VeganMoFo 2017: Lunch Box, Vernazza

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Jenny

Usually I choose my holiday destinations based on vegan options, so it seems strange that I even went to the Cinque Terre, nevermind that I enjoyed it so much!  But it’s true: I’m already dreaming of going back one day when the hiking trails are all open.  You can either hike or get the train between the five little villages, but over this summer three of the paths were closed.  As such, we decided to only pack our summer sandals for the whole trip and give the other two paths a miss.  We also only spent a whirlwind 24 hours there, so short hops on the train definitely made sense.  But we will be back one day to do it properly!  Hopefully by the time we do so, the vegan situation will have improved.

Lunch Box in Vernazza is another of the few places with advertised and labelled vegan options.  You can probably get some classic marinara pizza (just with tomato sauce) or spaghetti with tomato and basil pretty much anywhere, but if you want certified vegan food you seem to be limited to a few sandwiches and a reasonable amount of gelato.  Not too shabby if you’re only there for a few days and not exerting yourself on the trails.

I was looking out for this place because I’d seen online that they had a vegan sandwich.  And here it was!

It was a little more expensive than the previous vegan sandwich in Corniglia, and not quite as good – the bread was warm but everything else was cold, and it was a bit heavier on the salad than the roasted veg.  Still, the pesto was really nice, as was the bread.

Top tip if you visit this place: don’t order the local lemonade!  It was €6 for a glass and it was very tart.  Still, it’s a good place for a quick stop.

Vernazza itself is really charming too.  The main road runs straight from the train station to the sea (past Lunch Box on the left), making it very compact. When you arrive at the sea, you won’t know if it’s better to gaze out to the sea or back at the colourful houses of the village – everything is just so pretty!

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VeganMoFo 2017: Vegan Gelato in the Cinque Terre

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Jenny

I feel like it’s the law that you have to have an ice cream when you’re by the sea. And maybe generally when you’re on a summer holiday?  While in Italy, Dr HH and I decided to treat ourselves to a gelato every day.  We hadn’t planned this beforehand, but somehow it just happened, and once we noticed the trend we decided to plough on.  We couldn’t have done this without some solid vegan-friendly options in the Cinque Terre, where there isn’t too much online info about vegan options.

In Corniglia on our first night, we found two vegan options almost directly opposite each other.  We went to this one, Gelateria Corniglia.  It was on Via Fieschi, the main street through the village (just a few doors down from Pan e Vin).

They had about six vegan options listed on the blackboard, so I treated myself to the dark chocolate.  Although I got the cup, the cones were also vegan.  It was €2 for this, which I later realised was quite a good deal for the tourist trail in Italy.

Just across the street at Via Fieschi 74 was Alberto Gelateria, which I didn’t visit, but which also advertised vegan flavours and has more of a social media presence.

The next day in Manarola we spotted the Gelateria Cinque Terre – alas, closed on Wednesdays, which is precisely when we were there.  Again, it was on the main street and should be easy to spot.

That meant we had to find another option for our daily gelato.  We finally found it in Monterosso, the last of the villages (and truthfully, the worst – the centre isn’t so pretty and it’s mostly a beach resort, but the beaches are all stones rather than sand).  I had given up hope of spotting any vegan-friendly signs, so told Dr HH to just grab a dairy ice cream for himself. As he was ordering at Gelateria La Scogliera, he pointed out a sign on the counter advertising vegan cones.

I enquired, and found that they had four fruity vegan flavours, plus a vegan dark chocolate. Hurrah!  We were both so hot and thirsty that we each got two fruity vegan scoops.  On the left is my mango and raspberry cone, and on the right Dr HH’s mango and lemon.  I have never been so refreshed as when I devoured this by the sea!

So if you decide to follow my lead and have an ice cream every day when you’re in Italy, the good news is that it’s easy to do even in the Cinque Terre!

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VeganMoFo 2017: Pan e Vin, Corniglia

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Jenny

I was super excited to visit the Cinque Terre after leaving Bergamo, if a bit anxious about the vegan situation there.  We arrived in the early evening, and decided to get the train from our accommodation in La Spezia (not one of the five villages) to Corniglia (the middle village) because we knew from Happy Cow that there was a vegan-friendly cafe there.

