Veganventure 2014: Part 4 (Melbourne)

After saying goodbye to Bed & Broccoli, we made out way back to Melbourne. We had some secret squirrel business on the way (no actual squirrels involved, we don't have squirrels here), where we met up with Elizabeth and some of her friends who were also down from Sydney. They had recently been to La Panella, a vegetarian/vegan bakery, and had stocked up on lots of treats which they were kind enough to share. I had some pizza bread and a custard tart. This is not a fancy bakery, this is the sort of food that you get from every single bakery you ever walk past but can never get anything vegan at. It was nostaligically good in a kind of trashy way.



Then it was back to Melbourne airport to drop off Ruby, our trusty little Corolla (below with Leigh). Thanks for being awesome, Ruby. You were a super great car!



Once at the airport we caught the SkyBus into the city and got a transfer to near the place we were staying, Carlton Terrace. Carlton Terrace isn't a hotel as such, but a collection of private rooms in a terrace house. There is no reception, you get a code to the door and key. It is very close to Carlton Gardens and a pretty close walk to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, aka the street with most of the vegan places (though Smith St a bit over also has several!).

For dinner we met our amazing vegan activist friend Taylor at Yong Green Food, Leigh's favourite place to eat in Melbourne. For starters we shared some Oyster Mushroom Calamari (so delicious, I had to stop myself overdoing it with the deep fried), Tofu Pockets (stuffed with the most delicious 'tuna' salad I have ever had as a vegan) and Leigh's favourite Kimchi Dumplings (I liked these, they were on the spicy side but not too spicy for me).







For the main I chose the Macro Dragon Bowl (Biodynamic brown rice topped with seasonal veggies, organic tempeh, seaweed and lemon tahini cream. Served with miso soup). I was craving some wholefoods! This was great, but my only gripe was that I could have done with about four times the amount of the sauce!



Leigh had the intriguing Tofu Katsu.



And Taylor had the Daikon Salad and the Chicken Burger.





I also had the Maca Chai (maca chai, cashew milk, chia) to drink, which was quite thick and rich.



Yong Green only has raw desserts (this coconut oil hater stays well away from those), but just down the street was Frolic Frozen Yoghurt, which had vegan options including waffles! I had to have a waffle, which I topped with caramelised banana and walnut froyo, stewed pears, strawberries, caramelised bananas, coconut, vegan nutella sauce and raspberry sauce. Sadly, the vegan nutella sauce tastes mostly like chocolate sauce, not the chocolate hazelnut I was hoping for! Leigh had a froyo cup and including the strange bursting boba balls as one of her toppings. I have had these once before and they are strange! It is a pay by weight place, so be careful of going overboard!





The next morning we went to the North Melbourne branch of Crumbs Organic Bakehouse for breakfast. Oh. My God. Sourdough cinnamon sugar doughnuts. SOURDOUGH CINNAMON SUGAR DOUGHNUTS!! Sorry Mighty-O, I have a new favourite doughnut, and it is a little closer to home. These were SO GOOD! I can't even describe. I can't even explain. Just get down there and have one or a dozen! Leigh got the lemon-curd filled sourdough doughnut, which she really enjoyed.



For seconds I had a raspberry and rhubarb sourdough danish, which was awesome but was no sourdough cinnamon sugar doughnut. Leigh got the crescent version of the sourdough cinnamon sugar doughnut.



I also had a chai latte, which was adequate. You need to make sure to ask for soy milk and no honey when you order.



As you can see, they have a lot of pretty yummy things in their bakery case. But definitely get the doughnut.



Afterwards we walked down into the city itself, looked in some shops and Leigh found some vegan Docs to buy. Obligatory tourist shot of the Yarra!



We stopped by the National Gallery of Victoria and had some lovely tea in their tea room. I had one called Pai Mu Tan.



We were going to have a wander around some of the art gallery, but we were going to be late for our lunch date so we had to get a move on. More on that in the next post!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



My goodbye photo of Sahara, taken right before I left for the airport. While I was away poor Sahara became unwell, and my parents had to take her into the clinic. Thankfully all was OK, but it was so stressful to be away from her while she was not well! My poor bear. But she has been fine since.

Veganventure 2014: Part 3 (Bed & Broccoli)

This is going to be a very photo heavy post, but worth it!

Once arriving in Melbourne we ate the Manoosh felafel rolls that we brought with us from Sydney, picked up out car (a lovely dark red Corolla that I named Ruby) and drove out to Bed & Broccoli, Australia's first and currently only (though there is a new one coming next year) vegan B&B. I had been wanting to go here ever since I heard about it, so could not go to Victoria without visiting!

A lot of the blogs I have seen about Bed & Broccoli focused on the food and the animals, which I will also be talking about a lot, but not much about the accommodation itself. The B&B is in a converted old dairy, and comprises of a bedroom, a bathroom, a small foyer and a larger kitchenette/dining/lounge room. There is tea and coffee, apple juice and soymilk in the fridge, and body wash, shampoo, conditioner, handwash and body lotion in the bathroom. There isn't much phone reception there, and no wifi, but Leigh and I found that if we sat on the sofa in the back corner of the lounge we could get some reception and 3G (we are both with Optus).









