Ombar Chocolates

When the people behind Ombar got in touch to ask if I'd like to try their range of raw vegan chocolate bars I was a little dubious. I once bought their Lemon & Green Tea bar and after one bite I was horrified. After many attempts to palm it off onto friends I threw it out. Yeah, I threw out chocolate. Sacrilege, I know. It basically tasted exactly how I imagine citrus washing up liquid would taste and there wasn't even a hint of my favourite matcha flavour. I was honest and upfront with Ombar's contact but they still wanted to send me some chocolate to see if I'd prefer another flavour. I thought that was pretty awesome, I'd be tempted to back away if someone said they tried and hated one of my cupcakes! 

I was happy to note upon opening the box that the Green Tea & Lemon bar was nowhere to be seen and that they'd generously sent six bars for me to try. Left to right we have Goji Berry, Açai & Blueberry, Dark 73%, Coco Mylk, Coconut 40% and Strawberries & Cream.

I opened the Coco Mylk first as I'd been hearing great things about it from my vegan friends and I'd seen it many times in health food stores. Honestly, I'm not a fan. It took me a while to work out why but it comes down to the fact that it's just too coconutty for my tastes. It reminded me of the chocolate Pudology pudding I tried in Leeds so if you're a fan of that (which I know many of you are) then this bar's for you. Nick really liked this creamy bar and kept asking for more pieces "to make sure", I was quite happy to oblige, and he claims it's the best raw chocolate he's ever tasted.

Next up, Strawberries & Cream. Again, I wasn't into it but Nick was! He described it as being like a rhubarb and custard sweet mixed with chocolate. Like the Coco Mylk this one's a soft and super creamy bar.

We broke open the Dark 72% next and I surprised myself by really enjoying it. I'm not usually into chocolate that's this dark, give me a Vego bar or a Moo Free easter egg any day, but this is something I'll definitely be buying again. It had just the right amount of bitterness as well as more of a snap than the bars that preceded it.

Goji Berry was next, this was the only bar that contained any bits. This dark bar is peppered with pieces of goji berry and whilst it wasn't my favourite I think that has quite a lot to do with my dislike of the berries themselves. If you enjoy goji berries give this a whirl.

Our penultimate bar is Coconut 60% which has a nice balance of the bitterness of Dark 72% and the creaminess of Coco Mylk. I'm still not convinced by the coconutty flavour of some of these bars but I do think it would be a good bar to try first as it'll appeal to a wide variety of tastes.

Last but by no means least we tried the Açai & Blueberry bar which had a lovely fruity taste without being too sweet. Texture wise it was similar to Dark 72% rather than Coco Mylk which made me enjoy it even more. This one's definitely my favourite.

Ombar also make a Mandarin & Cranberry bar that I haven't tried but that I'll pick up if I spot. Priced at £1.99 I think these bars are well worth trying.

The Almond Tree Cafe at Seven Dials.

I have to admit that I don't often venture much further than the centre of town to hunt for vegan food, Brighton's so small that I'm usually overwhelmed with options within a 5 minute walk of my front door so a 15 minute walk suddenly seems like crazy talk. I know, I know, I'm ridiculously lazy & I'm totally okay with that! My friend Justine actually gave me the tip off about this newly opened independent vegetarian cafe nestled in a cosy space on dyke road and as soon as she mentioned that they make their own vegan cheeses I couldn't wait to visit. 

I checked out The Almond Tree with a small group of friends on Saturday afternoon and I was immediately drawn to the Homemade Vegan Soft Cheese & Salad Sandwich, £3.95, from the specials board. Sadly they were almost out of the herby version so I passed on that and picked something else. They still brought us samples of what was left of both the herby and spicy cheeses and we were all super impressed. As far as I know this is the first place in Brighton making their own vegan cheese and we definitely appreciate the effort. These cashew and nutritional yeast based cheeses are soft, spreadable, delicately flavoured and delicious. 

