Peace Harmony Strikes Back, Sydney

I was pretty stoked to find out that Sydney has a vegan Thai restaurant. My eating crew and I had a pretty good dinner at the last night of our trip. K and I decided to have lunch there again with Bec and Craig since our flight was canceled. It is a 99.9% vegan restaurant. The only non-vegan thing is the soy milk (with milk solid).

Their lunch menu is smaller than the dinner one but still pretty big. We couldn't really decide what to get. We settled on two Mixed Entree plates ($7 each) to share between the four of us.


The satay skewers and Thai style spring rolls were pretty good but I've never been a big fan of money bags or curry puffs. Tod Mun, a pakora-like deep fried entree, was the best on the plate.

Our first plate was the lemongrass stir-fry ($12.8):

It is a double protein meal: tofu and mock meat ('chicken', I guess) with some colourful vegies, in lemongrass special sauce. It was my favourite dish of the meal.

Next dish was 'Crispy KFC' ($12.8):


When I saw the menu, I thought it will be fried battered mock chicken with the 11 secret herbs and spices, like what Vegansaurus! made before. However, it turned out to be deep fried mock meat with a sweet chill soy sauce on the side. It wasn't bad but not what I expected.

We also ordered a roasted 'duck' or 'chicken' dish($12.8):

I can't recall the name of the dish nor can I locate it on the massive lunch menu. It was a nice typical roasted 'duck'/'chicken' dish : crispy gluten with a tangy sauce.

Finally, Kristy insisted that we have Pad Thai ($12.5) again:

She liked it a lot but I agreed with what Michael said - It was enjoyable but not amazing.

So, this is the last installment of our Sydney Eat-A-Thon. Michael also blogged about our dinner there. Read what other people think on Brunch, Lunch and Munch and Diary of a Ladybird.

Peace Harmony
44 Erskine Street, Sydney
(02) 9262 2247

On my turntable:
Illuminations by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Iku Wholefood

Iku is a vegan cafe that sells healthy style prepared dishes, there are 12 stores in total in Sydney. We visited a store in the CBD which was situated in a food court but I noticed that they had actual stores that I walked past in Bondi and Darlinghurst.
They sell a whole range of vegan dishes including lasagne, burgers, laska, cassaroles and salads and desserts. They try to use organic and local produce and are very g/f friendly too. Toby and I didn't actually have room for an actual meal so decided to share a snack pack which allowed us to sample a variety of the snacks that they sold including: a rice ball, rice paper roll, nori roll, tofu pocket, polenta slice, beetroot salad and two dipping sauces-tahini and chilli. It was either mostly g/f or all g/f. Everything was delicious, although it was all served cold. The tahini dipping sauce was great and I don't even like tahini, and the chilli was moderately spicy. The rice balls were probably our favourite. Although, next time I'm keen to try the lasagna though after Ingrid's glowing recommendation.
We also tried a friand which was g/f and made basically from almond meal, rice flour, tofu and maple syrup, it was ok but perhaps a little too healthy for me, I do like my super sweet unhealthy desserts.

I could see if I worked in Sydney CBD that this would make a great lunch option, if Sydney can have 12 stores, why can't Melbourne have 1? It would be great to have a healthy vegan cafe in the CBD!


Iku Wholefood-MLC Centre
Shop 6, Food court
19a Martin Place
Mon-Fri 8am-5.30pm

I struggled to find many blog reviews of Iku, so if you have blogged about it let me know and I'll show you some link love. Lisa mentioned their snacks here, and a cupcake or two mentioned their salads here. Edited to add Theresa's review here

Only 1 more post from Toby to complete our Sydney series.

Basil Pizza & Pasta

As we made our way to the airport I commented to Toby that the only place I was slightly sad about missing out on was Basil Pizza. We arrived at the airport and discovered that our flight was cancelled so was given the option to get a refund and make our own way back or get on a flight the following day and our accommodation would be reimbursed. We decided to abandon Cindy and Michael and stay an extra night since it was going to work out to be a financial loss if we made our own way back. Also, it meant we got to stay and have Pizza with Bec and Craig. After our massive breaky and yum cha, Toby and I were originally planning on going without dinner but since we were in Sydney for another night we planned to make the most of it.