When we arrived, we were greeted by Nikki and Scott and their dogs Chaz and Khan. It was almost dinner time, so Leigh and I got ourselves settled and then had a short stroll around the property. Bed & Broccoli is also home to three rescue cows, a lot of chickens and two wild peacocks. Check out this handsome welcome committee (Chaz at the back, Khan at the front). Khan is particularly attentive to guests, and will often be found hanging around the B&B seeing if you would like him to come in and help with anything.



Breakfast is included in the nightly price, but you can also purchase dinner ($24.90 per person) and dessert ($9.90 per person), which we decided to do both nights we would be staying there. The week before arriving Nikki sends you a list of menu options, so you can pick what breakfast, dinner and dessert you would like for each day. We were intrigued by the Caesar Salad with Poached Egg, so chose that for our first night, along with some garlic bread and pappadums as we were worried that the salad would not be enough. Ha! Bed & Broccoli is extremely generous in their serving sizes.

Check out the size of this salad! It was amazing!! The tofu poached eggs on top were amazing, with a runny center (see the action shot I included) that oozed beautifully over all the greens. The homemade bacon was like nothing I had tried before (I now know how it is made after purchasing the Bed & Broccoli Cookbook at World Vegan Day). An excellent salad, all rounded up with carby sides. Yum!





For dessert we had Butterscotch Pudding, which was phenomenal. A big bowl of piping hot pudding, light and fluffy, with a gooey butterscotch sauce underneath. Once you crack through the pudding top that sauce just bubbled on up like liquid gold.





After dinner we were getting ready for an early night when we heard the sound of a peacock calling and went to investigate. There we saw the magnificent Samson high up in a tree! The photos are too dark and blurry to really show anything, but it was amazing. His mate Delilah was in another tree. One thing I did get a photo of was the amazing sunset.



The next morning breakfast was a steaming crock of huge Banana Pancakes, with some maple syrup on the side. These was serious pancakes, and so delicious!





We went for a stroll and were greeted with a squabble of happy chickens trotting around the lawn, and looking keenly at us to see if we had any treats.



They have four roosters at B&B, three big ones and one tiny little guy named Hef. Hef is hilarious, the other roosters avoid him and he runs with all the chickens while the other three are off in their own little corner. Hef's crow seriously sounds like he is saying 'I am a rooster', and he likes to proclaim this fact often. Funny boy!



A tree in the driveway to the property is home to a family of Tawny Frogmouths, including their two babies who had just gotten big enough to leave the nest and join mum and dad on the branches.



If you bring some cut up apples, you are able to feed the three cows. These guys are living out their lives happily on the property. It is a stark contrast to the dairy cows you see walking up and down the laneway behind the property twice a day to go and be milked, which is a sad reminder of the exploitation that most cows are subjected to.

The two big boys are Frankie and Pacific. They also have a sweet old Jersey cow named Squirty, who loves to lick your entire hand when you feed her apples. My hands were well exfoliated after feeding her!





Lunchwise, they can make you up some of their awesome vegan mac and cheese, or you can find your own. We were planning on a lazy day, so we had gone into Shepparton that morning and visited the IGA, where we found a good spread of vegan dips to put together a yummy lunch.



We spent the afternoon watching DVDs (Daredevil must be one of the worst movies ever made), playing on the two player arcade game station that they have there (so much fun!!) and also played a round of Veganopoly. I actually hate Monopoly because I think it ruins friendships and can often take forever, but I couldn't say no to Veganopoly. It didn't take very long at all, though the friendship did end up on rocky ground at times. Unfortunately Leigh did not come out the winner, here is what she thinks about that! Oh dear.



Dinner that night was pizza, which we cooked in the pizza oven they have next to their dam. It is in a really cute little shed that also has yoga mats in it! We saw a family of wood ducks. This type of duck is actually what started me on a very long path that ended up in veganism, so it always make me extra happy to see them.



Unfortunately I had been battling with a headache all day, which was turning particularly vicious, so I went back to lie down while Leigh finished baking the pizzas and brought them back to the B&B. You could choose two flavours, so we had picked Pepperoni Potato (no actual faux pepperoni, instead pepperoni seasonings and thick potato slices - yum) and Pumpkin and Feta. And yes, I did pick off all the capsicum before I ate my pieces. We also had garlic bread, because what is pizza without garlic bread? Sorry for the slightly blurry photos, they went with the slightly blurry head I had at the time.







Dessert was Strawberry Parfait - deliciously rich cashew cream topped with a layer of blended strawberries.



After dinner it was straight to bed for me with some Nurofen Plus, my Migrastick and my first migraine in two years. Opposite of yay. But thankfully it had lifted by the next morning, so I could enjoy our last breakfast: Tofu scramble with toast, tomatoes and mushrooms. It was a great scramble! It is worth noting that Nikki makes as much from scratch as possible - so bread, garlic bread and pizza bases were all freshly made and extra delicious.



