Eating Out: Four Pho (Loving Hut, Bun, Roll'd, Cafe O'Mai)

I've mentioned I have been sick quite a few times this year, and a few months ago I was... well... sick. But not housebound sick, so I did what any sensible person would do, and I attempted to cure myself with all of the pho. As I write this, we are having days over 30 decrees Celcius routinely, so the last thing in the world I want to eat is a steaming hot bowl of soup, but back then it was a more soup-friendly weather. I ate all of these in about an eight day period, I think!

First up, Loving Hut. This was on their specials board, so it was good timing that it coincided with my pho-a-thon. There's was full of mock meats (including a few of those weird seafood balls I am not such a fan of), and had a nice broth. (See my other Loving Hut posts here.)



I had a pho from Bun delivered one night. I have had this before, and it is pretty yum. It comes in two separate containers, but here is a photo of when I put it all together in a bowl. It has tofu and vegetables, no mock meats. (See my one previous post about Bun here.)



Roll'd is a chain that has locations in several cities in Australia. I'd had their pho before in the cup size, but this time I of course got it in the bowl size. It has mushroom and tofu, and is fine. It is the least exciting of the phos in this round-up, but it is chain restaurant food so probably not that surprising. (See what else I've eaten at Roll'd here.)



Finally, the pho from Vietnamese cafe Cafe O-Mai. Not surprisingly, it was the best. I have had their Vegan Pho before (with tofu and veggies), so this time I tried their Deluxe Vegan Pho (with 'various types of soy protein'). This was good, it still had tofu and veggies, and it had those beefy TVP-style slices and some yuma-style stuff, but no weird seafood stuff. Yay! (See the other great stuff I've had from Cafe O-Mai here).



Here is a bonus photo of the delicious vegan carrot cake I took home from Cafe O-Mai as well.



Loving Hut - Shop 2/1420 Logan Road, Mount Gravatt, Queensland

Bun - Westfield Garden City, 8 Street Market, Corner Logan Road & Kessels Roads, Upper Mount Gravatt, Brisbane

Cafe O Mai - 15 Cracknell Rd, Annerley, QLD - (07) 3255 9778

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Hold up... who is this?!?! This is Petal's fourth child, and only son, Jed Junior. As you can see, he looks nothing like his mother or his sisters. But we have a pretty good idea of what dad looked like!

Melbourne The First 2017 - Part 1

Let's get into some Melbourne adventures from my recent trip there! I call this Melbourne The First 2017 as I am probably going back to Melbourne another three times this year... the next one in only two weeks for OzComicCon! But for this trip, I went down to visit my friend Leigh and meet her kitty Chia! I'd like to apologise for some of the photos in this post and those to follow, the camera on my phone has been having a shocking time with focus. However I am now in possession of a shiny new Samsung S8 (upgraded from my S4), so on future trips my photos should be amazing!

I had a lunch time flight on Virgin, which does not offer vegan food on the flight. So I picked up some things from the airport. Sadly Sumo Salad did not have my favourite salads, the only vegan ones they had were full of capsicum. But I picked up a couple of rice paper rolls (regular tofu and low-carb tofu) from Roll'd, complete with some Veg Nuoc Cham. The regular carb-full one was my favourite, because the low-carb one had raw onion in it. I had hoped to try their vegan pho, but that wouldn't be good to transport onto a plane and I didn't have time before I flew. I also went to Mad Mex and got a veggie burrito, hold the cheese and sour cream. No photo of that because I ate it on the plane and it was super not photogenic.



I landed in Melbourne hopped on the SkyBus and then took a cab to Leigh's work. While I was waiting for her to finish, I headed to Mantra Lounge for some afternoon snacks. I have walked by this place so many times, but never been in. They are all vegan and have a range of curries and lasagne and salads and burgers at cheap prices, and they also have half serves if you just want something small. I was after something big... giant in fact. Their GIANT cinnamon chocolate chip cookie. This was so good that I had a nibble and immediately went back and bought another one! I also got a golden latte, and a sausage roll for Leigh.



It was a Thursday, so we met up with our friends Neibi, Michelle and Elyce at The Cornish Arms for trivia and brown food. The Cornish excels in brown food. Michelle got the Vegan Nachos, which were GIANT! And had a little bit of colour in them. Leigh had her favourite Vegan Souvlaki Wrap, and Neibi got the super fried Vegan Hot and Spicy Box.







Elyce and I both got the Vegan Colonnello Pizza, which had popcorn chicken, potato gems, bacon, two types and cheese and gravy. It was pretty good, I just wish The Cornish could get their toppings more evenly spread! Also more gravy please!!!