Naked Expresso is a omni pizza place at night, which offers several vegan pizzas. While the guys popped out to get beer, Bec and I were given ordering responsibilities. We didn't hesitate in ordering the Hawaiian pizza with 'ham', pineapple and a decent amount of cheezly, it was exactly as I remembered Hawaiian pizza and I'm really not sure why more of the vegan friendly pizza places here don't put 'ham' on their pizzas, this was the group favourite:
We also ordered the 'Sheree and Neridah' with dijon mustard, artichoke hearts, roasted red capsicum, olives and sun dried tomatoes. It was tangy but worked well together as a combination:

We also ordered some garlic 'pizza bread' which kind of reminded me of crisp focaccia:
We were impressed with how straight forward their pizzas were, no strange combination or fancy sauces just simple old fashioned pizzas with a vegan touch. They have g/f bases too!

Also see Cupcake Kitteh1 & 2, Tropical Vegan and Vegan Underground.


Basil Pizza & Pasta
126 King St
Newtown
02 9519 4880

Btw, we discovered after a couple of trips via public transport back and forth between Newtown and the CBD that it is actually really cheap to get a cab and might work out better if there are 4 of you.

Yum Cha at Bodhi

It really is amazing that we managed to fit in so many yum cha dishes, but we did. It was such quick eating that I can't really do a comprehensive run down, but here is what I remembered:
Spring rolls and spinach and tofu rolls. I loved both of these and was sad that the spring rolls didn't come around again. The spinach and tofu rolls were like spinach/cheese pastries.
Beetroot ginger dumplings were kind of weird according to Toby, but I think Bec liked them
Veg dumplings
These sausage rolls were surprisingly good, with home-made pastry, like 'sausages' in batter.
One serving of Cheung fun (it's called fresh rice noodle fold on the menu) with 'prawns' and one with vegies. I liked the veg one and Toby liked the 'prawn' one which he said was like the omni one that he grew up with.

Spicy tofu and crispy tofu skin

BBQ 'pork buns' were a fav and we got a few serves, whereas only Toby liked the steam rice in lotus leaf in the background.

Veg with tofu skin

Crispy wantons
siew mai

Tofu skin and tomatoes stuffed with salad. These two were disappointingly cold and just pretty average.

For dessert, we had
Baked custard sago, chinese doughnuts filled with yellow bean paste and crispy sesame balls with sweet peanut. I enjoyed all these. Toby was super excited about the baked custard sago but was disappointed that there was no lotus seed paste as a filling.

There was a fast rotation of food and was great to have the proper yum cha experience where they bring you dishes and you say yes/no instead of ordering off the menu, but Toby was particularly disappointed that it was quite pricey and he thought that nothing really stood out apart from the cheung fun and dessert. I really liked the outdside dining aspect but agreed with Toby that our previous dining experience ordering off the menu was more enjoyable.

Here is a picture of the menu (click on photo for proper view):
:

:

See Cindy's take here.

Funky Pies Breakfast

I've sung the praises of g/f funky pies before and enjoyed their regular pies and g/f brownies but for some reason when I discovered funky pies cafe had breakfast options I wasn't expecting much more than the pies that you can get in Melbourne. Boy was I wrong, we had a frigging AMAZING breakfast there. It's a tiny place with limited seating but sells all of the regular pies/quiches you can get in Melbourne plus extras like sausage rolls and pastizies and has a full breakfast menu. It's all vegan too and the service was super friendly. They also sell my favourite drink Charlie's raspberry lemonade. Yes it ticks all the boxes!

