mock roo-bq #2

I'll bet my puppy dog that (unless you were present) that title means nothing to you. Right? Right.

Well! Let me 'splain. Last year, my current residence (which at the time was not my residence) was lucky enough to play host to the first annual "mock roo-bq", basically (very basically) involving the conjuring up of (a process both lengthy and dedicated) mock kangaroo! The idea was cooked up (ha) by Philly visitors, Joe and Ryan (apparently more commonly known as Ryjoe), and with Joe back in town again (with my new friend Shannon replacing Ryan - Shanjoe), a second annual mock r00-bq was in order.

Having missed the first roo-bq (and cursing myself eternally from that day forth), i could barely get through my six hour workday without taking my mind off the mock marsupial delights awaiting me at home.

Shannon, Joe and the ever amazing Sarah put the majority of the bbq together, I clumsily knocked together a couple of salads, and we had some amazing potluck contributions in the form of potato salads (we had three all up! carblicious!), a limey lemongrassy julienned salad with tempeh (who the eff made that and why aren't we married?), and cupcakes. Dear, sweet cupcakes made by dear, sweet Chad, in the forms of mint choc and peanut butter chocolate, and you can bet your sweet muffin that I ate one of each.

I cant really contribute any recipes because, well, I was anticipatorily wriggling around in my chair at work whilst most everything was being done, but I can contribute photos. Not even taken by myself. All credit to Sarah! (ps. I'm buying a camera tomorrow!)

So. Lookit.

Check the mock roo nestled in the bottom corner. It's formation involved a three stage process utilising wheat gluten - boiling, baking and bbqing. The three b's of delicious. Atop are both prawn and chicken kebabs, both later liberally (very liberally) doused in Shannon's amazing satay sauce.

Action shot of the innards of a mock roo burger. Probably should put an MA 18+ rating on this one.

Endless kebabs. Three days after this photo was taken, I found a tray of them, forgotten about and hiding in the oven, all shrivelled and useless and good for nothing. My heart, it weeps for their lost deliciousness.

My pasta salad in the makings. Yeah ok, I know it's not mock, scroll on past, I don't mind.

Fixings for the best bbq in existence. Observe also the pink mock ham, from a ham tube/log/whatever courtesy of Vincent's Vegetarian in Footscray.

And responsible for all of the above? The ever babelicious Shannon and Joe Fox! The only thing left to figure out is whether they should move here, or I should move there? Ah, deliciouns. Oh, i mean, delicious decisions.

Vincent's Vegetarian
353 Barkly Street
Footscray

a burger, some fancy stuff, sydney and then i'm done!

...at least until i am able to stimulate the economy by buying a camera. with my $900. when i get it. *taps foot impatiently*.

so, this is the remainder of the backlog that's been floating around various technological devices of mine for the last couple months. enjoy! and thanks eternally for the motivating feedback on the last post, extremely blushworthy making to know i had been so missed!

The Organic Food and Wine Deli (TOFWD)

Whilst working normal people (daytime) hours during my holidays (working? holidays? blergh), i became somewhat enamoured slash unsuitably obsessed with a certain burger from TOFWD (yes, i actually say it like it looks).

This is him.

Gorgeous, no?

That would be the tofu burger. Wholesome, sesame seed studded bun, lettuce, shredded carrot and beetroot (and i normally abhor beetroot, so we know we're onto a good thing here) and a somewhat spicy tofu patty. I wish i could remember what it tasted of a little better, but it's been sometime since we parted ways (and I resumed working hours more akin to the lazy student call centre worker I am). So let's just go with....delicious. TOFWD (say it!!) also do a really swell mushroom and tofu pie, and i am quite the fan of their sugar free/wheat free bran flour muffins. Also a cute boy works there. I'll stop now.

TOFWD
28 Degraves St
Melbourne

Shakahari

I'll tell ya something. Usually I only go to Shakahari if someone else is paying. It's kinda expensive (for my budget). But my buddy Alicia only has one birthday a year, and if she wants to go to Shakahari, and if i perhaps have to dig behind the couch for spare change to make that happen, well, that's exactly what will happen! I mean, I even drank a glass of wine! Big, huge, massive spender.

Anyway, enough about my thrilling finances and more about the food!

Whilst i cant seem to find any pictures of the eggplant avocado rolls, you can be deadset positive that we ate the hell out of them. A visit to Shakahari is well incomplete without these battered coins of delicious glory swimming in their emerald green sea of...delicious glory.

However, my brain worked just a little better when it came to our mains and i took some shitty photographs for you, observe.

