London can you wait?

Spring supper

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If you are in London this week and are not attending London Vegan Drinks, I have two questions for you.

Question the first: why the heck not? Question the second: it’s because you are going to this fabulous vegan Italian supper club, right?

My pal Sara is a much-loved food creator and she has once again put together an eating experience for hardcore foodies. Sara has just arrived back in the UK following a vacation in South Africa and she is fired up, ready to put some serious food on the dinner table this week.

Check out the menu.

STARTER – Farinata – baked chickpea pancake with red onions served with handmade vegan garlic mayo

MAIN COURSE – Handmade Beetroot Ravioli filled with Fava Beans in cheesy cream

SECOND COURSE – Artichoke and Asparagus Gratin

SIDE – Blood Orange, Beet and Fennel Salad served with handmade sourdough

DESSERT – Caramel Tiramisù

Sounds lovely, right? If you are reading this soon after I posted it, you need to act quickly to book your ticket.

All details can be found here.

Mary again

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A little while back, Josh took over with a blog post about a vegetarian cafe in the heart of the Bloomsbury neighbourhood that serves up tasty meat-free meals during academic term time. Read about his love of the place here and then scroll down below for a shot of my tasty lunch there today.

The Mary Ward Centre Café is a long-standing favourite of students, staff and visitors to this learning complex, as well as visitors and staff from the nearby Great Ormond Street Hospital. The prices are maybe some of the lowest you will find for vegan options in central London.

Here is an Instagram snap I took of my lunch today. I thoroughly enjoyed the borlotti bean pie topped with creamy mash and the lentil stew with crispy potato wedges. Both plates of food just over £4 each.

So cheap and so nutritious.
Click here to see this photo on Instagram

Three whole years

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Did you plan on coming along to London Vegan Potluck last night but didn’t make it? These photos are your punishment.

I started this event three years ago and I have watched it grow in popularity since our humble beginnings in Brixton. I think we started with 20 attendees in May 2011 and now our numbers vary between 60 and 100.

I often find the event to be extremely tiring and a lot of work to pull together, but people love it and that is what keeps it going. People get to explore veganism in a friendly space and many attendees have been inspired to take up compassionate eating on a full time basis due to the support and camaraderie they get from events like the potluck.

Many thanks again to the following companies that came on board for our celebrations last night. It would be fab if you let them know via social media how much their support means to the vegan community.

  • Ms Cupcake donated a pile of brownies for the potluck table as well as a £10 gift voucher for the raffle
  • Vegusto supplied us with their amazing vegan cheeses as prizes
  • Moo Free Chocolates handed over some samples for the tables and raffle prize
  • Veganicity are experts in vegan supplements and they sent some along as prizes
  • Mr Prempy’s came along to talk to us about their raw cakes as well as hand out samples
  • The Rabbit Hole Vegan Hair Salon generously donated a voucher for a wash, cut and style as a raffle prize

Check out some of my Instagram photos from our 3rd anniversary celebrations last night and let me know in the comments what it is you love about London Vegan Potluck. Do you have any fond memories? Has it helped you? Did you meet new friends? Why are events like this important?

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Cool rider

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I make no secret of how much I adore the Cool Chile Co. This London based business is my main supplier of essential ingredients needed to get my Mexican food fix.

They sell it all. Kits that take the mystery out of cooking the perfect black bean dish. Chiles that are chopped, diced, dried and powdered. Spicy chipotle ketchup. Sweet salsa verde. Their enormous tortilla machine churns out thousands of the soft, round things every week (I wrote about the machine here). They even have a chorizo spice kit that comes with instructions explaining how you can use a meat substitute if you like. I love it!

But something makes the Cool Chile Co. extra special. The people who run it.

Director Dodi and General Manager Kelly are some of the most down-to-earth, unassuming and outright friendly people I have met in London. Even if their Mexican products weren’t the best in the country (which they are by a mile), I would still want them to be a roaring success because of what decent people they are.

Mexican ingredient champions
Mexican ingredient champions

It makes it all the more enjoyable to announce that I am partnering with the Cool Chile Co. for my huge vegan Mexican dinner taking place this week. Dodi and Kelly are getting behind UNA CITA by making sure we have the freshest tortillas in the country to make my three taco plate a dish you do not want to miss.

Cool Chile Co make this possible
Cool Chile Co make this possible

As a thank you to the company for coming on board with my event, I am giving them a pair of tickets for UNA CITA to give away to one fortunate Twitter follower. You need to follow them and retweet THIS tweet to be in with a chance to snap up the tickets for this Friday’s event.

Love Cool Chile Co. and be in with a chance to win!

Limited tickets for UNA CITA also available to buy here.

About Time

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Just a super quick note to let you know about a new column I am writing for someone else. It’s not all about me, you know!

The wonderful and curious new online magazine called About Time has enlisted me to contribute a regular column called Fat Gay Vegan Eats. The first offering features my list of five destinations for vegans in Camden.

