Vegan burger at London kitchen takeover

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You all know about my buddy Vanessa and her delicious food business called Essential Vegan, right?

Over the past few years, Vanessa has taken her incredible brand of hand made plant-based cuisine to all corners of London and beyond. She works so incredibly hard.

Remember her triumphant pop up café on Portobello Road? Or may you dined with her at her stand in PUMP Shoreditch. Of course a lot of you ate Vanessa’s food at VegFestUK London.

Now Vanessa has announced her next food adventure and you should put this one in your diary.

Essential Vegan is launching a 6-week kitchen takeover in Hackney at popular food and drink venue, Haunt, from March 14, 2017.

Haunt is a super chilled out bar that is beautifully decorated and only a short stroll along Stoke Newington Road from either Dalston Kingsland or Stoke Newington Overground stations. Click here to see where Haunt is located thanks to Google Maps.

Look at how beautiful this venue is:

Not only will you be able to devour and savour gorgeous, gourmet vegan food made by Essential Vegan, but it will be the ONLY food being served inside Haunt for this 6-week period. So you won’t have to sit next to anyone chomping down on animal products.

Ready to see the menu?

Vanessa is adored for her seitan burgers and as you can see in the menu, she is launching her new Essential Gourmet burger.

It’s like her original burger but taken to the next level with aged vegan cheese and special sauces. Check it out:

I’m drooling.

The menu also features a special line up for weekend brunch, served between midday and 3pm.

If you have the means to enjoy this food, make a special effort to join Essential Vegan for this limited kitchen takeover. As it is less than a 10-minute walk to Hackney Downs Vegan Market, I predict that area is going to be EXTREMELY busy on March 18.

Visit Essential Vegan online (super rad recipes), like them on Facebook and follow via Twitter and Instagram.

Find more info on Haunt on their website.

Tegan the Vegan London

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Being half a world away in Mexico City for half of every year means I miss out on a lot of incredible vegan food developments in London.

Of course I’m reporting as much as I possibly can, but I can’t physically get my greedy hands on a lot of the new and interesting stuff. If I’m completely honest, it does lead to a slight case of FOMO.

Take Tegan the Vegan for instance.

Tegan has been burning up the east London vegan scene for a little while now, but I’m yet to taste any of her amazing-looking food due to my globetrotting ways.

You can find Tegan the Vegan getting involved in all manner of events around the UK capital (and sometimes slightly further afield) and everyone I know who has tried her treats can’t stop raving about her skills. Tegan seems to have something very special going on.

There is often a weekly cake and vegan cheese menu posted via the Tegan the Vegan Facebook page and if you live in her catchment area, you can place an order for home delivery.

Check out this sample menu below.

OK. Before I make myself completely starving and jealous, let me give you a few links so you can get involved with this vegan food business on the rise. Get in on the ground floor before Tegan is recognised as London’s next vegan superstar!

Like Tegan the Vegan on Facebook. Follow Tegan the Vegan on Twitter and Instagram.

Now I’m going to spoil you with one of my favourite photos from Tegan’s Facebook page. Enjoy.

Extra note: Tegan’s incredible logo was created by Alex Bertram-Powell. See his art here.

All photos and images are property of Tegan the Vegan and reproduced here for publicity purposes.

Review of Sanctuary London

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The talented, funny and fierce-as-fuck Tatum has written a guest blog post for me today. After you read it, you really should follow her on Instagram.

Sanctuary review by Tatum:

Sanctuary sounds like a spa but it’s actually a ridiculously delicious vegan restaurant.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been seeing beautiful Instagram pics of burgers and milkshakes. I became a bit nervous that my time spent drooling over the pictures had raised my expectations ridiculously high. What could live up to that? Sanctuary did. Several times over.

The restaurant is about a five minute walk from Fulham Broadway station and only ten minutes away from GreenBay vegan grocery store. We went early on a Friday evening and were in luck to get a table. The restaurant has a casual vibe and is decorated with cute pics of animals, I particularly liked the lamb with the sweater called Ismael.

From the tapas menu we ordered the croquetas filled with Shiitake and portobello mushrooms which came with a tartare dipping sauce. They were delicately fried and the mushrooms had a creamy consistency. It made me think of how well the chef at The Sanctuary could also make a jalapeño popper.


For the mains we had to have the much-pictured burgers. After some deliberation, because it all looked so good, we settled on the Hippo Rampage. It had bacon, guacamole, cheese and smoky onions on a beef style burger with a bun that looked like a pretzel roll. It was a transcendent burger eating experience. The Hippo Rampage had every flavour you’d ever want with a burger plus that special x factor quality, when your tastebuds are perfectly sated and at the same time ravenous for more.

