Vegan

Beauty without cruelty

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Even a FGV needs to look good sometimes.

Vegan Cherry & Fig hair care from Superdrug

Looking good and feeling gorgeous can be a chore when you are committed to animal welfare. Drug and cosmetic companies are notorious for filling products with by-products of murdered animals and conducting horrendous (and pointless) experiments on unsuspecting creatures. Some ingredients of the personal hygiene sector can even include horse urine. Seriously.

With this rampant exploitation of animals, it can be difficult to find peaceful personal products but UK retailer Superdrug are attempting to make your shopping experience more non-human friendly. This high street pharmacy chain employ an anti animal testing charter which states:

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Dunker licking good

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Bite-sized, crumbed and oven cooked. You know you want it.

Vegetable Dunkers... vegan frozen food

There is a profit-fuelled frenzy occuring in UK supermarkets and grocery stores. Major chains are falling over each other to snare a larger slice of the compassionate shopper market and we vegans are faced with an ever-expanding choice. Alongside old-timers such as tofu, shop shelves are now showcasing cruelty-free newbies such as roast ‘beef’, air freshener, dishwashing liquid, hairspray and countless other products labeled suitable for vegans.

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Vegan ice cream wars continue

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Is there anything finer than a decadent, chocolate ice cream?

Vegan, organic Booja Booja

After being somewhat disillusioned by my last chocolate ice cream affair, my faith in the cold stuff has been restored thanks to the good folk of Booja Booja. This producer of organic sweets are experts in gluten free, dairy free and organic delights. They manufacture gourmet truffles with flavours such as Ginger Wine, Champagne and Cognac Banana… and then there is the ice cream.

My 110ml Hunky Punky Chocolate

Two things can impress me about a vegan ice cream. The taste is of course the most important factor but my FGV senses can also be stimulated by a cute flavour name. Booja Booja have managed to find the perfect coupling of taste and name with their variety called Hunky Punky Chocolate. It is available in three sizes (110ml, 500ml, 2 litre) and is a pure joy to eat. Creamy, smooth and rich. I devoured the smallest container available and now I dream of finding the 2 litre size to enjoy.

The vegan ice cream wars rage on, Booja Booja rise to the top and this FGV is satisfied… for now.

Cherry cherry boom boom

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I’m in a quandary, dear viewers. It is tearing me apart. Do I love cherry, strawberry or raspberry beer the best?

Vegan fruit beer... strawberry, cherry and raspberry

Regular visitors to the Haus of FGV will be all too familiar with the relationship I am fostering with the good folk up in Tadcaster known as the Samuel Smith Brewery. These traditional ale, lager, cider and beer producers have been turning out the liquid good stuff since approximately 1758. They are the last remaining independent brewery in the town of Tadcaster and the majority of what they create is suitable for vegans.

You will often find me frittering away an afternoon in one of the 300 or so Samuel Smith pubs scattered around the UK. Give me a pint of Cider Reserve and my woes are temporarily dismissed… and I’m rather pleasant company.

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A drunk, Welsh poet walks into a bar

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If you fancy a sampling of vegan food and alcohol, with a dash of animal rights and queer history thrown in for good measure, head to the central London area known as Fitzrovia.

A map showing the approximate area of Fitzrovia

Fitzrovia is an unofficial neighbourhood situated just north of Soho in central London. By many accounts, Fitzrovia was well-known as a hot spot for bohemians, free-thinkers, artists and even the odd socialist from the late 1800s through to the ending of the Second World War. The pubs and cafes of this district provided gloomy spaces in which outsiders were able to socialise, politicise and drink. Art, alcoholism and social justice melded perfectly and remnants of this bygone era can be enjoyed in Fitzrovia today.

Last week, Jordan and I ventured into the heart of Fitzrovia and what better place to commence my retelling of our adventures than the Fitzroy Tavern.

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Vegan ice cream wars

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It is part of my genetic make-up as a fat, gay vegan to be obsessed with ice cream.

