Taking the long way around

Glorious food experience

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It has taken me a while to get around to posting these photos, partly because I didn’t want to be reminded of the fact that this stunning food is served daily on the opposite side of the world.

If you have room for a new goal on your bucket list, scribble ‘Gracias Madre Los Angeles’ on a scrap of paper and throw it onto the pile of things you must experience before you kick it.

Gracias Madre is a 99.9% vegan restaurant (honey in some cocktails… don’t get me started!) located in West Hollywood with an original location still operating in the San Francisco area. We visited the WeHo outlet during a recent trip to Southern California so we could satisfy our cravings for vegan Mexican food.

Let me give the page over to the photos as I believe they don’t need much help in conveying the glory of the food crafted and served by Gracias Madre. 

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Green Market

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Post by:

joe panel

This weekend found myself and my little vegan gang at a little festival called the Green Market, a small festival which happens three times a year.

The ‘summer edition’ took place next to the river Spree (in part of the former Berlin border strip, for any other history geeks out there!).

And though it may be small (about 30 stands?) the market has quality over quantity, as in addition to vegan clothing, shoes and accessories, there were tons of delicious things to eat.

Plenty of burger and wrap trucks, an ice-cream stand by Kontor (reviewed previously), and – behind a crowd of excited vegans – a new doughnut company called Brammibals, who are currently seeking crowdfunding for a new shop.

So without further ado, check out the following food photos:

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Vegan Ethiopian

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Post by:

josh panel

A trip to Little Ethiopia

Most Los Angeles vegans will already know about Rahel – it’s a vegan Ethiopian restaurant that has been on Fairfax for years and years. The secret to its success? Consistently amazing food. I’ve dined there multiple times over the years and on each occasion, Rahel has nailed it. A couple of weeks ago I was in LA and met my friend Brian for dinner. Check out the photos below of the ‘Millennium Special’ platter which included a dessert. Forgetting that I can never finish the platters, I also ordered a sambussa and instantly regretted it (although it was delicious).

If you’re familiar with Ethiopian food then you’ll know that the feast platters are served on a bed of injera and include many different and diverse dishes. Accompanying this were some of the tastiest vegetable and lentil stews ever, which combined with the injera made a mouth-watering combination of flavours and textures. The melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin stew was out of this world.

The dessert, a little like baklava, was nothing to write home about but who cares after such a delicious platter?

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You can visit Rahel online and make sure you pencil in a stop when you are in Los Angeles.

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Discount in Berlin

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Post by:

joe panel

One of the great things about living in Berlin is that there’s a Veganz vegan supermarket a 10 minute walk away, or even less on the bike. Veganz is really more of a mini-supermarket, though they do have a huge range of products available.

But like all supermarkets, Veganz often has special offers or last- minute reductions on items nearing the end of their shelf-life. This is great for a cheapskate like me. My eyes can sense those bright orange price stickers before I’ve even set off. As a result, we end up trying exotic foodstuffs that are normally out of our price range. (Our freezer is full of bags of grated Daiya cheese that were a bargain at €0.99 each!)

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This will change your view

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Which city on the planet has the most vegan ‘heat’ and ‘buzz’ at the moment?

I’m sure you are rattling off dozens of city names in your head right now. You are thinking of all the familiar destinations you hear about when people talk about vegan hotspots. Los Angeles. Berlin. Glasgow. New York City. Portland. Austin.

Well, how would you react if I told you a lot of the above are about to be trumped for vegan superiority by Warsaw, Poland?

A reader we will call Luke (because that’s his name!) sent me the following video and I have to be honest when I say it completely took me by surprise. Made by a production team named wawangrada, this 30-minute long video is an exposé on the truly staggering  presence of vegan food in the Polish capital.

I can hear the groans of the soundbite-only consumers already, but I implore you to take half an hour out of your day to watch this short documentary. It is one of the most eye-opening chronicles of vegan eating I have ever seen.

Video highlights include:

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Vegan restaurant in an airport

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I’ve been vegan for almost 17 years and I’ve seen a lot of changes during that period.

I can remember going to my first vegan fair at Conway Hall in London back in 1999. Somebody gave me seitan and I recall being incredibly confused.

I think there was choice of just one soya milk we used to buy from Sainsbury’s back in my early vegan days. It was sweetened with apple juice! Cheezly was the only vegan cheese on the block and I had the feeling that eating vegan was going to remain an outsider concern for a long, long time.

Flash forward to 2015 and I am now blogging about a vegan restaurant outlet situated inside Los Angeles International Airport. Times have changed.

Following on from our vacation in Southern California recently, Josh and I were booked to fly out of LAX Terminal 4. This air travel hub just so happens to be the site of an outlet for legendary vegan food chain, Real Food Daily. Yep. A vegan food outlet inside an airport.

The photos below show my club sandwich that was stacked solid with seitan, tempeh and avocado. Josh’s ‘build your own bowl’ meal was filled with brown rice, seitan, marinated tofu and steamed kale.

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Highly skilled food transportation

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I’ve developed incredible skills when it comes to transporting chilled and frozen vegan food from one part of the planet to another.

You could be forgiven for thinking a flight from Los Angeles to London is too much time in the air for frozen food to make it back safely, not to mention the long periods at either end getting to and from airports.

But I’m FGV and nothing stands in my way when it comes to the food I love.

All of the goods you see below were frozen and wrapped in multiple plastic bags before being swaddled inside my favourite Harrington jacket and crammed into a suitcase.

Every single item made it back to my London home still frozen.

Check it all out below. I’m off to eat it all!

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In Istanbul

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After telling you about the airline food from his flight there and his flight back, Josh has finally found time to write about his recent work trip to Istanbul and it sounds so amazing that I think I’ll be booking a ticket to go there myself. Read on to find out what Josh had to say:

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Vegan ice cream parlour

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Which city has won the Vegan Ice Cream Wars?

According to my buddy Joe, Berlin has just emerged victorious.

Check out what he had to say about this brand new vegan ice cream parlour that has opened up in his Berlin neighbourhood.

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