Melbourne 2015 Part 2

Between breakfast and lunch I took a trip to the Cruelty Free Shop to pick up some goodies. The Cruelty Free Shop has an online store, but also shops in Sydney and Melbourne. It is the only place I seem to be able to get my favourite Tropical Source chocolate chips, and they have a lot of other goodies as well, so it is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

After shopping, it was back to Smith & Deli to meet up with a friend for lunch. This is their awesome sign out the front of the shop.



It was a lot busier at lunch time, particularly because this is when they serve their famous sandwiches! Once we were in possession of our goodies, we headed back to the park for a lovely lunch. I got another chai as well, this time iced because it was hot.



Smith & Deli has an extensive list of sandwiches, which can be a bit overwhelming when you have the chance to just order one. For the month of MoFo, Quinces and Kale reviewed most of these sandwiches, which helped me to narrow it down. I chose the Home Alone - seitan turkey, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy on a roll. It was glorious. Messy, but glorious!



My friend had the Club Sandwiches Not Seals, which he said he loves! I also love a good club sandwich, though the amazingness of the club at Wayward in Seattle is still fresh in my mind. One day I would like to try this club. it looks pretty great!



I also had one of their apple pie spiced doughnuts, which was lovely. Kind of like a cinnamon doughnut but with a hint of apple.



Full from lunch, I headed into the city to see the David Bowie Is exhibit at ACMI. I love Bowie. I have loved Bowie ever since I was younger, when I saw him in Labyrinth. I think there were a lot of us who thought Sarah was an idiot for wanting to take her brother home and not stay there and be with Bowie and be his queen. Incidentally, I have seen those breeches at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, where the original Jareth costume is displayed. I also enjoy his music a lot. What I didn't realise is that he is a creative genius! I learnt so much about him, his history, his music and art... it was amazing! It is only in Melbourne until the 1st of November, if you have a chance to see it. Get ready to swoon a bit.

I spent quite a bit of time in the Bowie exhibit, because it was fascinating and it was also a nice break from the hot sun outside. Eventually I went to meet my friend Jess for dinner at Warung Agus, a new-to-me place but one of his favourites. It is not a vegan restaurant, but has a good vegan menu. Sorry for the crappy photos, the lighting wasn't great and my phone camera has decided to have difficult focusing sometimes.

We started with Krupuk Singkong, which is spicy cassava crackers with peanut sauce. This was a fun starter, and the crackers were not too spicy for me. The peanut sauce was good, however no peanut sauce can measure up to the brilliant peanut sauce from Araya's in Seattle.



For our mains, we shared the Tempe Jagung (tempeh in sweet soy sauce with corn, spring onion and spices) and the Tuung Mebasa Santen Lalah Manis (sliced eggplant and tofu braised in coconut milk, sweet soy and spicy gravy), and some rice of course. We also had some Sesaur (shredded coconut with palm sugar and spices) on the side. It was very nice! I enjoyed the nutty friend tempeh, but the stand out for me was the beautiful eggplant. So silky and delicious!







Wow, some of those photos were worse than I realised. Afterwards we took a longer stroll back towards Carlton, and stopped at Casa Del Gelato for some vegan options. The small option here has three scoops in... I am not sure in what universe that is small. Anyway, we had chocolate, strawberry and jasmine. The jasmine was lovely, and combined it was like a super fun neopolitan blend.

The next morning was the first day of the conference, and I headed straight back to Smith & Deli to pick up some breakfast! As well as a yummy chai, I had the Friend Zone, which is a toasted cheese, tomato and ham sandwich. Delicious!



I also got a Chester Scroll to take to the conference for a snack - this had mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and cheese in it. Yes, it was as good as it sounds.



Then it was a tram down to Melbourne Town Hall for the first day of the Animal Activist Forum. I attended some great talks, including a talk on the role sanctuaries play in animal advocacy by Kyle Behrend from Edgar's Mission (complete with super cute photos!), a talk called 'What to say when you don't know everything' by psychologist Clare Mann, an update on Ag-Gag laws in Australia from Voiceless and a talk by Ron Prasad on the five keys to effective outreach.

Lunch wasn't provided at the forum, so I headed to Supercharger at the Emporium for some much needed wholefoods. In the big bowl, the base is butternut mash with sesame seeds and also some fresh baby spinach. This was then topped with avocado tofu smash with tofu and spices, shredded beetroot, carrot, radish and ginger with braggs, fermented daikon and garlic and tahini sauce. In the small bowls, there is braised assorted mushrooms in ginger broth and chickpeas in cinnamon curry. I also had a blueberry, strawberry and sage infused water. It was all great, except for the avocado silken tofu smash. It was advertised as being 'like guacamole', but the tofu taste was too strong and I couldn't really taste the avocado.



After the conference, I headed back to Smith & Deli to pick up some snacks and breakfast for the next day as they are closed on Sunday and Monday so this was my last chance. I bought this box of sweeties. Gluten free raspberry chocolate brownie, sugar doughnut and sticky challah bun.



For dinner, I went on a solo dinner date to Yong Green Food, which is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. I started with a detox turmeric shot, because they are tasty.



I was in need of some greens, so I ordered my favourite Seaweed Salad. This is so light and fresh, I could eat it all day!



I also tried the Tofu Katsu, which is something new. A tofu katsu patty served on a generous bed of coleslaw with brown rice, pickle and katsu sauce. The katsu itself is unique, it is not simply a slab of tofu but is a mix of tofu, shiitake, arame and veggies coated in crunchy quinoa.





When I got home I had the raspberry chocolate brownie I had bought from Smith & Deli. Holy smokes, that was amazing! So perfect, rich, moist, dense, fudgy... such a great deep flavour, not too sweet. Perfect. I could have had a million.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



More Max! The AirBnB kitty. His mum was out all Saturday night, so he slept on my bed. Yay!