Lunch at The Beaufort St Merchant, Mount Lawley

I organised to catch up with an old friend today who my brother hasn't seen in over two years. When I told him I was going to see her, Peter asked if he could come along too. I was just about to text her and ask if it was ok for him to join us when we had the idea of surprising her instead.

The plan was to hide Peter in the trunk of my car, lead her out and tell her that I had a present in there for her.

The plan actually went surprisingly well. When she opened the trunk Peter screamed and frightened her so much that she slammed the trunk closed again. Quite hilarious :P

That was the first (and probably only time) I have (or will) put a body in the trunk of my car. But no, that wasn't the only something new that I did today. 

We had originally planned to have lunch at a new burger joint called The Angry Moose, but unfortunately it was closed today. Instead we wondered down Beaufort St and decided to eat at The Beaufort St Merchant. I've been there for breakfast a few years ago, but I've never actually been inside or tried their lunch menu. 

This place was so lovely. It was warm and cosy inside and I really liked the decor.  The food was quite fancy and well presented. I managed to order one of the vegetarian dishes which the chef was happy to make vegan friendly for me. It was very colourful with purple carrots, slices of radish, brown lentils and yellow cherry tomatoes. 

My brother and friend ordered dessert afterwards which looked absolutely scrumptious. They ordered the chocolate fondant, which had popping candy inside, and the beer creme brulee which came with chocolate ice cream. 

There's something so great about catching up with those rare and special people in our lives and tucking into some good grub at the same time. Our bellies were very full by the end of lunch and ain all, I was very pleased with my second visit to The Beaufort St Merchant.

My brother ordered the beef pie.

My vegan meal.

Beer creme brulee with chocolate ice cream.

Chocolate fondant with caramel sauce.

Peter and I loved the large cutlery on the back wall :)

Picnic at Lake Monger

A few days ago, my friend and I organised to catch up for a picnic today at Lake Monger. For the past two days, the weather has been rainy and horrible so we were crossing our fingers for good weather today. Luckily for us, the sun chose the right day to come out and play. 

To complement our picnic foods, my friend also brought some vegan sweet treats from a place called The Herdsman: Inspiring Foods in Churchlands. Apparently this place sells a lot of lovely foods, so if you're in the area, please go check it out. I've never been there before, so I'll have to check it out too :)

I forgot the name of one of the sweets, but it was like a power bar. We could see almonds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pepitas, goji berries and we could taste a lovely coconuty flavour. I'm sure there were more healthy ingredients too. 

He also bought a vegan caramel slice. It was delicious. It was so rich but not in a sickly sweet kind of way. And I felt guilt-free eating it. I will definitely go to The Herdsman and get more of these babies. 

 

 

Our super delicious vegan sweets :)

I've only ever been to Lake Monger once for a fundraising event, so to sit down and enjoy the view was lovely. We chose a great spot where we could see the city. The sky was the most lovely blue and view was just stunning. 

Picnics are a great solution for saving money on food when you catch up with friends. Although, I strongly recommend you wear multiple layers of clothing if you go for a picnic in winter. Even though the sun is shining, the wind can get absolutely freezing.

Photo from here

Little Willy's, Northbridge

I caught up with a friend today at a place I urbanspooned called Little Willy's. I've seen a few photos of the food they serve there on Instagram and so I was a bit curious to try it myself. 

The place was nice and cosy. I got there pretty early and managed to grab a table for two but the place filled up pretty quickly. While I was waiting for my friend to come I saw some people lining up outside waiting for a table to free-up. I think that when people are willing to wait then it is a sure sign that the place is worth eating at.

Whenever I try new places I usually look up the menu on the Internet before going in, just to make sure there's something vegan friendly; but for this place I couldn't find one anywhere. It was a total stab in the dark with Little Willy's, but it's pretty easy to find something vegan friendly for breakfast so it didn't bother me too much not knowing what food was on the menu.

The food was really nice. I asked for tomato and avocado on rye bread with fresh spinach on the side. What I really liked about this place was the variety of condiments on the shelves. You had everything you needed to add that extra bit of flavour to your meal. I went for the Vegemite to put on my rye and Tabasco sauce to add a bit of bite. It might seem like a weird combination to you, but Vegemite on toast with avocado and tomato is quite nice. 

I also ordered an english breakfast with soy milk. It came is a gorgeous iron tea pot which looked like something out of an old-school Chinese movie. It was very heavy but it looked just lovely. The tea itself was one of the best I've tasted. 

The place was quite quirky. I thought the place was called Little Willy's because it is located on William St, but I some of the paintings on the wall looked like...little willies (for want of better words). 

All in all, my favourite part of the whole morning was catching up with my friend. When we sat down at got talking, we realised that it had been nearly a year since we last saw each other. At first I felt so guilty for not putting more of an effort into arranging a time to catch up, but after we got lost in conversation my train of thought was redirected into being pleased at the fact that after so long we were able to still just text each other and organise a time to meet up. Talking to my friend again was like no time had passed. That to me is a sign of a great friendship.

Dad wisdom #2

I met up with a very good friend today that I had not seen for about a year. We met up at Elixir Coffee Specialists which is a nice little cafe. I've been there only once before for a chai latte so this time around I decided to get the fruit and nut loaf with a blueberry, orange and apple juice ( a combination I've never had before. Delicious!). It was really just a cosy little place to catch up. The service was fantastic and the coffee apparently is good quality too.

Even though my 'somthing new' for today wasn't all that extravagant, the quality of those two hours spent catching up with my friend was what made my day grand.

My friend told me that she recently shared some big news with her dad who reacted in a completely different way to how she expected. You see, Asian parents aren't always the most understanding or predictable of people. But it caught my friend off guard when her dad reacted in a good way. For her, it was probably the best result she could have ever possibly imagined.

This good news kept me on a high all day long, and it got me thinking about dads who pull through for their kids when they need it most. Now, some people are extremely lucky and have fathers who always pull through, but you get those others who wait a very long time before they see anything like that. Sometimes all it takes is time and maturing of both parties. However, you get others still, who never see their fathers show love for them and although I wish I could fix a broken family, all I can do is use this as a driving force to never take my own dad for granted.

Yep, I love my dad. You'll read that a million times before this blog is finished. He has so much wisdom and I'd like to share another of my favourite little analogies my dad told me to help me get through tough times. This is one about God, so for all those who don't believe, feel free to read it or skip over it:

My dad told me once that God is to us, like a parent is to a young infant. At a certain age, infants like to explore and are very curious. If a young baby saw a knife and started to play with it because it looked shiny and interesting, then the parent would automatically take the knife straight off the baby and put it away out of sight. The baby would probably cry and demand for it back, but because the parent knows the knife is dangerous for the baby, they would never let it fall into the hands of their child again.
In the same way, God knows far more than we could ever truly understand. We may think we know what's good for us, but when those things are taken away or when they do not go according to plan, God is allowing this because he knows better. Trust is the key thing here. Humans don't really have the capacity to understand God, but we have the capacity to trust in Him.

P.s. Have you read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? There's a really lovely father daughter relationship in there :)