Cake in a jar

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Post by:

Caitlin panel

A new vegan bakery opened just a couple of weeks ago in Barcelona, which seems to bursting at the seams these days with new vegetarian and vegan restaurants. But bakeries? This one’s the only 100% vegan bakery! I knew I had to check it out.

La Pastisseria Besneta is so new Google couldn’t even seem to find it, so I headed there in hopes that it was open on weekends. Luckily, it was open – and I got to taste test their lemon meringue cake!

La Besneta sells whole cakes, or individual servings of cake in a jar. The cakes in a jar are super cute (and super hipster), and wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch. It makes the whole cake buying and eating experience just a little bit more exciting. The day I visited, they had two muffins and four different kinds of cake (carrot cake, lemon meringue and two different chocolate cakes, one with raspberry filling and one without). I selected the lemon meringue.

besnetacake

 

The meringue was light and fluffy and the lemon was just the right amount of tart. The only downside is that while cake in a jar is very photogenic, it’s a little bit difficult to eat. Make sure you have a spoon – and not fork – handy!

If you visit Barcelona, definitely check out this new vegan bakery in the Gracia neighbourhood. Like the bakery on Facebook.

south of france cruise

Sunday roast

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London doesn’t have an amazing choice for Sunday roast dinners, so it is wonderful to see this new addition to the plant-based landscape.

11960197_909997619065400_8171776331583181226_nThis glorious plate of vegan comfort food is now being served up by Kabaret @ Karamel every Sunday (they just celebrated one year of being a vegan bar/restaurant!).

The mighty meal contains smoked tofu, chestnut & almond Wellington, roast potatoes, carrot & turnip mash, Bavarian red cabbage, peas and red wine gravy.

Good stuff!

Visit Kabaret online, like them on Facebook and follow on Twitter.

vote vegfest 2015

All the vegan photos

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Get ready for this HUGE collection of photos.

I just arrived home from a few hours at the Specialty & Fine Food Fair 2015. This annual trade event is housed in the mammoth National Hall at London Olympia and is always a great place to spot to find new vegan products, as well as reconnect with some old favourites.

Check out everything that caught my eye.

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Vienna calling

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Super special guest post by Hanna. Thank you!

My partner and I are just back from spending a few days in Vienna, which was quite easy to be vegan in. We found many places had clearly labelled vegan options, a wurst place that did a vegan sausage and a 100% vegan ice cream parlour. But the stand-out experience was Swing Kitchen.

Swing Kitchen (1)

It is an entirely vegan, diner-style establishment. On our first encounter we had a schnitzel burger, vegan nuggets with “chilli-tomato-tatar” sauce, tiramisu and kirsch soda. All of it was fantastic. The nugget coating with it’s sesame seeds was delicious and the sauce had a surprisingly refreshing taste. The tiramisu was creamy and slightly orangey, which worked really well. Of course, we had to go back for our last Vienese meal and both had the cheese burger, which is the best vegan burger I have ever had – you could really taste the cheese!

Anyway, I thought I’d give you a heads up, just in case you or any of your guests on the NYE cruise had the time or inclination to visit Swing Kitchen on your brief stop there.

Thanks, Hanna!

You can like Swing Kitchen on Facebook.

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South of the river treats

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I have often heard about The Waiting Room in the south London enclave of Deptford, but really wasn’t sure where Deptford was situated. It sounded like one of those places you would never visit due to it being in the middle of nowhere.

I don’t know why I thought that, I just did.

This week led to somewhat of a revelation as I discovered there is a train departing every 10 minutes from London Bridge station that takes an incredibly short time to deliver its passengers to Deptford, just one station away.

The Waiting Room is a vegetarian coffee shop offering vegan alternatives for almost their entire menu. It would be marvellous to see this rad store front make the switch to completely vegan, but until they do vegans still have a lot of food and drink to keep them busy.

Check out what I got my paws on during my visit this week.

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Just Mayo in the UK

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We have all grown weary waiting for Just Mayo to arrive on Tesco shelves as promised a few months ago.

just mayo UK

The bad news first: it appears it is not coming to Tesco anytime in the near future. A few people have heard back from both the mayo company and the supermarket with the message being the same. Tesco currently has no plans to stock the cruelty-free mayo.

However, people in the UK do have one very expensive option for getting some Just Mayo into their kitchen.

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Amazing Berlin festival wrap up

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Post by:

joe panel

This weekend was the Berlin Vegan Summer Festival, and it would have been remiss of me to not visit and take photos of food for this blog. So I did my duty and headed down to Alexanderplatz.

Berlin Vegan Summer Festival

On Friday we had a spicy hot dog with sauerkraut from popular vegan company Wheaty…

Hot dog from Wheaty at Berlin Vegan Sommerfest

…and also a not-egg-mayonnaise bagel, from die Leckereienfabrik (roughly translates as the ‘delicious things factory’, a café in Berlin we haven’t got around to visiting yet!).

Berlin Vegan Sommerfest egg-mayonnaise-style bagel

On Sunday we had a wonderful burger and sweet potato fries from the Vincent Vegan food truck. The photo doesn’t do the burger justice, it was full of crispy fresh veg, and guacamole.

Vincent Vegan Burger and fries in Berlin Vincent Vegan food truck at Berlin Vegan Summerfest 2015

We also shared this big choco-waffle with squirty cream, which was nice but not amazing.

Choco-waffle with cream at Berlin Vegan Summerfest 2015

To finish off, here’s something we didn’t eat but will do soon: two doughnuts from Brammibals. The doughnuts are sat in the fridge right now, calling out to me.

Brammibals Donuts in Berlin

There’s one coconut and one toffee. (I think that calling just got louder!) And in case you’re worrying, those aren’t plastic containers, but some sort of biodegradeable material. Which is nice.

That’s only a small selection of everything available at the fest. There’s only so much I can eat!

In addition to all the food, the serious side was also covered, there were lots of animal protection causes, people working against factory farming, good people spreading the word about veganism. There were talks and discussions in the congress tent, and also music entertainment on the main stage.

A very full three-day event, and I doff my cap to the organisers!

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Miley sings about being vegan

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Here is a quirky piece of vegan-related music trivia for you.

Miley Cyrus released a surprise album this weekend and it’s a weird and wonderful eclectic musical affair that I am loving. The album features a huge number of tracks and an interesting selection of special guests.

But what’s the vegan angle?

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Best in the UK

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Here it is. My ultimate sweeping declaration.

I visited a restaurant a few days ago and it turned out to be the best vegan dining experience I have ever enjoyed in the UK. I am pretty sure I could stretch the ‘best’ label to encompass all of Europe, too.

See the food photos below.

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Say hello to Wildebeest in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Wildebeest is a world class dining set up and everything about the restaurant is what I want in a vegan establishment. The menu is exquisite and inventive, yet still familiar and comforting. The wine list is of course 100% vegan and cocktail lovers can choose from mojitos, martinis and Cosmopolitans. The people working in Wildebeest are friendly and the service was second to none. The decor is gorgeous while the entire space is comfortable and charming.

Can you tell I’m in love?

Just wait until you see the food!

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