London vegan news, reviews & events
My vacation in Barcelona was a moving experience and I enjoyed many profound moments. Celebrations, street carnivals, cultural awakenings and informative strolls throughout historical neighbourhoods… I guzzled it all up like it was a cheap, vegan beer.
Now I am in Los Angeles and eating my way around the city, but I wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on one of my Barcelona highlights that helped me become a better, more rounded FGV. Vegan cake.
If you want to go to vegan food heaven, get your backside to Barcelona and walk straight into a fantastic vegan deli known as Gopal. I proclaim this to be the finest vegan food in the entire city and I might even be bold enough to declare it in my top 5 restaurants in the world.
This post is very thin on words because I want the photos to do the talking. It was also important to me to get this up in the same week that Gopal announced their expansion. Madrid is very shortly and very fortunately going to be exposed to the Gopal goodness.
But enough from me and my FGV mouth. Let’s head on inside the deli to drool over some of the food I’ve consumed during my stay in Barcelona.
Vegan ice cream is taking over my FGV life. It is everywhere and becoming easier to find. The days of having to wait until my Californian vacations to get my chubby paws on some of the good stuff are long gone. Europe is swimming in the stuff and the current champion of the vegan ice pool over here is Swedish Glace.
Their frozen sweets are delicious and I have often sung their praises. Well, strap yourself in as I am about to take you on another journey featuring a Swedish Glace delight of delicious proportions. I’m talking about the waffle cone Peak Cornet.
The vegan ice cream wars are in full effect and a front runner has now taken the lead here in Barcelona. It is sweet, chocolate/candy coated and comes on a handy stick. FGV readers, I introduce the Swedish Glace Pearl.
There is no big mystery here. I love Ms. Cupcake and I love all of her delicious treats and temptations. I have eaten every imaginable variety of mini cake from the bakery but today I got served. That means I was taught a lesson. A lesson where the learning intention was the tastiness of the watermelon cupcake I devoured.
Delicious. Moist. Super sweet. Frosting outweighing sponge.
There is a place in the north of England with crooked lanes paved with old stones. This town knows a brutal and harsh history. Pubs are named after torture devices and methods of execution while a seemingly-benign grass patch hides the remains of a cholera burial ground. It is a location that both delights and astounds with its past of inglorious tales.
It is also a place where many fabulous occurrences take place. Within the space of a few hours in the city this past weekend I ate at a completely vegan Spanish restaurant, had my photo taken with superstar of screen and fashion Chloë Sevigny and witnessed Morrissey perform a stellar concert to a venue packed with adoring fans.
Welcome to York.
Being vegan in London has just been blown sky high with amazingness. If you think that sounds like hyperbole on overdrive, check out the new vegan patisserie known as October Cafe and you’ll soon see the reason for my excitement.
Following a disappointing, half-uneaten breakfast at another vegan establishment, Josh and I were on the lookout for something to lift our spirits. We hopped a few buses, walked along Old Street in the City of London for a short while and arrived at one of the loveliest vegan experiences in existence.
The lovely people of Booja-Booja recently got in touch with me to ask if I would be willing to give one of their vegan ice cream flavours a try. Ummm… how long do you think I needed to think about that one? I’m not sure I finished reading their email before I hit the reply button.
If you cast your mind back a short while, you will remember my ecstatic review of the Booja-Booja Hunky Punky Chocolate variety. I have been a massive fan of their frozen treats since that day and the flavour that was recently delivered to me by the company has only cemented my love.
An important part of my FGV job description is to search out the most delicious candy and chocolate in the world. I don’t want to do it, but I must if I intend to keep hold of my position. My chubby, queer fingers glumly wade through foil and wrappers in search of the best sugar out there. It is grueling.
But it isn’t all bad news, for you all get to live vicariously through my eating adventures. I don’t mind doing the hard yards if it means I get to share with you news of tasty vegan products. It is in this sharing spirit I inform you of one of the most delicious vegan chocolates available anywhere. Moo Free is creamy, tasty and incredibly satisfying. Want to see more? Come on then, I’ll unwrap it for you.
What will you travel long distances for?
Some people will sit on a train for hours just to take in the wonders of an art gallery at the other end. Individuals will fly half way around the globe to spend time with loved ones. What does a FGV make the effort for? Music and food, of course.
It was these two top hobbies of eating and listening that resulted in me traveling to Brighton last week. Gene, one of my favourite bands of all time, disbanded many years ago and their former lead singer is only now returning to organised solo performing. Martin Rossiter was booked to appear at the Brighton Unitarian Church and I just had to be there. Josh and I packed up the car and made haste to the iconic seaside town.
We arrived to our destination with several hours to spare, so of course we hunted down the nearest food outlet serving vegan dishes. The Brighton Loving Hut supplied us with a feast consisting of a fry up, burger, chips and vegan candy.