Sydney OzComicCon 2017 Part 2

Anyone else keep getting confused about not starting a blog post with the VeganMoFo headed and prompt of the day?

Saturday night in Sydney for OCC is the best night, because it is pizza and ice cream night! For the last three years I have always gone and met up with friends in Newtown for dinner at Gigi, the best pizza place around! As well as meeting up with two of my friends, another OCC friend came with us as well. This friend was not vegan, but was quite curious and excited to see what we would be eating.

I was excited to finally be able to try the croquettes from Gigi's, in the past they have always been sold out. These are perfect little mashed potato balls coated in nuts. Amazing.



We shared some pizzas, including the Ripieno Zucca e Spinachi (pumpkin cream, spinach, tomato and mushroom calzone), the Cavolo (cauliflower, artichoke, pine nuts, currants, capers) and the life-changing Melanzane (eggplant, tomato, basil).







Afterwards we went to Gelato Blue, the most amazing vegan ice cream shop. So. Many. Flavours. Two of us got sundaes, and two just got a cone or cup. I went for a sundae, which had three choices of scoops. I chose the old favourite Peanut Butter Cornotto, and two new friends - Pana Cotta and Waffles, and Strawberry Balsamic Greek Yoghurt. The latter was so amazing, I wish I could have had more!



Tragically, dear readers, by this time I was so, so, so sick. I had a hard time eating or even tasting food. The potato croquettes were perfect for the unwell palate, and the tangy greek yoghurt ice cream was amazing, but a lot of the other flavours of things got lost. There was even some left over pizza, which I sent home with a friend because I just didn't know if I would be able to finish it the next day. That is how serious this situation was. But it is nothing against the food, which is phenomenal. I have posted about how much I love both of these places before. And my OCC friend thought everything was amazing, which is great! I love showing people how wonderful vegan food can be.

Sunday morning. Life was grim. I just managed some overnight oats and fruit salad. The struggle was real. But the end was almost nigh. I forgot to mention, on Saturday the fruit salad came with a tub of yoghurt. HEAD DESK. Today it came with a tub of coconut cream, which was very thoughtful. Of course I can't eat coconut cream, but that is not their fault. Lunch on Sunday was meant to be some sort of vegan pumpkin roll thing, but apparently they realised they could not make that vegan, so I got this random VEGAN BURGER. Eh, it was something. I ate it.



The day came to a close and I hightailed it from the venue as soon as possible to go and have a little lie down. Because this was the last day of the last con for many of us, there was a party being held that night that I really needed to go to. After my lie down, I decided to fuel my sick self with potatoes. No other food was acceptable. So I first went to Grill'd and amused the cashier by ordering just some chips and relish to eat in. Grill'd makes the best chips.



As I was walking down to the venue, I passed a juice place that made me a very gingery beet and carrot juice, which was good. However it was then that my choices went awry. As so often they do, at Lord of the Fries. Readers may recall that my views on LoTF range from adequate to eh to ick. Unfortunately, tonight was an ick factor. Granted, my sickness may have contributed. I also honestly think that the Sydney one is just not as good as other ones, the chips are always terrible. I was just going to order the vegan poutine, but ended up getting the Vegan Halal Snack Pack, minus the chili sauce. They also had a Twin Peaks themed cherry pie milk shake that I was excited to try. The milkshake tasted like cherry pie on the first sip, then just tasted like bland vanilla. The chips just were mushy and soggy and not good, though the toppings were amusing. But I couldn't finish them. Here is a really bad photo of the HSP in some really bad light.



I stayed at the party for a little bit, said goodbyes, hugged or elbow bumped (I was the walking plague at that point), and then dragged myself back to bed and to sleep. And now, for the saddest story of all. The final morning. I had planned to get up and go and get breakfast at this amazing new vegan place called Shift Eatery, but I was so tired and so sick and so wishing I was dead that all I could manage was to drag myself to the hotel lounge for this.



