Happy New Year's Eve!

Arrived in NYC this morning and got picked up by Shannon! :)

Bonding Tea Time:

Tea w/chocolate soymilk
(Catching up with my roomie over tea. I get to spend half a day with her before jetting off to London!)

Breakfast:

Cereal (cinnamon toast crunch, honey bunches of oats, chex)  w/chocolate soymilk
(Cinnamon toast crunch is my guilty pleasure cereal. Yum.)

Snack:

Cereal mixture w/bananas & chocolate soymilk

Dinner on the plane to London:

Mixed fruit, mixed salad, bread roll, veggie curry
(The menu had some kind of braised beef, chicken curry and creamy veggie pasta so I was just going to order the chicken curry and pick out the weird airplane chicken.  I was pleasantly surprised when one of the flight attendants came by and gave me a vegetarian dinner tray; I guess I had requested a vegetarian meal when I ordered my ticket and forgot about it. So yay! The curry was salty, as expected, but the meal was about as enjoyable as it could be for airplane food.)

Good-bye, California!

I'm taking the red-eye flight out to NYC after stopping in California for about thirty short hours.

Breakfast:

Green smoothie (kale, pomegranate juice, pineapple, banana, blueberries)

Lunch at La Vic's (La Victoria Taqueria), San Jose, CA:

Carne asada nacho fries w/orange sauce & chili verde (shared w/Jenny & TK)
(Aww, I've missed these chicas and fake cheese. I didn't eat the carne asada, but I did eat way too many fries.)

Snack:

Pumpkin pie w/lime tortilla chips
(The pumpkin pie is too mushy, but it tastes great with these chips! My sister thinks the combination tastes like a doughnut.)

Snack:

Granola

Snack:

Quinoa wrap w/hot sauce, avocado, crushed tortilla chips & blended kale

Snack:

Smoked salmon w/avocado on multigrain tortilla chip

Snack:

Pumpkin pie w/multigrain lime tortilla chip (shared w/sister)

 Snack:

Pineapple
(I love pineapple! I don't think London will have any.)

Late night gorging before my flight:

Cheesecake (ate too much)
(My mom brought home cheesecake, and my sister and I cut a huge piece of the pumpkin pie to eat with it. Let's just say I think I crashed on the flight because of all the sugar.)

Flan
(Loved how this one wasn't sweet. I don't like custard, but I love flan.)

Happy birthday Karen!!!

And good-bye Australia!

I'm about to fly back to California and redo the 29th of Dec. Can't believe my time here is over.

Too. Much. Food.

Breakfast:

Coffee, greens 3 juice, peas & corn

Snack:

Mixed nuts (ate throughout the day/night/day again)

Meal on the plane:

OJ, chocolate bar (didn't eat), pasta (ate a few bites), mixed greens, bread roll (ate w/pasta sauce), honey & fig panna cotta (ate two forkfuls)
(The pasta was too soggy and the panna cotta was too sweet and creamy.)

 Snack on the plane:

Mango ice cream
(I liked this.)

 Snack on the plane:

Apple, crackers & cheese (ate a bite of the cheese)

 Snack on the plane:

Roasted red pepper & tomato pizza sub

 Breakfast on the plane:

OJ (drank a sip), coffee, apple, muesli, mixed fruit, muffin (ate two bites), milk (didn't drink)
(I think the muffin had coconut in it.)

Snack:

Apple
(Almost in Los Angeles!!!)

Snack:

Assorted chocolate covered things from Australia (ate a piece of each)
(My cousin's gift to my family so I had to wait until I got home to try this.)

Snack:

Bread roll
(My favourite bread! Love how my mom always stocks up when I'm home.)

