Archive for the ‘Super V’ Category
V Rating: Super V I’ve been promising to review Maya Masala for Maya Masala is on the eastern end of Cleveland street, surrounded by trendy retro shops and other Indian and Lebanese restaurants. It can be easy to miss, so look for the bright green neon Maya Sweets sign in an otherwise nondescript glass window. Although, I like eating in cafeteria style surrounds while Bollywood movies play happily in the background, it’s fair to say that no-one goes to Maya Masala for the genteel atmosphere. No, my friend, you go there for the food.
The Maya menu is much more traditional than your average Indian restaurant. Rather than a long list of curries, you choose from thalis, dosai, chaat, or tandoor dishes. It also takes a matter-of-fact approach to vegetarianism in that they don’t heavily promote the fact the restaurant or dishes are all vegetarian, they just take it for granted that patrons will assume as much. A good choice at Maya is one of three types of thali tasting plates. I order it every time (I mean, why have one dish when you can try ten?) The downside to the thali is that I inevitably eat more than physiology suggests is possible. Something about serving food in little plates of goodness always leads me to think I’m not eating that much. Ahhh, the happiness of a fool.
This time around we got the punjabi and South Indian thalis. Mine (the South Indian version) came with a spinach curry, an okra curry, a vegetable curry, rasam, raita, rice, a pickle, 2 pieces of puri, a pappadum, kuchumber salad and a little rice dessert. My favourite dishes were the soft textured spinach curry and creamy, slightly sweet rasam. Maya Masala also offers 19 varieties of dosa - huge Indian crepes with a variety of fillings. These look amazing (one first-timer saw her dosa being set down at the table and almost fell off her chair), although can be a little slow to arrive if you turn up first thing in the morning. If by some miracle you aren’t full by the end of the meal, it’s worth taking advantage of (or at least gazing in wonder at) Maya Masala’s undisputed speciality: sweets.
The Maya sweets fill two glass counters at the front of the store. The sweets are traditional desserts generally made from milk or cheese (Maya claims they are made by an experienced Indian Halwais or sweet makers). They come in a myriad of shapes and colours and often have a thick, soft, doughy texture that may be sweetened by being doused in a syrup. Some favourites include gulab jamun, rasmalai and burfees. It’s probably the case that you will find better Indian food in Sydney (although the dosai are hard to beat). But for the sheer pleasure of being able to eat traditional, all vegetarian Indian meals for less than $10, Maya Masala is an unassailable Super V choice.
V Rating: Super V Reasons for my excitement are enumerated as follows (I am doing it this way cos otherwise this post will turn into babbling food-related happiness) 1. It’s on Degraves St, which is one of my favourite of Melbourne’s cafe alleyways, coming off one of my favourite of Melbourne’s shopping lanes (Flinders Lane). 2. The food is, good, interesting, quick and affordable. It is also organic and largely vegetarian in combinations that I can handle (i.e. not everything has eggplant in it, and tomato is not a substitute for innovative spices which it often is in vegetarian cooking) 3. They have sourdough PIES, my friends. PIES full of mushrooms and tofu, or if you like, a vegetarian shepherd’s pie made from a wholemeal pastry. PIES. 4. The sandwiches come on a range of different breads, none of them white. I was very happy with my spelt bread sandwich with salad, tuna and soy herb mayo. 5. There is a range of food combinations to suit pretty much anyone’s food allergies or detox diets (mine included). They have wheat free, gluten free, sugar free, you name it. However I tried one of the sugar and wheat free apple and cinnamon muffins and it sadly wasn’t that good. I think the problem with muffins is that they kind of need something to soak up all the sugar replacement pear juice. But the vegan chocolate fudge is good according to all reports. 6. They do the all important LSD (latte soy dandelion). Las Chicas in Carlisle St, Balaclava still do the best, followed by Bare Pear (CBD). But TOFWD are now in third place. 7. They also sell their own range of organic wholefoods and products, like flours, sauces, jams, pasta, wines. 8. TOFWD naturally has a good selection of salads too. I am still getting through the deli goods though (like you know, the PIES), lost in the excitement of being able to eat them! Triple thumbs up for this little cafe. Go there go there GO THERE!
