Luna1878 Winter Night Market: the vegan perspective and some Melbourne love

Tonight I headed down to the Queen Vic Market for the Luna1878 Night Market. I’ve been pretty slack with the night markets in general, always meaning to go but when I remember, it’s already Thursday.

My mission was to spend my birthday cash on vegan goodies and locally produced items that really grabbed me. Over the years I’ve changed my shopping style from a wishy washy yeah that’ll do (which I applied to my wedding dress, I couldn’t be bothered trying on anything else after the second meringue), to only buying things I really, really need or love.

I was messing around with camera settings and towards the end, juggling things in both hands trying not to take blurry shots, so apologies for any crappiness that jumps out and smacks you in the nose.

The first stall I hung out at was MAD Products, chatting with Maxine Wren.  Maxine photographs Melbourne streetscapes and graffiti then, using locally sourced wood, turns them in to items like coasters, place mats, small furniture and pictures. For every Graffitiscape coaster and place mat sold, $1 and $3 respectively are donated to Youth Projects Hosier Lane.

I loved looking at the MAD coasters. Having lived away from my home town for a few years, I only really appreciated Melbourne once I was homesick. Now I love picking up little bits and pieces reflecting how much I love my city and if we ever live overseas again, I want to be able to take those bits and pieces with me.  So today I couldn’t go past this coaster for $10:

I love love love it. When I go in to the city, I try to make the time to walk down Hosier Lane. So my coaster will be used every time I make my tea, which is numerous times a day.

When I was going through my photos (and so many didn’t turn out, including the others I took of Maxine’s stall, arghgh) I realised that because I had been yapping away so much, I completely missed the box of place mats right in front of me! The first one was a picture of the exterior of the Royal Arcade, one of my favourite Melbourne buildings. I know some of my friends and relatives love images of Melbourne like I do, so these would make great gifts.

MAD Products has a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/MaxineArtisticDesigns/info  

 

Next up was The Decadent Desserts Company with their big table full of fudge.  I asked if the fudge was vegan, which meant I completely missed this sign:

EEEEEEeeeeee! It made me wonder how many people, like me, ask “is it vegan”.  Which of course is a fab thing! Check out the table of tasty delights:

I bought the larger packet of that Coffee & Walnut fudge you see, plus the smaller $4 snack pack of Chai Fudge, Coconut Fudge and of course the Peppermint. I’ve already eaten the coconut which was delicious. I sampled some of the ginger and that was great too. Another great gift idea!

The Decadent Desserts Company can be found at http://decadentdesserts.com.au/ 

 

Husband is a big bretzel man. We visited Germany a few times (cos we were living next door) and if we got separated I knew I just had to go and find the closest bretzel shop. I bought two tonight from Bretzel Biz. I gave the bag to Husband, then when I went to have some a few minutes later he’d already scoffed the first one and was going all lockjaw on the second.  I’d say he liked them very much, you should have seen him being all foamy mouth impatient when I was trying to take this photo.  This is a photo taken under extreme bretzel pressure:

I had some too (much to Husband’s horror) because YAY the bretzels are vegan. Only the plain ones though, the flavoured ones like salted caramel are not (I don’t think). The plain ones are $4 each.

Check out Bretzel Biz at http://www.facebook.com/Bretzel.biz

 

Signs like this are like the black holes of goodness.  They suck me right in. I love that vegan labeling is becoming so common. I’ve only been vegan for a couple of years but when I started out, I always had to ask if stuff was vegan, what are the ingredients etc etc. Chooh La La!

I really liked the almonds so I bought a bag for $5. I have to try really hard not to eat them all in one go. Mehhh, who am I kidding.  I’m going to eat them all now.

Chooh La La can be found at http://www.facebook.com/choohlala

Regretfully, I didn’t get the name of the stall I bought these Melbourne badges from ($2 each or $10 for six badges).  The badges are made from street directory maps. The Melbourne one is mine, the Sunshine one is for a friend who grew up there:

 

The Birdhouse Collection stall had some gorgeous wooden animal shaped magnets. I couldn’t decide which one to get.  So I thought what would Harry Potter do?

