London vegan news, reviews & events
Dear Pie Baby. Where have you been all my life?
Pie Baby is exactly the kind of food venture I can throw my weight behind.
This new venture is a wife and husband food start up, formed in a home kitchen with nothing but big vegan dreams and a love of pies. Lara Fair is the cook and Finn Fair is the artist in charge of all design work.
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has put vegan sweets on the London food map quite like Mellissa Morgan. Mellissa’s Ms. Cupcake brand is known and loved by people all over the capital, while her recipe collection has sold by the pallet load to devoted fans.
Ms. Cupcake is a vegan brand that has come an impressive distance in a short time, but a booming Brixton bakery and plans for a follow up book do not signal anywhere close to the end of the story.
Ms. Cupcake and Mellissa Morgan have some big news to share.
Plans for the owl cafe have been abandoned in Soho.
I’m in somewhat of a celebratory mood but feel we must remain vigilant. The organiser of this event plans to move it to another location out of Central London.
The organiser is also in the process of launching a new app/social media platform, so it is understandable why some of us would be concerned about his true intentions. Is he using birds to build a user base for his app?
Some things to ponder.
The Annie the Owl pop up logo (on top) and the Locappy logo (below) are extremely similar. Is the intention to build goodwill for the app off the back of animals?
Here is a screenshot of Seb Lyall talking about the Locappy launch. Full video here.
Here is his name at the bottom of a press release for Annie the Owl pop up event, showing that the Locappy Seb is the same as Annie the Owl Seb.
It could appear to some people that Seb was trying to launch his app off the fuzzy affection the public have for owls. It is clear that he has attempted to showcase an owl cafe around the same time as the app launch, using almost identical graphics for both endeavours.
In my opinion, birds deserve a cruelty-free life without the payback of performance. People need to be taught to give a fuck without receiving anything in return. It would have been awesome if the Locappy launch happened and some funds were directed to owl welfare concerns without them expected to be adored in an inappropriate setting.
Bottom line: owls shouldn’t be exploited so an entrepreneur can launch a money making app (if that is the case here).
Keep a keen eye on Annie the Owl.
I adore creating events that give the vegan community fun opportunities to socialise while supporting vegan businesses at the same time.
You knew that, right? Well, check this out.
I am thrilled to announce the first ever Fat Gay Vegan day trip. It is a Vegan Coach Trip!
This is your opportunity to spend a day with a coach load of compassionate people, get in some last minute Christmas shopping, eat delicious food and support vegan businesses.
Here are the details.
There have been some fabulous vegan nights out in London during the last few weeks and The Vegan Butcher has dropped by to catch us up.
Time for a quick London Vegan Events roundup for the month of December!
The vegan community in London is growing larger and stronger each month. What December taught us is that we’re here! We’re vegan! GET USED TO IT! No, wait…that’s not quite it. What we learned this month is that London vegans love getting together to show off our mad kitchen skills/get drunk (depending on the event).
The December potluck was held, as always, on the first Wednesday of the month at the campus of Syracuse University London Program in central London. A lot of attendees kicked things into high gear because of the holiday season and the results were amazing. We had an Italian-style seitan roast, gorgeous salads, and delectable desserts, among many, many other things. Just take a look at some shots from the night.
The monthly London Vegan Drinks event was held this past Thursday at tibits vegetarian bar in central London. With over 100 RSVPs logged for this event, tibits showed us some cruelty-free love by making their buffet menu 99% vegan for the night. It was enough to warm any wind-chilled London vegan’s heart! It was yet another amazing night from the consistently fabulous tibits.
January’s schedule for these London vegan community events will be a little bit off, but I’ll let my chubby, gay friend tell you all about that. I wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday season. See you all in January! xx
Many thanks to The Vegan Butcher for a succinct round-up. As she mentioned, London Vegan Potluck is taking January off but will be back in full force in February. London Vegan Drinks is relentless and will be enjoying no such break. You can drink with compassionate people on Thursday Jaanuary 19, 2012.
Not everything I write ends up on my blog. I like to spread my tales of vegan overeating around the web.
In this vein, please visit the champion of all vegan blogs to read my latest consumption review. Quarrygirl is currently hosting FGV words and pictures detailing my trip to Veg World India in Barcelona.
Say hi to quarrygirl for me!
Rumours have been circulating for a while now about new products coming soon from vegan food manufacturer Fry’s Vegetarian. Here at the Haus of FGV we have been just as excited as the next vegan foodie and if the whispers we are hearing are correct, cruelty-free eaters the world over are going to be ecstatic.
