London vegan news, reviews & events
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The latest addition to Barcelona’s growing vegan scene comes in the form of Väcka, a completely vegan and partly raw restaurant with a Swedish name and Argentine owners. Väcka, which means ‘waking up’ in Swedish, centres its philosophy around awakening compassion and awareness of healthy eating.
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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.
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.
I have been racking my feeble brain for a witty or whimsical way in which to announce this epic news, but I have been reduced to a quivering mess and can no longer think. I’m going to just have to come straight out and say the facts.
The best vegan cakes and desserts in the whole of Europe are now available in London.
If you have been loitering around these parts of the Internet for a few years, you should be able to recall this mammoth post I wrote about irresistible vegan cakes in Barcelona created by the magical company known as Lujuria Vegana.
Their cakes are absolutely peerless in Europe. I am a super fan.
Imagine then my sheer delight/shock/convulsions of hysteria when I was confronted by masses of Lujuria Vegana desserts sitting in the chilled fridges of the brand new Whole Foods Market location in Fulham. I almost fell over.
The range in Whole Foods is staggering in size. You can see by the photos below that I was completely unable to control myself and bought many varieties. I was overcome by a cake buying frenzy.
As far as I can tell, this particular Whole Foods Market is the ONLY place in the UK selling these gluten free and vegan desserts. I had heard whispers of them making inroads over here but this is the first time I have seen them on a store shelf.
Check out my photos (yes, I bought ALL cakes featured). Get to Fulham. Buy many cakes. Be happy.
Follow Lujuria Vegana on Twitter.
Businesses come and go quickly and sadly vegan businesses can be the swiftest departures of them all. It is extremely difficult to stay afloat at the best of times and even harder when you are part of a ‘niche’ market.
I am sad to hear of the closure of a gorgeous vegan cafe in Barcelona called Vegan Bakery. I had only just visited a few months ago and now it appears to be no more. I’m not on the ground in that town to do my usual snooping, but I have seen whispers on the Internet that the close is temporary until a new location is found.
I would love to hear from anyone involved in the cafe or anyone with information on their future. It won’t be too long before I’m heading back that way and I would really love to support their endeavours.
Until then, take a sneak peak of what I enjoyed during my recent visit to Vegan Bakery.
My vacation in Barcelona was a moving experience and I enjoyed many profound moments. Celebrations, street carnivals, cultural awakenings and informative strolls throughout historical neighbourhoods… I guzzled it all up like it was a cheap, vegan beer.
Now I am in Los Angeles and eating my way around the city, but I wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on one of my Barcelona highlights that helped me become a better, more rounded FGV. Vegan cake.
If you want to go to vegan food heaven, get your backside to Barcelona and walk straight into a fantastic vegan deli known as Gopal. I proclaim this to be the finest vegan food in the entire city and I might even be bold enough to declare it in my top 5 restaurants in the world.
This post is very thin on words because I want the photos to do the talking. It was also important to me to get this up in the same week that Gopal announced their expansion. Madrid is very shortly and very fortunately going to be exposed to the Gopal goodness.
But enough from me and my FGV mouth. Let’s head on inside the deli to drool over some of the food I’ve consumed during my stay in Barcelona.
Another post from Barcelona and with only a week remaining in this gorgeous city, I had better get a move on if I want to feature all of the vegan food I have been experiencing. There are just so many options for vegans and the two cruelty-free grocery stores are perfect places to start. That’s right… Barcelona has two completely vegan grocery stores!
The first of these stores I want to talk about is Veganoteca. Located a short walk from the bustling tourist area of La Rambla, Veganoteca is a small piece of retail heaven for vegans.
I have been missing in action for almost a week and I apologise to all of you who have been refreshing the home page in order to read my latest tale of food depravity. I do have a rather solid excuse though… I am in Barcelona!
Following a rather intense period of work back in the UK, I am celebrating my freedom by taking in the Catalan sights for a few weeks before jetting off on a whirlwind jaunt around the USA. Being the FGV means I will be doing my best to keep you informed of all the scrumptious vegan food that I encounter, as well as supplying you with interesting trivia and snapshots of my experiences.
Here we go… FGV is on the road!