Very vego Vietnamese

3 Comments

Posted on July 25, 2018

Vinh Nguyen Bakehouse, 35 Perth Avenue, Albion. Phone: 0404 854 663

Perth Avenue is a lovely, cheerful local shopping strip that is these days quite the food destination …

Sadie Black – yet to be visited by CTS – has won many friends down one end; at the other is super Polish shopping establishment Mitko Deli.

Right in the middle is Vinh Nguyen Bakehouse, which specialises in vegetarian Vietnamese food.

You can get imbibe of your actual pho here – but most of the soup/noodle dishes seem to be of other, different styles.

Not being a fan of mock meat, I plump for this nevertheless very nice concoction of egg noodles, vegetable stock, mushrooms and two kinds of tofu.

It’s plain – in a good way! – that is lifted just right by a scattering of fresh chilli and lemon juice.

But a part of me rather wishes I’d gone in the direction of the bun bo hue advertised on the door!

My dining companions – Virginia, Dinh and Annie – go for more complex arrangements on the same sort of theme, with mock meat fully present.

And even what seems to be a vegetarian rendition of bo kho stew.

Vinh Nguyen Bakehouse specialises in pia cakes, which come in four flavours – taro, mung bean, coconut and red bean.

These are really good – not too sweet, quite delicate, would go real fine with Vietnamese iced coffee.

This joint is doing what I bet are excellent banh mi at the weekends.

Recent Facebook posts have revved me up for a return, with a revolving line-up of specials that have included stir fried noodles, vegetarian bun bi vermicelli salad, spicy lemongrass noodle soup and mock duck/tofu rice paper rolls.

A whole lot of good

3 Comments

Posted on April 6, 2018

Eka Wholefoods Cafe, 129 Buckley Street, Seddon. Phone: 0412 485 132

At Consider The Sauce HQ, we figure if we ever went completely meat-free, our diet would be based mostly around the foods of the Mediterranean – African, European, Middle-Eastern.

Your actual “vegetarian food”?

Not so much.

Yes, we are cynical about such stuff.

Some of that is down to probably unfair baggage and previous bad experiences, including some with vego slop right here in the west.

Why have any truck with such food when the various national cuisines deliver meat-free food so effortlessly and with such delicious panache?

No doubt that’s why we’ve gone so long without trying Eka Wholefoods.

And why, after ordering, we are a mix of anticipation and crossed fingers.

We need not have had any fears, as what we lunch on is very fine.

The joint is the expected mix of one half wholefoods of many kinds and one half gorgeous cafe, a tranquil space in which we enjoy stopping for a while.

Bennie loves his bao tempeh sliders ($12.9).

The crispy but seemingly rather salty tempeh dances with organic kimchi, house-made peri-peri sauce, grilled shitake mushrooms and caramelised onion.

This pretty food goes down a treat.

My soba noodle salad ($16.50) is even better.

Joining the organic noodles are cherry tomatoes, chopped toasted almonds, black sesame seeds, cinnamon-crusted organic tofu and a sesame-lemon dressing.

This salad is expertly done and a pleasure to consume.

We depart without trying the good-looking range of sweet treats but with some brown rice and tamari in hand.

It’s been wonderful to have our skepticism so wonderfully rendered daft.

Check out the Eka website here.

Mother Nora’s new adventure

4 Comments

Posted on November 6, 2014

Saffron Kitchen, Laverton Community Hub, 95-105 Railway Avenue, Laverton. Phone: 8368 0177

That much-cherished institution, MiHUB Cafe in Werribee, is ceasing to exist as we know it.

The day after this story is published, the Synnot Street property that has housed this most admirable – and delicious! – community enterprise is to be auctioned, with the chances being it will become a medical centre of some sort.

So MiHUB’s future is way up in the air, with no new venue being yet found.

All is not lost, however, as the spirit is willing … besides, we’ve seen the MiHUB crew and their fare at the likes of the Indonesian Street Food Festival, and enjoyed that fare at a charity bash in Werribee.

So there are other ways of being!

In the meantime, one MiHUB’s leading lights, Mother Nora, has taken up a role at the new branch of Saffron Kitche, operating out of the Laverton Community Hub.

Where Nora goes, we follow … so it is that I rock up for a mid-week lunch.

