Provincial towns you jog round

You wanna talk about Reading?

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I work hard to make London Vegan Potluck a success and stories like the following make it all worthwhile.

A few months ago I was contacted by a friendly person from Reading called Gemma. Gemma was planning a vegan potluck in her city and wanted some advice on how to get it together.

I am only too happy to help where I can when it comes to this sort of question. As I have said previously, vegan potlucks are invaluable when it comes to building social capital, supporting new vegans and strengthening the resolve of long term vegans.

Flash forward to yesterday and I received a lovely message from Gemma sharing the following information:

“So we had our potluck tonight and I thought you would like to see the pics. There were about 18 or so people I think. Thank you again for all your advice before. It really helped. Our next one is 5th August and everyone has said they will come to that one too, yaay.”

How fantastic. I tip my hat to Gemma and the Reading vegans for hosting the first of what I’m sure will be many potlucks. Hopefully I can make it along in the future!

Gemma has kindly agreed to let me use some of her photos from the Reading Potluck. Follow her Facebook page for further dates and details.

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Fudge. Plain and simple.

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After I visit a city, it always takes me a long time to work through all the food I consumed and convert the tasty memories into blog posts. I have that well-known vegan condition that involves eating every single possible vegan dish available to me during a vacation. Almost like I’ve never seen food before. What’s wrong with us?

My recent Edinburgh trip was no different. Working out where vegan breakfast, lunch and dinner were to be enjoyed took precedence over getting to the castle or visiting the museum. The walks along the Royal Mile or down historic closes were planned with precision to ensure vegan food options took centre stage throughout my time in Edinburgh.

In addition to my baked potato experience, one of the most memorable frenzied pit stops for food involved vegan fudge. Thick, creamy and irresistible vegan fudge. The Fudge Kitchen located on the Royal Mile isn’t a vegan food outlet but they certainly know how to make plant-based eaters feel welcome.

The store has at least one vegan fudge option on show each day. My visit coincided with the overwhelmingly-scrumptious toffee variety made with soya cream.

Fudge Kitchen Edinburgh
Fudge Kitchen Edinburgh
Gorgeous vegan toffee fudge
Gorgeous vegan toffee fudge

I am trying to be a less food-driven tourist. Not as many of my trips are planned around the food available at the destination but it will be a long while until I am comfortable moving through a town without devouring every vegan dish on offer.

Find all Fudge Kitchen UK locations online

Follow Fudge Kitchen on Twitter

Like Fudge Kitchen on Facebook

 

Potato forever

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I adore potato. It is my favourite food. I love it so deeply, I even have a blog category dedicated to this precious gift from the Earth.

Knowing this about me, you can imagine the utter joy I felt upon discovering a vegetarian baked potato cafe during my recent trip to Edinburgh. This wonderland of carbs is filled with vegetarian and vegan options to pile on top of piping hot potato.

Even though I was only in the Scottish city for one night, I managed to visit The Baked Potato Shop twice and it was just about all the food I could manage during my visit. The servings were mammoth!

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There’s a moose on the loose

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We can never have too many vegan food suppliers in the world, right? Well, we certainly can never have too many vegan food suppliers working towards building social capital in their neighbourhood, right? I knew you’d agree with me.

Moose’s Kitchen is a cafe set to open over the coming months and will focus on sustainable, organic, local and vegan food. The idea behind the eatery is to supply ethical and organic food to the community while working to educate people on healthy eating, collective organising and vegan cooking.

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This initiative is set to transform the way people in Hastings and the South East approach food. The founder of Moose’s Kitchen sat down with me to explain the concept of the cafe and why she is asking you (yes, YOU!) to make a donation in order to make the idea a reality.

Read the interview below and make a donation to Moose’s Kitchen here.

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Vegan comedian on UK tour

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Here is some exciting news that will brighten your pedestrian start to the week.

US Comedian Jamie Kilstein is gracing the UK with his irreverent presence this month during a live stand up tour that will make stops in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and Edinburgh.

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Jamie is well-known for his political comedy podcast Citizen Radio that he runs out of his Brooklyn apartment with his partner Allison Kilkenny. He has been featured as a comedian on many cable and TV shows including Conan O’Brien and these UK gigs come hot on the heels of two wildly successful shows in Seattle and Portland.

He is a funny person and many people love him for his social justice-charged brand of comedy, but you are probably wondering why a chubby, queer, food-obsessed blogger is hipping you to this news on a vegan blog.

Not only is Jamie Kilstein a progressive comedian resisting oppression of people, he is also a fierce advocate for non-human animals as a longtime vegan. Check out this excerpt about being vegan from one of his shows before checking below for dates and ticket details for the upcoming UK tour.

Be quick. Jamie is truly a sensation and tickets are already moving swiftly.

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Never again

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Sit back, relax and enjoy a brief review of one restaurant I will probably never eat in again.

Josh and I were on our way to the West Midlands Vegan Festival when hunger struck. A bit of vegan keyword searching, followed by a touch of Google mapping, and we were standing inside a vegetarian restaurant located in the town of West Bromwich. The name of the establishment? Jalapeños.

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Here kitty, kitty!

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Yorkshire has given my life a lot of cool things.

This part of the world is often the punchline of jokes thrown around by smug southerners, but I for one have a special affinity with the northern region. My favourite book when I was a young child (with a fey manner) was the resplendent and camp A Woman of Substance, written by Yorkshire’s very own Barbara Taylor Bradford. I would read it alone in my room in a sort of secret lockdown, hidden for fear of being interrupted. I wanted nothing to come between me and the sheer outrageousness of the pages.

Flash forward several decades and I am not a multi-millionaire business tycoon as promised by Barbara, but Yorkshire is still a part of the world that keeps giving me delight.

However, this time around it isn’t the written word its inhabitants have gifted me. It is delicious vegan beer.

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We love you LEEDS! LEEDS! LEEDS!

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In some parts of the world, it can be a struggle to be a vegan.

If you are located a long distance from a major city, plant-based foods and cruelty-free supplies can be difficult to track down let alone finding a vegan social event in your neighbourhood. London spoils me for choice, but I never forget what it was like to live in smaller, less vegan-friendly locations. Heck… I was even situated (for a short period) in Rockhampton, Australia. If you care to investigate, I believe you will discover Rockhampton is considered the beef capital of Australia.

For isolated vegans, the light at the end of the lonesome tunnel often takes the form of a local vegan/veggie support group. Likeminded individuals get together to share advice, recipes, food, friendship and interests. Your local support group can often be the only time your choice to be cruelty-free is taken seriously.

There are a huge number of veggie/vegan support groups all over the UK but as Leeds is close to my heart, I would like to focus on the Northern city for a moment… specifically the Leeds Vegetarians and Vegans group.

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More vin ordinaire

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What do you get when you couple a moving musical experience from a musical hero with a dull, overpriced meal in a tiny restaurant in a suffocatingly upper-middle class town? Read on if you think you can deal with the dizzying highs and tedious lows of my recent trip to Cambridge.

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