Fundies Wholefood Cafe

VGirl and I went to Fundies Wholefoods on Mothers Day, before you go thinking why we didn't take Mama Pham with us, she was working that day and had already received her Mother's Day present. We had originally planned to go to Kettle and Tin but the line was out the door, so to Fundies, land of the veggo brekkies!

Fundies is half organic wholefoods cafe and half organic/wholefoods/supplements shop. We had a bit of a look around but sat down for lunch pretty quickly since we were so hungry.

Nice pictures!

This is the front counter. There is a glass drinks cabinet on the size and also a hot pie oven.

VGirl was intrigued

Here is a link to their menu! Below is a copy of the specials for the time that we went.

VGirl got this Phoenix Lemon, Lime and Bitters drink, its lightly carbonated as in tastes like slightly flat soft drink. She said she liked it like that.

Hmmm

I got a soy flat white and I thought it was pretty good! The coffee roasters here is an organic roaster from Byron Bay called Zentveld's.

F is for Fundies!

We got given our cutlery in a jar, I don't why but I was tickled pink by this at the time.

Interesting

I got the smoked salmon supreme, organic New Zealand smoked salmon with capers, lemon, spinach, organic poached eggs, purple onion, dill aioli and toasted Turkish bread soldiers. I thought it was a pretty decent breakfast, I have no complaints about any of the ingredients or the choice of them either. This was a tried and true classic combination of flavours and if you love your organic food I'd say this is the place for you!

Solid

VGirl had a really hard time picking what she wanted to eat since for once she had a billion choices. She got the vegan sausage, organic shallot and potato rosti, poached eggs, wilted spinach, lemon and salsa, capsicum jam and chipotle mayonnaise. The vegan sausage tasted like stuffing. She said that she would bring our vegetarian friend Mandy here one day since there was so much choice for the two of them.

Fundies Wholefood Cafe
Atmosphere: 7. your local cafe!
Service: 5, solid, I have no complaints.
Food: 8, good organic food. A great place to go if you want more than your standard vegetarian options.

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant

True fact, VGirl and I love Malaysian/Indonesian food, its often halal, has a huge emphasis on vegetarian cuisine, massive portions of food, cheap prices, its a wonderful combination of Asian cuisines that we love and also mi goreng is gods gift to noodle lovers. So its a bit of a mystery why we haven't been to Jakarta in New Farm on an earlier occasion.

This place!

We got there so early that they were still opening up the restaurant when we arrived. It got pretty busy as we were leaving, lots of ex-pats and their Indonesian wives from the sound of it! It's pretty easy to spot from Brunswick Street, its pretty close to the Night Owl so its relatively easy to find!

This spot!

It has a really traditional Balinese kinda feel? It reminds me of the Indonesian lote class I had in primary school or at least the way that my teacher decorated the room!

I like it!

Lots and lots of tables

Here is their menu!

I got the ayam goreng tepung as my snack, because an entire dish of fried chicken is a snack of course. This was a described as marinated and deep fried chicken pieces. They look lightly battered to me and were quite salty, I found the proportion to be a bit stingy/lacking for the price of a main dish. I think this would be perfect for a group to sharing but as a complimentary dish, that's all you get!

Hmmmm~

VGirl got vegetarian bakmi goreng, she remarked that this was quite a healthy rendition with lots and lots of vegetables, onions, kai lan, tomato and carrot. We both found that this dish wasn't as flavoursome as the one that we at Sambal Oelek but it had a much greater charry flavour. She also wanted more visible bits of egg and so stole my fried egg from my plate with my blessing.

Not bad though!

I got the nasi goreng istimewa, Indonesian style fried rice topped with a fried egg, two chicken satay skewers and prawn crackers. It was a moderately sized meal but it gave me a good sample of two of the staples you find in any Indonesian restaurant, nasi goreng and chicken satay! I found the fried rice to be pretty good but the chicken satay was much better. It had a lovely sauce that I wish I had a lot more of!

Jakarta:
Atmosphere: 8, a cute little slice of Indonesia! I really liked the layout and warm setting of the restaurant.
Service: 8, super friendly and insightful service, The young waitress was probably about the same age of us but was very professional.
Food: 7, solid food for a cheap price. This would be great for a get together with friends, where you sit around, share food and chat for ages, not to mention its BYO so a cheap way to get wasted.

Emjays Coffee - Friday Knock Offs

I can only imagine what it would be like having a 9-5 job, working weekdays and knowing that relief of having the entire weekend stretching in front of you when it comes to Friday afternoons. As a shift working ward nurse, I don't have that luxury but I got to have a glimpse of that when I got invited to Emjays Coffee when they started their Friday Knock Offs menu! It's a discounted drinks, happy hour, sliders and bar food menu, perfect to unwind after a busy week and usher in the weekend!

It's easy to locate on the corner of Wharf and Adelaide Street. Here is their website.

This place!