Under the auspices of the Wyndham Community & Education Centre, Saffron Kitchen “will target training and employment pathway opportunities for local people including the long-term unemployed, people with a disability and people from new and emerging communities”.

It’s a simple place that offers simple, tasty and cheap vegetarian food.

Each of my offerings – an eggy fried rice, a nice lentil-and-veg dish, glassy noodles with slithery mushrooms and gado gado with a beaut nutty sauce – are priced individually, but I snag a “combo” deal for $10.

My $3.50 cafe latte is excellent!

Laverton’s Saffron Kitchen is open 8am-4pm on week days.

ASRC catering rocks!

Asian tucker without meat?

3 Comments

Posted on August 23, 2014

Shakahari Too, 225 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne.Phone: 9682 2207

Consider The Sauce Thing 1 was happy to accept an invitation to a gathering at Shakahari Too in South Melbourne.

Consider The Sauce Thing 2 was rather less keen.

“Vegetarian?,” said he, skepticism plainly writ on his face.

“Think of it not as vegetarian but more as Asian food without meat,” father instructed son.

The occasion was a group dinner organised by Monique of Mon’s Adventure’s fame as part of her Vegetetarian Mission – and we fully enjoyed the whole night, eating different food and meeting new people.

The Carlton Shakahari has been around as long as I’ve been in Melbourne.

Despite vegetarian nightmares associated with previous lives in other countries, I was happy to give the South Melbourne branch a shot.

But in the end, and based entirely on the main courses Bennie and I selected, I confess his skepticism was warranted.

Monique shouted the whole bunch of us an entree called Avocado Magic ($15.50).

This tempura dish was lovely, and its deep-fried vibe even impressed Bennie.

“Avocado wedges and red capsicum rolled in thin eggplant slices, tempura fried in a rice batter” and “served with a jade green coriander and sesame puree” was a terrific, the lusciousness of the avocado an unusual delight.

My choice of Nonya Lodeh ($22) was OK but ultimately disappointing.

The “lemongrass and fresh spice flavoured brown basmati rice (low GI!) served with tumeric galangal coconut curry with blanched cashews, a variety of vegetables (snakebeans, okra, coloured potatoes, cauliflower, etc)” was probably the most unseasoned meal I’ve had this year.

“Bland” is the word that comes to mind.

The very mild vegetable pickles and papadam didn’t help.

I have cookbooks and recipes I revere that do without onions, garlic and chilli, so I know great food can be produced by doing so.

Or it is perhaps that we so very regularly eat such highly charged and spiced food?

The gloriously rich sauce Bennie’s Satay Shakahari ($20.50 ) tasted fantastic to me.

But through eating its “deep-fried skewers of beancurd, seitan (wheat gluten), onion and capsicum dressed with a mildly spiced peanut sauce”, he kept muttering a mantra of “no meat, no meat”.

His grumpiness in that regard was no fault of the restaurant or its food, of course.

And maybe for a 13-year-old, this eating business means meat most of all.

But we both concluded that if we are to enjoy meat-free food – and we do – regular restaurants can and do offer plenty of scope. And often at prices way cheaper than those of Shakahari Too.

Flourless chocolate, cherry and fig pudding ($15.50) – steamed flourless pudding of port macerated figs, cherries and Callebaut Belgium chocolate was the goods, though it seemed to us a little on the dry side.

It was an interesting and enjoyable experience, taking one of Melbourne’s most revered vegetarian eateries for a spin.

In terms of their meals, the mileage of our dining companions no doubt varied from our own, though one who ordered the laksa (top photo) did express dismay at its dullness.

A tasty retreat in the city

3 Comments

Posted on August 8, 2013

Fo Guang Yuan Water Drop Vegetarian Tea House, 141 Queen St, Melbourne. Phone: 9642 2388

The restaurant for lunch is part of a broader set-up.

The dining room proper has a meditation hall right above it, while the outer dining area – in which I am sitting – has a gallery right next door.

They’re all part of a Buddhist centre tucked away in an old Queen St building.

I’m loving the vibe. It’s almost as if I’ve arrived plenty early just so I could spend some time sucking it up.

In a lifespan rapidly approaching the proverbial – or should that be Biblical? – three score, the time I spent as a fully paid-up card-carrying Buddhist seems a long time ago and very brief.

