This Borderland II

April 4, 2025

   

As 2025 opened, Preston diner This Borderland celebrated their 6th year but also announced that it would be their last one. I've been determined to get back there at least once more, and there are still a few months left for you to do so too!

   

The menu has remained pretty consistent for years - a suite of burgers and fried sides, plus a couple of desserts. Vegetarian and vegan options are available on all meat-based dishes, but there's no explicit guidance for coeliacs. Our fries ($7) arrived quickly and were excellent, with the full line-up of sauces.

   

I just had to stick with my favourite order, the Half Charlotte ($15.90) - a beautifully seasoned piece of southern fried seitan with a little pool of chipotle mayo, plenty of pickles and a huge mound of slaw.

   

Michael went all out on a Buffalo Bill ($21.90), a mock-beef burger with bacon, cheese, slaw, onion rings, bbq sauce and mayo. Even the very-game Michael had to eat the onion rings first before wrapping his mouth around this burger.

The desserts - cherry pie and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake - always look incredible but impossible after a meal this filling. I've got just a few months to figure out how to fit one in!

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You can read about our first couple of visits to This Borderland here.

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This Borderland

208 Tyler St, Preston

no phone

food, liquids 

instagram

Accessibility: There are two steps up on entry; most of the seating is in booths, but there are high backed seats at the window and the counter too. We ordered and paid at a low counter. There's a single unisex toilet - it's quite small and not particularly accessible.

Smith & Daughters XI

March 28, 2025 

   

There are numerous Smith and Daughters posts in our archives, but none since they moved to Collingwood in 2021! The friends we shared food with in the ninth and tenth posts arranged a shared dinner at what's currently known as Smith & Daughters Social Club. The vibe is a touch more relaxed than the original Fitzroy incarnation - less crammed with witchy artwork and knick knacks, with a bit more space around tables - but still dark and moody, with a menu of rich vegan food.

   

In a very rare occurrence, I was the one person at the table to order alcohol! I started the night with a strawberry and vanilla spritz ($20), while my companions all had non-alcoholic spiced margaritas ($16). Smith & Daughters has always been proud of its cocktails, and these upheld that standard.

This was as much decision-making as we could be bothered with - we elected to sit back and see what was in the four course chef's choice menu ($95 per person).

   

We were started with a small bowl of smoky, earthy BBQ baked beans and burnt ends with brightly contrasting watermelon pickle and a side of corn bread madeleines. We also shared out fried green tomatoes with a tangy, creamy remoulade.

   

Jerk oyster mushroom skewers were meaty and spicy! I had to drain some of the hot oil from my skewer, and others gladly mopped it up.

   

The little platter of rice, red beans and plantain was all starchy comfort - it'd make a satisfying main meal all on its own.

   

The gumbo bowl looked small but there was plenty to go around, with a mock-shrimp each, plus sausage, okra and veges in a thick broth.

   

Black eye pea fritters were thickly crumbed and dragged through hot pepper sauce. 

   

The most memorable course might've been the ultra-cheesy baked mac n cheese, dotted with bacon and grilled corn, teamed with a fresh and colourful plate of tomatoes and BBQ plums.

   

But that wasn't even the main savoury course! It was building towards a plate of southern fried lion's mane mushrooms (oddly, three to share among four) with white gravy and chow chow. Another impressive main in its own right, we were content to share a taste at this late stage in the meal.

   

We were offered the choice of two desserts of the three on the menu to finish out. We thought we wanted more than half a dessert each but we were mistaken - the sweets were generously portioned and there was plenty to go around. Ben took the lead on a banana pudding, a densely packed cup with fresh banana slices suspended in layers of creamy pudding.

   

Michael and I split the skillet brownie, which had absorbed its coffee chocolate fudge beyond recognition and was topped with a little icecream.

It's been a long time between Smith and Daughters visits, and it has retained the elements we value most: rich and abundant vegan food drawing from traditions across the Americas, fit for a special occasion and served by friendly and highly competent staff. We'll have to commit to more visits if we want it to stick around.

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You can read about one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten of our previous visits to the past Brunswick St version of Smith & Daughters.

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Smith & Daughters

107 Cambridge St, Collingwood

9123 1712

menu

https://www.smithanddaughters.com/

Accessibility: There's a wide, flat entry and medium-spaced furniture inside with a clear walkway through, mostly regular-height tables with backed chairs but also a padded bench, and backed stools at a high bar. We ordered and paid at our table. We didn't visit the toilets.

Blistered beans with gnocchi Trapanese

March 22, 2025

   

We're increasingly obsessed with Meera Sodha's recipes and have been digging around for ideas whenever the urge to cook something new takes us. She's very good at putting together really tasty dishes that don't require as much fussing as an Ottolenghi (for example). This is increasingly our cooking sweet spot - we don't put aside whole afternoons for dinner prep very often these days, so something that can be whipped together in less than an hour is always looked on favourably. 

