London vegan news, reviews & events
You know about my book because I never shut up about it, but I have some extra book-related news that is fresh and exciting.
For some reason, WH Smith has my book available at a special price for online shoppers who use a discount code.
If you use the code FGV18, you will be able to buy Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t from the online WH Smith online store for £4.99.
Click here to get my book at a discount!
This is VERY cool.
Steve of Friendship Vegan Shoes wanted me to share some amazing information with London’s vegan community.
I’ll let him explain it in his own words.
I don’t know if you know but before Caroline and I set up Friendship Vegan Shoes, I had 41 years in the Music industry as a recording engineer and some of that time was spent directing and producing TV shows.
I retired and went into vegan shoes but we recently set up a world class surround mix studio as we get invited to mix for film and TV commercially.
Now we get empty days in the surround studio so Caroline and I want to give these studio days away free of charge (and include an engineer where and when needed) to film and programme makers we would align with such as vegan animal rights and environmental action groups.
Here is a link to the studio page and the photo (below) shows the Fairlight EVO system control desk.
The studio can mix content from Mono to 7:1 surround and is acoustically treated and very comfortable to work in, and without fear of repetition we offer it free of charge to film and programme makers when we agree with their mission.
I’d be really grateful if you can share this message. My experience is when budget gets tight the first thing that suffers is audio post production, but nowadays audio is half the picture!
Follow Friendship Vegan Shoes on Instagram and reach out to Steve and Caroline if you are in need of sound mixing for your ethical project!
I don’t sing the praises of many cook books but this latest vegan title from celebrity chef Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall is worth noticing.
I admit I don’t know a lot about Hugh but some people have told me he made his name in part by cooking a lot of animals.
He now seems to be on a mission to get people to eat a lot of veg (although he is not vegan himself) and Much More Veg is his plan being put into action.
The recipes are gorgeous and the photos even more so.
If you are due a gift anytime soon, I would point the person doing the buying in the direction of this book.
One form of support I’ve been involved with as a blogger and social media person recently is Follower Drives.
I got the idea a few days ago when I was visiting a brand new vegan restaurant in Sitges, Spain. Spice Garden is the only 100% vegan restaurant in Sitges and I was a bit disappointed that the Instagram account for the restaurant had quite a small number of followers.
During my meal, I posted a series of photos on my own Instagram asking my followers to consider following the restaurant. I set a target of 500 followers and if you click through to the account now, you will see that we were able to zoom right past that number.
The restaurant started with 187 followers and now has over 1,300 in just a matter of days.
I applied the same campaign idea to raising the follower count for a brand new late night vegan bar in Barcelona called Bar de Retro. This time we took them from 99 followers to over 1,200 in a day!
My latest Follower Drive is for a London vegan shoe store and ethical boutique called The Third Estate.
This store is exquisite but their Instagram account had been languishing around the 700 follower mark for a while. I set a target of 2,000 followers and we are almost there within 24 hours. I think they need just about 200 more.
Please get involved and get over to their profile.
I hope you can join me for more Follower Drives in the future. I think it is a great way to give independent vegan businesses a boost and help raise their online profiles.
When someone describes what they cook as filthy vegan junk food, my interest couldn’t be higher.
Biff’s Jack Shack is a decadent London-based vegan street food business making crispy fried fillet burgers and wings out of jackfruit. They have been doing a lot of impressing people around the capital and now have set up shop in Camden for the entire month of August.
Biff’s delicious food can be snapped up from their temporary pop up located at Camden Town Brewery (click here to see location via Google Maps). The food stand is trading in this spot each Thursday and Friday from 5:30pm until 9:00pm and Saturdays between 2:00pm until 7:00pm all throughout August.
But what of the food? Prepare yourself because I don’t think you’re ready for this epic-ness.
Jackin’ Wingz
Choose 2 or 3 Jackin’ Wingz slathered with a topping blend of your choice:
The ‘Jack Bauer Tower’
The ‘Father Jack’
I don’t know about you but all of that has me drooling and checking my diary for my next available eating opportunity.
Don’t miss out on Biff’s Shack Jack during their Camden Town Brewery residency (where vegan beer is plentiful BTW) and be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
Here is a quick post to let you know that I was just a featured guest on a podcast… and you can listen if you fancy that sort of thing!
Ethical Beast is a podcast out of NYC, but my recent episode was actually recorded in Mexico City a few weeks ago.
Joe got in touch with me when he knew he was going to be in the giant Mexican capital, so it was great fun sitting down for a quick chat with him. He quizzed me on all manner of topics including my new book coming out in January 2018. I had friends coming over for dinner as it was my final night in Mexico before returning to London and you can even hear the intercom buzzer announcing their arrival.
Click here to listen to my episode and be sure to check out some of the older Ethical Beast episodes, too.
A simple recipe for a Mexican favourite. Esquites couldn’t be easier or tastier.
Ingredients:
2 cups frozen or fresh sweetcorn 1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup diced white onion
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried epazote*
To garnish:
Chile powder
Vegan mayonnaise
Coriander/Cilantro
Diced white onion
Fresh lime
Instructions:
*This herb is common in Mexico but may not be easy to find outside North America. Try online or specialty shops.
Recipe and photo remain property of Sean O’Callaghan and may not be reproduced without permission. © fatgayvegan.com
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You’ve probably already seen FGV’s previous proclamations about Vedge in Philadelphia being the best restaurant on the planet (see here and here)! Well when I heard that the founders Kate Jacoby and Rich Landau had opened a small fast-food outlet in the new Whole Foods on Pennsylvania Avenue in Philly, I knew I had to investigate! Check out my visit to Wiz Kid:
The menu is small but perfect. I of course picked the ‘Wiz Kid Philly’, a cheesesteak-style roll with seitan and mushrooms. Oh, and how could I pass up the fries topped with cheeze wiz?
Kate and Rich must have magic powers! There is nothing of theirs that I have tried which hasn’t tasted exceptional and Wiz Kid was certainly no exception! How do they make food taste this good? What is their secret? I want nothing less than world domination for Kate and Rich!
Check out Wiz Kid’s website to see the full menu and be sure to follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I believe they’re opening a second location in Center City soon!
You all adore Temple of Hackney, the vegan fried chicken shop by Temple of Seitan.
So of course you love this quick little snippet of news relating to the shop’s brand new revised menu AND the new opening hours.
Firstly, let’s look at the menu.
A few of the items have been changed ever so slightly and the meal deal has come down in price.
Also, you came here to find out about the new opening hours.
They are posted below for your pleasure.
Yes, you can get your vegan fried chicken quota 7-days a week and until 9pm Monday through Saturday.
Get well into it.
Follow Temple of Seitan on Instagram.
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You may have seen my post from last week about all the amazing vegan food that I sampled in New York City during my 48-hour visit earlier this year… but there was one place that was so impressive that it deserved a blog post of its very own!
Orchard Grocer in Manhattan’s Lower East Side is one of the best-stocked vegan stores I’ve ever been to in my life, which just happens to share a retail space with a vegan shoe shop. It is filled to the brim with incredible products that are hard to find anywhere else. I was so full from my previous eating that I didn’t even get to try the house-made sandwiches but I’ve heard REALLY good things about them from others. Anyway, enough chit-chat… check out these photos:
It was so overwhelming seeing this many incredible vegan products in one spot. Check out my Instagram video of the cheese selection:
For those who have visited Moo Shoes in NYC previously, you’ll be interested to know that Orchard Grocer actually takes up half of the store. Moo Shoes is now using just half of its original space while Orchard Grocer takes up the rest. Read more about Orchard Grocer on their website and be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Happy drooling!