After a short train ride and a long climb up 365 stairs from the station to the village proper, we were devastated to arrive at 0km and find that they had nothing vegan at all.  Fortunately, just a few doors down, we spotted this sign outside Pan e Vin. A great vegan victory!

There were lots of jovial old Italian men inside, but the woman behind the counter spoke good English and was very friendly.  There were two tiny tables outside on the main little street through the village.

The vegan sandwich was warmed up for me, and it was really, really good.  The focaccia was oily and herby, and it was stuffed with roasted artichoke, red pepper, courgette and aubergine, along with some cold lettuce and tomato.  It was delicious!  It cost €4.50, which seemed pretty reasonable given the size and location of the cafe.

This was the only advertised vegan dish, but Dr HH got the bruschette trio and two of them were also vegan if not topped with pesto (and the server checked before putting it on), so this one could also be veganised.

This was a beautiful introduction to the Cinque Terre!

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VeganMoFo 2017: Dolce Vita, Bergamo

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Jenny

Finding vegan croissants is the main goal of my holidays, and if you find good ones on your first morning it really takes the pressure off the rest of the vacation.  Enter Dolce Vita, a charming little pasticceria in Bergamo.

There’s a lovely little outdoor terrace, and a seriously tempting display cabinet inside full of cakes and pastries.  We would have loved to stay for a sit down and leisurely breakfast, but we were hurrying for a train so just had to get something to takeaway.  The staff mostly spoke Italian, and mine is a little rusty, but I understood that all of the pastries were vegan, though they do have dairy milk for hot drinks (preventing it from being an all-vegan place).

We got these incredible chocolate croissants to eat on the train – though I cannot in good conscience recommend eating them on public transport as they are extremely flaky!  Oh, they were divine – one of the culinary highlights of the trip.  They were filled with chocolate spread and were just delicious.

We also got two plain croissants to keep for breakfast the following day, and they kept very well indeed.  Again, the pastries were flaky, buttery and delicious.

I think Bergamo is well worth a visit for the charming old town up the hill…but mostly for this place!  Add it to your itinerary, you won’t regret it!

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VeganMoFo 2017: Universo Vegano, Bergamo

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Jenny

UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2018

My culinary adventure in Italy began in Bergamo!  Bergamo is a small and beautiful town not far from Milan, which many Brits are only familiar with because Ryanair fly there from the UK.  It’s quite fast to go directly from Bergamo airport to Milan, but I think it’s definitely worth spending a little time in Bergamo itself too, so we stayed there for one night when we arrived in Italy  in July.

It’s not exactly a vegan haven, but there are some solid options.  We were staying just down the road from Universo Vegano, a vegan fast food chain which we spotted in most cities we visited in Italy.  It’s a nice, bright place with quick and cheerful service.  The menu is quite extensive, though it’s all bread-based:  various kinds of wraps, sandwiches, burger, focaccia, etc.  And the menu is in both English and Italian, to make things easier for us tourists.  The staff also spoke English on our visit, and were very friendly.  There were quite a few seats inside (and a dog bowl too, so your canine companions are welcome), but it’s also possible to get takeaway.

Dr HH tried the vegan chop, which is a little difficult to spot amongst all that salad.  It was good though – the soy cutlet was really nice, but was a little overwhelmed by all the mayo and cheese.  The bread was excellent, really seedy and crisp.

My dish was the clear winner:  this mushroom burger was so full of flavour, it was really beautiful.  Again, the bread was good and crisp.  This was a fine start to the holiday, if not particularly Italian – it took us a few days to get anything Italian (besides gelato – more on that to come!).  There were also some elegant-looking desserts, but we just didn’t have room and were keen to get exploring.

From Universo Vegano it’s a short walk uphill to the old town, lording it over the rest of the city.  It’s pleasant to wander along the main street of the old town, peering in the little shops and eateries.  The main square is very photogenic, and leads to two huge churches.  Very fancy!

