Mae Deli, London

I'd been contemplating a visit to Mae Deli for a while but when a reader from Taiwan got in touch to let me know that she'd love to see a review before her trip to London I headed there as soon as me and Randi could make our schedules line up. The Mae Deli is definitely a healthy spot and I was surprised to discover that it isn't entirely vegan or even vegetarian. I was under the impression that the whole Deliciously Ella brand was plant based but they serve chicken and fish at both Mae Deli locations. That being said they are sides and everything else was vegan when I visited. I was also under the impression that Ella was all about clean eating (insert rage emoji here) but the staff said that they try to avoid that term preferring to call the food honest and healthy which are two things that I can get behind; as someone with allergies it was so nice that the staff were able to tell me exactly what was in each dish as soon as I asked - that definitely doesn't happen everywhere!

Lunch and dinner are set up canteen style and you make your plate by choosing four of the options on display. The choices are all healthy fare ranging from veg dishes like Asian Broccoli and Bok Choy to leafy green salads, and from grain filled options like the Olive and Sundried Tomato Quinoa to the Courgette and Sweet Potato Stew that comes with brown rice.

Vegan in Brick Lane

I was meant to spend yesterday eating my way around Brick Lane with my buddy Jenny but an unfortunately timed sinusitis flare up combined with some suspiciously flu like symptoms meant that I decided to spend the day at home with a nasal spray and some sub par painkillers rather than risk flying to China whilst sick! Brick Lane is definitely one of my favourite places to hang out at the weekend, the vibe's pretty great, it's fun to scope out the market stalls, the vegan food options are plentiful, and there are lots of places to sit and chat.

One of my very favourite spots is new kid on the block Vida Bakery who recently opened a pop up on Cheshire Street. It seems to be going well for them so far if the amount of love I see directed their way on social media is anything to go by. The space itself is the perfect size with plenty of seating and it's seriously so cute inside.

As well as cupcakes Vida Bakery offer layer cakes, including (if you're there at the right time like I was!) freaking rainbow cake. RAINBOW CAKE! That's basically my dream cake.

London Calling

I've definitely missed London whilst I've been away travelling the world. Despite never having lived in the capital I've probably visited at least once a month for the last ten or so years for gigs, meet up's, friend hangs, and eating adventures so I've been pumped about this weekend for a while. On Friday night Nick and I met Randi and her husband Zach to catch American Idiot at the Art's Theatre in the west end. It was a cool way to start the weekend although all of us had seen the Broadway version and we didn't think that this version was as good. They changed the story a little taking it further away from Billie Joe's imagining and some of the scenes and dialogue just didn't work for me. That said our seats were killer, second row from the front, right in the centre, and some of the new choreography was cool. I also thought that it was super impressive that they made it work on such a small stage. 

The next day, in lieu of a pricy trip to Cereal Killer, Nick and I sampled Randi and Zach's cereal and non-dairy milk selection before heading into Soho to meet Sal for lunch at Mildred's. I last saw Randi and Zach in Phuket at the vegetarian festival but I hadn't seen Sal since last September which was definitely too long. Because she's an absolute winner of a human she brought me the gift of Alpo GoOn yoghurts which, if you read my last post, you'll know I've been struggling to find in my neck of the woods. Mildred's is a long-time favourite of ours so it was the perfect place to catch up. They make enough menu changes to keep things interesting but always have an amazing burger available and I always end up eating something delicious. This time it was their Polish burger that floated my boat.

Consisting of a beetroot and white bean patty topped with pickled cabbage, gherkin, and lettuce all squashed into a delicious focaccia bun this burger really hit the spot. I went with the optional slice of vegan cheese which was nicely melted and also ordered a side of their epic chunky chips. Partly because chips are great, and partly because they come with one of my favourite Mildred's menu items, the basil mayo. It's seriously so good. Nick went for the Sri Lankan sweet potato curry which I couldn't taste but dang, it sure looked delicious.

Vegan Guide to London's Heathrow Airport

Heathrow Terminal 5 is without a shadow of a doubt the airport terminal I’m the most familiar with. Whenever I fly internationally with BA, which is pretty often these days, I fly out of there and becuase I like to be early for everything there’s always time to relax and grab some food before the flight. 

