A Winter Adventure in New York City - Part 2

Last week I posted part one of my wintery NYC adventure, there was epic pizza so you should totally read it if you haven't already!

We were lucky enough to meet up with our friend Randi whilst we were in the city and we had the best day. Firstly she took Nick and I for our first ever knishes at NYC institution Yonah Schimmel.

Both myself and Randi chose spinach knishes and Nick went with plain. I honestly had no idea what a knish was until recently so just incase you're not sure either it's a type of dumpling wrapped in dough and then baked or fried. These were the potato filled and baked kind and I certainly enjoyed my first knish experience.

Secondly Nick & I got to see our first ever Broadway show thanks to Randi's epic cheap ticket obtaining skills! We all love musicals so A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder was a cute, fun first Broadway experience.

Lastly because we were freaking starving and all love sushi we headed to Chelsea Market to check out all vegan sushi joint The Green Roll by Beyond Sushi. The wait was a little long for a hungry person like me but it was all worth it in the end because this sushi was off the hook. Beyond Sushi stray pretty far from the traditional white rice / nori setup which is really fun and totally sets this place apart from any other sushi place I've tried, look, the sauces to top your sushi with even come in little squeezey tubes. Adorbz!

I actually squeaked (and immediately messaged Randi) when I saw that January's roll of the month involved grilled aubergine (okay, they called it eggplant) and Kalamata olives - two of my favourite veggies...wait, is an olive a veggie? Nope, Google says it's totally a fruit. Anyway, the roll of the month (above left) features black rice, grilled aubergine and English cucumber and is topped with curly parsley, tahini and kalamata olive sauce. I also ordered the Crunch 'n Munch which, again, has black rice and is filled with English cucumber, alfalfa sprouts and baked tofu and is topped with kiwi and a white miso mayonnaise. I grabbed a couple of their pieces too, one seaweed and one piece of the month which comes filled with black rice and aubergine caviar. I loved my choices so much that I ordered them all again on my next visit plus a Mighty Mushroom which I found too overpoweringly mushroomy with it's accompanying shiitake teriyaki sauce but adored once I topped it with the miso mayo that came with the Crunch 'n Munch roll. Just writing about this place is making me tempted to pop out for a combo of Namul's (Korean black rice bowls) and Moshimo (sushi) so that I can fuse the two together.

We also went to a little bakery in Chelsea Market after our sushi fest' to try some of Randi's favourite fennel and sultana bread but I can't remember the name of it and apparently I was too busy stuffing bread into my face to snap a picture.

The next morning we went to a super fun PPK meet-up at Champs Family Bakery in Brooklyn. I'd been dying to visit Champs since some pals of ours from Brighton went to NYC and Instagrammed a whole load of amazing pictures of their breakfasts. Champs has one of the most epic breakfast menus I've ever seen, it's on par with the one from Wayward Cafe in Seattle which made it super hard to choose. Nick suggested the Pancake Slam, hold the salad add a side of home fries and half of our table went for that. Winners.

It looked damn good and made me really glad that I ordered a pancake on the side of my Croque Monsieur.

Holy crap you guys, I don't think I can even explain how amazing this combo was. Seriously it's the best breakfast I've ever had. Their pancakes are perfect and that's a freaking fried cheese and ham sandwich on french toast! What more can I say!

I made everyone take a group photo outside in the cold because I never remember to take pictures of all of the amazing people I meet when I travel - my 2014 resolution, more pictures of people. Watch out!

L - R (This'll make sense to PPKers!) Me, joyfulgirl, blondiefk, RandiJM & xstartxtodayx.

After brunch we took a quick trip to Dunwell Doughnuts because we were in the area and who can resist doughnuts?

The 49ers were playing that day so we took our doughnuts to vegan bar Pine Box Rock Shop to watch them beat the Panthers - no discussion of what happened at the next game, thank you! Everyone at Pine Box is super friendly and I loved not having to google to work out which drinks are vegan because they all are.

A perfect post beer Peach Cola doughnut, this is my favourite out of all of the doughnuts I've tried from Dunwell.

We also ate plenty of crisps (chips!), which I totally needed to soak up the three afternoon beers, and we only held off on Empanadas because by the time they smelt ready we were minutes away from leaving to head to Foodswings.

