Vegan Adventures - London Edition

Our first stop of the vegan food trail was Mildreds in Soho. The restaurant, which opened in 1988, serves some of the best vegetarian and vegan food in London. I opted for the smoked tofu, lentil and piquillo pepper burger with chips, and it was easily the tastiest vegan burger I've ever had. My mum picked the fennel and sun blushed tomato sausages which were also delicious.

You can't go to a vegan restaurant and not have a cake, so I picked for the Jamaican banana and date pudding with rum raisins, rum butter sauce and coconut whipped cream. I devoured the whole thing within about a minute because it was just incredible. Whoever said eating vegan food was boring has clearly never tasted cake like this.

On Saturday, we headed to Tibits for lunch. It's a vegetarian and vegan buffet style restaurant where you pay for the wait of your plate. They had a huge selection of foods, so I piled my plate with lots including sweet potato curry, falafel, rice, salad, noodles and spiced wedges. The lighting inside wasn't ideal, so these aren't exactly the best photos. They had a few desserts to pick from too, so I went for sticky toffee pudding with vegan cream, mango mousse and strawberries.

On Saturday night, we went to Cybercandy in Convent Garden. I've been going to this shop before all the American candy shops started appearing all over the place. There's not a huge amount of food I can eat here anymore, but I did find the most amazing Oreos EVER!!

We also found Yorica! on Saturday night. It's a new completely vegan ice cream and frozen yoghurt shop. I picked the biggest tub with cookies and cream, chocolate beetroot and butter ice cream with caramel sauce and sprinkles. The shop was fairly small but really busy, so I guess the word is spreading that vegan ice cream is the way to go.

On Sunday, we headed to spent the morning at the British Museum before going to Spitalfields where we discovered Rubys of London and bought some baked donuts. They were delicious, so I'd definitely recommend visiting Ruby's stall if you're in the area. The stall also had a selection of cupcakes, cookies and bigger cakes that all look really tasty.

On Sunday afternoon, we did the tourist thing before heading back to Tibits for dinner. I had another great plate of food including a spicy sausage casserole and raspberry cheesecake.

So that was pretty much all the vegan food I ate in London.

Over and Out!

London Trip: Camden, NFL and vegan cakes

I wanted to get the rest of my London photos up days ago, but I've not had time between work, being off work sick, and wanting to spend most of my time reading Harry Potter.

Aside from my Harry Potter adventures in the post below, the main reason we were down in London was to watch Miami Dolphins play at Wembley Stadium, but I also found some time to visit Cookies and Scream in Camden for lots of vegan cakes.

Christmas in London.

London was pretty much all about Covent Garden, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harrods, Selfridges, Planet Hollywood, Five Guys, Camden, Cookies and Scream, and the London Aquarium. 

That Time Lena Dunham Came To London

Excuse the blurry picture, but this was the only one I had a chance to take before the usher came over and told me to put my phone away. Apparently no one was allowed to take photos, although everyone did as soon as he turned his back to walk back to the door where he was positioned.

It's an understatement to say I'm a Lena Dunham fan. I feel like the biggest Lena Dunham fan, although that's probably a point that could be argued by everyone in the room. The event at the Southbank Centre in London, which is now one of my favourite places thanks to the bars and food market outside,  was filled with other famous people I'm a fan of. The cast of Call The Midwife including Miranda Hart had their own box a few rows in front of me. And Dawn O'Porter, Daisy Lowe, Gemma Cairney, Sarah Millican and Richard E Grant were also in the audience.

Caitlin Moran introduced Lena who came on and read a chapter from the book. I was hoping she would read 'A Guide To Running Away For Twenty-Seven-Year-Old Women' but instead she read 'Sex Scenes, Nude Scenes, and Publicly Sharing Your Body' which is still one of my favourite chapters in the book. Once the reading was done, she sat down to chat to Caitlin about the book, Girls, being a girl, and pretty much everything in between. She also answered some questions from the audience including a woman who told her that she'd inspired her to be brave enough to leave her marriage. 

I came away from it feeling pretty empowered by the whole thing. It was really amazing to be in a room filled with so many women who share similar views to you. Women who happy to celebrate another woman's success rather than being jealous and bitching about it. To see Lena, who is not much older than me, doing so much really gives me some ambition to chase other aspects of my professional life in the new year. My job is great and I don't want to change that at all, but I do want to write a lot more, and try and get back into broadcasting in some way too. 

London Times!

