Veggie Bites

This was a dessert and coffee experience after seeing Cirque du Chaser with some friends. We were a little wary of doing this as last time this group of people tried to get dessert, it ended in disaster. This time however, it was much better! We ordered a variety of desserts, banana crepes, sticky date pudding, orange and poppy seed cake and a giant cookie. One of my friends is now on a wheat/gluten free diet and she was told that the chocolate mud cake was gluten free – we all doubted this, so she simply ordered peppermint tea – which came with real leaves in it (no tea bag this time!), although she did comment it was more spearmint than peppermint. The rest of us ordered hot chocolates and iced coffee. The waitress was a little enthusiastic and odd, but we all got the desserts we wanted… The sticky date pudding was pretty good, but I am not sure that the sauce on top of it was heated up enough as mine was still a little gluggy. The banana crepes looked pretty good and the sauce was nice and caramel-y, Martin wasn’t happy that I wanted to eat all of his sauce though!

Well, in my last review of Gus’s I said that I would order the lentil burger again, and I did! It really is a great burger! It was a little easier to eat this time, although given that it always comes slathered in sweet chilli sauce, it does get a little sticky. My friend ordered the veggie nachos – another one of my favourites from here, however she picked out all the jalapeno chillis – which are in my opinion the best bits! I also ordered a fresh juice which was pineapple and passionfruit mixed with something fizzy – lemonade or soda water. It was quite delicious, but it took a long time to arrive – we had almost finished eating by the time it arrived.

I drove to Goulburn to meet Martin to go to see Jodi Martin play at the Goulburn Club, since we missed seeing her in Canberra while we were overseas. It ended up a little later than we expected, so we were in a bit of a hurry to eat some dinner, therefore we didn’t look very hard for something exciting to eat. We have eaten here before, so we knew they had a decent variety of veggie meals on the menu (although you have to look for them), and that their service is fairly quick. Since I had snacked prior to leaving home, I ordered the Greek salad – light and quick and easy. Martin opted for the mushroom crepe which came with a sort of white/bechemel sauce all over it, and we shared a garlic bread. The food here is ok. Nothing overly exciting, though… Next time we are in Goulburn, I think we might look for something a little more exciting… oh and by the way, Jodi Martin was great, as was her special guest Karl Broadie!

A friend and I had originally planned to eat at Café Essen, However, it was raining and crowded and there was not a table to be seen, so we grabbed the first one we found in the near proximity and that happened to be at Milk & Honey! I didn’t really know what to eat, nothing on the menu really grabbed my attention in that “full-on, you know you want to eat me kind of way”! Every dish had something in it that I either didn’t like or didn’t feel like. I finally settled on the spinach fettuccine that came with spinach, tomatoes and white beans. I was kind of hoping that these would be the yellow “butter bean” variety, but they were of the kidney bean variety instead. It wasn’t a bad dish, a little bland and incredibly large – I didn’t finish it all. My friend had the calamari and I heard no complaints. I also had a banana smoothie, although, given it was a cold wet day, I soon regretted not ordering a hot chocolate instead. Oh well, that is what happens when you end up running a little late for a lunch date!

We were hungry after braving the rough seas for a dolphin cruise, and pizza seemed like a good option. We were a little confused about sitting and ordering since there were a number of signs that seemed to contradict each other as well as what the staff said. Eventually we figured out that we should sit, then go order at the counter. We ordered a garlic bread and a half margarita half herbivore pizza and a couple of drinks. The drinks were served in the cans, without glasses and only 1 straw between us – interesting! When the plates were brought out, one was dirty and Martin had to return it to the counter and request another. The garlic bread was the standard sort – similar to the kind you get from fast food pizza places, which was a little disappointing. The pizza had a good crust and was absolutely smothered in cheese which made the tomato on the margarita half incredibly hot. On the whole, the pizza was ok – not outstanding. And I am not sure the whole thing was worth the 10% surcharge on Sundays!

We were going to get some take away from an Indian restaurant, but it was closed, so we headed out to see what was open. I thought this place looked a little odd (sort of commercial and not really traditional) so I guess I didn’t really expect great food… which was what we got! We started with the bruschetta and a greek salad – both of which were great, but I have to say the salad was exceptional… full of feta and really, really good olives! I didn’t even miss the tomato! There were a number of veggie mains on the menu, however we both opted for other dishes without the meat – which they were happy to do for us. I had the spaghetti arrabiatta (yes, again!!) and Martin had the penne diavola. Both dishes came with optional chilli and we were asked how hot we would like it. Realising later that it was a stupid thing to say, I said ‘as hot as it comes’ meaning that the chef should decide and I would eat it as it comes with chilli in it – after I said it I realised that it was probably interpreted as ‘make it really hot!’. Anyway, it was incredibly delicious, and it was definitely one of the most spicy arrabiattas that I have ever eaten! Martin was also very impressed with his dish, commenting that the pasta was just another one of the ingredients instead of the main thing in the dish… We washed it all down with a large glass of Cockfighters Ghost Merlot each and it complemented the meal very well! The serves were huge, but I saw another table eating some very delicious looking desserts, so we decided to check the menu. After much discussion about the Toblerone Chocolate Mousse, we finally agreed on the profiteroles filled with Grand Marnier cream to share… and they were very, very good… and excellent finish to an excellent meal… If I were to go back to Nelson Bay, then I would definitely eat here again…

