Brighton Veg Fest 2011

Today was Brighton Veg Fest & it was awesome! They've held this event here before but sadly their previous venue, The Brighton Centre, refused to let any outside caterers make food & insisted on doing it themselves. Sadly this resulted in such horrors as mashed un-seasoned silken tofu salad sandwiches which clearly have no place in the world let alone at a vegan fair!

I was actually working at the fair this time around. I've always been a fan of Ms Cupcake's delicious cakes & having met her in person, I'm a fan of Ms Cupcake herself. So when she asked me to help out on her stall at this year's fair I was super excited.

We got there early to set up the stall & I was extra excited to be able to choose my cupcake from any of the 12 flavours of the day.

Alongside the cupcakes (which include gluten free options) Ms Cupcake also had a selection of bakery style cookies, Cuppa Cupcakes & homemade lemon curd on the stall.

The cookies were perfectly soft in the centre & crispy around the edge & they were available in both Choc Chip & Walnut Choc Chip. I was very excited too see Ms Cupcake's Lemon Curd, as far as I know nobody else in the UK makes a vegan lemon curd & it's great to be able to just pick up a jar rather than stirring your own for hours over a hot stove.

Cuppa Cupcakes are a genius idea, they're a layered cake & frosting concoction which can be eaten with a spoon - perfect for munching on whilst wandering around a busy vegan fair or for snacking on on the train home without smearing frosting all over your face. This picture of the cuppa cupcake doesn't quite do it justice - they're brilliant!

I've said it before & I'll say it again, the lighting in my house is shit!

Of course I got some breaks during the day & I spent my time hunting down the best vegan food! First off I had to head over to the Wheaty stall as soon as I spotted this...

...vegan doner kebab! I'd tried this at Paris Vegan Day but sadly I left it too late there & they were running low on kebab & they were completely out of salad, there was no way that was happening again. I practically ran there!

This thing was much larger than it looks in the picture, in fact, I couldn't finish it in one go. I can confirm that once I'd removed the lettuce this was just as delicious microwaved 7 hours later!

I ended up taking another break when I saw someone walk past the stall holding a slice of pizza & I realised I had to have one too. Thankfully Ms Cupcake understands the need to hunt down food & didn't mind me running off in search of the cheese covered slice.

This was made with a decent amount of Cheezly & a not so decent amount of sausage. In my opinion though pizza is all about the tomato sauce & the cheese so I was very happy with it, especially because it was only £1.50. The base was quite soft in the middle but it had a great crispy crust - yum.

I've been relaxing on the sofa for a couple of hours now & my day is about to be complete because I'm going to eat this delicious cupcake.

I carefully carried this lovely looking Ferrero Rocher cupcake home in my cup-a-cake carrier (these are available on Ms Cupcakes stall at Greenwich Market now or soon at the new shop) & I'm very excited to be getting to eat my favourite cupcake again.

I had a whole lot of fun today & I loved working with the cupcake crew! I'm also really excited for Ms C & the gang as their first real bakery storefront is opening in just under two weeks, I'm already looking forward to visiting.

Paris - The Snacks.

I love a good picnic & Paris is certainly a great place to have one what with their abundance of natural food stores, parks and boulangeries. Sadly the last two times I've visited the temperature's been either below or close to freezing so the only chance for a picnic has been on the train home.

I always carry my trusty knife when I'm travelling & there was no problem getting it through security to get onto the Eurostar. Obviously if you're travelling by plane & not checking a bag a knife is not a good option! I love my Kuhn Rikon knives, they come with a blade cover & they're really sharp making cutting through bread or fruit an easy task. Also, they come in pretty colours!

We spoke to our hosts at the Gentle Gourmet B&B about buying bread in Paris & they confirmed that French baguettes would not contain any animal ingredients or be coated in an egg wash which left us free to choose our loaf from any of the many boulangeries we passed whilst wandering around Paris.

Our hosts also brought our attention to some great vegan margarine. We tried it at breakfast one day & we knew we'd be picking some up to take home. It came in very handy on our train picnic!