I was so sad when I heard that Foodswings were closing down, I loved eating there last time I was in NYC so of course I ordered the same thing I had then - the Drumstick Combo Plate with mac & cheese as my side.

YUM! As you can see I very much enjoyed using the drumsticks to spoon the mac into my mouth!

I really, really hope that Foodswings manages to open it's doors elsewhere by the time I get to visit NYC again. My fingers and toes are firmly crossed!

Because we were staying in Union Square Whole Foods was a super convenient place to grab some breakfast on our last full day before heading out to explore the city. We grabbed a few things from the bakery section...

...and a green juice from the bar upstairs and found a spot by the window with a cool view.

Honestly, aside from the potato roll, these baked goods were pretty blah. On the dry side, not overly flavoursome, and given some of the amazing muffins and scones (not to mention doughnuts) we ate at Whole Foods stores all over the West coast it made me wonder what the hell went wrong here. After breakfast we walked across the Brooklyn bridge, a nice dude took our photo after he saw us trying to take a ridiculous selfie, and then we explored Chinatown and the LES.

We met Marlowe the kitty at Moo Shoes

We used the Happy Cow app to find somewhere we were close to when we got hungry and picked Pan-Asian veggie spot Wild Ginger because I loved the sound of their set lunches. Their are 16 set lunch options which all come with miso soup, a spring roll and a slice of pumpkin. I went with the Sweet Soy Protein with Kale which I think was a total bargain for $8.50. It was super filling meal and I actually struggled to finish it - there's a lot of soy protein on that plate!

Nick ordered a starter and main from the regular menu and whilst he enjoyed it he thought that the set menu seemed like way better value for money.

After lunch we popped to Babycakes to get dessert for later. I wasn't the hugest fan the first time I visited back in '09 but I wanted to give them another try, the store is super adorable and I always want to support vegan businesses. We decided to grab doughnuts because it was the icing on the cupcakes that I didn't love last time. I grabbed a salt caramel and Nick went for sprinkled, he ate his before I could take a picture!

I really enjoyed my doughnut, the texture was spot on and I'm totally on Team Baked when it comes to doughnuts (I know, totally out of character!) but it didn't taste of salt caramel at all, it tasted like lemon! I asked Nick how his was and he said "It was good but kinda weird because it tasted like lemon"! Why do all of their doughnuts taste like lemon?! I mean, it was delicious, I'd buy one again because I love lemon flavoured baked goods but they probably need to start holding off on the amount of lemon juice they're adding to their doughnut batter if they don't want it to overpower the other flavours.

After dinner on our last night (Beyond Sushi again!) we went to check out Times Square, I love the ridiculous bright lights, neon and hoards of tourists taking pictures. Obviously we had to join in with that. It was a cool place to get a little taste of what Shinjuku at night will be like. I can't believe we're actually going to be in Japan in just over two months. It's been on my dream travel list for so long that I can hardly believe it's going to become a reality.

Our flight was later than I thought on our last day so we actually managed to fit in a decent amount of eating before heading to the airport. We brunched at Champs again, after how awesome out first meal there was how could we not pay them a second visit?

I picked a sandwich again, this time the Croque Madame and I got a pancake on the side again. Nick ordered the French Toast slam with a side of home fries, hold the salad again because really who wants salad at breakfast time? We also got a side of Sunshine Toast because we're sensible and restrained when it comes to food.

The Croque Madame was a helluva lot bigger than the Croque Monsieur but I managed to polish off the whole thing and a syrup drenched pancake because I'm a winner. I ate quite a bit of the Sunshine Toast too but I was hoping it would be filled with some kinda vegan fried egg rather than tofu scramble so I left most of it to Nick - I love scramble but theirs was a little peppery for me. 

Last but by no means least we squeezed in a slightly hurried meal at Peacefood Cafe because we realised we were about to be hella early to the airport and I'm trying to be a little more relaxed about that kinda thing! Every single person who told me I had to eat a Peacefood also told me that I had to try the cheesecake. Sadly, I hate cheesecake. I've tried but ugh, cheese in cake? Just no. So I took a picture for alla the cheesecake lovers out there, it certainly looked great.

We shared the Baked Soy Nuggets and a portion of Pan-Seared Shanghai Dumplings because we didn't want to spoil our appetites before the in flight meal, haha, kidding, we had bagels and cookies for the plane!