There were other lovely animal designs, including Australian animals, as well as hot air balloons and merry go rounds.

The Birdhouse Collection can be found here: http://www.thebirdhousecollection.com.au/

 

I’m a sucker for buying popcorn that is different than the plain old salted (and heavily burnt) break-your-teeth popcorn I make at home. I also wanted to buy something for the family and I knew they’d love this popcorn from The Steel Drum Popcorn Company. Seriously, you could take a lovely fire heated bath in this massive steel kettle and swish your salts around with the paddle:

The popcorn is cooked in oil and dusted with salt and sugar and is addictive. Naturally I wouldn’t hesitate to buy more.  I’ve forgotten how much it cost too:

 

I made sure I went to the night market hungry and I was really curious to see what vegan options there were. After passing row after row of heavily meaty places, I crossed my fingers and hoped that the ‘vegetarian’ on the Rice and Dice sign actually meant vegan.  AND IT DIIID:

Sooo I’m one of those eyes greedier than the stomach people. When I asked the friendly guy up there for something vegan, “I don’t mind what it is, as long as it’s vegan” (that’s me), I didn’t actually ask what the dishes were.  I just asked if I could get a combo of whatever was vegan. Maybe someone did mention what the dishes were, but my brain was all veganveganveganit’svegan:

Whatever it was, it was really good.  Next time I’ll pay more attention. I can’t find an online info source for Rice and Dice.  You just have to go and check them out yourself 🙂

 

Another sign that had me excited was this:

Now, as I’m not really a soup person, THIS is why I was excited:

SOUP IN A BREAD ROLL BOWL. I’m so getting that if I see this stall somewhere again.  I think they may have been called the Soup Factory.  I could see people standing around eating soup out of bread bowls and I wanted one too, despite being pretty full because SOUP IN BREAD ROLL BOWL. Except this was the queue:

No soup for you, Veganopoulous.

I spotted this sugarcane juice cart, which I am assuming is vegan, but ran out of time to check out:

 

There was a stage area with live music and a few of these tables (this photo was taken when I arrived at 5pm, there weren’t that many people but it really filled up soon after):

 

When I first arrived at 5pm, I was a bit surprised that the stalls seemed spread so far out but after speaking to some stall owners, I realised it was to accommodate crowds as the summer night market gets really crowded. As more people arrived I saw this was quite a good idea and I liked having the room to move between stalls. There were other stalls I would have liked more time to look at, like candles, handmade jewelry and essential oils.

My biggest gripe would have to be how smoky it was from the barbeque/grill stalls.  I found it really, really unfortunate that a vegetarian food stall was placed right next to a spit roast stall (I spoke to the person serving at the veg stall and they weren’t happy about the situation). I hope that the foods serving veg*n options can be moved to a different area. It was so smoky that I stank out the tram with my bbq smell– even at home now my clothes, bag and beanie still stink. As soon as I walked in the door the family commented I smelled like a bbq 😦

To veg*ns considering going, please be warned that there are spit roast/grill type food stalls.

 

The Luna1878 Winter Night Market will be held every Wednesday 5pm – 10pm until August 27th. More info can be found at http://www.qvm.com.au/night-market/luna1878-winter-night-market-2/

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Little Tudor Villages, Lord of The Fries and Big Lou’s jam donuts

Last week, we were in East Melbourne and took Arthur and DeeW for their first visit to the Fitzroy Gardens.  I went there often as a child and loved the model Tudor Village and Fairy Tree. I always had the urge to jump the fence and go and touch the houses and as an adult that impulse is still there (I really need to learn parkour so I can jump that waist height fence…)

 

It was the Queens Birthday public holiday and we figured Lord of the Fries would be open so we went to the Fitzroy outlet at for lunch.  Husband, Arthur and DeeW only ever order the fries plain with a bottle of tomato sauce:

I went for the Original LotF burger and because I was sitting down and not eating on the run like I usually do when I grab a LotF burger, I didn’t make a mess:

If you haven’t been to LotF before, they are meat-free.  If you’re vegan be sure to ask for a vegan burger so you get the vegan cheese.  They also have fries with lots of sauces, but again be sure to check which are vegan.  I’ve never had a hot dog from LotF.  Maybe next time because it was only after I ordered that I saw a big poster advertising their Coney hot dog: a sausage topped with con carne, mushrooms and onions. Yes, there will be a next time and soon I hope, before this Coney hot dog special is over:

Big Lou’s Donuts at 318 Brunswick Street has been mentioned in vegan circles as they advertise vegan donuts:

I thought this meant that all their donuts were vegan (custard Berliner!!!) but alas, only the made-to-order hot jam donuts are vegan.  That’s okay, because those are my favourite donuts. The donuts were really good, they don’t have that hot-jam-donut-from-a-donut-van taste and appearance but I think the donuts from the van at Preston Market still hold the number one spot for me.  Big Lou’s come second:

 

 

The past week has been pretty busy with one day rushing in to the next.  I’ll leave you with some photos of the Coburg Carnivale community event which was held yesterday.  I didn’t know it was on and only happened to see it because I had to stop off for some groceries!

 

Random eat-y bits and pieces

Back on the air after some internet silliness!  Like… going over your monthly usage quota and being punished by the speed of your connection slowing to snail’s pace.  Whoops.

I haven’t been keeping much of a record of what I’ve been eating.  Lots of smoothies and juices which kinda seem too boring to put on the blog. Here are some of the more less-boring ones.  A beet-berry-banana smoothie.  I don’t like the taste of beetroot in smoothies but this was okay.  The perfect thing to drink on… Prince’s birthday perhaps:

This one had fig, banana, greens, flax and other stuff I don’t remember now:

One of the nicer green juices:

a maple walnut banana smoothie.  I used maple extract:

I made the Lentil Taco Meat recipe from Isa Does It (using chipotle powder instead) though I added a can of black beans to the mix.  Then I decided to use up the cooked red quinoa I’d discovered in the freezer so I threw that in too, along with some mushrooms.  I served it up in a bowl with baby spinach, lettuce, tomato, avocado all squirted with a little lime juice.  This is one of my favourite bowls:

Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe posted a great nut roast recipe that uses buckwheat, one of my favourite ingredients to use.  Johanna’s recipe is also up on Ricki Heller’s awesome site. My attempt could have been a disaster because when I was simmering the buckwheat groats, I forgot about them.  The simmer time was 10-12 minutes.  I remembered them an hour later.  They were pretty mooshy by that time but not very burnt on the bottom of the pot which was a surprise and a relief!  Blurry photos, argh:

I made this fab chocolate chip cookie wedges recipe by Joann from Woman in Real Life.  In true Veganopoulos style, after I started the recipe I realised I didn’t have the full amount of sugar so I had to use less but it turned out great regardless.  This was a belated Valentine’s Day treat for the family:

Chocolate chip biscuits:

We had dinner at Loving Hut in Northcote again.  Southern fried ‘chicken’ and the homemade curry equals yumz:

aaaaaand Husband and I went to Loving Hut in Richmond.  I got my usual, which is the veg curry with tofu puffs.  Husband got the spring rolls:

I over roasted some canned chickpeas with nooch for Arthur:

Possibly my favourite kale dish is this cheezy chickpeas and kale dish from Fannetastic Food.  I added in some leftover roasted sweet potato:

Husband and I received these lovely cherry truffles with the added bonus of it appearing quite vegan:

Now, how many of you know how to fold a fitted sheet nicely?  I’ve been watching YouTube clips on how to do it but nope, mine turn out all horrible and I end up totally frustrated.  None of those pretty smooth corners for me.

Last weekend we went to the Moonee Valley Festival.  I did a quick run past the food stalls and there didn’t appear to be anything vegan.  If there were, I wouldn’t have waited as the queues were too long:

DeeW made a seed ball and planted it at home:

I lost $10 on this…

There were lots of lost balloons in the air:

I was glad to be home again.  I like visiting these community festivals but after a while I need to get out of there:

I found this sight quite amusing:

Excellent news is that tomorrow is the last day of summer!  Summer is my least favourite season so I’m not exactly sorry to see it go.  I have some plans for autumn and this year I hope I’ll stick to them!