I ended up at the airport three hours early... I couldn't even check my bags... because there were people taking all sorts of different flights. When I finally got through, I went and got a juice from their weird place called Joe & The Juice and I also got some very green salads from Sumo Salad.



I was so glad to finally get home! And then I got a chest infection and went on antibiotics and spent abut four days lying around doing nothing. It was a definite damper on my final OzComicCon experience, but I will always be grateful to all the wonderful people and for all the amazing memories.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Nothing better than being reunited with Dim Sim!

Sydney OzComicCon 2017 Part 1

Sydney 2017 was my final OzComicCon. It all started on Friday, when I flew down to Sydney to be reading for the weekend ahead. Unfortunately, I woke up on Friday feeling rather unwell, and it didn't get any better as the weekend went on. Blergh. To help me feel better, when I got to the airport I got a cup of vegan mushroom and tofu pho from Roll'd. I also managed to find a place that had turmeric lattes!



When we arrived in Sydney and got to the hotel, I settled myself and took a short walk to the Westfield to pick up a pita from Sabbaba for lunch. They had quite a few vegan options, and I picked the Tel Aviv, which had falafel, hummus, salad, pickle and hot chips. It was good, and the pita was so soft and fresh. Very nice!



Unfortunately after this yummy lunch I found a place that had gelato and sorbets, and they had a range of fruit sorbets that I was told was vegan. I picked one, took a bite, went back, and was told Oooops! Every one of the flavours in that cabinet is vegan... except that one that is full of dairy. BLERGH. They replaced it for me, and I was feeling gross so didn't want to really eat anything, but I just needed something to get rid of te dairy film that coated my mouth. BLERGH.

Thankfully I only had a few hours of feeling very unhappy in my tummy, but I was able to feel OK to eat dinner before the cocktail party that night. I went to Mother Chu's, which has been in Sydney forever and yet I have never been to it before, even when I lived there! I ordered a steamed BBQ bun (as a single diner, I liked that I could order a single serve). Also, because I am that vegan, I ordered some tofu, mushrooms and veggies for my main. It was so good! I love tofu and mushrooms together, and the savoury brown sauce was just what I was craving to fully settle my tummy.





The cocktail party was OK, but I was glad to get to bed. Unfortunately my cold meds didn't do much to help me sleep through the night, so I was pretty exhausted as well as since on Saturday. I had some overnight oats at the hotel, and then some fruit salad provided by the venue for breakfast. For lunch, I had chosen the quinoa, pumpkin and coconut salad. This picture makes it look like a tiny cup, but it was actually a huge tub. It was a ridiculous amount of quinoa! I also had a little plate of vegan things smuggled to me from the green room. I was so full after this.





We were at the new convention centre at Darling Harbour this year, which was nice because we could walk to and from there from the hotel (last year we had to catch shuttles and were at the mercy of their timetable). It was quite a pretty walk along Darling Harbour.



I had to break my Sydney post into two so it wasn't just ridiculously long, so be sure to look out for the next post where I go to two of my favourite food places ever!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Of course no trip away is complete without me missing the heck out of this little baby!

Brisbane OzComicCon 2017

Hello post-MoFo world! I am about to embark on an amazing adventure! My friend Molly is visiting me for two weeks, and we are going to be having super fun times in both Brisbane and Melbourne. I am so excited, it is just one sleep until she arrives. So I won't be reading or posting much, but I have prepared some posts about my Brisbane and Sydney OzComicCon foods to go out during that time, so I am at least all up to date with my travel posts.

At the end of September I worked at my final two OzComicCons, Brisbane and Sydney. For the past several years, I have worked as OzComicCon as a guest handler. This time I was looking after Keegan Allen, who was a complete delight. But let's get on to the food!

The first weekend was my home city of Brisbane, so I was staying at home. But I still ate food out and about for the con! The con catered our breakfasts and lunches. But the weekend really starts with the VIP cocktail party on Friday night. I got into the city early to meet a friend who was doing some Bowen therapy trials to get a session, which was interesting and kind of cool! But before that, I stopped off at Coco Bliss and got a Tutti Fruity Acai smoothie, which was unfortunately a bit watery, but had a nice flavour otherwise.



