Herbivores' Heaven

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Brno

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Jenny

It was in the middle of last year’s MoFo that I visited Brno on a beautiful September weekend. It was my first proper bit of travelling in the Czech Republic, and I was very excited about visiting its second biggest city. One of the main attractions is the nearby Punkva cave. I was dismayed to find out that you can book tickets for cave tours up to a year in advance: that really doesn’t leave many scraps for those of us who decide to visit with one week’s notice.

Fortunately, there were two spaces left on a tour the Saturday we were there. However, the spaces were for an 8:20am tour, which meant us getting up at 6am. After a train, a bus and a 2km walk, we were there at the caves, and I’m pleased to say it was worth it. So, if you visit Brno, plan in advance, and book your cave tour for a reasonable hour!

The one hour guided tour of the cave is in Czech, but for foreigners they have an information sheet in various languages which you can read while everyone else listens to the guide. It’s quite fun, watching the guide point out an interesting rock formation and scanning the sheet to guess what it could be: the umbrella? The coconut? The angel? We had a big clue when we arrived at the latter: a hymn was playing. Likewise, when we stood at the bottom of the Macocha Abyss, grand classical music was blaring out. I like the fact that they tried to make it an experience, but it felt unnecessary to me: the grandeur of nature was quite enough, I didn’t need anything to exaggerate that.

The highlight of the tour was when we clambered into little boats for the last part. Somehow, Dr HH and I bagged the front seats and had a lovely view of the calm water and the intricate ceilings.

There are lots of other caves within hiking distance in the area. You don’t need reservations for these ones, but you do have to pay, so we limited ourselves to one. We took a cable car up to the top of the abyss, hiked over to the other caves, and enjoyed another guided tour (with the same language set-up). Actually, despite the lack of a boat, these caves were more impressive. There were some pretty colours, some amazing formations that looked like really tall, melting wedding cakes, and in the grandest chamber we got to watch a light show set to a pan-pipe version of Unchained Melody. We dissolved into bewildered giggles, but everyone else seemed to be ok with it.

And after a long day of exploring over- and underground, you need some sustenance. You need something good, and preferably something Czech. You need Vegalite!

It’s an underground (literally) vegetarian pub, smoking in the main room, more’s the pity, with a smaller non-smoking cavern. This one isn’t in view of the bar, so service can be a bit patchy, but there’s a stack of menus, including the precious English version. The non-smoking room is essentially the children’s room as well, so there are plenty of toys.

I wanted proper Czech food, so I ordered the robi goulash (vegan options are clearly marked on the menu). Robi is a fake meat that is either unique to or beloved by the Czech Republic. I believe it’s made from beetroot, and you can buy it in some of the vegan shops in Prague. I got a huge portion, and it was lovely! The smoky sauce was delicious, the meat slices were crispy on the outside, the dumplings were huge – actually, I could have quite happily removed two from the plate and still had enough to eat, which isn’t like me.

In a bold and surprising move, Dr HH ordered a dish with vegan cheese! He also had robi, though his was in steak form and topped with vegetable ragout and cheese. Alas, it was tepid when it was served, but he said the flavours were good. His dish was substantially smaller than mine, so I gave him those two extra dumplings.

I’ve always imagined most central/eastern European countries to have a very meat-based diet, so I was really surprised to learn that one of the Czech national dishes is vegetarian. Fried cheese is what Dr HH eats whenever he goes on a work trip to the pub, but for obvious reasons I’d never had the chance to try it in Prague. But here it was on the Vegalite menu! There are a few options, both vegetarian and vegan, and we decided to share an order of the vegan Edam fried cheese. I almost chickened out, because I don’t usually find vegan cheese enjoyable at all. But I was bold, and it paid off: it was so good! In fact, it was the best vegan cheese I’ve ever had and it was really nicely cooked. I would thoroughly recommend this.

The next day we went back for some crepes, which we just hadn’t been able to squeeze in after all that savoury goodness. There are two kinds of vegan crepes on the menu, and we decided to order both and split them. This was the buckwheat crepe with hot forest fruits, cream and caramel (it cost 70kr, which is a whopping £2 – what a bargain!). The pancakes were nice and thick, but there wasn’t much caramel. The fruit was quite sharp, so a little more cream for sweetness would have been nice.

The real winner was the crepe with fruit yoghurt, chocolate and walnuts. The pancakes were stuffed with pink fruit yoghurt (we couldn’t actually identify the flavour) and the chocolate sauce was divine. Again, cream would be good, but overall it was delicious!

Most visitors to the Czech Republic make a beeline for Prague and can’t squeeze in many other destinations, but Brno definitely warrants a weekend to itself.

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Punkva cave, Vegalite Brno, vegan Brno, vegan mofo, vegan travel, vgnmf16 | 8 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Budapest

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Jenny

I was in Budapest just before Christmas last year and absolutely loved it. And in this wonderful city I found two of my favourite things: pizza and a good library!