Swedish Glace and Worthenshaws Freedom

Dairy free desserts are becoming increasingly easy to locate with most major supermarkets stocking at least one or two brands of vegan ice cream for the discerning, sweet-toothed vegan to purchase. I have become quite the non-dairy connoisseur during the last few years and have enjoyed scandalous affairs with various ice cream brands from all around the globe. Tofutti from the USA is a reliable friend and never lets me down. Coco Luscious is crafted in Australia and is too good to be true. I often dream of the decadent Booja Booja from the UK and its rich, chocolatey delights. This short list of favourites is just the tip of the vegan ice cream iceberg.

You get the picture, right? I am a self-proclaimed vegan ice cream know-it-all. I recently put this expertise to the test by comparing two brands available here in the UK.

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Bobbing for apple cider

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One of the best things about being vegan in the UK is the access to an abundance of clearly-labelled, cruelty-free alcohol.

Look for this on your alcohol purchases

As I have mentioned previously, alcohol is often made with the aid of animal by-products. The most common way this occurs is during the fining process of beer, cider or wine. A large vat or container of drink contains much unwanted organic matter that needs to be filtered out before it can be sold. Egg, bone, fish stomach or sometimes milk protein is used to create a film that is sprinkled over the product. As the dead animal remains sink and pass through the booze, the organic matter is dragged down leaving the final product. Sounds tasty, right?

The above description is my take on what is a rather complex process. If you are a brewery technician and can add finer detail to this explanation, please enlighten us.

The good news is a large number of booze producers are opting out of this grisly practice. Increasingly here in the UK, a recreational drinker such as myself can walk into the local supermarket and experience no trouble in finding vegan drinks.

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Meat is murder… eat falafel

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Yes, I am overweight. Sure, I am a homosexual. Certainly, I choose to not eat animal products. For people who know me well, it also wouldn’t have been a surprise to see a reference to musical icon Morrissey crammed into my self-deprecating blog title.

Morrissey (a)live in Leeds 2009 (Flickr credit: Man Alive!)

Since my early teen years (and I have been around for a while), I have been comfortably obsessed with all things Morrissey and The Smiths. If you are a disciple like I am, there is no need for me to convince you. If you are anti-Morrissey (or worse still… indifferent!), I’m not in the habit of trying to convert you. For the purpose of this blog post, let’s agree that I love Morrissey and I exploit any opportunity to celebrate his contribution to popular culture and animal welfare.

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One of everything, please

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Do you ever have difficulty deciding what to eat when faced with many options?

One way out of this precarious situation is to buy one of everything. My trip to Whole Foods Market in Kensington a few days ago saw me tempted to do just that. I was entrusted with the task of buying some pre-packed goodies for Josh and myself to devour. The plan was to nab a window seat in the store’s food court, eat ourselves silly and watch frenzied Christmas shoppers collide with each other on the obscenely-busy high street below.

So sit down, relax and enjoy the visual delights of my lunchtime shopping spree. For a FGV, I was actually rather restrained.

Whole Foods in-house vegan yoghurt varieties

I wanted to commence the meal with healthy food that tasted great, so I opted for two tubs of vegan yoghurt with muesli and fruit. Buying both flavours was the only option when I couldn’t decide between mixed berry and blackberry. They weren’t fabulous, but fulfilled my expectations.

Saf is a vegan restaurant located in Shoreditch, East London that has now opened an outlet in the Whole Foods Kensington food court. While  I didn’t buy from them directly, I chose one of their pre-packaged wraps from the sandwich case instore.

I promise I’m not being hysterical when I state it

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Cereal killer

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Breakfast isn’t my most consistent meal of the day.

It’s not that I don’t like eating in the morning, but I often find myself keeping strange hours that result in my first meal of the day being closer to midday. This anomaly of time-keeping results in me missing out on some more traditional breakfast foods. Today I decided it was time to break with this (lack of) tradition. I wanted a bowl of cereal and milk.

Whole Earth corn flakes for breakfast

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