April 20-23, 2008: Wilsons Promontory

How cool are the people I work with? Let me tell you. When two of us admitted over lunch in February that we weren't really campers, the wheels were set in motion for a camping trip that no-one could refuse. Three days in Wilsons Promontory with a choice of tent or cabin for shelter, walks and rests and games and chatting (and swimming and kayaking for the brave!). And how cool is my boss? When he found out about the planned trip, he not only packed a swag to join us; he packed 7 bottles of wine and insisted he'd find a way of reimbursing our accommodation costs. It seemed that even the gods couldn't stop us from having a good time, and they didn't even try, giving us unpredictably fine weather for the duration.

So on Sunday, Tracy squashed Mike, Michael, tents, pillows, food and wine and clothes and me into her car and we set off. The first stop was made after less than a kilometre - we needed lunch from Dench...

Mike snagged the last two vegetarian savoury items in all their buttery deliciousness. They could only be trumped by a bomboloni stuffed with lemon custard.

As the afternoon dragged on we closed in on the Prom, arriving at dusk and hastily pitching our tents. We retreated to the spacious living area of the shared cabin for a dinner of room temperature spiced chickpeas, packaged roti, red wine and then port served in plastic cups.

I'll admit that my first night in our tent wasn't particularly comfortable or restful, but it was difficult to be grumpy when there was this for breakfast...

That's home made muesli, contributed by Stu and Jane!

And then we walked, eating spiced chickpea sandwiches for lunch...

... and muesli bars thoughtfully prepared by Jo-Lyn and packed in with Mike.

We had been warned not to feed the local wildlife, with signs repeatedly warning that wombats have destroyed tents at a single whiff of food.

Michael thought he was manipulating this situation to his advantage when he used an icecream to coax a rosella onto this arm, but discovered he was the manipulated one when he no longer had a spare hand to switch the food to!

There was another brush with the wildlife on our evening walk.

Dinner was a collaborative affair. First up was Mark's camping trick - egg in a bag. This dish involved pouring 3 eggs, a splash of milk and omelette fillings of your choice into a Ziploc bag. The bag is sealed and then tossed into boiling water until the egg is almost set.

There were plenty of skeptics among us. Would the bag split? What if it melted into the water, or into the food? But egg-in-a-bag was a roaring success.

Next up was a stunning Moroccan feast: couscous, a quinoa salad by Stu, Beth's own version of the chickpea thing, and our fennel, pumpkin and eggplant tagine.

Much later, after several games of 'Werewolf', Stu impressed everyone again with this incredible multi-layered cake. If this is camp food, I might just permanently pitch my tent in Stu's backyard.

The next day? More great muesli.

More sandwiches.

More muesli bars - these are the date and tahini ones, with added dried cherries.

And of course, more walks.

I could get used to this. Except that my camera broke, and we had to return to work. (The boss's wine supply was exhausted, after all.) We folded ourselves back into Tracy's car and to prolong the holiday, just a little, we resolved to stop by every smalltown op shop we encountered on the way home. Amongst the crazy and kitsch I found some kitchenware to call my own.

This pretty plate set me back only $2.50.

Tracy's eagle eye spotted this one, but she kindly allowed me to possess it (for only $5!).

In some ways, the holiday had only just begun - I had an unproductive one-day working week on Thursday before the Anzac Day weekend arrived. And boy, did I do some eating! Stay tuned for much, much more.

September 9, 2007: Orange Roughy

Update 18/06/2023: Orange Roughy is now closed.

Rather than force our vegetarian lifestyle on Jack and Em for the whole weekend, we researched a few places in the general vicinity of Yanakie that would provide a tasty dinner. Unfortunately the Waratah Park Country House was closed, but luckily Orange Roughy were doing Sunday dinners even in the off-season. Although, if we hadn't called them to book, I'm not sure that they would have bothered opening - we were the only people in the place all night. Lesson: September Sunday nights in the Prom area are quiet. Very quiet.