The pizza was from Napfenyes Restaurant and Pizzeria, a big, underground restaurant that appears to do good takeaway trade. It has a few menu items stolen from its sister restaurant (reviewed here), but the main focus is on the extensive pizza menu.

I usually play it quite safe when it comes to pizza, sticking to mushrooms, garlic, and not much else. But this time, I was bold. I ordered the coal miner’s pizza, which was essentially a ‘meat’ feast, featuring sausage, seitan and smoked tofu. It had so many good savoury, smoky flavours, I just loved it. The cheese was also one of the better vegan varieties I’ve had. This was definitely an unusual choice for me, but perhaps it will inspire me to be more adventurous with my pizza toppings in the future.

Napfenyes Pizzeria (1)

Dr HH went for the piquant pizza. It looks quite different from mine because it didn’t have the same tomato sauce, it was more vegetable-based. One piece of chopped chilli from his pizza accidentally fell onto mine, and I thought there would be no harm in eating it. I was wrong. I couldn’t breathe for about a minute, it was so hot. Dr HH, however, ate the whole thing calmly, so I suppose it depends on your tolerance. He really enjoyed the pizza, and described the cheese as unobtrusive, which is basically what he wants in a vegan cheese.

The restaurant also has a little dessert cabinet showcasing a few of the cakes from the main restaurant – while they looked dazzling and delicate, we were too full to partake on this occasion.

And on to the library: I’m a big fan of libraries, as you may have gathered from yesterday’s post, and this one in Budapest was spectacular. The Ervin Szabo Library is housed in an old palace, so it’s a pretty grand building, but the majority of the library itself is modern and unexceptional…except for these connected reading rooms, which are all incredibly grand and beautiful.

Pretty!

Imagine studying here.

Or here – this was the only empty chair we saw!

Libraries are the best. It’s only 500HUF to get in for a one-off visit, and definitely worth it. If you go early, you can curl up in a chair by a fireplace and get lost in a book (take your own though, it looked quite academic). Happy reading!

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Ervin Szabo Library Budapest, Napfenyes Pizzeria Budapest, vegan Budapest, vegan mofo, vegan travel, vgnmf16 | 9 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Manchester

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Jenny

Manchester has a wealth of museums, galleries and theatres. It has a million cultural and sporty things you can do. And it also has some of the best libraries in the world. I’ve been to visit them all on special behind-the-scenes tours with my book club, and it’s hard to narrow it down to a favourite. So, behold the libraries of Manchester!

There’s the Portico Library, with its impressive Polite Literature section. I also loved hearing the anecdote about how Eric Cantona became a member (it costs a fortune to do so), turned up for the first time and rang the bell, and was so frustrated that he wasn’t immediately admitted that he stormed off, never to return!

And Chetham’s, the oldest English-language library in the world. It was the first library where I’d ever been allowed to handle the precious, ancient texts. I was beside myself! Yes, that’s my thumb, caressing the page of an ancient(ish) Paradise Regained!

The Central Library also has some pretty impressive old texts, and a wonderful room for private study or reading. Also, a concealed door and a Shakespeare stained glass window. However, I will forever associate it with the terror of being stuck in a lift with thirteen other people for the longest five minutes of my life.

The Working Class Movement Library in Salford is fascinating. Alongside the books and leaflets, there’s a great collection of other memorabilia from protests and rallies. My personal favourite was this board game: only a white man can win.

But my favourite library is John Rylands. It was described to me before as the Taj Mahal of Manchester. This is because it was built in memorial to a dead spouse, but I’d like to think it’s also because it’s a pretty grand building. I love the fact that it was dreamed up by a woman, and she made it happen. And the main library itself is like a church, which I think is pretty apt because books are incredibly important to me. One day, I intend to go in there and just sit and read or work. So, my top advice for any visitor to Manchester is: visit at least the John Rylands library, but preferably all of them, if you can arrange a tour.

And what to eat while you’re on the go? Well, there is only one possibility. The king of Manchester’s numerous vegan options. It can only be…

Go Falafel! It’s an all-vegan falafel place right in the city centre and it has the best falafel in the world. When you go in you will see the tempting salad bar, but the falafel is so amazing that I have never been able to forego it in favour of anything else. The thing that really elevates it is the roast potatoes in the wrap. What an idea!

It is so close to my old place of work that I could actually see it from some of the classroom windows (not that I ever stood there gazing down hungrily while the students were absorbed in a reading activity, no sir!). Every Friday I used to treat myself to a wrap and try not to make too much of a mess while I ate it in front of my colleagues. There’s no seating, so you need somewhere to take it – on a nice summer day (such things do exist in Manchester, I promise), may I suggest going no further than Piccadilly Gardens.

