Eating Out: Vegeme and Southbank Sweets (APT8 edition)

A couple of months ago I went to see the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial exhibit at the Southbank art galleries with my parents and my friend Ashleigh. Of course a trip into the area would not be complete without some yummy noms.

We went for an early lunch at Vegeme, which had opened a while ago in West End. It was the first time we had all been there. It is an Asian-style vegetarian restaurant, with many vegan items and options on the menu. It also has gluten free vegan items and options, which was important because Ashleigh is a GF-vegan, so we definitely wanted her to be able to eat a good lunch!

I had recently done a very sweaty bikram yoga class, so I was after some refreshment. I ordered a nice Mango Green Tea ($4) to go along with the regular water.



I would say that Vegeme's strength lies within its Small Dishes menu section, which could be put together to form quite a nice yum cha-style experience (or dim sum, for my non-Australian readers). We ordered several things from here, the highlight of which was the pan-fried dumplings ($8.50) and the radish cakes ($5.90). I am not sure if I have mentioned how much I love radish cakes (or turnip/yam/lobok/whatever you want to call them)... but I have a very deep love for them.





Ashleigh enjoyed some of their gluten-free and vegan deep-fried delights - the Salt and Pepper King Oyster Mushrooms ($7.95) and the Sweet Potato Wedges ($6.50). The mushrooms had really good seasoning, but I could only try a couple before the fried got too much for me. The wedges came with plum salt, which I love, but I was not a fan of the batter at all. I pulled it off and dipped the nekkid potato into the salt. Bear in mind though, I can't tolerate a lot of deep-fried food, so this is just my opinion.





Mum and I shared the vegan-option for the Okonomiyaki ($9.50). We are both lovers of this Japanese dish (my mum the egg-version normally, as she is not vegan), and it is rare to find a vegan version. Unfortunately, this wasn't great. It was gluggy to begin with, and the middle of it was mostly raw. I would not recommend.



We also ordered the Pan-Fried Inari, which was from the Rice Section of the menu, though really they belonged with the Small Plates as they would not be a meal in themselves. These were quite delightful, with basil and lemon fried rice stuffing.



After this we walked around the galleries for a while, looking at the installations. I must say, the exhibit wasn't as strong as it usually is. But I did find a few pieces I loved, including these giant horse sculptures and a beautiful but very sad sculpture of a dying elephant.





After filling up on culture (and I bought a cool Cat Therapy colouring book), it was time for dessert! We hit up Beach House for some more pay-by-weight soft serve fun times. I had peach, strawberry, nutty (which was hazelnut) and chocolate. Such a yummy mix!



We also stopped by Doughnut Time to pick up some doughnuts to take home. Doughtnut time has two vegan options available (though sadly for Ashleigh they have stopped making them GF as well). I got one of each - The Vegan Fox (chocolate glaze with strawberry and pistachio) and Blue Ivy (cinnamon sugar with blueberry filling). The Vegan Fox was a bit sweet in the glaze for me, but Blue Ivy was spot on what I love. Unfortunately they have since rotated Blue Ivy out of their repertoire and replaced it with another glazed vegan doughtnut. The tragedy!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



You were so sweet and concerned after the old photo I posted of Sahara with her bandaged leg in my last post, here is a photo I took 10 minutes ago to show you that she is all good! She is 14 now, and does have issues with IBD (which is tricky to manage, so she is on some serious drugs) and arthritis in her front legs, but she is still a very happy and purry and sweet little cat. The girls just had their senior checks done at work, and Sahara's bloods came back as all good!