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VeganMoFo 2017

Posted on September 30, 2017 by Jenny

Have you heard? It’s time for VeganMofo 2017!  I’ll be posting on my blog every day in October. Like last year, I’m combining my love of travel with my love of vegan food, but this time it’s all about Italy!  This July I followed in the footsteps of two of my favourite comedy duos (Dev and Arnold in Master of None, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip) and spent a fortnight exploring Italy with my best friend and eating everything I physically could.

Our journey focused on northern Italy.  We started in Bergamo, just outside Milan and, crucially, home to a Ryanair airport. Then we visited the Cinque Terre, five charming towns on the coast which I had long wanted to visit. Next, we popped up to Milan which we mostly used as a base for visiting Lake Como.  From there it was just a short hop to fair Verona – great for visiting another lake, Lake Garda.  We couldn’t miss out Venice, of course, and spent a few days there enjoying art, canals and ice cream!  And we finished our trip in Bologna, though we managed to sneak in one more day trip, this time to Ravenna.

Of course, I spent much of the holiday looking for good food, and much of it scribbling down notes about every morsel I devoured!  So, every day I’m going to post a review of one of the eateries I visited, and tell you some of the things I saw along the way. So if you want to know what a vegan eats for two weeks in Italy, stay tuned!

Happy VeganMoFo 2017!

 

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Cookbook of the Month: A Vegan Taste of Greece

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Jenny

A Vegan Taste of Greece is the third book I’ve tried from Linda Majzlik’s series, and I have to be honest and say that I’m not sure I’ve given it a very fair trial.  I started a new job in September and have been quite busy with that and getting into my new routine, so I haven’t had quite as much time as usual for poring over my recipe books. Still, I managed eleven new dishes this month, and here they are!


The aubergine and orzo soup was really simple and tasty.  I used a tin of tomatoes and cut down on the stock a little, making it a bit thicker and stew-like, which is always a good thing in my opinion!  It was a nice, but unremarkably-flavoured soup.

The fassolada had a lot more going on!  Butter beans, potatoes, vegetables, olives:  quite the party. I made this just as the weather was turning autumnal, and it really hit the spot.

Of course I had to try the moussaka.  I used a tin of tomatoes rather than fresh ones, and used feto cheese on top, but otherwise followed the recipe.  The dish was really flavoursome and the aubergine cooked beautifully. Alas, the potato slices were a touch too hard – I always find it difficult to balance the thinness with the appropriate cooking time, they always end up either mushy or underdone.  Still, I’d recommend it.

I made an obvious change to the spaghetti with sun-dried tomato and vegetable sauce: no spaghetti!  You can’t go wrong with sun-dried tomatoes, they really brought the flavour to this dish.

The aubergine baked pasta was lovely. It had a good hit of fennel seeds,which made it quite different from the other dishes we’d been eating.  I added more pasta to fill us up, and I blitzed nooch and pecans to make a parmesan crumb to throw on top, which I’d highly recommend!

The lemon-flavoured lentil stew was one of my favourites. I added a little extra stock to make it a bit more soupy, and used tinned rather than dried lentils, but kept everything else the same. I loved the little bits of broccoli, and the delicious lemony background.  I’ll have this again!

I was a little underwhelmed by the pea and orzo salad – until I added my precious feto and it got extra tasty!  I ditched the cucumber, but I don’t think that had a detrimental effect on the appearance as there was already some green in there. It was unspectacular.

The bulgar, bean and walnut salad looked a little light, so I added some smoked tofu and olives to give it some more flavour.  Even without the additional treats, it was really delicious and had much more taste than the other salad.  A very good choice!

I was a little nervous about trying the sesame cookies, but I had all the ingredients in so I thought it made sense to give them a whirl. I worried they’d be a bit savoury, and truthfully they could do with just a touch more sugar, but they were really lovely!  The texture was great too.  I’m not sure this was the shaping I was meant to achieve, but who really cares?!

The almond cakes were actually cookies – like all of Linda’s cookies, they weren’t too sweet and had the perfect texture.  I didn’t have any cognac in, of course, so I just used vanilla essence. I was very happy with the result.

I made the yoghurt and almond cake in cupcake form, for ease of popping them in lunch boxes.  This recipe was a big hit!  The sponge was light and nutty, and I liked the sweet syrup gluing the almonds on top.