We slept in on Sunday morning and it took us a little while to get to Bondi by public transport, so by the time we had gotten to one of the train stations, a few of us were starving and I was shaking and just a tad irritable, so Craig and Bec actually ran grabbed us some sushi to snack on while waiting for our next train. This was Craig's first meal in Sydney and the rest of us were advising him that he should try to not eat too much for breaky, after making that mistake the day before when there was barely any room for lunch, but I'm not sure anyone of us actually learnt our lesson.

Toby got the breakfast pie, served with mashed potatoes, gravy and peas. The breakfast pie contained mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. Toby said it was an ideal hot and hearty breakfast, and he said that he wished that he could have mashed potatoes and gravy for breaky more often. His only complaint was that his coffee was cold.



Craig also chose to get a pie, well actually two pies, and a special breakfast sausage roll with 'bacon' in it. Here is the first pie and sausage roll with mashed potato and gravy. He was super full afterward as you can expect!
After successively sharing sweet and savoury options for breakfast the day before Bec and I decided to do it again, we shared the pancakes with caramelised banana and the Big V.

First up the pancakes were seriously the BEST pancakes I have ever tasted they were soft and fluffy, yet crispy on the edges, served with loads of cinnamon, incredible sugar syrup and bananas. So so so so great.

And the big v was so big that it flowed on to two plates. I loved the zaatar on toast, such a simple but great idea, served with baked beans and chutney.

The main plate contained seriously great spiced scrambled tofu, rocket, 'bacon', 'sausages', mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and delicious home made hash browns . It was so so filling and amazing.Even though we were super full, we couldn't help admiring the apple pie. Toby insisted we try some, and decided if we divided one large piece between 5 of us (Craig couldn't fit anymore in) then we might be able to have some and we managed somehow. It was well worth the bloating, with a thick golden crust similar to the funky pies and a sweet and chunky apple filling:

You can read other reviews at Vegan Sydney, Polka Dot Rabbit and Cupcake Kitteh

Funky Pies Cafe
2/144-148 Glenayr Av
Bondi
weekdays 7am-8.30pm
weekends 9am- 8.30pm

Late Lunch at Bodhi in the Park, Sydney

Dear readers, haven't been catching up with you for a while apart from my vegan breaking news tweets at @brunswickvegan. I blame my laziness and blogger's block. Now I'm writing this blog post on Cindy's laptop at Where's the Beef? HQ. Hopefully the Chi of Celeb blogger will help.

Shortly after the massive brunch at Naked Espresso and sweet treats at Vegan's Choice, I was hungry again. So we decide to have a late lunch at Bodhi in the Park.

If you haven't been to Bodhi in the Park, it is an upmarket vegan Chinese Restaurant with a modern twist. It is right next to Phillip Park swimming pool and the St Mary's Cathedral, surrounded by beautiful trees and birds.


We were a bit too late and the Yum Cha was over so we ordered some entrees to share.

To start with, we ordered the mixed steamed buns ($6.5). There were three different types of buns in the bamboo steamer: Mock BBQ "pork", chickpea and Chinese cabbage bun:


I used my mad chopstick skillz to break up the buns into quarters so everyone could have a taste of each bun. Everyone loved the BBQ bun but I was not a fan of the chickpea bun. I liked the Chinese Cabbage bun and it reminded me of Shanghaese style chicken and veg buns.

Next up is Vegatable Stewers with Malayasisn Peanut Satay ($7.5):


The skewers consisted of different vegetables, faux fishball and tofu. The satay sauce was top-notch and pretty different from the one at Satay Bar and Enlightened Cuisine.

The third dish was Mixed Dumplings ($6.5 /English Spinach, Pumpkin and Mushroom):


A basket of mixed dumplings is ideal for solo diners to sample different dumplings without stuffing themselves silly. They were pretty good too.

We also ordered Bodhi Vegetarian Peking 'duck', bbq sauce, cucumber and pancakes ($19), a dish that I was anticipating on the plane to Sydney:


The whole gang was impressed with this dish. The 'duck' was very crispy and full of flavour. It was even better than the one at Peking Palace in London.

