Month: November 2018

Lunch at Vx

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I have been going to Vx ever since I went vegan over six years ago although it has been a while since my last visit. As we were going to an event in Kings Cross we decided to stop in for lunch.

Vx has evolved over the years, initially as a grocery store with a cake counter it is now more of a cafe with a couple of fridges of groceries.

I went for the ribs with fries and side of mac and cheese while my Husband went for the quesadilla. For the quesadilla you can choose a heat from one to five. Husband went for three just to be safe. It came with vegan beef inside and was very cheesy. He said the heat was just about right.

My ribs were crispy and smothered in barbeque sauce. I think they were a blend of soya and seitan.

The mac and cheese was perfect for me, not too saucy and topped with crispy onions and garlic mayo.

We had to have a cake for dessert. Unfortunately all the doughnuts and eclairs had gone so I had a lemon and blueberry cupcake and Husband had a chocolate and peanut cake. Both were lovely and moist and full of flavour.

I also had a peanut butter cup latte which really hit the spot.

The food is really reasonably priced. There are only three tables inside so you may have to share or wait if it’s too cold to sit outside.

Have you visited Vx recently? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x

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Lunch at Vx

The Star, Lingfield

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On Saturday we went out for dinner to celebrate my Mother-in-law’s birthday. We decided on The Star at Lingfield as it caters well to children as well as having a vegan menu.

Although I am thankful for a vegan menu I would like a hearty traditional dish featured such as pie or sausages with mash which wouldn’t be too hard to do.

It is however, great to see desserts and dairy free milk there for teas and coffees.

I decided on the Thai burger and went for regular fries rather than sweet potato. The burger patty was quite soft and I had to fight to keep it in the bun. The flavour was nice and quite spicy.

For dessert I had to go for the brownie with vanilla ice cream. The brownie was warm and gooey against the cold ice cream.

The only disappointment we had was that there had been races at the local horse track and the pub was very crowded with people standing in the restaurant area talking very loudly as well as frequently going outside for cigarettes causing a draft.

If you’re in need of a vegan meal in the area this is one of your only options so luckily the food was nice, but try to go on a non-race day if possible!

Plumes x

The Star, Lingfield

Vegan Wine and Cheese – Guest Post

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My Sister-in-law Gemma went to a Vegan Wine and Cheese night last week and agreed to tell us all about it…

“I saw a “Free Vegan Wine and Cheese”event by plantbsd infused posted online and thought i would pop along and check it out with a couple of friends from work.
It was held at a private members club in Bethnal Green which I hadn’t heard of before. It was a indoor event with eight vendors.

We were excited to check out the cheese board from “Mouse’s favourites” which did not disappoint, the stand out cheeses were the classic camembert and the aged dulse. We all agreed that we would have to get this for our own Christmas cheese board.

Two of us tried out the wine on offer which was of a great quality, albeit a little pricey for such a small cup.

Next we tried two different creole wraps from Rainforest Creations. They specialise in Caribbean raw ingredients and both were super tasty and a nice healthy option.

My friend tried the curry plate from Rouge Vegan and we loved the jerk jackfruit curry.

To finish up we could not miss out on the options Black Milq had to offer.
Their ice cream base is a mix of cashew and coconut milks which give them there distinct flavour and texture.

We tried the dark chocolate and peanut in a cone and cookie sandwich and the black sesame. All flavours were amazing and I would definitely recommend checking them out online and at other events.

As it was advertised as a cheese and wine event we felt that was a little misleading as there was only one of each vendor. There could have been more vendors offering these exact things and perhaps the option to buy the cheese we loved so much on the night.

Overall the event had a great vibe, the food options were great and a little different to what I have seen at other food events before.

Gemma”

Well that sounds great. Yes I do think it would have been a good idea to be able to buy the cheeses you tried on the night. A missed opportunity there.

Would you love a cheese and wine evening? Have you tried any of the vendors featured? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x

Vegan Wine and Cheese – Guest Post

I made my own oat milk!

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I’ve been resisting the urge to become “that kind of vegan” for a while now but seeing as I have made my own but cheese for a few years now I knew with the onset of zero waste making my own plant milk would be next on the menu!

