Citrus & pistachio icecream

November 2, 2013

We sorted through a lot of our possessions during our recent house move, including our recipe books. Most time-consuming was the pile of handwritten, printed and newspaper-clipped recipes - I've been holding onto some of them since I was a teenager, and have used very few of them since moving to Melbourne. I edited my collection ruthlessly and vowed to make and blog the ones I kept.

This icecream made the cut. It was a print-out that I'd emailed to myself from my university desk in Brisbane. (I was a little surprised to find it now on the Woman's Day website, and I wonder how I originally stumbled across it.) I remember churning this in our yellow West End flat, freezing it in a big blue bowl, and walking it over to the house of Michael's brother and his girlfriend, to share after dinner.

This time around I made the citrus and pistachio icecream to finish a meal we'd prepared for a few of Michael's workmates. (We relied on two Ottolenghi faves for the main course.) It lived up to my happy memories of it - creamy, sweet and sour, with dots of colour and crunch. It's not a major hassle, either, using whole eggs rather than just the yolks, and directions that don't require an icecream maker at all.

Citrus & pistachio icecream
(seemingly found on the Woman's Day website)

1 cup milk
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
440mL cream
zest and juice of 2 limes
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup pistachios

Gently warm the milk in a saucepan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs. Gradually pour the warm milk into the bowl, whisking as you go. When it's all well mixed, pour everything back into the saucepan and stir it over medium heat but try not to let it boil. Keep stirring and cooking the custard for up to 10 minutes, until it's thickened. Take the mixture off the heat and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Whisk the cream plus the zest and juice of the limes and lemons into the custard. If you're not using an icecream maker, stir in the pistachios and pour the icecream custard into loaf pans to freeze. Otherwise, churn the lemon-lime custard in an icecream maker and add the pistachios in the last 10 minutes. Freeze the icecream for at least 4 hours before serving.

Mr Burger

Update 27/1/2019: This Mr Burger location is closed, but they still have a number of other sites around Melbourne.

November 2, 2013

We were aiming for a pre-market breakfast on Saturday morning, but by the time we got going and dragged ourselves onto the tram we were both too impatient to take a detour up to Elceed or Twenty and Six Espresso. Our initial fallback plan was to swing by Invita, but a bright orange sign pointing down an alleyway convinced us that it was more of a burger kind of morning.

Mr Burger are part of Melbourne food-truck madness, with a fleet of trucks serving up burgers all over the city (although the fleet looks to be one down at the moment). One of their trucks is parked semi-permanently in a little alleyway just off Therry Street by the Queen Vic Markets. It's a good setup - there's plenty of tables and chairs, music blaring and just a generally pleasant vibe (at least at 11:45 in the morning).

The menu is super simple: there's two meaty burgers and the Mr Veg (falafel pattie, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mustard, mayo and tomato sauce, $10). Chips come in either $3 or $5 sizes. The felafel pattie is vegan, but the buns are egg-washed, so vegans might be better off at Beatbox (full nutritional info for Mr Burger is available here). Both Cindy and I had a vague fear of the felafel pattie - they're often a bit dry. This wasn't a problem with the Mr Veg, it tasted like a decent felafel mix and had an excellent texture. Even if the pattie had been dry, the condiment explosion served up by Mr Burger would have covered it up pretty well - I'm completely in favour of combining sauces, and this combo is pretty classic. In fact the whole experience was working the classic US burger vibe - a super puffy and sweet bun, rudimentary salads, pickles and a big pile of mushy sauces.

If you've got a craving for junkfood and have already worked your way through the LotF menu then Mr Burger is worth a shot - their trucks pop up all over the city (check their website for locations), their prices are reasonable and the food hits the mark nicely.

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There's a lot of enthusiasm for Mr Burger out there. I Spy Plum Pie, new international students, Ebezilla's Food Blog and It's an expensive but delicious habit all enjoyed the veggie burgers, while Burger Friday, Burp! Appetit, I Am Famished, EAT AND BE MERRY FOR TOMORROW WE DIE(T), The Burger Adventure, Yellow Eggs, Ramen Raff, the indolent cook, Naomi Bulger, rojak rojak, mostmagnificentburger, VCLUXE, Footscray Food Blog, The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar, Gastronomical ramblings, consider the sauce and scatteredroundtheworld loved the meaty options.

Let Me Feed You: Melbourne,and MEL: HOT OR NOT were a bit less impressed. 

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Mr Burger

Therry Street, Queen Vic Markets (plus many other locations)

9329 7304

burgers $10
http://mrburger.com.au/

Accessibility: Will vary by location. There's a flat entryway to the courtyard at the markets. Tables and chairs are high and you order and pick up your meal at a very high truck counter.

Berrissimo II

22/03/2014: Berrissimo have just announced that this is their last weekend of trading! We'll miss them.  

 
October 31, 2013

An important Berrissimo update - the vegan-friendly Nutella freeze has been replaced with raspberry tart, while the chocolate mousse and lemonade options remain. The raspberry tart is sweet and mellow, while the lemonade has a fizzy acidic kick. We crammed them both into a medium cup, then doused 'em in mango jelly and (free!) chocolate sauce for the sweet sum of $6.50. 

