UK

Rawligion in central London

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If you are like me and haven’t found/made time to try Rawligion in central London, this post will give you a small visual insight into what the café serves.

It looks good!

The restaurant sent me photos of (from top) raw chocolate Rochers, Thai slaw, raw dehydrated falafels, lemon tahini dip & hemp tabbouleh and finally the raw pancakes.

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Rawligion is only a 40-second walk from Goodge Street Underground station or a 6-minute walk from Tottenham Court Road.

You can visit the website, follow on Twitter, follow on Instagram or like on Facebook.

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Vegan café in Surrey

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News has just arrived at my doorstep of a brand new vegan café opening in Bookham, Surrey this month.

I reached out to the owners to find out a little bit of information surrounding Crazy Bean and here is what they told me:

We are opening a vegan cafe in Great Bookham, Surrey. Located at 23 the High Street, our launch events are over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of September and will include complimentary drinks and tastings on both evenings and throughout the day on the 17th.
We chose to go vegan about 3 years ago and knew we needed to leave the rat race to do more. Our cafe is only part of plans to launch community growing projects and hopefully launch a range of products into the majors when we are ready. We are on a huge learning curve but we are passionate about the cause.
We have had an amazing amount of support already in the area and hope to advertise further afield. While this will be a business, we feel our responsibility with this cafe and all we do is much bigger than our own livelihoods. There is more about this in my first two blogs on our site www.crazy-bean.com so please do check them out.
Of course, we want to provide delicious food and are working really hard to build a menu that everybody will love.

How fab does that sound?

Follow Crazy Bean on Twitter and like them on Facebook.

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Vegan hot dogs at Pride

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This news makes me smile… and it makes me hungry.

If you go to Southampton Pride this weekend (Sunday August 28, 2016) you can buy and eat vegan hot dogs.

Even better? The vegan hot dog stand is being run by volunteers who are all vegan and all the proceeds from the stall are being donated to Southampton Pride. 

I’m a bit teary knowing that kindhearted people do things like this. I adore that they are supporting the LGBTQ community without contributing to animal harm.

This is resisting oppression without resorting to another form of oppression!

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I asked Hannah of Hannah Banana Bakery (who is one of the volunteers) what is on the menu and she told me:

We have homemade salsa, mayo, mustard, homemade coleslaw, fried onions, and ketchup. 100% of the money goes to the Pride event as we are all unpaid vegan volunteers on our stall. General event info is on the Pride website. We are on the stall outside “The Stage Door” bar on West Marlands Road all day until we sell out!

People, get along to support this wonderful initiative and eat up!

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Vegan relish

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Here’s a super quick blog post to let you know about a supermarket find that has me grinning.

All of these are #vegan and all are on offer in Waitrose right now.

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on


How terrific do these look?!

All three bottles were spotted in my local Waitrose and all were on special offer.

Which one would you start with?

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Garlic bread and dough balls

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Here’s a super quick blog post that might just have you making a rapid dash to your nearest Tesco.

You can now buy not only frozen vegan garlic bread from the UK supermarket chain, but also frozen vegan garlic dough balls.

I picked up a pack of each last night in a London Tesco Extra.

Tesco have #vegan garlic dough balls and garlic baguette in the frozen section!

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on


Looking forward to trying them!

Have you tried these vegan and gluten free products yet? Feedback below!

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Vegan macaron frenzy

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Do you feel that you are in a bit of a dreary rut? Is your life in need of a push? What would you say to an exciting development that will leave you grinning ear to ear?

Floral Frosting and their vegan macarons are making lives better. Simple.

Selling only online, the mastermind behind Floral Frosting is turning lives upside down with her colourful creations. Charis uses some unknown brand of magic to handcraft the most exquisite fine pastries and then ships them to people everywhere.

Customers need to reach out to Charis via email ( floralfrosting@hotmail.com ), Facebook or Instagram to find out prices and place an order. The macarons are made in the UK but can be shipped anywhere in the world!

Wanna see what I recently ate from Floral Frosting?

Nothing on the planet is as pretty as a delivery of @floralfrostingbakery #vegan macarons. I’m shaking with joy.