Even so, the lady running the show for the evening didn't seem too bothered. She cheerfully welcomed us, ran through the specials and chatted happily to us while we settled in. The special deal for the evening was a starter and main combo for $19.50. There were a couple of vegetarian mains and a range of meat and fish options for our non-veg companions. Entree-wise there was soup, garlic bread, bruschetta and some non-veg spring rolls. I opted for the soup, which was leek and potato, while Cindy went for garlic bread. In all honesty, we could have just shared the soup - it came with two nice pieces of toast and was thick, tasty and full of leek-y bits. Having said that, Cindy's garlic bread was delicious - but look at how much there was! Craziness.

For mains, Cindy went for a spinach, parmesan and basil pasta, while I couldn't go past the vegie pizza. Again, both were huge - the pizza dotted with mushrooms, pumpkin, feta, spinach and pesto. It was tremendously impressive - a handful of kalamata olives and it would have been perfect. I had no chance of getting through it all after polishing off the soup, so I made it through half and saved the rest for our lunch on the way home.

Cindy's pasta was rich and creamy - sprinkled with cheese smothered in a creamy pesto sauce. There was a liberal smattering of pine nuts and the pesto flavour really shone through. Again though, there was no way Cindy could finish it off (and she didn't even get through her entire entree) and we departed with leftovers in tow.

Orange Roughy was a good find - it was only 10kms up the road from our accommodation (listen to me, only 10kms - in our usual carless Melbourne world, 10kms might as well be a different state) and the food was delicious and ridiculously generously sized. The service was superb - friendly and helpful, but, despite the empty restaurant, not intrusive at all. It looks like the kind of place that would be chock full of happy diners on summer evenings and was impressively well-suited to vegos (there was even a vegie burger on the lunch menu!). Highly recommended.

Address: 2 Old Waratah Road, Fish Creek
Ph: 5683 2207
Price: $19.50 for a main and entree combo
Licensed

September 9, 2007: Mock tuna salad

We've been enjoying quite a few recipes from Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit, but I've had a nasty habit of tainting my renditions with dairy products. So I was pretty excited when at Organic Wholefoods, I found just the ingredients to make this mock tuna salad in all its vegan glory. Lindyloo raved about it, and I'll heartily join her chorus: "this is a damn good recipe". (Huh, usually her raves are much sexier than that... I was sure I'd be singing something about rubbing this all over Julian Casablancas' unclothed body.)

I fixed this recipe up at home and then packed it on our Wilson's Prom weekend for our hike-day lunch. This stuff is so good that even though we had a box of cookies in our pack, it was the promise of a mock tuna sandwich at the top that propelled me up Mt Oberon. In fact, this stuff is so good that even our non-veg companions said, "Hey, this stuff is actually pretty good".

Hmmm, I wish I'd finished on a slightly more effusive note than that.

This stuff ROCKS! GET INTO IT!! And seriously consider doubling the recipe.

Given that we're welcoming spring in this part of the world, might I recommend that you pair it with some fresh asparagus?

(You can see more photos from our Wilson's Prom weekend at my Flickr page.)

Mock Tuna Salad
(Lindyloo credits this recipe to Compassionate Action for Animals)

1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise (I used Melrose brand)
1/3 cup celery, finely chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons dill pickle, finely chopped (2-3 mini ones)
1/2 tablespoon nutritional yeast (I used Lotus brand)
~3 shallots, chopped finely
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon kelp powder (optional - I couldn't find it at any of the shops I checked out)
pepper, to taste

Coarsely mash the chickpeas using a fork. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Eat on sandwiches, with a green salad, perched on a potato chip (as photographed by Lindyloo), or maybe with some excitingly fresh asparagus.

September 8, 2007: A vege barbeque

The accommodation that Michael found for our stay near Wilson's Promontory was great: a cabin with room for four at a cheap off-peak rate, with lots of avian company and views of cows and fields and hills. But the key descriptors I noticed before we arrived were "full kitchen" and "barbeque". I don't have much experience with barbeques, but it seemed an appropriate thing to do on holiday of driving and hiking and natural surrounds, and I knew what I wanted to barbeque most of all. Haloumi.