After this, I went to get some dinner. I started at Vegerama in the Myer Centre food court, where I got a satay pie with tamarind sauce (they put a hilarious amount of sauce on), and some salads (Dill and Mustard, and BBQ Tofu). I was still craving carbs, so I decided to also try some of the new fries from Guzman y Gomez with their vegan Chimi Mayo. It is so fun to be able to get a creamy dipping sauce! The fries were OK, though a little spicy. I also went back to Coco Bliss and got a Spiced Matcha, which was so weird as it didn't have any discernible matcha in it. So disappointing.





Saturday morning, I had a small bowl of overnight oats that I made from leftover bits and pieces in the house, before heading in for breakfast at the con. I had parked in West End, and had to walk by Suburban on my way to the convention centre. They have amazing turmeric lattes, which saved me a little because I was so tired. The vegan breakfast option at the convention was and Avocado and Tomato muffin, which was a little lacking in flavour. Also they put them all on gluten free buns, which were just so incredibly heavy. Still, at least it was substantial compared to the tiny glass of fruit they gave us in Melbourne!



Last year I was quite happy with the Brisbane lunch options, so I ordered the same again this year. On Saturday I had the veggie burger. Last year it was a yummy burger (Sanitarium Notburger I am pretty sure), and came with fries. This year there were no fries, and the patty had been replaced with a dry and way too spicy chickpea monstrosity. Disappointing. There was also a spare vegan wrap kicking around on Saturday, and I needed something to take away the spicy, so I ate that.





Everyone say hi to the Marriage Equality Dalek!



For dinner I headed back into West End. I thought that I would get a nice falafel salad bowl from West End Falafel, but when I got there they had a Satay Tofu Vegan Snack Pack special, so I had to get that. Chips, tofu, cucumber and satay sauce. Yes please! I was also right next to the Boundary St Markets, so had to pop by the I Should Coco stall and pick myself up a Berry Merry cone.





For breakfast the next day I snacked on a berry and coconut breakfast bar that I had picked up from Coco Bliss before I left home, picked up a spiced soy hot cocoa from Suburban on my way, and then had another avocado and tomato muffin at the convention centre.



For Sunday lunch I had chosen the baba ganoush salad sandwich. Last year it was a yummy, crusty roll with lots of creamy dip and fresh salad. This time it was a fairly thin sandwich. Eh. Quality has definitely gone down from last year.



I wolfed down my sandwich pretty quickly, and then met up with my friend Ashleigh who was attending for the day and we walked down to Vegerama at West End to get some extra sustenance. I only had time to wait for a smoothie to take away, but Ashleigh brought me some pizza later on as well. The smoothie I picked was Ancient-Bliss (Raspberry, Blueberry, Strawberry, Coconut Flesh, Lucuma, Cayenne Pepper, Chia Seeds, Agave, Coconut Water, Cashew Milk), and it was delicious.



I met up with Ashleigh again after I finished for the evening, and we went to the Brisbane Vegan Night Markets together. But that will wait for another post!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim wants to make sure that you all remember what she looks like, after a month of remembering Sahara. The best bit about working OCC in your home city is getting to come home at night to your little black cat!

Melbourne OCC 2017: Part 2

Thankfully Sunday was a slightly shorter day compared to the Saturday. So let's talk about laughable venue food. I started off in my hotel eating oats, and then went to the venue for the 'catered vegan breakfast' of tiniest fruit salad ever. In what world do they think this is breakfast for anyone?



They had three vegan options you could choose for lunch, two of which were the same as last year. The sad, soggy, oily veggie wrap and the tiny serve of rice paper rolls. This time I ordered the veggie gyoza for both days... at least it would be hot, right? Oh, silly Susan. It was lukewarm, dried out gyoza with a drizzle of stuck on sauce and sesame seeds. At least the taste was not offensive. And at least I had packed my noodle cups and snack bars and fruit!