Alongside the regular menu there are specials which rotate rotate daily. They can be found right on the deli counter as you go in the door and there are more vegan options than were marked. In fact my only suggestion for the owners is to start labelling V for vegan or VO for vegan option so that it's a little easier to work out what to order.

I decided on the Toasted Polenta with Mixed Mushrooms and Parsley and Garlic Pesto and picked a main sized portion for £4.50. 

This was a really light, fresh meal full of punchy flavours, from the garlic in the pesto to the peppery rocket this was a beautiful, well rounded, Mediterranean dish. I loved the toasted polenta and it made me wonder why I never cook polenta at home.

My friend James ordered the vegan Full English which was adapted from the veggie version on the menu to include baked tofu rather than egg, personally I'd love to see a tofu scramble on here someday but I may just be a little obsessed with scrambles.

This looked, and apparently tasted, like a top notch full English breakfast, I loved that they'd included polenta here too and I was very impressed with their toast. I wish more places would use thick sliced, homemade bread like this.

For dessert there were two vegan and gluten free cakes to choose from, one banana and one chocolate, obviously I picked chocolate and I got a large slice for my £2.50. Unexpectedly underneath the buttercream frosting there wasn't sponge cake as I'd assumed but an almost gelatinous cake, similar to a hard set pudding or cheesecake.

Whatever kind of cake they're aiming for this was definitely delicious and not too sweet which I enjoyed. I also thought it was wonderful that they're making their own cakes, almost every other veggie place in the city orders from the same place and whilst their cakes are good it can get a little repetitive when they're all over the place!

Just before we left the lovely couple running the cafe brought us a jar of their homemade Hazelnut Spread to try, how nice is that? It must be because Justine's such a regular!

It was really, really, great and it was hard not to keep the little pot of delicious chocolate all to myself!  (Possible new years resolution: Learn to share.) They sell these in the refrigerator alongside the cold drinks and I think they'd make a great little gift for the chocolate lover in your life.

The Almond Tree also make a vegan Sunday Roast, which I'm looking forward to trying, along with the many other delicious specials including Mixed Veg Cous Cous Bake and Mushroom & Ale Stew. The Almond Tree is only a 10 minute walk from Churchill Square or Brighton Station so if you're visiting you should definitely check out this cute new veggie spot. 

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!

Veganz Berlin

One place I re-visited over and over again during my trip to Berlin was Veganz, this entirely vegan supermarket has two locations and I frequented the super convenient Warschauer Strasse location over and over. Situated in a prime location right by the S and U bahn station of the same name the building not only contains the Veganz store itself but also all vegan cafe Goodies, Mio Matto vegan restaurant and avesu, a vegan shoe store. 

Upon entering the door you're drawn towards Veganz fresh produce to your right and Goodies pastries on your left. You can imagine which way I turned most often!

Within walking distance from our hostel Goodies was usually our first stop of the day. They have a wonderful selection of breads, cakes, pastries and sandwiches as well as a refrigerator chock full of salads. I can never resist a croissant and this one was flakey outside and soft inside, whilst it wasn't the best I've ever had it was by no means the worst. It could have been perked up with some jam or margarine but my German doesn't stretch that far!

My buddy Tabitha went for a spicy sweet potato lentil bagel which seemed like an odd combo to me but apparently it was quite delicious. I also grabbed a soba noodle salad (not pictured) from their chiller on the way to the airport. The noodles were smothered in peanut sauce and it was chock full of peas, it was so good that I ate most of it on the train on the way to the airport! 

When the weather was clear and dry we took advantage of Goodies plentiful outdoor seating options and enjoyed many, many slices of cake. 

This perfect looking chocolate mousse cake with a raspberry topping was my favourite. We found that occasionally the cakes were a little dry so I started choosing by going for the newest looking cake rather than by flavour which is a method that I find works pretty well!

Both Veganz locations are chock full of European vegan products as well as the things I think most of us in the EU are excited by, the US imports! As well as Tofurky roasts, slices, sausages, and pizzas, I spotted both Daiya and Follow Your Heart vegan cheeses, Eat Pastry cookie dough, Dandies marshmallows, Upton's seitan and Coconut Bliss ice cream. Pretty cool right?!