These tasty nuggets came with a super delicious herbed mayo dipping sauce which we loved. We also really enjoyed the part steamed part fried dumplings, a mix of both of our favourite dumpling cooking methods.

I loved that they had a huge dessert case right upfront so that you could see what you were ordering and I grabbed a slice of Key Lime Pie...

...whilst Nick stuck with tradition and ordered a slice of Chocolate Ganache Cake.

We were both a little underwhelmed by our choices, my feelings came mainly from the fact that however hard I try I'll never love a raw pie as much as I'd love a cooked one. I ate the majority of the tangy lime filling and left most of the raw crust. Nick thought his cake was okay but not amazing, he's become super fussy about cake in recent months and I worry that I'm spoiling him with my ridiculous cupcake creations!! Peacefood was definitely a good last minute discovery, we noticed a really great looking specials menu on the window on the way out and I can't wait to go back and try their cheeseburger.

NYC as always was a total whirlwind and I loved it, I hope I don't have to wait too long before I can return.

VBites Sunday Roast

The weekend before Christmas VBites invited me to come and try, review and give them feedback on their Sunday roasts. Super exciting! And, even better, they gave me a plus three so I could bring some friends along for a Christmassy meal. If you've been paying attention you'll know that I've been on a quest to find Brighton's best vegan Sunday roast for a while now and I couldn't wait to try another.  

So far in The Quest the top spot is taken by the Earth & Stars followed by The West Hill. Don't even get me started on the disappointing roast at The Sussex Yeoman or The Royal Sovereign and for reasons I have mentioned previously I won't be reviewing the roast at The Prince George.

We were all surprised by the effort VBites had put into our table for lunch, it was set up with about a million glasses, christmassy napkins and even christmas crackers! When they offered us a jug of cocktail on the house we realised this wasn't going to be your regular roast review, they were planning on taking us through the whole Christmas menu including their roast. 

To begin with we could choose between Ducky and Cranberry Pâté or Roasted Butternut and Thyme Soup. I went with the pâté because I wanted to compare it to the kind they sell as part of their packaged food range and also because I love a good pâté! 

I loved the presentation of this dish, each diner got an individual jar which meant that you could eat as much or as little as you wanted and then take the rest home. As well as being beautifully presented it was totally delicious, just the right balance of pâté and cranberry and very different to the duck and orange pâté sold as part of the VBites range.

As one of the friends I brought along is gluten free the kitchen quickly whipped up some garlic bread which we were all luck enough to try. Sarah was rightly worried that if she ate it all there'd be no room for a roast! 

We were all in agreement that this was some of the best garlic bread we've ever eaten, gluten free or not. VBites really seem to be on top of their gluten free game and I'd love to find out if this base was homemade or bought in - mainly because if it's bought in I want to find it, buy it and use it to make my own garlic bread!

After this course came a pallet cleansing sorbet made in conjunction with Boho Gelato. I took such a horrible picture of it that there's no way I can post it here! The Mulled Wine Sorbet with Star Anise and Cinnamon was interestingly flavoured and personally I think I'd have preferred it as a dessert option. 

Next up came the roast and I can honestly say we were all completely overwhelmed by the size of it! Without starters or the expectation of dessert I probably could have finished this whole plate of food but I'm not 100% sure. I ordered my roast from the regular Sunday menu so that it would be more useful as a reference point for vegans going to eat there throughout the year but it did come with some extras, like the rasher wrapped sausage and the mustard mash, from the festive menu.

First things first, this roast comes with a vegan Yorkshire pudding, the holy grail of vegan roast dinners. The West Hill claim to have one but nobody I know's ever seen nor eaten it and every time I've called I've been told they sold none last week so aren't making them this week. 

As a lover of mock meat and a longtime fan of VBites turkey celebration roast I picked the Turkey / Beef / Gammon combo over the nut roast. I'm unsure if you'd normally have to choose one of the three but I think getting to try all of these roasts adds a lot of extra value to the meal - how often would you cook all three roasts at home?! I really hope the triple meat combo is a permanent menu item.

Another often criticised part of any pub-style roast are the roast potatoes, these can make or break the meal. I make a pretty great roastie at home and I have to say that these came closest to the crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, roast potatoes I know and love out of any I've tried during The Quest.

