Back in Brighton

Since I last blogged I've been on two seriously amazing trips, in May me & Nick flew to New York City, spent a few days there and then road tripped to Chicago via a whole load of other cool places. I was desperate to talk about this on the blog and on Twitter before we went but because of Nicks (now diminishing!) fear of flying we had to keep it on the DL incase my excitement freaked him out! In June we went to Millencolin Fest in Örebro, Sweden to see one of my favourite bands and then we spent a few days in Stockholm eating & sightseeing. Both trips were amazing and they are also the only times I've seen sun this summer! England is failing pretty epically at summer this year and we've pretty much just had constant rain, flooding, and more rain.

I have done some cool stuff since I've been back though including trying to eat all of Redwood Foods new products! They brought out frozen pizzas...

...which come in three flavours, Cheezly & Tomato (my favourite), Ham Style & Pineapple and Meatless Feast (Nicks Favourite). I've been eating my Cheezly & Tomato pizzas with added Yves Bologna, my new favourite American mock meat product. These pizzas are pretty small but I quite like that, it means I can justify eating them more often and they fit in my overstuffed freezer much easier than a huge pizza would! They remind me of the kind of crap supermarket pizzas I lived of as a 17 year old and they make a good, lazy, can't be bothered to cook, meal.

Whilst the pizzas are awesome I think the star of Redwood Foods new product range is their pack of two Gourmet Fish Style Steaks.

Nick cooked these for dinner one night when we were craving fish & chips and they were just perfect. I've never eaten anything veggie that so closely resembles fish before. The light crispy crumb coating is perfect even when the steaks are cooked in the oven and the fish inside is perfectly tender and actually kinda falls apart in flakes. These are melt in your mouth delicious and if you haven't yet you should run, not walk, run, to your nearest health food store and buy at least two packs of these.

Whilst I do love to travel I also love Brighton. I always feel sad towards the end of any trip because I don't want the fun to end but knowing that I get to come back to Brighton makes that feeling go away a little quicker than I think it would if I lived somewhere else. Since I've been back I've enjoyed sitting on the beach at dusk...

...eating Boho Gelato (this is my latest favourite flavour, Hazelnut Coffee)...

...catching a midnight screening of Ghost World, seeing some rad shows (Dan Andriano & Brendan Kelly at The Albert, Lightyear at The Haunt and Less Than Jake at The Concorde) and trying out the awesome new vegan food at the Churchill Square Market.

The Churchill Square Market on a Wednesday is probably the closest thing Brighton has to a Farmers Market and it's recently gotten a whole lot more vegan friendly thanks to the wonderful couple running Yum Tum Sushi.

Josh & Rose, the brains behind Yum Tum, make healthy, homemade sushi with flavours sure to tantalise your tastebuds. You can buy either individual pieces of sushi for 50p - 70p or a sushi lunchbox for £4.50.

Yum Tum Sushi are almost entirely vegan, they currently have one clearly labelled non-vegan item which will shortly be getting veganised as they're planning to replace the egg with a tofu/agar mixture. Yay!

I decided to go for the lunchbox so that I could try a bit of everything.

The lunchbox was a great choice and the guys behind Yum Tum sure aren't wrong when they say that they're offering a whole new sushi experience. I love their wakame seaweed salad with pickled cucumber and miso, it's seriously delicious & I think I could probably just eat a whole box of it for lunch every day quite happily! The beetroot, basil and black pepper maki roll with a cashew crumble was perfect both in taste and texture but my favourite roll was probably their butternut squash, tarragon and orange powder maki. Their wasn't a poorly chosen flavour combo in the whole box but I have to say that however hard I try I'll never be the biggest fan of sweet bean paste!

I'll definitely be grabbing lunch from Yum Tum Sushi in the future and you should too.

I was already pretty happy to have discovered a new vegan option in Brighton so imagine my delight when I spotted this sign in front of the stall next door.

A Taste of Dreams are an organic cake company from Glynde in East Sussex and last Wednesday they had two vegan cakes to choose from. A Toffee Apple slice...

... and an Apple & Maple cake.

I went for the Toffee Apple slice and it was delicious, it was gooey,sticky and sweet with a nice crunch from the nutty topping. I will definitely be checking out the Taste of Dreams stall at the market again, especially at those prices!

In other good Brighton based news, Infinity Foods now have Jokerz bars back in stock alongside the Cleo's!

And in other good Jojo based news I'm going to Vida Vegan Con 2013!!

I am seriously SO freaking happy! I wish it was tomorrow! I've had 'Visit Portland' on my 30 before 30 list since 2009 and as the big 3-0 is coming up next June this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I can't wait to see old friends, to meet the many wonderful bloggers I've 'known' for years but never met and to meet new awesome people. I'm also excited about waffle sandwiches, workshops, Homegrown Smoker and midnight Voodoo Donuts. I think Portland might just be the place my dreams are made of!

Obviously I have a LOT of travel posts to write & get up on the blog soon, from fun times with friends in Barcelona to epic New York City eats and more so I'll be seeing you real soon!