London vegan news, reviews & events
Leeds is on fire for vegan food.
You’ve seen my recent post about the wonderful fry-up I enjoyed a few weekends back and now I’m revisiting the northern city to let you know about probably the finest Sunday roast you are going to get anywhere in the country.
Leeds has some really great stirrings in relation to vegan food. I’m not about to declare it a vegan hotspot that you will be bowled over by, but the Northern city is certainly coming along leaps and bounds in recent years.
Check out this 100% vegan hummus and falafel cafe situated in the city centre.
Don’t you just adore a fabulous bar with plenty of vegan beer and tubs of vegan snacks? What do you mean you’ve never been to one?!
Get your compassionate bones to Leeds as soon as possible to enjoy this fine experience.
Vegan breakfast in a bicycle shop? You got it!
A massive thank you to Beth who volunteered this lovely guest review. Beth wanted you all to know about a recent food experience in a unique setting.
Check it out and plan a trip to York. Unless you already live there. If that is the case, get busy enjoying what you’ve got!
Take it away, Beth.
Brass Castle Brewery is coming back to wow the crowds of London Vegan Beer Fest once again with an impressive line up of vegan brews that will make your mouth water.
This Yorkshire brewery always comes out on top when we ask people to vote for their favourite overall vendor at the event and I’m sure the following drinking list is going to win them a lot of new fans next weekend:
Hey Leeds people and visitors to Leeds. Get tasty vegan tacos and burritos!
I was slipping down a Leeds side-street a few days ago (I was in town to watch Morrissey perform) when I saw the word ‘vegan’ stamped on a cafe window. Of course I investigated.
Another UK vegan restaurant bows out.
A tweet from Cooking The Vegan Books yesterday alerted me to the fact that one of my favourite places in the UK was closing. As soon as I was informed, I raced to the Dandelion & Burdock website to confirm with my own eyes and was met with the following statement:
Yorkshire has given my life a lot of cool things.
This part of the world is often the punchline of jokes thrown around by smug southerners, but I for one have a special affinity with the northern region. My favourite book when I was a young child (with a fey manner) was the resplendent and camp A Woman of Substance, written by Yorkshire’s very own Barbara Taylor Bradford. I would read it alone in my room in a sort of secret lockdown, hidden for fear of being interrupted. I wanted nothing to come between me and the sheer outrageousness of the pages.
Flash forward several decades and I am not a multi-millionaire business tycoon as promised by Barbara, but Yorkshire is still a part of the world that keeps giving me delight.
However, this time around it isn’t the written word its inhabitants have gifted me. It is delicious vegan beer.
In some parts of the world, it can be a struggle to be a vegan.
If you are located a long distance from a major city, plant-based foods and cruelty-free supplies can be difficult to track down let alone finding a vegan social event in your neighbourhood. London spoils me for choice, but I never forget what it was like to live in smaller, less vegan-friendly locations. Heck… I was even situated (for a short period) in Rockhampton, Australia. If you care to investigate, I believe you will discover Rockhampton is considered the beef capital of Australia.
For isolated vegans, the light at the end of the lonesome tunnel often takes the form of a local vegan/veggie support group. Likeminded individuals get together to share advice, recipes, food, friendship and interests. Your local support group can often be the only time your choice to be cruelty-free is taken seriously.
There are a huge number of veggie/vegan support groups all over the UK but as Leeds is close to my heart, I would like to focus on the Northern city for a moment… specifically the Leeds Vegetarians and Vegans group.
There is a place in the north of England with crooked lanes paved with old stones. This town knows a brutal and harsh history. Pubs are named after torture devices and methods of execution while a seemingly-benign grass patch hides the remains of a cholera burial ground. It is a location that both delights and astounds with its past of inglorious tales.
It is also a place where many fabulous occurrences take place. Within the space of a few hours in the city this past weekend I ate at a completely vegan Spanish restaurant, had my photo taken with superstar of screen and fashion Chloë Sevigny and witnessed Morrissey perform a stellar concert to a venue packed with adoring fans.
Welcome to York.