Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2017

A couple of weeks ago I touched down in Phuket ready to eat my way around the Vegetarian Festival for the second time. I was last there two years ago and I wrote a couple of pretty substantial posts about the festival food in Phuket and about the vegan eats you can find at convenience stores dotted all over the country. This years fest' was quieter and a lot more chilled (there were very minimal fireworks this time around and no large processions) because the country was still in mourning for the king so my blog post is going to be more laid back too. This year Nick and I met up with our friend Cici (read her post about the festival here) and did a whole lot of eating, drinking, and hanging out. Like her I'm going to focus on my very favourite eats of 2017's festival rather than posting every single thing I ate because that might be a little overwhelming! Without further ado, here are my 2017 Phuket Vegetarian Festival Faves.

Favourite Stall - The faux meat place on the corner

About halfway up Ranong Road on the left (if you're coming from the roundabout) is a stall in front of a building on a corner which sells mock meats. If you've reached the turnoff towards Jui Tui Shrine you've gone too far. They have so many meats to choose from including three kinds of faux fish, my favourite. Inside the building they have even more faux meats as well as curries and veggies and you can eat there or takeaway. We decided to eat there one lunchtime and we were all very impressed. 

I just noticed that mine and Nick's plates are almost exactly the same!

The range of mock meats you can choose from is almost overwhelming and I got three kinds. A black pepper steak, a saucy mock duck, and some red pork. They were all really flavourful and very different texturally. These are up there with the best mock meats I've ever eaten. The faux fishes were all excellent too; one had a great texture but it was really salty so you had to eat it with something else, rice or bread, to stop it being too much, another had a drier texture but the flavour was excellent and lastly, my very favourite of the three, was this yuba faux fish which had both the texture and flavour nailed.

Thailand's Vegetarian Festival - Convenience Stores

Convenience stores have long been one of my favourite stops on my travels. I especially love seeing what they sell in different locations around the world; where in the UK there'd be an egg mayo sandwich next to a meat filled pasty in Japan there'll be onigiri filled with all kinds of interesting combinations from the very non-vegan fish eggs to the often vegan friendly ume plum paste sharing space with sweet pockets of inari tofu. On my first ever trip to Thailand this January I was excited to discover things like ketchup crisps (the crisps themselves are shaped like french fries and they come with a little packet of ketchup for dipping), seaweed snacks, plum candy and Jay labelled ready meals stocking the shelves of the convenience stores and it was actually Rika's blog post about this very subject, convenience stores gone vegan, that first alerted me to the awesomeness of Thailand's vegetarian festival. After more digging I found plenty of other things to get excited about, street food, body modification, parades, but the lure of a convenience store stocked with vegan snacks never left my mind.

7/Eleven became a frequent stop during mine and Nick's journeys around Bangkok and Phuket during the vegetarian festival, the familiar blast of air con providing a much needed break from the sometimes stifling humidity outside. Power aisles and shelves were stacked with red and yellow goodies and flags were prominently displayed helping to guide vegan travellers and festival goers alike towards suitable snacks, meals and treats.

Thailand's Vegetarian Festival: Phuket

As some of my interests lie firmly in the festivals, body modification and eating spectrums I feel like I have a unique take on the happenings at Phuket's vegetarian festival. Nick and I travelled down to Phuket from Bangkok via overnight train and bus which is a great way to get there if you have the time. It's cheaper than flying (unless you can plan a long way in advance), more fun, and you save money on accommodation by spending a night travelling. It's a win win!

I wrote more about the whats and whys of Thailand's vegetarian festival in last week's blog post about Bangkok's festivities but a quick explanation is that for ten days in the ninth lunar month on the Chinese calendar Thai Chinese people with Taoist beliefs abstain from animal products, sex, alcohol impure thoughts and more to honour the nine emperor gods. During this time cities across the country get seriously vegan friendly because the Jay way of eating almost exactly aligns with veganism.

Thailand's Vegetarian Festival: Bangkok

It's quite a jump from my last destination focussed post on Bosnia and Herzegovina to Thailand in more ways than one. After our Balkan adventures Nick and I travelled back through the UK sampling the delights of Brighton's Goemon Ramen and Colchester's The Den at 23 along the way. We spruced up the van and handed it back to it's rightful owner and then flew halfway around the globe to hit up the vegetarian festival with a quick layover in Helsinki where I enjoyed some of the most delicious (and expensive) cakes ever. I believe that I first read about Thailand's Vegetarian Festival on one of my favourite vegan travel blogs, Vegan Miam, about two years ago and then I heard more about it from Kip, Jess and Jules and it soon snowballed and became a must visit event in my mind. Once I get fixated on something I tend to try to make it happen ASAP so I was a little sad that I missed out on 2014's festivities but that was right around the time that Nick and I were in the midst of Very Serious Decision Making followed by packing, planning and organising for our new adventures. Wow, I kinda can't believe that was over a year ago now!