The next morning Leigh had to go back to work. I was in the mood for something a bit lighter, so I headed out to The Glass Den. I started with a super yummy Taro Soy Latte - pretty and purple! And I also had a hot Apple Cinnamon Ginger drink, which was yum. For my breakfast, I got the vegan version Avocado and Peach Bruschetta, which was a super fancy avocado toast, with added almond feta (the menu said macadamia, but it was a new menu and they still only had the old almond one... also they charge $7 for what amounted to a tiny little sprinkle). As well as avocado, toast, and peach, it also had beetroot hummus, dukkah, candied beetroot, salsa and balsamic reduction. It was so yummy! The only downside was the salsa, which had capsicum in it and was quite small so it was hard to pick out. I may never own a house, but at least I had a nice breakfast!









For lunch I went to Good Days, which is right next to The Cornish Arms. This Vietnamese place has a small menu, with a couple of vegan options. I had the yummy Vegan Rice Paper Roll, which was served with a peanut and hoisin sauce. Also the Vegan Mushroom Pho, which was delicious and had so many mushrooms!!! They also have vegan spring rolls and a vegan spring roll salad, but given it was chilly I was all about the soup.





Shout out to Veganopoulous who gave me many suggestions for places to eat, and helped me form my Friday breakfast and lunch plans!

I was in a walking mood. I had walked about half an hour from Leigh's place to get to Good Days, and I ended up walking a fair bit more down to Princes Park. I saw some ducks in a pretty fountain.



I caught the tram into the city and wandered around a little. I needed an afternoon pick me up, but finding somewhere that does non-raw afternoon tea-style things in the city is hard! However, as I was wandering through The Emporium I noticed a little gelato stall, and they had vegan gelato! it was called 7 Apples Gelato. The vegan flavours were raspberry and lemon, so of course I had raspberry. In a cone, as their cones were vegan as well! It was so good. Perfect and creamy and fruity. An excellent afternoon revival!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



CHIA! What an adorably, silly, gorgeous, handsome little floofball. So glad I got to meet him!

Eating Out: Brisbane CBD 2018

I continue to go into the CBD about once a month for appointments, so have also continued to get lunch while I am there. You can see 2017's visits here, I have continued to frequent some old favourites as well. I also ate a number of times at Grill'd, which got its own post here.

VegeRama Myer City and Post Office Square: VegeRama has two locations in the city, which are good for quick take away lunches (unlike their fancy sit down restaurant in West End). This tends to be the old standby for city lunch, and if I am meeting up with my friend Amy for lunch this is where we tend to go. My favourite continues to be their vegan lasagna with a side of dill and mustard salad (with extra dressing). I've also enjoyed their vegan frittata (also with a side of the same salad and a juice), and once I got a takeaway of two salads (Dill and Mustard, or course, and also the BBQ tofu) with a Soy Nugget Wrap.







Guzman y Gomez: This Mexican chain has a number of vegan options. While I enjoy their fresh burrito bowls, I of course had to gravitate towards things with potato in them this year. Namely the Nacho Fries (which ended up being a tad spicy for me), and the Cali Burrito (which has fries in the burrito). A lot of other Mexican chains have started offering vegan cheese (one even vegan sour cream). Guzman does not currently have this, day do have a vegan chimi mayo that is delicious and was great in my Cali Burrito. Apologies for the terrible photo of the burrito innards.





Roll'd: This Vietnamese chain has a couple of locations in the city, one in a food court and also a small restaurant. I've had their rice paper rolls and their pho before, but on a hot day I decided to try their bun. I love these salads! The vegetarian one comes topped with fried tofu and spring rolls, the people working said the spring rolls were vegan, though I couldn't find anything to confirm this on their website afterwards. I'd just stick with extra tofu in the future anyway, as I preferred the tofu. They have vegan fish sauce there, so no need to worry about that!



I Heart Brownies: I'd walked past this cute little brownie kiosk in the Wintergarden a number of times, so I was thrilled when they finally started having vegan brownies. They are a perfect, cute little treat. As well as vegan, they are also gluten free, but they are not dry or crumbly and are delicious. A win for everyone! They started with just the plain flavour, but will sometimes have one or two others. So far I have tried the plain, cherry coconut, and jaffa. They also have vegan milkshakes, made with almond milk and their housemade coconut ice cream. I tried one (strawberry of course), but the ice cream was sadly a little too coconut fatty for my tolerance levels.



Coco Bliss: Smoothies, bowls, nice cream, and also some toast options and assorted lattes. My favourite thing there is the Fruit Tingle smoothie, which has acai, watermelon, and mango, and is excellent on a hot Brisbane day.