We didn’t get just one main dish we also got Saving Nemo which is the fishiest fish burger I’ve ever had. The first bite was heavenly but some kind of magic happened because with each subsequent bite the flavours got even better. I’d recommend getting the sweet potato fries option over the regular.

The desserts were almost sold out but we got the last brownie and ordered a blueberry cheesecake milkshake. It was a a brilliant way to end the meal. The milkshake had cream cheese in it which is why it ricocheted off the scale of creaminess.

There is so much else to try on their menu and we are planning to eat our way through all of it. For the next visit I have my eye on their croissant sandwich and the Vegan Fish and Chips. Oh and the vegan chorizo melty sandwich, now thats made me hungry all over again, ok I’ll have to stop now but in conclusion go to The Sanctuary. At the rate I’m going, I’ll probably see you there.

Follow Sanctuary on Facebook and Instagram. Visit their website.

Delicious horchata recipe

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Support these videos via Patreon.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup plain white rice*
  • 4 cups of water
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 cup of plant milk**
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
  • 1⁄2 cup of sugar

Instructions:

– Place rice in a large bowl and cover with four cups of very hot (but not boiling) water
– Break up the cinnamon sticks and add them to the bowl
– Allow to cool for about an hour then cover and place in the refrigerator overnight or for at least three hours
– Once soaked, place the soaked rice, cinnamon sticks and water into your blender jug
– Add the plant milk and the sugar
– Blend for at least 11⁄2 minutes, ideally longer, until your Horchata is smooth and there are no chunks of cinnamon
– If your Horchata is very thick, feel free to add some more water or plant milk to it
– Pour over ice and sprinkle with ground cinnamon before serving

* In Mexico, plain long-grain white rice is most commonly used but you can experiment with a mixture of different rices to produce different flavours. Almonds, walnuts and other nuts are sometimes added to the rice before soaking so try different mixtures according to your taste. In Spain, Horchata is commonly made with tiger nuts/chufa.

** We used a vanilla soy milk but any other plant milk will do. If you don’t use a vanilla-flavoured plant milk, you may want to add a teaspoon of vanilla essence to your Horchata before blending.

Recipe and photo remain property of Sean O’Callaghan and Julio Alcantara and may not be reproduced without permission. © fatgayvegan.com

Meat lobbying body to sponsor LGBTQ event

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Activists in Australia were left stunned and upset following the announcement by the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras committee that the meat lobbying board in Australia had joined as a major sponsor.

Mardi Gras has developed into a major cultural and political behemoth over recent decades, with the 2017 event set to attract hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people and their supporters across the two-week festival.

For the majority of participants, the highlight of Mardi Gras is the huge world-famous parade that sees more than 10, 000 participants rollicking along the city’s Oxford Street in a eye-dazzling show of queer culture. It is a reminder that the advances in the fight for LGBTQ rights were hard won in struggles going back decades.

Mardi Gras is a space to celebrate the community rising up against oppression and that is why the involvement of Meat and Livestock Australia is horrendous.

I can’t really say it better than the people who started a petition calling on Meat and Livestock Australia to be removed from the Mardi Gras line up, so let me use the words of Katrina Fox (author and journalist) and Janine Curll (food law and regulation PhD candidate):

We are proud, longtime members of the LGBTQ community. We love Mardi Gras and we love equality.
That’s why we are horrified at SGLMG’s new sponsorship deal with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA)’s ‘We Love Our Lamb’ brand.
We believe SGLMG’s involvement with MLA goes against the progressive social values Mardi Gras espouses. MLA is a powerful lobby group that works in many forums to ensure the meat industry is minimally or relatively unregulated with respect to the diverse range of animal welfare concerns in industrialised food systems.
Over the past 5 to 10 years, the issue of animal welfare and animal rights has solidified as the campaign of the 21st century for equality and justice for all living creatures. People have woken up to the cruelty that is the Australian meat industry. The concern about ethical meat production is evident throughout the marketplace.
MLA is doing its best to delegitimise the concerns of many ethical consumers and SGLMG is supporting this work through the sponsorship deal.
For MLA to encourage the community to perform the ‘lamb dance’ – choreographed with moves named after dismembered lamb parts – and join the Parade in celebration of this cruel industry is an affront to many in 2017.

The above text has been borrowed from the petition site on which Katrina and Janine are collecting signatures to present to the Mardi Gras committee.

As Mardi Gras parade is fast approaching, I implore you to sign the petition online here immediately and share this blog post or the petition with as many people as possible.