Week 3 Meal Planning: the Heat Wave + Angelina Ballerina + Lego Show version

This past week Melbourne has suffered through a heat wave with temps over 40C. I think some horrible-hot-weather records were broken, like hottest consecutive days in over one hundred years or something. Stinky stinky stinking hot. To give you an idea, the temperature here in Melbourne reached 44C twice. That’s 111.2F. I really dislike hot weather. Give me autmumn-winter any day! I was sooo happy when this heat wave ended, as you can probably imagine! It’s nice and cool as we speak, with a decent temp of 24C (75.2F) today.

Because it was so hot, I chose meals that wouldn’t involve the oven. However because it was so hot, I fell in to full on Can’t Be Bothered Because It’s Too Hot mode.

– I made the Thai Style Yellow Curry from Veganissimo! for myself. This made about four or five meal size serves for me, with rice:

– 43 degress, urgh. Arthur and DeeW asked for rye toast for breakfast. I had a smoothie with frozen banana, almonds, pumpkin seeds, hemp protein and lucuma:

– one of my favourite smoothies is quite simple: frozen banana, almonds, cinnamon, soy milk, hemp protein:

– another favourite smoothie has frozen banana, raw cacao, soy milk and tahini. I loooove chocolate and tahini:

– I love chocolate with tahini so much that I mix with with raw cacao powder and maple syrup to make a spread:

– I made the Ancho Lentil meat from Isa Does It, though I used chipotle powder instead of ancho as I didn’t have ancho. I had this in a burrito with lettuce, corn and home made guacamole. I had quite a few of these during the week:

– I made some strawberry and banana soft serve in my blender. Not the Yonanas, because when I’d frozen my strawberries I had forgotten to take the leaves off and I think you have to have all the stem and leaves off if you use the Yonanas:

– I used the leftovers to make these icy poles (popsicles, in other parts of the world):

– I made the Ranch Salad with Potatoes and Chickpeas from Isa Does It.  More yummmz and I used kale for my leafy greens (which is not in the recipe):

– I consider myself lucky to have found firm, cheap mangoes.  They’re usually so expensive:

Some time ago, I purchased tickets for DeeW and I to see the Angelina Ballerina stage musical.  Or as they say, Mousical.  Har har. Of all days, the temp was 44C.  I had booked tickets for the 10:30am show and Husband kindly offered to drive us in, hang around the city with Arthur for an hour (eating) and then picking us up right outside the Gallery and driving home.  It was such a relief not to have to catch public transport there and back in the heat. I loved this little plaque on the seat in front of me:

The curtain:

DeeW loved the performance.  Me?  Welllll the dancing bits were all out of unison, legs not being extended properly, the lifts not executed cleanly.  Does that make me sound like I know what I’m talking about?  It’s what they used to say on season one of So You Think You Can Dance Australia.  I’d like to say one of the dancers committed the greatest sin of touching the floor DURING AN ARABESQUE.  But there were no arabesques that I recall.  Still, the kids loved it all though I never understand why there has to be parts where the main character is really upset and crying.  Because around me, DeeW and other kids were really upset.  And some may argue kids have to learn blah blah blah lessons in life blah blah.  But ya know, they’re going to learn those lessons from family and life.  Not really from their favourite character, in a live show with all those distractions, having a meltdown (by the way, I really can’t stand the tv show.  But DeeW loves ballet):

Currently in Melbourne we have the Play Me I’m Yours ‘exhibition’ going on.  Twenty four pianos are on the street around the city and you can go and play them:

On Saturday, we went to the Brickvention Lego show.  I blogged about last year’s visit.  The amount of work people put in to their creations is staggering. There were a few people in costume walking around:

I loved this.  It’s referencing the 007 exhibition on at the Museum:

Vintage Lego from when I was young:

Star Wars is always popular:

There were longer tables set up with trains that ran around the edges:

Sydney Op… you know what this is!

