London vegan news, reviews & events
This is a super quick post to ask a question.
Has Hartley’s always labelled their jam jars as suitable for vegans? I only noticed last week and was pleasantly surprised. Have they been doing this for a while? Have you noticed any other mainstream products being labeled recently?
Somebody call my therapist. This was my second raw meal in a month and I’m a bit frightened by how much I enjoyed the experience.
Have you been to Nama in Notting Hill?
Get to your nearest Waitrose store, buy a box of these vegan delights and start eating.
I was waddling through Waitrose in Westfield White City a few days back when my chubby eyes spied an intriguing box of biscuit treats. Of course having the word ‘vegan’ printed on the package meant I hastily tossed them into my basket and trotted happily to the checkout line.
For a gluten free product, the Lazy Day peppermint slice is an outstanding item. Heck, it is a super high standard regardless of the freefrom credentials.
Tasty, crunchy and incredibly difficult to stop eating.
You can like Lazy Day Foods on Facebook.
I stumbled into a vegan-friendly grocery store in Manchester a few weeks ago and it was all so surreal and unexpected. I’m a bit lost for words.
I’ll try my best.
As you know, my mates Joe and Jess relentlessly taunt me with photos of their vegan conquests in Berlin.
All the pics they send over get me hot and bothered but I must admit this latest treat takes the cake. Check it out below.
There are some fabulously exciting things happening for vegans in London and most of them are pop up ventures. What’s behind this drive to sell food in temporary locations?
London is surely one of the most expensive cities in the world for real estate. It was announced this week that the average house price in London is £514 000 while the average house price in central London is £1.6 million. The increase in property prices in London over the past year has been at a rate of 19%. This is staggering.
The cost of renting commercial space in Camden Stables Market is upwards of £1000 a week. You can see why vegan start ups can only afford to run temporary events and pop ups are the new trend of getting food to the masses. Vegan businesses cannot get permanent premises unless they have a hell of a lot of money behind them.
Get up and get out of the house this weekend and support a vegan pop up venture. Show the people making cruelty free food for the masses that you care.
You might very well start with the brand new Club Mexicana pop up in east London. The taco masters have set up temporary shop in The Convenience, an inventive and quirky cafe near Chatsworth Road with a roof terrace for dining.
The Club Mexicana pop up runs from 6pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from 4pm on Sundays. See the current menu below but be warned it will be rotating so not everything will be available every night. Rumour has it they are working on a Mexican seitan burger and that chocodilla on the menu sounds fabulous.
The pop up will run until October 12. Follow Club Mexicana on Twitter.
Don’t put a jar of chocolate biscuit spread in front of a vegan, tell them it’s vegan and then tell them it isn’t vegan. We will cut you.
Ever since I posted this story about a supposedly vegan bourbon biscuit spread sold by Tesco, my social media has been blowing up with folks telling me they had been informed by the chain that it contained non-vegan ingredients. I decided to dedicate a couple of hours of my life to finding out the truth.
Here is what I was told via a phone message left by a Tesco customer service operator:
If you have been following me on Instagram and Twitter these past few days, you would have seen I have been eating everything vegan I could get my hands on in Manchester.
One thing related to veganism that I didn’t eat was this very interesting poster hanging on the notice board of V Revolution.
The reader tips I receive are invaluable. As much as I try to eat every vegan item in the UK, a Fat Gay Vegan can only spread so far.
One of the longest-serving reader contributors to my blog is the wonderful Jeanette. She has often sent me little snippets of information and has been a solid contributor with comments as well.
The latest piece of news sent my way by Jeanette is all about the fabulous 1066 Cake Stand in Hastings.
MAJOR UPDATE
People have been emailing me like crazy today saying they have been told by Tesco that this product has milk proteins as an ingredient even though it doesn’t say so on the label.
I have been on the phone with Tesco for a long time just now only to be assured by the customer service person there is NO milk protein as an added ingredient.
Of course I explained the mixed messages we are getting and my service person has told me they will look into it in fine detail and get back to me ASAP, but that might not be until Monday. In the meantime I suggest anyone who doesn’t want to eat a product that purposively contains dairy milk stays away from this item.
I’ll report back as soon as I can.
I don’t know what to say. I am overwhelmed by this vegan news out of London. Hold on to your jaunty hats, kids.
Last night I received a text message from Angela of The Third Estate with a very special grainy photo attached.
There are no words.