Revisiting Fremantle and exploring the new Raw Kitchen

Ah, Fremantle. It has been featured quite a few times before on Bite-Sized Thoughts. As Perth's bohemian cousin, it sits at the ocean entrance of the Swan river and houses artistic types and those who like a laid back atmosphere with plenty of good food and drink. It is also very friendly to vegetarians.

Clockwise from top left: Fremantle markets;
casual seating outside the markets; street chess;  street art.

Some of you may remember my previous reviews of The Raw Kitchen, with its array of raw vegan meals and snacks. It is one of Fremantle's highlights and the original cafe overflowed with long queues at lunchtime.

This year, The Raw Kitchen moved to new premises, around the corner from the old shop but still in Fremantle. The new venue is a renovated 1920s warehouse building and must be at least 10 times bigger than the old location. Despite the increased size, it is still busy! When I showed Mr Bite the picture below, he expressed amazement that there were "so many people like you". It seems that raw food has well and truly taken off in Australia.

The new Raw Kitchen - still busy!

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The Raw Kitchen Cafe, Fremantle - lunch with Mel

On Sunday, I was fortunate to have lunch with Mel from Veganise This! She and her family are currently travelling Western Australia, and we managed to meet up on one of her days in Perth.

This is the first time I have met a blogger friend in person, and there is something quite bizarre about meeting someone face-to-face after communicating online over months and years. There is also something a little intimidating about going to meet a new person you have only communicated with indirectly! As it turned out, Mel is as lovely in person as she is on her blog, and I really enjoyed the few hours we spent together.

When deciding where to go, I suggested Fremantle on the basis of its vegan-friendly cafes and merging of heritage buildings with a slight hippy vibe. It is a worthwhile place to wander if you aren't from Western Australia. We ended up choosing Fremantle's Raw Kitchen Cafe as our lunch destination, which I have mentioned a few times before but never actually eaten lunch at (my previous visits have been for snacks and/or drinks).

We arrived shortly before 12.30pm, to a queue of customers out the door of the cafe. It is a deservedly popular spot and I spent most of our time in the queue trying to decide what I would order. Every time a waitress carried a plate past, I would change my mind to the dish in question. Several bowls of zucchini noodles caught my eye, piled high with noodles under marinara sauce, as did raw nachos, pizza, and falafel balls.

Tarragon Salad on the left, and Thai Papaya Salad on the right.

In the end, I ordered straight from the glass-fronted cabinet within the store, asking for a mix of the Thai Papaya Salad and Tarragon Salad. Mel ordered the raw pizza, with sides of the same salads, and we both ordered coffees with nut milk that had been made in store.

My conversation with Mel would have been enjoyable in its own right, but set against this salad...it was a really great lunch. I wanted to dive into this salad bowl. I spent the first few minutes trying to work out what the flavours were, and the rest of the meal trying to work out how they made it taste so good.

Best salad of 2013.

As I couldn't fully decipher the ingredients, and the staff were quite busy on the day we were there, I actually sent an email to ask if they would mind letting me know what was in the salads. I received a helpful reply the next day, and so am able to tell you exactly what made these dishes so good.

The Thai Papaya Salad consisted of green papaya noodles, grated carrots, snow peas, cashews, and fresh coriander, mint and basil, with a dressing of olive oil, Braggs liquid aminos (soy sauce alternative), and various herbs and spices.

Even with the name, which really should have allowed me to work it out, I hadn't realised that it was green papaya that formed the 'noodles' of this salad. I was guessing zucchini, but am now keen to try papaya noodles at home - they were incredible!

The Tarragon Salad had grated beetroot, apple and carrot, walnuts, string beans and sultanas, with a dressing of tarragon, olive oil, cashews, garlic and other herbs and spices. I am guessing that the cashews gave this its slight creaminess, which worked well with the earthy beetroot base.

Despite being busy, our meals were served promptly and the coffees were hot and well made. Mel also reported enjoying her raw vegan pizza, but I will leave discussion of that to her should she wish to review it.

Thank you, Mel, for the opportunity to meet up, and thank you to The Raw Kitchen Cafe for a great lunch and for being so helpful in answering my email enquiry!

Other reviews of The Raw Kitchen can be found at Urban Spoon (our service experience was fine, unlike some of the reviews there).

Have you met any bloggers in person? 
Or eaten green papaya in salad form? 

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Out and about in Perth - Point Walter and Fremantle Prison

For all my talk of loving England, we do have some enjoyable local outings too. I have already talked about our recent visits to Rottnest Island and Walyunga National Park, as well as a day spa trip with my sister. Since we returned home two months ago, Mr Bite and I have also managed a leisurely walk at Point Walter and a tour of Fremantle Prison.