But there’s no doubting the influence Buddhism in general continues to have on my life.

Even if that first-hand experience was in another country and involved the traditions of yet another country and what is generally regarded as a much more complex and some might even say political branch of Buddhism.

It’s a pleasure just to sit, as they say, and rapidly regain my equilibrium in what has been – so far – a crazy week.

I think about the fun to be had in meeting another blogger, Katherine, who writes prolifically in her own pithy and fetching style at New International Students.

The card motto on our table seems weirdly un-Buddhist to me – but I could well be wrong.

And I think, of course, about food on offer here.

It’s a hardcore vegetarian place, with mock meat prominently featured – something that still doesn’t grab me.

But there’s plenty of other action.

There’s daily specials that appear to be served in bento boxes with bowl of soup on the side that look like they play he same role as miso soup in Japanese box meals.

There’s quite a long list of $8 appetisers such rolls, puffs, dumplings and buns that would seem to offer scope for a nice vego yum cha sitting for two or more people.

And there’s stir frys and soup noodles of various kinds.

But I wonder if I’m soon about to wish we’d chosen somewhere with higher levels of salt, oil, spice and oomph.

And surely ordering laksa in such an establishment is an invitation to be presented with something watery, anaemic and comprehensively lacking in spice or heat levels – or any allure whatsoever.

I order the laksa ($12).

I’m instantly surprised and delighted.

There’s three chunks of what I presume are mock beef. I eat one. It’s chewy, meaty but – to my mind – kind of creepy.

I wish they’d replace the mock meat with eggplant, but other than that my laksa is a winner.

The spice levels aren’t extreme but it’s identifiably an authentic laksa, denoted – if the taste, flavour and texture were not enough – with a great many curry leaves.

In addition to the regulation egg and rice noodles and bean sprouts, there’s broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, tofu and – most delightful of all – shredded cabbage.

I’d be happy to get such cabbage an any laksa – vegetarian or otherwise – anytime. It’s cheap, healthy and adds textural interest.

This is a beaut laksa – not as fine as, say, those from my favourite laksa joint, but much better than the listless, weak speciman Bennie and I shared the previous week at the new dumpling place at Highpoint.

Curry puffs ($8) are excellent – grease-free with crisp short pastry outers and mildly spicy spud-based innards.

Katherine likes her vermicelli with vegetarian dumplings in vegetarian minced pork sauce with soup on the side ($10.50).

It’s presented in a sort-of Korean/Japanese fashion and I’m pretty sure it tastes a whole lot better than it looks.

Certainly, my companion cleans her bowl so it gleams.

For all its charm, I wouldn’t want to visit here to too frequently. I reckon the prevalence of mock meat and certain sameness across the menu might lead to interest fatigue.

But as it’s a tranquil, affordable hideaway/retreat, if I was working in the CBD I would be a regular – even if it was of the sometime variety.

By the time we leave halfway through this mid-week lunch sitting, the place is doing brisk business.

Nice to meet you, Katherine!

Lentil As Anything

2 Comments

Posted on December 16, 2012

Matty (left) with Lentil As Anything pals.

Lentil As Anything, 231 Barkly Street, Footscray. Phone: 9689 9784

You all know the drill about Lentil As Anything – pay as you go, or pay as you deem it worthy, or pay what you can … if you can.

The place has been through some well-publicised downs and ups, but seems to be hanging in there.

The reason it hasn’t become a regular for us relates strongly to a couple of rather ordinary meals we had there early in the piece.

Bennie, in particular, has a displayed a profound unwillingness to entertain the idea of a return visit.

For my part, not warming to the place has more to do with the sheer, overwhelming plainness of the food I’ve had there – this just doesn’t click with tastebuds used to the supercharged seasoning of all the other places we habituate, and moreover it all reminds me of vegetarian food nightmares.

And that’s a shame, because in terms of community engagement, Lentil As Anything is darn brilliant and the seasoning tactics reflect the place’s umbrella philosophy.

So with a brief shopping visit to Little Saigon Market dispensed with, it’s time for another look.

I’m rapt to be able to put together an Asian-themed plate with ease – and there’s seasoning to spare.

