Saturday, July 21, 2012

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?

22 comments:

  1. Reading this made me realize how much I MISS ice skating!! I'm not great, but I can manage to circle around the rink without falling. Don't ask about the speed :). I remember when the hubby and I went together for the first time. Let's just say he wasn't kidding when he said he CAN'T skate! I thought he was just being humble..oops :).
    Ooh, and our mission (or more like his) is to try as many burger joints as possible. I've actually never tried tempeh..need to try it someday! I'm glad you and Mr. Bite had such a wonderful time, Kari! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!!

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    1. Thank you Min! I hope you can get back into ice skating soon given how much you enjoy it. It is such a fun activity :)

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  2. Wait, wait, wait. How does outdoor ice skating happen in places that are above freezing? Wouldn't it just turn into outdoor wading around in ankle deep water on skates?

    Technical witchery aside, this sounds *so* romantic and wonderful. And if outdoor ice skating came to Townsville I would drag Andy along regardless of how much it cost!

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    1. It is rather technically witching - I think there is some serious freezer underneath the rink that keeps it cold, although there were a couple of patches of ice that were wearing a bit thin. I suppose by the end of the day it must struggle to keep up with the constant skating and eroding of ice + non-frozen temperatures!

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  3. I did ice skating lessons as a kid, and loved it. I haven't in years, but Ottawa has the longest outdoor skating ring in the world, apparently... ;)

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    1. I sincerely hope that you try it out, and report back :)

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  4. oh my gosh, i luv ice skating! or rather i love the mental picture i've seemed to have made up of me being all elegant and poised on the ice. well, that's false, but i still like to get out there anyways. :) and i'd totally be up for that burger joint because i don't actually like 'real' burgers...those ones are more my style!

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    1. I think I share the non-real elegant, poised image :) Sometimes it's far more enjoyable to live in one's imagination than in reality!

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  5. ice skating - 3 = yes, 6 = no. I prefer to watch but it is magical to watch the open air ice rink in Edinburgh at Christmas. Glad you enjoyed it. Vegan burgers sound interesting - shame the tempeh burger is a bit dry because it is unusual to find one - I had a veg schnitzel the other day that was half cooked and I felt like people don't order them much so they are not so good at cooking them as meat schnitzels and I wonder if this is the case at jus burgers.

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    1. That may well be the case (less experience at cooking veg options) - although on balance I think I got the better experience, as a little dry is far better than half cooked! What a shame for your schnitzel.

      I hadn't realised Edinburgh had an outdoor rink at Christmas, but on reflection probably should have. I'll put it on my vague 'to visit' list for when we (hopefully) are closer to Edinburgh and can make Christmas trips!

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  6. I've only been ice skating once so I'm certainly no expert at it. I really enjoyed it and would have done it more often if there were more ice skating venues in Sydney. What a great opportunity for the people of Perth! I think that's a wonderful idea and fabulous that you're able to enjoy skating this winter xx

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    1. Thank you Charlie - I think the people of Perth have been pretty thrilled and certainly very grateful! It's not a Perth type experience at all, ice, so it has novelty value galore.

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  7. im so jealous of your ice skating adventure!

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    1. But you live in NYC! You have the Rockefeller one every year! :D

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  8. We've got ice skating set up in the middle of the city. It looks like great fun :)

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    1. Ooh, I didn't realise it was still in Brisbane. They must have two portable rinks as part of this festival! Do go if you get a chance, it's over-priced but worth it :)

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  9. I haven't been ice skating since I was a child, we do have a indoor rink close to home but it doesn't have the same atmosphere as outdoor skating. The tempeh burger sounds good, I'll keep Jus burgers in mind if I'm ever in the South Yarra area.

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    1. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you try it. Slight complaints aside, it is lovely having vegan options available in 'mainstream' places.

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  10. I MISS GRILL'D.... got addicted in Melbourne, and I haven't seen any up here in Queensland.

    Ice Skating! Wheeeeee! Childhood memories (and bruises!) ahoy - what a fun night :)

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