This spread is available in normal supermarkets, Carrefour & Monoprix are the two you'll see most often.

We were very impressed with the abundance of Naturalia food stores in Paris, they are not completely vegetarian but they stock many vegan & gluten free products. There seemed to be one around almost every corner in the centre of the city and a quick look at the helpful map on their website will show you where they are. We found the Sojami Garlic & Herb spread & the Wheaty slices for our train picnic there. There were loads of different seitan's, sausages & spreads to choose from & we picked up this Seitan to take home.

We're going to make a 'steak & chips' style meal from it soon. This seitan comes in two individually wrapped portions each with their own sauce...I'm only a bit tempted to keep them both to myself!

Paris Part III

I wrote about how much I loved Tien Hiang on my last visit to Paris & I was super excited to take Nick there on this trip.

We decided to order a whole load of food to share as we couldn't decide what we wanted to try. To start we went for the grilled dumplings, I'd tried the steamed ones last time but this time we wanted to try the chicken & vegetable filling.

We also chose the Salt & Pepper Chicken...

Mmmm deep fried chickeney awesomeness! These both came with a hoi sin dipping sauce, my favourite!

Next up we ordered Nems, now we had no idea what these were going to be but we were intrigued so we had to get them!

We certainly weren't disappointed with our choice, Nems turned out to be deep fried spring rolls - awesome!

I also insisted we order the Radish Cake, a few years ago I went to New York & met up with some PPKers at a restaurant in China Town. I let everyone else do the ordering as they'd been before & they insisted that I try the Turnip Cake. It looked creepy & I wasn't sure that putting it in my mouth was going to be a good idea but now, two years later, I still think about that turnip cake so it must've been good!

This version apparently came with grated carrot but I couldn't detect any. Man, just looking at this makes me want to learn how to make it!

I knew I had to have the Cashew Chicken Bamboo again, Nick loves chicken style mock meat & cashews too so it was a good choice.

This came with big chunks of tofu alongside the chicken & we chose to have plain boiled rice to go with it.

Next up we went for one of the 'Marmites' which I think translates (probably very roughly) as cooking pot.

We chose the Satay Beef Marmite & were slightly worried when it arrived as it looked like it had a lot of chilli in it. Neither of us are great with spice but this was perfect, slightly spicy but not burney & there were loads thick noodles, chunks of beef and, as with the Cashew Chicken Bamboo, tofu. Yum.

I really love Tien Hiang, I often wish that I could hop on the Eurostar & just go there for dinner...but that would be ridiculous & incredibly expensive so I won't!

One thing Paris definitely does well is Falafel, we stopped off at Maoz after a morning spent wandering around the Musee d'Orsay.

It was a little hard to find because our map didn't really have a clear representation of the area we were looking in but the streets surrounding it are interesting and fun to wander around so we didn't mind getting a little lost!

I went for the small falafel sandwich in preparation for gorging myself on ice cream at Berthillon the famous Parisienne ice cream store on the Ile St Louis but sadly they were closed for refurbishment so I'll have to try to go there again next time.

We also shared some delicious frites.

These usually come with mayo & ketchup so you need to make sure that the person making them understands that you want neither or just ketchup.

The next day after a day of sightseeing by boat we headed to L'as du Falafel, again this is somewhere I visited on my last trip but I wasn't going to deny my falafel loving husband the chance to try this monster sandwich.

It was just as good if not better than I remembered, their falafel balls are deep fried to perfection & it makes me happy that the salad isn't just lettuce cucumber & tomato but also crunchy cabbage & aubergine - yum.

Hopefully I'll end up in Paris again some time in the not too distant future because I don't know how long I'll be able to last without my Tien Hiang fix!

The Gentle Gourmet Bed and Breakfast

* Sadly The Gentle Gourmet B&B is now closed. The people behind this fabulous B&B are now running a The Gentle Gourmet Cafe which I've heard wonderful things about and hope to visit soon*

Last weekend was mine & Nick's first wedding anniversary & we decided to mark the occasion (I'll find any excuse for a holiday!) by spending the weekend in Paris.