And that’s it!  I will definitely turn again to the bulgar salad, lemon stew and yoghurt cake, and hopefully one day I’ll have time to explore the book a little more fully.

My usual complaints about this series stand (no pictures, no chat, not as user-friendly as most modern cookbooks), but I continue to find them very reliable for a quick and flavoursome meal.  I managed to pick up two more from the series second-hand recently, so there’ll be more from Linda in the near future!

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Vegan in Prague: Five Sweet Finds in/around Vinohrady

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Jenny

Last week I introduced you to my top vegan sweet treats in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. This week I’m shining the spotlight on my adopted city, Prague!  Unfortunately, this time I haven’t got a short and snappy name for the area I’m covering:  technically, these places are not all in Vinohrady, but they’re all approximately a five minute walk from Jiřího z Poděbrad Metro station.  This area is generally very good indeed for vegan food, but I’m just focusing on the most important food group: dessert.

1.Moment Cafe (Slezská 62)

UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2024

Moment Choc Orange Strawberry Vanilla (2)

This is my go-to place for cake in Prague (as regular readers may remember).  When we first arrived, it was one of the few places we knew of that had baked cakes – Prague has a multitude of raw restaurants, but sponge cakes can be few and far between.  Even now that we have more options, this is still our first choice, always.  Moment has at least 6 options every day, usually a combination of layer cakes, cheesecakes and brownies.  You will be spoiled for choice!  The cafe is 100% vegan, and does a good range of hot drinks too – the hot chocolate is excellent.

2.Donut Shop (nám. J. z Poděbrad 1658/11)

UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2022

When we returned to Prague in August after our summer holiday, we were delighted to find that a vegan-friendly donut shop had just opened in our neighbourhood.  They have three or four fluffy vegan donuts every day (clearly labelled, and the staff know their stuff), both ring and filled varieties, and they’ve got plant milk for hot drinks too.  We’ve already been more times than I should probably admit. That lavender donut has me hooked!

3.Coffee Room (Korunní 1208/74)

Coffee Room is another one that I only discovered after the summer holiday, so we have some catching up to do!  As well as a variety of vegan-friendly, avocado-based breakfasts, they also serve up 3-4 vegan cakes daily. It’s a really pleasant place to relax and nurse a hot drink and slice of cake, though unfortunately the outdoor seating looks out onto quite a busy road.

4.Puro (Vinohradská 2030/44)

UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2019

I’ve mentioned Puro once or twice before – they have hot chocolate so thick you can eat it with a spoon, and always a tempting display case of baked and raw desserts.  If you need any more reason to visit, they also sell chocolate bars, biscuits and ice cream so you can continue indulging your sweet tooth in the comfort of your own home/hotel room.

5.Mamacoffee (nám. J. z Poděbrad 12)

Mama Coffee (1)

There are several branches of Mamacoffee dotted around the city, including this tiny one in the square at JzP.  It has  both indoor and outdoor seating, and at least one vegan cake every day, such as these little chocolate bundt cakes or cinnamon rolls. They also have soy milk for hot drinks.  The main branch in Prague 1 (reviewed here) has multiple vegan cakes on offer, if you’re venturing further afield.

Which of these sweet spots would be top of your list in Prague?

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Vegan in Manchester: Five Sweet Finds in the Northern Quarter

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Jenny

Teacup

It’s no secret that I love Manchester, my home base whenever I’m back in the UK.  I especially love how easy it is to find vegan desserts there! In the hip and trendy Northern Quarter it becomes especially easy to find a little cruelty-free treat, so today I’m sharing five of my favourite spots in that one little corner of the city.  (Please note there are many more than just these five options, but these are my personal top choices.)

1.Foundation Coffee House (Sevendale House, Lever Street)

Foundation Manchester

The first time I went to Foundation they had three different vegan cakes in, much to my delight.  (The second time it was their first day opening after Christmas and they only had one cake in the whole place and seemed confused as to whether it was vegan or gluten-free, but I understand that in normal circumstances they are well-stocked and well-labelled.)  This chocolate almond cake in particular is definitely a winner.  The cafe is really huge and light, but the acoustics can be a bit of a nightmare.

