Vegan MoFo #16: Sydney part one - Friday's starter

On Friday I went to Sydney for the weekend to have a fabulous time hanging out with my Sydcoats. What is a Sydcoat you ask? Who here has watched Joss Whedon's Firefly and Serenity? If not, for shame and go and do so at once! If so then you may know that the independents during the war were also called the Browncoats. Super awesome fans of the show/movie have adopted the name to refer to themselves. Hence, Browncoats. Browncoats in Sydney = Sydcoats! Even though I am back in Brisbane now, I am still a Sydcoat!

My trip started with a slight delay - upon boarding the plane we were told a window was jammed (???) so we promptly unboarded the plane and t=got on another one - thankfully they had a spare just lying around! But soon I was in Sydney, which was my home for six years and so is a super special place for me.

The first event of the weekend was Friday night dinner at Vina's - a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant in Newtown. I had never been here before, but was with an experienced patron who made many suggestions. And hence, the eating began!


Crispy Xui Chao - Delicious, delicious fried. Dumplings with some sort of filling (I'm not sure exactly what it was) and a nomtastic sauce - I think sweet and sour maybe?


Steamed Mock BBQ Bun - A steamed BBQ bun is always a winner! Be careful biting into these - they are steaming hot.


Crispy Mock Fish Nuggets - These were great! A very mild fishy flavour, but they were essentially tasty little nuggets of tasty goodness.


Lightly Fried Crispy Tofu - Fried silken tofu with fried onions on top and a lovely soy sauce.


Fried Spring Rolls - Always a classic. I didn't actually try these because one couple were having some extra sides and just one main to share.


Crispy Curry Samosa - See above!


Green Salad - It is meant to be tomato, capsicum, cucumber, corn and avocado with a sesame oil dressing, though ours somehow got ordered without the avocado because a certain very off person (he knows who he is!) doesn't like it. Unfortunately most of the rest of the salad was capsicum - gag! I had a bit of the lettuce, cucumber and tomato though and it was quite nice with the dressing.


Vina Coleslaw - This is AWESOME! It is a salad of shredded pickled carrot, white radish, bean sprouts and cucumber topped with cashews and 'chicken'. It is totally amazing and something you could just eat all day everyday!

Now, it may seem like a whole lot of food but the above were just our starters! Tomorrow I shall continue on to the mains, a delicious journey!

Cute Kitty Post of the Day


During my time in Sydney I was staying with the lovely Brendan and Diana and their three kitties. This is Caleb, one of the three. He is the sookiest great big boy, and he is so lovable. I blew raspberries on his belly a number of times, something only the most relaxed and patient of cats will allow. He is a big handsome man!