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

There is no messing around here. Floral Frosting is getting the job done. No question.

My delivery included:

  • Lemon curd
  • Salted caramel popcorn
  • S’mores
  • Vanilla chai
  • Strawberry & cream
  • Cookie Monster

Why are you still here? Follow the Instagram account! Get ordering!

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Vegan groceries in Kent

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What do you do for vegan groceries when you live in Kent, England?

However you answered that question in your head, you can now add Wheat’s The Problem to your list of solutions.

1 - Shop Front

This grocery store is tucked away on an industrial estate in Sittingbourne, Kent and looks to be a vegan grocery oasis.

While not everything in the store is plant-based a huge chunk of what’s on offer is, with the shelves lined with Fry’s Family Foods, Follow Your Heart, Tofurky, Plamil and many, many more vegan brands. I would be here all day if I started listing them and you all know how lazy I am.

As you can tell from the store name, Wheat’s The Problem is also a specialty shopping destination for consumers looking for wheat free groceries with many items being suitable for coeliacs.

Get along to Wheat’s The Problem for vegan groceries and support independent business.

Click here to join the Facebook group for the shop. This is where you can keep track of all the fantastic new products being added each week. You can also click here to see where the shop is located.

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Vegan margarine advertising

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Becky was kind enough to let me use this photo she took on a recent day out and about.

Check it out.

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I find this fascinating on so many levels.

Maybe I should break it down into smaller pieces of information. I do have a tendency to ramble.

  1. It is marvellous to see The Vegan Society trademark used so prominently in a mainstream advertising campaign. It might be the first time I have ever seen it in an advert of this magnitude and I find this sort of exposure exciting
  2. I think the advert using the vegan symbol shows how differently corporations are treating veganism. It is being seen as a serious concern with direct links to making profit.
  3. I don’t like that the whole vegan and #poweredbyplants angle has been linked solely to a low carbon footprint. Where are the animals in this narrative? Is veganism being used to greenwash the campaign without recognising what being vegan means? Is veganism the ultimate greenwashing tool for corporations?
  4. Unilever is behind this product. There continue to be concerns surrounding the business dealings of this mind-bogglingly huge conglomerate, including how workers at its margarine factory in the UK are treated. You can read more about this topic here and how a union celebrated news of UK workers being paid a living wage (with the increase being rolled out across 18 months). Unilever has been praised by Oxfam for improving some of its dealings (including commitment to sourcing sustainable palm oil) but the charity reports areas of concern include workers not being paid a living wage in all countries where Unilever operates and that the company needs to develop an understanding of women being more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse within the supplier chain. If you are interested in reading more about ethical concerns and advances related to Unilever, click here.

The positive to take from this new product is that affordable vegan sandwich spread is now available to everyone in the UK. I think while we celebrate this fact, it is also important to keep thinking about how we as consumers can ask for our vegan products to be made with greater consideration to workers. No point having a fab vegan product if someone is suffering away for next to no money, right? And I haven’t even touched on the well-known links between Unilever and animal testing.

And finally.

Has anyone tasted it? What’s it like?

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Vegan market in Leicester

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Nothing warms my heart quite like news of a vegan market.

I have recently been telling anyone who will listen that vegan street or farmers markets are the way forward, so I’m thrilled to hear that the first ever event of its kind for Leicester is taking place next month.

As the flyer says below, a diverse range of products will be available as well as lots of delicious plant-based food on June 12, 2016.

The best part? Leicester Vegan Market is being staged smack bang in the middle of the historic town centre, meaning it will enjoy extremely high visibility and will help expose a lot of locals to vegan choices.

You should RSVP to the Leicester Vegan Market Facebook event and make plans to get along to support this wonderful initiative.

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Vegan product frenzy hits UK

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There is not a lot more to say other than GET READY TO HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN.

Online UK grocery giant Ocado has added a huge range of vegan products from Italian freefrom company Valsoia. The web-based selection includes pizza, ice cream, chocolate spread, whipping cream, ice cream sandwiches and more.

My greedy head is actually spinning.

See some of the products below and click here to see the entire range online.

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