Pizza and Gelato

This is the week. After experiencing some technical issues that led me to believe I’d lost a whole bunch of photos, and the subsequent joy of finding said photos, I’m doing it! I’m getting rid of the backlog!

And first on the list, a trip to Eat Pizza in the city.

I’m not sure just how long Eat Pizza have had inner city locations – there is one in North Melbourne and one in the CBD – but I do recall believing that they were only in Footscray and Maribyrnong. Now looking at their website, I’m not even sure the Maribyrnong one still exists.

Regardless of when they arrived, they are definitely there.

While Eat Pizza are not an exclusively vegan or even vegetarian pizza shop, they do offer vegan cheese, ham and salami at an extra cost. We headed in to the Flinders St location to check it out one evening on our way to a gig in the city.

We went with a classic vegetarian with pineapple, vegan cheese and vegan salami (and a sprinkle of chili flakes). The first thing I noticed was how generous Eat Pizza are with their toppings! Every single slice had a large circle of vegan salami and there was plenty of cheese. The base was beautifully soft and doughy, and overall, the pizza was excellent.

A slight structural issue – as the salami took up almost the whole slice, and everything else was stacked on top of that, we had a few problems with topping sliding every which way. And personal choice – I would have chucked a bit more tomato on the base, and a bit more chili on top – but that’s just me.

I’m pretty psyched to have another vegan pizza option so close by, though it doesn’t seem like they do delivery which means you have to put in a bit of effort to get your pizza.

On another occasion, the bear and I went for a bit walk around the city, out to Carlton, Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond. It’s only natural that we would need an ice cream pitstop during this adventure.

Luckily, Casa Del Gelato was there to service our needs. Casa Del Gelato has been selling gelato from their Lygon st location since 1980 – holy moly! They have a huge range of vegan sorbets, but also a selection of six or so soya gelatos, which include creamy flavours like chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio and coffee.

The bear ended up going for some dairy flavours, while I matched the bacio and coffee flavours. What can I say? I love ice cream, and I especially love being able to choose flavours that aren’t usually on offer (read: something other than sorbet). Creamy and delicious. I don’t care if it’s winter, ice cream rules! Thank you Casa Del Gelato, I love you!

Eat Pizza
1c/557 Flinders St, Melbourne
(See website for Nth Melbourne, Footscray and Glenroy locations)
Mon – Thurs – 10.30am – 10.30pm
Fri – 10.30am – 11.30pm
Sat – 12pm – 11.30pm
Sun – 12pm – 10.30pm

Casa Del Gelato
163 Lygon St, Carlton
Open 7 days, 12pm – 12am

Shakahari

As a social worker, I am expected to case note everything I do (phone calls, emails, client appointments) within 48 hours of the event occurring (but preferably immediately). This is for obvious reasons – the longer you leave it, the more likely you are to miss important details. Before I leave work in the evening I catch up on any notes from throughout the day that I haven’t yet had a chance to write up.

I only wish I could have such a sense of urgency with my blogging! This post dates back to March, and as a result, the details of the meal are kind of fuzzy. This meal took place as a celebration for me starting my first ‘real’ job, and so naturally I chose to have it at Shakahari.

Shakahari have long been one of my favourites – I’ve had many a ‘special occasion’ dinner here, in fact, it has always been one of my main go-to celebration meal place. Even with more and more amazing vegan eateries popping up all the time, Shakahari still holds a special place in my heart and continues to provide outstanding vegetarian food. I still remember drinking my first ever long island iced tea here on a birthday years back.

Shakahari have been dishing up amazing vegetarian dishes in Carlton since 1972, and have now expanded to open a second restaurant – Shakahari Too – in South Melbourne. They also hold the title of the longest running exclusively vegetarian restaurant in Australia – how cool is that?

We got a couple of entrees to share to start us off, and found it difficult to select just three. This was the rainbow pate – I was definitely attracted to the colour in this dish. The pate was lovely, though we could have done with a couple more crackers to split between us.

This is a terrible picture of the avocado magic – a sort of avocado tempura. I remember enjoying this one a few years back, and it didn’t disappoint this time either. The sauce is coriander based, and brings a wonderful strong flavor to the creamy avocado.

Lastly, some delicious treats – I can’t remember what they are! I’m looking at the menu thinking it must be the mushroom agnolotti. Whatever it was, I do remember it was delicious.

For my main, I ordered the ‘Legendary Satay Shakahari’. I can understand why it’s legendary – the satay sauce is the stickiest, creamiest, peanutiest satay sauce ever, and the differing textures of the tofu, seitan and vegetables work a treat.

Other orders on the table included this dish, which again, I cannot remember – it had many components and from memory the zucchini bits were kind of pickled?

A couple of people on the table went for the laksa, which was also full of amazing tofu, tempeh and seitan textures.

Somebody else enjoyed this beautiful pesto pasta dish, topped with soy cheese and pine nuts.

I think there was another main, but it didn’t make the cut due to it’s non-veganness (totally a word).

Finally, what meal at Shakahari is complete without a tofu crème caramel? ARGHYUMMM. This is a perfect dessert – silky tofu topped with crunchy pistachio toffee and drizzled with a sweet caramel sauce. Yaaaaayyy! I think most people on the table got this, though there were a few non-vegan options making an appearance too.

Phew, I bumbled my way through that one. Luckily, my blog is not going to ever be subpoenaed for court (I hope), so I guess the sketchy details don’t matter too much. Or the sketchy photos. Hmm. Lesson learnt – I think it’s time to try and cut through my backlog again. See you soon blog-world!

Shakahari
201-203 Faraday St, Carlton
Mon-Fri – 12pm – 3pm and 6pm – 9.30pm
Sat – 12pm – 3pm and 6pm – 10.30pm
Sun – 6pm – 10.30pm