At this point we were half full and at risk of spoiling our appetite for Peace Harmony. However, there is noway K and Cindy would leave the restaurant without desert. We decided on the Asian sweet extravaganza: Frangelico caramelised passion fruit and seasonal fruit with a chilled yellow bean sweet soup and a Frangelico lychee shot ($14.0).

While I am typing, Michael just made me a Frangelico Lychee drink.

We firstly shared the Lychee shot. It was very very delicious and inspired us to buy a bottle of Frangelico and canned lychee and make it ourselves later that night. Part two of the desert was caramelised passion fruit, in syrup form, lychees and rock melon in a Martini glass. We didn't realise there was Frangelico in the passion fruit syrup. The last part of the desert was chilled yellow bean soup with coconut cream. It was yummy and the texture was similar to sorbet, we actually thought it was some sort of exotic fruit and had to ask what it was.

K thought it was the most inventive desert of the trip. Cindy said it was the most glamorous fruit salad she's ever had. I wished I could have the whole thing all by myself!

The Fragrant Elf wrote about her dinner experience there recently. Steph and Diary of a Ladybird also blogged about Yum Cha at Bodhi.


Bodhi in the Park
Add: Cook and Philip Park, 2 College St, Sydney
Tel: 9360 2523
Yum Cha 10am-4pm 7 days/ Dinner 4:30pm-10pm Tue-Sun


On my Turntable:
It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best by Karen Dalton

Desserts from Vegan Choice Grocery/Green Gourmet: My idea of Heaven.

After my initial disappointment about not getting vanilla slice at Naked Expresso, Mandee pointed out that Vegan Choice should be opening soon (11am) and lead the way with all the brunch group following. Vegan Choice is next to vegan restaurant Green Gourmet and is a small store which sells a range of mock meats, Toby read a few which listed some of the Chinese ingredients which are not really vegan since they containing dairy. So vegans beware!

There are however a wide range of vegan desserts. I was super super excited, which is why I insisted that we had to go twice. I was in heaven! Yes we have places in Melbourne to get vegan desserts but not a wide range of vegan desserts in one place.

They have a range of vegan cupcakes:
Tofu based ice cream flavours (which I think were all g/f), including some interesting asian style flavours like taro, green tea, sesame:
Also, vegan Chinese moon cake, g/f brownies (the same ones you can get at Radical Grocery), cookies and g/f raw cakes:

On the first visit Toby had black sesame and goji-coconut ice cream. I wasn't a big fan of the sesame but we both enjoyed the goji -coconut with the subtle goji flavour, but Toby said the sesame flavour was just like how he remembered it in Hong Kong in his pre-vegan days.

Bec kindly offered me some of of her raw lemon blueberry cheesecake which was sweet and tart, I really enjoyed it:


I also got some coconut ice cream which was just as amazing as sydneysider Ingrid insisted it was. It was different to other coconut based ice cream/sorbet, creamy with quite a subtle coconut flavour. So subtle that I had to question if it was vanilla ice cream.

I also followed Cindy's lead and had a chocolate cherry cupcake. It did have a touch of almond essence which I'm not a fan of, but aside from that was pretty awesome. It was a chocolate cupcake, with the top cut out and filled with cherries, icing and then the lid replaced with more icing on top. Reminded me a lot of the pics in vctotw (it's the second one from the left in the pic above).

On the second visit I got two more cupcakes, the only remaining flavours- banana and blueberry/lemon. The blueberry one was delicious and I think lemon icing suited it perfectly. The banana one was super hard and I suspect it was either partially frozen or just a little old.
I also got a piece of strawberry 'cream' raw cake:
I had this wonderful idea of eating this cake on the plane, but after a cancelled flight and way too much time waiting and holding it, it didn't actually make it, it kind of melted. I did have a little bit of the icing which was nice but didn't eat the rest because I was worried that it had gone bad.

Toby got more ice cream on the second trip too, this time he tried green tea and papaya. He said that the green tea one tasted authentic and the papaya was nice and sweet. Toby said the sesame was his favourite though because it was rich.