If you haven't heard of the Vegetarian Festival heres the lowdown: It's a Chinese Taoist festival otherwise known as the Nine Emperor Gods festival that takes place during the first nine days of the ninth lunar month on the Chinese calendar. The epicentre is in Phuket where it was first brought to Thailand 170 years ago by a group of travelling opera singers but there are large celebrations that are worth checking out all over the place. During the nine day festivities followers welcome and then see off the nine emperor gods staying pure throughout by eating Jay food (this translates to vegan), wearing white and abstaining from sex, alcohol, impure thoughts and more. As I'm not coming at this from a religious or spiritual perspective the festival piqued my interest because of the amount of vegan street stalls and convenience foods that pop up. Add to that the sheer number of food courts and chain restaurants that participate as well as the ritual body modifications (former body piercer here!) some of the participants inflict upon themselves and each other in the name of respect for the gods and you have the makings of something truly fascinating. Interested yet?

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!

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.

VDelicious & the Allergy and Free From Show.

Yesterday I decided to pop up to London to have a look around the VDelicious and Allergy and Free From shows at London Olympia. As I was in California when Veg Fest London was on last year it was the first time I'd ever visited Olympia and I was amazed at how huge it was, I'm even more excited about this year's London Veg Fest now! I was also excited about how easy it was to get there from Brighton, you just need to change to the overground at Clapham Junction and you're there in 10 minutes. Olympia is literally right outside the station and you don't have to deal with the tube at all which on a busy Saturday in summer is definitely a bonus!

After swinging by to say hi to my buddies at the Ms Cupcake stall and checking out Mell's amazing new hat my first stop was Ruby's of London. I'd heard a lot about their delicious sweet treats but I hadn't managed to make it over to Greenwich Market to try them.

Everything looked super delicious but I'm trying to save for tattoos and travel right now (as always right?!) so I just picked one thing, a Chocolate Rainbow Sprinkle doughnut and brought it home to share with Nick. It was super tasty, I haven't had a baked doughnut quite like this one since Mighty O in Seattle and that's some high praise!

I was lucky enough to have the stall next to this next company when I was working on my Operation Icing stall at Veg Fest Brighton. Smooze are a godsend when you're working hard or exploring a hot venue! Their super refreshing coconut based frut ices are my fave' despite having never been the biggest coconut fan. Their Coconut and Pink Guava flavour are the best in my opinion and I snapped up a box of 10 for £4.

Whilst we're on the subject of coconut I was amazed by this next company, as well as being dubious about coconut I hate pretty much all yoghurt! I know, ridiculous right but I was drawn in by The Coconut Collaborative's packaging and I'm always on the look out for a yoghurt that I'll love so I braved my fear and went in for a sample.

I was totally blown away! To say that I loved it would be an understatement. The natural yoghurt itself is unsweetened making it the perfect vessel for fruit toppings at breakfast or alongside savoury foods and they have fruity options for those looking for a more sugary fix. You can find The Coconut Collaborative in selected Waitrose stores and at Itsu, we're getting a Brighton branch soon peep's!

The Allergy & Free From Show section of the show is a minefield for vegans, for example I really wanted to sample Tesco's dairy free cheeses but they were all on bread or accompanied by breadsticks containing egg! Luckily there are many hidden gems including Amy's Kitchen. I knew they'd hook me up and they didn't disappoint, I sampled their new breakfast sandwich which'll be hitting stores in the not too distant future.

They'll be sold in individual packs and are gluten free as well as vegan.

I also tried a sample of their new cashew cream noodle ready meal and I cannot wait to get my hands on a box when they come out, yum!!

The pink carpeted VDelicious area wasn't just all about the food and free samples though there were also stalls from charities and I stumbled across Better Living Books who I was excited to see had Terry's latest book, Salad Samurai, in stock already.

I'll definitely be checking these guys out next time a cookbook I need to get my paws on is being released especially if they can make their website a little more user friendly.

I was super excited to spot this next stall, Dee's Wholefoods are a new vegan company selling quinoa pots, vegetable pots and, the things I was most focussed on, sausages and burgers. 

Dee was great and we chatted about when these products would be hitting the shelves in Brighton. (Hint, it's now. Go to Waitrose!) and she let me take these products for review purposes. Obviously I haven't had a chance to try them yet but I see a fry up with Infinity Foods bread, baked beans, Dee's traditional sausages and mushrooms coming up in the not too distant future. 

