Eating Out: Grassfed (and Sea Monsters at the Museum)

The QLD Museum had an exhibition running for several months about prehistoric sea monsters, aka marine reptiles, and I was so keen to go. But it started last year when COVID was still getting under control here. Finally, I bought tickets to an After Dark session to go to with a friend (no kids allowed!), but then the day before another COVID cluster kicked off and we cancelled. Time was running out to see it, so I went one day on a weekday that I had off.

Of course, I had to get some lunch to fuel myself! And I took a short walk from the museum to Grassfed for a burger and a shake (see my previous Grassfed posts here). I was super keen to try their current special, the Teriyaki Tempehtation Burger. It had teriyaki galzed tempeh (the tempeh from local tempeh maker Totally Tempeh) with rainbow slaw, fried lotus root, coriander, and wasabi mayo. It was absolutely delicious!

I also got a shake. Normally I am all about the strawberry shake they make, strawberry being the best flavour in general. But this time I got another one of their specials, the Biscoff Shake. Biscoff Sauce, Biscoff Spread, Biscoff Cookies! With their amazing I Should Coco softserve, soy milk, soy whipped cream, and a cherry. This was a super sweet treat, but a lot of fun. The crunchiness of the cookies was nice in it as well.



OK, let's get back to the museum! No trip to the Queensland Museum is complete without a viewing of the humpbacks and saying hello to the Muttuburrasaurus.





But the main event was the Sea Monsters exhibit! They have these fun magazine covers you can pose in, though as I was on my own I just took a photo with no one in it.



So, confession time... the idea of these giant marine reptiles gives me the creeps. I would not want to be close to them. Or any large current marine animal, to be honest. Sure, I might watch a whale from a distance, I love whales, but if I was in the water I would not want to be near anything that big! So I did have involuntary shudders as I walked through this, but I was still love them because they are cool! Just FYI, these are not dinosaurs! Marine reptiles are a different class of animals. Just like flying reptiles like Pteranodons are not dinosaurs either. Anyway, speaking of large marine reptiles...


The exhibit was broken into four sections, chronologically arranged based on when these giants swam the seas. First up, the Ichthyosaurs. Look at that cheeky face! With some big snappy jaws.



Behold some fossilised poo! AKA early turds, hee.



The Plesiosaurs are like the longnecks of the marine reptile world.



This is a cast of Penny The Plesiosaur, the most complete plesiosaur found in Australia, which was found in Queensland. My state has been the site of discovery of a lot of cool prehistoric animal fossils.



If you are familiar with the Jurassic World franchise, you will know the Mosasaur! When I first saw this cast, I was surprised because I was expecting it to be much bigger. But within each of the types of marine reptiles, there are individual species. This one here is the Prognathadon.



The type of Mosasaur they had in Jurrasic World was the Tylosaurus, otherwise known as the T-Rex of the sea. They were up to 15 meters long! Of course Jurassic World would choose the biggest, fiercest mosasaur type to genetically engineer.



The final section was about Turtles, which are marine reptiles that span both ancient and current times. This was a nice, calming way to end after all those giant chompers that came before! Though turtles could still get pretty big in times past! Look at this chonky's skull.



I'm really glad I got a chance to see it before it ended, because I love this sort of thing! In the last few years, I have really rediscovered my inner dino and pals nerd, and it makes me happy!

On my way back to the car, I passed by the Brisbane sign in Southbank. Normally, this sign has people crawling all over it or taking photos in front of it, but miraculously there was no one near it on this random Wednesday early afternoon, so I snapped a quick photo.



I know there wasn't much food in this post, but if you read this far (or even just scrolled to look at the photos) I hoped you enjoyed it! Please let me know what non-food things you love to geek out about.

Eating Out: I Should Coco and Vegerama West End (Dinosaur Edition)

After the heaviness of the previous forum topics, let us return to some frivolity and fun! A couple of weeks ago, my friend Ashleigh and I went to the Dinosaurs After Dark Night at the Museum of Queensland. The museum had been running a Dinosaur Discovery exhibit for several months, and on its closing weekend they had an event where they opened up the entire museum, including the dinosaurs and the science centre, for adults only! It. Was. Glorious!

We started our night at the Boundary Street Markets. We had planned to get dinner there, but although there were a few vegan options none of them were particularly exciting (especially as Ashleigh is gluten free). I think there are less vegan options compared to the last time I went, which is a shame. However, they did have I Should Coco Ice Cream, and what better way to start dinner than with dessert? We both got the Cookie Wookie, which has warm GF chocolate chip cookie dough. Ashleigh got hers in a cup (they don't have GF cones) with caramel sauce, which is how it is originally meant to be. I don't like caramel sauce (too sweet!), so I asked for mine with chocolate sauce instead (and in a cone, of course). It was delicious! The bottom tip of the cone was packed with warm cookie dough. So good.



For our dinner, we decided to go to Vegerama at West End, which was on the way to the museum from the markets. Ashleigh got a Winter Shot (Ginger, turmeric, lemon, cayenne, $5) and I had the Liver Cleansing Juice (Carrot, apple, beetroot, ginger, turmeric, $8).



Ashleigh was feeling like something light, so she got the Mini Raw Tacos (Crisp corn and flax shells, shredded lettuce, Mexican spiced nut mince, salsa, guacamole, raw sour cream, $14.50) and a side of Kimchi ($3.50). She said the tacos were great (generous with the avocado), except for their sour cream. It was pretty much just solid coconut fat.



I tried the Linguine (Radicchio, shiitake & enoki mushrooms, vine ripened truss tomatoes, nut parmesan, $17), which was really nice. Though I wish it had a bit of freshness and crunch on the side.



Then it was on to the dinosaurs! It was a lot of fun. The animatronic dinosaurs weren't quite as realistic as when I went to the Jurassic World exhibit in Melbourne earlier this year, but there was also none of the unfortunate zoo/theme park associations with the set up. Here are some fun dinosaurs!













Afterwards, we went for a bit of a stroll around South Bank, to admire the river at night. I also passed two food trucks that had vegan options, which was cool.



Vegerama West End - Shop 2a 220 Melbourne St, West End, QLD - 07 3255 3388

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



It is the time of year at work where we are starting to clip kitties so they can keep cool over summer. It reminds me of when I had Gizmo clipped. She was a short haired cat, but with a very thick double coat. When we moved to Brisbane, the summer was rough for her. So she had a few years of getting clipped. She got so frisky when she didn't have all that fur in the heat! I miss her.