Having been the the US recently and with plans to go back in the not too distant future I skipped most of the US imports, apart from the Dandies, I can never resist a bag of delicious puffy marshmallows, and came home with a bag overflowing with German salami, some of the best sour gummy sweets I've ever eaten, huge bags of vital wheat gluten (so that I can make seitan all the time) and a few bars of my favourite Nirwana Noir praline chocolate.

The second Veganz location up on Schivelbeiner Strasse is stuffed with just as many amazing vegan treats and, in addition to the store, they also have a Goodies cafe. Wonderful. I had a thoroughly enjoyable apple frangipane tart and we both tried a toffee cake which to be honest was not great due to the overwhelming cinnamon flavour.

Back at the Warschauer Strasse location we tried the vegan brunch at the upscale and beautifully decorated Mio Matto restaurant.

*Sadly Mio Matto has now closed but you can get a comparable vegan brunch at Kopps and there is still a vegan restaurant at this location above Veganz*

An all you can eat set up is always going to be a winner in my book and we loved checking out their plentiful buffet before filling up our plates with mock meats, tofu scramble, salads, potatoes and fresh fruits and veggies. There were also plenty of different breads to choose from as well as muesli, yoghurt and little chocolate cakes.

It was one of the best brunches I've ever had in the city, it even rivals my previous favourite brunch from the sadly closed Hans Wurst. I wish that somewhere in Brighton would do a euro-style vegan brunch like this, I'm sure I'd become a regular.

If you're visiting Berlin do not skip Veganz. Honestly, this place is vegan heaven and I am more than a little excited that London will be getting it's very own Veganz in 2014.

Exploring Berlin.

I spent the last weekend of October in Berlin with one of my very best friends Tabitha. We had so much fun! She's my oldest Brighton based friend and I actually met her and my dude Nick at the same time, shitty jobs can apparently bring great things into your life. We're both kinda busy and don't get to hang out often enough so a weekend break was the perfect way to squeeze in a whole lot of silly friend time. We both adore Berlin, this was my fourth visit and her sixth or seventh and it was super fun showing each other our favourite parts of the city. A joint favourite and a place we knew we'd be heading for as soon as we arrived was Vöner, this all vegan kebab joint serves frankly enormous seitan doner sandwiches which come with your choice of herb, tahini garlic or chilli tomato sauces. I went with tahini garlic because if it was up to me I'd make it a law that people must put garlic on everything!

We both love to explore cities on foot and ride the u-bahn so we went all over the city eating, meeting dogs (real and not!), looking at street art and taking pictures of everything!

Our favourite place to warm up and chill out was Ohlàlà Tartes Shop. (Note: As of 2016 Oh La La is closed) I fell in love with this beautiful French style cafe on my last trip to Berlin in 2011 and I'm happy to report that Tabitha now loves it as much as I do. We endeavoured to try as many of the delicious things on offer as possible and started with hot chocolate and flavoured lattes.  My hot chocolate was delightful, I love this style where you mix the warm milk with the melty chocolate, it's so creamy and decadent.

I got super overexcited when I laid eyes upon the crepe menu, I might've even done a little squeak! I adore crepes especially the savoury cheese stuffed kind and they aren't something I often stumble upon. 

As was only right in this establishment I chose a Parisienne crepe which came filled with ham and cheese. It was absolutely perfect, I mean how can you go wrong with a melty cheese stuffed crepe?!

This cafe has an amazing selection of sweet treats filling the counter and tempting your tastebuds. We endeavoured to work our way through as many as possible starting with this beautiful and perfectly light chocolate mousse cake.

I also tried a pear mousse bomb which was filled with an even lighter mousse than the previous cake, something I hadn't thought possible, hidden inside were some sweet delicious pear pieces.

Tabitha taste tested this gorgeous chocolate nougat thing that I forget the name of, it was dense and filled with a gooey caramel, definitely an intense dessert option.