And this means I don’t have to mess with other offerings, such as coleslaw, sweet potato and pineapple salad, baked macaroni.

Dal – smooth and delicious with onion texture and a nice chilli kick

Spiced beans – lukewarm-turning-cold, but nice and crunchy if a bit stringy at times. There’s a nice chilli zing here, too.

Potato and bottle gourd salad – not as snappy as its companions on my plate, but quite acceptable.

Overall, it’s a fine lunch – and with seasoning and spice levels that could see me becoming a more regular visitor.

It’s as I’m completing my eating and looking to snap a few interior photos that I run in to an old mate from my Sunday Herald Sun days, Matty the photographer.

I am utterly amazed to learn he has been volunteering at Lentil As Anything for a couple of years and even occasionally working at the Ethiopian joint next door.

Equally surprising seems the fact we haven’t crossed paths before now in the west.

Matty and I, like most of our then colleagues, played the newspaper game very hard in every kind of way, most of them extremely unhealthy.

Yet here he is, deeply embedded in Footscray and seemingly happy as all get out to be so profoundly connected to the community.

He talks with pride of the work Lentil As Anything does and we share a moment of wry reflection on how what seemed so very important then seems of so very little account in our new lives.

It’s been good to see you, brother!

Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant

3 Comments

Posted on August 20, 2012

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Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant (Quan Chay Tu Thien), Shop 11 Alfrieda St, St Albans. Phone 0435 397 129

Mock duck, vegan ham, vegan crispy chicken?

I’ve always been a bit sniffy about the concept of “pretend meat”, even if it is a venerable Asian tradition.

We love, eat and cook quite a range of non-meat food, especially Indian at home.

But I’ve long held that if we are to do without meat, then let’s not pretend … so to speak.

I now suspect my ambivalence about mock meat has had quite a lot to do with the fact the Chinese food is not way up high on our list of favoured cuisines – and it’s with Chinese cooking that I most associate these kind of products.

Because I find that when they are matched with Vietnamese food, my whole outlook is transformed.

I am intrigued and tickled pink as I take in the menu at Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant.

Pho, rice paper rolls, vermicelli, “beef” stew, crispy “chicken rice – the menu is packed with Vietnamese staples done in ways that are completely free of meat and seafood.

But whatever broadening of my mind that is transpiring here, I play it safe by ordering a dish that looks like it’ll be a very close cousin of its non-vegetarian version – bun bi cha gio (8.50).

Instead of shredded pork, there’s shredded tofu.

The spring rolls are much more genteel and smooth of interior than I expect, with none of the crunch and texture of nuts or mushrooms I had foreseen.

There’s lettuce, grated carrot, mint, peanuts and bean sprouts, of course, along with the vermicelli, and the accompanying chilli sauce adds a good seasoning kick.

It doesn’t quite have the same flavour kick of the various meaty versions, but a degree of subtlety is only to be expected.

But it’s a nice change, even if a certain mealiness becomes more apparent as I near the end.

It’s big serve and I don’t quite leave my bowl clean.

It’s not until later that realise there’s been no onion or vinegary tang. Perhaps the spiritual and philosophical outlook of the place prevents it, though I notice there are menu items that include garlic.

I’m very interested in this place in general and what’s in those spring rolls in particular.

But I find the robed and smiling staff are no more adept at English than I am at Vietnamese.

So we’re at a stalemate until I gently accost a customer seeking a takeaway lunch, and discover that, yes, she speaks English and will be only too happy to help out.

The spring rolls contain, I am told, nothing more than vegetables and tofu.

The restaurant has been open since late July.

It’s a Buddhist establishment, basically – as the name indicates – being run as a charity, with all the cooking done by monks and nuns.

My lovely translator, Mo, tells me she herself is Buddhist, as are her parents.

She says that while younger generations of Vietnamese are less likely to embrace such spiritual or food traditions, among older generations she believes adherence may be even higher than 20 per cent.

I’m excited about the idea of exploring the menu further – there’s Singapore fried noodles, some good-looking salads, steamboats, straightahead vegetable dishes such as sauteed pumpkin leaves and a whole lot more (see full menu below).

If anyone tries it, please let us know your hits and misses!

There seems every chance Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant will become a magnet for vegetarians, not only from the western suburbs but from all over Melbourne.