Another company generous enough to give me some free products to try were Ten Acre Crisps who furnished me with a huge mixed bag of crisps. 

Ten Acre are the people behind the vegan cheese and onion crisps I'm sure you've all been hearing about as well as my favourite flavour so far, sweet and sour. Ten Acre are hoping to get into Infinity Foods soon and I totally want to help them make that happen! I think Brighton vegans will go crazy for cheese and onion crisps and I'll be reviewing the other flavours soon so stay tuned!

My next spot was the green koala covered beacon that is the Goody Good Stuff Stall, I wanted to see what the deal was with their flavours all becoming vegan and it's totally happening! The koala gummy bears should be appearing in stores now. Sour's my thang when it comes to gummies though so I stocked up on this huge party bag for £5.

It's choc full of mini portion sized bags of sour cherries, cola bottles, summer peaches and gummy bears. This'll last me a while!

I was getting hot and thirsty by this point so I had a little sit down in the coolest place I could find, by the freezers, and it was a good thing I did because I spotted a guy from Mozzarisella emerging from a giant fridge with his arms full of dairy free cheese. Mozzarisela weren't listed in the official show guide because they were sharing a stand with Venice Bakery, purveyors of gluten, egg and dairy free pizza bases. I followed him home as it were and grabbed myself a pizza the action for five pounds.

Now I'm no gluten free grrl, if I had to pick one carb to be my bff for lyfe it would most probably be bread, delicious gluten full bread, but I'll eat anything if it has vegan cheese and this was a decent pizza. Mozzarisella's wheat, soy and palm oil free cheeses melt beautifully and whilst they're not my favourite vegan cheese to eat on a cracker (holler at Vegusto) it's downright delicious on pizza. A fiver was a total bargain for a whole pizza too and aside from samples and Vegusto's cheese sandwiches there weren't a tonne of vegan savoury options at the show. I enjoyed eating this sitting on the floor with some lovely Vegan Society volunteers, such a fun lunch!

I was excited to see London restaurant Itadaki Zen tucked away near the back of VDelicious' pink carpeted area. I've only visited once and it was years ago but I'm dying to go back.

They had bento boxes, sushi and huge deep fried spring rolls which I tried a sample of and it was delicious. A great reminder to get over to that part of London sooner rather than later.

I had a little time left before the Vegan Society's tea party so I had one more wander around the VDelicious area and I was so glad I did because the first time around I'd missed Sweet Virtues, a new company making superfood truffles. Now usually this wouldn't be my thing, I often find mentions of super foods a little off putting, but there were samples and I was totally won over. I'm a big fan of fancy chocolates, Booja Booja and Montezuma's make some of my current favourites, and Sweet Virtues easily slides into the top spot with them.

Chia Seeds and Lime was my favourite flavour and a bought a little box of two home with me, I wish I could have justified buying a bigger bag or a mix & match of flavours but I'm still rich in birthday chocolate and at £2.20 for two these are on the pricier side.

The Vegan Society tea party was lovely but I was too excited chatting to new friends and sampling some delicious bakewell tart that I didn't snap a single decent photograph! I'm sure there are some on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages though so you can check out the fun there if you'd like to.

On my way out of the door I was distracted by pesto and couldn't resist having a quick peek at the Free From Italy stand.

They had an amazing deal going on, three for £3 and I picked up two pestos and a veggie filled marinara. Such a bargain!

Between shopping, products I'd picked up to review, and the Vegan Society's tea party goody bag I came home with one of the most ridiculous show hauls ever! Obviously that means it's time for a giveaway so that you too can share in the joy.

If you enter you'll win everything in the picture above;

A bumper pack of Goody Good Stuff's Cola Breeze sweets

A bar of Cornish Sea Salt Chocolate by Seed & Bean

A Sweet Freedom Choc Shot 

A bar of Lovechock's 100% raw Pineapple and Inca Berry chocolate 

Green People SPF 15 sun lotion

The competition is open to anyone in the UK, sorry far away friends but I have to keep the postage low with this one. To enter you just need to leave a comment below telling me which product in this blog post you're most excited about. If you're feeling extra kind please share this competition far and wide via social media but it's not a requirement of entry so you totally don't have to! The competition closes on Sunday July 13th at midnight and please make sure to leave some details, Twitter, e-mail, a link to your blog, so that I can contact you if you win. Good luck! The Competition is now closed.

I'm feeling all Christmassy!