V Rating: Super V Cabramatta was the location for our excursion today to celebrate my 35th birthday. As the centre of Sydney’s Vietnamese community, Cabramatta offers food and shopping possibilities which are unmatched. The prevailing ethic is one of vibrant entrepeneurship – best summed up by the epithet on the gates to the city as you enter the pedestrian precinct: To be renovative and integrate.
Once regarded as a honeypot for drug addicts, polite Sydneysiders tend to still avoid Cabramatta – but to do so is really to miss out on one of Sydney’s best kept secrets. It is likewise with the restaurant An Lac on John Street, Cabramatta’s main shopping strip. One of at least three nearby Vietnamese vegetarian restaurants, I think we’ve eaten there every time we’ve taken the trip to Cabramatta over the last few years. An Lac is a simple family restaurant of the wholly authentic Vietnamese kind. The first thing to notice is that each table is set with condiments and cutlery, kitchen-style. While most of the clients are local Vietnamese folk, the menu makes concessions to the occasional English-speaking guest with the inclusion of English names for the dishes and short descriptions of each of the ingredients. Jasmine tea is provided as a courtesy to guests in thermoses which sit on each table.
We chose the stuffed tofu with chinese white cabbage in a brown savoury sauce, the imitation roast chicken with dried lily flower black fungus and our favourite for the afternoon, vermicelli with chopped-up spring rolls, cucumber, bean sprouts, mint and a traditional sweet vinegarette. Each dish was beautifully done – but the vermicelli was truly exceptional.
Halfway through the meal I pondered aloud whether this was the best vegetarian restaurant in Sydney. There is no doubt that it is a strong Super V. The whole meal came to $21.70, which left plenty of money for the shopping trip – among Cabramatta’s dynamic blend of fruit, flower, clothing and bric-a-brac shops jammed closely together in the tight arcades that come off John Street.
V Rating: Super V Last weekend Andy and I belatedly celebrated our four year anniversary. Ahh yes, who would have thought that a humble invitation to see Spiderman could lead to a lifetime of wedded bliss (OK, the wedded part is still in train… but we have the bliss down pat).
While other vegetarian restaurants in Sydney are mostly Asian Buddhist, Harvest has a secular, European feel. There’s nothing like it in Sydney, although it reminds me of Bernadette’s in Canberra, Sprouts in Adelaide or the now defunct Squirrels in Brisbane. The street frontage is bedecked with fairy lights and the intimate view of the city skyline isn’t too bad either. Inside, the walls are painted vivd blue, the tables have crisp white linen tablecloths and the furniture feels like something out of a country kitchen. The comparatively expensive menu borrows vegetarian dishes from around the world, including pastas, stir-frys, fried and fresh spring rolls and pakhoras.
I went with a tapas plate combining guacomole, eggplant roulade, hummus, and goats cheese dip. It was served with long, thin wafers of bread. The dips were delicious - particularly the spicy eggplant and soft, rich goats cheese, but the hummus was too plain for my liking.
I chose what I thought was an Indian curry (which I love). Unfortunately, I didn’t read the numerous ingredients on the menu closely and it turned out to be more of a peanut satay (which I don’t love). The chutneys and pappadams that gave with it were great, but the dish was too heavy and rich for me to finish. Seeing as it was our anniversary we decided to splurge and get dessert - white and dark chocloate truffles filled with ice cream. These were luxorious, sweet and creamy - and definitely a job for two. I enjoyed them but should probably had chosen a less decadent option. While Harvest isn’t vegan, they ensure that there are a decent number of vegan dishes on both the entree and mains menu. All cheese is rennet free, and they only use free range eggs. Where possible they use organic food. From memory, there are other foods, such as honey, which they either leave out or can omit. Harvest is not a restaurant that I’d eat at everyday. However, it makes a wonderful and romantic choice for special occasions. Love you honey!
