vegan

New at Ms Cupcake

by

The crew at Ms Cupcake never stop working to bring you new seasonal treats and this delight they have launched today looks exquisite.

Say hello to the Jam Doughnut Muffin!

I think they should call it a duffin.

So, it’s like a muffin and a jam filled doughnut?!

That’s my kind of hybrid!

In case you don’t know, Ms Cupcake is an absolutely old school legendary vegan business in London ad was the first all-vegan bakery.

The store has been going from strength to strength over the years and the business has even expanded to include sales of packaged cupcakes in Whole Foods Market stores and a home delivery service for online orders.

Check out the Ms Cupcake website for more info and follow them on Instagram.

London vegan superstar chef announces book deal

by

If you are one of the hundreds of people (maybe thousands) who have turned to me for London eating advice over the past few years, you would have been told to eat at CookDaily.

King of CookDaily has been busy serving up some of the tastiest vegan food on the planet for a while now and his Shoreditch restaurant is nothing short of legendary.

Noodle and soup bowls absolutely burst with flavour and the food is so incredibly popular, you’ll often find yourself caught short if you leave a visit too close to closing time.

In huge news, King reached out to me today to announce that he has finally signed his very first book deal.

This recipe book is surely to be one of the most anticipated book releases for vegans in recent times.

Follow King on Instagram to keep updated and make time to get reacquainted with the CookDaily menu ahead of the book launch.

Julio

by

If you have been a reader (or Patreon supporter) around these parts for a while, you will know about my dear friend Julio.

Julio and I have been close friends ever since the first time we met in 2009. I love him dearly and couldn’t ask for a better friend. He is one of the reasons why I live part of each year in Mexico City.

Some of the rewards I had been sharing on Patreon (and on here) were cooking videos starring the two of us. Julio and I loved making them, mostly because we got to goof around together.

But sadly Julio became very unwell last year and our videos together came to a sudden end. I tried to carry on by myself for a while but it just wasn’t the same.

Thankfully, Julio is now feeling a lot better and this photo was taken of us last night. As you can tell, we had a marvellous time laughing and catching up.

I am really keen to get more videos made for you all as a sign of my appreciation for all the support you give me in keeping the Fat Gay Vegan show on the road.

Julio and I plan on getting creative again for you soon. Thanks for your patience and sorry for the delay on videos.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the most important thing is that my friend is happy and smiling again. Julio is one of the most important people in my life and I’m so thankful that I get these opportunities to share him with you.

You can see all of our videos together online here and you can pledge a small monthly amount via Patreon to help me keep putting my energies into being Fat Gay Vegan.

Save money on the FGV book

by

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!

Free sound and mixing opportunities

by

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!

New vegan recipe collection

by

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.

Follower drives on Instagram

by

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.

Vegan food in Camden

by

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:

  • Classic Cayenne Buffalo Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese Sauce
  • Southern BBQ Sauce Spiked with Bourbon
  • Thai Cinnamon Infused Sweet Chilli
  • Sriracha and Cool Mayo

The ‘Jack Bauer Tower’

  • Enriched Vegan Brioche
  • Cool mayo
  • Crisp Iceberg
  • Fat Hash Brown
  • Classic Burger Cheese
  • Crispy Fried Jackin’ Patty
  • Ketchup/Hot Sauce of your choice

The ‘Father Jack’

  • Enriched Vegan Brioche
  • Smoke infused vegan Bacun Jam
  • Whiskey BBQ Sauce
  • Crisp Iceberg
  • Smoked Burger Cheese
  • Natural Beer Battered Onion Rings
  • Crispy Fried Jackin’ Patty

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.

FGV being interviewed

by

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.

Make vegan esquites – recipe

by

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:

  • ​Place corn, stock, onion, oregano and epazote in a medium saucepan
  • Simmer for approximately 10 minutes
  • Serve in small bowls, ensuring each bowl has plenty of stock
  • Garnish according to taste. In Mexico, people sometimes add cheese and cream so you could experiment with vegan versions of these.

*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