I'm getting pretty excited about Christmas you guys. Only four more days to go. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year although I'm not even the slightest bit religious... I just love tinsel and twinkly lights and presents and food! This year Nick & I are spending Christmas in Brighton which makes it extra awesome, not having to lug everything we're going to eat for three days to someone else's house is definitely a win! This is the first time since we've been together (over 9 years) that we both have Christmas Eve off too, in the past either I've been working or he's been working but not this year. I was thinking about Christmas traditions and whilst I don't really have any with my family I have plenty with Nick and with our friends so I thought I'd share them with you.

The Animal Aid Christmas Without Cruelty Fayre is in early December and it's one of my favourite Christmas traditions. We get up early, get the train to London, meet up with friends and make a beeline for Ms Cupcake to get ourselves nicely sugared up before doing a little Christmas shopping.

Plenty of animal charities have stalls at the fayre so it's a great place to pick up Christmas cards, this year I picked up these, erm, beauties? I wonder if the cat is meant to be the face of the lord Jesus Christ?! Or the ghost of Christmas past perhaps? Whatever's going on I love it!

The Vegusto stall is always one of our first stops, and not just for the free samples! They have great deals on their meats and cheeses and Nick & I stocked up on a whole lot of cheese for us to munch on over the festive period. This year I was super lucky and also won a whole hamper of Vegusto goodies. How rad is that?!

There were two sample size packs of hard cheese, a melty cheese, mushroom burgers, a farmhouse sausage and some dark chocolate in the basket and I can attest to almost all of it's deliciousness - I say almost because Nick scoffed the chocolate before I got a look in! Vegusto are one of my favourite vegan companies and I have a review of their roasts coming up on the blog soon.

Another must at the fayre is a slice of pizza from the Shambhu's catering stand, this year they had vegan coleslaw too and it turns out that pizza and coleslaw are pretty awesome together!

I was super excited by the Ananda Foods marshmallow stall this year, I haven't been the hugest fan of their marshmallows in the past but this year I tried their vegan version of a Wagon Wheel and a chocolate covered, sprinkle dipped 'mallow on a stick and they were both SO DAMN GOOD!

Nick and I shared the Round Up because at almost £4 it was quite expensive, it differed slightly to a traditional Wagon Wheel in that it wasn't completely covered in chocolate but it was the perfect biscuit, marshmallow and jam sandwich and I can't wait to get my hands on another one. The marshmallow on a stick was much cheaper, a little over £1 from what I remember, and equally delicious - I totally kicked myself when I realised far too late that I'd forgotten to get another one to take home.

The day after the fayre we put up our Christmas tree. I love putting the tree up, it's so fun to get out all of the decorations we've been collecting over the years and we always listen to Christmas music which I love, yes, even the cheesy stuff. My Christmas playlist has a pretty great mix of the classics, cheesy 80's & 90's pop, and punk. I'm listening to Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) by The Ramones right now. 

This is our first ever Christmas with a kitty so I skipped putting up some of my favourite glass baubles just in case he got a little over excited and knocked the tree over. He's showing no signs of Christmassy destructiveness so far though, he just sits underneath it and tries to eat the gift tags on the presents.

We even got a little kitty ornament of him made by my friend Lisa, who you might know as Panda with Cookie.

Super cute right? We also got a Teal Cat ornament and a penguin to top the tree with.

As well as sitting under the tree being adorable Rorschach's been great at helping wrap presents, he gets right on the paper and everything!

I wish we could keep him forever!

Christmas is also time for some of my favourite foods, I love a good roast dinner as much as the next Brit' but I'll happily eat that in any month that feels even vaguely wintery and as I live in England that means a July roast dinner is perfectly feasible. VBites, the company that used to be called Redwood Foods, come out with a festive range every year which includes one of my favourite mock meaty things, Smoked Salmon Style Slices. 

I love them on brown bread with lots of lemon juice and black pepper which reminds both Nick and I of Christmases growing up. This year VBites have also come up with a Festive Pasty - they don't photograph well but they're freaking delicious. Puff pastry stuffed with turkey style pieces, pork sausages, veggies and a lovely rich gravy. If you get the chance to try these, do it!

Sainsbury's have a chocolate santa this year, I love this kind of cheap milk-like chocolate but I only really eat it around Christmas and Easter time, apparently I like my cheap chocolate in festive shapes only!

I make mince pies every year, I cheat and use store-bought pastry and mincemeat which makes them super fast and easy to throw together.

I love the smell of them baking, they make the whole house smell Christmassy!

Do you have any fun festive traditions? or favourite festive foods? Leave me a link in the comments if you've blogged about it, I love reading about everyones Christmases!