2.Oak Street Cafe (17 Oak Street)

Oak St Cafe

This little cafe inside the Manchester Craft and Design Centre is a great find.  They have vegan soups on the menu, and there’s always at least one vegan cake to be found.  This was the biggest slice of tiffin I have ever seen, and I struggled to get through it.  I did it though, somehow.  After you’ve eaten, it’s worth having a little potter around the shops as well – it’s a really lovely little shopping centre full of independent art galleries and jewellery makers, and more.

3. Fig & Sparrow (20 Oldham Street)

fig-and-sparrow-1

Fig & Sparrow is a lovely little cafe and gift shop in the Northern Quarter that always has a vegan cake on offer, along with a selection of non-dairy milks for their hot drinks and a few breakfast and light meal options.  If you’re lucky, they’ll have a vegan pecan brownie:  probably the best brownie I’ve ever had.

4. Ginger’s Comfort Emporium (Afflecks, Church Street)

We discovered the GCE ice cream van at Levy Market a few years ago, when their only vegan option combined two of my least favourite things:  watermelon and chilli. Dr HH tried their dairy ice cream, the famous Chorlton Crack (peanut butter and salted caramel). Since then he has raved about it on an almost daily basis, and he finally wore me down and convinced me to visit their regular establishment in Afflecks Palace and see if their vegan options were more to my liking.  And, lo:  they have veganised Chorlton Crack!  It is perhaps the most delicious ice cream you will ever try.  Cones aren’t vegan, but you don’t really need anything else with it.  If you can handle two scoops, you’re my hero.

5.BonBon Chocolate Boutique (9 John Street)

UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT CLOSED IN 2019

Not only is the hot chocolate vegan in this cute little cafe, but they’ve also really upped their baked vegan goods range in the last few years.  This salted peanut brownie was really rich, as you would expect from a place specialising in chocolate!  They also often have vegan skull cookies and plenty of truffles to choose from.

Which place would be top of your list for a vegan treat?

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MiniMoFo: Mowgli, Manchester

Posted on September 4, 2017 by Jenny

September’s MiniMoFo theme is literary inspirations. As usual, I cheated a bit:  rather than creating a dish inspired by a book, I went to a restaurant named after a character from The Jungle Book!

I tried to go to Mowgli in Liverpool once and failed.  As usual, Manchester performed better than its north-west rival.  Mowgli is located in the Corn Exchange in the city centre, alongside numerous other restaurants with vegan options (including Phở). There is a separate vegan menu, which is always inspiring. In summer I popped along with my family and we ended up with an all-veggie, mostly vegan selection.  Here are the vegan dishes we tried:

Dr HH had these tamarind treacle chips, which my mum and I both found a little too sweet.  Dr HH loved the flavour of the sauce, but would have preferred it on the side, as the potatoes got a little too soggy for his tastes.

I was very excited about trying the chip butty, because potato and bread are two of my favourite things.  The little potato chunks around the plate were delicious, but the sauce was pure fire!  I’m not sure I’d be able to handle this a second time, but I’d like to give it a whirl.

The temple dahl was much milder and easier to eat – very pleasant indeed!

The tea-steeped chickpeas on the right were probably the highlight:  packed with flavour, and you can’t beat a good chickpea.  And the picnic potatoes on the left were quite spicy, but also delicious.

mowgli-1

Here’s another combination of dishes from when I visited with friends on a separate occasion:  in the top left you can see the rather exciting green ginger and rhubarb dahl.  This was a bit too exciting to pass up on!  The flavour was great (the rhubarb wasn’t overpowering), and it was nice to try something completely different.  In the middle we had roti and rice, and the chickpeas and potatoes are there again. Everything was spicy in the sense of being flavoursome rather than fiery from chillies.  You could really taste all the flavours.

mowgli-2

I’ve now been to Mowgli with four non-vegans, all of whom have enjoyed their vegan or veggie options (though they do serve meat as well, if you’re companions require it).  Good food, fast and friendly service, and a lovely setting – what more could you ask for?

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