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Vegan food at climbing centre

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Have you been searching for a place where you can eat vegan food AND climb a wall in London?

Well, I’ve got the solution you need and it’s all housed inside (and out) a heritage listed Victorian pumping station that looks like a castle!

The Castle Climbing Centre is the UK’s largest climbing centre and is on Green Lanes just near Stoke Newington in north London.

This climbing centre is simply amazing. The old pumping station is built in the style of a castle, complete with towers and cavernous inside spaces. The halls and rooms have been fitted out with climbing walls and surfaces, while one of the towers affords customers the chance to engage in a bit of indoor abseiling.

In a surprising and welcomed twist, the onsite café at the centre offers up vegan food choices.

The menu consists of two main dishes each day, one of which is always vegan. The mains can vary depending on the season and what veg is on offer. The staff tell me it is usually  something like a curry, stew or rice dish and vegan pilaf with tahini dressing is popular at the moment. They also offer a daily soup and wide ranging selection of salads all of which are always vegan. Other items on the menu include toasties (hummus & sundried tomato, peanut butter and banana, vegan cheese with homemade chutney etc.), jackets with a range of toppings, hummus and toast. In the summer they run a café from their garden every Wednesday serving wood-fired pizza.

In addition to savoury dishes they always have a wide ranging selection of cakes, which are vegan about 60-70% of the time. This includes flapjacks, banana bread, lemon drizzle, brownie bites, cheesecake, cupcakes and whatever else they can make using the produce from their garden. Yes, they grow most of their own produce on site!

Main dishes range from £5.50-£6, soup costs £3.50 and the majority of cakes are under £2.

You’ve read about the vegan food options, so take a few moments to check out all the climbing action in the video below. This place is incredible!

But before you do watch, here are all the links you need for The Castle Climbing Centre.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Vegan food in Camden

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When someone describes what they cook as filthy vegan junk food, my interest couldn’t be higher.

Biff’s Jack Shack is a decadent London-based vegan street food business making crispy fried fillet burgers and wings out of jackfruit. They have been doing a lot of impressing people around the capital and now have set up shop in Camden for the entire month of August.

Biff’s delicious food can be snapped up from their temporary pop up located at Camden Town Brewery (click here to see location via Google Maps). The food stand is trading in this spot each Thursday and Friday from 5:30pm until 9:00pm and Saturdays between 2:00pm until 7:00pm all throughout August.

But what of the food? Prepare yourself because I don’t think you’re ready for this epic-ness.

Jackin’ Wingz

Choose 2 or 3 Jackin’ Wingz slathered with a topping blend of your choice:

  • Classic Cayenne Buffalo Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese Sauce
  • Southern BBQ Sauce Spiked with Bourbon
  • Thai Cinnamon Infused Sweet Chilli
  • Sriracha and Cool Mayo

The ‘Jack Bauer Tower’

  • Enriched Vegan Brioche
  • Cool mayo
  • Crisp Iceberg
  • Fat Hash Brown
  • Classic Burger Cheese
  • Crispy Fried Jackin’ Patty
  • Ketchup/Hot Sauce of your choice

The ‘Father Jack’

  • Enriched Vegan Brioche
  • Smoke infused vegan Bacun Jam
  • Whiskey BBQ Sauce
  • Crisp Iceberg
  • Smoked Burger Cheese
  • Natural Beer Battered Onion Rings
  • Crispy Fried Jackin’ Patty

I don’t know about you but all of that has me drooling and checking my diary for my next available eating opportunity.

Don’t miss out on Biff’s Shack Jack during their Camden Town Brewery residency (where vegan beer is plentiful BTW) and be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Vegan BBQ in London

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You all know I am Australian, right?

I grew up with people frying all sorts of animals on the ‘barbie’ and backyard meat fests were part of life. The general vibe was that you weren’t a good Australian citizen if you didn’t have a chunk of charred cow on your plate.

Now there is a new food company in London to make me feel nostalgic for days past but without the animals having to die part. Barbie Grrrl is a pop-up food company catering for those craving the textures, smells and flavours of a proper backyard Aussie BBQ.

Barbie Grrrl is currently grilling in the beer garden at Shoreditch’s Canvas Café during lunchtime and dinner throughout August. Alcohol and a variety of beverages are within easy reach and HOMEMADE SEITAN RIBS are on the menu – served either straight up or accompanied by Canvas Café’s summer salad selection.

Barbie Grrrl rub their ribs with 9 spices – including turmeric, sweet paprika and fennel seeds – and demerara sugar for flavour complexity. They are proud to say they give the ribs all the time they need on the barbie, which leaves them chargrilled and with a distinct smoky flavour from the coal. The final touch is a slathering of their signature BBQ sauce, with notes of aniseed and a chilli kick.

