London pizza shop turns vegan

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London. Here is some news to make you grin.

One of the best pizza restaurants on the planet has turned vegan.

Picky Wops of Fulham has ditched meat and dairy in order to become the first 100% vegan pizza outlet in West London.

I asked the team over there what made them take the big step and they replied:

Because we cannot keep doing what we believe is wrong, we cannot keep sustaining cruelty! We believe that everyone should contribute in every reality, small or big doesn’t matter. That’s why we want be part of the change ourselves, with our restaurant. We are very happy!

The bases at Picky Wops are absolutely delicious, made with specially-crafted flour mixes that are baked to perfection. I wrote about one of my first experiences with the shop here.

Get along to Picky Wops for top level pizza now. Follow the shop on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

See the location of Picky Wops thanks to Google Maps.

PETA slams space scientists

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Wow.

PETA has pulled some questionable stunts in their time but this takes the dairy-free cake.

My cousin Muriel in Australia scanned this news article that appeared this morning in her local paper, The Porpoise Spit Bugle, and sent it over to me.

Have a read below, but the gist of the article is PETA’s attention-seeking stunt to have scientists rename the Milky Way.

Check it out and let me know how you feel about these type of publicity campaigns. Do they help or hinder our vegan cause?

New monthly vegan brunch club in London

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Hey, do you all know about Pesky’s?

This completely vegan food provider is the resident restaurant at The Yard, Hackney Wick. They serve plant-based cuisine that looks superb and I originally wrote about them back here.

Well, now I have some new news about Pesky’s and it’s fabulous.

Once a month, commencing Sunday April 9, 2017, Pesky’s will host a vegan brunch club.

The brunch consists of two drinks (Bloody Mary or Mimosa) plus the main meal of either decadent pancakes or a full English breakfast (with dessert and sides) for £18 in advance or £20 on the day.

You can buy tickets for the launch event online here.

Stay updated with all future brunch dates by following Pesky’s on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Huge promotion for dairy-free milk

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As far as mainstream promotions for vegan alternatives go, this is one of the best I’ve heard.

Offer people a free coffee outside a busy London station but only if they take one made with oat milk. Otherwise, they have to pay £2 for a black cup of coffee. I love it!

And it gets better. This promotion is running for an entire week!

Non-dairy milk superstar Oatly is hosting a super-sized coffee giveaway on the green at Boxpark Shoreditch (just next to Shoreditch High Street Station) between Monday April 3 and Sunday April 9, 2017.

The pop will run between 11am and 7pm Monday through to Saturday, with shorter opening times of 11am until 5pm on Sunday.

But what is going on at the marketing event?

Members of the public will be invited to watch skilled baristas create top quality coffees using the Oatly Barista Edition. Once they have been shown how to make the hot drinks to perfection and given a chance to win an Oatly t-shirt, they will then be given the coffee free of charge.

Oatly is undertaking this huge week-long advertising campaign to convince people that coffee without dairy milk is not a scary prospect and that it can actually be delicious.

Oatly will be pushing the message that choosing oat milk over dairy is a kinder, more compassionate choice that also has huge benefits for the environment.

The best part of the promotion happens when someone rejects the coffee with oat milk and asks for a black coffee.

Anyone refusing to try a coffee made with Oatly will be asked to pay £2 for a cup made black.

I absolutely love this cheeky approach to promoting plant-based alternatives to dairy. It is a sly payback for the countless times vegans have been asked to pay extra to get a dairy-free drink in coffee shops all over London.

You can wish Oatly well with their promotion over on Twitter and get along to the pop-up coffee shop in Shoreditch next week. You might even win one of these cute Post Milk Generation t-shirts in their giveaway.

Take some non-vegans friends with you. Free coffee might just be the thing that gets them to consider the switch!

UK ice cream shop going vegan!

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Amazing news!

An ice cream and dessert parlour in Withington, Manchester is turning into a 100% vegan establishment from April 4, 2017.

Ice Shack is set to impress as they bring 22 vegan ice creams (a mixture of sorbets and ice creams) into the parlour, as well as a counter featuring approximately 10 cakes!