Everywhere listed is after security so if you’re flying from another terminal check out the guide to Heathrow's restaurants, cafes and bars on their website.

Wagamama - I've been a bit of a Wagamama critic in the past, in Brighton there are a tonne of vegan options so this chain has always seemed a bit lacking but the airport location somehow elevates their options from a meh to a yay in my mind. Am I still irritated that there’s milk in the pickles and that the soba noodles aren’t vegan? Sure, but I can appreciate a bowl of Saien Soba with udon, their Yasai Cha Han, hold the egg, and their breakfast options which include Breakfast Yasai Yaki Soba, switch the soba noodles for rice noodles, and baked beans on sourdough toast.

The breakfast menu also includes the Asa Gohan - sticky white rice, miso soup and pickles which may or may not contain milk. Wagamama have said on their Facebook page that their pickles may contain milk but it's unclear whether this is a traces of thing and they haven't responded to my e-mail so I can't confirm either way. 

Pret - Pret have a surprising ammount of vegan options these days and they all hover on the healthy side of the spectrum. Their menu / vegan options change pretty regularly but there's usually at least one vegan sandwich or wrap available as well as breakfast options like porridge and . I spotted the Super Greens & Reds Sandwich as well as some juices, fruit pots and snacks including Crisped Kale and Sweet & Salty Popcorn.

Eat - Eat don’t make very much vegan food but it is the place to go for a matcha soy latte. 

Giraffe - Giraffe, like Wagamama, is somewhere you can stop for a sit down meal before your flight. Their menu changes pretty regularly but there website has a super helpful tool to help you suss out what's vegan as their options aren't marked on the menu. They don't serve their full menu at the airport but right now you can choose from a mix of sides and small plates including sweet potato fries, a hummus sharing platter or some edamame.

I also spotted this Montezuma's chocolate pop up in the duty free store inbetween Eat and Wagamama on the ground floor when I was on my way to Austin last week and whilst they didn’t have any of the delicious vegan truffles they did have the vegan chocolate buttons which are my faves.

If you’re flying in Club World or are a BA Silver or Gold Card holder you can chill out in the BA Galleries Lounge. There are two of these and they're located at the North and South ends of the terminal. Not only do they have free fruit and water (best!) they also have both lightly salted and sweet chilli kettle chips and soy milk is avaiable on request. 

Not content with toast, fruit, and crisps I went on a scouting missions and found vegan shortbread tucked away near the tea and coffee making facilities on the far right of the lounge. 

Clearly labelled vegan the jar of biscuits is located in a slightly gloomy corner but one worth venturing over to. These were definitely a welcome addidion to my usual fruit, crisps, water game.

If you don't have lounge access don't fret, you can still access wifi at Heathrow. If you join the network all you need to do to access four hours free wifi is to sign in with your name, e-mail address and flight number.

Happy travels!

Itadaki Zen, London

Life's been super hectic recently and I've been neglecting everything that isn't packing, fixing my house, talking to estate agents, franticly eBaying all of the things I've realised that I no longer need, tying up loose ends and spending every spare second with the friends I'm going to miss once I'm no longer on this island. I have been managing to eat though so you don't need to worry about me. I always have time for food! 

Yesterday saw me heading to London early to get my My Little Pony tattoo touched up by the artist who did it for me at the Brighton Tattoo Convention back in February (see what I mean about tying up loose ends?!) and meeting my oldest friend for a much needed catch up - I last saw her at my wedding which was almost five years ago now but thankfully when you've known someone since you were three picking up exactly where you left off is easy. 

In-between all of that I managed to catch the one and a half hour lunch window (12:30 - 2) at Itadaki Zen which, as I'm missing Japanese food always, I was stupid excited about. I almost skipped there despite the tattoo pain!

The lunch menu is small but despite that I still had trouble choosing between udon dishes and donburi and I eventually settled upon the Tempura Bento set which came with miso. They were super accommodating about my allergies and were able to leave the peppers out of this dish for me.

The miso was warming and didn't scrimp on the tofu and the bento itself came with light crisp tempura vegetables, a fantastic spring roll (one of the best ever), rice with vegetables which included the teeniest little mushrooms, sesame green beans, a salad which had the most perfect soy based dressing and sesame tofu which I could eat for every meal and be happy. 