My next favourite part of the meal was the cauliflower cheese. I assume these are one of the seasonal vegetables mentioned on the regular menu and I really hope they stick around. Cauliflower cheese, or even cheesy leeks, were one of my favourite parts of sunday lunch and I can never be bothered to make them when I'm cooking a roast at home. As well as loving the delicious turkey/gammon/beef combo, roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese I really enjoyed the crisp roasted parsnips. I also liked that they kept the carrots, broccoli and peas simple just like I choose to do at home, I like veg in almost all incarnations - no silly mint sauce needed!  I liked that this roast came with a classic gravy too.

If you're either gluten free or just not a fake meat fan VBites also make a nut roast on a sunday. This slab of nut roast was huge and chock full of chestnuts and veg.

I tried a tiny piece and definitely enjoyed it, if for some reason I don't fancy fake meat I'd definitely order it.

After our truly massive meal none of us thought we could manage dessert but when this plate appeared in front of each of us nobody could resist. At the back is a Chocolate Chestnut Torte with soya cream chantilly and in front an Amaretto and Raisin Iced Parfait with sticky apple.

These were so great and our table was split equally on which was best. My favourite was of course the chocolate torte, it was creamy and light and I loved the chestnut flavour. As I'm not a huge amaretto fan the iced parfait wasn't for me but my friends thought it was excellent.

Overall I was super impressed by this meal but let's focus on the part you can get your hands on this weekend, the roast. It's totally jumped to the top of the Sunday Roast Quest league table! VBites does lose points on the lack of a pub atmosphere, but it's not a pub so...! If a pub is what you want The Earth & Stars is the top choice. If you're looking for a delicious fake meat (or nut) roast, great veggies, classic gravy and a freaking Yorkshire pudding VBites is the place for you.

Now I also have to be completely honest here and say that I was considering visiting VBites for their Christmas set menu with three friends paid for myself but at £24.95pp, only £2 cheaper than Terre à Terre's festive menu, we decided to pool our cash and cook a roast together at home instead. Now that I've eaten it I totally think that this amount of food is worth £24.95, especially with the little touches like crackers on the table and the take-home jar of pâté. On the other hand this was a tonne of food and VBites might get more Christmas bookings by scaling the menu back a touch and dropping the price. What do you think?

The next place I'm planning on visiting on my great Sunday Roast Quest is The Almond Tree, this new veggie cafe is at Seven Dials and their Sunday Roasts sound delicious.

A Winter Adventure in New York City - Part 1

Okay, I thought that I was prepared for an east coast cold snap when I left Heathrow but I was so very, very wrong. As soon as we got onto the station platform I put both my hoods up, popped on my gloves and wished I'd had the foresight to pack my hat and scarf in my hand luggage. I pretty much hopped up and down to keep warm for the five minutes we had to wait until the train arrived. I've genuinely never been so cold.

As soon as we got to the hotel I piled on as many layers of clothes I could squeeze into and still do up my coat, headed back out, and guess what? Still cold! The first time I ever visited New York I was 19, it was a university trip (before I had to drop out) and we got snowed in. It was a magical way to experience the city for the first time and I love how different your experiences of a place can be depending on the season.

The first place we power walked to was Pukk; I discovered this little Lower East Side veggie joint on my second visit to NYC, my first as a vegan, and I love it just as much now as I did then.  I always order the same thing, the Pad See Ew. I love how you can pick between mock chicken, duck or beef as well as tofu or vegetables. That kinda covers everyones foodie preferences right? I went with the duck and Nick chose tofu, we ended up sharing both.

Pad See Ew is right up there with my favourite foods in the world and I was so excited when Terry included a recipe for it in her latest book Vegan Eats World. If you've never tried this sweet, fresh, noodle dish you should either head to Pukk or make your own as soon as you can. It's fantastic.

As well as always ordering the Pad See Ew I usually get a side of the Chicken Nuggets. I love mock meat in pretty much any incarnation and these are perfectly coated in crisp batter and fried. Delicious.

We also decided to branch out and try something new so we ordered the Soft Green Rice Crepe. 

These little dumplings filled with mock chicken, radish and peanut were not what we had expected from a crepe but wow, they were certainly as delicious as they sounded. I loved the combination of the soft steamed dumpling and the crunchy peanut filling and we ordered these again on our next visit.