We weren’t sure that we were going to be able to eat in Nelson Bay, but we figured Thai had to be a good option. They did have a reasonable selection of veggie dishes on the menu and from those we chose spring rolls, green curry and tofu with cashew nuts. Martin loved the green curry – which surprised me a little because it was incredibly creamy. The tofu with cashew nuts was just great – a great blend of flavours and turned out to be quite a large serving… The Cockfighters Ghost chardonnay that we drank with the meal was also fantastic and complimented all the food wonderfully… We were so full we couldn’t fit in any dessert – not a bad sign!

We don’t eat here often. But we were being good residents and attending a meeting, so we thought we would have dinner here first. The menu is mainly meat based, but there are a few veggie options and of course the salad bar. The veggie options consist of stir fry, laksa and veggie strudel. We have had all of these at some point and they are a bit hit and miss, but they have never been outstanding. We usually just go with the salad bar, which is pretty standard and has at least one veggie soup, one veggie pasta sauce and an assortment of salad stuff. This time I also wanted a plate of roast vegetables of the day, which is listed on the specials menu, but isn’t actually a dish. But they were accommodating and only charged the same price as a plate of chips. The food is ok, if you like salad bars or meaty bistro type food. Personally I would prefer to eat something a little more exciting!

I love Sammy’s – it is great Asian food really, really fast! Once when we ate here we ordered spring rolls and they were on the table within about 3 minutes – I kid you not! There are a few favourite dishes that we tend to order here all the time which are – sizzling fried bean curd with Chinese broccoli and needle mushrooms and stir fried green pepper with dry bean curd and chilli bean sauce. I love both of these dishes, although I admit that I don’t usually eat the ‘freaky’ mushrooms! We have also previously had the mixed Chinese veggies with fried bean curd but found that a little bland. A word of warning, though, if you are vegetarian and eating here – only order things from the vegetarian section of the menu – we once discovered that the vegetable curry is not actually just a vegetable curry – it came with chicken in it! Well worth checking out though – the vegetarian dishes are great!

We had an $80 gift voucher from here that had to be used up and since my parents were down, we thought that we would be able to spend at least $80 on dinner with them! Since it was a Saturday night, we rang and booked a table and I think it was a good thing that we did – they were incredibly busy. In fact, the tables were so close together that it was impossible to get past in some places once people were sitting at them… However, I digress! I have heard lots of good things about this place – the main thing is that they do amazing breakfasts – so given the quality of the dinner, I think we will go back and check it out. My mum decided that sizzling prawns were the way to go entree wise, so the rest of us shared a dip plate and the garlic and parmesan damper (from the specials board). The damper was delicious, as were the dips. The dips were a little unusual as it wasn’t your standard hummous, eggplant and beetroot. Well, there was beetroot, but there was also mushroom and something that we think was corn – absolutely yummy. And they came with a giant basket of bread which we couldn’t finish. We all ordered vegetarian risotto (some with chicken for the meat eaters) for our mains. The waitress recommended entree sizes since we had ordered entrees and we were glad that she did – they were still quite large. There are 2 types of vegetarian risotto on the menu – one with pumpkin and peas (which Martin had), and the other with tomato and spinach (which I had) and which was kind of like a risotto with a pasta sauce stirred through it. It was good, the flavours were subtle, but it was definitely good. This was all washed down with a nice bottle of wine, and we were so full that we could not even consider desert! There were a couple of things that were a little dodgy about this place. My dad’s risotto came out without chicken, so it had to be redone, in the meantime, the rest of us had all been offered cracked pepper for our meals. When my dad’s meal finally arrived, he was not offered pepper… a minor detail, but it was noticed. The other thing was that once we had our meals, it was incredibly hard to get someone’s attention when we were finished to ask for the bill. I finally did but there is one thing that really bugs me – I asked for the bill, therefore, it should be given to me. However, it wasn’t – it was set down in between the two men sitting at the table. I find this incredibly rude and annoying. However, the food was good, and it won’t really deter me from going back to try out their breakfast…