On Monday, I headed down to London with Jenn for a few days of musicals, drinks, sun and adventures.

I was looking to try as many new vegan places as possible, so we went to Vitao on Oxford Street to get some dinner. It was really small place with a choice of organic juices, salads and hot dishes. I ended up with a bit of everything includes noodles, broccoli and a tomato and chickpea tagine.

The best of all though was the selection of raw cakes and cookies they had. I opted for a coconut apple tart and Jenn picked some chocolate cake.

After we ate it was time to go see Billy Elliot. It was never a musical that was high up my list of things I wanted to see, but going on a recommendation from someone at the Edinburgh Playhouse, I figured it had to be good. It wasn't just good though, it was one of the best musicals I've ever seen. If you've not seen it yet, then I really recommend it. The dancing was fantastic, and some parts were a lot darker and emotional than I ever really expected it to be. I'm just hoping it goes on tour soon so it come up to Edinburgh. 

We decided to go experience some culture on Tuesday with a trip to the British Museum. Obviously the first stop inside was the gift shop, and then we just spent a couple of hours walking around all the exhibitions. 

We spent Tuesday afternoon watching Jersey Boys. I managed to get us a couple of complimentary tickets through work as the show is coming up to the Edinburgh Playhouse in October. Our seats ended up being just a few rows from the front, so we really couldn't have asked for a better place to watch the show. The story of Frankie Valli isn't one that i really knew, but with songs that are instantly recognisable it was a great show. 

After Jersey Boys it was time to go to the IceBar for the first time. For someone who is cold all the time, i found it freezing even with the giant cape and gloves on. Still, it was one of the best bars I've ever been too, especially since they served you cocktails in giant ice cubes.

We had a few hours on Wednesday before the train ride home. It was just enough time to go to the British Library and have a walk around Camden.

I took Jenn to my favourite Brazilian bar for cocktails, and then we obviously had to make a stop by the best vegan bakery I've come across called Cookies and Scream. I've been there four times this year already, but this was the first time I tried an ice cream sandwich and it was definitely worth the wait.

A Weekend of Adventures

I seem to have got into the habit of going away at the weekend, but also not posting about it when i get back. I spent this weekend up north visiting my best friend Cara in Arbroath. We walked along the beach, visited Pleasureland, drank frozen cocktails, watched The Little Mermaid and caught up on everything that's been happening. I also got over my fear of dodgems. I think in itself that's a big achievement for someone who has been scared to go on them since she was 8 years old.

The weekend before last i went down to London to visit an old friend. It was a really impulsive Friday night decision, but one that was worth it even if a round of two drinks cost me over £10. We spent Saturday afternoon getting drunk in Camden, and drinking passion and mango caipiroska in my favourite Brazilian bar. We spent the night watching the football at an apartment with an amazing rooftop terrace, and I also discovered i'm actually pretty great at pool. On Sunday morning i managed to sneak in a visit to my favourite vegan bakery before the long journey home.

I guess now i just need to decide where to go on my next adventure! 

London: Taylor Swift & Vegan Cakes!

I've been meaning to do a London update since i got back last Wednesday, but between catching up on sleep and drinking vodka, I've not yet found the time to do it.

So yeah, i went to London with my sister to see Taylor Swift. People can say what they want about her, but she really can sing. She also sings songs which i can sadly relate to 95% of the time, and i guess there's something therapeutic in singing the lyrics to 'Mean' at the top of your voice. 

First stop on the trip was Camden to find Cookies and Scream. It's this great vegan bakery tucked away in the market selling everything from brownies to cookies, and donuts to pies. I opted for the most delicious banana, cinnamon and choc chip bread I've ever tasted. They even offered to warm it up for me, which is made it even tastier. I just wish i could find a bakery this good in Scotland, although maybe that wouldn't do my healthy eating all that good.

So after a walk around the market, it was time to head to the O2 arena for the show. And obviously, i joined a queue of people waiting to have their photo taken next to the giant Taylor billboard.

We ended up having much better seats that we thought we would have. We were on the raked seating, but just above an exit so there was no one sitting in front of us. I loved pretty much all of the set, although i would have happily done without the new version of 'You Belong With Me' because it was nowhere near as good as the original. For our special guest, we got Danny O'Donoghue from The Script. I never ever thought that would have excited me, but turns out he was actually pretty good.

We spent the next day wandering around the giant Topshop on Oxford Street, and shopping down Carnaby Street before our trip was over, and we faced the long train ride home.