SOUL of my MAMA

Last night, I had an excellent catch up with my friend Natasha. After I finished work, we met up at Southern Cross Station and caught the 96 tram down to the St Kilda baths.

There was a place Natasha had been eager as a beaver to try for a while. What is this place?

It is one of the more well known vegetarian eateries around Melbourne.

I give you - Soul Mama.

A beautiful eatery - I won't say little because it has a more open lofty feel about it. You sit above the St Kilda Baths and over look a brillian blue ocean and the distant shapes of buildings across the bay - where I was earlier that day (Altona).

I've actually been here before and I was impressed when I ate here last year because it was fresh, the food was good, the service was good and it was a slightly more different concept of dining.

So basically you sit down, you get your menu - which has a fairly generous drinks list, the cocktails are pretty delicious but in the style of Melbourne - too expensive ($16) pleaaaase, I've been to Tokyo - most expensive city in the world (apparently) and I never paid more than the equivalent of $8 for good cocktails. So stick it, I'm keeping my $16 for the next time I go to J-pan.

ANYWAY rant aside, the food ordering works like this.

you have three options:

3 meals + rice = 14.50

4 meals + rice = 17.50

5 meals + rice = 19.50

So essentially you're getting the whole meal for under 20 dollars thing happening here.

Having gone here before, I know that 3 meals is MORE than enough. That is my recommendation to you all who decide to check the place out. Especially if you want to save room for dessert.

After deciding which meal option we were going for, we put in our order like you would order anything at a restaurant and then you get a ticket back.

They gesture you down to kind of buffet area where you wait in line to go pick your meals.

First question: Brown or white rice. BROWN!

Second: Which three meals would you like?

I picked Ratatouille, Tofu and Vegetables with Black Bean Sauce and Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad.

Don't judge me for picking the pasta salad - I just kind of felt like it.

This is what I had on my plate:

It was pretty darn satisfying.

Now the Ratatouille was simply excellent - a beautiful rich flavour, something truly European in the flavours. Also the bay leaves being left in was a nice touch to the overall flavour even though I had to pick them out as I ate. I like a challenge.

The Tofu and Vegetables with Black Bean Sauce was very nice. The vegetables were crisp and the black bean sauce was so so nice - probably not as traditional as they come, but I liked the hint of ginger in there. Gave the dish a nice summery freshness. HOWEVER the tofu wasn't the best. I would have preferred some silken tofu lightly fried then put in, but that's just me. The quality of this tofu I found was a bit spongy and not the best. It is a real shame because especially at a vegetarian eatery you would hope that there would be an emphasis on using good quality tofu.

The Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad. WELL I liked it. It was a pasta salad, it didn't try to be anything more or less. The tomato and pesto combination went very well and it wasn't too heavy. Also since it was a relatively small portion I didn't feel bloated afterwards.

The brown rice was also cooked well, it worked well with the Ratatouille and Tofu and Vegetables with Black Bean Sauce especially. Pasta salad not so much - but who's fault was that?

NOTE: I also ordered I mango Lassi which was OK but not the best. Vege Bar on Brunswick Street Fitzroy has a far superior Lassi. This one was a bit much after a while.

For those of you not familiar with Lassi - it is a South Asian yoghurt drink (thanks wikipedia) sweetened with sugar and made aromatic with spices. This Lassi used cardamom and it was a nice touch.

Now after some chit chatting and speculating over later activities - we both ordered some dessert. AND wasn't it a glorious dessert?

Sticky Date Pudding with Soy Cream.

Oh I must say it was the most visually pleasing meal of the evening. A quick note: It is usually served cold at this place - I don't do cold sticky date pudding so I requested it be heated up and they were more than happy to do this.

This is what we got:

Look at that! What a master piece.

Now usually desserts are made offsite with eateries. But in this case, we found out that the desserts are actually made on premises. So it ain't mass produced. I can imagine they want to assure there is no meat in them what so ever (not that you'd put meat in a dessert but some people are fucked).

Now the Soy Cream gets a special mention. It was good to get a piece of the pudding and have it with this cream because it softened what is a very sweet dish - and also provided a nice coooooling contrast to the warmth of the pudding. Yum! It also didn't affect me (because it's SOY!) I wholly recommend this dessert but their other desserts looked simply divine as well.

Anyway that was the experience of SOUL MAMA ST KILDA.

It is a great place that extends far beyond the typical tokenism of some vegetarian eateries. It is a great place to go with friends or family - summer is ideal!