Vegan MoFo Day 30 - Paris Vegan Day

I've just been in Paris for Paris Vegan Day which was amazing but I am glad to be back home in time to write a proper final MoFo Post. There's no way I can write about everything we did (& by that I mean ate!) in one blog post but that just means I'll be back blogging sooner rather than later!

Paris Vegan Day is organised by an non-profit organisation made up from people in the local vegan community including people from The Gentle Gourmet B&B & VG-Zone. As soon as I arrived I was impressed by the size of it, in the basement there were stands with information on animal rights issues, the ground floor had cooking demo's, debates & stalls selling food & on the upper lever were talks, free samples & stalls selling clothes, cosmetics, beauty products & of course, more food.

The first thing we did was head upstairs towards the area where you could buy and sample exciting vegan products. I immediately honed in on the Vegusto stall as I've tried their No-Muh-Chas melty cheese before and it's seriously good. They had a huge selection & I came home with some fondue, 2 tubes of melty cheese, parmesan snack cheese & 2 blocks of cheese, Walnut & Mildly Aromatic.

I also picked up some of their seitan which I can't wait to try.

I ate some of both block cheeses for lunch today & they were really good - the closest thing I've tried to a real hard cheese. I think the Walnut is my favourite.

I was also really excited to see the Roots of Compassion stand, they have a great range of products including Go Max Bars & Vantastic Foods chocolate, I was a bit sad to see that they didn't have any of their t-shirts or hoodies for sale as I really like their stuff but I managed to keep myself happy with this selection of chocolatey snacks.

2 Jokers bars, 1 Buccaneer bar, Carte Blanche biscuits & a bar of Fruit & Nut chocolate.

Next we headed over to the Wheaty stand, I can get their products in the UK but there are a lot that I hadn't tried.

We munched on many sausage samples before I decided to buy the Hot Dogs & the Grill Sausages. We also spotted this seitan kebab & decided we'd HAVE to head back there later for lunch.

Next up was Isa's cooking demo, we headed down there a bit early to get good seats & whilst we were waiting we found a stall selling delicious vegan cupcakes...

...I went for chocolate mint. I love the little V on top of the cake!

Isa had Terry up there with her & they were both super cute & really funny AND Isa managed to make blini's look easy - I'll definitely be making them round Christmas time now. We saw Terry's demo later on in the afternoon but I sadly didn't get any decent photos - she made empinadas which smelt delicious and they're another recipe I'll be making soon. I had no idea that with both of these recipes can actually be made in advance & re-heated when you want to eat them - awesome!

Smelling all this delicious food made us hungry so we headed upstairs for the previously mentioned Wheaty kebab!

Unfortunately by the time we got to the stand they'd run outa salad stuff but that was okay because they still had the best bits - seitan & bread!

I then decided it was time for something sweet & headed over to The Gentle Gourmet table where I picked up this crazy delicious brownie to munch on whilst watching my friend Melisser do her talk about vegan travel & her book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life.

It was more cakey than fudgey & it pretty much melted in my mouth, delicious.

After watching Melisser's talk & then Terry's cooking demo I decided it was time for more dessert & I'd just spotted The Gentle Gourmet people selling waffles so I headed straight over, unfortunately they'd just sold out but they were perfectly happy to make us another 5 for our group.

These came with whipped cream which everyone else loved but as a cream hater I had mine plain, it was delicious but it would've been even more awesome if they'd had chocolate spread!

We had a fantastic day, everyone we met was super friendly & the food was great. The event seemed really well organised & after tasting their food I can't wait to go & stay at The Gentle Gourmet B&B. I was also so excited that something like this was happening in a city famous for it's love of fur & foie gras - I hope Paris will be famous one day for it's amazing vegan friendliness instead. Next time I'll be writing about our non vegan day eats!

Vegan MoFo Day 29 - Redwood Foods.

I'll be posting all of my delicious Parisienne eats tomorrow (the last day of MoFo!) because there's been a serious lack of WiFi in Paris but for now here's one I prepared earlier...

I love Redwood Foods, they brought us Cheezly, Vegi bacon, delicious sausages & loads of deli slices and now they're coming out with loads of new products.

Their new Southern Style range consists of burgers & chicken style pieces & Nick & I gave them both a go.

We enjoyed the chicken pieces the most, probably because we eat burgers fairly often so these were more of a novelty. We served them with corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, green beans & gravy - southern style....I think!

I spotted this selection of new Christmassy party foods in the North Street Holland & Barrett the other day. First a Cheezly style selection box with a 3 types of cheese, Pepperjack, Smoked & Blue.