Go Falafel was also the subject of my first ever conversation with Dr HH, and how I first knew I was onto a winner with him. Whenever we go on a train journey from Manchester, we pick up a bag of falafel and a pot of hummus and feast like kings, and whenever we’re returning to Manchester from Prague this is our top destination.

I know falafel has a reputation as the default vegan option, but when it’s this good, you won’t be complaining!

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Go Falafel Manchester, Manchester libraries, vegan Manchester, vegan mofo, vgnmf16 | 11 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Chester

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Jenny

UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT CLOSED IN 2020

2016 has been a long, barren year on the vegan afternoon tea front, after doing so splendidly last year (check out my other afternoon tea reviews here). I’ve only spent two weeks in the UK so far this year, so July was my only chance to rectify the situation, and I seized upon the opportunity to take Dr HH and my mum for vegan afternoon tea at Mad Hatter’s in Chester. It’s a nice Alice in Wonderland themed cafe in the heart of the city, with the vegan option available on request, so make sure you order it in advance. We did that and still had some problems.

We arrived right on time for our 1:45pm booking, to find the whole place completely full. We were told that a 2pm party of three had arrived early, said they were me (?!) and taken our table, leaving us hanging for ten minutes until some other people left.

“Did they give our name?” Dr HH asked, but nobody could elaborate on how this happened.

“Have you given them our vegan food?” I asked over the loud rumbling of my belly.

“No, your food is ready for you, we just need a table. We thought it was weird that they said they didn’t want vegan food.”

So we stood for ten minutes, then got our table. We placed our tea orders (rose tea is always my first choice with afternoon tea, so I was pleased to see they had it) and waited. And waited. And waited some more. It was 2:20pm when we got our tea (the manager told us there was a backlog, yet people who arrived after us got theirs first), and a further ten minutes for the food – even though apparently it had been sat there waiting.

I would guess that they either did give our vegan food to the imposters, or they had completely forgotten our booking – either way, 45 minutes is a long wait for food, especially when I’d paid a £15 deposit so we couldn’t just walk away. The food was good, and my mum, whose birthday we were celebrating, said it was worth the wait, and that’s the important thing. But it did seem like it might have been hastily thrown together.

The finger sandwiches were plentiful and big enough to be quite filling. They were hummus three ways: hummus with rocket, hummus with rocket and red onion, and hummus with Mediterranean veg. The latter two were good, but hummus with rocket smacked of desperation and made us wonder if they’d been frantically looking for last minute vegan options for us. It’s just as well all vegans love hummus! We also had a little bowl of salty popcorn, which was a fun addition.

The scones were warm, so we suspect they may have been freshly baked and could be another explanation for the delay. The tops were dusted with icing sugar, which gave them a nice sweetness. They came with spread and jam, and had a good bake.

The cake plate was astonishing! There were two vegan cupcakes available on the day, so we could order our preference. I got the Oreo one, while my companions both chose chocolate and strawberry. It ended up being a very chocolatey plate, which is almost a shame. We couldn’t eat everything in one go (Dr HH argues that he would have been fine), it was so plentiful.

The purple bit is blueberry fudge. How fun! I hate blueberries, but even I really liked it – it actually tasted more of coconut than blueberry, so that was a good sign.

The Oreo cupcake had tremendously good icing, but the sponge was a little too dry – eating it all was hard work. The strawberry one had a dollop of jam in the sponge which made it much better.

I’d feared that the brownie would also be a bit dry, but far from it: it was sublime! Again, the icing was really good. It seemed to be raw rather than spongy, which was a nice surprise.

It was £15 per person, which is good value for money for the amount of food and bottomless teapots. It wasn’t the best quality of vegan food, with the uninspiring sandwich selection knocking it down a few marks, but it would be a good option in a group with non-vegans. Of course, our experience was soured somewhat by the service, so I probably wouldn’t go back.

Because of the 45 minute delay getting served, we didn’t have time for our planned activity (walking the city walls) before our train back to Manchester. But I have done it before and can just about remember!

I went on squillions of day trips to York when I was a child in the north east, so I love a good walled city. In Chester, you can climb up onto the walls and walk in a perfect square (if my memory serves me), though you do briefly drop down to pavement level again. The walk takes you alongside the cathedral, which is definitely worth a look, and also past a secondhand book shop which is nice to explore.

The walk also takes you towards the Roman amphitheatre too, where you can pretend to be a gladiator, and some more modern ruins too, like this pretty archway.

All in all, it’s a lovely day trip if you want to treat yourself to some history, and some vegan cake!