After trying some of their delicious food at Paris Vegan Day I decided that I really wanted to spend the weekend at The Gentle Gourmet B&B.

For those of you who haven't heard about this place yet here's the lowdown! The Gentle Gourmet B&B is a vegan owned & operated business located in central Paris. It's only a short walk from the Champs Elysees, Arc du Triomphe & Eiffel Tower.

We took a lovely walk down the Champs Elysees to the Arc du Triomphe & back to the B&B after dinner one night.

The owners Deborah, Caroline, Alex & Paul (who are also the people behind Paris Vegan Day) have two apartments in the building, one with a double room & it's own bathroom situated in the apartment where breakfast is served and one with two double bedrooms & a shared bathroom which can either be rented separately or as one private apartment for 2 - 5 travellers. The Gentle Gourmet also offers Bistrot & Gourmet dinners, cooking classes, picnic baskets & tours of local kitchen gardens.

We chose to stay in the double room with it's own bathroom & we thought our room was lovely, light, bright & airy. We also loved the incredibly warm welcome we received from our hosts Deborah & Paul, it felt more like we were arriving at an old friends place rather than at a faceless hotel.

As far as I'm concerned breakfast is the most important meal of the day (Neither Nick or I are fun people to be around if we haven't eaten in the morning) & I often find that a good breakfast is one of the hardest things to find as a travelling vegan.

On our first morning we opted to have breakfast quite late and we were excited to see the table was all laid out with breads, spreads, yoghurts, granola & juice. The french bread was delicious so we were even more excited when the lovely B&B owner & head chef Deborah brought us out a huge plate of French toast with baked apples to share. In fact I was so excited that I didn't manage to take any pictures of it, it looked great though & it tasted pretty spectacular too. I liked that it wasn't overly sweet, most of the sweetness came from the apples & the maple syrup I drenched mine in.

On our second morning Deborah and Paul whipped us up a batch of pancakes...

...and some little traditional French chocolate chip breads alongside some fruit salad & yoghurts.

This was another fantastic breakfast, what a great way to start the day!

I will be recommending the Gentle Gourmet B&B to all of my vegan friends (in fact, one friend has already booked themselves into the B&B for their next holiday!) and I would definitely love to stay there again next time I'm in Paris.

Aloka, again!

Just a heads up, Aloka is now closed and VBites is open in the same location.

I'm going to write about Aloka again because every time I go there the food seems to get even better. It's so good that I've been three times in the last month and it's my new top suggestion for people when they ask me where to get a bite to eat in Brighton. Aloka used to be a vegetarian cafe with vegan options making up about 65% of the food but now it seems that everything is vegan apart from the option to have cows milk in your coffee or tea.

Aloka has a pay by weight buffet which I think must be cheaper than it used to be as my last two plates of food have only been around £4 at lunch time. It's more expensive in the evening but even cheaper if you get takeaway. The food changes every day & is as organic, seasonal and locally sourced as possible. Last time I visited they had a sweet potato curry, brown rice, a decent selection of raw foods and this delicious selection.

I went for the roasted vegetable & vegan mozzarella stack, mixed kale salad, cashew cheese lasagne and a white bean & rocket salad with cauliflower & pesto. The lasagne was my favourite part of the meal, it was full of lentils & mushrooms and their homemade cashew cheese was delicious as always.

On a previous visit I also went for the buffet option & filled my plate with a roast vegetable stuffed baked squash, tabouleh, white bean salad, a piece of creamy mushroom filo pastry bake & some green salad.

The creamy mushroom bake was SO damn good, I keep hoping it will be there again! I really enjoyed the baked squash too and I like that their green salad always has some interesting leaves.

Aloka always have a soup of the day, which, as far as I've seen, is always vegan. I'm not usually into soup but last time I met up with a friend there I had a cold & was craving something warm and comforting, this huge bowl of creamy lentil soup really hit that spot.