I've already been back to the city in 2019, and have explored some new places. I'm hoping to try a few more new to me places this year, but I am pretty sure the old favourites will be there as well.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



It is hard finding something that excites Dim Sim. At nearly 19, she mostly just sleeps, eats, and snuggles. But I have some very old Yeowwww Catnip Toys that the girls all used to love back in the day. They are hard to find now, but I found the rainbow on line and bought it for her. She very much enjoyed smooching all over it, so it was nice to find something to give her that made her so happy.

Melbourne OCC 2017: Part 1

At the end of June, I went back to Melbourne for the second time this year... only four weeks after my first trip! This time it was for OzComicCon, where I work as a guest handler. I was looking after Tom Lenk, and this was very exciting for me because he is from Buffy and Buffy is my most beloved TV show ever. Even more exciting, Alyson Hannigan was also going to be there, so I was going to be able to quietly bask in her glow.

But I know you are here for food. So let's talk food. My food game started at the airport, before I even got on the plane. I had some time, and I was hungry, so I stopped into Roll'd and got some of their vegan pho with mushroom and tofu, no chili. It was really yummy!



I also got a couple of salads from SumoSalad to take for lunch on the plane. I got a hokkien noodle salad, and a Moroccan lentil salad. They were both tasty, and nice and filling.



After landing and getting to my hotel in South Bank (not an area I would ever choose to stay in if I was visiting Melbourne otherwise, as it is a bit far from the good food), I stopped by Broad Bean Organic Grocer to see about picking up some extra supplies. I had already come well equipped with 90 second oat sachets, soy milk poppers, dried fruit, noodle cups, plus all the snack bars in the world. The do have smoothies and hot drinks, and some vegan salads and sandwiches, as well as a range of vegan supplies. I grabbed a few bottles of juice and a kombucha (I drink one bottle over a couple of days and let it go a bit flat first, but my tummy does love the probiotics. I also grabbed a maple peanut butter soy hot chocolate, because how could I not!

I had some unexpected free time in the afternoon, and I decided to use it in the best way possible - a trip to Smith & Deli! This is my happy place. It was 4pm when I got there, so a lot of things were already sold, but I was able to pick up a few treats as well as one of their delicious chai lattes. I got a chocolate chip rosemary cookie, a cinnamon roll cookie, and an apple and rhubarb shortbread.





Friday night is the cocktail party night, which is long, so I needed to get a decent dinner. Vegie Kitchen (previously Enlightened Cuisine), just a block away from my hotel, was unexpectedly closed during last year's OCC, however this year they were open. I got a sweet corn soup to start, because I love sweet corn soup! Although they have a large menu of exciting mock meat options, I went for a tofu combination pot (it had a bit of mock something in it too), because I can't say no to giant plates of tofu and veggies.





Saturday brought the start of OzComicCon proper. This was a 12 hour day, and it is busy, so there is no chance of getting out for food. Breakfast and lunch is supplied for guest handlers, but the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre's idea of what is decent catering for vegans is pretty laughable. I will post more on that in my next post. Suffice to say, I was very glad that I had pre-fuelled with oats and a my rhubarb apple shortbread (what, it is fruit, breakfast food!), and had packed a noodle pot, a banana, a cookie and many snack bars.

After I got out, I power-walked (I spent a lot of the day sitting and being around a lot of people, walking in some 'fresh' air seemed perfect) to meet my friend Jess at The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar for dinner. We met at 8, and even though it was a Saturday night there was almost no one there at that time. The crowd started coming later. Fine by me! They have a vegan section on the menu, which seemed to be different again from the two versions currently floating around online. Sadly no sign of the vegan smoked croquettes. We ordered a few things to share, as is our usual style. The vegan BBQ braised lamb burger was quite nice. I have no idea what they used for the lamb, it was like a mound of minced or pulled something, but not jackfruit, but it was nice on the burger with some slaw and a pickle. The Vegan Halal Snack Pack was OK. We asked them to put the chili sauce on the side, but turns out they don't use chili sauce in their one. It was chips topped with cheese, mock chicken, BBQ sauce, and hummus, which is a combination I can get behind. The downside was the chips, which weren't great. I would have liked some better chips. We were still a bit peckish, so got some Popcorn Chicken to share. This was great. It was crispy and not at all oily, and it was hard to stop snacking on it.







On the way back to the hotel, I wanted a little sweet and warm ending. So I stopped by Starbucks (of which there are very few in Australia) and got a small soy matcha latte after hearing Jojo's enthusiasm for them. And it was yummy.