The ribs are made fresh every morning so once they are gone, they’re gone!

Barbie Grrrl will be in residence every Tuesday – Sunday for lunch (12:00-16:00) and dinner (18:00-22:00) from the 1st of August through to the 3rd of September, 2017. Bring cash to buy your ribs (cashpoint a short walk away), £5 on their own or £7 with salad.

 

Follow Barbie Grrrl on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to see the exact location of the pop-up via Google maps.

Vegan food event in London

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KERB is a company focussed on organising and hosting large scale street food events around London and the UK.

Their next event that will be of great interest to vegans, especially vegans who like a LOT of food.

Livin’ on the Veg is a showcase of eight vegan food specialists and the twist of this event is that you get something from EACH trader when you buy a ticket. Yes, eight portions of food!

The mammoth food party is taking place in King’s Cross on Friday August 18 and Saturday August 19, 2017. There are different sessions you can book and from what I’ve heard, there aren’t many tickets remaining so be quick.

For £30, you get a cocktail plus ALL OF THE FOLLOWING FOOD:

  1. Biff’s Jack Shack – double fried jackfruit buffalo wings speared on sugar cane bone with maple bourbon hot sauce, blue cheese, toasted almond kale slaw and a fresh seared peach
  2. Petare (Bucket List reigning champ!)- Venezuelan ‘chip butty’ arepa stuffed with cassava chips, sweet fried plantain, “feta”, avocado and garlic sauce
  3. Lemlem Kitchen –  Timtimo split pea afro-taco, served on injera with a red cabbage and ginger slaw, and pickled chillies and seeds.
  4. Eat Chay – Korean BBQ Bahn Mi baguette filled with crispy seitan, mushroom walnut pate, pickled carrots, parsnips and sriracha mayo
  5. Spice Box – charred makhani-smothered tandoori cauli steak with coriander chutney and homemade pickles on a grilled naan
  6. Temple of Seitan – fried ‘chicken’ slider in an agave mustard glaze
  7. Greedy Khao –Thai red curry tofu and butternut squash pillows on soy sesame slaw and hom mali rice
  8. Young Vegans – chocolate peanut butter mud pie brownies

Can you handle all of this?!

In addition to the food you are swamped with, there will be extra food to buy if you need it as well as a bar and games. It sounds like a whole lot of delicious fun.

Click here to book your ticket.

Extra note: the Saturday sessions of Livin’ on the Veg are on the same day as Hackney Downs Vegan Market. Check out the line up we have for that monthly event here.

Vegan sandwiches in London

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News for vegan sandwich lovers.

Street food business Queen Picnic are now appearing EVERY Sunday at Chatsworth Road and they have this fabulous line up of packaged sandwiches. I want them all!

The Queen Picnic beef-style seitan, rocket, tomato and mustard sandwich. Coming to a store near you!

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Not only can you get your hands on these tasty savoury delights between 11am and 4pm each Sunday at Chatsworth Road Market, you will also start seeing these sandwiches popping up in local stores and supermarkets.

Follow Queen Picnic on Instagram to stay updated on stockist locations and new flavours.

Vegan cake in London

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Here is a super quick blog post to let you know about a nifty little spot for picking up gorgeous vegan cake in central London.

MissFlits Bakes Vegan is on a mission to spread the good word about vegan cake and they are starting by selling their tasty treats at Forge & Co on Shoreditch High Street.

Check these out!

Of course Forge & Co is not a vegan establishment but if you are in the area and in need of cake, this is a very handy location of which to be aware as they have multiple vegan cakes each week.

You can see the exact location of Forge & Co thanks to Google Maps. It is only a few minutes on foot from Boxpark!

New cakes are delivered to the Shoreditch eatery by the MissFlits Bakes Vegan every Tuesday. You should follow them on Facebook and Instagram to keep updated.

New vegan kitchen in West London

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West London is in the midst of a plant-based eating revolution with new businesses popping up all the time.

There is GreenBay Supermarket and Picky Wops pizza parlour within walking distance of each other. Sanctuary is just around the corner from both of these places in Fulham. Don’t forget the fab new café called Vegan HQ on South Ealing road.

That side of London is really gathering vegan steam and we now have a brand new plant-based café called The Retreat Kitchen in Richmond to add to the expanding list.

During the week at The Retreat Kitchen you can fill up at the seasonal salad bar and enjoy dishes such as the cashew ‘cheesy’ leek and broccoli quiche. You can devour homemade beetroot brownies or a refined sugar-free sticky toffee, date and cinnamon donut. You can enjoy a range of organic and vegan beer, wine, prosecco and cider.

