Molly Adventures Part 6 (Melbourne)

Even after our fabulous late lunch, we were still looking forward to dinner. Mostly, I needed some vegetables after a day of eating extremely delicous carbs. Yong Green Food is an old Melbourne favourite of mine, so we headed there for dinner. I got a Green Energy juice (kale, spinach, carrot, apple, orange) to start getting those vegetables in early.



I went for a simple Teriyaki Tofu & Vegetables, which also came with some pickles on the side.



Molly got some Mock Tuna Nori Rolls and the Macro Dragon Bowl (rice, veggies, seaweed, tofu, tahini sauce and some miso soup).





When we got back to our room, it was time for dessert! Mister Nice Guy's Bakeshop is across the road from Crumb's Organic Bakehouse, a largely vegan bakery. Two vegan bakeries in the same street? I know! Anyway, Crumb's used to have a much more convenient North Melbourne location, that had tragically closed. But they make the best doughnuts ever. Cinnamon sugar sourdough donuts, in fact. So I had to stop by and pick one up, and it was just as delicious as I remembered.



I had also bought a Chocolate Polish Babka from Mister Nice Guys, which was phenomenal.



The next day was Smith & Deli day!! Well, another one. But this time we had plans to go twice - breakfast and lunch. Saturday is croissant day at Smith & Deli, so we headed out to start our day with those. I had the Croissantwiches of Eastwick, which have ham, tomato, cheese and mustard baked into the middle. I also got a bacon and egg frittata, and one of their best ever in the world chai lattes. Totally worth the heart palpitations that the caffeine in black tea gives me. Molly also started her day with some sugar, getting in a Salted Caramel Slice.







After breakfast, we had a stroll around Fitzroy so that Molly could look at the shops, and picked up a few pretties and goodies here and there. Then I headed back to Smith & Deli for lunch (Molly had several leftovers from our trips to the bakeries the day before). All thoughts of what sandwich I should get were banished from my head when I saw that they had pizza! I have long wanted to get pizza from there, but they have never had it when I visited. This was a Hawaiian Chicken BBQ Pizza as well... like they knew I was coming! The pieces were HUGE, and it was so tasty! I also got a small serve of a delicious Creamy Pesto Potato Salad, and the Guava & Desert Lime flavour of the Sugar & Spice Fermented Tea. This was an amazing lunch, which I enjoyed back in the cool of the hotel room.



After the last couple of days of travel, walking, sun and heat, my body needed a cool rest. So I spent the afternoon in the hotel watching Netflix (who else love/hates Riverdale?), reading my Kindle, and listening to podcasts, while Molly took herself adventuring with plans to meet up for dinner later. I was glad for the downtime, I definitely needed it.

Dinner was... more pizza! We headed to Red Sparrow Pizza, Melbourne's vegan pizza place. Last time I went, we didn't have a reservation and ended up just squeezing into some seats at the bar. This time we were better prepared - definitely make a reservation here if you want to eat it, it is very popular! I got a Greener Bruce juice to squeeze in some more vegetables, albeit in liquid form.



We ordered a basket of Rosemary Fries, with both aioli and ranch to dip. These were really nice, and the sauces were good too.



We shared the Supergreen Pizza and the Mushroom Pizza. The Supergreen had a spinach and kale pesto base, zucchini, broccolini and pepitas. It was good, loads of green bits, but could have done with a bit more seasoning and a little something to help lift the flavours. Maybe some balsamic drizzle? Or some aioli? The mushroom pizza was our favourite, with a white base, porcini, swiss brown, caramelized onion and thyme, with parmesan, fresh oregano and rocket. It also comes drizzled with truffle oil, but I have complicated feelings about truffle, so we got that on the side.



While they have dessert pizzas and pies, we were already taking home a couple of leftover slices of our pizzas, and were in the mood for something a bit lighter for dessert. Girls & Boys is a vegan ice cream parlour in Fitzroy. I had been caution about going there, they use coconut in the base of their ice cream, but I tried some samples and it was fine. Better than fine. It was lovely. Molly had her heart set on their soft serve, but the machine wasn't working. But I love scoops, so I got a scoop of Balsamic Strawberry and a scoop of Salted Peanut Butter. It was so great! I loved the obvious saltiness in the peanut butter.



On Sunday morning we had planned to had out to World Vegan Day early. But it was Molly's turn to need a rest. So I went out for brunch with my friend Leigh at Ray's Cafe in Brunswick. I've been to Ray's once before, and I was a big fan, so I was excited to get back. I started with a green smoothie, A Tribe Called Cress, which had kale, cress, celery, ginger, apple, mint and flaxseed. I enjoyed the peppery kick that the cress gave it. Leigh got a vegan Bloody Shazzer, which is a bloody mary complete with celery, a huge pickle, and some tofu bacon. Be sure to specify that you want everything vegan if you go here, because they also have things with the same name on the omni menu.





I was excited to try the Cauli & Cheesy-E Beans, which is a bowl of savoury comfort food. Spiced cauliflower, miso white beans, nooch, endive, sumac and lemon with sourdough bread.



I also tried some of Leigh's Hash Savage, which was smoked eggplant, scrambled tofu, smashed peas, pickled daikon, pomegranate and almonds on a hashbrown. The hash brown was a large rectangular slab of potato, which was tasty. The eggplant was OK, but we were both pretty underwhelmed by the tofu scramble. It was kind of bitter.



We also shared a serve of the Grizzly Beer Fries, which were topped with BBQ jackfruit, miso cheese, pickles and kim chi. They don't make any changes at Ray's, so I couldn't get it without the kim chi. Leigh swore it was very mild, and it really was almost more like a sweet chili sauce, but I was easily able to avoid it as I was eating.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This cutie is Momo, and she is Leigh's new cat. I was super excited that I got a chance to meet Momo on this trip, even though it was just a five minute flying visit. She is so cute!