The Red Centre

October 4-6, 2014

My job led me to Alice Springs earlier this month. Michael and I have never before visited Australia's red centre and we took this as an incentive to book some leave and join a three-day mini-bus tour of hiking, camping and swatting at flies. The tour included all the food we needed, though we did relish the odd roadhouse snack.

Meals were big and often barbecue based - stir-fried noodles and veges, burritos wrapped in tortillas steamed in their plastic by the scorching sun, bushmeat burgers and steaks. Our guide thoughtfully supplied several different mock alternatives for us two vegos, while our international travelling companions were introduced to lamingtons, damper cooked in the coals and - much to one daring Californian's ultimate disgust - Vegemite. We established toasted marshmallows as a common cuisine.

Conditions were profoundly dry and the temperature soared beyond 40 degrees one afternoon. Water was much more important than food. It tasted weirder and weirder as we travelled away from Alice Springs, reminding me of olive brine around Kings Creek Station. Weird or warm, we still drank litres of it each day. A refrigerated bottle of iced tea from a service station was the greatest luxury I could imagine.

For all that, we weren't in it for the food. It simply sustained us long enough to take in Atilla, Uluru, and Kata Tjuta. These red rocks are truly spectacular. Here's a slideshow summarising what we saw.

El Chino II

Edit 03/01/2018: El Chino is now closed, and has been replaced by Tootsie Roller.

September 27, 2014

I've been reluctantly working through my recent few weekends, but on Saturday evening I took a break for a leisurely cycle through the inner north with Michael, with dinner at El Chino as our goal. I'm surprised that this cute cafe has been the subject of so few blog posts but regardless, it runs a busy service on a Saturday night.

El Chino are BYO and in addition to the usual beer and wine corkage fees, they offer a mojito deal - you BYO the rum and they'll do the rest. We were happy to skip the alcohol and shared a slushy lime granita with a single garnishing mint leaf ($4.50).

While the mains and specials were mostly meat focused, we still had some options to peruse: empanadas, tall yet compact bowls of nachos, a vego burrito and three varieties of taco. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are well marked and though there are supposedly 'VG's listed for vegans, I suspect they're missing from some genuinely vegan menu items (take our savoury order here, for example). We grazed across the menu by ordering the Fiesta ($28), a meal for two centred around a cast iron pot.

Lined with a cabbage leaf, the pot offered pickled nopales cactus, roasted mushrooms and purple cabbage. We mixed and matched them with a fresh and finely minced salsa Mexicana and a fruity roasted salsa tatemada.

We mopped up our potted foods with five white and blue corn tortillas (then paid $4 for four more), and nibbled at some warmly spiced Mexican rice and black beans.

We thought we'd best give their grilled tofu side ($4.50) a shot too - it didn't have any noticeable flavour or marinade, but it made for nice DIY tacos with the salsa and other fixings. (I noticed later that we were also charged for a side of guacamole that was neither ordered nor served.)

As the room filled up and our finished dishes remained on the table, we had time to build up an appetite for dessert. In spite of the demands on his attention, our server generously took a moment to step us through our options. My mayordomo Mexican hot chocolate was underwhelming - the chocolate syrup lodged unmixed in the bottom of the cup, and the cinnamon quill provided only the barest hint of extra spice.

El Chino were all out of the tres leches sponge cake I'd been looking forward to but the caramel flan ($7.80) was a lovely alternative; the smooth custard and smoky hint of almost-but-not-quite burnt caramel broken up with candied hibiscus flowers and fresh strawberry.

Our experience at El Chino had its flaws, but they didn't sour our night. The cafe is a lovely setting for a quiet meal for two (or a party in the courtyard, from what we witnessed), and offers an unusually thoughtful selection of non-alcoholic drinks and desserts in addition to reliable main meals.

____________

You can read about our breakfast at El Chino here. El Chino is not getting the blog attention that it deserves; since that post I've only seen it recommended on Poppet's Window and WOO FOOD.

____________

El Chino
214 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North
9078 7974
menu: dinner, banquets & sides, beverages & desserts
http://www.elchino.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a small step as you enter and a clear corridor to the counter (which we've witnessed another customer maneuver a two-seater pram through), but the tables are quite crowded inside. We ordered at the table and paid at a low counter. We didn't explore the courtyard or visit the toilets.

Nhu Lan

Update 17/06/2023: Nhu Lan has now closed.

September 21, 2014

It's hard to go past a good vegetarian banh mi - we've had some luck with a seitan-based version at Tan Truc Giang in Footscray and the mock-pork variety at Fina's, and have incorporated a Vegan Dad-inspired version into our home cooking roster. Still, we're always on the lookout for more, so we were pretty excited when Olaf left us a comment recommending Nhu Lan in Richmond. We took advantage of a sunny Sunday afternoon to go and check it out (as an aside: we love it when people recommend place or recipes to us - please do leave a comment here or chase us up on Facebook or Twitter).

Nhu Lan is a classic Vietnamese bakery - no fuss, no chit chat, just speedy service, made to order sandwiches and a decent range of sweet stuff and pastries. It's all pretty pork heavy, but the $4.50 tofu roll is clearly marked on the menu. Vegans will need to be clear that they don't want butter or mayonnaise, but the rest of the fillings are pretty straightforward: grated carrot, slivers of cucumber, coriander, chilli and tofu.

Unlike our Fina's and Tan Truc Giang experiences, this isn't really trying to mimic the pork roll - the tofu is lightly battered rectangles with a slightly sweet marinade. The chilli provides the necessary bite and the fresh, crunchy roll is top notch. I think I still favour the seitan-based version, but this is a cheap, easy and delicious lunch in Richmond if you don't have time for a sit down meal at Fina's or Thanh Nga 9.

