Vegan beer night in Shoreditch

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Can you ever have enough vegan beer? If you said yes, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. If you said, “No, FGV. There can never be such a thing as too much vegan beer!” then I’ve got news to make you smile.

Get down to east London this Saturday (December 14, 2013) for a festive vegan beer pop-up bar put on by the good folk of Pitfield Brewery. There will be microbrewed craft beers on the bar including their limited run Christmas beer, Hoxton Scotch Bonnet, as well as a DJ spinning some tunes.

Limited run vegan Christmas beer
Limited run vegan Christmas beer

Of course all that vegan beer is incentive enough to attend this cool event, but it gets better still. The Pitfield Brewery Christmas Party is being held in the slightly-spooky venue known as The Ditch, located in the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall. Located at 380 Old Street, the venue is a short 5 minute stroll from Old Street Underground Station (take exit 2 out of the station).

The party starts at 7pm and runs until midnight. Oh, I almost forgot. The party will cost you nothing to enter. Yep. FREE ENTRY!

 

Box it up

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Vegans have got a good life in London. We can dine in fancy restaurants like Saf. How about cake delivered straight to your house? Sure thing. Vegan gourmet hot dogs are another treat and don’t even get me started about Cookies & Scream in Camden.

Yes, life is grand. But there is always room for improvement and expansion. Enter food delivery service The Urban Kitchen.

Before I dive into telling you how delicious the meal was I was sent to review, I would like to state up front that this caterer is not a vegan company. That being said, all of their vegan dishes are clearly marked online and they are very approachable people. If you are wondering about any ingredient or element of a dish, get in touch with them.

Now, down to business.

Delivered with style
Delivered with style

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Choc orange delight

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When I handed out my Day of the Dead vegan supper club goodie bags, one of the items that got a lot of attention and murmurs of appreciation was the Chocolate Orange Pud cups from vegan dessert experts Pudology.

As you might know from an old post of mine, the Pudology cups are filled with smooth, sweet and irresistible gluten free pudding. They can be purchased online from grocery retailers in either chocolate, strawberry, lemon or banoffee flavours and are starting to become more widely available in high street supermarkets, too.

You know all this. Why am I droning on about puddings that you have seen and tasted?

I am simply giving you a refresher course so when I give you my opinion on the new Pudology flavour, you can skip quickly to the part where you run to buy your own pack.

The Chocolate Orange Pud is delicious. It is dense, creamy and decadent. The orange is perfectly balanced with the choc. The pudding pots come in packs of two and I don’t know if I will ever be able to show enough restraint to eat just one and save one for later. They are too lovely.

Chocolate Orange Pudding
Chocolate Orange Pudding

The Chocolate Orange Pud cups are currently exclusive to Sainsbury’s but I have been assured by Pudology that we will start seeing them popping up in independent health food stores in the new year.

Tasty!

Follow Pudology on Twitter

Up in Archway

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Some of you probably think that if a restaurant in London is serving vegan food, the FGV must have been there. Right?

Sorry to disappoint, but even after all this time eating and reporting back to you there are still eateries that have escaped my fat clutches. Loving Hut in Archway was one such destination and I was constantly being asked for my opinion on their food. I couldn’t take the harassment from curious vegans any longer, so I made a special trip to the north London restaurant just to get you all off my back.

Just like Loving Hut locations the world over, the Archway version serves a completely vegan menu and is staffed by followers of the Quan Yin Method (Google exists for a reason, people). The menu is much more extensive than the recently-closed Camden branch but I do believe the Edgware location still holds the title of most gigantic Loving Hut menu in the world.

Josh and I ordered like the professional eaters we are. Wanna see what we got our teeth into?

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I don’t want to be on television

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Here is an opportunity for those of you craving national exposure!

This morning I saw a call out on Twitter for a vegan couple to join a new television series and thought I would share the info with you all. You never know, the vegan version of Pauly D or Snooki may very well be reading this right now!