And that’s it!  It’s been quiet here on the blog front because in the hot weather, the last thing I want to do is be on my computer in the hot study.  This week, I think I’ll just chill out and enjoy the better weather 🙂

A short birthday holiday: Inverloch and Phillip Island

This past week saw us take off on an early ‘summer’ holiday.  Early, because we like to go on holidays when school kids are still in school, so holiday venues and tourist spots are not crowded.  And ‘summer’ there is in quotes because the night before we left, I checked weather forecasts, unpacked most of the summer gear and replaced it with winter clothing.  Because we saw this weather most of the time we were away:

The drive there had lots of this:

DeeW has turned six and her birthday was on the second day of our holiday.  A couple of days before we’d ordered a cake from Mister Nice Guy’s Bake Shop and ate it with family and packed the leftovers.  Delicious!

We received some discount specials on accommodation in Inverloch and Phillip Island so when we booked them over a month ago, we assumed we’d have some nice warm weather and hang out at the beach swimming.  Ha! Regardless, they’re both great holiday spots.  Here was our view from our fancy pants (as in, we got a big fat discount) cabin in Inverloch:

The cabin, before we messed it up.  I took care to enjoy this one, because our cabin in Phillip Island was kinda divey in comparison:

We walked along the beaches admiring shells and rock formations:

We went to the shell museum which had a fantastic collection and good information for kids and adults alike:

Pretty green shells!

I found a store called Green Heart Organics.  Although not vegan, there were a lot of products you’d find in many vegan kitchens such as my own:

Nearby were these tile mosaics:

We drove up to Korumburra to visit Coal Creek Community Park and Museum, which showcases life from the 1870s to the 1920s after coal was discovered in the region.  Not everything was open (we missed out on a train ride) but there was still much to see and learn.  Most of the staff are volunteers.  Photo time!

The spinners room.  I felt a bit embarrassed taking a photo of the two women in period costume because I was talking to them and felt awkward doing the whole “say, can I take a photo?” thing, even though they have a million photos taken:

I wanted to steal this dear little housey:

Shoes!

Truly vintage hair styling tools:

The music school:

The general store, where I had a lovely conversation with the woman there.  She was very complimentary of the homeschool kids that come in which was fantastic to hear.  Too often we get a lot of silly comments, so when people in an education role are very positive and tell you how much they enjoy working with the home ed kids, it’s very special:

 

DeeW made a friend:

Inside the Pig and Whistle Cafe (no vegan options unfortunately, but I didn’t expect anything different as such places rarely have vegan food):

As usual, I walk around taking photos of doors, wood paneling and windows:

From Inverloch, we drove to Phillip Island.  Phillip Island is famous for the penguin parade, motor sports events, Australia’s largest fur seal colony as well as beaches and being a great holiday spot in general.  We only had two days there,which is hardly any time at all.  We did go to the penguin parade which was pretty good, though you are not allowed to take any photos, flash or not, so unfortunately I don’t have any to share with you. Here’s an image from the official Phillip Island tourism website (clicking on the image will take you there):

We walked along the beaches, though it was quite cold so we didn’t stay there long:

Amaze’n Things has a maze, mini golf, puzzles, vertical drop slide and whacky zany rooms.  There was the anti gravity room, which had a warning sign about possibly feeling nauseous.  I felt nauseous alright.  I had to get out of there as I get motion sickness easily.  Arthur and DeeW liked the big tap outside.  I would quite happily put something like this on my house, but more so if it was a teapot pouring:

Arthur and DeeW said their favourite place was the Phillip Island Panny Chocolate Factory.  What’s not to love about free samples, and printing out squiggles of (non-vegan) chocolate that you can eat? Husband liked it too.  Me, I tend to be pretty mehhh about these kinds of places but had to admit it was better than I expected.  These games, where you could win these wooden balls then exchange them for chocolate, were pretty addictive:

Not to be outdone, I bought myself vegan dark peppermint chocolate:

Some old advertisements for chocolate.  The photos are larger so you can read the print.  Even if you can’t be bothered, just remember that MOTHER IS THE QUARTERMASTER– THE SUPREME AUTHORITY OVER RATIONS:

On the way back to Melbourne, we stopped off at the Wonthaggi State Coal Mine and went on the underground tour.  This was really interesting, just when you think you know all about the horrible conditions miners had to work in, you learn some new information that makes you realise it was worse than you previously thought:

We visited Cobber the pit pony, who hadn’t done a day’s work in his life apparently:

Before we left home, I had prepared a lot of meals for myself in anticipation of zero vegan dining options.  Here’s a selection of What I Ate.

