nutmeat), tomatoes and toast with a banana smoothie. I also had a lovely chat with Margaret, one of the ladies working there. This is a great, zen little place and I think my favourite of the trip! They also do group meditations there. It is abeautiful place too, with a lovely courtyard and some of the nicest bathrooms you ever shall see. Did I mention the food was great?



Then home and back to the real world. For dinner last night, I had some vegan fish and chips. Well, to be precise Redwood Vegan Thai Style Fish Cakes, chips and more yummy tomatoes.

If you are still with me, congratulations and thanks! It was a great holiday of eating, and I would be happy to drive back down just to eat at any of these places. Check them out if you are in the area, or if not, drive up or down and check them out anyway!

So, today is my birthday, so more food will be forthcoming soon!