New vegan brunch spot for London

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This October Club Mexicana at The Spread Eagle, London’s first 100% vegan pub, will launch their brand new Mexican-Californian brunch, kicking off weekends with the likes of chilaquiles, chick’n & waffles, and brunch cocktails every Saturday and Sunday.

Inspired by founder Meriel’s travels through Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and a stint living in Melbourne, where brunch is a formative part of the weekend, the menu will include dishes packed with flavours from the sunshine cities. Mains will feature: ‘Huevos Rancheros’ with scrambled ‘eggs’, Mexican ‘chorizo’, black beans, avocado and salsa verde on a grilled paprika tortilla; and – Mexico City favourite – chilaquiles: fried corn tortillas drenched in salsa roja, roasted pepper queso and sour cream, topped with pickled jalapenos. Club Mexicana’s infamous chick’n’ & waffles with chilli infused maple syrup are making a comeback, and signature tacos are getting a breakfast twist with combos including fried potato and ‘chorizo’ topped with avo and sour cream. Meriel has also created a host of snacks like the deep friend avocado with a miso lime dipping sauce, and those with a sweet tooth will not be left out with deep fried ice cream; warm chilli-chocolate brownie with peanut and caramel sauce and taco millefoglie with lemon curd, blueberries and vanilla whipped cream.

The Spread Eagle will be serving up brunch cocktails at the bar, including their famous Spread Eagle Bloody Mary made with horseradish infused vodka, the Avocado Colada, with pineapple, avocado, white rum, coconut milk and lime, and the Coconut Tequila Shrub with coconut tequila, grapefruit, cider vinegar and soda. Sherri has also devised a selection of Kombucha cocktails from the Passion Fruit Mimosa with passion fruit puree, Prosecco and passion fruit JARR Kombucha, to the Beetroot Punch; beetroot shrub, dark rum and ginger JARR Kombucha.

The Spread Eagle co-founder Luke says ‘We’ve been itching to get brunch off the ground since we opened – we’ve always wanted to pub to be a place for all occasions, so we cannot wait to open our doors and welcome those seeking refuge from a hangover with a taco or two, or those looking for a few drinks with friends to kick off their weekend!’

‘Our style of cooking lends itself to brunch and it’s been so much fun creating a whole new menu with lots of exciting dishes – chilaquiles are definitely a winner! Pull up a stool at the bar and order them with a bloody mary I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday’, says Meriel.

Brunch will be available between 12pm-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays from the 6th of October, 2018. For reservations please visit https://www.thespreadeaglelondon.co.uk

The Spread Eagle Opening Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 4pm-11pm
Friday, 4pm-2am
Saturday,12pm-2am
Sunday, 12pm-10.30pm

Kitchen Opening Hours:
Wednesday – Friday: 6pm-10pm
Saturday: 12pm-10pm
Sunday: 12pm-9pm

Incredible plant based restaurant in Norwich

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I’m not sure why they don’t call themselves a vegan restaurant, but Erpingham House in Norwich bills itself as a high end plant-based restaurant and the menu does look impressive.

Set over three floors, Erpingham House was once a local Norwich steakhouse and has been renovated to a multi level, plant-based dining experience offering everything from cannabis coffee to cashew jackfruit korma.

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The menu situation is too extensive and fabulous for me to unpack here, but I have pulled out some of the items that caught my attention:

  • Mushroom & chestnut Wellington or lentil polenta bake (GF) with roast potatoes, sage & onion stuffing, pan-fried greens & roast heritage vegetables, served with red wine gravy (Sunday dinner)
  • Avocado pesto linguine with Walnut, kale & avocado pesto, chestnut mushrooms and dressed rocket
  • Lahmacun pizza – stonebaked Turkish flatbread pizza, tomato sauce, grilled artichoke, smoked tomato and rocket
  • Raw chocolate caramel slice (GF) served with ice cream and topped with caramel sauce

You can see the full menus online here. They include a special menu for children and a cafe menu with breakfast items. Dinner is served seven days a week!

You can follow Erpingham House on Instagram.

See the exact location of this new mega restaurant thanks to Google Maps.

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A vegan Halloween event in London

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Here is a quick heads up for people who like other people to cook and serve impressive vegan meals for them.

Celebrating the witches and wizards inside all of us, sixty:2 brings you a magical twist on their signature immersive supper clubs. Get ready for their vegan Halloween supper club in east London on Thursday October 25, 2018.

This special Halloween supper club features exciting, explosive dishes and will be an extravagant showcase of the creativity of sixty:2‘s founder and head chef, Maudie Fraser. Seating is limited so book early.