Thanks, Mo, for being so gracious about being asked to provide translation aid!

Wholefoods Cafe

Wholefoods Cafe, 2 Baylie Place, Geelong. Phone: 5221 5421

Spending some time in Wholefoods Cafe in Geelong is, for me, like being in an echo chamber.

Long before I plonked myself down in Melbourne, I had immersed myself in a sort-of hippie scene that started in Dunedin during my school days, was nurtured in London even as many of us were simultaneously embracing punk rock and its more caustic love children, and became firmly entrenched in Wellington.

Truth is, almost all my mates were and are too young to claim true hippie status, but we ran with it anyway.

Yoga was big – or, in my case, tai chi and a deep involvement in Tibetan Buddhism that has continued to have profound influence on my approach to life long after I became disenchanted with the baggage that went with it.

Patchouli oil was hot and the pretty much the whole gang – of both genders – sported hairy armpits and legs.

The parties were wild.

It was during this time that I started my long love affair with Indian vegetarian cooking.

It is no doubt extremely immodest of me to say so, but my recollections are that my efforts in that regard were far better than what was generally being eaten.

The food was awful!

Brown rice casserole, anyone?

We cooked with woks, but in our utter and complete ignorance, would chop up the onion, throw it in the wok, then chop up the next vegetable, throw that in … and so on.

The results were, as you can imagine, nothing like the flash-fired wok food we all eat today.

More like mucky, mushy stews … edible is about the best that could be said.

But mostly the memories are fond, so I have no hesitation about wallowing in the nostalgic vibe Wholefoods Cafe summons up in me.

It starts with the mandala signage outside and continues inside with the lovely burnished and creaky wooden floors and the wholefoods takeaway section out back.

The noticeboards have signs for share accommodation, budgies and zumba.

But – oh yes! – there’s all sorts of people flogging the likes of reiki, shamanic hoop drumming, meditation of various kinds, compassion exercises and worthy causes and belief systems too numerous to list.

(Time out here as Kenny cranks up a Grateful Dead CD …)

The deja vu continues with the menu:

Thus it is that in a happy and reflective mood – and, for once, with time to spare in a Geelong working day lunch break – that I look forward to my meal.

Moreoever, having scoped the place out some time ago, I am intent on sampling their “dahl”.

Regular visitors will know that I am never happy about paying upwards of $10 or more for a bowl of lentils when we do such a fine job of cooking them and their pulse cousins various ways at home.

But today I’m relaxed about that, too.

I am expecting a bowl of hippie-style dal (mildly seasoned, unoily) – as opposed to Indian-style-dal (highly seasoned, oily).

Here, customers order at the counter.

The wait seems long, but maybe that’s because I’m standing and the staff seem very busy.

Given my number and taking a seat at one of the communal tables, another longish wait ensues, but I’m happy reading the various newspapers on hand.

What I get for my lunch is a $9 bowl of … hippie-style dal with trimmings.

It’s lovely – and just what I expected and desired.

The dal is smooth and goes down easy.

The yogurt is creamy and even the smear of what I think is commercial chutney works a treat.

The pappadam is crunchy and grease-free.

It’s been more years than I can recall since I had brown rice, but here its nuttiness is the perfect foil for the rest of my meal.

Wholefoods – cafe, shop and catering – has been around for what I am told is “decades”.

These days it’s an arm of Diversitat, so is deeply embedded in its community, offering training and cooking courses and the like.

If I lived locally, it’d be a regular part of my routine … for all sorts of different reasons.

Dal deluxe

6 Comments

Posted on March 18, 2012

I learned this style of dal cooking from Yamua Devi’s book, The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking.

Sub-titled Lord Krishna’s Cuisine, this book details spiritually inclined Indian cooking that eschews – marvellous word! – garlic and onions.

Instead, many of the dishes use chillis, ginger, lemon juice and coriander.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups pulses

1 tsp turmeric

salt (optional)

good-sized chunk fresh ginger/galangal

1 fresh green chilli

3 ripe or very ripe tomatoes

1 tsp cumin seeds

oil

1 lemon

1 small bunch fresh coriander

Method

Unless using red lentils or moong dal, soak pulses overnight or at least for the best part of a day. In this case I use channa dal and urad dal because that’s what I have most of on hand.