____________

It seems as though the Footscray branch of Nhu Lan is popular with bloggers, but not many have reviewed the Richmond one - Ministry of Gluttony and teenagefoodie weren't wowed, while chasing a plate, krapow  and Swimming in Coffee were much more enthused.

____________

 

Nhu Lan Bakery
152 Victoria Street, Richmond
9429 5545
menu

Accessibility: There's a small step up as you enter and the interior is pretty crowded (at least when they're busy). There's not really anywhere to sit. You order and pay at a high counter.

Peanut butter & jelly icecream

September 20-21, 2014

I have temporary custody of  K's The Vegan Scoop cookbook, a nice motivator to clear some freezer space and churn some icecream. This book has all the American standards and extends itself towards the fruits and flavours of Asia and the Caribbean as well. Most of the creamy recipes start with a base of soy milk and soy creamer, which doesn't exactly appeal to me, but I'm happy to play around with other non-dairy milks.

I started out with the peanut butter and flaxseed recipe and a whole lot of curiosity, but it all went into the bin before even reaching the icecream churner. I was willing to go with the way the full cup of ground flaxseeds gelled up the texture but I couldn't countenance their bitterness.

Next I stuck with the peanut butter theme but tried a trustier pairing with American jelly (or berry and rhubarb jam, in my case). This 'custard' whipped to unprecedented heights in my churner, and my anticipation with it. This was a hint it'd freeze pillowy-soft. Strangely it ended up dense and rock-hard, and even given 40 minutes resting time on the bench it's firm and scoops flakily. (That flakiness seems to be the hallmark of coconut cream, which was not in the original recipe.)

This icecream is damn lucky that it tastes good. I'll contemplate a new, improved formulation as I hack my way through it.

Peanut butter & jelly icecream
(adapted from a recipe in Wheeler Del Torro's The Vegan Scoop)

400mL can coconut cream
3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup berry jam
generous pinch of salt

In a medium-large saucepan, mix together the coconut cream, almond milk, soy milk, peanut butter and brown sugar over low-medium heat. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring occasionally. When it's all smooth and well mixed and started boiling, take it off the heat to cool down a little. Stir in the vanilla and salt then refrigerate the mixture until very cold, at least 4 hours.

Churn the peanut butter mixture in an icecream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Drop generous spatulas-full of the churned icecream into a plastic storage container and drop teaspoons-full of jam in among the icecream. Freeze the icecream for at least two hours before scooping and serving.

Mighty Boy

15/06/2023: Mighty Boy is now closed.

August 29, September 16 & 19, 2014

I was quite excited when Mighty Boy opened across the road from work - it was replacing a fairly standard sandwich-and-salad place (whose salads all seemed to have chicken in them) and promised something a bit more interesting for lunch. I headed over with a gang of colleagues on the day they opened only to experience the definitive first day teething problems: most of us got the wrong dish, the salads came out minus key ingredients, everything took an age - it wasn't a great success. On the upside, the food seemed solid and the prices were reasonable, so I figured I'd give them a few weeks and then go back for a blogging trip. I'm glad I did. They've got everything working now - the food arrives corectly  and quickly, and the staff all seem to know what's going on. Most of these photos are phone pics - apologies for the quality.

It's a breakfast and lunch place - the brekkies are pretty standard Fitzroy dishes (baked eggs $14, smashed avo $11, etc), while the lunch menu is Thai inspired and a bit more interesting. On my first visit I sampled the pad thai noodles with tofu, spring onions, bean sprouts, lime, chilli, coriander and egg ($12).

This was just okay - they're generous with the tofu, and the noodles are cooked nicely, but the whole dish is a little on the bland side. Luckily they offer up a quintet of chilli-based condiments to kick things up a notch (sambal, chilli flakes, plus two kinds of pickled chillies and sriracha).

On my second visit I grabbed takeaway - a $6 serve of two rice paper wraps with crispy tofu and vermicelli noodles, cucumber, house-pickled carrot and cabbage.

These are incredibly good and incredibly good value - two fresh little tubes of goodness with flavour bursting out of them. It's a small lunch but it's just about the cheapest option on Gertrude Street.

On my final visit I settled in for a proper lunch, starting off with a freshly blended lychee, lime, mint and pineapple juice ($8). It's delicious, but it costs more than the rice paper wraps, so maybe save it up for a special occasion.

To accompany the drink, I went with the tofu roti wrap (tofu with cucumber, mint, tomatoes, onion, sweet chilli dressing and lime on a roti base, $10). When I first tried one of these it was an actual wrap (see Fitzroyalty's post for an example) but they seem to have shifted to a more open, deconstructed version. The fillings are great though - beautifully marinated and fried tofu strips, lots of fresh veggies and herbs and the same selection of condiments I enthused about earlier. And of course you get the added bonus of your wrap being made of roti.

I'm really enjoying what Mighty Boy brings to the western end of Gertrude Street - it probably won't take the place of Sonido in my heart, but almost nothing would. Still, it's an excellent addition to the neighbourhood and it's already snuck into my regular lunch rotation.

____________

Mighty Boy has already been favourably reviewed by Fitzroyalty and A Melbournite.

____________

 

Mighty Boy
59-61 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
9419 3686
menu: food, drinks
facebook page

Accessibility: Mighty Boy has a flat entryway and a reasonably spacious interior. You order at the table and pay at a high counter. I haven't visited the toilets.