After dinner we popped around the corner to Atlas Cafe to scope out the Vegan Treats selection. Vegan Treats deliver to Atlas (and many other locations in the city) on a Tuesday and as we arrived on Wednesday there were plenty of desserts to choose from. I picked the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Bomb and Nick got a slice of Oreo Cake.

I was pretty pleased with my choice, the PB Bomb is Vegan Treats signature cake and I was excited to finally be trying a piece. I loved the soft chocolate outer layer, the caramel, peanut butter mousse and chocolate cake. In fact everything about it was great. It was also super sweet and really huge, even I couldn't finish it off in one go. I did eat in in bed later though and it was just as great then, possibly greater, because, duvets!

Before crashing out for the evening we popped to Whole Foods to see if we could find Kite Hill's White Alder cheese. We'd heard it was just like brie, something we used to eat together all the time before going vegan and once we spotted it at the cheese counter we couldn't wait to get it back to the hotel.

Unfortunately it was hugely disappointing. I'd read in one review that this cheese made the roof of the reviewers mouth and throat burn, not a pleasant tingling but a real burning sensation and this is exactly what happened to me. I'm not allergic to any of the ingredients and I only ate a tiny piece before this started happening. Thankfully Whole Foods has an amazing returns policy so I was able to reclaim my $13.99 and spend it on more Sweet & Sara S'mores instead.

I will say that I have other friends in the US who love this cheese so much that they've gotten through six wheels in a matter of weeks and I think that it's definitely worth a try if you were a brie fan in a previous life.

On our first morning in the city we beat the jet lag and managed to sleep in until 8:30, far better than the 5am starts we had on our previous trip. We dressed in all of our clothes again and headed to Ess-a-bagel's 1st avenue store where it was rumoured that we'd find some of the best bagels in the city. We heard about this gem from posters on the PPK forum and they were so right about it. If you're British and don't get what all the bagel fuss is about, listen up; proper bagels are nothing like the "bagels" we're sold in supermarkets here. Those are pretty much just bread in the shape of a bagel, these are perfectly dense, chewy and doughy and there are a myriad of toppings and spreads to choose from. I picked an onion bagel with tofu sun-dried tomato spread and Nick went with plain and plan, a classic combo.

This was so freaking delicious and we loved sitting in the corner people watching whilst we ate our breakfast, this place is a real New York City institution and it was a great place to while away some time. Later on in the trip their 3rd avenue location saved us from a ridiculous rainstorm in what is otherwise a bit of a vegan friendly dead zone so I'll be forever grateful, I'm pretty grumpy in the rain and bagels totally saved the day.

After breakfast we headed to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) which I had embarrassingly never been to despite this being my fourth trip to NYC. I loved an immersive film piece called Ten Thousand Waves and there was another super amazing piece involving a violinist and a ballet dancer that I could have watched for hours. Obviously walking around museums is quite a hunger inducing activity and we headed over to Cafe Blossom on the upper west side for a slightly fancy late lunch. 

When I'm super hungry I always want to fill up on pasta so the Fettuccini Alfredo was a no brainer. 

Nick can never resist a seitan dish so he ordered the Pine Nut Crusted Seitan which he assured me was delicious. He even ate the cherry tomatoes which he usually hates so I could tell that he really loved it.

I really enjoyed the fettuccini alfredo, mushrooms and spinach are two of my favourite vegetables and the the soy parmesan and cashew cream combo made this dish rich and velvety.

After lunch we embarked upon a wintery walk through Central Park. I love parks, mainly because there are always dogs to look at, but Central Park's special and it was enchanting to see the lake all frozen like this.

Terri was our breakfast spot of choice the next day and I was pretty into this Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffin with Hollandaise Sauce. Nick's idea of hell would be having to eat this much Daiya at any time of day let alone at breakfast time so he ordered the same minus the cheese. 

I thought something in mine was a little too peppery, either the scramble or the hollandaise, and Nick thought his was a tad bland. I think you'll probably have to try it yourself and make up your own mind!

We were definitely in agreement about the Apple Cider Doughnut though. This moist, baked doughnut was super delicious and not too sweet which is perfect at breakfast time. We grabbed another one to go and I wished we'd taken them all!