You can check it out here.

abouttime

Vegan knowledge is power

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How’s this for a UK first? You can book a tour of the giant Whole Foods Market store on Kensington High Street and you will be led around the complex for approximately an hour by their in-house Healthy Eating Specialist.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the specialist is a super friendly vegan named Maura? How cool is that?

Maura is in charge of all the cooking demos and food education that take place in the Kensington store. As a vegan, she makes sure plant based eating is front and centre of everything she does.

I recently booked a tour with Maura and was impressed by how she was able to personalise the experience for me. She really explored the vegan options available for me based around my love of quick meals and snacks (and maybe some beer). Maura pointed out products that matched my love of food and she often referred to my ethical choices. I didn’t feel like my health was being questioned and the nutrition information was pitched just right. I was interested in everything she showed me.

That’s not to say that she wouldn’t be able to cater for the health-conscious vegans out there. Maura explained how she loves to talk with store visitors about making the most out of the bulk section, vegan food nutrition, cooking vegan food from scratch and how she can even email you follow up recipes based on ingredients you discuss with her in store.

Maura of Whole Foods Market
Maura of Whole Foods Market

It really is a fantastic experience being taken around such a huge supermarket by a vegan food specialist. There is no pushing animal products. Maura is completely relaxed and helpful. The tour is flexible enough to feel inclusive for long term and new vegans alike.

The tour costs nothing and there is no pressure to buy anything at the end.

Maura of course welcomes non-vegans to tour the store with her. It is such a great way for people teetering on the edge of veganism to get a helping hand. This would be a perfect blog post to pass on to those people in your life who you know could be comfortable with vegan food if they just had a little more information.

Maura is definitely the person with that info.

Email Kensington@wholefoodsmarket.com if you are keen on taking the tour with Maura.

Raw in Camden

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I was about to start this post by saying another week sees the appearance of another vegan food market stall, but I think they are popping up faster than one a week in London.

Rawwwsome is kind of unique, though.

The fabulous Steph has started this super cute stall right in the heart of Camden Lock Market. It is packed with incredibly healthy (and tasty!) handmade raw treats such as mint chocolate brownies, raspberry cheesecakes and banoffee bites.

Steph told me she is having a great time exposing this type of food to the mostly non-vegan punters of the market. During my visit, I counted almost a dozen curious people stop by to taste the samples on offer and every single one of them looked and sounded impressed.

And so was I. Everything I ate was gorgeous. Check out the photos below.

Get down to Camden Lock Market and eat all the raw treats from Rawwwsome. Follow Steph on Twitter. It might be a good idea to double check with her before you head down that she will be there. I think she is currently at the market most Fridays and Saturdays.

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Ticket info

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Can you believe it has been almost a year since London Vegan Beer Fest first stormed into our lives? What an event!

Beer was guzzled. BBQ food was devoured. Merchandise was snapped up. Karaoke classics were gloriously murdered. We certainly had a lot of fun and now it is time to do it all over again.

LVBF Logo 2014 550pxFat Gay Vegan (that’s me) is thrilled to present London Vegan Beer Fest 2014.

When I decided to put this event together, it was difficult to imagine getting through the first year but now here I am ready to celebrate the second edition in 2014.

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I overdid it at the soda shop

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Here is some quick and tasty news for you.

Buy vegan soda in London that is delicious!

I have been hearing good things about new(ish) soda company Square Root and was keen to get it on my chubby tastebuds. This Hackney-based company make all their drinks by hand from seasonal ingredients and they sell them from a gorgeous vintage tricycle fitted out with taps from which they pour the tasty liquid.

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Save some, eat some

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As you probably know, there is a venue called Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium. It is a cafe in east London that is also a home for rescue cats.

Even though the cafe serves some vegan options, I am yet to visit. I think I have a problem with the concept. It doesn’t sit well with me that animals are on display.

The cats in the Emporium are comfortable and wanting for nothing, according to the website. They have enormous amounts of space and are free to leave the public area when they choose. All food and welfare concerns are dealt with and there are guidelines in place for how cafe diners interact with the cats.

But I still don’t like it.

I don’t like the concept of any animal being on display, no matter how loved. As I walked past the front of the cafe recently, it struck me how much it looked like a pet store. People can stand at the window and stare at cats inside.

I don’t think I would ever go on a safari to look at animals. I would never go to a zoo, even if the establishment had a pristine record of animal conservation. I hate hobby farms and baby farm animal exhibits at fairs.

Loved and cared for animals on show are still animals on show for human enjoyment. I believe this is a practise that needs to be questioned, challenged and changed.

If it is cat interaction you are after, you can always visit one of the countless animal rescue shelters around the country where the animals are desperate for companionship, playmates and the odd spot of grooming.

As far as I can tell from their website, Dinah’s is a commercial enterprise designed to make profit. I am opposed to people making profit from displaying animals.

To add further unease to the situation, the patrons of the cat cafe have the choice of dining on animal-derived foods during their visit. Don’t hurt cats but by all means eat feta or milk. Or why not even indulge in a salmon salad?

Just don’t hurt the cats.

How do you all feel about this sort of cafe?

cat cafe