Green Acre Pizza

November 19, 2020

   

During lockdown, we developed a comforting habit of once-a-week takeaway/delivery from a small rotation of local businesses. Among them is Green Acre Pizza, which opened just a few months ago. Green Acre are doing their best to offer environmentally friendly foods and business practices, and that includes lots of vegetarian- and vegan-friendly options. There are gluten-free pizza bases on offer too.

Photographed above is our standard order, which happily stretches across a dinner, a lunch and a bonus snack for us two. First, there's a vegan pepperoni pizza (top left, $21) which also features generous dollops of dairy-free mozzarella, shredded radicchio, and a few dabs of chilli jam. Next, there's a knock-out pumpkin pizza (top right, $21) that has transformed my experience of vegetable-based pizzas: the pumpkin is bite-sized and tender, and it's complemented by excellent dairy-free feta and caramelised onions, but I think its secret magic might be the subtle scattering of sage and crushed pistachios.

On the side we get a house salad ($13; beware the honey dressing, vegans!), which never looks as fancy as their promotional photos but it still solid. The other notable treat on Green Acre's menu is their cauliflower chips (bottom right, $12), which are barely crispy but still darn good with a slather of chipotle aioli.

The bases have that stretchy, slightly charred character of a good wood-fired pizza, and I think the high-quality vegan cheeses really make a difference. It's high time we extend ourselves to some of the other topping combinations - there's mushrooms, potatoes, greens and olives to be explored.

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Green Acre Pizza

328 Victoria St, Brunswick

9381 5763

menu online

https://www.greenacrepizza.com.au/

Hotel Spencer

November 5, 2020

   

Most of Melbourne is revelling in the relaxation of lockdown rules and eagerly returning to pubs, cafes and restaurants. Our mate Jess swiftly organised us a table for four at the Spencer Hotel, which serves one of his favourite vegan burgers. In light of current spacing rules, we had the entire front bar to ourselves (with other tables in use in the dining room and out on the footpath) and full table service.

The menu covers familiar ground: for the omnivores there's steak and chips, fish and chips, a parma, bangers and mash, pulled pork and Southern chicken burgers, and hot wings. The vegetarian burger looks like a rich one with mushrooms, potato and four kinds of cheese. For vegans, there's a hearty-looking bistro salad and one-to-two burgers. I'm hedging because the beef-style Smokehouse burger wasn't available and I'm not sure if they're bringing it back. Most importantly, Jess' favourite Faux' Boy ($20) was still on offer and it was all we wanted.

Cute as the pun may be this seems a very loose tribute to the Louisiana po' boy, which is commonly filled with seafood, but can be made with other meats. It features two filling pieces of battered mock-chicken, slaw, and plenty of sauce. The menu lists three condiments - cheezy bacon sauce, chipotle aioli, and jalapeno salsa - but they mostly just melded into a pleasant and slightly drippy mix. Vegans usually miss out on the 'brioche bun' nonsense that's saturated Melbourne, but the fluffy potato bun here is a worthy analogue and it contrasts well with the chicken. It steers this burger away from being a gluten-brick, which I've sometimes struggled with in other pubs.

Hotel Spencer's chips are great, there are sauces aplenty at the table, and we felt well looked after in these times of distanced-dining. While other bloggers mention it as a convenient stop-off before a show at Festival Hall, we'll have to find another excuse to revisit given that gigs are still a ways off and FH has been bought by Hillsong.

   

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Hotel Spencer has clocked up a few reviews, all positive, and most around 5 years old, see Gastrology, Eat & Be Merry, live life love cake, Consider the Sauce, Parma Daze and Gastronomical Ramblings.

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Hotel Spencer

475 Spencer St, West Melbourne

9329 9116

menu 1, 2

https://www.hotelspencer.com.au/

Accessibility: Oof, I am out of practice with this! There was a step up on entry, and medium-spaced furniture inside. We received full table service, but this might shift to ordering and/or payment at a high bar as the pandemic eases. The toilets were gendered.

Butterless pecan turtle bars

 October 31, 2020

   

Just a couple of weeks after making butter pecan turtle bars for a Zoom hang-out, we're back in a position to make and share such treats with others. This week I had cause to try a vegan version - it was a simple substitute of margarine for butter, and careful selection of dairy-free chocolate chips.

I was well prepared for the powdery texture of the biscuit base that so worried me before, but hit a new obstacle with the caramel. There seemed to be less of it in general, and when I poured it across the slice, it seemed to vanish! As you can see from the cross-sectional view above, much of the caramel soaked into the biscuit base. All the sweetness stays, of course, but the chewy caramel texture I loved so much last time around is really lacking here.

I'm really quite puzzled. I wonder if I might try using a different vegan fat and have better results - a simple vegetable oil, or perhaps some coconut cream. Is it possible that I didn't bring the sugar to the right temperature? Hmm. I'll have to bring this slice back into semi-regular rotation to figure it out.