Big Bowl hits a Home Run

(holy nipple-tassles i should write newspaper headlines...)

Singapore "vegetarian" Noodle
(i forgot my camera, i don't have an friggin iPhone whoosy-whatsit, so this beautiful illustration will have to suffice)

‘Excuse me? Hi, um, er, s-sorry, i ordered the vegetarian noodles?’

‘Yes, Singapore vegetarian noodle,’ (points at #62 on the menu)

‘Yep! That’s the one, great, fantastic, just one problem...’

‘You order Singapore noodle,’

‘Yes, yes i did, the vegetarian Singapore noodle, brilliant, except this has meat in it, so I uh, i
don’t think it’s what I ordered,’

‘This plate is this,’ (gestures towards plate, and then to #62)

‘Yep, that’s great thank you, b-but I ah, can’t eat this, it’s full of meat,’

‘Sorry?’

‘It’s not vegetarian but it’s in the vegetarian menu,’

‘Yes it’s in the menu,’

‘Yeah, uh, see it’s under the vegetarian section of the menu but it’s got shrimp, chicken, beef, the whole animal kingdom...’

And so on so forth, until, finally, the whimpy-white-stuck-up-bitch-of-a-customer (me) got her way, and the meal was sent back to the kitchen. (For the record, I’ve never sent anything back to the kitchen before, this was really an extreme circumstance.)

Welcome to Big Bowl Noodle House!

Like in any Chinese restaurant, vegetarians are going to be a right NUISANCE if you’re sharing dishes. Basically, accept your status as a self-righteous-self-imposed-social-outcast and take the kiddies high chair in the corner – yo ain’t gonna be involved! From the whole of a double sided (delightfully laminated and tacky-picture covered) menu, there are only four dishes in the vegetarian section (and evidently they’re not all vegetarian!)

But, Big Bowl Noodle House does do noodles. And they do noodles friggen well. Maybe they just limit your choice on the menu so that when you scoot up the counter, you’re overwhelmed with gleeful emancipation as they ask you what type of noodle you’d like (thin, thick, wholemeal). The noodles are then made fresh to order, and delivered to your table in super-speedy styles.

And to me, this makes up for the minimal meatless menu. Up and down the Asian options of William St, you ain’t gonna find that wide a range of vegetarian fare (unless you just stick to your own type and hang out at the Hare Krishna restaurant). Plus, this place is certainly going to be better quality than your Shanghai foodcourt or your Uncle Billies. So don’t be a social-fuck and accept what they give ya! (even if it comes with shrimp, chicken AND beef)

the deets:
Big Bowl Noodle House 408 William Street Northbridge
Opening Hours: 11:30AM to 8:30PM ('cept Wed)
rating: 1 and 1/2 chickpeas out of five.

gastro-travel

[sage butter gnocchi, florence]

SO. It’s been a while. Dreadfully sorry for prolonged absence, oh dearest cyberspace, but I’ve been gallivanting about Europe eating my weight’s worth in deliciousness.

I had many a fantastic meal, and here are some highlights in photo form. Details of all the great or grotesque places we went to have been washed away by the gallons of liquor consumed throughout, but I definitely have a few tips under me travelling cap.

[THE flatbreads from Terre a Terre]

DO take advantage of the vegetarian fare in Brighton. High student population means there’s a lolly bag of options. Terre a Terre (71 East Street, www.terreaterre.co.uk) was our favourite. The food was stunning (spiced flatbreads with baba ghanoush, so delightful we went back for them two days later... ) and the staff chatty and forgiving, even when I mispronounced items and asked quite blatantly for their cheapest wine (the bane of backpackers budget with an inconvenient penchant for a nice meal: having to be stingy in fancy restaurants). 5 chickpeas, an easy feat considering their aim is to cater for vegetarians.

[vegie burger with handcut chips at the Lord Nelson pub - our favourite! - London]

[panzanella from Florence]

DON’T seek Asian food in Europe, despite your cravings. Although there was such a varied concoction of culinary treats, an orgy of gastronomy glory, I could only ever find high-end snobby sushi trains in Soho, or cheap n’ tasteless hangover food from noodle huts in tourist clubbing precincts. Most people I met didn’t even know what a laksa was!? A life without laksa is barely worth living!

[a nutritious backpackers' meal...]

[zuppa from the Sagra della Zuppa in Tuscany]

DO have three serves from the kitchen at ‘Yoga On Crete’ in Chora Sfakia. Ok, so this tip is a little bit specific to my trip, but it’s important! The yoga retreat lasted for one week, and each day the resident cook, Christina, would serve up a royal buffet of epic proportions (minus, perhaps, a whole pig with an apple in its mouth). All healthy vegetarian fare, with inspiring dishes, including eggplant pilaf and a hundred and one ways to make a salad.

[greek salad & beer in Crete]

DON’T choose the expensive place over the local looking one with plastic table-covers. Usually, I would avoid cheap paper napkins and any place that has over saturated pictures of its food on display. However, I got my greedy lil’ paws burnt when, selecting a whizz-bang wa-hoo restaurant in Rome and receiving the.worst.eggplant.parmigana and an even more miserable looking bill.

[pomodoro pasta from Lucca]

DO become regulars, wherever you can. Tranquillo, a (mostly) vegetarian bar/restaurant on Perissa beach in Santorini was a hangover-hidey-hole for my travel partner and I. And after gorging on a serve of beetroot n’ dill salad, or hand cut chips with a mystery source, we would down their scrumptious smoothies. By night, this combo would be replaced with the micro-brewery beer on tap (much better than the ubiquitious Mythos aka piss water served at every other greek bar) and their alluring cocktails. Regulars meant chats with the international crew of wait-staff, AND free drinks. It also meant we weren’t so embarrassed to frequent the joint at least twice a day.

[grilled octopus, crete]

But I’m back to the familiar restaurants of Perth, the Outback Jack's Grill, the $9 Heinekens, and having waitstaff pack up chairs by 10pm. Ahh, it's good to be home...

[wrap with fetta and capsicum from small cafe in Brick Lane, London]