Please also take a moment to voice your concern to the Mardi Gras committee via Facebook and Twitter. Tell them that the press release from Meat and Livestock Australia in which they state lamb is ‘the dish that brings all Australians together and celebrates inclusivity’ stands in stark contrast to the anti-oppression message of Mardi Gras. Commodifying the slaughter of sheep is not something to be celebrated at a cultural and political event that has risen from the historical hardship and destruction of LGBTQ people.

Queer liberation is not an opportunity to promote an industry that is only profitable thanks to the mistreatment and killing of millions of non-human animals.

Queer liberation should not be for sale, especially when the buyer is a corporate lobbying group whose sole purpose is to convince the public that non-human animals should be mass farmed and slaughtered in unfathomable numbers.

I grew up in Australia as a gay person and I know that Mardi Gras exists to remember those who were rejected by families, scorned by communities, experimented on by doctors, sent to prisons, excluded from mainstream constructs of happiness, beaten in the street, and murdered in their neighbourhoods and homes.

Meat and Livestock Australia. Get your bloodstained, money-hungry hands away from our celebration.

The following is the instructional video published by Meat and Livestock Australia to encourage people to learn the ‘lamb dance’. As mentioned on the petition page, each dance move is named after a ‘cut’ of lamb.

Vegan revolution in Sudbury

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Need some anecdotal evidence that veganism is on an unstoppable roll in the UK?

The English market town of Sudbury, Suffolk now has two 100% vegan eateries. Yes. Two vegan food outlets in a regional town with a population hovering around the 20,000 mark.

Incredible!

First up is Cradle. This restaurant is a social enterprise which ploughs profits back into community-minded projects such as food waste solutions and local gardens.

Take a trip to the Cradle Facebook page and scroll through some of the cuisine photos. It all looks delicious, creative and rather fancy. You can also visit their website.

Next up we have Kind Cuisine, a more relaxed looking café serving soups, salads, cakes and drinks.

Owners Linda and Mark are on a mission to show locals how to eat plant-based foods in order to protect animals and the planet.

You should follow Kind Cuisine on Facebook and Twitter.

If Sudbury can do it, so can your town.

Get active and start vegan food opportunities, especially businesses that fold back into the community. And if you can’t start your own business, make the effort to support the businesses that do spring up when you have the means.

If you don’t live in Sudbury but have the means to visit for a few days, put some cash into the economy by dining with these two vegan establishments. If you can’t make it along, consider a kind word of support on their social media pages to let them know their commitment to veganism and their local community is appreciated.

Vegan fish and chips in a gay bar

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London, you had better rush out to this event.

Independent bars and businesses struggle uphill to survive in the UK capital. Rent prices are absurd and the general cost of living is extortionate.

These sky high costs are the reason why we have to get out of our homes and support local business. If you’ve got the means to do it, for fuck’s sake do it.

Use it or lose it.

In the spirit of guilting you into supporting other Londoners, I’m thrilled to let you know of a very special event taking place in Camden tonight (Wednesday March 1, 2017) and every first Wednesday of the month going forward.

This is what you need to know.

Queer Goes Nothing is a fab monthly night of live acoustic music in the heart of Camden at new LGBTQ venue, Her Upstairs.

Not only should three incredible independent bands get your interest up, but the kitchen in the venue is being taken over by BigV London. Yep, BigV is the vegan burger stand adored by regulars at Borough Market.

However…. (this is where it gets interesting)

For their involvement in tonight’s version of Queer Goes Nothing, the BigV people will be serving vegan fish and chips.

So you have live acoustic bands, a vegan business selling vegan fish and chips, a fab Camden location AND free entry.

If you have a few quid spare and are in London and you DON’T go to this event, please don’t bother coming to my house for Christmas. Two reasons: I don’t celebrate Christmas and I probably won’t be talking to you.

RSVP and invite people on the Facebook event page.

Her Upstairs should be followed on Facebook for upcoming version of this wonderful night plus other interesting happenings. You can see the bar location on Google Maps.

BigV can be seen here.

Vegan food with the NHS

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I’ve been hearing rumblings and rumours over the past few weeks of people having positive vegan food experiences with the National Health Service (NHS).

Of course your vegan experience depends on where you access the NHS, as different trusts are in charge of different parts of the country and they are responsible for individual menus.

My buddy Quarrygirl (follow on Twitter and Instagram for vegan glory) has given me this photo to share with you all from her latest NHS situation in London.

Just look at all of this clearly marked vegan eating!

