London, 08/04/09
At last, here are some of my favourite photos from my visit to London last week with my Mum, Godmother (second Mum!) and my brother. Group shot on the train!
Being the food-obsessed one of the family, I'd organised half the day around eating delicious vegan food.
We had originally planned to eat lunch at Mildred's, until we stumbled across this 100% vegan all you can eat buffet on the corner of Lexington Street:
I was extremely excited, because it reminded me of Panda Veg in Richmond, VA, only about twice the size! Whilst some of the cold fake meat in sauce selection was a bit hit and miss, there was so much choice that you'd be sure to find something you fancied. My favourite was the mock duck pancake rolls with plum sauce, which brought back memories of Saturday night takeaway whilst being allowed to stay up to watch Match of the Day. They got the thumbs up from my non-vegan brother, which can't be a bad thing. I do have a video, but at the moment I can't figure out how to put it up here (which also explains two awkward gaps later on - I'll figure it out eventually!), so here's the link instead: http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/?action=view¤t=P4080036.flv
Almost next door was Mildred's. We had decided to go there for dessert, as I'd seen that they had chocolate and raspberry vegan torte on the menu, which just sounded too good to miss. It was extremely rich and smooth, and the kind of creamy that a lot of vegan dishes fail to recreate.
There wasn't a hint of soy about it, and amazingly, I managed to eat every last bit, though I felt like I was about to pass out afterwards. Mum and Matt had rice pudding with strawberries and honeycomb, and Auntie Deanna had Panne Cotta (none of which were vegan):http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/?action=view¤t=P4080048.flv
I love how fascinated Mum is with the honeycomb; she was so absorbed in it that she didn't even notice the video being taken! We later found out that the honeycomb was in fact vegan - look how happy this made me!
Once we'd peeled ourselves out of our chairs, we decided that as we each had different ideas about how to spend our time up until dinner (I told you our day was structured around food!), so we each went our separate ways for a couple of hours. As I'd amazingly been super-organised about the trip, I had a list of vegan-friendly places I wanted to snoop around, ready for the next time I was in London. Yes, this is my idea of 'sight-seeing'! On my hunt for the ever-elusive English vegan cupcake, I stopped off at Mrs Marengo's, which was on the same street as the Chinese buffet and Mildred's. I'd heard that they occasionally had vegan cupcakes, but unfortunately there was no sign of them. I went to a Whole Foods, which also failed me on the cupcake front, and then to Beatroot, which had a couple of slices of tasty-looking cake left over, but still no cupcakes. This is given me yet more incentive to open my own vegan cupcake shop! But more of that later. I found Red Veg - a vegan fast food place, which in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't take the mothers to. I'm certainly going to pay a proper visit next chance I get, though:
I wondered around Soho for a while, because it's an area I've never really looked around before, and spent absolutely ages trying to find a knitting/craft shop called All the Fun of the Fair, which I had heard of through the London Stitch and Bitch group on Ravelry. Even though I had a map (oh yes!), I couldn't seem to find it... it turned out that it was hidden away in a magical indoor courtyard, which most shops on Carnaby street opened out onto. In case you ever go looking for it, you can definitely get there by going upstairs in the Vans shop, and out the back door there. This was the closest I got to finding vegan cupcakes in London:
After having mooched around Oxford Street for a while after that, we lost my brother in the Underground and missed our original booking at Root Master. Luckily, we found him, and they moved our table. Root Master is pretty 'out there' even by my vegan standards (it's a BUS!), but it was still pretty awesome. Once we'd found it, that is. We asked people for directions, and of course, no one had ever heard of it, but when we told them the area we were heading for we were given the feeling that we may not come back alive. For anyone who goes looking for Root Master, you need to go about mid-way on Brick lane, where you'll see the entrance of an unsigned courtyard. I can't remember exactly what the name of the sign that tipped it off for us was, but it was something like Café 1000. Here's the a photo of myself and the 'bustaurant', taken after the meal:
The mothers said it was "an experience", though my brother felt really ill for the first half an hour or so, because every time someone went up or down the stairs, the bus swayed quite a lot. Thankfully the food was good enough to make him feel better. As we were all still incredibly stuffed following our buffet and desserts earlier, the Mothers and Matt decided to get a selection of starters and one pizza instead of getting a proper three course meal. Because I refuse to pass up on the experience, I shoveled yet more food into my mouth, and shared their starters of tempura and mezze. I then had the broccoli tart, which was delicious, and the three others shared this gorgeous pizza. Auntie Deanna said it was the best pizza she ever had - quite a feat for a vegan, cheeseless pizza!
Finally came dessert. I'd never had panne cotta before, so I jumped at the chance, but immediately wished I'd gone for the banana cream pie as _meganekko_ had recommended. The panne cotta was quite bitter and grainy - definitely vegan, with a real soy taste to it. I wouldn't recommend it. Matt had an equally grainy cheesecake, but being the well brought up and polite kind of person he is, he still ate it so as not to offend me, bless him. All was not lost though, because the banana cream pie stole the show. Unfortunately I'm lacking in photos here because the sun had gone down and we didn't want to be setting off camera flashes all the time, so all I have are these:
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/?action=view¤t=P4080107.flv
We than made it out of Brick Lane alive, and trudged back to the station, full to bursting and absolutely exhausted. I had such an ace day, and it was lovely to share it with Mum, Matt and Auntie Deanna.
