London and Brighton food photos.
Over the past couple of days, my brother and I visited London and Brighton respectively so that I could have a look around the Universities, ready to apply for my PGCE in 2010 (sometimes I can be super organised!) Of course, most of these two days was spent seeking out vegan goodies, photos of which can be found here:
Red Veg, London.
I had the hickory smoked burger with fries and breaded mushrooms, and it was one of the most amazing junk food meals I've ever had. The burger tasted kind of scarily non-vegan, with mayo, onion, tomato, pickle and BBQ sauce in a really soft white bun. Matt had the Red Veg burger with (dairy) cheese and said it was absolutely delicious - high praise from an omni!
Later on, Matt and I split up so that I could look around the Institute of Education, and he could go to a couple of photography exhibitions. My visit seemed fairly pointless in a way, as I was directed to the email address for my queries (why, when I was right there?!), but I did get to look around the accommodation, which was really useful. Approximately £160 a week gets you a small single room with a shared kitchen and bathroom in Bloomsbury. Obscene! I'm going to look into flat shares and see if they're any cheaper.
Inspiral Lounge, London.
Following this, I decided to head to Camden to visit Inspiral Lounge. I'd heard great reports about their cakes and ice creams, and had to give them a go, even though my stomach was still full to bursting following our Red Veg visit. I opted for a hot chocolate made with rice milk, and then was offered soy squirty cream on top, which I couldn't refuse. Back in Kettering, even plain old soy milk is near impossible to come by in cafés! In hindsight, I wouldn't have mixed the two milks, but who am I to turn down vegan squirty cream? I have since decided that rice milk is very well suited to hot chocolate, and may try to make the switch over from soy. I got the cake to take out (cost: £3.20), as I wanted to enjoy it later that evening rather than eat for the sake of eating, and got a tiny raw chocolate and raspberry-truffle-type thing. Whilst it tasted distinctly "alternative", which seemed to tie in with the extremely hippy-ish feel of Inspiral Lounge, I very much appreciated the healthier type of vegan food at that point in time. However, at £1.25 per piece, it's not something I'll be having again in a rush.
Chinese Restaurant, Epping.
That evening, Pete treated Matt and I to a Chinese meal at a local Epping Restaurant. I picked at the seaweed from their starter plate, and had the mixed vegetables and black bean tofu as my main course, as I was still feeling totally stuffed. A little Red Veg goes a long way! When we got back to the house, I ate what remained of my tiramisu cake. I had guarded it safely all afternoon, but then as soon as we got off the tube and headed into Tesco, I dropped the damn thing and the beautiful layered presentation was ruined! Although I didn't get the full experience from the cake, it was still absolutely delicious. The cream filling, which I had worried would taste distinctly of soy and/or be grainy in texture as so many cakes I've bought from "healthier" shops have done, was in fact very creamy, smooth and slightly sweet. I had expected more of a coffee 'hit' from a tiramisu cake, and if I was to be extremely picky I'd be tempted to say that the cake was a little dry, but luckily this was more than compensated for by the rich cream. I'd highly recommend both the cake and Inspiral Lounge, vegans and non-vegans alike.
Red Veg, Brighton.
Thursday was a trip to Brighton, land of vegan dreams! I'd heard so much about this city that I was worried I might have built it up too much in my head, but I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. After having had a very quick look around the University, we jumped on the train from Falmer to Brighton, and headed straight to Red Veg. Yes, I'm hooked. The Brighton branch is considerably larger than its London-based counterpart, which I much preferred. The very attractive staff in Brighton had absolutely no influence over this decision, honestly. Brighton is full of beautiful people! But back to the food... I got exactly the same as the day before, whereas Matt got the vegan hot dog with onions. I tried a bit, and yet again, Red Veg had got it totally right. They may not be the healthiest of places to eat, but it makes me very happy indeed that places like this actually exist, so as to show that vegans can still enjoy junk food if they want to as well.
Infinity Foods Café, Brighton.
We wandered around the city for a bit and enjoyed the variety of alternative shops Brighton has to offer. I could have spent so much money there, damn my unemployment! Not surprisingly, I saved the majority of my money for food, and after a wander down to the beach where it started raining, we ran back up to Infinity Foods Café for a cup of tea and a cake until the weather settled down. Matt and I shared a Chelsea bun, which I had warmed up a little, and a slice of chocolate gateau. The bun had the perfect texture, being yeasty and light, but there was too much cinnamon for me to deal with, which is a real shame because other than that it was almost perfect. Matt said that the chocolate gateau was one of the nicest cakes he'd ever had (which he then changed to being the nicest "shop bought" cake he'd ever had, remembering I was sitting right there!) and I'd have to agree that it was way up there, being chocolatey without being so rich that we couldn't finish it. There isn't an individual photo of the chocolate cake because Matt was so eager to dig in, and had demolished half by the time I had even begun on my bun!
Sweet shop, Brighton.
Finally, wandering round yet more of the city, we came across a fantastic sweet shop, which sold both honey-free honeycomb, and VEGAN BONBONS. I had gotten a little excited when I saw the label for "gelatin-free bonbons", but had assumed that there would still be dairy in the ingredients, or something similar. The strawberry ones contained non-vegetarian red food colouring, but the plain vanilla and the lemon varieties were absolutely fine. I bought 3 bags and am now waiting for my teeth to drop out.
Shakeaway, Brighton.
We got so caught up in wandering around aimlessly, and with Matt's clothes shopping at an ace independent vintage shop that we lost track of time and didn't make it back to Shakeaway! Thankfully, the other day I found out that Kettering's "Crazy Udder" stocks both soy milk and ice cream, so I won't be totally deprived of vegan milk shakes. Plus, it's yet another incentive to go back to Brighton!
I think that the visits have confirmed that I would be happy living in either city (so long as money allows!), though London definitely has the edge over Brighton in terms of the PGCE course available. I will almost certainly be applying to both of them, though, and fingers crossed I'll be living in one of those cities in September 2010!