Everything about the meal was wonderful, it was really light but filling and it transported me back to Japan at first bite. I ate at Itadaki Zen once a long time ago, maybe six years, maybe more, and I don't remember loving it anywhere near this much. Now I'm wishing that I lived in the Kings Cross / Caledonian Road area so that I could eat every meal there. If you haven't been yet I would highly recommend it. It's also not far from Cookies & Scream either which is where I headed for dessert, their warm cookies are amazing on a cold day. Or a warm day. Any day really!

As well as packing, eating and running around to see friends I've been finding the time to get pretty festive! This might be the last Christmas Nick and I spend in our cute little house for a while so we've been making the most of it. The tree is up, the mince pies have been eaten and the non-alcoholic punch has been mulling away on the stove. We won't be exchanging presents this year but we will be taking part in all of our favourite traditions: visiting the beach on Christmas morning, eating an excessive amount of roast potatoes and watching as many christmassy movies as possible, Love Actually, Elf, The Holiday and Miracle on 34th Street are my favourites what are yours?

I have a great competition coming up next Tuesday so watch out for that and I've been diligently eating chocolate so that I can give you the lowdown on some great new products before I leave. Not long now!

MoFo '14 Day 28 - VegFest London

VegFest London was yesterday and I had a super fun day. I was speaking about vegan travel on behalf of The Vegan Society and I blogged a little about that yesterday so today's all about the food. I've been having some stomach issues recently (to go along with my joint pain issues - don't worry I'm seeing some good doctors!) and yesterday I was having a mega flare up of all of the issues all at once. Ugh. Good timing body! I started the day with a fresh juice because the idea of eating was making me feel icky. These guys were lovely and their juices were great. I think I had carrot and orange but it could have been carrot and apple. Either way it was delish.

I knew I'd be feeling better soon enough so next we swung by the Ms Cupcake stall to pick up one of my favourite treats, the Peanut Butter Snap, because Ms C always sells out early. 

Nick got a Peanut Butter Snap too and an Oreo Brownie which he ate for breakfast because he's a winner. I ate my PB Snap today for breakfast which was a most excellent decision. I also got to watch the lovely Ms C herself win a Veg Fest Award later in the day in the Cakes, Sweets & Desserts category which was well deserved and I'm super happy for her. 

Right opposite Ms Cupcake was Ananda Foods who make the Round Up which is a vegan Wagon Wheel. They're so great! I was always a big Wagon Wheel fan and these fill that spot perfectly. I picked up a couple for later and entered to win this giant wagon wheel! Epic! (I did not win!)

Next we spotted the Wood Green charity who, among other things, rescue animals and find them forever homes. They were great and they had this excellent pop up thing (what are these called? Do they even have a name?) where you could be a dog or a cat. Look how cat-like Sal looks!

I eventually decided that eating something solid was a must and I headed straight for the Vegusto stall. I love their mock meats and cheeses and I wanted to feed my poor sad stomach something familiar and easy.

They were making the hot dogs with both their Farmhouse Sausages and their Frankfurters. I am super in love with Vegusto's Farmhouse Sausages so of course I went with one of them.

It was so good, this is totally my kinda food! I skipped the onions but went to town with the ketchup and mustard.

I wish I could have tried some of the other fun new (to me) options too. I thought Happy Maki's menu sounded great. I would love to try their hoisin duck maki one day.

Rupert's Street had a great looking menu too, I bet the Fresh Corn Tomales would have been amazing.

Everything from Paradise Unbakery looked beautiful especially the Almond & Cranberry Cheese and the Cashew Cheese & Tomato Tarts. Another time fo' sure.

We wandered around the stalls and Sal and Nick took advantage of the Nakd bar samples and deals. 18 for £8 or 2 for £1 are good show deals if you're either super into Nakd bars or want to give a couple of flavours a whirl.

I was excited to see that Moo Free had some new flavours and Christmas products. Fun! Nick was all over it!

Considerit are more my kinda thing when it comes to chocolate though, I like it fancy! They do fancy truffles as well as filled bars and of course I picked up a few treats including a caramel filled bar that I'm excited to try and review soon.

There were a couple of other amazing looking chocolate stalls but I couldn't afford to try it all! Cocoa Feliz's stand looked seriously amazing though. Maybe I'll order some for Christmas!