I did a quick search online and I simply needed 100g of oats and 750ml of water.

I buy my organic oats plastic free from Zero Waste Club. So this milk is truly zero waste and costs 40p rather than the £1.60 that oat milk goes for in the supermarket.

The process is pretty straightforward.

1. Soak oats for at least 30 minutes

2. Rinse oats and discard soaking water

3. Blend oats and water together

4. Strain through cheese cloth

5. Transfer to bottle

I bought this gorgeous glass bottle in Sainsbury’s to use for my homemade milk.

You can use one litre of water if you like your milk a little thinner but I loved the mouth feel of this when I had it in a latte.

Have you considered making your own plant milk? I think I’m going to try hemp next as I can get hemp seeds on Zero Waste Club too. If you give it a try let me know how you get on in the comments below.

Plumes x

I made my own oat milk!

Unity Diner – Guest Post

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I met John and Cathy when we started doing the Cube of Truth in Romford. Cathy had been vegetarian since the age of four (!) with John converting shortly after they got together and have now been vegan for a few years. John and Cathy take part in activism events ranging from the cubes, save vigils, protests at London Fashion Week and even braved the rain to attend the one year anniversary of Canada Goose opening in London so they could commemorate the animals who have died to make the garments purchased since it opened last year.

Unity Diner is the latest endeavour of Earthling Ed with all profits going to his campaign charity Surge. I haven’t made it to the diner yet but John and Cathy went on Friday and here’s what Cathy had to say about it…

“On Friday evening me and my husband John visited Unity Diner in Hoxton for the first time. The staff were extremely friendly and offered to go through the menu with us. We were seated in a very nice spot by the brilliant art work on the wall. We were pleased to see they had an alcohol licence so we ordered two glasses of sauvignon blanc which was very nice.

For starters we wanted to order the seitan chick’n wings and the cauliflower wings, but they had run out of the seitan so we went for tofish bites instead. Both were very nice and the cauliflower came with coleslaw and ranch mayo. The tofish came with tartare sauce, we both slightly preferred the cauliflower.

For mains John ordered the Surge burger with extra cheeze, bakon and chunky fries. I ordered the mixed leaf salad with potato wedges.

The burger was massive and very tasty and the fries were nice and crispy.

My salad was lovely and the dressing was very good, the wedges were full of flavour and came with a basil mayo. We also tried their hot sauce which is not for the faint hearted and comes with quite a kick!

For dessert John had the cheesecake which was absolutely delicious and I had an ice cream sundae with strawberry and yuzu and pistachio crunch with whipped cream.

We had a very nice evening, totally recommend it but make sure to book to be sure of gettinf a table. We will definitely be going back to try the rest of the menu as the loaded fries look amazing!!!

Cathy”

Well doesn’t that all sound fabulous? I’ve been eyeing up the weekend menu which includes chick’n and waffles as well as pancakes.

Have you been to Unity Diner? Or have you been somewhere else I haven’t featured on the blog yet and would like to do a guest blog like Cathy? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x

Unity Diner – Guest Post

A week of animal activism

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I’ve had a week standing up for the animals. On Monday I attended Essex Pig Save (which I wrote about here). Save’s are a good way to see the condition of animals in your local area and reinforces your conviction to fight for the animals.

On Tuesday I joined The Humane League to do some craftivism outside McDonalds in Leicester Square. The point of this was to encourage McDonalds to sign up to the Better Chicken Committment (which you can read about on THL’s website) to improve the welfare of millions of chickens each year.

On Friday I took part in our local Earthlings event in Romford. We’ve had a few weeks off so it was good to get back out there.

Yesterday was International Cube Day organised by Anonymous For The Voiceless. Last year 190 events took place on Cube Day and this year it was up to a massive 500 including the first event in the Middle East. We managed to get 22 people to take veganism seriously in Romford and there were also other local events going on in Southend and Chelmsford. I’ll update this when I find out the global tally.

Update – 491 cubes actually happened on International Cube Day with 22,188 people going away taking veganism seriously.

Have you been doing any activism this week? Let me know in the comments below.

Plumes x

A week of animal activism