Winter festival outdoor ice skating, and Jus Burgers vegan tempeh burger

Last Thursday evening, exciting things happened.

Before we get to them, however, I want to give you some context for the excitement.

First up: ice skating.

Phone + dusk + movement...I apologise for the photo quality here

I discovered ice skating as a teenager, when it replaced roller skating (first) and roller blading (second) as the cool, sociable, gliding-related activity of choice.

There are a few guarantees around ice skating, at least if you're an adolescent with minimal coordination and a propensity to numb extremities:

1. It will be cold. You will start off wearing many, many clothes, including gloves and a scarf and beanie. After 45 minutes you will be slightly warm. After an hour you will be hot, too hot, uncomfortably hot, but you will be trapped in clothes (oh so many clothes) that are hard to remove mid-ice rink. 
2. At some point, you will gain confidence that isn't entirely warranted. You may try to speed up, glide on one leg, do some fancy footwork, or spin around.
3. Following (2), you will probably fall over.
4. Ice is cold. And hard. And wet.
5. If you are prone to blisters (and you are), you will end up with blisters on at least one of your feet. It is possible that you will end up with the most dramatic blisters of your life, which persist for a ridiculously long period of time after the ice skating outing.
6. Despite all of the above, you will have a wonderful, dazzling, invigorating time, which is worth the slightly exorbitant cost. This is especially true if you visit on a hot summer day.

As this list might suggest, I enjoyed my teenage ice skating (all six or so times that it happened). However, I always had a sense that it could be just slightly better. This is because Perth's ice skating rink is located in a semi-industrial area, far from any public transport links, in what is effectively a shed with serious cooling capacity.

I longed for an outdoor ice rink.

You may imagine the thrill, therefore, when I heard that an outdoor ice rink would be set up in Perth this winter.

Outdoor ice skating rink! In Perth!

Truly, it was thrill on a Most Significant Scale. 

The rink came to Perth as part of the Winter Festival, which has rotated through Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne before concluding in Perth. The Perth rink has been based in Fremantle, which has featured before due to its vegan and raw food opportunities.

In truth, I'm starting to think that Fremantle is a rather magical place. A raw food cafe, fresh produce markets, vegan delights, a recent large ferris wheel (that we have yet to try out), and now ice skating? Magic, I tell you.

Adjoining the ice rink was the super-charged ferris wheel...

When I heard about the outdoor ice skating, I proclaimed to Mr Bite that we would be going. I am very grateful to him for humouring me in my excitement and not only taking me, but seeming to enjoy it too. I had a fantastic time, even if the cost was a bit excessive (although we found a 25% off voucher by googling for one!) and small children sometimes presented serious obstacles.

Trendy orange ice skates.

The night didn't end there though. There were two lots of excitement on Thursday.

After ice skating, we went to the Fremantle branch of Jus Burgers.

Jus Burgers is a Perth-based burger chain with a similar philosophy to Grill'd healthy burgers (which we have visited before). They use organic, local meat for the meat burgers; have a range of vegetarian options, including two vegan possibilities; and offer gluten-free burger buns for those in need. In Perth, there are stores in Fremantle, Leederville, Subiaco and Northbridge, and there is now a store in Melbourne too, on Chapel Street in South Yarra.

I have been wanting to visit Jus Burgers for months, and was keen to try the vegan tempeh burger ($14). This includes a "marinated chickpea and sunflower tempeh pattie" with salad (lettuce, tomato and onion) and a choice of one additional Jus topping, such as avocado, mushroom, or roast pepper.

Vegan tempeh burger, with mushroom

I had my burger with mushroom and discovered on ordering - take note - that you have to ask for the burger to be served without aioli if you want it to be vegan. I think that advertising something as vegan should mean that it comes without non-vegan sauces as the default, but there you go. Fortunately I checked and all was well. The burgers usually include both aioli and tomato relish, and the relish is vegan (and tasty).

The other vegan option is to combine four vegan-friendly Jus toppings ($11), such as field mushroom, roast peppers, tahini and balsamic onions, amongst other possible combinations.

Mr Bite had the Mozzarella Chicken burger ($14), which includes a grilled free range chicken pattie, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and the standard salad (lettuce, tomato, onion) and sauces (aioli and relish).

Mozzarella chicken burger

We both enjoyed our burgers, and they tasted 'real' - fresh, with high-quality ingredients, plenty of flavour, and a nice balance of fillings, sauce and bread. We did agree, however, that our experiences with Grill'd were just slightly better. Whilst I loved having a vegan burger pattie, it was a little dry and 'ho-hum' if eaten without accompanying mushroom or relish. The field mushroom burger I have had at Grill'd is a bit more enjoyable overall, although combining four vegetable toppings at Jus Burgers may provide a similar result.

These points aside, we were very happy with our dinner. Combined with the ice skating outing, it was a wonderful Thursday night all up.

Do you enjoy ice skating? 
Or have you had another sort of wonderful day / evening lately?

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