Brisbane OzComicCon 2016

This weekend, my OzComicCon journey for 2016 ended in my home city of Brisbane. The food pressure was largely off, as I had my own kitchen for breakfast and dinner and could make my lunch, though I didn't need to make my lunch as the venue provided. Hurrah!

After the venue walk through on Friday afternoon, I had a couple of hours to kill before the cocktail party. I didn't want to go all the way home and then come all the way back and have to pay for parking twice, so instead and I took a short walk into West End and visited the new The Cruelty Free Shop to pick up a few snacks. Then I went down to the Boundary St Markets for some dessert before dinner!

I don't have an exact date for when I went vegan, I just know it was during September of 2000 (because it was when the Olympics were on), so I generally take the mid-point of September as my veganversary. This year, it was my sweet 16 years of being vegan! And what better way to celebrate than with a soft serve from I Should Coco? Yes, coconut soft serve. But it doesn't taste like coconut and it doesn't make me sick from coconut fat. It is magic! I have been there once before (I am posting things all out of order, I'll get to that first visit at some point...). This time I picked their Cherry Merry (vanilla soft serve with chocolate sauce, cherries in sour syrup and coconut flakes). And it was glorious. GLORIOUS! I got it in a cone, because as previously mentioned, I love cones! But you can get it in a cup if you want to.



After that I popped into the West End location of VegeRama for actual dinner. I had planned on trying out some of their pizza options, but then I saw they had lasagne on the menu. I love lasagne! I know it isn't that hard to make it at home, but I truthfully just don't make it all that often. It was good! The side salad was also really nice, crispy and with a great dressing. A nice change from the regular old garden-style side salad. I also had a turmeric shot.





Walking back to the city, Brisbane was pretty at night.



Then it was off to the cocktail party, which was actually kind of fun now that I had already met Ksenia last week so it wasn't completely awkward. Just kind of awkward encouraging people to come up and talk! I also had an extra dessert of some rainbow meringues that I picked up from the CFS, made from aquafaba. My first aquafaba meringues and they were very nice.



Saturday morning I had some overnight oats (from the new Oh She Glows Every Day cookbook) for breakfast before heading to the venue, where I was supplied with second breakfast. I had chosen the vegan avocado and tomato muffin. It was as advertised, an English muffin with some avocado and tomato. But it was tasty avocado and tomato. I was still full from my oats, so I wrapped mine up to have as a nice mid-morning snack for later in the day.



For lunch I had picked the Vegan Chickpea Patty Burger. It was actually a nice patty, I think one of the Sanitarium ones, with a crispy coating and a softer inside. The burger was nice. It also came with a side of fries, which was a nice surprise, except that they were lukewarm by the time I got to them. I also had packed some veggie sticks from home so that I could get in extra veggies. Because veggies.



The next morning was a similar pattern - overnight oats at home and then my second breakfast of an avocado and tomato muffin. This time for lunch I had the Vegan Baguette, which had salad and baba ganoush in it. It was delicious! The bread was fresh and so yummy, and there was a heft whack of baba ganoush in it as well that made it far more than your regular salad roll. Pictured on the side is a cup of vegan curry, which was a sneaky little gift from the green room from Ksenia. It was really nice.



Dinner both nights was take away, though I don't have any photos for you. Saturday night I stopped off at Loving Hut and got the Beijing Black Bean and some BBQ Steamed Buns, and on Sunday night I had my favourite Falafel and Black Bean Salad from Charlie's that I had bought on Friday morning. I did plan on walking down to a Sea Shepherd fundraiser after finishing on Sunday to get another ice cream cone, as I Should Coco had a stall there, but I thankfully found out before I left that there was a $10 cover charge to get in because they had bands in the evening. I didn't want to pay $10 to walk in and out with an $8 ice cream, so I was extra glad I got my ice cream cone on Friday!

At the end of last year, I decided that one of my goals for 2016 would be to do all five OzComicCons, which I have done. And it was amazing! I am very aware that I am extremely lucky to have been giving the opportunity to become part of the OCC family for the past three years. I hope I can continue to be part of the team!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



One of the nice things about doing the con in Brisbane was coming home to these two sleepy heads every night!