Dining out adventures.

Yep so my friend from the north has been down for a week... cue epic binge eating nom fest. Have hardly stepped inside my kitchen for days but MAN life has been tasty. I tend to stick to the favorites but they're favorites for a reason damn it. Below are the reasons you will find me at the gym before the sun is up, every day, from now on.

Yep, as per almost every weekend, I was involved with Las Vegan. Sadness descended after I spent the whole car ride talking about how AMAZE the pepperoni calzones with chips are to find out they're a lunch time thing... I LIKE PEPPERONI CALZONES WITH CHIPS FOR BREAKFAST and I'm not ashamed. Anyways sadness was dulled with fantastic big breakfast (olive sourdough, house beans, shrooms, avo and TEMPACON). Karly got the breakfast burrito which is basically everything I ate but rolled up. Naturally we needed to share a serve of sour cherry pancakes also. For $9, I can't not.

Fig slice from Wide Open Road - you're doing it right.

Sunday night was a pretty epic fail. It ended okay but the stars did not align the way I'd planned. I was super pumped to show my friend the wonders of Munsterhaus as it was basically invented for her. They were closed. On to Veggie Bar, always a sure thing. Actually a one hour wait = no. Alright, Yong it is, I guess they ARE delicious. Oh you're randomly closed for renovations tonight Yong? WELL STUFF YOU! Feeling quite devo at this point, we walked down to Madame K which I'd heard mixed reviews of. Food was said to be good but it's a bit expensive. Reviews were correct, food was okay, prices were high. Next time I'm hoping Munsterhaus, Veggie Bar or Yong will feed me.

Behold the mouthgasms of Cornish. Chicken, bacon and cheese burger with chips, eggplant chips with vegan mayo, insane cripsy duck BLT of Jeff's dreams and finished off with THE BEST COOKIES AND CREAM CHEESECAKE with icecream!

Wonderbao vego pack - $8 WIN. Veggie BBQ bun, open style crispy tofu bun and sweet bean bun. Wonderbao are reliably perfect.

Laksa King, naturally. Vegan laksa soup with rice noodles, bok choy, broccoli, shrooms, eggplant, squash, snow peas, fried onions and tofu puffs!

A Minor Place is Wide Open Road's little sister cafe and I like her WAY MORE. Better vegan options and so many less dollars needed. This amazing breakfast of sourdough, rocket, avo and white beans with dukkah is only $13 and I need it every day of my life. Wide Open Road only offer one hot dish and it's closer to $17 - dislike.

I refuse to let a single interstate vegan guest leave without faceplanting into Berrissimo's chocolate mousse frozen yoghurt. Fresh strawberries and coconut on top = correct.

Lentils with tamarind sauce.

You know, although I've been going a bit dining out crazy lately, I've still been cooking a bit. Came across this lentils with tamarind sauce recipe a few weeks ago and immediately added it to my 'to cook' folder. Sunday rolled around and I finally had time to grab tamarind concentrate from an Asian grocer. That's the only exotic ingredient in this dish which is good, cause now I have some I can make another 10 batches of this before needing an Asian grocer again. Oh and 10 batches it will be - this was DELICIOUS! Incredibly simple and cheap but the tamarind takes it to the next level. This is the first time I've cooked with tinned lentils and it was fast. I decided it was totally restaurant quality which the boy quickly agreed with. Cook this, serve with basmati and naan and feel all the happiness.

Cornish Arms.

Oh Cornish, you kill me. Dieting vegans should just stay away, so far away. This place is heaven. Vegan parmas, chicken bacon and cheese burgers, beef burgers, eggplant chips, curries, pizzas and cheesecakes... Happy times. Sunday and Monday are $12 parma days so that's normally when we loiter. I used to swear by the parma but actually ordered something different (almost unheard of!) a few weeks ago and now the chicken burger is my fave. Vegan chicken, bacon, cheese and mayo on a white roll with chips? Correct. $12, even better. Jeff went CRAZY and ordered the vegan mixed grill. It sounded like a monstrosity of barbequed fake meats, and it was. It was DAMN TASTY, all meats were smokey and chewy and non-soy tasting. Creepy real... for $20. So yeah, Cornish are the winners of vegan pub food and destroyers of my healthy eating plan.

Middle Eastern Restaurant.

Well seeing as I was so proud of myself for posting the other day, thought I'd keep the blog ball rolling.

Middle Eastern Restaurant offers pretty rough service. Every time I've been, I'm the only one at the counter and they seem very reluctant to serve me. Through muttered words and a pretty heavy language barrier though, orders are placed. Unusually long waits then happen for food, seeing as I only order felafel rolls. These things do not matter. The ranking on the NOM scale for these beauties is right up there. Amazing fresh fried felafel with a huge abundance of pickled veggies (I normally ask for extra but these guys know how it should be done!) I was very happy to sit on freezing Sydney Road on Sunday and devour this $5 winner! Middle Eastern is for when you're in the area and don't want a big sit down meal or fancy service (fancy as in when they serve you). It's also for when pay day is a distant memory.