"Instagrammable" is a thing! I would like to be snooty and old school about not judging a book by its cover. But I am a food blogger with a love of colourful beautiful food. An instagrammable cafe has me rushing in. So when I decided to go to Brighton to see
Instant Family at the cinema on my birthday, I was delighted to have an amazingly pretty (aka instagrammable) lunch at Bright Soul. And it tasted great too.
The menu has lots of interesting dishes but not a lot without meat or egg. But they do have some pretty smoothie bowls and a beautiful Buddah Bowl which cater to vegans. Who can go past blue noodles! For the kids there is a special menu. I was pleased they were happy to take the ham out and make Sylvia a cheese filled quesadilla. She really loved it but was distracted by her Blue Unicorn Freak Shake! And who wouldn't!
The Blue Unicorn Freak Shake was so over the top that it made me feel like a bad parent. Fun with food is my weakness. It had double ice cream, persian fairy floss, waffle cone, warheads, marshmallows, wafers and other lollies. So imagine your kids wants dessert and you say have a milk shake and an ice cream and here is a handful of lollies (candies) in case you haven't had enough sugar. But it looked so amazing.
Whereas my Buddah Bowl was on the healthier end of the scale with teriyaki tofu, blue vermicelli, roasted mushrooms and heirloom carrots, greens, blueberries, beetroot hummus, smashed avocado and turmeric tahini dressing. The problem with such a big ingredient list is that they whisk away the menu and by the time the meal comes, I had to ask for the menu to remind myself what the sauce was.
I really loved the Buddah Bowl. I felt so guilty about Sylvia having too much sugar that I gave her one of my pieces of tofu teriyaki. She also occasionally had to sip my orange juice and take a few more bites of her quesadilla to cope with the sweetness of her shake. Of course she couldn't finish it.
I did a pretty decent effort with my bowl. I have to share this photo of my noodles. Not a great photo but it gives you some idea of the different colours that were worked through the noodles to make them look like rainbow noodles. I really loved it. And the bowl tasted great. I love mushrooms and carrots in meals but not as the main event. The roast mushrooms and carrots were really amazingly good. The blueberries did not work so well. The tofu was lovely. The greens were lettuce which is not my favourite thing. I found the turmeric tahini sauce very intense but I loved all the flavours together.
We enjoyed seeing
Instant Family at the Brighton Dendy (thanks to my older sister for the generous cinema passes). Then we headed to the beach to see the famous Brighton Beach Boxes. It is odd I have never seen them before living in Melbourne for so long (albeit most over the other side but my grandparents lived there for a while when I was a child). As you can see, it was really busy, as was the car park even at $5.70 an hour!
The beach bathing boxes are fun to view as you walk along. I was surprised at just how many there are. They have been recorded in the history records as far back at 1862 and there were many more years ago. These days there are 82 and there is a heritage overlay. They are brightly painted and some have artistic designs.
We enjoyed walking along the beach but did not swim as it was late and we needed to get home. It also reminded me of why I don't go to Melbourne beaches. The sand is so much coarser than the lovely ones we go to down on the Great Ocean Road, and there were lots of crushed sea shells in the sand. (Apologies for my beach snobbery.) Nevertheless, it was lovely to walk along the beach on the evening and a great end to our visit to Brighton.
We drove home and were so full from lunch that we had a pretty basic dinner but we did have a slice of a favourite
chocolate walnut fudge cake with caramel sauce and cream. It was a really nice birthday that started with pancakes and wonderful presents (I highly recommend reading Jane Harper's The Dry but have found Lush's jelly soap a very weird experience) and ended with chocolate cake.
Brighton Soul
129 Church Street Brighton
(03) 9592 8305
Opening hours - 7am-6pm daily
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Sometimes the blue is actually coloured with a blue e3 live spirulina which is milder tasting than the green. Perhaps that was it?
ReplyDeleteWow, that freak shake is amazing. Love the blue noodles too.
ReplyDeleteDid you find out how they make rainbow noodles? They're really pretty! (Though if it's just colouring, I won't be so impressed!) I'd be very happy with a good buddha bowl too.
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