Goody Good Stuff were next on the agenda, I love this brand especially now that they're entirely vegan. I still see some of the beeswax containing flavours in stores but once they're sold they're sold and they'll be 100% vegan from now on.

They had some fun Christmas products on sale too, these were super tasty and I can see myself munching on this tub on Christmas morning.

My talk was at 4pm and I think I rocked it once I relaxed a little. Public speaking's not something that's ever come easy to me, at school I was that dyslexic kid turning beetroot red and stumbling over the words when we had to read aloud in class but I'm so passionate about vegan travel that I wanted to get over that, step out from behind the computer, and put myself out there. It was great and I'm super glad that I'm doing this now, I can't wait to speak at Vida Vegan Con next year. I love talking about travel and public speaking's really no different than talking with a group of friends...it's just a slightly bigger group than usual!

After the talk my stomach was feeling a little better so after chatting to new and old friends and answering some travel related questions I was ready to get eating! I had a second hot dog from Vegusto - with the Farmhouse Sausage again and it was so great. I also picked up some of their Piquant cheese to take home because it was only £4 a block, bargain!

Sheese was next and I was happy to taste test a few flavours of the hard and spreadable cheeses before deciding which ones to purchase. They were doing a 3 for £6 deal which Nick and I took advantage of. We got the Medium Cheddar and Smoked Cheddar hard cheeses and the Cheddar Cheese Spread. Apparently we like cheddar!

Lastly I remembered that I hadn't really eaten any sweet treats all day, not cool! I spotted this beautiful chocolate ganache covered cake topped with blueberries on the Essential Vegan stall and I knew I had to have it.

It was every bit as delicious as it looked, the cake was so light and it was exactly the right level of sweet for me. I'll definitely be trying to find more of their cakes in the future, apparently they usually sell their wares at Boiler House on Brick Lane or at their pop-up cafe on Portobello Road at weekends.

I'm still feeling shattered after the weekend and I can't believe there are only two more days of MoFo left - I've totally been off of my commenting game but I'll be back on it tomorrow!

MoFo '14 Day 26 - London Calling

Yesterday was so much fun! I met up with my friend (and fellow blogger and MoFoer) Randi who just moved here from Philly and we spent the day eating our way around London. Our first stop was Shoryu Ramen in Soho because I've been missing great ramen since my trip to Japan earlier this year. Shoryu only has one vegan option on the menu because ramen is traditionally made with pork or fish broth but I appreciate the nod towards accommodating veggies especially as it's vegan as it is, no sub's needed. Here's the Natural Ramen.

There was so much deliciousness in this bowl! Tofu! Sweetcorn! Spring onions! Nori! Bamboo! Spinach! Sesame! Kikurage mushrooms! Pickled ginger! All in a wheat noodle filled shiitake and konbu soy broth. If you're gluten free you can replace the wheat noodles with rice noodles. It brought memories of Japan flooding back as soon as I tasted the first spoonful. The ramen at T's Tan Tan in Tokyo was more peppery than this version but I thought both were equally delicious.

Dessert was next on the agenda and we only had to walk around the corner to get to Gelupo Gelato.

I was a little disappointed that Gelupo's coffee sorbetto contained egg but the rest of the sorbetto menu, including the chocolate, was vegan and any disappointment quickly faded away as soon as we tasted it. OMG! It was so rich and creamy and delicious.

The cones contain dairy (or was it egg? I forget!) but I'm remembering now that they also have wafter things that we forgot to ask about but that I've seen on other vegans Instagram pic's so next time I'll be getting a wafer if they're definitely a-ok!

After the eating we did some walking and went to cheek out a couple of galleries. I'd heard about the Miniature Ink exhibit by tattoo magazine Things and Ink at Atomica Gallery on Twitter and I was super excited that it coincided with a day I was already heading up to London.

Over 100 tattoo artists from all over the world contributed small original artworks which were all on sale for £60 to raise money for charity. Unfortunately the charity they chose funds animal testing so I was never going to buy anything but I was of course tempted as there were pieces by Jody Dawber, Tracy D & Shell Valentine among others but hopefully I can get tattooed by these awesome ladies sometime instead! I hope that next time a fundraising exhibit like this happens it's for a charity like Macmillan Cancer Support, I swear I'll buy something! If you want to check this exhibition out it's running until October 15th. Afterwards we headed across to Somerset House for the second tattoo related art exhibition of the day. I feel like I must have been to Somerset House before but it must have been a long time ago because I didn't remember what an awesome looking building it is. The architecture reminded me of Vienna.