That brought our stay at B&B to an end, and Nikki gifted us with a Carrot and Sultana Loaf to sustain us on our journey. Bed & Broccoli is amazing place, and I highly recommend it to everyone! The food is amazing and generous, the hosts are delightful and the animals are lovely. Leigh left this message on the chalkboard before we left.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



There are no cats at Bed & Broccoli, but here is a photo of Leigh's cat Squeak sitting in a box before we left Sydney.

Veganventure 2014: Part 2 (Foxy edition)

I had a very special opportunity, thanks to Leigh, to visit the offices of Sydney Fox Rescue while I was in Sydney. Leigh didn't even realise that foxes are one of my favourite animals. Cats are first (of course), then unicorns (I don't care what you think), then horses, then foxes!! Though of course I love all animals. When we first arrived, one of the kits was about to go home with his new family! The first little baby we met was this gorgeous little kit who was still in quarantine.



Then we got to play with some of the frisky older kits - Fang, Ollie and Nimbus. This was a lot of fun. The nibbled our shoelaces and we fed them with spoons. Gah!









Finally, we met two teeny tiny kits (only about two and a half weeks old) who had just arrived that morning. These tiny babies were so little, we held them gently wrapped up in blankets.







If you want to find out more about fox rescue, which can be a contentious issue in this country, I recommend checking out the information on their page. New South Wales is the only state in Australia where foxes can be placed in private homes, in all other states the only option is slaughter. Sydney Fox Rescue offers an alternative to this for suitable kits, while also removing them from the native environment where they can cause a lot of damage. Currently there is proposed legislation in New South Wales that would make rehoming foxes illegal, meaning that all foxes not currently in homes would need to be killed. Sydney Fox Rescue is opposing this. As I said, go and look on their website for far better explanations than I could ever give, and if you live in Sydney they sometimes have open days!

Giddy from foxy hugs, we headed back into Newtown for some celebratory ice cream from my favourite ice cream place, Gelato Blue. I have serious love for their case of delicious vegan gelato and sorbets. They had a special flavour that day, which was Hard Cider and Lime. I tried a little bit, and it was delicious, but given that it was alcoholic and that I don't drink I chose a different combination. I went for a scoop of my favourite Chocolate Hazelnut and a scoop of Peach, which was wonderfully creamy and refreshing. Leigh went for a scoop of Strawberry and a scoop of Hard Cider and Lime. In cones of course, for super fun ice cream eating!



They also have a bakery case with a shelf of vegan goodies, and I couldn't say no to this lamington. I love lamingtons! This was a good lamington.



After basking in the post-fox glow, we went to Yulli's for dinner. Yulli's is a vegetarian restaurant in Surrey Hills that I had heard a lot about, but had never been to. Just ask for the vegan menu when you arrive. It was kind of dark in there, so forgive the photos.

We started with some Steamed Ginger and Leek Dumplings, which came with a plum sauce. The dumplings were really lovely, though the sauce mostly tasted salty to me.



I ordered the Mamak Rojak - fine rice noodles with banana blossom, ong choy and tofu with peanut sauce. Sounds great, right? Looks great, right? They might have thought to mention that this is extremely, extremely, extremely chili hot. I didn't even thing that it might be hot until I saw it came garnished with a chili. My eyes were watering after my first bite and after my second I knew I just couldn't go on. I don't have much chili tolerance. Thankfully Leigh does, so instead of sharing our dishes she took all of this one and left me hers. Bless!



Leigh's pick, which ended up being my dinner, was the Green Mango Fried Rice - snake beans, young baby corn, green mango and kaffir lime leaves with a lemongrass and tom yum sauce. I am happy to report that this was lovely, it was tangy and very addictive. I happily devoured the plate. Leigh warned me that the sauce on the side had some heat to it, so I avoided that given that the lining of my stomach had just taken a beating.



For dessert I had to try the famous Sticky Date Pudding (with caramel sauce and smoked coconut ice cream). This was delicious, I could have eaten about seven of them. I love sticky date pudding, and with the exception of a sub-par offering from a place I went to in the UK, this is the only one I have had in fourteen years! The ice cream had an intriguing flavour, but I only had a little taste because it was very rich in coconut fat (which equals death for me). Leigh had had this several times before, so decided to try the Steamed Chocolate Pudding (with chocolate sauce and smoked coconut ice cream). Sorry for the appalling photo!



Afterwards we went for a walk to find a taxi, and found an intriguing store selling 'candy apples' - apples dipped in all manner of ridiculous topping concoctions. There may have been one or two vegan options, but we were full of pudding so had no desire to check.

The following day we woke up bright and early to get ready to go to Melbourne. Leigh made an amazing green smoothie for breakfast (banana, berries, almond-coconut-choc iced snack, baby bok choy, cucumber, water), and we had some leftover Sprout and Kernel cheeses on crackers.



Then it was off to the airport (via dropping Squeak off for kitty boarding) and on to Melbourne! More adventures to follow!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The keen observer would have noticed a certain feline face in the back of one of the photos of the teeny baby foxes. That was Toby! Toby is the Fox Rescue cat, he has three legs and he loves pats. When people are patting him and then go to look at the foxes, he puts out a paw to bring you back to him, and you just can't say no!