Veggie Bites

It was Martin’s birthday this time and since this is his favourite restaurant how could we go anywhere else?? He had the usual, of course! Vegan mee goreng and I decided to try something different and had two side dishes – tofu something – which was chunks of deep fried tofu with a peanut and sweet chilli sauce and the spring onion roti (ok the roti is not something different, but the tofu was!). It was all very yummy as usual! We also had dessert – I had the banana fritters, which come with a caramel sauce and ice cream and Martin had the sago pudding. You can’t really go past this place!

This was lunch with a friend and it was great to catch up – so believe it or not, the food was secondary! Anyway, I had the roasted sweet potato and spinach salad and a citrus splice drink. I have to say that this salad was awesome. I loved it! The sweet potato was warm and there was chunks of semi roasted tomatoes (I would have preferred a few more, but then again, I love tomatoes!) and also roasted pumpkin seeds – something I don’t usually like, but they were great in this! At the time I thought that I should remember what was in it so I could make this at home, but I have forgotten, so I guess I will have to go back!

It was my birthday! We went out for dinner! I felt like Italian, but didn’t want to go somewhere that we usually go, so, since we had only been here once before, we decided to give it another try. There is a decent choice for vegetarians, and they are marked – which is nice! We started with garlic bread, which was pretty good. For our mains, I had the pasta (can’t remember what type) Verona – which had sun dried tomatoes and goats cheese among other things and Martin opted for the artichoke tart which came on a bed of something delicious with green beans and a yummy sort of sauce. (It was a while ago now, and I can’t remember everything that was in these dishes, so forgive me – I have been busy!) The tart wasn’t huge, but my pasta was, so I let Martin finish it off for me! We also both had a glass of wine with our mains, the menu has wine recommendations for the various dishes, and Martin opted to go with the recommended (white) wine for his dish, whereas I preferred to choose my chardonnay. Being a special occasion, we opted to have dessert and I couldn’t go past the macadamia tart, which came with lovely macadamias encased in delicious caramel-type thing in a tart case, and Martin had the white chocolate cheesecake. Dessert was accompanied by a glass of dessert wine – there were two on the menu and we tried one each. Funnily enough, we each liked our own, but not each others! This is a nice restaurant with a pretty good menu. However, I think that once I have eaten here a few times, then I will have tried all the veggie items on the menu. I also just re-read the review I wrote last time and realised that I had eaten the same thing both times. Hmmm, I think that might indicate that there are things that I don’t like in the other dishes. I wonder how often they change change their menu…

After lunch at Sage, a few of us decided that we should work our way through the gold section of the Entertainment book. Well, it is a good excuse to go somewhere different (and expensive!) for lunch every few weeks! This time we decided on Aubergine – I have heard and read quite a few good things about it, but it was a little unclear on how good they are with the veggie choices. When booking the table, they were asked if they had vegetarian food and the answer was “of course!” When we arrived and looked at the menu, there was one entree and one main that were vegetarian. Everything else was very meat-centric and wasn’t even able to be adapted. I asked the waiter if they had a separate vegetarian menu or if it was only what was listed and he said only what was listed – which was a little disappointing. He also commented that the kitchen could make up something else if I told them what I wanted, but I hate doing that – I would rather that the chefs put some thought into it and put creative vegetarian meals on the menu!

When deciding what to order, my friend and I always check out the dessert menu to see if we want dessert before deciding on entrees and mains. Amazingly, nothing on the dessert menu appealed to me – there was always at least one ingredient listed that I don’t particularly like. So, I decided on trying the only veggie entree and main while my friend went for entree and dessert! Not really an unusual occurrence for us! Before even getting our entrees we received canapes – salmon and tomato salsa-y thing on a cucumber jelly. The waiter looked a little concerned when he brought them out, and once I found out what it was, I said that I would pass. My friend, however, didn’t want to eat alone, and asked him if they could do a vegetarian version. Which they duly did, by making one without the salmon – on the jelly, which probably contained gelatine. Since they went to the effort, I ate it anyway! My entree was a caramelised tomato tart which came with all sorts of yummy sounding garnishes etc. And it was divine! After our entrees we got a palate cleanser – peach and blood orange sorbet – which was also pretty nice. For my main, I had the green vegetable risotto – when ordering I checked to see whether or not it contained peas – I simply could not face the thought of a (mainly) pea risotto and having that taste all through it – I would have had a dessert instead! The chefs were kind enough to leave out the sugar snap peas on my request. (I know that they are different to normal green peas – but some days it is just anything of that variety!). The risotto was pretty good. It came in a lovely cylinder shape with a parmesan crusty thing on the top and bottom – which was a very nice touch. It was creamy and lovely and the veggies were nice and fresh.

My friend opted for dessert instead of a main, and went with the blood orange and bitter chocolate souffle – which was an amazing thing to behold. It came in a teacup, but it was at least twice the height of the cup, and the chefs recommendation was to cut a hole in the top of the souffle and pour in the chocolate sauce. My friend was in culinary heaven! I am not a huge fan of the canape and palate cleanser idea – the palate cleansers are usually sorbet, but the canapes are more often than not seafood or meat. I was also disappointed that given the answer “of course” when asked if they had vegetarian options when booking, that there was only one entree and one main on the menu and that virtually nothing else was adaptable. I am not sure if that justifies the “of course” answer to the question! Personally, I don’t think I would bother going back – I like a little more choice. My other thought, was that everything was almost over flavoured, over garnished and over defined – and the more things you put into a dish, the more chance there is that someone won’t like something in it, and would therefore find the choice rather limited. But, if you like meat and seafood, and are into the canapes and palate cleansers thing, then you should check it out!