Things you've never dreamed of

I’ve written an entry on About Life before in my now defunct blog. Last week, the SO suggested that we have breakfast there since we usually come down there for lunch. With Pimento in tow, we walked down to Rozelle.

About Life is probably one of the more expensive places to eat around here. The menu states that they use “100% clean ingredients and as much organic as is seasonally possible”. That’s cool, I don’t mind paying a little bit more for good food. They’re also very accommodating when it comes to people’s dietary needs – there are heaps of vegetarian options (even vegan!) and there are little legends on the side of menu items for things that are vegetarian/vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, low fat, low sugar and low GI.

The real test however, as we all know, is in the taste.

The SO ordered the big breakfast – “including natural smokehouse bacon and chorizo, with organic eggs your style, char grilled field mushrooms and slow roasted organic roma tomatoes”. I’m an idiot because I forgot to note down the price of the meal, but it was a bit more than $15, and even more if you get the optional coffee and orange juice. It was OK. I reckon the best part of the breakfast was the giant field mushroom, it was nice and meaty and perfectly seasoned. The SO isn’t a big fan of the bacon, which was a bit too crisp for his taste and a bit bland. I think it’s because there’s less sodium in these (a good thing IMO).

Pimento got the bacon and egg roll. This was also… OK. There are a lot of green bits. I personally don’t think green bits belong on a bacon and egg roll but well, this is About Life we’re talking about. This was also kind of expensive for some bacon, and egg and lots of green bits on a bun. What’s that? Organic? Oh, right.

This bacon and egg roll took agesss to arrive, which brings me to the service at About Life. They’re very friendly but damn bro things fall apart a little bit when it’s busy. My SO and I were nearly finished with our meals before Pimento’s arrive, even though we placed all of our orders on the one ticket.

I got the vegan breakfast – “scrambled tofu with spinach, spanish onion and roast pumpkin relish with sumac”. This was very tasty but sweet (they’ve stirred through the relish instead of having it as a side). I was actually taken aback by how sweet it was, but I was doing fine until about 2/3 of the way through when the sweetness started getting to me a little bit. The soy and linseed bread was very good so props to About Life for that.

There’s just one little thing. Protip: Don’t give away one of those little butter packets with a VEGAN breakfast. It was busy though so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and just say it’s an oversight. It’s awesome that they even have vegan options (that’s right bitches, PLURAL) on the menu. I’m not vegetarian, but I know how annoying it is to try and get vegetarian, let alone vegan stuff around here without resorting to chips and a green salad. Or a veg option that’s not just egg and cheese.

This reminds me of an anecdote: I once got the “vegetarian breakfast” from a place that shall not be named (irrelevant – the business is now closed) and found a piece of ham hock in my beans. I asked them about it and they were apologetic and said that a piece of bacon “fell” in the beans. Right. I’m pretty bloody sure that the ham hock is part of the recipe because I can tell the difference. I’m just sayin’, if you cook your stuff with bits of meat/meat-based stock/sauces, it’s not vegetarian even if you remove all the meat.

Wow that turned into a super rant. Did you know that I love to read vegan blogs in my spare time? Well, now you know.

In summary – I love the concept of About Life as a “natural food market” and appreciate the fact that the menu’s mostly organic AND caters to all sorts of dietary needs, but it’s overpriced and the service gets super slow when it’s busy.

About Life
605 Darling St., Rozelle
(02) 8755 1333

Oh and here’s a thing that I got from Bertoni Casalinga today!

It’s a ricotta cheesecake with coffee beans on top. Oh man, the first time I’ve had the ricotta cheesecake was probably one and a half years ago and I’ve been waiting for it to make a comeback all this time. Well it’s back and I got two slices. It’s really good and surprisingly light. If you’re in Balmain you should get there quicksmart and get yourself a slice before I buy the rest of it it’s all gone.