The Internet has been ablaze the last few days with heated debate. Vegan-aimed magazine VegNews has been exposed by blogger Quarrygirl for printing digitally-altered photographs of meals made using dead animals and presenting them as visual accompaniments to vegan recipes. The outcry from long-term and casual VegNews readers has been overwhelming, while a substantial amount of readers don’t seem to be offended much at all.
I am outraged as a vegan, but I’m about to take you on a different journey. My rant is not one simply of distress at having been fooled into looking at murdered animals while being tricked into thinking they look tasty. No, I am approaching the VegNews fiasco from a broader angle of certain misrepresentation and possible deceitful provision of product/services.
Back in the day, the early 90s to be more precise, I was a teenager madly into music. Madonna seductively clung to my bedroom walls, Public Enemy powerfully educated me via my stereo and Morrissey practically insisted I do nothing for days on end but listen to his releases. I knew what made me happy and I always got what I paid for. The same couldn’t be said for some of my friends.
One of my best friends was a guy named Glen Fox. Glen was the one in our gang who somehow always managed to be a bit behind the 8 ball. His taste in music was certainly eclectic. I recall music shopping with Glen on the day he bought a Milli Vanilli CD. I was vile and teased him mercilessly. You can imagine my sheer delight when the entire Milli Vanilli act turned out to be a sham and the two ‘lead singers’ (Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus) hadn’t contributed in any way to their Grammy Award-winning recordings.
I promise this story is going somewhere other than affording me the opportunity of getting another kick into poor Foxy. The Milli Vanilli case turned into a media storm of epic proportions. The band was stripped of its Grammy award, dropped by its label and subjected to ferocious hounding by the press. Class action lawsuits were filed across the US and a rebate scheme was devised wherein consumers were given an opportunity to claim back a percentage of the cost of Milli Vanilli CDs, cassettes, records and concert tickets.
Glen Fox was sad and dejected as he applied for some of his expenditure back. Milli Vanilli‘s management and record label conceded consumers were justified in believing the music videos, album sleeves and promotional appearances showed the two lead singers of the band, when in fact Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus hadn’t sung a note. Some money was returned to consumers because what was presented as a legitimate product was in fact fabricated, untrue and dishonest.
I understand my Milli Vanilli analogy was a tad wordy but I believe it hammers home the message rather clearly. When people are in a video mouthing along to lyrics and posing on album covers, consumers understandably imagine they are the legitimate performers. They have the right to demand an explanation and perhaps compensation when it is proven to be a false representation.
Enter VegNews. When a colour photograph is nestled beside a vegan recipe within a market-leading vegan magazine, readers will assume the photo is free of animal products. The visual and written texts, VegNews’ billing as a vegan magazine and the publishers wish to be known as “the best meat-free reading you’ll find anywhere” all combine to suggest that the paying reader is purchasing photos of cruelty-free meals. With no disclaimer stating otherwise, VegNews has for years presented its content as something it clearly isn’t.
Milli Vanilli were stripped of awards and companies that profited from the deception apologised publicly and profusely before offering partial rebates to disgruntled consumers. VegNews has offered an explanation for their practice but no apology and, so far, no talk of compensation for loyal consumers who have paid money for a product that isn’t what they were led to believe.
London is famous for many reasons and millions of people travel to the capital for theatre, fashion and historical relevance. Well, now you can add vegan cupcakes to that list as Ms Cupcake finally throws open her doors to the world.
If you like vegan sweets, the Ms Cupcake bakery on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton is a dream come to life. The store (opened officially today) is a wonderland of animal-free frosting, sugary sponges and sweet concoctions. I was overwhelmed on entering the store for the first time. Everywhere I looked I was confronted by a staggering amount of temptations. It took me a while to process I was standing in a real, honest-to-goodness vegan bakery. Let the eating begin.
Forget about same-sex marriage. I’m on a one person mission to legalise unions between fat, gay vegans and Samuel Smith cider.
As I traverse the length and skinny breadth of this land, I am doing all I can to convince people that cider is my favourite beverage. If I don’t have a pint of the golden drop in my hand, I surely must be carrying a few bottles home from the supermarket. It is a one-sided affair in which cider keeps giving and I take in abundance.
This week saw my obsession intensify with two new-for-me cider varieties arriving in my life. First up was the student classic and low-budget scrumpy called Old Rosie. Rosie is