It has a typical bar setting inside and this bright courtyard style seating. 

We sat down the back

Here is the menu!

Perfect

SLIDERS

We were allowed to get unlimited sliders, Asahi beer on tap and free champagne for the hour that we were there. I went with Mandy, VGirl and JGirl. We tried absolutely everything! We got two plates of their vege sliders which were a cheesy quinoa crumbed patty and a perfectly seasoned, super creamy avocado. You know how much I love meat, but this was honestly the best veggie burger I've ever had. The quinoa made a perfect crunchy coating for the oozy cheese interior and made it very textually interesting. My only criticism is that the burger buns are a touch dry and stale for all of them, I guess they would have been prepped ahead of time so that would explain the dryness.

The best

This was a perfect round slider with a big round beef patty, slice of pickle, mustard and cheese. I was very happy with the ratio of filling to bun with this slider. I loved the juiciness of the patty.

That ratio tho

These were the pulled pork and coleslaw slider and the Tex Mex chicken slider. The pulled pork was tender, moist and had a creamy coleslaw that was not too watery and very crisp. The Tex Mex chicken had a mildly spicy flavour and creamy guacamole underneath it as well. 

Mmm

We also got a big bowl of beer battered chips with pepper aioli to share. These chips were fat, thickly cut and super fluffy, they were a touch too salty but we still enjoyed them.

Emjay's Coffee
Atmosphere:
Service: 10, really good, super fast service. Considering how deep the queues were, the servers did an amazing job on the night we went, constantly scanning the bar for empty glasses, and clearing plates like machines.
Food: 7, pretty good! The bread was dry and the chips overly salty but this would be a great place to go for after work drinks. 

CT Coffee and Restaurant

On New Years Day, VGirl, JGirl and I went to Inala to get groceries for our Banh Mi dinner party, hosted by yours truly. While we were there grabbing groceries, we decided to go for lunch! We randomly picked this place as it was one of the few places open and it had vegetarian options for VGirl.

It's in the Inala Shopping centre on the outside, its pretty easy to find.

This place!

Chay is the word for vegetarian in Vietnamese, so these are the dishes that they can make specially vegetarian! Bun rieu is usually a tomato and crab noodle soup. Bun cha gio is a spring roll and vermicelli salad. Banh xeo is the tumeric crepe stuffed with lots of veggies and meat. Out of those three options, the first one would be the hardest one to do.

The bun rieu is the exciting bit

They have a massive collection of artificial flavours for bubble tea. VGirl loves artifically flavoured bubble teas, like Healthy Cup, Easy Way, Hazel Tea, Cha Time and that sorta thing. She has an unhealthy disdain for real fruit in her bubble tea like that used at Sakuraya and Gong Cha.

All the colours of the rainbow!

Here is their super extensive menu.

I really like that the entire menu and all the labels are both in English and Vietnamese. As you know, I do love help yourself cutlery and condiments. The hallmark of any solid Asian restaurant!

DIY

Classic

JGirl wanted the pork chop and broken rice. It came with a little dish of soup that had a plain pork flavour to it.

Plain soup!

The pork chop was actually two pieces that had been split down the center, it was a pretty huge piece and it was exactly as the name suggested, pork chop and rice, nothing more, nothing less! The pork was tender, juicy and had a nice charry flavour.

Classic

I got the prawn mousse and vermicelli salad bowl. The prawn mousse here was odd, it was quite dense which is unusual for the style, the mousse is normally quite light and fluffy not this heavy almost chewy texture. I'm not sure what happened, but it was still pretty tasty. There was a good amount of salad veggies in the bowl and they were all very fresh looking, no dodgy brown bits here! The Vietnamese fish sauce mixture they gave me was quite bland, so I added extra fish sauce, lemon and sugar to it to bulk it up. 

Hmm~

I got the avocado milkshake. I forgot how super sweet traditional Vietnamese people make their drinks. I diluted it twice with water to make it palatable, a lot of Vietnamese drinks are super sweet and heavily iced so that they have time to melt and dilute it down. It is very refreshing on a hot day, I must say, but I'm a busy lady who ain't got time for that!

Its very pale, good flavour though

So here is VGirl's vegetarian bun rieu! It had lots of ripe tomato, tofu and egg pieces in the fluffy raft that is the signature of bun rieu. The soup was quite tasty and VGirl was very happy with her dish.

CT Coffee and Restaurant
Atmosphere: 8, super busy Vietnamese restaurant. It reminds me of home, especially with the huge tables of Vietnamese families with kids eating at the table, kids running underfoot, Paris by Night playing in the background and all the Vietnamese people everywhere.
Service: 9, really lovely. We got bossed around by the owner, who insisted that we sit down, take up the entire table and told us that of course they had vegetarian food! It's just like how my mum and aunts boss me around . . . even now, that I'm a grown woman.
Food: 7, authentic, cheap Vietnamese food and lots of it. What else could you want!