At only £3 (or £3.50 with bread) this bowl of soup's definitely good value for money, it was huge and really delicious.

Aloka has a raw restaurant upstairs & there are a few raw treats on their cafe menu. I finally got around to trying the Raw Cashew Cheese & Flaxseed Crackers the other day...

...these dehydrated crackers are made from a combination of flaxseed & parsnip and they were pretty good, I was surprised at how crunchy they were and also that the cashew cheese was strongly flavoured enough for a little to go a long way - yum.

If I had to pick a favourite thing about Aloka I would have to pick the desserts, after a bit of trial and error last summer they've really perfected their raw ice creams and they even make my favourite flavour (joint favourite with Pistachio really!) Mint Chocolate Chip.

This is a beautifully smooth minty ice cream filled with chunks of cacao, I could go there & eat this every day!

Aloka always have a well stocked dessert cabinet & on valentines day they had some extra special treats.

Our dessert decision was a closely run thing between the Superfood Chocolate Mousse Cake & the Valentines Special Chocolate Lovers Torte (I feel I need to point out that we were only choosing because they cost £5.50 not because we wouldn't have happily eaten one each!) but the huge chocolate lovers that we are went for the Special Torte.

This was one seriously awesome dessert, it was, as described, really chocolatey & it was definitely worth it's £5.50 price tag when you consider the cost of the ingredients that would have gone into making it.

If you're in Brighton you should definitely head to Aloka for lunch, dinner or a dessert & a smoothie, you won't be disappointed.

Paris Part II

Sadly we were only in Paris for a short amount of time meaning that we only got to try out a few of Paris' many eateries but I think we chose pretty well!

First off, Tien Hiang. We arrived at around 8.30pm on the night before Paris Vegan Day & we were so happy that they were able to find us a table considering how busy they were. We just had to wait an hour but there's a bar on the corner so we were fine with that!

I started off with salt & pepper tofu and prawn dumplings.

These were both SO good, I was surprised to get such a lot of tofu in a starter but I certainly wasn't complaining. The dumplings were perfectly steamed & contained a delicious mixture of minced 'prawn' carrot & mushroom.

For my main I went for the Cashew Chicken Bamboo.

I ate this delicious mixture of mock chicken, peppers, baby corn, carrots, courgette & cashews with a side of fried rice. I'd never had such delicious mock meat before & I'm a huge fake meat fan so that's saying something!

Excitingly I'm heading back to Paris with Nick for our first wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks so I'll be making sure to go back to Tien Hiang for dinner, and this time I'll remember to book a table!

After a long day cruising around the sites of Paris on a sightseeing boat my friend Holley & I headed to L'as du Fallafel to stuff ourselves with, well, falafel!

We'd heard about this place from a fellow PPKer who said it was the best falafel in Paris, thankfully she'd also told us which things were vegan as our French is pretty bad! We'd been advised to order the ''falafel special'' a large pitta filled with falafel, aubergine & salad and topped with tahini sauce so that is exactly what we did!

We certainly weren't disappointed with the size of the 'falafel special'', this thing was almost the size of my head! It was messy to eat but it really was the best falafel I've ever had, coming a close second is the falafel from Maoz in London & there is a Maoz in Paris too in case you are there needing falafel on a Saturday when this place is closed.

We also ordered a side of fries each to go with our pitta's which seemed to amuse the guys working there, they told us that the falafel special is VERY large & that there is no way we could possibly eat fries too, maybe we should share some fries? Uh, no sir, if there's something my friend & I are good at it is eating huge quantities of food & we were very pleased (smug even!) to give back our totally clean plates at the end of the meal!

L'as du Fallafel is another place I can't wait to go back to in a couple of weeks especially because Nick is in kinda love with falafel & I know he'll think this huge falafel sandwich is awesome!

We're going to be staying at The Gentle Gourmet B&B whilst we're in Paris, I was so impressed with the brownies & waffles I tried at Paris Vegan day that I am incredibly overexcited about getting to eat breakfast there during our stay. I will of course be taking pictures & blogging about it when I get back!