That above? That was my choice. If I could remember it's most whimsical names (it's a Shakahari thing, whimsy is.) I'd tell you it, but i dont, so i wont. Basically a mushroomy risotto framed by bok choy, mushrooms and a pickled style red capsicum. And I wince as I write this, but it was kinda a little tiny bit, maybe just a smidgen boring. And bland. From the menu description, it sounded like it would cause serious mouth explosions, but - no. Not bad, but not amazing. No explosions.

Alicia went with a curry platter that contained a selection of different curries and a grain. Pleasant.

The croquettes were delicious! Crispy and crunchy and full of flavour. Sarah had this. Meal envy rising.

MEAL ENVY PEAKING PEAKING PEAKING! The spaghetti (though a fancier word for spaghetti was used, I do believe) is out of this world amazing. Some variety of lemon myrtle pesto, greens and slow cooked tomato topped with soy cheese just about blew my mind. Jacquie getting full early on was possibly the number one standout moment of my life so far, because it meant that I got to finish this amazing thing. Yes!

And then Sarah and I, in our (mainly mine) never ending gluttony, got dessert.

The creme brulee style thing. I used to get the hots for this thing like whoa back in my early vegan days, then they took it off the menu, enragedness ensued, they put it back on, and now I kinda didn't think it was anything too amazing. Unsure if the recipe has changed or if my tastebuds just demand more from life, but it was only average. Comfortingly blobbly (wobbly vs blobby), pleasant caramel sauce, not displeasing pistachios. It was good, but not mind blowing, like it used to be. Oh well.

Shakahari

201-203 Faraday St

Carlton

Guess what? I tricked you about Sydney. I've got these pictures of these glorious pancakes that I ate there, but they haven't made it off my phone yet. They will. Patience my pretties, patience.

let me catch you up...pt 1.

I have no excuses for what I have become, that is, a lazy, lazy blogger. It's not like I haven't been consistently gorging myself, or neglecting to take photos, or had no access to the Internet. I've been doing all three, in spades. I just plain suck. But now that I am back at uni, I feel my life once again has the structure that it was lacking over the summer holidays. By structure I mean motivation to do anything but snooze in the backyard. So. The purpose of this post is basically to spew up a season's worth of food photography and perhaps a few lines about each of them, just to kinda sorta start afresh, and do it properly. Okay?

Let's do this.

Satay Bar

Satay Bar is quite possibly the closest eatery to my work that offers something but noodles swimming in oily slop or undercooked falafel, so it wouldn't be too far from the truth to say that I eat there often, especially now that they are open until 7pm. They offer vegetable, tofu and spicy tofu skewers as far as the vegan friendly offerings are, served on a bed of rice with cubed veggie salad and "krupuk" - like prawn crackers with, er, no prawn. But crispy. For an extra 20 cents, they'll give you an additional scoop of satay sauce. Pay the extra 20 cents. You wont never regret it.

Satay Bar

Corner of Flinders Lane and Custom House Lane, Melbourne city.

Friend's of the Earth

Despite regularly frequenting Smith Street like the trendy hipster that I am, I've never really had much use for FOE apart from using them for their noticeboards. With so many other fine eateries in the area, I've been so neglectful of FOE, so when I found myself paying for a huge plate of food with coins I dug up in my change purse (I dont actually have a change purse, just so you know) I wondered to myself why I had been such a jerk?

Though simple, the food was actually really filling and delicious. A huge variety of legumes, grains and freshly prepared vegetables, you will leave the table feeling satisfied and super healthy, smug in the knowledge that yes you did just eat a meal that supplied you with a complete protein! Oh those elusive eight essential amino acids, unsynthesisable by the human body! I have heard that the food can be a bit hit and miss, depending on whose running the kitchen on the day, but I can definitely say, this day was a good one.

Friends of the Earth

312 Smith Street

Collingwood.

Iku

Kinda greasy, undervegetabled noodles. Teensy (for me) serving? Super long wait to get them? Lack of any other veggie friendly options? Meh.

Though I must say, Kristy was mighty impressed with the banquet option, so perhaps that might be the wiser choice. But they've lost me, lost me forever. Unless you're paying?

Iku Yakitori

139 Sydney Road

Brunswick

Food my friend Mark cooked for me, and others.

I must say, dinner parties are the new black.

There's nothing quite like a mid afternoon text message, just as you're lamenting the lack of food in the house and money in your back account, inviting you to what you know will be an amazing meal shared with good folk. And it was. Thanks Mark!