Fortunately the barbeque area was as clean and well-equipped as we could have hoped for, with a cheery mural painted on the shelter. Cheery for a vego like me, anyway: I dunno how the average eater feels about a scene of big-eyed cows while they tuck into their steaks. (On reflection, perhaps I should say a little prayer for her calf as I tuck into my cheese steak.) Unfortunately the chilly weather and Queensland-sourced company necessitated eating indoors rather than making use of the picnic tables. Still, Jack braved the elements and carried out the actual grill-work while I generally bossed people about. It was a fairly successful combination, in my opinion - it yielded some deliciously charred pieces of haloumi (with lemon juice and black pepper, as always) and tender, smoky asparagus spears. Travelling around the plate, we also had a medley of capsicum and mushroom chunks (sauteed on the plate and dressed with some olive oil and za'atar) and some fresh greens with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Peeking in the edge of the photo is some corn. We attempted to roast these in the husk but undercooked them. I'm not directing any blame Jack's way, because he deferred to my bossing at all times!

The mixed success of this meal has served to pique my interest in the vege barbeque for the longer days and warmer nights ahead. It has demonstrated that there's much to master, while tantalising me with a couple of early successes. I've found some more ideas in Jeanne of Cook Sister!s recent meatless barbeque blog event (watch out for the seafood, fellow vegos!). Do you have any other meat-free barbeque favourites?

September 7, 2007: Road trip cookies

This weekend brought two holidaying couples from Brisbane and two road trips! First up, Michael and I took a day or so leave from work so that we could travel to Wilson's Promontory with Jack and Emma. Long before I got excited about long walks and birdwatching, I enthusiastically set about preparing the weekend menu. Featuring high on my list of things to make was this recipe, originally dubbed the Team Cookie by a teammate of basketballin' Brilynn from Jumbo Empanadas. I can only imagine how great these taste after the exertion of a game of basketball, and they're just the thing after a hike through the Prom. They're also a pretty sweet break in the monotony of a long drive!

The recipe itself bears a remarkable resemblance to my long-standing favourite choc-chip cookie recipe, both in the ingredient list and the quantities: the major differences are that chopped almonds are replaced by crunchy peanut butter, and the rolled oats remain whole (instead of being ground to a powder). I was looking forward to that peanut butter taste and chew, but it was a much milder component than I expected - I might experiment with increasing it (even reducing the butter) next time. I was more skeptical about the whole oats, but they did lend an agreeable chew; I'm undecided whether I prefer them pulverised or not. I also cooked these a little longer than I should have - none of them burned, but they were all very crunchy from the moment they were cool.

Regardless, these were very popular all round. We polished off a lunchbox full of them on our weekend, and when we met up with Beth and Ryan (more food fun with them coming up!), I filled a noodle-style gift box with them for their own impending road trip along the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. My workmates happily demolished another entire lunchbox-full for afternoon tea a few days later. Can you believe that still left another dozen for Michael and I, back at home?

Road trip cookies

1 cup peanut butter (gotta be crunchy, surely!)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups oats
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
250g packet dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Beat together the peanut butter and butter, then add the sugars and continue beating until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla.

Sift the flour and baking soda, stir in the oats, and then stir these dry ingredients into the sweet butter mixture. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.

Brilynn suggests that if the dough is really sticky you can add more flour here. My mixture was quite sticky but I powered on without any more filler! Use two teaspoons to drop the dough onto an ungreased baking tray. The front cookie pictured above was done like this - the neater, rounder one behind came from gently rolling the dough in my hands.

Bake for 10 minutes until lightly browned. I'll echo Brilynn's emphasis on not overcooking these: in fact, I might only bake mine for 8-10 minutes next time for a chewier cookie.