All dairy ice cream flavours are being fazed out and removed as I type, in preparation for the huge new direction next week.

In addition, Ice Shack will feature a chocolate counter hosting more than 20 vegan dark, milk and white chocolate truffles, a raw chocolate bar range featuring five flavours, chocolate shortbreads and a vegan dog biscuit range with peanut butter and carrot treats.

Want a milkshake? You can choose between soy, almond or oat milk at Ice Shack.

In even more amazing news (well, for me anyway), the owners of the ice cream parlour have named a brand new flavour after me. Yes, me!

You will be able to get your fill of Fat Gay Vegan Mojito. I’m so excited to have a flavour named after me and super proud to be a tiny, tiny part of this incredible vegan business transformation.

If you live in Manchester, make it a priority to get along after April 4, 2017 and support this independent business. Ice Shack is basing everything on our community getting behind them so make plans and buy a lot and buy often.

Follow Ice Shack on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Show them all the love and thank them for everything they are doing to help reduce harm to cows. Amazing. I’m in awe.

Cuban food done vegan

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Los Angeles has long been one of the finest destinations on the planet when it comes to vegan eating, but it still manages to surprise a seasoned eater like me in 2017.

Tonight we dined with Equelecua in Inglewood and we were impressed, delighted and satisfied.

Equelecua claims to be the first and only vegan Cuban restaurant in the world and they are probably correct. When have you ever seen a vegan Cuban eatery?

The menu is rammed with specialties such as Arroz con Pollo, wings with garlic sauce, Cuban sandwich, and freshly-brewed fruit based sodas.

Just sampled some super tasty #vegan food at @equelecuacc in Los Angeles.

A post shared by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Arroz con pollo at @equelecuacc #vegan Cuban cafe in LA tonight. xx

A post shared by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

The food above (vegan chicken with rice) tasted as good as it looks. Superb. If you ever find yourself in the area, Equelecua is the perfect choice for either a giant meal or a few quick snacks.

If you can’t get along soon, be sure to follow the Instagram page and marvel at all the wonder they create and share.

Decadent vegan food in Leeds

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Leeds has been a bit of a slow burner when it comes to food.

There is maybe just one 100% vegan eatery and it seems to be really developing a lot more slowly than the rest of the UK.

However there is one area where the northern city is picking up a bit of steam and that is in the field of non-vegan places adopting stand alone vegan menus and options.

Take Mog’s for example.

Drool over some of the amazing and decadent sandwiches being served up by this not-completely-vegan cafe on Kirkstall Lane.


Wow, right?!

I am absolutely beside myself over some of those photos.

Take a quick look at Mog’s Instagram or Facebook pages to see plant-based customers raving about this food. I also see a lot of people talking about the huge vegan breakfast.

Get involved and get to Mog’s.

Vegan yoga retreat Barcelona

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Barcelona is one of the most stunning cities on the planet and with the amount of plant-based eateries dotted around its streets, it is also a top tourist destination for vegans.

If you have been considering when you are going to visit Barcelona in the future, you might want to investigate this option if you are also interested in yoga.

Catiayoga is running a yoga retreat in the heart of Barcelona from June 11 until June 16, 2017.

The yoga classes take place on the roof of a beautiful yoga centre located just two minutes from Las Ramblas. There is so much to see and do in Barcelona and you will be right at the centre of it all.

The cost per person for the retreat is £590 and the package includes:

  • 2 yoga classes per day, Vinyasa Flow in the morning (8-9:30am), Yin/Yoga Nidra in the evening (8:15-9:15pm), classes will be in English, but Spanish and Italian are available!
  • 5 nights shared accommodation in rooms of 2 or 3 people
  • Vegan brunch included daily
  • 2 vegan dinners – one on the evening of the 11th of June at 8pm and 1 on Wednesday the 14th of June
    access to cooking facilities
  • 1 x 60 minutes massage with an experienced and qualified massage therapist, you can choose your treatment! (deep tissue, stone massage, bamboo massage, cellulite massage, relaxing massage, foot reflexology or focused in particular areas of the body)
  • 1 paddle surf 1-hour class

You need to sort out your own transport including any flights needed.

