A couple of my friends live in Queensland, and so the Tassie boys took me for a drive through the big smoke, where roads cost money to drive on, and engineers are busy building ramps, overpasses and a mazes of new roads to charge us for. Definitely a shock to the system. But good ol’ Homer on the GPS got us there after hours of driving.
First stop was Mary’s (of Beetle Creative). Mary did live in Tasmania, but is busy creating her own little beetles and decided she needed Mother Beetle’s support…which meant moving back to Brisbane. Well, what a time for me to turn up!!! She’s only six weeks away from hatching bub number two, and it was her wedding anniversary – good timing Kat! But she didn’t mind – what a great friend!
Mary even went out of her way to ensure she had a vegan meal ready to cook on the first night – Nachos from the Turn Over a New Leaf Cookbook. Yum! The second night she was at a bit of a loss though, with having to feed a picky three year old and an even pickier man. I was so happy that I had planned ahead so I could take that bit of stress away from her, and whipped out a packet of Asam Fish which I could cook to go alongside her steamed veggies. She even tried a bit (I do keep claiming it’s the BEST camping food ever), to which I think she agreed!
This started the week long of midnight or later nights, full of chatting about art, craft, food, children, friends, markets and men, all of which continued from Mary’s and on to Michelle’s. Hard work when my bed time is usually something more in line with the setting sun!
Miss Three must have worked off a lot of sweat at her swimming lessons, as after that all she could think of was cake.
Swimming lessons
So we invented an excuse to cook cake: the cat! Tabby, who adopted the family 10 years ago, had never celebrated a birthday. So we decided it must be tabby’s birthday. I let my memory guide me in buying what ingredients were necessary for vegan cupcakes, then when back ‘home’, headed to the PPK for guidance. Thankfully there was a chocolate cake recipe basically the same as the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cupcakes I usually cook. Saved! The girls went crazy decorating with all the birthday candles they could find, including Dora.
Tabby’s birthday celebrations
Girls and candles
The cupcakes - cookies and cream!
For dinner, I decided that since I had most of the ingredients with me, I’d cook the delicious Cold Sesame Noodles again, and get the opinions of this family to give back to Allyson for her upcoming book. It turned out that only Michelle and myself liked it. Miss Six said it tasted like ‘poo’ (yeah right! I think you just like that word!) and Miss Three was enticed with tomato sauce for a little while. On the other hand, the girls liked the Syndian pumpkin balls on their plates, whereas Michelle and I thought they were too dry and tasteless. The Mister in the house didn’t touch any of the strange apparitions on his plate. I understand kids not liking things that are ‘different’ but feel sad when the men won’t even give things a go. Oh well, he really missed out. And the Noodles is a main course for four people, so I lived off it for the next few days! That made things easy, but meant I didn’t get to test any more recipes, as I had been hoping to do.
On the last night, we decided to take the challenge of eating out. I really wanted to take the whole family to Loving Hut. I’ve heard great things about them, including that they’re child friendly. But since I was outside my own territory, and could not guarantee there would be anything any of her people would eat, I let Michelle pick the place, as long as they had a chance of catering for me. She ditched the family and decided on Mexican, since she never gets to eat it as the rest of her family just doesn't like it.
We drove to Pickled Cactus, got green lights all the way there, and then a carpark right in front of the restaurant, despite it being a busy night. Good signs! Michelle started to get cold feet about them being vegan-friendly. I assured her Mexican can do vegan (and crossed my fingers!). We got our table, the last in the place and studied the menu. Then when the waitress came along, Michelle did my bidding for me: “My friend is a vegan – do you know what that is?”, “Can you do anything for her?”.
“Yes, I was vegan for 17 years!”. Score! Our fantastic vegetarian waitress assured me they understood what a vegan was, that if I asked for no cheese and sour cream I would geta vegan meal, and then went on to make her recommendations. We took her up on them:
Pickled Cactus meals (mine closest - yes - that huge thing!)
Michelle was over the moon, and it was really nice and relaxing after that. And I somehow managed to eat everything in that Supreme. Michelle took a doggy-bag home. “You could have it as lunch tomorrow” she had insisted when I said I was full half-way through, “No I can’t – I’m flying!”. So I made the most of it!
But I have to say, as great as it was, Pickled Cactus was nothing when compared to a true vegan restaurant. While at Yo’s, we went into Lismore for 20 000 Cows. An unusual name, with an awesome reputation. I finally got to tick this one off my list! And I can’t wait to go back...and that is not because the neighbour’s cat decided to join us at the Ashram (though it did make me feel very at home!).
Cat on my lap at Cows
We ordered a feast, and got a feast. It came out in many courses, with many plates to sample and share. Every single dish was delicious, well presented, and there was much excitement with every bite. And we thought we were done (this is three men and myself). We were satisfied, contemplating whether or not we should order dessert. And then the finale came out – we didn’t even know there was still more! Well, that struck the dessert off the list...no it didn’t actually, I couldn’t handle that, so I asked for the cheesecake as a takeaway. They were happy to do this, but it became obvious that they don’t usually do this – they gave it to me on one of their plates with alfoil over the top. I had tears in my eyes over how sweet it was for them to be so generous and trusting! And I gave Yo firm orders to return it at his earliest convenience.
20 000 Cows Middle Eastern Course
I had many things on my to do list while on the mainland, mostly to do with experiencing vegan food. I wanted to go to Loving Hut. I wanted to go to a Mrs Flannery's Health Food Shop to try Tofutti Cuties. I wanted to find and buy sorghum flour. I didn’t get to tick these off my list this time. But, my handy ‘just add water’ wipes certainly got to show themselves as handy – adding water to wipe my hands clean after patting the cat at 20 000 cows, wiping perfume off Miss Three’s face, along with many other scenarios.
Can’t wait until next time!
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