Here are the details you need if you fancy being emotionally vulnerable in front of millions of people:

A brand new series by the multi-award-winning Lime Pictures Ltd is in early stages of production and aims to explore the psychology behind relationships while investigating interculturalism. Kinda heavy.

Each episode will feature two couples aged between 18-25 years old – in both the UK and abroad. A member from each couple will embark on an exciting overseas adventure, exploring and living their counterpart’s life. The other person from the couple will remain in the UK to entertain the visiting half of the overseas couple. The producers say it is through this unique life-swap that each couple will learn about another culture and themselves.

The producers are especially keen to have a vegan couple participate in the show. Check the image below for contact details.

If any of you get involved, I will expect a FGV shout out!

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A little too late

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I feel kinda guilty.

I’m not trying to suggest that a blog post from me would have saved this company, but taking two years to write a review certainly isn’t getting them any attention they could use.

I was trolling through some old holiday snaps (imagining myself in the sunshine somewhere), when I came across these pics of a completely vegan food truck that once fed hungry highway commuters just outside of Miami, Florida.

Josh and I paid a visit to the Mac’n Food Truck  a couple of years ago on a journey between Miami and the Florida Keys. This gorgeous looking truck was positioned in a nondescript parking lot just off the South Dixie Highway outside of Miami and we were so keen to eat that we lined up to be the first customers of the day.

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World’s best burger

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BAD NEWS UPDATE:

The following information was just posted in the comments at the bottom of this page. Sad news for epic vegan burger fans.

MJ says:

This burger has been discontinued!!!! We were so upset having trekked all the way there to find out that the suppliers no longer work with the restaurant?! As a result, there are no veggie or vegan options on the menu 🙁

Here is the original post on this burger:

A long time ago, there was a burger like no other. Before central London was torn in half by the Crossrail construction, meat-aversionists would swarm on Soho to feast on this burger. Its status was legendary.

But as the machines moved in to build the rapid transit railway, the fast food outlet serving the burger was forced out by the Government. Maybe you remember it? RedVeg was a paradise of deep fried potato, breaded mushrooms and the tastiest vegan burger patty on the planet.

Not long after the Soho location was shuttered, the Brighton RedVeg location was also forced to shut its doors following dwindling fortunes. I was so in love with their burger, I made a special trip to Brighton on their closing weekend and ate what I thought was to be one of the final RedVeg burgers ever served. See here.

But have I got news for you?!

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Buy cake without leaving the house

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I make no secret for the respect I have for Ms Cupcake and the hard work Mellissa Morgan has put in to make her brand one of the most respected independent businesses in London. Notice I didn’t say ‘vegan’ before businesses? That’s right. Ms Cupcake is in the majors.

One of the secrets to their success has surely got to be the relentless attitude to keep creating new products and new ways to get them to people.

Take for instance their new mail order service. 

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NYE with FGV

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Make your last meal of 2013 extra special as Fat Gay Vegan partners with vegan cuisine leaders Saf to bring you a New Year’s Eve supper club to be remembered. Book now or read on for more details.

Saf Restaurant & Bar (located inside Whole Foods Market on Kensington High Street) serve some of the finest plant-based food in the UK. Every item featured on the Saf menu is world class and lovingly-prepared by the staff.

This exclusive New Year’s Eve event will see Saf closed to the public and will feature a 3 course meal (2 options for each course) with a fizzy welcome cocktail all for £30 (+fee) per person. Fat Gay Vegan (that’s me!) will greet and host throughout the dinner.

There will be time to mingle around the bar and diners can purchase extra wine, cocktails or beer from Saf. All alcohol served in the restaurant is vegan and there are gluten free drink options.

The event will commence at 7pm and come to an end at 10pm, allowing diners time to spirit away into the night to ring in midnight with friends and loved ones.

View the evening’s menu below.

Book now to be part of this special meal.

Limited availability. No refunds.

See my recent review of Saf here.