I'll be back in my next post with the rest of my trip!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Remember Aurora from my last post? This is her sweet sister Belle. Belle has already got a home!

Eating In: Sushi, Drinks, Noodles, Sweets

Though eating out has returned occasionally, there has still been lots of deliveries or takeaways!

A new sushi place called Sushi Hub opened in Garden City, so I got some to take home for lunch. I got vegetarian, avocado, terriyaki tofu, and seaweed salad. All really good! I love sushi.



One of my favourite place to get drinks is Huey's, which is a sugar cane juice stand but they have so many more. This is their delicious rose lemonade with rainbow jelly.



I'd ordered delivery from Noodle Box before, they have a vegan section on their menu. This is their Mongolian Tofu, which is a lovely peppery sauce. I was a bit under the weather when I ordered this and the burn from the black pepper was really good. Even though this is from Noodle Box, I ordered this with rice because that is what I was feeling.



Another lovely drink from Huey's, this is their lychee and rose drink.



Roll'd is a Vietnamese chain that also recently opened at Garden City. These are their Tofu Soldiers (rice paper rolls) with vegan fish sauce.



Finally, some sweet treats! I was picking up some stuff from The Green Edge, and that always means a sticky beak into their sweets cabinet. I got myself a wonderful lemon meringue tart, and a very decadent marshmallow and Tim Tam brownie for my mum.

Eating In: A Random Assortment

Some things I have either had delivered or taken away.

I've ordered from Taksim Kebab's before, they have a vegan section of the menu that includes vegan meats and cheeses. This time I got a vegan chicken kebab, just the regular size as last time I ordered a large and it was mammoth! I always get hummus and BBQ as my sauces, I love the combination. This is a good kebab, and I got it with some hot chips.



Some nights you just need a big bowl of soup, and this is the vegan mushroom pho from Roll'd. Itis not quite as good the vegan pho from Bun, but it is still really nice. Lots of mushrooms and tofu.



Montezumas is a Mexican-ish chain that has been around for ages. They have long catered to vegans by removing dairy off vegetarian dishes, but some time ago they started offering vegan cheese and sour cream. I had never quite gotten around to trying it, but then I saw that they deliver to my area. I got my old favourite, the bean burrito, but this time instead of removing the dairy I got it with the vegan versions. I couldn't remember if it had much spice, so I ordered some guac to cool things down. Psych! The burrito itself was mild as can be, the guac was spicy!The burrito is huge, and comes with some of their delicious crunchy rice. I also got a salad on the side, they make this wonderful chopped salad that has apple in it, and it is so refreshing. You can see the vegan cheese on top of both, I have no idea what sort of cheese it was. It wasn't anything spectacular, and is more expensive so I'd probably prefer to just get the veggie one minus the dairy. But it was fun to try.



7-11 has several vegan options in their ready to go case these days. I have previously tried their vegan egg salad sandwich, which I liked. So I tried their vegan chicken salad sandwich. It was nice, the chicken didn't have much flavour, but overall it worked. I prefer the egg one though, I just can't get over the novelty of getting essentially a tofu egg salad sandwich in convenience store!



Another Mexican chain here is Guzman y Gomez. They also have vegan options, though they don't have vegan cheese. I love their veggie burrito bowl, made mild, though I do have to pick out a lot of capsicum. But I'm a pro at that. If you ask for it vegan rather than vegetarian, they replace the cheese with their delicious chimichurri mayo. So good. I also picked up one of these cute little Myk's FFF Kefire bottles, in lychee flavour. I haven't seen this brand for ages! If you do buy them, you have to keep the bottle upright though as it will leak everywhere if it is not.



The other week at work, we had a lot of sadness with some of the staff having sick kitties. So the boss decided we all needed pizza for lunch. We ordered from Domino's, which I have featured on the blog before as a chain that has vegan meats and cheeses. I hadn't had their pizza for ages. Last time I did, they were still using Follow Your Heart, which was the BEST! But they have since switched to their own vegan cheese, which I had not heard good things about. I got their vegan beef and onion pizza, which I love because it has a BBQ sauce base. The new cheese is not good. You can see it just looks... weird. Thank goodness BBQ sauce covered many sins.



Finally, Nodo is a gluten free cafe that started as a doughnut shop, became a cafe, and has a couple of branches. They have some vegan options, but are not convenient to me and I was yet to feel inspired to sort out going. But they had a pop up doughnut stall in Garden City a couple of weeks ago. They had one vegan option, which was a spiced pineapple doughnut with chocolate ganache and freeze dried pineapple on top. I really liked the flavour combination! The gluten free doughnut was even OK, but definitely improved by having chunks of pineapple through it. Would buy again.