Anyway, thankfully I planned ahead and never was hungry throughout the day. And after it was over, I went and met Jess again for some ramen. I love ramen! We went to try Mr Ramen San in the city, which had two vegan options. We wanted a little started, and asked if the natto with mushrooms was vegan. Neither of us had tried natto before, but we were both keen. We were told that it was, but they kind of suggested maybe we wouldn't like it, which was funny and only strengthened our resolve! And of course it was fine. Sure, a little bit slimy, but it tasted nice. And it was mixed through with some mushroom chunks. It was good!



There are two vegetarian ramens, which are vegan without the egg. And we ordered both. They both have the same broth, but one was a 'charsu' ramen (with vegetarian Roast 'pork', leeks, spring onion, bamboo, Wood ear mushroom and seaweed), and the other is tofu ramen (with tofu, spring onion, beansprout, corn, pickled vegetables and seaweed). We swapped some of the toppings between the bowls so we could try everything. They were hot and tasty!







On the way home I got another Soy Matcha Latte from Starbucks, but I got a larger one. Which was yummy, but then made me pee one million times overnight, so I have to remember that for the future! Also of note, they had both vegan Vitasoy Cafe soy milk there, and the non-vegan Vitasoy with Vitamin D, he started making it with that one, so thankfully I saw and stopped him. But double check on the soy milk you get there!

Monday morning was a team breakfast at a hotel buffet, which is not a good time for vegans. But it is a nice time for seeing everyone. So I went out for breakfast first and then met everyone there. I went to Lord of the Fries for a Tibetan Burger (tofu egg, vegan cheese, mustard and mayo) with bacon added and a hashbrown. I also stopped by Broad Bean again and got a turmeric latte, and I had a juice left. The burger was OK, but it is certainly no Smith & Deli Egg McMartinez. The bun was very soft and oddly sweet. But still, it was a filling breakfast.



We got picked up and taken to the airport, only to be hit with a three hour delay (I hate Jetstar so much). So I walked around, we chatted, and I got some lunch. There are a few options at Melbourne airport, but you would think there would be more. The best options are in the Jetstar terminal, at least. I ended up getting a Mucho Veggie Burrito Bowl from Salsa, which was nice and fresh option. It had lime and coriander rice, zucchini and broccoli, black beans, corn salsa, and guacamole. It is also meant to have onions and capsicum and a chipotle salsa, but I asked for them to be left off. Still had a slightly uncomfortable hit of chilli, though. I also grabbed a sushi roll for a plane snack.



I was pretty exhausted, and glad to be home to my sweet Dim Sim! Speaking of sweet, I picked up some chocolate goodies to bring home with me. The Loving Earth chocolates were on sale and Broad Bean. They are the only raw chocolate brand that I like, and these flavours are SO GOOD. Especially the berry one. I also stumbled across a little shop that had every single flavour of Seed & Bean! I started piling up all the vegan ones, before reminding myself that they were $8 a black, so I pared it back to three. My favourite sea salt, the mandarin and ginger (which was yummy), and the intriguing fennel (which I am still yet to try). I do have some regrets about not getting Orange & Thyme. As a bonus, all this chocolate is on the Food Empowerment Project Approved Chocolate List, so I can enjoy these without worrying that they were made using child slavery!



And finally, let's talk about Alyson Hannigan. Buffy is the show of my heart, my forever show, a love of my life. And Willow is without a doubt the best part of Buffy. I got to spend a lot of time near Alyson Hannigan while I was looking after Tom, which was lovely. I am pretty awkward, so I liked not having to talk to her a lot because - oh my god - fan girl alert. At the very end of the con, I did manage to babble a brief thank you for being Willow at her, and then she was off so I was able to slink away. Of course I had a photo with her! Behold!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



You can bet your bottom dollar that I was overjoyed to come home to my perfect little princess.