One of the most amazing things about this trip was how empty usually busy tourist spots were. We had The High Line to ourselves that morning which felt super special.

I loved being up somewhere so peaceful whilst the city rushed by beneath us. I actually just love everything about The High Line, I think the  transformation from disused about-to-be-demolished railroad track to this is super cool. I especially loved the way new parts of the structure, like the benches for example, fit together almost seamlessly with things like the tracks themselves.

Obviously after being outside for so long we needed to warm up and 'snice is only about a ten minute walk from The High Line's 14th street exit/entrance. When I travelled to New York City alone back in 2009 I stayed at The Jane which is just around the corner from 'snice for the first few day of my trip and I ate here every morning. It was fun to finally take Nick there. After ordering (far too sweet) hot chocolates to warm ourselves up we progressed to the real gems on 'snice's menu - the sandwiches. We had one Thanksgiving Leftovers sandwich...

This picture's terrible even by my standards, apologies!

...and one Chick'n Potpie wrap.

These were both ridiculously delicious but the potpie wrap was the real winner for me. There's pie crust in there for gods sake! Alongside the pie crust the wrap was filled with carrot, celery, potato and chicken pieces. It was truly epic and it was just as good cold later. The Thanksgiving sandwich, as you can see, comes on delicious crusty french bread and is filled with plenty of Tofurky as well as sweet potato, brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce & gravy. We were both a little unsure about the individual components in this sandwich especially as I'm not the biggest fan of either sweet potato or sprouts but what can I say, it totally works.

After much walking and using my ongoing quest to find my favourite mac & cheese on the road as an excuse we stopped off at S'MAC for an afternoon snack. S'MAC, short for Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese, make their own vegan cheese sauce without any commercial cheese substitutes making this a perfect spot for the Daiya hater in your life.

We kept our major munch sized mac simple with a garlicky spinach mix in and topped it off with breadcrumbs. S"MAC use a coconut base which I've heard people say makes this mac taste too coconutty but I certainly didn't detect an overpowering coconut flavour, it was just a creamy delicious mac. Not my favourite ever mac (Oh, Foodswings, let me count the ways..) but I'd definitely order it again and if you're not a processed vegan cheese fan you should make this a must try.

Dinner was a late night affair after an evening at vegan bar Pine Box Rock Shop and I finally got to try Vinnie's Pizza!! Yes that needs two exclamation marks. How could I, a pizza fanatic, have visited NYC as a vegan TWICE BEFORE and have never visited Vinnie's? Honestly this fact has me questioning my priorities especially as they sell by the slice. By the slice is THE BEST! Even when visiting pizzerias that that sell by the slice you usually have to order a whole pie if you're vegan and I hate that. I want to try all of the slices damnit. Vinnie's gets even more awesomeness bonus points by making most of their vegan pies with Teese (moz & cheddar) which I prefer to Daiya mainly because it means Nick can have his cheesy pizza and eat it too.

I also love the epic Turtles posters adorning the walls. I'm totally getting this one for my house.

The lovely dude behind the counter at the Williamsburg location was happy to talk us through all of the slices on offer that night despite the huge line which we really appreciated. We ended up choosing a Vegan Hawaiian, a T. Hanks...

...and a Vegan Mac Attack minus the hot sauce.

Oh and some Garlic Knots because at 5 for $1 how could you say no?

The Vegan Hawaiian's pretty self explanatory, I'm really not meant to eat pineapple (allergies) but I can never resist a slice of Hawaiian pizza and I don't have the same reaction to cooked pineapple as I do to fresh. The T. Hanks has BBQ chicken, both types of Teese, and barbecue sauce, I didn't think I'd enjoy this as barbecue flavour can be hit or miss for me (usually miss!) but I loved it and it was Nick's favourite. My favourite was obviously going to be the Mac Attack, hold the hot sauce, because, hello, it's carbs on carbs! My true loves together at last. The Mac Attack also had spinach and sundered tomatoes the night I ordered it but according to the menu it shoulda had neither so I'm not sure what happened there!

Basically this place jumped right to the top of my Best Pizza Ever list as soon as I took my first bite. Epic base, perfect tomato sauce, rad toppings. I've never been more tempted to book a plane ticket whilst writing a blog post and that's saying something.

That's all for part one of our latest travel adventure, stay tuned for part two next week.

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.