Beefy Asparagus Stir Fry from Isa Does It.  I used salt-and-peppered soy chunks:

Also from Isa Does It, the Roasted Vegetable Romesco Sandwich:

Pasta with walnut mince made with walnuts, olive oil, tamari and oregano, mixed in with some tofu bacon and the leftover romesco sauce:

I brought along a supply of muffins made with kamut flour and some biscuits:

I took my blender along so I could keep a smoothie in the car during the day.  I only made two smoothies.  Next time, no blender:

I had made some blueberry waffles at home and frozen them for the holiday:

In Inverloch we had pizza dinner for DeeW’s birthday.  The pizza bases were vegan so I got myself a vegie-minus-cheese pizza.  Vegan pizzas like this from standard pizza joints tend to be bland, but this pizza joint on A’Beckett Steet (it might have been called The Pizza Pasta Place, with a large eat-in area) poured some minced garlic over the top which was a tasty touch:

Sausage sizzle, vegan style:

I made myself a Fry’s burger with some kale and roasted red peppers:

In Phillip Island I was happy to find Cowes Indian restaurant, located at 134 Thompson Avenue in Cowes.  I went in and asked if their vegetarian dishes were vegan and the friendly fellow there said they could make up whatever I liked.  I got the Baingan Masala (eggplant cooked with, peas, onions and tomatoes) with a serving of coconut rice and plain roti.  The leftovers were eaten for breakfast:

My meal was lovely, I ate there on my own while Husband, Arthur and DeeW sat across the road in the pizza parlour.  Bliss!

I found some gelato that appeared vegan when I checked the ingredients list:

I also had another vegan pizza from Jessie’s Pizza.  The chap at the counter was very friendly and told me what the bases were made from and he would use different gloves to make my pizza.  When he brought it out to me he said he used a new pizza cutter.  That’s big to me, lots of places don’t understand why you don’t want hands or cutters that have touched animal products to touch your food:

One big thing I realised on this family holiday was that Mum wasn’t really on a holiday.  Mum often still has to wash up, cook, clean, deal with arguing children, make sure everyone has jackets and water bottles and so on.  Arthur, DeeW and Husband are very forgetful about such things.  I knew there were some op shops in Cowes so I said to Husband see you all later, I’m going to the op shops.  From the Rotary op shop I bought some old glass jars, a round silicone cake tin and some books:

I found this tennis set in an antiques and collectables store and bought it for my brother in law for Christmas.  He likes tea with biscuits and cake so I think this will suit him fine:

For myself, I bought this magazine rack from another collectables store.  I think I’ll put my library books in there:

I bought this carnival glass bowl in a lovely collectables shop in Korumburra which unfortunately is closing down. All stock was discounted.  There was soooo much I wanted but I knew I really wanted a new fruit bowl so this is what I chose:

As nice as it is to get away on a short break, I am really happy to be home!  I have about six loads of washing to get done and I am determined more than ever that we will follow the One Bag approach to travelling light when we go on our big dream trip– you only pack one carry on bag.  No checked luggage!  We took a big suitcase on this holiday and I said to Husband there is NO WAY I am taking suitcases on an overseas holiday.  My sister and brother in law went on a ten week Europe/US adventure following One Bag advice and they said it was the best thing ever and will never go back to checked luggage.  These days, with easy dry crease free travel clothing and garments by companies like ScottEVest, it’s not difficult.

Okay, speaking of all that washing, I best get to it.  I have all this washing and folding plus all the other travel bits and pieces to put away.  Which often involves sorting through brochures I picked up, wondering why on earth I grabbed them in the first place!