I cant remember...

where or what this was. Though it appears to be some kind of muesli. With some kind of fruit on it. Possibly...pear. My powers of deduction amaze even me.

Kristy & Toby's BIG MARRIAGE DAY!!

A small selection of the food pics from the loveliest wedding I have ever attended!

Ooooh I only seem to have these two pictures. My uploading skills are lacking. Spose I'll be back with part two in oooooh, another four months. NO I KID, I KID!! Three months.

Oh and my camera is broken. Bum.

wagging class for sweets

Now that the glow of mature age studenting has all but faded, it really does not take very much for me to bail on attending class. I'm having flashbacks of 19 year old me, urging others to bail on Research Methods and Statistics in order to split a bowl of fries with me at Monash Uni Caulfield's one eatery. Times were tough. Pickings were slim.

So, when it came down to eating treats with friends vs Nutrition class (ironic, no?), well, you know me well enough to know the choices I made that day were inevitable, beyond my control.

The treat eatery of choice was Sugardough bakery, on Lygon Street. A place I have wondered about ever since I heard the name. Sugardough. Doesn't it evoke all kinds of wonderful? Fairy floss flavoured bread and the like? That's what I'm getting. Anyway!

I knew what I wanted before I even set my gaze upon the wide array. But I still had a good look at what was on offer. Basically, Sugardough is heaven. From sweets to savouries, donuts to pies, breakfasts and lunches. The pumpkin pie is vegan, and I also spotted some kind of pistachio iced cake, as well as some raspberry apple number (INVOLVING SILVER SPARKLES!) but I had my mind set on the Sunshine Muffin, a muffin that I had heard much of and longed for frequently. That and a soy chai latte meant I had absolutely no regrets about skipping school for snacking.

What was probably the ugliest muffin I've ever witnessed, was brought out on a beautiful plate, counterbalanced. It also had a spoon stabbed through it's guts, officially the first muffin I've ever had served with cutlery! A dense muffin, sugary crusty muffin top, filled with such an amalgamation of dried fruits that you wouldn't possibly believe it. Sultanas, currants, dried apple, apricots and more. Now you would think that all these elements would be vying for dominance, but no, they melt into each other and deliver some delicious muffin flavour. The texture is good, well baked throughout and very filling. I had to take it home in a napkin for after snacks.

My chai was also a winner. Well spiced.

Huge, massive fan of the plateage. I have a fetish for florals and heart cut outs. How did they know?

Sugardough also carry standard breads, baguettes and loaves that all look amazingly crusty and chewy.....aaaaannnd since I'm moving to Brunswick in, oh, exactly twenty days, I'll be able to let you know a whole lot more about those products in connection with my upper digestive tract real soon.

Sugardough Bakery
163 Lygon Street
Brunswick East

by and by..

Eating three meals a day again means that I'll start updating soon, and that is a promise.

Day 4

Literally trapped in a small town in central NT, trying to deal with what the rest of my life will be like. I'm terrified of going back home and having to spend nights alone in my bed with only my (albeit beautiful) dog for company, no spooning, no seatbelting, and no one to keep me in bed when I actually need to get up and go to work.

I need to go through my facebook profile and delete all the photos that I cant look at anymore, I'm scared to upload two months worth of photos from my camera because there will be me and him, on holiday, eating out, having fun, laughing and kissing and me so truly believing this was the REAL thing. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Can there be anything harder than telling someone to leave when all you want is to beg them to stay? Knowing that you have to choose between your own dignity and self respect and a relationship that was 99% perfect but had that teensy, tiny 1% that would never be in harmony with what I truly wanted? That would play on my mind late at night, wondering what the future would hold, wondering if the problems were even worth bringing up. And now that is all I have to think about.

Being in a relationship with a person is, I think, about knowing them inside out, their faults, flaws. Some people dont want to be known so intimately. The choice between ignorant bliss and informed heartbreak is one of the hardest to make. Fuck I wish I was dumber, less perceptive.

I feel so sorry for myself and I hate it so much. But then again, it is the best (and only) crash diet I've ever been on, 4 kilos in 4 days? Works like a charm!

Rest assured, there will be more food posts on the way, I just need to be able to eat first!!

I am so, so, so, so sad right now. I dont want anybody else.

Apologies for not fulfilling my monthly food porn requirement...

I've lost my camera cord! I'm going to have a good, hard look tomorrow so hopefully I can wile away my working hours on Sunday with a mega update! Which will include my all time favourite...falafel. Not long to go..