These outings were photographed on my phone, which is why I haven't posted about them before now. Plugging my phone into my computer is so very easy, and yet also so very hard. I finally achieved it this week, and have rescued six weeks of random, varied quality pictures. 

Point Walter is a jutting sand bar on the south side of Perth's Swan River. There is a play area and cafe near the sand bar itself, and then a cliff-side walk trail that extends back along the river. It is a renowned area for cliff jumping (in an adrenalin / sport sense, rather than a more sinister sense) and there are always plenty of boats moored nearby.

We visited not long after we got back from Europe, returning to the cliff-side walk  that we have done before. When I was growing up, my family did the walk quite often but it is a relatively recent discovery for Mr Bite. It is an easy walk with attractive views, making it perfect for a weekend afternoon.

Spot the Merman!

Fremantle Prison was a longer outing and one that required a little more planning. In fact, we have been meaning to visit the prison for about 2 years, so our tardiness would suggest that we didn't plan as well as we might have. I visited the prison on a school trip when I was a teenager, but Mr Bite had never been. It was a functional prison until 1991 and so the option of touring it is still comparatively recent.

Fremantle Prison - exterior of the men's block

The prison buildings and grounds form one of the more intact convict establishments in Australia, and became a World Heritage Site in 2010. There are four tour types on offer, the daytime "doing time" and "great escapes" tours, the night "torchlight" tour, and the underground "tunnels" tour. The daytime tours are $19 per adult and run for 75 minutes, while the others are more expensive and somewhat longer.

One of the consequences of the prison being in use until 21 years ago is that you can really imagine what it would have been like to be a prisoner there. The prison opened around 1850 and in the 140 years it was in use, housed a mix of high-risk / dangerous prisoners and low-risk / short-term sentence prisoners. I can't imagine that combination ever working very well. Comments from our tour guide suggested it was a challenging mix at times. 

Fremantle Prison - interior of the men's block

The areas where whipping and hanging occurred left me feeling slightly queasy, as such things always do. Those moments aside, it was a worthwhile tour and I was surprised to remember very little of it from my earlier, school-aged visit (suggesting that my memory is atrocious or that my teenage self didn't appreciate history very much).

Having done the prison tour, we had some time wandering Fremantle streets and shops. I have documented my enjoyment of Fremantle previously, and this visit was no exception. I restrained myself at the markets, but did see Irish moss, the vegan gelatin alternative that is so difficult to find in Australia. I have tucked that discovery away for future reference!

After our wandering, we bought afternoon snacks. Mine came from my favourite Fremantle food establishment, The Raw Kitchen Cafe. Both were items I have sampled previously, in the form of their green smoothie (banana + spinach +  ice) and the vegan chocolate mint 'bliss ball'. They were just as good this time around.

Mr Bite went for a more traditional snack from a more traditional bakery - a chocolate brownie. To his credit, though, he did try a sip of my green smoothie and admitted there was no 'green' taste to be detected. I may convert him yet...

In all, two lovely outings, and a reminder that Western Australia has plenty to offer even if we are a tad isolated and prone to very hot weather (except this week, when we are alternating hot weather with thunderstorms, to my delight).

What have you got up to in your home town / state recently?

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Winter festival outdoor ice skating, and Jus Burgers vegan tempeh burger

Last Thursday evening, exciting things happened.

Before we get to them, however, I want to give you some context for the excitement.

First up: ice skating.

Phone + dusk + movement...I apologise for the photo quality here

I discovered ice skating as a teenager, when it replaced roller skating (first) and roller blading (second) as the cool, sociable, gliding-related activity of choice.

There are a few guarantees around ice skating, at least if you're an adolescent with minimal coordination and a propensity to numb extremities:

1. It will be cold. You will start off wearing many, many clothes, including gloves and a scarf and beanie. After 45 minutes you will be slightly warm. After an hour you will be hot, too hot, uncomfortably hot, but you will be trapped in clothes (oh so many clothes) that are hard to remove mid-ice rink. 
2. At some point, you will gain confidence that isn't entirely warranted. You may try to speed up, glide on one leg, do some fancy footwork, or spin around.
3. Following (2), you will probably fall over.
4. Ice is cold. And hard. And wet.
5. If you are prone to blisters (and you are), you will end up with blisters on at least one of your feet. It is possible that you will end up with the most dramatic blisters of your life, which persist for a ridiculously long period of time after the ice skating outing.
6. Despite all of the above, you will have a wonderful, dazzling, invigorating time, which is worth the slightly exorbitant cost. This is especially true if you visit on a hot summer day.

As this list might suggest, I enjoyed my teenage ice skating (all six or so times that it happened). However, I always had a sense that it could be just slightly better. This is because Perth's ice skating rink is located in a semi-industrial area, far from any public transport links, in what is effectively a shed with serious cooling capacity.

I longed for an outdoor ice rink.