Drain pulses, place in big pot.

Add turmeric and salt.

I know, I know – salt is Bad.

But I find if I don’t add it to my Indian cooking, it just doesn’t have anything resembling the sort of authentic Indian flavour I seek. Moderation is the key – in this case I use a teaspoon of salt. I suspect an Indian restaurant or household may’ve used 3-4 teaspoons!

Give the salt a miss and you’ll end up with a tasty meal that is of vegetarian nature rather than Indian. And that’s fine, too!

Cover with plenty of water, bring to boil and cook on low heat until pulses collapse into a near-mush.

It’s important at all stages to keep the water content very high – in fact, higher than you may think wise.

When served, dal always coagulates on the plate or in the bowl.

It it’s too thick in the pot, it’ll become an unseemly stodge when served.

So keep it really runny!

Meanwhile, dice the spuds into smallish bite-sized chunks and add to the dal about halfway through its cooking process.

You can keep the dal as a pristine dish if you’re cooking a proper Indian meal with other dishes.

But often we find adding spuds or carrots makes for an easier, quick-cook all-in-one meal.

Don’t worry about the spuds being overcooked – if they collapse a bit, it just adds to the texture. A bit like the spuds in beef rendang and the like.

As the dal mix becomes thoroughly cooked, slice the chilli, grate or chop the ginger/galangal and chop the tomatoes.

Sometimes I finely grate the ginger, but more recently I’ve taken to taking the time to slice it into thin strands.

This delivers more of surprising flavour hit and is inspired by the profoundly gingery dal I had at Maurya in Sunshine.

About this time, it’s a good idea to lower the heat under the dal mix even further if possible or take off the heat entirely.

Especially if you’re using gas, it doesn’t take much of a flame to have the pulses sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Heat oil until medium hot.

Throw in 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and fry until fragrant.

Lower the heat a little and throw in the sliced chilli and ginger.

Stir and fry for 3-4 minutes.

Throw in the chopped tomatoes.

Stir and cook until the tomato pieces are just starting to break down but still holding their shape.

Throw tomato/ginger/chilli/cumin mix into the pot of dal.

Stir and let cook for five minutes or so until the flavours are emancipated.

When ready to serve and eat, throw in the coriander and, finally, squeeze in juice of a lemon.

We try to get small bunches of coriander and use the whole lot in one bang – stalks and all. It doesn’t keep very well.

Serve with rice, raita and your choice of breads and side dishes.

A Taste Explosion!

Atithi Indian Restaurant

15 Comments

Posted on February 5, 2012

Atithi Indian Restaurant, 730 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9326 0482

Atithi is an Indian vegetarian restaurant that takes its name from the Sanskrit phrase “Atithi Devo Bhavah”, which means “Guest are God”.

We like that approach!

It resides in a stretch of Mt Alexander Rd near Puckle St in Moonee Ponds that often seems ripe for foodie adventures, but along which we find most places closed when we’re in the vicinity, Dr Strangeloves aside.

Earlier in the week, when passing by, we’d parked and gone for a look-see.

Our response to the restaurant’s motto, part of the outdoor signage, was damn near pavlovian.

“For Who Know Value of Taste.”

So eloquent, so adorable – this place went right to the top of our to-do list, and we’re back for real in just a few days.

On entering, we appreciate the whirring fans and AC on the job.

Both the walls and floor are tiled, while tables are dressed with cloth tablecloths and paper. It’s quite a nice , tranquil vibe.

Initially, we’re a little taken aback by the stern words placed at the bottom of each page of the menu warning us to be prepared for a half-hour 45-minute wait for a our meal.

We cover that base by ordering bhel puri from the Indian Street Food Menu – “Round puri, puffed rice and fine chickpeas noodles mix in onion, tomato, Fresh apple, beetroot, and potato served with chutney” for $7.

We know that in India such like as bhel puri are not ordered as part of a meal, but we often find ourselves ordering them as we are normally not in a position to adhere to afternoon snack tradition.

Bhel puri at Atithi.

This is less crunchy and crackly than I expect, but still a tangy way to get our dinner rolling. Bennie finds the raw white/brown onion quotient overpowering.

Mix veg sizzler at Atithi.