Even just a few years ago (months?!) this sort of plant-based food choice would have been the stuff of dreams.

I’m thrilled to see veganism being taken seriously by the UK’s health services and hospitals. Now we need to get them to serve ONLY vegan food.

If you have a recent positive experience of NHS menus, please share in the comments below. I would love to see how this new way of thinking is spreading around the country.

Vegan in Orlando, Florida

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Earlier this month, I had the good fortune to visit Orlando. This was my first time visiting the city as an adult (and as a vegan) so I was keen to check out all of the food offerings. I stayed with a friend and colleague Randall Abate who does incredible work in the field of Animal Law. Click his name to read more about his work.

The first night, we headed to one of his favourite spots, Ethos Vegan Kitchen… and I can see why he likes it! We started with the garlic knots and sausage rolls. The knots were heavenly with a dense, buttery dough… almost like a croissant, only made better by the garlic dipping butter that they came with. If you ever go to Ethos, you have to order these! The sausage rolls were also incredible. I’m not sure if they were using Tofurky sausages or if Ethos are making their own, but the delicious, meaty seitan filling contrasted perfectly with the flaky pastry and were incredible when dipped into the accompanying Dijon mustard sauce.

For a main, I had a cornbread skillet topped featuring a delicious cornbread base, topped with black beans, vegetables and chunks of tender seitan. It was even served in the skillet pan itself! I also had a garden salad with grilled tofu and ranch dressing which was exquisite. I couldn’t finish everything but the leftover skillet made a fantastic breakfast the next morning!

Of course I couldn’t go home without trying something from their dessert menu but because I was so full, all I could manage was a chocolate chip cookie. It was really good and I wish I could have tried their other desserts like the ice cream sundae or the chocolate Amaretto mousse. I’ll have to go back. Check out Ethos online here.

The next day, I headed to Market on South which is a collective space close to downtown where various vegan businesses are represented. This is such a fabulous idea and I wish every city had one. The two main food vendors are Dixie Dharma (savoury food) and Valhalla Bakery (sweets). Unfortunately I had filled up with leftover cornbread skillet for breakfast (see above) so I didn’t have a huge appetite and only ordered two small sides: the baked mac n’cheese and the crispy Brussels sprouts. Thankfully, the two sides were beyond tasty: the Brussels sprouts were deep fried to perfection and served with an apple cider vinegar reduction. Amazing!

I couldn’t fit in anything else right then and there, but I couldn’t leave Market on South without trying the incredible-looking desserts from Valhalla. Just look at the dessert case photos above. Who could resist temptation like this? I got a ‘Brookie’ to go… it’s a cross between a brownie and a cookie! I had it later that afternoon with a cup of coffee and it was outrageously delicious!

Later that evening, my friend and I had time for a quick bite to eat before driving to Gulfport, so we popped into a branch of worldwide chain Loving Hut… except that this one was called Loving Vegan Market & Cuisine so I’m not sure if they are directly connected to the Loving Hut chain or if they are somewhat affiliated. Anyway, all that mattered to me was they were 100% vegan. The restaurant itself leaves a lot to be desired as it has all of the ambience of a convenience store but thankfully the food was spot-on. They also have several aisles of vegan products for sale so it would be a great place to visit for a snack and to stock up on some vegan staples. Visit Loving Vegan Market & Cuisine online.

The quantity of vegan establishments in Orlando is so numerous, I would need a return visit to cover them all. I barely scratched the surface of what’s out there during this recent trip.

New vegan store West London

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I bring huge vegan news on the daily, but rarely do I get to say that an amazing vegan business is opening just a 15-minute walk from where I live in West London.

VeganHQ is a fully-vegan mini grocery store and takeaway food outlet. It also happens to be London’s very first completely vegan organic coffee shop.

The shop front opened just days ago at 50 St. Mary’s Road in Ealing and I’m thrilled to say it is just a short walk along South Ealing Road from where I live when I’m in London.

VeganHQ is stocked solid with vegan meats, vegan cheeses, chocolate, t-shirts, household products and more!

The food line up sounds like comfort food heaven with hot dogs, hamburgers and kebabs.

The nearest Underground station is South Ealing on the Piccadilly Line. Click here to see the simple walking directions from the station to the store.

The next closest station is Ealing Broadway on the District and Central Lines as well as Mainline trains. Click here to see walking distance to the store from Ealing Broadway.

VeganHQ is open 7 days a week during the day, so please make a big effort to get along to support this 100% vegan business (as well as grab yourself some tasty treats).

Follow VeganHQ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Extra note: images used in this blog post belong to VeganHQ.