Valentine’s Day tasty delights

Ah, Valentine’s Day.   Not something I’m personally in to, but DeeW was quite excited.  She made a card for me, then asked me to write “Dear Mummy, Happy Valentine’s Day, love from DeeW”.  I finished writing, she folded it up and proudly exclaimed “look!  I made you a card!”

I had planned on baking something in a heart shaped tin, or making something in my heart shaped moulds but in the end Husband and I thought we would have a special food day.  In other words, Mum Hasn’t Been Organised Enough To Prepare Stuff.  First stop in the morning was Mister Nice Guy’s Bake Shop. I tried the mini raw strawberry shortcake and it was fantastically good.  This is the first time I’ve tried one of the raw offerings from the bake shop and it did not disappoint:

More goodies on display:

For dinner, we headed off to Eat Fresh Pizza at 44 Raleigh Road in Maribyrnong.  I got myself a vegan gourmet veggie pizza, with capsicum, roast pumpkin and eggplant.  Major yum here too:

My Valentine’s present to myself, Husband and the kids magically appeared earlier in the week.  I had some things to drop off at an op shop and to my delight there was a big “50% off everything” sign on the window.  I scored this 1970s Mastermind set, just like the one I had growing up.  Not only that, but this I am sure is unused as the scoring pegs were still in a sealed bag and the coloured pegs were in a bag (non-sealed).  For $2.50!!!

Note the hands. BWAHAHA!

I love my readers! MWAAAA!

Eat Fresh Pizza, Maribyrnong

Vegan pizza is one of those things where I’d probably only ever eat it as a gourmet style pizza in a vegan establishment, or at home, because I can be pretty much assured that either of those options would be really tasty and full of flavour.  In my experience, the vegan (well, vegetarian-minus-cheese) pizzas at regular pizza joints are bland and blergh.

A vegan friend recently recommended Eat Fresh Pizza in Maribyrnong.  Now, when a regular suburban kind of pizza joint is advertising vegan pizza in addition to regular omni pizzas, that’s one place I want to check out.  And so we checked it out for dinner tonight.  After ordering my ‘vegetarian pizza minus cheese’ without looking at the menu, I browsed the menu and saw they have options for vegan ham and salami, which like the vegan cheese, incur an extra charge.  Doh!  I could have ordered something more omnivore style, with the vegan hams instead.  Live and learn!  I had just assumed the only vegan option would be whatever comes on a vegetarian pizza.

Still, my pizza was quite nice and definitely not bland.  I bought enough so I could have leftovers as tomorrow is a busy day and I’d like something I can quickly heat up for lunch.  Okay, breakfast:

There were a few tables inside and a window bench. Naturally, I forgot to take a photo of the outside.  It’s a white shop front with a car parking lot next to it (that’s where we parked).

Eat Fresh Pizza is located at 44 Raleigh Road, Maribyrnong.  Not too far from Highpoint shopping centre.  http://www.eatfreshpizza.com.au/index.html  Their Facebook page is here. If you’re not familiar with Maribyrnong, it’s about a five minute drive from Mister Nice Guy’s Bake Shop 🙂

Lunch at Salt n Pepper Indian Cuisine, Highpoint

Today Husband and I had to run some errands at Highpoint Shopping Centre (a massive mall in the suburb of Maribyrnong) before heading elsewhere for more errands.  As we didn’t know when we’d be able to eat next, we took a quick look around the food court.  I don’t know what some of you guys call food courts where you live.  Food hall?  Basically it’s that part of the mall where you find all the food places and a bunch of seating.

Anyway, I spied a shop selling Indian food and tried my luck there as Indian places are the only ones who seem to offer good vegan fare in food courts.  So I did my usual “do you have any dishes that don’t have egg or dairy or anything from an animal?” and the friendly woman behind the counter said “you mean vegan?” and proceeded to explain four vegan dishes.  I went for a veggie pakora plus a simple dhal and an eggplant potato curry with rice for around $9:

My meal was tasty, though I would have preferred a little more spice.  The pakora was good too.  I love Indian food and if I visit the Highpoint food court again I’ll go straight to Salt n Pepper and not bother looking for other vegan options.

Salt n Pepper Indian Cuisine is located at the post office end of Highpoint.  Or the RACV end.  Or the Howard’s Storage World end.