Being the food-obsessed one of the family, I'd organised half the day around eating delicious vegan food.
We had originally planned to eat lunch at Mildred's, until we stumbled across this 100% vegan all you can eat buffet on the corner of Lexington Street:
I was extremely excited, because it reminded me of Panda Veg in Richmond, VA, only about twice the size! Whilst some of the cold fake meat in sauce selection was a bit hit and miss, there was so much choice that you'd be sure to find something you fancied. My favourite was the mock duck pancake rolls with plum sauce, which brought back memories of Saturday night takeaway whilst being allowed to stay up to watch Match of the Day. They got the thumbs up from my non-vegan brother, which can't be a bad thing. I do have a video, but at the moment I can't figure out how to put it up here (which also explains two awkward gaps later on - I'll figure it out eventually!), so here's the link instead: http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/?action=view¤t=P4080036.flv
Almost next door was Mildred's. We had decided to go there for dessert, as I'd seen that they had chocolate and raspberry vegan torte on the menu, which just sounded too good to miss. It was extremely rich and smooth, and the kind of creamy that a lot of vegan dishes fail to recreate.
There wasn't a hint of soy about it, and amazingly, I managed to eat every last bit, though I felt like I was about to pass out afterwards. Mum and Matt had rice pudding with strawberries and honeycomb, and Auntie Deanna had Panne Cotta (none of which were vegan):http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/?action=view¤t=P4080048.flv
I love how fascinated Mum is with the honeycomb; she was so absorbed in it that she didn't even notice the video being taken! We later found out that the honeycomb was in fact vegan - look how happy this made me!
Once we'd peeled ourselves out of our chairs, we decided that as we each had different ideas about how to spend our time up until dinner (I told you our day was structured around food!), so we each went our separate ways for a couple of hours. As I'd amazingly been super-organised about the trip, I had a list of vegan-friendly places I wanted to snoop around, ready for the next time I was in London. Yes, this is my idea of 'sight-seeing'! On my hunt for the ever-elusive English vegan cupcake, I stopped off at Mrs Marengo's, which was on the same street as the Chinese buffet and Mildred's. I'd heard that they occasionally had vegan cupcakes, but unfortunately there was no sign of them. I went to a Whole Foods, which also failed me on the cupcake front, and then to Beatroot, which had a couple of slices of tasty-looking cake left over, but still no cupcakes. This is given me yet more incentive to open my own vegan cupcake shop! But more of that later. I found Red Veg - a vegan fast food place, which in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't take the mothers to. I'm certainly going to pay a proper visit next chance I get, though:
I wondered around Soho for a while, because it's an area I've never really looked around before, and spent absolutely ages trying to find a knitting/craft shop called All the Fun of the Fair, which I had heard of through the London Stitch and Bitch group on Ravelry. Even though I had a map (oh yes!), I couldn't seem to find it... it turned out that it was hidden away in a magical indoor courtyard, which most shops on Carnaby street opened out onto. In case you ever go looking for it, you can definitely get there by going upstairs in the Vans shop, and out the back door there. This was the closest I got to finding vegan cupcakes in London:
After having mooched around Oxford Street for a while after that, we lost my brother in the Underground and missed our original booking at Root Master. Luckily, we found him, and they moved our table. Root Master is pretty 'out there' even by my vegan standards (it's a BUS!), but it was still pretty awesome. Once we'd found it, that is. We asked people for directions, and of course, no one had ever heard of it, but when we told them the area we were heading for we were given the feeling that we may not come back alive. For anyone who goes looking for Root Master, you need to go about mid-way on Brick lane, where you'll see the entrance of an unsigned courtyard. I can't remember exactly what the name of the sign that tipped it off for us was, but it was something like Café 1000. Here's the a photo of myself and the 'bustaurant', taken after the meal:
The mothers said it was "an experience", though my brother felt really ill for the first half an hour or so, because every time someone went up or down the stairs, the bus swayed quite a lot. Thankfully the food was good enough to make him feel better. As we were all still incredibly stuffed following our buffet and desserts earlier, the Mothers and Matt decided to get a selection of starters and one pizza instead of getting a proper three course meal. Because I refuse to pass up on the experience, I shoveled yet more food into my mouth, and shared their starters of tempura and mezze. I then had the broccoli tart, which was delicious, and the three others shared this gorgeous pizza. Auntie Deanna said it was the best pizza she ever had - quite a feat for a vegan, cheeseless pizza!
Finally came dessert. I'd never had panne cotta before, so I jumped at the chance, but immediately wished I'd gone for the banana cream pie as _meganekko_ had recommended. The panne cotta was quite bitter and grainy - definitely vegan, with a real soy taste to it. I wouldn't recommend it. Matt had an equally grainy cheesecake, but being the well brought up and polite kind of person he is, he still ate it so as not to offend me, bless him. All was not lost though, because the banana cream pie stole the show. Unfortunately I'm lacking in photos here because the sun had gone down and we didn't want to be setting off camera flashes all the time, so all I have are these:
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/?action=view¤t=P4080107.flv
We than made it out of Brick Lane alive, and trudged back to the station, full to bursting and absolutely exhausted. I had such an ace day, and it was lovely to share it with Mum, Matt and Auntie Deanna.