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!