The weekend at The Retreat Kitchen is a more laid back affair with an all day brunch menu where you can enjoy their version of traditional breakfast offerings including stuffed chickpea omelettes, mushroom florentine muffins and hollandaise sauce and loaded fresh fruit as well as banana and cinnamon pancake stacks.

The Retreat Kitchen is located on Hill Rise, Richmond (see the exact location via Google Maps) and is open Tuesdays-Fridays, 8:30am until 5:00pm and for brunch and cream teas at the weekends from 9:30am to 5:00pm.

You can visit The Retreat Kitchen online and follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Exclusive vegan supper club for London

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London, I know you have a lot going on when it comes to vegan eating but you need to make a special effort to get along to this exclusive dining event in Hackney next week.

Plates is a company specialising in plant-based contemporary dining experiences with modern English menus and are about to launch a Saturday night residency in Hackney at Autumn Yard located at Hackney Downs Studios on Saturday August 5, 2017.

Check out the flyer for the launch night below.

 

The food they put together looks exquisite and the launch dinner includes a gorgeous 4-course menu crafted from fresh ingredients. I think it’s safe to say you will be very well fed (and satisfied) if you book a ticket for this exclusive event.

Autumn Yard is a stunning venue and this launch event for Plates is incredible value at £25. Book your ticket now.

You should also follow Plates on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to stay updated with this season of supper clubs in Hackney, plus all of their future events.

Some of the best vegan food in London

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It has been a long time since I last said hello to them but my visit to the Just Fab double decker food bus on Hackney Road yesterday reminded me why this unique Italian restaurant is serving up some of the best vegan food in the UK.

Laura, Jonas, Josh and I all piled into the bus for some long overdue eating and we didn’t show any restraint. We got one of everything that we damn well wanted and our table was rammed solid with delicious comfort cuisine.

Laura and Jonas were visiting from LA and they couldn’t talk highly enough of the Just Fab menu. That is saying huge things when you consider all the vegan treats they have back home.

Follow Just Fab on Instagram and click here to see their exact location thanks to Google Maps.

Now, the food photos!

Stunning #vegan cheeseburger at @just_fab_vegitalian

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Next level polenta dish at @just_fab_vegitalian on Hackney Road. #vegan

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The panelle at @just_fab_vegitalian are SO TASTY. #vegan

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The lasagne at @just_fab_vegitalian is NEXT LEVEL. #vegan

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Highlights from London Vegan Beer Fest

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I’m a little worn out after a big day, but the sore feet and weary eyes seem completely worth it when I look back over these photo highlights from the 5th annual London Vegan Beer Fest.

Hackney Downs Studios came alive in an explosion of beer, food and a hell of a lot of friendly people.

Thanks to the Studios for hosting the giant event and huge appreciation to our sponsors Follow Your Heart.

One million offerings of thanks to all the wonderful people that worked hard and volunteered their time to make the event a runaway success.

Next stop? Sheffield! Now onto the London photos.

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London Vegan Beer Festival! #lvbf17

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Loving my #lazyboykitchen mac&cheese and my black beeble stout #lvbf17

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Happy weekend frens ❤️ #lvbf17 #beer #morebeer #evenmorebeer

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OMG ❤️ @peanutbutterbakery

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Vegan Beer Fest in our neighborhood! #lvbf17 #veganmexicanfood #hackney @clubmexicana

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#London #vegan #beer fest 2017 #LVBF17

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@peanutbutterbakery vegan donuts galore. #vegan #veganeats #vgang #whatveganseat #donuts #lvbf17

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#Vegan chilli cheese fries from @lazyboykitchen at #lvbf17 #vegang

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My 4th London Vegan Beer Fest and the best so far – thanks @fatgayvegan

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#lvbf17

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#lvbf17

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This pint of Detroit Sour City by @twistedbarrelale is outstanding. At London Vegan Beer Fest #lvbf17

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The #vegan fish and chip truck @battered_v are doing a roaring trade at London Vegan Beer Fest #lvbf17

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London Vegan Beer Fest is amazing this year. Look at the @brasscastlebrewery beer hall! #vegan #lvbf17

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Only all the fab people at London Vegan Beer Fest today. @heartofcakelondon #lvbf17 #vegan

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I’m drunk and being taught to pull a pint at London Vegan Beer Fest. #lvbf16 @brasscastlebrewery

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The best thing about London Vegan Beer Fest was the people. Everyone was so lovely and friendly. #lvbf17

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And we’re off!!! #veganbeerfest2017 #fatgayvegan #followyourheart

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