Another of my favourite discoveries from previous trips was Viasko, I ate lunch there twice last time I visited Berlin and this time we went for dinner where we started the night as we meant to go on, with booze! These cocktails were up there with the best I've ever tried, my TransMelonMan was so good that I finished it in record time and had to order another before our food had even arrived.

We arrived around 8pm and quite a few menu items were done for the day so I decided to go with a salad starter...

...and my companion had the soup of the day which, to her delight, was mushroom. My salad was delicious but really huge and super filling for a starter,  the mushroom soup was simple, rich and beautifully creamy, everything I remember dairy and cream laden mushroom soup to be.

My main was this huge tofu and sweet onion covered Flammkuchen, a dish I'd seen on many a German menu but never tried. The cheese portion was a mix of homemade nut based cheese, a melty dairy cheese alternative and tofu. 

Tabitha ordered the seitan gyros, a classic choice and Nick's favourite dish at Viasko. Our mains were tasty for sure but we both agreed that they were far, far too salty, the combination of that plus the slow service when we needed our water glasses refilled meant that we only finished around half of our mains. I would definitely still recommend a visit to Viasko though, I love the atmosphere there and 90% of the food I've tried has been outstanding.

If you've been to Berlin recently or follow me on Twitter or Instagram one place I'm sure you've noticed is missing from this post is Veganz, Berlin's amazing vegan supermarket chain. Don't worry I haven't forgotten about it I just loved it so much that it's getting a post of it's very own, watch this space!

VioLife Vegan Cheeses.

The super generous peep's at Veganic Foods in Germany sent me a bumper pack of vegan cheeses to try late this summer and I couldn't wait to dig in. I was totally one of those "I could never give up cheese" vegetarians. I know! I snapped out of it pretty swiftly and realised that the lives of dairy cows are obviously more important that my love of dairy - duh! 

Anyway, as a former cheeseoholic, I get super excited whenever a new non-dairy cheese appears on the scene. The Veganic brand have come up with ten, yep, ten, differently flavoured cheeses which come in pre-sliced packs alongside a pizza cheese which is taking indie pizza places, including Brighton's very own Pizza Face, across the UK by storm.

I dug into the cheese slices as soon as they arrived and to test their meltiness I popped a slice onto the chickpea tuna sandwich (recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance) I was halfway through making and grilled it for a few minutes. The cheese got bubbly and melty, it was dreamy.

My absolute favourite way to eat the cheese slices (aside from straight up outa the pack) was on a regular old cheese sarnie. These were up there with my favourite sandwiches pre-vegan and now I can eat them again, all day every day if I want to. Being an adult is a dangerous business!

My very favourite of the flavours on offer was Original which reminded me of the Leerdammer slices I used to enjoy, both in taste and texture. My second fave was Cheddar which tasted pretty similar to Original and this was closely followed by Pizza, Olive Oil, Olive and then Herbs in that order. I could take or leave the mushroom variety.

As I couldn't be bothered to make a pizza as delicious as Pizza Face's I used the Pizza Cheese in a variety of different ways, stuffed into a baked potato, melted on toast, out of the bag with a spoon, but my favourite had to be this lazy chick'n parm. Can't be bothered to cook a proper meal but want it to look fancy? Just grab a Fry's schnitzel, chuck some passata (from a box, obvs) ontop, sprinkle with herbs and then top it with Veganic Pizza Cheese. Perfect. I served mine with quinoa and Nick knocked up some pasta to have with his. It was delicious.

There are so many non-dairy cheese options out there now even compared to when I went vegan almost eight years ago. Imagine what being vegan 15 or 20 years ago must've been like. Maybe you don't have to, maybe you've been vegan for that long or longer, if so, kudos to you. I think you're pretty rad! This range of cheeses can definitely hold it's own in the ever growing vegan cheese market and I strongly recommend that you give it a try. In Brighton you can pick up my favourite flavours at Infinity Foods (just a coincidence but a great one!) or check out a health food store near you. You can also order online from Goodness Direct or Alternative Stores.