You may imagine the thrill, therefore, when I heard that an outdoor ice rink would be set up in Perth this winter.

Outdoor ice skating rink! In Perth!

Truly, it was thrill on a Most Significant Scale. 

The rink came to Perth as part of the Winter Festival, which has rotated through Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne before concluding in Perth. The Perth rink has been based in Fremantle, which has featured before due to its vegan and raw food opportunities.

In truth, I'm starting to think that Fremantle is a rather magical place. A raw food cafe, fresh produce markets, vegan delights, a recent large ferris wheel (that we have yet to try out), and now ice skating? Magic, I tell you.

Adjoining the ice rink was the super-charged ferris wheel...

When I heard about the outdoor ice skating, I proclaimed to Mr Bite that we would be going. I am very grateful to him for humouring me in my excitement and not only taking me, but seeming to enjoy it too. I had a fantastic time, even if the cost was a bit excessive (although we found a 25% off voucher by googling for one!) and small children sometimes presented serious obstacles.

Trendy orange ice skates.

The night didn't end there though. There were two lots of excitement on Thursday.

After ice skating, we went to the Fremantle branch of Jus Burgers.

Jus Burgers is a Perth-based burger chain with a similar philosophy to Grill'd healthy burgers (which we have visited before). They use organic, local meat for the meat burgers; have a range of vegetarian options, including two vegan possibilities; and offer gluten-free burger buns for those in need. In Perth, there are stores in Fremantle, Leederville, Subiaco and Northbridge, and there is now a store in Melbourne too, on Chapel Street in South Yarra.

I have been wanting to visit Jus Burgers for months, and was keen to try the vegan tempeh burger ($14). This includes a "marinated chickpea and sunflower tempeh pattie" with salad (lettuce, tomato and onion) and a choice of one additional Jus topping, such as avocado, mushroom, or roast pepper.

Vegan tempeh burger, with mushroom

I had my burger with mushroom and discovered on ordering - take note - that you have to ask for the burger to be served without aioli if you want it to be vegan. I think that advertising something as vegan should mean that it comes without non-vegan sauces as the default, but there you go. Fortunately I checked and all was well. The burgers usually include both aioli and tomato relish, and the relish is vegan (and tasty).

The other vegan option is to combine four vegan-friendly Jus toppings ($11), such as field mushroom, roast peppers, tahini and balsamic onions, amongst other possible combinations.

Mr Bite had the Mozzarella Chicken burger ($14), which includes a grilled free range chicken pattie, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and the standard salad (lettuce, tomato, onion) and sauces (aioli and relish).

Mozzarella chicken burger

We both enjoyed our burgers, and they tasted 'real' - fresh, with high-quality ingredients, plenty of flavour, and a nice balance of fillings, sauce and bread. We did agree, however, that our experiences with Grill'd were just slightly better. Whilst I loved having a vegan burger pattie, it was a little dry and 'ho-hum' if eaten without accompanying mushroom or relish. The field mushroom burger I have had at Grill'd is a bit more enjoyable overall, although combining four vegetable toppings at Jus Burgers may provide a similar result.

These points aside, we were very happy with our dinner. Combined with the ice skating outing, it was a wonderful Thursday night all up.

Do you enjoy ice skating? 
Or have you had another sort of wonderful day / evening lately?

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A low-key weekend of enjoyment

After the excitement of the last few weeks, it was quite nice to have a weekend that was thoroughly enjoyable in a normal sort of way. Don't get me wrong - I am still incredibly grateful and thankful for the bigger excitements of the last little while. Overwhelmed by them in fact. However, we all know that the 'big' things can't happen all of the time and sometimes the small-scale pleasures are all the more pleasurable because they are small.

The weekend started off with on a high note when I ran, miraculously and almost inexplicably, without pain. I mentioned my difficulties with plantar fasciitis earlier this year, but haven't been going into details on the ongoing, incredibly irritating hip pain I have been experiencing since late last year, with the working diagnosis of iliotibial band syndrome. On Saturday, I ran for 30 minutes with no pain and it was an experience beyond amazing. I hope it lasts! Perhaps being engaged has blocked my pain receptors?!

Saturday also involved a cafe visit with school friends, an increasingly challenging scenario as the six in our original friendship group scatter geographically. This year saw the first baby born to this particular group, and having a 10-week-old baby girl join the afternoon was remarkably fun.

The enjoyment continued on Sunday. Many, many posts ago I talked about Fremantle, with its arty vibe, organic foods, fresh bread, and raw and vegan meal and snack options, most notably at The Raw Kitchen Cafe. With Mr Bite happily settled at the football, I wandered Fremantle for a few hours and had a thoroughly fun time.

I found raw carob pieces:

I like them very much indeed. These are quite literally just the edible parts of the carob bean, meaning they are slightly but not too sweet, and don't have the palm oil that goes along with so many carob products.