Brunch every day. Accommodation. Two yoga classes a day. That all sounds like pretty solid value for a retreat in a city that isn’t exactly inexpensive.

This retreat is limited to twelve people and half of the spaces have already been booked.

Be super quick if you want to secure a place. Click here to find out more info, get in contact with the host or to book.

TV show featuring vegan bakers

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Do you love cake?

There is a TV show featuring Paul Hollywood (Great British Bake Off host) called City Bakes. Aired on Food Network UK, the show follows Hollywood around the planet in search of baked delights.

The Food Network synopsis of the show reads:

Paul Hollywood rekindles his baking roots as he travels the globe in search of the family bakeries, corner delis and luxury hotels which have created the baking heritage of entire cities. During these city breaks, Paul is inspired once again to produce delicious recipes in the very place they originated as he goes “back to the floor” in hotel kitchens, rediscovers family recipes and meets new baking heroes from around the world.

A new episode of the show airing on Monday March 27, 2017 at 9pm in the UK features the host travelling to LA to check out local bakeries.

Word has it the episode features some vegan baking.

How do I know this?

The lovely Ben of Ms. Cupcake vegan bakery in Brixton alerted me to a special ‘live on the Internet’ session featuring Ms. Cupcake herself, Mellissa Morgan, taking place on Monday as a show tie-in.

To help promote the Paul Hollywood LA episode airing on Monday, Mellissa Morgan will be featured in an exclusive Facebook livestream at 11am in which she will talk through creating the perfect vegan cake. From learning about egg, dairy and animal product replacements to secret baking techniques, this twenty minute demo will inspire you to bake decadent vegan cakes.

Mellissa Morgan is the undisputed UK queen of indulgent vegan baking, so take this opportunity to ask questions through the Facebook live event hosted on the Food Network UK Facebook Page before checking out City Bakes in the evening this Monday (March 27, 2017).

Vegan NYE cruise through Portugal

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If you read this blog with any regularity or follow me on social media, you’ll be aware that I often team up with Vegan River Cruises for 100% vegan cruises along some of the most beautiful waterways in Europe.

I have hosted on board New Year’s Eve parties in Rotterdam and Vienna, cruised past stunning castles, and delighted at the scenery in the south of France.

But maybe this year’s NYE cruise is the best of all.

Join me on a luxury vegan cruise out of Porto and the through the breathtaking Portugal countryside.

Commencing in the stunning river city of Porto on December 27, 2017 and returning on January 3, 2018, this cruise will take in numerous towns and unparalleled scenery as it glides along the serene Douro River.

The map above shows the route the Miguel Torga will take, allowing passengers to take in the beautiful Portuguese countryside from the comfort of this luxury hotel on water.

Like all of the cruise ships I’ve encountered with Vegan River Cruises, the Miguel Torga is top of the line with well-appointed cabins, ample viewing areas inside and on deck, an impressive dining room, a comfortable common lounge and bar, and world class chef, servers, attendants and crew.

This cruise is a full-board cruise, meaning you do not have to pay for any of your meals served on board. This includes the always impressive buffet breakfast, as well as the multi-course set menu meals presented for lunch and dinner every day.

In addition, drinks served with dinner are included in the price you pay including wine, beer, juice, tea and coffee. Of course everything is vegan and you won’t have to get your wallet out. Inclusive drinks are also available in the lounge bar from midday and into the evening.

The Miguel Torga has 63 cabins, making it a little bit smaller than our previous NYE cruises. This of course means the best rooms will be snapped up quickly and I expect the cruise to sell out completely.

This stunning, completely-vegan cruise through Portugal is a rare chance to enjoy an inclusive vacation in gorgeous surroundings with an entire ship filled with vegan and vegan-friendly people.

Every single part of this cruise is vegan, from your meals to your drinks. Even your hosts for the on board NYE party are vegan (me and my partner Josh!).

Click here to find out more info such as cabin availability and pricing.

Don’t leave it too long to book. See you on board!