We picked this one out for a lazy Saturday night in March and it delivered exactly what we needed. The little pesto you make is super simple but a cut above using a store-bought sauce. We added a can of white beans to the blistered green beans to bulk things out a bit, but it makes a pretty scant four serves, so consider doubling this if you really want to get into some leftovers.

Blistered beans with gnocchi Trapanese

(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha's Guardian column)

50g flaked almonds, lightly toasted

100g olive oil

30g basil (fresh leaves is best, we got stuck with those weird Gourmet Garden packet herbs which worked okay in the end)

30g sun-dried tomato in oil, drained

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

350g green beans, trimmed

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

500g gnocchi

Put the oil, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, nutritional years, garlic, lemon juice and salt in a food processor and blend to a paste. Tip the almonds in and just pulse it all a couple of times - you want some decent sized almond bits for texture. 

Pop a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the green beans over med-high heat, turning occasionally, until they start to blister up. Add 3 tablespoons of water and pop a lid on the pan, cooking for another few minutes until they're nice and tender.

Cook the gnocchi as per the packet instructions, combine with the pesto, green beans and drained white beans and serve immediately.

Short Round

March 15, 2025

   

I was tempted not to blog about this meal - it feels like the kind of Melbourne brunch we've experienced many times before. But it's a very good rendition of that thing, which probably explains why Short Round has been around for over a decade and still has people spilling out the door.

What's so familiar? The white walls, exposed bricks, blonde wooden mid-century furniture and indoor plants. The all-day menu, with porridge or toast for vegans....

   

... the chilli scrambled eggs (technically "crispy chilli folded eggs", $24), which Michael ordered with a side of avocado ($6.50). But take a look at the photo, and see what a handsome rendition it is! They didn't even stack the toast.

   

In my caprice, I skipped over the porridge, the granola, the unexpected cinnamon torrijas, all the sweets in the cabinet, lingered over the house-made flatbread with cheese and pickles, the roasted mushrooms, and... ordered crumpets. To Short Round's credit these are made in-house and served with a perfectly tangy lemon curd. I paired it with a smoothie ($11) of banana, peanut butter, date, coyo and almond milk - strong stuff that couldn't be managed with a paper straw by the end.

That flimsy straw was the only teeny flaw in our experience. The light was golden, we were comfortable, and we were so well fed.

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Much older, positive reviews of Short Round appear on Cafe Hunting Melbourne and Chewing is Exercise.

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Short Round

731 High St, Thornbury

9484 3904

autumn food menu, drinks

https://www.shortround.com.au/

Accessibility: Short Round is split level, although there's a mindfully built shallow ramp on entry and one step between dining areas indoors. Furniture is quite densely packed with clear corridor through the middle, a mixture of regular-height tables with backed chairs and padded long benches, and high tables with backless stools. We ordered at our table and paid at a regular-height counter, and didn't visit the toilets.

Tahini & soya mince noodles with pickled radishes

March 8, 2025

   

Meera Sodha's vegan recipe column at The Guardian is becoming a staple of our research when we feel like cooking something new. Cindy bookemarked this really simple looking noodle dish and we made it a priority to give a try at home. It's really so straightforward - a perfect weeknight option, especially if you've got veggie mince and chilli bean sauce in your pantry. The tahini really makes this rich and savoury and you need a good portion of the tangy radishes to cut through (some chilli oil helps too). This is already in our regular rotation - you should add it to yours.

Tahini & soya mince noodles with pickled radishes

(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha's Guardian column)

1 bunch of radishes (~150g), trimmed and finely sliced

150ml rice vinegar

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 2/3 cup tahini

4 tablespoons chilli bean paste (e.g. this one)

1 tablepoon golden syrup

4 teaspoons sesame oil

4 tablespoons peanut oil (the original recipe has rapeseed oil here)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger

120g dried soy mince (usually sold as textured vegetable protein/tvp)

180g dried ramen noodles

toasted sesame seeds

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and heat it up until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Pour the hot pickling liquid over the sliced radishes and leave in a bowl to cool.

In a different bowl stir together the chilli bean paste, tahini, syrup, sesame oil and a shake of salt and set aside.

Add the peanut oil to a frying pan and gently fry the garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes. Throw in the dried soy mince and stir for another few minutes, then add 350ml of water. Stir everything together for a few minutes until the water has been absorbed, then stir in the chilli bean/tahini sauce you made earlier and kill the heat.

Cook the noodles as per the packet instructions, drain and rinse and then toss through a glug of oil and stir them into your mince mix. 

Serve, topped with sesame seeds and pickled radishes.