The provisional menu looks fabulous:

  • Starter – Trick-or-treat pumpkin cauldrons with bubbling onion broth
  • Main – Wild mushroom confit and shrivelled greens on truffled kidney bean cobwebs with devilish dauphinoise
  • Pudding – Gory chocolate and berry fondant with salted toffee apple dust

As it is Halloween themed, festive dress is encouraged but not essential.

Click here for more info and to book.

Vegan Magnum ice cream

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I’m a little bit late to this party but for anyone who hasn’t heard, there are new vegan Magnum ice creams in the UK.

The dairy free version of these famous products are available UK wide and come in two varieties. You can grab the classic or the almond (chocolate coating with almond pieces).

As the photos show, these vegan ice creams are available in packs of three. I have also seen reports online of single packs being sold.

What do you think? Have you tried?

Vegan meals with British Airways

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The quality of vegan meals served on airplanes varies wildly depending on the carrier and the city from which you are flying.

This week saw me traveling from London to Mexico City with British Airways and I was happy with the food service. Not amazed, but satisfied.

Check out the meals below.

The first meal was a green coconut curry featuring tofu. The flavours were really quite pleasing and I would happily eat that meal again either on or off a plane. There was also the usual too hard to eat fruit, some tomatoes in their own plastic pot, a packet of cashes, and a bean/chickpea salad. The bread roll was accompanied by a vegan spread.

Next up was a chestnut ragout served with mixed rice. This dish was tasty but not as impressive as the green curry. The pleasant surprise on this tray was the Pecan Pie Nakd bar. It is the inclusion of something like this that makes me believe the catering firm are paying attention to veganism.

Overall, it was a satisfactory in-flight eating experience and it is reassuring to see airline catering getting more vegan friendly.

Now all we need is for the vegan meal to be the default choice for everyone!

Style yourself sustainable event in London

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Here is a super quick note about a sustainable fashion event taking place in the same location as Hackney Downs Vegan Market on Saturday September 22, 2018.

Style Yourself Sustainable is an event bringing together vintage clothing and eco brand pop-ups in one space, alongside talks such as ‘Wear the walk’ and a panel of eco minded brands for you to ask questions.

There will be sewing workshops with Kate from Time to Sew (check out additional tickets) and t-shirt re-fashioning session with Oonagh.

In addition to all of the above, there will also be a swap shop where (for free) you can swap something that you are not that in love with anymore for something that you do love!

Sustainable fashion AND a vegan market in one spot. Get involved!

Click here to book your free ticket.

The BagNut has landed in Sheffield

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Remember when I posted about my mate Dave at Make No Bones turning my dream into a menu item?

Quick recap:

I had a dream about a bagel filled with vegan bacon and cheese that was battered and deep fried. In my dream I named it the BagNut because it was a cross between a bagel and a donut.

Fast forward to right now and we are two days out from the BagNut being added to the weekend menu at Make No Bones in Sheffield.

Take a look at them below.

There is a savoury and a sweet NutBag launching this Saturday (September 22, 2018).

The savoury features bacon, cheese, tomato, and pickle in a dill batter while the sweet version has hazelnut chocolate in vanilla batter, served with crushed ginger biscuits, warm ganache, and sprinkles.

This is FGV dream invented food. You need it in your life!

Follow Make No Bones on Instagram.

New vegan menu items in London chain

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A super quick post to gives you some news.

London restaurant chain Busaba is now serving vegan options in their thirteen London locations.

This sign was spotted out the Westfield White City outlet of the Thai dining chain.

The vegan options include the Soyamari that is actually made with Oumph! vegan meat.

It’s a small vegan world!

Other vegan items include grilled Thai roti, Asian slaw, hot Thai mint super salad, Yam Pak, green curry, pad Thai, and Thai black rice pudding.

Click here to see the full vegan menu from Busaba online. I don’t think I listed even half the options.

Exclusive vegan test kitchen in London

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Ooh, I love an exclusive dining engagement.

Street food superstars SpiceBox are gearing up for some big changes and developments to impress London, but in the meantime they are doing some important recipe development with a residency in Walthamstow.

From Friday September 21 until Sunday October 21, 2018, SpiceBox will be running the SPICEBOX TEST KITCHEN at the Hornbeam Cafe in Walthamstow.

The café is located just south of Walthamstow Central station and you can see the exact spot thanks to Google Maps.

Be sure to follow SpiceBox on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep updated with the test kitchen menus and future developments!