I also found raw kale chips, seasoned with a barbecue spice blend that includes raw cashews and carrots.

If we're being honest, I liked these less than I was expecting, and will probably stick to fresh kale in future. However, they win points for novelty value and make for an easy vegetable-based snack.

With advance planning, I also settled myself at The Raw Kitchen Cafe with a book. It is a delightful place to take a book to, with comfortable chairs and non-matching furniture.

I took pictures of the menu on my phone, which means the quality is quite appalling, but I thought the menu's first page was worthwhile including anyway. As the following shows, this is a good cafe to visit if you want to find real, natural foods.

I had a green smoothie and a raw, nearly vegan (it contained honey) macaroon with acai and vanilla flavours.

 

My current book, Cutting for Stone, is set in Ethiopia and it is a book that is beautifully written. The language pulls you in and it turned out to be a perfect match for settling back with the smoothie and macaroon. The smoothie was cold and creamy and just slightly sweet from the banana. The macaroon was slightly too coconut-y for my tastes, but it isn't fair to hold coconut flavour against a macaroon. I did enjoy the texture, which was crumbly but dense, and the fact that it was sweet without being artificial in its flavours.

The lovely thing about these sorts of small pleasures, too, is knowing that they are possible again. My bank account may not welcome purchases of carob kibbles, kale chips, and raw cafe treats on a weekly basis, but they are accessible pleasures nonetheless. Friends and running and books - those too.

What about you - have you had any small pleasures lately? Do you have a favourite set? Books and food always seem to make it on to my list!

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Fremantle and raw food excitement

A little while ago, I mentioned that I owed Perth an apology for not sharing its frozen yoghurt delights in a timely manner.

As it turns out, I owe Fremantle an even bigger apology.

As Perth's historic port city, located at the mouth of the Swan river, Fremantle is a town in its own right. It has a reputation for being arty and somewhat bohemian, and is home to museums, book stores, historic buildings, a good indoor weekend market, some wonderful cafes and restaurants, and what may be Perth's best fish and chips.

As a child, it was a relatively frequent weekend visiting spot. We'd play at the park, perhaps go to the maritime museum, visit a book shop, and (if we were lucky) have afternoon tea.

As a teenager, I enjoyed catching the train down and wandering around the shops, having lunch or getting ice cream, sometimes seeing a movie.

And then I stopped going. My shopping trips these days are usually goal oriented, time limited, and better suited to artificial shopping centres or the predictable city centre. I did make it to the Fremantle Chocolate Factory this year, but even that was a goal-focused trip, and I didn't venture into the main town centre.

The downside of this, of course, is that I forgot what Fremantle had to offer. It may not allow for quick trips for a specific item, but if you have time, there are lane ways to explore, markets to browse, small shops to delight in - and a large number of cafes in which to take a break.

I remembered this recently, when I had a spare few hours, we were in the area, and I headed to the Fremantle markets for fruit and vegetable shopping.

Suffice to say, I went home with more than fruit and vegetables.

My first discovery, which led to extreme over-excitement, was The Raw Kitchen Cafe. Everything is vegan, dairy free, wheat free, sugar free, gluten free, and raw. I still can't believe I hadn't heard of it.

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As I had recently eaten lunch, I wasn't able to enjoy the menu to its full extent. If I had been able to, there would have been plenty of lunch choices (sandwiches, soups, salads, and raw pizza!), smoothies with a variety of nut milk and flavour options, and hot drinks made with almond milk. Almond milk!

And then there are the desserts.

Raw vegan cheesecake. Raw vegan chocolate mousse cake. Raw cocoa, fruit and nut truffles.

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I ended up buying two of the truffle balls to take home, in mint chocolate and jaffa (chocolate orange) flavours.

I had half of each flavour with Mr Bite, and was most impressed. I'm not sure he was quite as thrilled (he described the mint version as a "chocolate mint health ball", bless him), but they certainly won me over. Beautifully flavoured, not too sweet, and just the right amount of chocolate.

They also sell vegan / raw products.

Like this.

Raw coconut chocolate butter with chilli and goji berry.

It was amazing.

The chilli is subtle, but lingers, tingling just slightly. It pairs incredibly well with the rich chocolate, the coconut undertones, and the faint goji flavours. The combined product is chocolatey but not too chocolatey, slightly spicy, slightly sweet, and definitely very, very good.

You might think the rest of Fremantle would be a disappointment after this start. But it wasn't! Beautiful fruit and vegetables, cafes that may be non-vegan but still look delightful, bakeries with a multitude of bread options (organic, sourdough, rye), small quirky gift shops, lots of books, and a relaxed atmosphere that was a stark contrast to the shopping centres and department stores I usually find myself in.

Fremantle, I am sorry. I won't forget you again.

And I will be back for that vegan chocolate mousse cake.

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