This huge box of 'Party Bites' with a selection of pork style, hot dog style & chorizo style sausages.

I also found these three new 'Party Bites' products, Mini Cranberry Falafel's, Breaded Pepperjack Style Cheezly Bites & Kofta Style Bites.

Everything looked really exciting & I picked up a packet of the Breaded Pepperjack Style Cheezly Bites to try. As they're meant to be a party bite I decided to enjoy them party style, served on a fancy plate with some Sheese & pineapple on sticks!

This made an awesome lunch but (& I shoulda guessed this by the name) the party bites are too pepper filled for me & I could only manage one before my mouth was on fire but Nick was on hand & happy to finish the other 6 (odd number for a pack 7!)

I'll definitely buy these again for when we have guests though because the cheese got all nice & melty & they held together pretty well during frying. I would love them to make these with the blue or smoked cheese though, I'd happily munch on a whole box then.

I'm looking forward to trying the mini cranberry falafel's & I'm definitely going to be giving that Cheezly Style selection box a whirl sometime soon.

Vegan MoFo Day 28 - The Real China

Another day in Paris, another pre-prepared post...

The Real China is a little Chinese restaurant located in Thames Ditton, Surrey. It doesn't have a website but it certainly does have vegan options!

My husband's family live in Thames Ditton & this has become our go to place for dinner when we're visiting because they do delicious food & the owners are ridiculously nice.

Nick & I always order the same thing, to start we go for the vegetable gyoza dumplings...

...and seaweed without the bonito flakes.

The seaweed is always perfectly crispy & the dumplings are amazing, we always wish there were 6 so we didn't have to share that last one!

Next up we order two tofu dishes & rice to share. Braised Tofu which comes with peppers, onions & carrots.

Then tofu in yellow bean sauce with cashews (this dish is not actually on the menu but if you ask about it & tell them that you know Jojo, Nick & Bob they'll definitely make it for you!)

Both of these dishes are super delicious & I'm always wishing there was a place that did vegan Chinese food this good in Brighton - maybe there is, we'll just have to keep looking!

Vegan MoFo Day 27 - Infinity Foods

Well, if you're reading this it means I have failed in my attempts to find a WiFi connection in Paris, thankfully I pre wrote you guys some posts before I left!

There's an all vegetarian food co-op in Brighton called Infinity Foods & it's awesome! They have a wholesale business & a cafe as well as the shop and they all stock a vast array of delicious vegan goodies. I've praised their awesomeness before but they've recently started selling some new goodies so I thought it was about time I mentioned them again.

My eyes almost popped out of my head when I first saw Toffuti Cuties in Infinity, I'd heard about them from people on the PPK but I'd never actually seen any in real life.

If you've never had one they're really good! Infinity usually stock vanilla, chocolate & cookies 'n' cream, they also sell them individually as well as in the boxes of 8 which is great if you're in town on your own & don't want your bag to be covered in melted ice cream by the end of the day!

They've also recently added bakewell tart slices to their selection of chilled goodies.

This is a really good bakewell tart too, perfectly almondey with just the right hint of cherry flavour - yum.

I'm always popping into Infinity for bread & veggies & it's been really exciting recently to see these new items pop up. Sadly they have stopped selling Go Max Go bars but us Brit's can get them online here so I can't complain too much.

Vegan MoFo Day 26 - Maoz, Ms Cupcake & Mildred's.

I'm heading up to London today to stay with my friend Holley as we're going to be getting up bright & early tomorrow to catch the train to Paris, it's almost time for Paris Vegan Day - yay! I thought this'd be a good chance to write about a foodie day out I had in London recently.

First we headed to Maoz & I have no idea why I'd never been there before this visit. I'd heard of it, I'd certainly been hungry & in that part of London before & it's all vegetarian! Maoz are a chain of falafel joints with locations in Europe (England, France, Spain & The Netherlands) & the US. Their falafel, pittas & most of the salads & fillings are vegan and they have a handy allergens list on their website. They also do delicious Belgian fries & freshly made lemonades.

When I went I choose the wholewheat pita Maoz sandwich...

...topped with fried Aubergine, salad & tahini sauce. It was damn good, the falafel was perfectly crispy & the fried aubergine was amazing. I'll definitely be going back here because there are loads of other toppings I want to try, in fact there's a Maoz located in the touristy area in Paris so if I'm starving after climbing the Eiffel Tower I may have to re fuel with some tasty falafel.

After our main course we headed to Greenwich Market on the DLR to get ourselves some delicious Ms Cupcake cupcakes for dessert. I've had these before so I was super excited to be getting my paws on more of her delicious cakes.