The Time Tattoo Art Today exhibit contains original artworks from 70 of the world's most influential tattoo artists.

There were watercolours, oil paintings, sculpture and even a Japanese silk painting. It was cool to see work by the artists that's outside of their usual medium. It's running until the 5th of October so you should check it out if you'll be in London before then.

Mine and Randi's fifth stop of the day was Cookies & Scream one of my fave' bakeries ever and somewhere Randi had never checked out before. She went for a salt caramel milkshake and I got a Chico, their peanut butter choc chip cookie, heated up. I also took a PB & J cookie to go which I gave Nick to take to work today.

This is such a ridiculously good cookie. I actually ate at C&S two or three times before I realised that they're entirely gluten free as well as 100% vegan and it kinda blew my mind a little. Both this place and Back to Eden in Portland make me wanna step up my xgfx baking game.

After our cookies we were craving savoury and I needed something to munch on on the train journey home (it takes over 2 hours rather than the usual 50 minutes to get home from London after 11pm, England is stupid) so we went to Whole Foods and picked up a giant £3 pretzel each which was such a great idea!

After Randi and I parted ways I headed over to Shoreditch to The Old Blue Last to meet Nick and see Masked Intruder, one of my favourite pop punk bands who I'd never gotten to see live before. They were super fun and even the annoying drunken antics of some bellend in braces didn't ruin it for me! They even perform in their masks and I find their whole pretend criminal schtick hilarious.

Halfway through the show the "cop" decided to become a fellow criminal punk and danced his ass off in the audience. So silly! Check out their song 25 to Life on bandcamp if you're at all pop punk inclined or just want an insight into what I did last night.

Yesterday was pretty much the perfect day! Friends, check! Food, check! Tattoo / Art stuff, check! Hanging out with Nick, check! Punk show, check! Most excellent! I'm heading up to London again tomorrow for London Veg Fest where I'll be doing much more hanging out with both Nick and a whole host of my vegan buddies, eating everything in sight and even talking about vegan travel at 4pm in the Workshops room. Come and see me speak if you're into that kinda thing or just pop up and say hi to me if you see me!

Veg Fest London Announcement and Ticket Giveaway.

When one giveaway closes another begins, or at least that's how it seems to be going on my blog right now! I'll get to that part in a minute though because I want to tell you why I'm getting really excited about London Veg Fest right now. There are two reasons... 

One, I missed it last year! I got back from California a couple of days after Veg Fest weekend, worst planning ever, but I just had to take advantage of a cheap flight deal! I'm excited about Considerit Chocolate, Lost and Found Caramels and Kizzy's Cookies, catering from Rupert's Street and Happy Maki and hitting up the sample tables of brands like Sheese, Vegusto and VBites. Yup, that all counts as one reason - food!

Two is that I'm going to be speaking there this year! At 4pm on Saturday in the Workshops Room I'm going to be discussing all things vegan travel related in A Vegan Abroad; a talk on everything from how to avoid arriving at your destination starving, hangry and light headed to tips on how to seek out the vegan specialities in the countries you're planning to visit. 

Myself and my friends at The Vegan Society will be opening up the floor for a Q&A session at the end, partly because I want to be as helpful as possible by answering your questions, and partly because I love to chat about travel! I'd love to hear about your favourite places to travel as a vegan too. I am beyond excited about this and I can't wait for September! It's going to be so fun!

To celebrate I'm giving away one pair of weekend tickets to the fest'. To enter you just need to leave a comment below telling me which product, company or talk you're most excited about checking out at Veg Fest (saying mine does not increase your chances of winning!). Please leave me some way to contact you, your blog, e-mail address or Twitter account, and make sure that you're free to attend Veg Fest on the weekend of the 27th and 28th of September. Sharing this competition on social media is not necessary but it would be nice of you if you're into that sort of thing! The competition closes at midnight on Monday July 21st.

Macaroni Cheese, Kebabs and a Birthday Celebration.