Snack:

Pineapple

 Samples in Costco:

Chocolate gelato

Dried mango

Snack:

Biscotti (ate half)

Snack:

Pistachios (ate five)

 Snack:

Freshly pressed carrot juice

 Snack:

Two chopstick-fuls of my sister's fried noodles

 Snack:

Roasted almonds

Snack:

Green tea, freshly pressed pomegranate juice, 1/2 biscotti

 Snack from Naan N' Masala, Milpitas, CA (brought over by Stephanie):

Chai tea, samosa

 Snack at Mi Pueblo Supermarket, San Jose, CA:

Veggie burrito (shared w/Stephanie)

Sample of some kind of sweet bread

Snack:

Pineapple, pumpkin pie (2), green tea

 Snack:

Dark chocolate Tim Tam, green tea
(Had to show Stephanie how to do a slam.)

28 December 2013

My last full day in Australia! :(

Breakfast:

greens 3 juice & puffed corn

Sample at the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia:

Bread of some kind

Lunch from the Borek stall at the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, Australia:

Spicy potato & veggie borek

Snack

Dark chocolate covered macadamia nut

Snack:

Strawberries, chocolate pudding cake (shared w/Nathalie)

Snack:

Puffed corn & honey covered cashews (shared w/Nathalie)

Lentil As Anything

The commonality between all living creatures, food, is stuck between a dichotomy of scarcity and surplus. When my friend told me about this vegetarian/vegan restaurant that has a pay-as-you-go policy, courtesy of their belief that everyone should be able to afford a meal, I was intrigued. Does this policy actually work?

Based solely on the three times I have visited, it appears to.

Lentils As Anything has a few locations around Melbourne, although I have only frequented the Abbotsford Convent location. Breakfast is served a la carte, while lunch and dinner are buffet-style with a rotating menu (except for Thursday and Friday nights).

Random Saturday menu

Lines can get impossibly long, but the atmosphere alone is worth it. Food can be a hit or miss, depending on your cuisine preferences and the volunteer chefs of the day. Do check their Facebook for the most current menu and older posts to get a better sense of what the cuisine of the day may be. There is usually a live act, but the most interesting conversations may arouse from your fellow table-mates (part of the seating is cafeteria-style).

Smorgasbord of food

Hot cocoa, ordered a la carte

I would definitely recommend at least one visit to this joint, solely for the atmosphere. And since this is also for a great cause, it's essentially a double-win! 

For more photographs and candid thoughts on what I ate, click here and here for the diary entries.

Lentil As Anything

1 St Heliers Street

Abbotsford, VIC 3067

Australia

+61 3 9419 6444

http://lentilasanything.com/ 

   

27 December 2013

It's a food day with Nathalie!

Breakfast at Lentil As Anything, Abbotsford, Melbourne, Australia:

Soy mocha

Sri Lankan breakfast: crepe-style pancakes stuffed w/potatoes (split w/Nathalie)
(Not what I would typically eat for breakfast, or even for a meal, but it was pretty good. I wasn't a fan of the green sauce though; it made the potatoes a bit too creamy.)

Pancakes topped w/orange syrup & yogurt (split w/Nathalie)

Lunch at IKEA, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia:

Pumpkin cannelloni

Salted caramel & chocolate tart (shared w/Nathalie)

Soft-serve ice cream w/flake (shared w/Nathalie)
(The machine is so cool! You put a coin in and it mechnically serves you ice cream! But the ice cream itself wasn't that great.)

Snack:

Assorted candy (ate some)

Snack from pressed juices, Melbourne, Australia:

greens 3: apple, celery, cucumber, ginger, kale, lemon, lettuce, parsley & spinach juice

Sip of Nathalie's berry glow 1: apple, lime & strawberry juice

Sample from Oriental Teahouse, Melbourne, Australia:

Apple green tea

Dinner at Lentils as Anything, Abbotsford, Melbourne, Australia:

The menu.

Lemon & ginger sago pudding w/caramel sauce (2)
(There's a hair in here! Had to get another bowl. It tastes like lemonade!)

Everything on the menu except for lime rice & tom kha soup (2)
(I liked the salad.)