(A leetle warning - I'm not certain that the mango jelly is gelatine-free, as I excitedly ordered it before inspecting the V labels. Mea culpa.)

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You can read about our first visit to Berrissimo here. Since then it's received more vegan appreciation on vegawesome! and veganopoulous.

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Berrissimo
2/360 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
9041 2177
dessert cups $4.00-8.80
http://berrissimo.com.au/

Accessibility: We think the entry is flat, and the interior is spacious. We ordered and paid at a low-ish counter. The display case of toppings is low-ish but might be difficult to view from a wheelchair (see top photo). We didn't notice the toilets.

Eat Pizza III

October 27, 2013

Our recent house move has taken us out of the delivery catchment of Madame K's Vegetarian and, much to our disappointment, not quite within delivery distance of Eat Pizza Maribyrnong. We envy west-siders like The Moody Noodles, who've become regular customers of the Footscray outlet. They shared their good fortune with us, ordering ahead while we travelled to their home.

Eat Pizza does the standard string of margheritas, capricciosas, meat lovers and supremes, but with the added options of vegan cheese, mock meat and gluten-free bases. I tried the gluten-free base with their garlic toppings (garlic with olive oil, cheese and parsley, $8 + $3 gluten-free + $3 vegan cheese) and was impressed - while it's not quite as puffy as the standard dough there's a real breadiness to it, and no alterna-flour aftertaste.

(Note that the garlic pizza is not usually garnished with $20 notes - it's just our preferred serving style when splitting with friends.)

Toby, Michael and I went the full gluten treatment, sharing large vegetarian-with-salami ($13 + $4 vegan cheese + $4 vegan salami) and Hawaiian ($13 + $4 vegan cheese + $4 vegan ham) pizzas. This pairing was highly satisfying, and bridged the emotive "does pineapple belong on pizza?" divide among us.

While Eat Pizza is best suited to westside vegos, we're willing to travel for the odd nostalgic indulgence. We'll have to check out their city store too.

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We've written about the Maribynong Eat Pizza before here and here. Since then it's also received a write-up from The Good Hearted.

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Eat Pizza
7/203 Ballarat Rd, Footscray
9317 3177
veg pizzas $9-28
Eat Pizza's website has been 'under construction' for up to a year

Accessibility: delivered to selected suburbs (though sadly not ours).

Wesley Anne III

October 27, 2013

We've had a couple of pretty reasonable meals at the Wesley Anne over the years, but it wasn't that high on our revisit list until we got an email from reader Leah raving about the new veggie options on their menu. It still took us a few months to get our act together, but we finally managed to tack a lunch visit onto a Women of Letters afternoon on the weekend.

It's always been a lovely room with the high ceilings, beautiful stone walls and a dark and understated vibe. It's a pretty popular place, but turning up for lunch on a Sunday gives you your pick of the tables. The menu has changed a bit since our last trip, with a broader range of vegan options and a nice mix of small plates and mains.

I went for one of the vegan mains: smoked tofu with soba noodles, spring onions, cucumber and wakame ($20).

I was very happy with this - smoked tofu is a sure fire winner, and the noodle-based salad was dressed with just the right amount of sesame oil. The price is probably a smidgen steep, but it's a filling and tasty meal. 

The other vegan main (roasted cauliflower, quinoa, spinach, pine nut and radish, $20) sounded great as well, but Cindy only had eyes for the starters. She took Leah's advice and ordered the soft shell tacos with smoked tofu, salsa and chipotle ($12). 

They look pretty simple in that picture, but they really were exceptional, with the condiments bringing out the best in the lightly charred smoked tofu. The salsa was sweet and a bit spicy, offset nicely by the smoky, hot chipotle. Add a squeeze of lime and you've got yourself some top notch tacos.

The second dish Cindy ordered was the mushroom tartlets, with Swiss brown and porcini mushrooms, frieze and basil salad and pecorino cheese ($12).

These were tiny little bites - basically a mouthful each. The filling was rich and shroomy, with the greens adding a burst of freshness on top and the cheese an extra salty dimension. I really liked them, but there was a general sense that you'd want a bit more food for $12.

We had a brilliant lunch at the Wesley Anne - the food has gone from strength the strength and the atmosphere is really pleasant before it fills up later in the evening. There's a good range of booze, the staff are friendly and efficient, and the whole experience really hit the mark. The prices are probably a bit over the top - we spent nearly $50 on these three dishes, which is pretty stiff for lunch, no matter how good. But you do at least get what you pay for - well prepared and varied food with a range of dietary options well catered for.

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You can read about our previous visits to the Wesley Anne here and here. Since then only Where Adles Eats seems to have reviewed the Wesley Anne.

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Wesley Anne
250 High St, Northcote
9482 1333
veg entrées $6-13, mains $20-25
http://www.wesleyanne.com.au/

Accessibility: Pretty poor. There's a step or two coming in and then a pretty dim and crowded interior. The toilets are small and a bit awkward (though they are unisex).