London can you wait?

London Animal Charities Fair

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I have ceased overeating for a few moments in order to tell you about an exciting event coming up on the London animal welfare calendar.

London Animal Charities Fair is sweeping into Kings Cross on Sunday November 6, 2011 between the hours of 10am and 4pm. Housed in The Camden Centre, the day-long event is being staged as a fund-raising endeavour for a huge range of animal charities, welfare groups and activists.

Admission to the fair is £2 or £1.50 for pensioners while people under the age of 16 are admitted free of charge. Money raised through admission goes to covering the ongoing running costs of the fair. There will be a children’s activity area and a vegan cafe run by Loving Hut where you will be able to buy hot food, cakes and drinks.

Charities will be hosting stalls selling gifts, books, bric-a-brac and more in order to raise funds for their crucial campaigning. Stall holders will include Animal Aid, The Vegetarian Society, Wild Futures Monkey Sanctuary and Animals Asia. A number of talks will be given, including a session by Darren Collis of Sea Shepherd.

Scribble the date in your diary, tell your friends and put away a few pounds for a good cause disguised as a good day out. I’ll see you there.

London Animal Charities Fair, Sunday November 6, 2011, 10am-4pm

The Camden Centre (Euston Road Entrance opp. Kings Cross St. Pancras) WC1H 9LZ

Visit the official website

Join the Facebook group page

Here we go, I’m hanging out in Camden

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Camden is famous for a lot of cool, outsider culture that eventually works its way into the mainstream. The historical Camden Market is now a must-see for thousands of tourists every year, the underground music scene exploded out of the borough in the 90’s spawning the Indie craze and more recently, the tragic demise of Amy Winehouse has been inextricably linked to the area as her Back to Black album became the highest-selling release of recent times in the UK.

It is understandable when members of minorities bemoan their insider knowledge being shared with the world. To have something intimate blown up to a global scale can be extremely challenging and confronting. However, there is one alternative happening coming out of Camden that I hope continues its explosion into the mainstream… vegan dining.

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Be my guest

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If you follow me on Twitter, you will already know I am eating and drinking myself into oblivion in Los Angeles. I am having a fab time in my favourite city and have eaten in some of the best vegan establishments in the world.

Vegan life in London has kept trundling along while I have been living it up in SoCal, specifically the annual London Vegan Festival. I am a bit down about missing out on all the cruelty-free action but I do still get a small insight into the proceedings as Josh very kindly collected some photos of the event and has even written a few words about what went down.

Let’s get straight into it. Thanks, Josh!

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London Vegan Potluck 4 review

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The London Vegan Potluck is becoming something of a phenomenon. On the first Wednesday of each month, London food enthusiasts are coming together en masse to create one of the best vegan social events in the UK.

This FGV is incredibly proud that what started as a simple idea has blossomed into a thriving monthly night. I am even prouder to know the event this month was just as big a success as the first three potlucks even though I was busy eating the vegan treats of Barcelona and couldn’t be there.

Kip of the fabulous, must-read The Messy Vegetarian Cook blog has kindly written a review of the potluck. Much love and thanks for doing this in my absence, Kip. In addition, devoted potluck attendees Linda and Andrea helped run the evening with Andrea managing to capture a few images of the mouth-watering food on offer. Thank you!

I’m sorry to have missed this event, but nothing will keep the FGV from the next potluck scheduled for September 7. Take it away, Kip!

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Western Ghats what I’m talking about

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Sagar vegetarian Indian restaurant

Something has been troubling me and I had no other choice than to bring in a guest. Many months ago Josh and I dined in a West London vegetarian restaurant. I was underwhelmed by the Indian food and have not been inspired to write a review about our experience.

Although much time has passed, Josh kindly agreed to write his first ever blog entry and has recounted our night at Sagar in Hammersmith as a FGV guest contributor. Take it away, Josh.

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An expensive lesson

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The Gate Restaurant of Hammersmith

How much would you pay for a meal? When dining out in a fancy restaurant, do you set yourself a budget or do you sometimes allow yourself to splurge on fine food?

If you don’t mind distributing your wealth now and again, I have some advice for you. Think twice before distributing it to The Gate Restaurant, a vegetarian eatery located in Hammersmith, London. I am going to be blunt and brief. I found it to be over-priced, over-dependent on dairy and severely lacking in vegan options.

The restaurant itself is rather pleasant, if a bit grubby. My seat afforded me a lovely view across the restaurant to the massive feature window. Unfortunately I was also next to a wall that was riddled with bizarre scuff marks and scratches. I’m not above eating in a venue with a bad paint job, but after viewing the prices on the menu I would expect The Gate Restaurant to splash out on a lick of paint now and again.

Speaking of prices, I have never paid so much money for such unexciting, unadventurous and downright dull food.

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Hyper when I ventilate

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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.

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Take me to the places that I love best

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Hampstead Heath is just about as famous/infamous a location as you can get in London. The stunning inner-city parkland is a historical, picturesque expanse of greenery dotted with reservoirs and woodlands. People make the trip to the park from all over the city to take in the glorious skyline views, admire the wildlife and engage in sexual activities.

Oh yes. Sex. The Heath has long been a destination for men seeking casual and anonymous encounters. Of course, its most famous cruiser is George Michael who allegedly shouted “Fuck off! It’s part of my culture” to a snooping tabloid reporter as he unashamedly went about his business.

But aside from Hampstead being a visual treat and a place for the interested to meet, it is also a charming and surprising must-visit location for vegans.

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Seitan rejected my soul

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I love a good piece of meat… fake, that is and fake meat rarely comes better than a chunky slab of seitan. Seitan is a meat substitute made of wheat gluten originating from China and it is particularly chewy. It is perfect for cooking with sauces and marinades as it sucks up liquid and flavours expertly.

I don’t see a lot of quality seitan in the UK so it was with immense delight that I watched Josh produce a jar of the good stuff from his grocery bag recently. Lima seitan is a quality wheat meat that is easy to carve and is barely flavoured, making it perfect to absorb any sauce you throw at it.

It doesn’t appear to be available in many stores but the Lima website does have a list of suppliers and retail outlets. It is apparently available in countries as far spread as the Czech Republic, Bahrain, Croatia, Spain, Israel, Slovenia and Iceland. Their availability reads like the Eurovision finalist list! We didn’t have to travel that far to nab our jar as Josh made his purchase in Alara Health Store located on Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury.

So what did I make with this wonder product?

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To market, to market

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Do you want to get involved in one of the most exciting vegan projects that has ever taken place in London?

Peter from October Cafe is developing a multi-vendor market in the heart of the city! I won’t waffle on too much as I want to give Peter the floor to explain how it works. Let’s just say it is a dream of mine to shop at an all vegan market and I will be first in line to see what the cruelty-free vendors have on offer.

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