A couple of Mondays ago I was lucky enough to have the company of my delightful friend Sal for a journey way further North than we would usually venture. Why the trip? Mac and Cheese! If anything's going to tempt me away from Brighton for an evening it's macaroni cheese so when Jhenn (aka The Vegan Ronin) announced she was starting a Macaroni Monday supper club I knew I had to go. Due to travel plans and tube strikes it took a lot longer than planned to get ourselves to Finchley to try the good stuff but it was absolutely worth the wait.

Jhenn cooks up a huge pot of stovetop mac and cheese and then you can dress up your mac with any one of six different toppings. There were six mix-in options including sauerkraut, seitan bacon bits, pastrami, toasted panko and sesame courgettes. I started with sauerkraut, seitan bacon and toasted panko, three of my favourite flavours on top of creamy mac & cheese. Perfection. 

This really was great mac and cheese, the nutritional yeast based sauce was smooth and velvety and Jhenn's homemade seitan was perfect, really flavourful and the texture was spot on. I loved the crunchy bacon bits! I've never considered making my own sauerkraut before but Jhenn's was way, way better than the cheap jarred stuff I've been buying. This night doesn't just involve mac though, there was dessert and tea too. I skipped the tea but I will never say no to a cupcake especially a Speculoos one.

Jhenn used to be a full time baker at one of my favourite spots, Ms Cupcake, so of course this cake was delicious and perfectly light. I liked that there wasn't too much frosting and it was nice to come home from dinner not feeling super stuffed. Jhenn's supper clubs range from mac nights to five course Japanese feasts and you can book through Eat With. As I mentioned earlier Jhenn makes her own seitan which you can buy on the night, I loved the bacon bits so much that I bought some of her homemade Beican home with me.

I used it to make Nick and I epic breakfast sandwiches at the weekend and they was so good, the bacon crisped up really nicely and tasted great and we ate them on delicious Infinity Foods bakery sourdough baguette. Jhenn has an Etsy store here which doesn't have anything in it right now but hopefully more mock meats will be hitting the virtual shelves soon.

Back in Brighton the sun has finally emerged from behind the clouds so new kids on the block Beelzebab couldn't have picked a better time to launch their brand new vegan doner kebab stand. 

I swung by Street Diner for lunch on their first day and Nick and I were their 3rd and 4th customers, not too shabby! We both grabbed the vegan doner of course although Nick nixed a whole load of the salad.

Of course I left off the chilli sauce which made the homemade vegan tzatziki sauce even more exciting. Nobody wants to be eating a dry kebab and tzatziki was a pre-gan favourite of mine.

The huge Infinity Foods made pitta was stuffed full of the duo's artisanal seitan alongside fresh crisp cabbage, onion and cucumber and fresh, flavourful tomatoes. It was seriously delicious and I can see myself making this lunchtime kebab a bit of a habit. I tried to swing by one of my long time favourite Street Diner stalls, Sultan's Delight, for a piece of their delicious baklava but they'd already sold the whole tray! Next time I'll be getting up even earlier to get my hands on the dream lunch combo. 

Beelzebab can be found at Street Diner on Saturdays throughout summer and you can keep up with their upcoming pop-up's and events on their Twitter or Facebook accounts. 

Last weekend I got to hang out with Sal again because it was her birthday! Nick and I drove up to her place where she was hosting a barbecue for her family and bff's, it was so much fun. Sal had been raving about the chicken seitan recipe from the cookbook Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day for a while so we were super excited when she pulled a few cutlets out of the fridge. We brushed them with garlic oil and grilled them alongside some of our favourite Vegusto Farmhouse Sausages.

The cutlets were perfect on a bun with coleslaw and a side of noochy garlic bread. We love garlic! And bread!

As well as the coleslaw, chickeney steaks & garlic bread Sal had also made one of my favourite salads, the Sweetcorn Edamame Salad from Veganomicon. I love sesame and this is one of the easiest and most delicious sides you can throw together. 

I was in charge of cake and I made the s'mlove pie from Veganomicon because Sal had never had it before. Ridiculous! 

This is one of the most indulgent desserts ever, I love it. There's a biscuit base then a tofu based chocolate pie filling, on top of that is a layer of peanut butter caramel topped with maple candied pecans and lastly even more chocolate is drizzled on top. It's perfect and if you haven't made it yet you should really get onto it stat!