Bodhi Cafe

Mr T and I stumbled across a new vegetarian restaurant today by accident. It's called Bodhi Cafe and is located at 241 Victoria st, Abbotsford near the corner of punt rd and Victoria st. It was perfect timing because we were starving.

I ordered kumquat tea and BBQ Pork with fragrant rice (flavoured with mint and soybean crisps) and Mr T ordered the tofu don dish. The kumquat tea was perfectly sweet, the BBQ pork was beautifully presented and the rice was so yummy you could eat it by itself. The BBQ pork itself was up to the standards of all the mock meat places in Melbourne. Unlike other Chinese veg places in Melb though this had a more relaxed cafe feel, and instead of just BBQ pork you got a bit of a variety on your plate. Mr T thought his meal was boring but he did order the dish minus the egg that it normally comes with and if you ask me he ordered the most boring thing on the menu.

Kumquat tea (almost finished ohhps)

BBQ Pork

Mr T's 'boring' tofu don dish

I was very impressed, the decor was cute, the food was cheap with mains costing between $8 to $9 and best of all it is open til 11pm everyday except for Monday.

On the downside or the upside depending on your perspective there are more teas and coffees to chose from than there are main meals. There are only 10 mains to choose from but you can order things like lavender latte, and peanut butter coffee and red date/longan tea. They also had entrees like spring rolls and chicken nuggets and a variety of desserts (none of the desserts looks vegan friendly though). The mains alone though left us quite full. Here's a copy of the mains page on the menu:



It reminded me of Hong Kong cafes and like a smaller version of Fo Guang Yuan tea house.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

It was only after I returned from Hong Kong that I discovered that vegan mooncakes exist.

I visited an asian supermarket today and stood in line with about 30 other people to purchase some more mooncakes (my second box).

I recommend red bean paste ones or lotus seed flavoured mooncakes. They normally say on the labels how many egg yolks they have in them so just look for the ones that don't have any eggs in them, they are generally the cheapest. They also come in pretty red tin boxes which I am sure I will find some purpose for. Tradition has it that you should cut each one into 4 or 8 pieces see here for instructions (yes someone actually posted pics of how to cut a mooncake).

Pic taken from http://melbournechinesenewyear.com.au

Crazy food combinations

I don't know how I have missed it. But I only just discovered the regular blog event called They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT). The food nerd in me was so excited when I found it. I'm really impressed with some of the participating entries including Green Gourmet Giraffes Peanut Stew with Bananas . I can't wait to give some of the parings a go especially bananas and parsley, strawberries and coriander and mint and mustard . I know that the time has past to participate in those particular parings, but I am still going to give them a go and share the results. To find out more about how it works and other pairings go here. I should probably also mention that the latest pairing is lavender and apple and the deadline is October 1st. I'm not a huge fan of lavender flavoured anything so I will be giving that one a miss.

Home Song Stories

Home Song Stories is a movie about a chinese woman who migrates to Australia with her two children in the 60's to be with an Australian man. The story is told through the eyes of her son and written and director by Tony Ayres in an attempt to understand his own mother better. Joel Lokin who plays Tony Ayres is an adorable, captivating and very convincing young actor. If for no other reason it is worth seeing it for his amazing acting ability. If you need other reasons the story is very interesting. Other films, may have focused on the migration aspect, but this focuses on family and relationships and more specifically his mother who goes from relationship to relationship and who turns out to be quite a complex character. The cinematography is also beautiful. I read some review that likened it to In the Mood for Love but I wouldn't put in the same category. Can anything really beat in the Mood for Love or be its equal? That's not to say its not beautiful , it is! It's also an Australian film and one of the few ones that doesn't have typical embarrassing yobbo characters. Yay!

Only one word of warning: if you have a tendency to cry at sad parts in films take a pack of tissues with you.

Pretty Tassie

I know Tasmania is beautiful but didn't realise that Hobart itself is such a pretty city/town. I just wish I took more photos inside the town and around Salamanca, but I think I made up for it by taking lots of pictures elsewhere.


The weather was beautiful and around 16 degrees the whole weekend but it was freezing on top of Mt Wellington which is only a 30 minute drive away and yes there was even a bit of snow.

A viewfrom Mt Wellington, it doesn't do the sight justice but it was too cold to play around with my camera settings.

View from our room in battery point

Salamanca Market(I got the vegan pies from the summer kitchen stall on the left), I love how the mountains are so visible from Hobart itself.
View from Treetop walk.

I will post more pics later, the reason I am posting like crazy at the moment is because I am home sick and quite bored right now.