It has been a while since I have blogged about Loving Hut, so I thought I might do a bit of an update.
Whilst the evening restaurant in East Victoria Park has closed its doors (so sad!!), their Victoria park cafe is still going, offering new item menus, and new vegan products to buy off their shelves. They are also making and selling their yummy pies through the cafe but also through IGA stores. And lets not forget they are also producing and selling their cheezy spread in the same manner, and Notzarella, too! Oh, and did I mention their amazing vegan croissants!? These come in plain and chocolate and you can even buy them frozen to take home for later. They are a generous and size and as you can see from the photo, they do not skimp on the chocolate!
These people are busy and yet every time we have gone in there, we are always greeted with a smile and kindness.
A friend and I recently went in one morning to try out their vegan breakfast. This included a plate full of toast, beans, asparagus, sausages, mushrooms, scrambled tofu, and tomatoes. Because I am sensitive to gluten, they were kind enough to substitute the sausage and the toast with gluten free alternatives, such as a tempeh mix and dehydrated gluten free wrap/base. After eating this, I was stuffed! I think my favourite item on my plate was the scrambled tofu. It was so damn cheezy and tasty. I could have just eaten a bowl of that on its own and had been very happy.
Although their grocery shelves are never full to overflowing, they always seem to stock various vegan products that are either hard or near impossible to find elsewhere. On one trip, my partner was excited to find they stocked cans of vegan tuna! We have NEVER seen these in Perth before.
I never was much of a fan of tuna in my pre veg days, but my partner was, so he was keen to give this a go. I had a small taste just out of curiosity. I thought it tasted a LOT better than tuna, as it had a fishy taste to it but it was a lot subtler than actual tuna. I thought the texture was also a very close match, as it had that same flakiness to it.
Anyway, the partner made himself a vegan tuna (yes, I know the tin says 'vegetarian' but it is vegan) roll with vegan mayo, lettuce and tomato, which he enjoyed very much.
So maybe next time you are in Victoria Park, (366 Albany Hwy), pop into
Loving Hut for breakfast or lunch and while you are there, stock up your freezer bag with vegan icecreams, cheezes, pies, and croissants; and check out their grocery shelves for some other yummy vegan products.
Quite a few smoothie recipes call for the use of kale. Now, I love kale but have to admit that it can be a pain to wash and cut up. Plus, my blender does not seem to cope with it very well, and I end up with chewy smoothies - an oxymoron!
In the Noodle Cup range, my fave product, hands down, is the Miso Ramen Noodle Soup. So tasty! Not gluten free, though, so this is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I have found this one to be the easiest to find in Coles. The next more common one is the gluten free Pad Thai, which I also like though not as much as a the Miso Ramen. I have seen in some health food stores, the Tortilla Soup with Baked Chips which I wasn't all that keen on.
I do enjoy poking around supermarkets, looking for new vegan appropriate products. My partner spotted these by Harvest Box, in amongst the other dried fruit and nut packs. They are handy to throw into your bag just in case you get an attack of the munchies while you are out of the house.
I recently stumbled across these at my local Coles supermarket. There were a whole heap of varieties and as I fossicked through them, I was starting to lose hope that any would be vegan. My perseverance paid off, however, as I found their Raw Blueberry and Vanilla bar which is clearly labelled as being vegan on the front. (I LOVE that kinda of labeling. Makes shopping so much easier for us.) It contained dates, blueberry, almond, fig, vanilla and raw rice protein. I was a bit skeptical. I have tried these date based type of bars before and have always found them to be too sickly sweet. I need not have worried, as this bar was delicious. Sweet, but not overly, with a lovely vanilla flavour and a hint of blueberry and fig. I also loved the texture the almond supplied. Oh, and this bar is also gluten free!
One day, I was scanning the snack shelves of Coles and noticed a new brand. This one was called Tyrrell's and was from England. I spotted their Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar variety, and picked it up, turned it over and read the ingredients list, fully expecting it to list 'milk solids' or some such useless crap. But no! Eyes dilated, hands trembling, I turned to my partner (who has a habit of exclaiming very loudly in supermarkets "Why does this have milk in it!?") and said "This looks like it is vegan!".