You can read some older reviews of ice cream/green gourmet at Vegan Melbourne, also Not Quite Nigella, Cupcake Kitteh and more recently from Lisa.


Vegan Choice Grocery
113 King St
Newtown

Naked Espresso

On sat morning, we went to vegan brunch place Naked Espresso with fellow bloggers Mandee, Drossolalia and two lovely vegans, one from Melbourne and one from Sydney. It was so exciting to have a whole menu of brunch things to choose from, without any adaptions. Melbourne really needs more pure vegan brunch places. Toby's not really into sweet breakfasts so Bec and I decided to order one savoury breakfast and one sweet option and share.

We got the buckwheat pancakes which are g/f. They come with maple syrup, bananas and strawberries. They were a bit heartier in texture compared to regular pancakes but more filling and kind of felt healthier and still delicious.

We also shared the 'morning after' giant fryup. Toby had one of these to himself and loved the variety and you guessed it- the protein. Toby said it was the probably the best vegan big breakfast that he has had, he actually couldn't finish it, which was kind of weird. It contained two pieced of yummy gluteny toast, which were perhaps made on site. Also hashbrowns, baked beans, roasted tomatoes, fried mushrooms, spinach, redwood 'sausages' and 'bacon'. Toby had his with olive oil instead of the usual nuttelex. I really enjoyed the variety of this dish.


Leigh come out and introduced herself which was really lovely, the only downside was that they didn't have any dessert so I pouted a little while I read the options on the board that weren't available particularly vegan vanilla slice, but NEXT time!!!

Michael has already blogged about his experience here, with links to other blogs, yes since he's done the hardwork I'm being a bit slack.

Naked Espresso
9-2 Saturday and Sunday

126 King St

Newton

Sydney Vegan Eat-A-Thon

A few weekends ago I embarked on our vegan eating holiday in Sydney, with Cindy, Michael, Toby, Rebecca and Craig. Our mission was to try loads of dishes and eat more than was imaginable. Kind of like an extended potluck, except we don't have to make anything. At the end of the weekend, I decided that Sydney is actually more vegan friendly than Melbourne. Maybe not in terms of vegan options being in omni cafes but it has more exclusively vegan places compared to vegetarian cafes/restaurants, and more varied options, eg: vegan brunch places, vegan Thai place, loads of vegan desserts in one place. If you asked me to compare the two cities back in 2006 when we went there, I would have said Sydney has loads of Chinese Veg places but Melbourne really kicks it's arse when it comes to vegan food. Part of that was maybe we weren't as well researched but I also think that there have been quite a few vegan places open since then. Would love to hear your sydney-siders opinion on this. Melbournians please hold off any Melbourne defending until you read all of our posts.

It's actually kind of gross how much we ate, so if you are into healthy eating look away. Also, remember I'm eating gluten, fellow coeliacs, sorry! Cindy, Michael, Toby and I will be blogging it together. Toby recorded some of our food conversations with his phone so we may even be able to use direct quotes from everyone. Cindy is going to collate all of the links onto this page and has already started off with a post about our first meal at Yullis which is super gluten free friendly and I though I might also do a similar summary-links post since we had a few extra meals.

So together with Cindy and Michael we went to:

• Yullis- Cindy's post
• Naked Espresso- K's and Michael's post
  
• Vegan's Choice Grocery x 2- K's and Cindy's post
  
• Bodhi at the Park x2- Toby's, K's and Cindy's post.
  
• Peace Harmony Michael's post
  
• Funky Pies-K's post and Cindy's post
  

And due to a cancelled flight, we also went to the following places with Bec and Craig:

• Basil Pizza- K's post
  
• Peace Harmony again Toby's post
  
• Iku- K's post
  

Here is Toby and I clutching out 'gluten babies' and feeling so so so full and bloated on sat morning, only 2 meals in:

Sydney eats?

So next weekend Toby and I and a few friends will be going to Sydney. So I would love your suggestions for must eats, also any cool op-shops or other interesting things!