Sunday, March 22, 2009

March 22, 2009: Himalaya Bakery and Cafe

Our post-banquet post-pub morning at The Conti was spent in various ways: I want for a wander through Hepburn Regional Park, a committed gang got up to endure a massive yoga session and everybody else waited around getting hungry. By the time everyone had saluted the sun sufficient times it was getting on towards 11 and the less flexible among the group were dying of hunger. Luckily, having rounded the whole gang up it was just a short drive to Daylesford and our breakfast date at Himalaya Bakery and Cafe.

They promise a wide range of vegetarian and vegan baked products, including pastries, cakes, muffins and breads, along with full breakfast and lunch menus. Everything is well-labelled, and there are plenty of vegan and gluten-free options both on the menus and in the bakery case. Everybody with prior Himalaya experience raved about the smoked tofu pies and the cherry danishes (more on these later), but we needed to start things off with something hot and delicious.

Cindy and I basically ordered the same thing: mushroom scrambled tofu ($11) - a deliciously herby mess of tofu and mushrooms fried up into a big gooey scramble. Cindy was smart enough to append a side order of herbed potatoes ($2.50), which I happily stole by the forkful. Outstanding.

I'd been pushing for either a smoked tofu pie or some sort of delightful dessert, but the load of breakfast was just too heavy. Instead, we packed up a delicious take home package for dinner: two smoked tofu pies and a cherry danish to share.

To be honest, the pies were a little disappointing - a bit on the dry side and a little short on the tofu. It was probably good for us that they were liberally packed with little vegie pieces, but I was looking for something a bit more rich and tofu-y.

Contrastingly, the danish really hit the spot - fruity and sugarry, with some of the tastiest vegan pastry you'll ever find. We probably should have swapped the order and dived into two of these and just one of the pies.

The Himalaya is a fine vego place - perfect for a late breakfast. The staff get a little overrun at busy times (to be fair, it's probably not often that a group of ten wanders in looking as ravenous as we did), but they're friendly and helpful and the food more than makes up for it.

Address: 73 Vincent Street, Daylesford
Ph: 5348 1267
Price: $5 - $13
Website: www.himalayabakery.com

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