Melbourne OCC 2017: Part 1

At the end of June, I went back to Melbourne for the second time this year... only four weeks after my first trip! This time it was for OzComicCon, where I work as a guest handler. I was looking after Tom Lenk, and this was very exciting for me because he is from Buffy and Buffy is my most beloved TV show ever. Even more exciting, Alyson Hannigan was also going to be there, so I was going to be able to quietly bask in her glow.

But I know you are here for food. So let's talk food. My food game started at the airport, before I even got on the plane. I had some time, and I was hungry, so I stopped into Roll'd and got some of their vegan pho with mushroom and tofu, no chili. It was really yummy!



I also got a couple of salads from SumoSalad to take for lunch on the plane. I got a hokkien noodle salad, and a Moroccan lentil salad. They were both tasty, and nice and filling.



After landing and getting to my hotel in South Bank (not an area I would ever choose to stay in if I was visiting Melbourne otherwise, as it is a bit far from the good food), I stopped by Broad Bean Organic Grocer to see about picking up some extra supplies. I had already come well equipped with 90 second oat sachets, soy milk poppers, dried fruit, noodle cups, plus all the snack bars in the world. The do have smoothies and hot drinks, and some vegan salads and sandwiches, as well as a range of vegan supplies. I grabbed a few bottles of juice and a kombucha (I drink one bottle over a couple of days and let it go a bit flat first, but my tummy does love the probiotics. I also grabbed a maple peanut butter soy hot chocolate, because how could I not!

I had some unexpected free time in the afternoon, and I decided to use it in the best way possible - a trip to Smith & Deli! This is my happy place. It was 4pm when I got there, so a lot of things were already sold, but I was able to pick up a few treats as well as one of their delicious chai lattes. I got a chocolate chip rosemary cookie, a cinnamon roll cookie, and an apple and rhubarb shortbread.





Friday night is the cocktail party night, which is long, so I needed to get a decent dinner. Vegie Kitchen (previously Enlightened Cuisine), just a block away from my hotel, was unexpectedly closed during last year's OCC, however this year they were open. I got a sweet corn soup to start, because I love sweet corn soup! Although they have a large menu of exciting mock meat options, I went for a tofu combination pot (it had a bit of mock something in it too), because I can't say no to giant plates of tofu and veggies.





Saturday brought the start of OzComicCon proper. This was a 12 hour day, and it is busy, so there is no chance of getting out for food. Breakfast and lunch is supplied for guest handlers, but the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre's idea of what is decent catering for vegans is pretty laughable. I will post more on that in my next post. Suffice to say, I was very glad that I had pre-fuelled with oats and a my rhubarb apple shortbread (what, it is fruit, breakfast food!), and had packed a noodle pot, a banana, a cookie and many snack bars.

After I got out, I power-walked (I spent a lot of the day sitting and being around a lot of people, walking in some 'fresh' air seemed perfect) to meet my friend Jess at The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar for dinner. We met at 8, and even though it was a Saturday night there was almost no one there at that time. The crowd started coming later. Fine by me! They have a vegan section on the menu, which seemed to be different again from the two versions currently floating around online. Sadly no sign of the vegan smoked croquettes. We ordered a few things to share, as is our usual style. The vegan BBQ braised lamb burger was quite nice. I have no idea what they used for the lamb, it was like a mound of minced or pulled something, but not jackfruit, but it was nice on the burger with some slaw and a pickle. The Vegan Halal Snack Pack was OK. We asked them to put the chili sauce on the side, but turns out they don't use chili sauce in their one. It was chips topped with cheese, mock chicken, BBQ sauce, and hummus, which is a combination I can get behind. The downside was the chips, which weren't great. I would have liked some better chips. We were still a bit peckish, so got some Popcorn Chicken to share. This was great. It was crispy and not at all oily, and it was hard to stop snacking on it.







On the way back to the hotel, I wanted a little sweet and warm ending. So I stopped by Starbucks (of which there are very few in Australia) and got a small soy matcha latte after hearing Jojo's enthusiasm for them. And it was yummy.

I'll be back in my next post with the rest of my trip!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Remember Aurora from my last post? This is her sweet sister Belle. Belle has already got a home!