Mix veg sizzler – “mix vegies and pettish cooked in special tomato sauce serve in leafs bowl” ($15) – is a voyage into the unknown for us.

It’s super rich, gloopy and tasty.

Mixed under the cheese and tomato sauce is a jumble of a whole roasted green capsicum, corn kernels, peas, diced potato and carrot and more cheese.

It’s a huge serve – more appropriate for sharing among four people with a mix of other dishes.

This is much more than a tomato sauce, I subsequently discover when chatting to chef Mitesh Patel.

It’s actually a bechamel sauce made of, yes, tomato but also ghee, flour, milk, sugar, salt and pepper.

No wonder it seems so rich!

This sort of dish is not really Indian or Indo-Chinese – it’s more an Indian fusion sort of thing generated by Indian chefs working in Europe and returning home full of ideas and inspirations.

The mix veg sizzler comes from the continental section of menu, which also includes Pineapple/Veg Macaroni ($14) and Paneer Stick Sizzler ($17), which I presume must be even richer again.

From the Indo-Chinese dishes we’ve ordered hakka noodles – “Noodles cooked with special sauces and fresh vegetable” ($12).

Hakka noodles at Atithi.

This is OK, but seems a little on the pricey side. Bennie finds it too spicy, even though we’d said medium when asked.

The version enjoyed at the old Pandu’s benefitted from the having little bowls of vinegar and sauces soy and tomato on the side.

If there is an uneveness in our meal we’re happy to attribute it to a clumsy attempt to get to grips with a strange menu. More advanced navigation skills may have allowed us to choose more complementary dishes.

I’d originally envisioned basing our meal around one of the dosa selections, but the dosas are not yet available.

Perhaps we’d have been better off by gravitating towards the standard curry menu, which includes two kinds of dal, peneer and kofta dishes, and entrees such as pakoras.

You can check out the Aitithi menu options at the restaurant’s website.

Nevertheless, we welcome the addition of a dedicated vegetarian eatery to our neighbourhood when often it seems Indian restaurants relegate vegetable dishes to after-thought status.

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Western suburbs taste great

Tag Archives: Vegetarian food

Very vego Vietnamese

Vinh Nguyen Bakehouse, 35 Perth Avenue, Albion. Phone: 0404 854 663

A whole lot of good

Eka Wholefoods Cafe, 129 Buckley Street, Seddon. Phone: 0412 485 132

Mother Nora’s new adventure

Saffron Kitchen, Laverton Community Hub, 95-105 Railway Avenue, Laverton. Phone: 8368 0177

ASRC catering rocks!

Asian tucker without meat?

Shakahari Too, 225 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne.Phone: 9682 2207

A tasty retreat in the city

Fo Guang Yuan Water Drop Vegetarian Tea House, 141 Queen St, Melbourne. Phone: 9642 2388

Lentil As Anything

Lentil As Anything, 231 Barkly Street, Footscray. Phone: 9689 9784

Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant

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Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant (Quan Chay Tu Thien), Shop 11 Alfrieda St, St Albans. Phone 0435 397 129

Wholefoods Cafe

Wholefoods Cafe, 2 Baylie Place, Geelong. Phone: 5221 5421

Dal deluxe

Atithi Indian Restaurant

Atithi Indian Restaurant, 730 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9326 0482

Vinh Nguyen Bakehouse, 35 Perth Avenue, Albion. Phone: 0404 854 663

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Eka Wholefoods Cafe, 129 Buckley Street, Seddon. Phone: 0412 485 132

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Saffron Kitchen, Laverton Community Hub, 95-105 Railway Avenue, Laverton. Phone: 8368 0177

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Shakahari Too, 225 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne.Phone: 9682 2207

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Fo Guang Yuan Water Drop Vegetarian Tea House, 141 Queen St, Melbourne. Phone: 9642 2388

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Lentil As Anything, 231 Barkly Street, Footscray. Phone: 9689 9784

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Charitable Vegetarian Restaurant (Quan Chay Tu Thien), Shop 11 Alfrieda St, St Albans. Phone 0435 397 129

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Wholefoods Cafe, 2 Baylie Place, Geelong. Phone: 5221 5421

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Atithi Indian Restaurant, 730 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9326 0482

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