These are the Lemon & Ferrero Rocher cupcakes. The Ferrero Rocher was SO good, chocolate cake with chocolate hazelnut spread & nutty chocolate icing rolled in chopped hazelnuts. As a big chocolate & nut fan this probably replaced her mint chocolate cupcake as my all time favourite!

After wandering around for a while we were in need of more food & we headed to Mildred's for dinner, I was amazed they managed to find us a table because it was super busy!

I ordered the mixed mushroom, porcini & ale pie served with fries & mushy peas.

I thought the pie was pretty good & I loved the huge chunky chips but it turns out that I don't like mushy peas, at all. I love peas, I love stuff with peas in or pea puree but mushy peas, hell no! I'd definitely go back to Mildred's though because they have a few more vegan dishes I'd like to try.

If I can get WiFi tomorrow you'll be seeing pictures of my Paris eat's but if not don't worry I have some backup posts ready and raring to go! Au revoir!

Vegan MoFo Day 25 - Pho

As I mentioned yesterday a couple of nights ago Nick & I went out for dinner at a new restaurant in Brighton, Pho. I'd had a look at the menu online & there were definitely things that sounded vegan so we were pretty optimistic.

The restaurant is located in a building which used to be an office block which also happens to be the building where Nick & I first met so it was super fun to be able to go back there over 6 years later for a meal & to laugh at the silly (& probably very obvious) cross-office flirting we used to do.

We both started by ordering some juice to sip whilst we perused the menu, I went for apple, lime & mint.

This was obviously freshly squeezed & I loved the combo of lime & apple with the slightly minty after taste - yum.

We, as vegans, obviously had a few questions for our waitress when she came back to take our orders & she was SO awesome. As soon as I said we were vegan she said that they they don't use any egg or dairy (except for the coffees & desserts) and that we had the option to choose vegetable stock for any of the soups. It was so nice to see someone in a non-veggie chain restaurant who seemed to understand veganism.

To start we decided to share the Summer Rolls.

As a vegan you have the choice of two dipping sauces, peanut or sweet chilli & we went with the peanut. These were really light, fresh & delicious & there wasn't too much basil which was good as I sometimes find that it overwhelms the other flavours.

We couldn't decide what we wanted to order as a main so we just picked two things & shared them. Firstly the Bun Chay, rice noodles topped with stir fried vegetables, fresh herbs, peanuts, a spring roll and our choice of mushrooms & tofu.

As is traditional in Vietnam the noodles in this dish are served cold whilst the rest of the meal is warm, I wasn't sure I'd like this but of course it worked really well. The tofu was delicious & there were a huge amount of mushrooms but I think the star of this choice was the spring roll, we'll definitely be ordering a whole plate of these each next time - yum. This dish usually comes with a side of nuoc cham sauce but as stated on the menu this contains fish sauce so to make it vegan you just need to let them know & they'll bring you a ginger soy sauce instead.

Secondly the Pho Chay, a Pho noodle soup with tofu & mushrooms.

This comes with a side plate of beansprouts & different herbs which you can use to flavour the dish just the way you want it, I'm not going to pretend to know which herb I chose to flavour my dish but it smelled great & tasted even better. The soup was full of little button mushrooms & the tofu was light & airy, it was really great & this is definitely what I'll be ordering next time.

Dessert is usually something vegan's have to skip when dining in a chain restaurant but not here, we were really impressed when they told us that not only were the sorbet's vegan but so were the banana fritters, amazing. It was taking them a long time to bring over our desserts & we were wondering what was going on when our first waitress came over to tell us that the waitress who'd taken our dessert order had got it wrong & that the banana fritters were not actually vegan - the batter contains a mix of dairy & coconut milks. We were fine with that & glad that they were being honest but what we weren't expecting was that the reason it was taking so long was because the chef was busy in the kitchen making this dish vegan - how nice is that? So if you're dining at Pho, try asking if they can make you a vegan version of their banana fritters, it can be done & they were certainly delicious.

The batter was light & airy and our lovely waitress said that they did in fact look better than the usual one's!

I choose the mango sorbet because the menu said that it had over 55% real fruit & I was sure that it would actually be a decent sorbet not some tasteless chunk of freezer burnt ice.

It was really good, it was hard to keep Nicks spoon away from it. I'm really looking forward to trying either their Pear or Strawberry and Fresh Basil sorbet next time.

As a vegan eating out at a chain restaurant I have to say this has been the best experience I've ever had, the staff were amazing, the food was top notch & it was so cool that they went out of their way to veganise a dessert just for us. Thanks guys!

Pho currently has four London locations as well as the one in Brighton & hopefully there'll be more soon because this place deserves to be bigger than Wagamama!