V Rating: Super V Ever since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve had a niggling feeling of inadequacy. How can I claim any credibility as a Sydney vegetarian restaurant reviewer when there’s no mention of Green Gourmet on the site? Green Gourmet has been around for years and is one of Sydney’s best known and most loved vegetarian restaurants. The Newtown restaurant was so successful that a small vegetarian grocery store was opened next door, and a second restaurant was opened in St Leonards. Fortunately, the stormy weather on Saturday helped me convince our group of friends to swap yum cha at Bodhis for yum cha at the original Green Gourmet in Newtown (nb: love a city where there are multiple vegetarian yum cha options).
Green Gourmet is a novel dining experience. You can order off the extensive and highly recommended menu. Alternatively, there’s a big dinner buffet where you pay according to the weight of your meal. I love the endless plates of vegetarian stiry-frys, fried snacks, and vegetable dishes, but not the moment of reckoning when my plate consistently seems to be the heaviest of everyone in my group (I figure it’s the guilt weighing me down). On the weekend Green Gourmet runs vegetarian yum cha. We arrived about half an hour after yum cha started and before the restaurant was full. While the staff were lovely, it was a slightly slow process with one or two dishes carried out on a tray at a time. This is no problem for a small table, but for our hungry group of six it meant taking whatever we were offered, rather than choosing from a selection. The yum cha options were diverse - fresh rice paper rolls, fried spring rolls, sweet and sour fake pork, fried fake drumsticks and seafood rolls, green vegetables, dumplings and satay skewers. The choices were distinctly different from what I’ve had at Bodhis, which focuses more on steamed dumplings and steers clear of fake meat. This may just have been luck of the draw - the menu suggests that there is also a range of vegetable and steamed yum cha offerings.
Another highlight of Green Gourmet is the long and unusual tea menu. Like many of Sydney’s vegetarian restaurants, Green Gourmet has a Buddhist ethic so there’s no garlic, onion or alcohol to be found on the premises. Green Gourmet definitely rates as one of my favourite vegetarian places in Sydney - but I’d try the dinner / buffet option ahead of yum cha.
V-Rating: Super V Shopping centres are like suburban purgatory. After half an hour I’m lost, cranky and over-stimulated. I start wandering fruitlessly, scared of encounters with fluorescent lights and overly attentive sales assistants. Then I get lost again, mostly when I’m desperate to leave. Amongst the nine circles of shopping mall hell, the food court has to rate near the bottom. Fried food smells, squished leftovers on the table, and screaming kids make me crazy. That’s why I couldn’t believe my luck when I discovered Yummba in the Westfield Bondi Junction food court. Yummba is not your typical food court offering. First off, it’s a vegetarian. Second, the food tastes great. Third, all the food, including a range of dips, is made fresh daily.
If you’re not up for a roll you can try the mezze or dip plates. Dare you to try the large size. I’ve had two tries with help and haven’t finished one yet.
V-Rating: Super V He says: I’ve never been disappointed at Zenergy. Just down Druitt Street around the corner from Town Hall Station, it’s the standout choice in the city for a quick veggie lunch. Zenergy is a very unassuming spot which serves up a huge variety of delicious food - and very inexpensively. It is the sort of place where you almost have to say “stop” when the salad is being piled onto your plate - and there is usually a choice of seven or eight. If there’s no time to eat in, you can grab from a selection of ready-made wraps and sandwiches. The tempeh with sprouts and mayo is a real specialty and I’m yet to find anything comparable anywhere else. I could go on but I would just be gushing. She says: Zenergy oh Zenergy. How I love thee. Let me count the ways. I love your 20 different sandwiches, including marinated tempeh, soy mayonnaise and sprouts; avocado, hummus and parsley; and banana, dates, apple and cream cheese. I love your big, brown nori rolls for $2.60, one of the best value lunch options in the city. I love your great range of hot foods, like vegetable au gratin, shepherds pie and black-eyed beans. You make healthy, delicious foods for vegetarians and vegans. You make your food with care, and serve your customers with a smile. Were you only located closer to my work, I would never go anywhere else for lunch. |
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