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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Have you had the pleasure of visiting the Infinity Foods shop in Brighton? Check out this mini-photo post featuring goods purchased from Infinity today…
You will probably have noticed that I like to start my stories with an anecdote or two. Just a little something to make you sure you made the correct choice by clicking on my link.
But I have a problem.
I sat down with an idea in my head on how to write about a fabulous health food store I discovered in the English countryside. My desire was to make witty references to several famous citizens from the town where the store is located. I searched high and low for a famous name I recognised, but I kept hitting a brick wall. Time after time and search after search, only one name came up as a notable person from the village. Dear readers, I give you the lovely northern town of Mossley and whoever the heck Melanie Sykes is…
I recently enjoyed the chance to return to one of the best vegan food providers in the UK. The Globe pub in the northern town of Glossop is as near to a religious experience a vegan atheist can get. The cosy inn delivers plate after plate of cruelty-free comfort food and my only regret is that it isn’t situated closer to where I live.
That said, I must admit location is but a mild irritation. Distance exists only to be laughed at when a FGV is hungry and let’s face it, when am I not at least peckish? So grab your warmest coat and wrap up tightly… we are heading into the windy wilds of Derbyshire for a spot of overeating.
