Blue Corn, St Kilda

I recently got to revisit Melbourne for a working weekend and took advantage of the opportunity to catch up with friends while I was there. For dinner one night I met a friend at Blue Corn in St Kilda. Despite having lived in St Kilda & Elwood for many years, I had never eaten at Blue Corn, mainly because of the prices. It's not overly expensive by any means, but it was always out of reach for my student-poverty lifestyle at the time.

I can't believe I waited so long. Blue Corn is AWESOME! My friend convinced me to have a margherita to start - isn't it beautiful?

I ordered the dips, which came with cornbread, corn chips & olives. It was huge, just as Carla had described! I loved the variety in flavours too - from memory the dips were guacamole, tomato/capsicum, hummus, olive & I really can't remember the fifth one. The cornbread was super-fresh & delicious too.

We had dessert at home, which was a mouth-watering bowl of fruit salad with lemon sorbet. In my opinion, the absolutely most perfect way to finish off a gorgeous meal.

I definitely recommend Blue Corn for south-side vegans - in my opinion it easily stacks up to Trippy Taco. The atmosphere is fun and the staff are friendly and laid-back, all in all a great place to hang out for the night.

Blue Corn
205 Barkly St, St Kilda
Mon-Fri 6-11pm; Sat-Sun 9am-11pm (these opening hours are unconfirmed - best to call them to check - 9534 5996)

Mega Cafe Catch-up Part 2

Whoa, nearly 3 months between posts. This week I'm making a huge effort to get this blog up to date. Because I have another project underway, which I'm itching to tell you about.

Here's some food porn of meals eaten in the last 6 months or so.
This was a meal shared with friends at the (then) newly opened Merri Table & Bar - part of the CERES complex in Brunswick. This was some kind of tasting plate made vegan. It included some yummy vegetable tempura, a carrot & cabbage salad, tomato salad & delicious fresh figs. The drink was recommended by the waiter & was probably the highlight - from memory I think it was a fresh plum crush.

The space here is fantastic - light & airy, pretty minimalist. We took advantage of a warm day & sat on the balcony. My only real complaint about The Merri is that for a restaurant aiming for sustainability, there wasn't an awful lot of vegan choice on the menu. However, I have just checked their winter menu - it seems to have improved a fair bit with the vegan & vegan option items clearly marked. They're off to a great start & I would definitely go back.

The Merri Table & Bar
CERES Environment Park, Cnr Roberts and Stewarts Streets, East Brunswick
Wed-Sat 12-9.30pm; Sun 10am-3pm
www.ceres.org.au/themerri

Here we have what must surely be the ultimate in vegan food porn - the big vegan breakfast at Soul Food Cafe. I've always experienced pretty hit & miss service at Soul Food, which is a shame, because their food is awesome & the servings are always huge. This breakfast includes scrambled tofu, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, hash browns, as well as toast with Nuttelex.

Soul Food Cafe
273 Smith St, Fitzroy
Mon-Sat 8am-11pm
www.soulfoodcafe.com.au

Next up we have another serving of the veganised Poached Pears at Monk Bodhi Dharma. The service had improved this time. I'm making the call that this is the best sweet vegan breakfast you will find anywhere. 'Nuff said.

Monk Bodhi Dharma
Rear 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava
Mon-Fri 7am-5pm; Sat-Sun 8am-5pm
www.monkbodhidharma.com.au

Finally, a gratefully found vegan pasta salad in Wangaratta. I needed to kill 2hrs before a train back to Melbourne & had tramped around most of the cafes in Wangaratta when I finally found this one. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the cafe! It was in Ovens St & had a lovely courtyard out the back. The salad was really good too - just the right amount of olive oil & simply seasoned with salt, pepper & fresh basil.

Slow Down, St Kilda

We headed across town this morning with the intention of visiting Galleon for breakfast (I LOVE their scrambled tofu). Unfortunately we got there around 10.30, which is too late for a Sunday - there were already people lined up down the street waiting for a table. I was disappointed, but thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try Slow Down! again. We first visited over a year ago & I remembered getting a delicious stuffed capsicum dish & was sure I saw other vegan options on the menu.

Unfortunately, the menu has changed, and none of the vegan dishes I remembered have made it onto the new one. The philosophy of this cafe is organic, local, sustainable & ethical. I think it's kind of funny that the majority of dishes on the menu at an 'ethical' cafe are based on meat & the remaining few are dairy or egg-centric. Anyway, we had already sat down & the atmosphere inside is great, plus they have good coffee & attentive service; so we decided to try & make the best of it.

I chose the Avocado & Lime on Rye Toast (minus the feta). Not what I felt like at all, but it was the only meal on the menu I could veganise - there wasn't even the normal 'toast with sides' option. D opted for the scrambled eggs with cheese. The coffees came out quickly, but the food took a while. I didn't mind too much this morning though - as I mentioned, this place has a great atmosphere - I think it would make a perfect dinner venue, if only the menu was more vegan-friendly :-(When the meals arrived I was pretty disappointed - you probably can't tell from the photo, but mine was tiny! And the toast was cold & tasted quite stale (which I think was a result of my meal sitting on the servery for about 10mins while they waited for D's eggs to cook). D didn't like his eggs either - he said they tasted like macaroni cheese. To top things off, when we got the bill, I noticed they had charged me 90c extra for soy milk! Way way way over the top!

In summary, I don't recommend Slow Down! for vegans but vegetarians will find something to eat, even if they won't have much choice. The atmosphere & service are both great, but the organic menu means the prices are higher than other places in the area.

Slow Down!
56 Acland St, St Kilda
Breakfast from 8am every day; Dinner Wed-Sat from 5pm
www.slowdown.net.au