We moved to Canberra from Adelaide in January this year, and for the first couple of hours living here we were delighted by the (approximately four) sights to take in. The novelty wore off pretty quickly, but in my time here I’ve been able to compile a comprehensive list of things that Canberra has over Adelaide. These include:

• Actual career opportunities
• Better bike paths
• Question time as a spectator sport
• 4dead
• And Au Lac, the vegan Vietnamese restaurant.

Because celebration, as far as I’m concerned, is synonymous with ‘gorging until my sinuses are packed with food’, the latter was where we chose to have our anniversary dinner.  A slightly dodgy establishment (albeit with classy water feature, likely procured from Bunnings) housed in a building owned by Jackie Chan, Au Lac is home to vegan mock meat dishes that have consistently blown the minds of our omnivorous family and friends.

When I gave up meat, the only difficult goodbye was my parting with squid. So imagine my delight when we first walked into Au Lac in our first week here, after a long day of lake-admiring (or other such tedious tourist activity), and saw mock salt and pepper squid on the menu. And even better, it was delicious. ‘Canberra,’ I said to myself, ‘you’re okay’.

Chicken drumsticks

Roast duck

Lemongrass chicken

Salt and pepper squid

Thanks Au Lac, for a delightful anniversary feast and for generally keeping Canberra bearable.

Tagged: au lac, canberra, dickson, restaurant, review, vegan, vegan squid