Posted in Afternoon tea, Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged vegan afternoon tea, vegan Chester, vegan mofo 2016, vegan travel, vgnmf16 | 8 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Krakow

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Jenny

UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2016

Apparently going to Poland over Easter weekend is a bad idea – lots of shops and eateries close, especially nice little vegan, independent places. Fortunately, Soya Cafe in Krakow had assured me they would be open on Easter Monday and they kept their word, so that is where we ate. It was a quiet place, nice and light and spacious, and a really relaxing place to spend an hour or two.

I had been eyeing up the cakes on their Instagram feed for a while, so we were determined to have a light meal and save some room for a treat. With that in mind, we both ordered cheese and ham toasties. Alas, they only had one toastie-maker, so there were staggered arrivals: when the first plate came out with two neat little toasties on it, we engaged in a whispered debate about whether this was all we were getting, or another one was forthcoming. Happily, it was the latter. Loaves of bread in Europe are insultingly small to a Brit, so the size was a little disappointing, but they were packed full of good vegan cheese and meat – the cheese was nicely melted, and it was the perfect light lunch.

And so, to the main event: cake! I had this Snickers cake at the front: it had a chocolatey, baked base, a creamy tofu layer and a sticky peanut butter and chocolate top. It was absolutely delicious, and managed to be neither too sweet nor too sickly.

Dr HH was similarly impressed with his hazelnut cake, in the background there. He loved the nutty top and said it had just the right level of sweetness. The best thing about Soya Cafe – yes, even better than the cakes – was the hot chocolate. It was so thick and rich, it was the ultimate hot chocolate. I generally have a ‘no repeats’ policy on holiday so I can try as many places as possible, but I was tempted to break it for that drink.

The salt mines were also open on Easter Monday, so we had booked ourselves onto an English-speaking tour after lunch. There are various ways of organising this, but we just booked online and got a train there, and it all went smoothly. First we descended a long wooden staircase, then were led through the tunnels and shown how the mine worked and some of the statues and sculptures down there. Our guide asked a few science-based questions, which Dr HH answered easily. She also asked us to guess the miners’ nickname for this formation:

Our vegetable knowledge allowed us to pipe up in unison: “Cauliflower!” Alas, there was no prize for getting all the questions right – just the eternal respect of our fellow tourists, I’m sure.

The highlight of the tour was this chapel, entirely carved out of salt. There was a statue of the pope, and some friezes depicting scenes from the Bible, including a recreation of The Last Supper. Even the chandeliers were made of salt crystals!

As is apparently compulsory in any cavernous space in Europe, in the “romantic room” we were “treated” to a light show set to some Chopin. It was wholly unnecessary: the mine itself was impressive enough without cheap, tourist-trap gimmicks.

Yet still, an eternity in the romantic room might have been preferable to leaving the mine: the lift back up to the surface almost made me wish we’d been forced to climb the wooden stairs again. After being squished into a triple-decker metal cage, I was very much ready for more cake when we eventually saw daylight again.

UPDATE: I’ve just read that Soya Cafe closed down in August 2016. Terrible news! There were lots of other good places to eat in Krakow (discussed here), but this one was really special.

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Krakow Salt Mines, Soya Cafe Krakow, vegan Krakow, vegan mofo, vegan travel, vgnmf16 | 10 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Grasmere

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Jenny

Lake District Day 1 036

UPDATE: THE GINGERBREAD IS REPORTEDLY NO LONGER VEGAN

Last summer I made my maiden voyage to the Lake District, a prime holiday destination for most northerners, but one that was entirely overlooked by my family (we were all about Scarborough and Flamingo Land, of course).

Lake District Day 1 009

Dr HH and I drove up to Grasmere, where it was impossible to find parking in the town centre (bloody tourists!). We had to park a bit out of town, but this allowed us to find a quiet spot by some water to have our picnic of leftovers. It also afforded us one of the greatest sights of the holiday: on the walk into town, we passed a foreign tourist carrying her backpack on her front, as tourists often do in city centres for safety. On the quiet streets of Grasmere, it’s not really necessary to take such precautions. She must have heard terrible things about the crime rate in England!

Why did we start our adventure in Grasmere? For the gingerbread, of course! The gingerbread from Sarah Nelson’s Gingerbread Shop is all vegan, and the staff are happy to confirm this. When we were walking there, Dr HH had the cheek to complain that sometimes I take him on very long quests for vegan food. Well, one bite of gingerbread soon shut him up!

It was £5.50 for twelve pieces, and it took all my willpower not to eat the whole lot in one go. They were nicely-spiced, sugary and delicious! They also kept pretty well, by which I mean we bought them on Monday afternoon and ate the last pieces on Wednesday night and they were still perfect.

We had to wait a few more days before presenting another bag of twelve to Dr HH’s parents. I had once attempted to give them some homemade vegan brownies which they declined to eat because they had been cooked in an oven where meat had been cooked too. So, this gingerbread was the first culinary gift that they actually accepted from me, and they were impressed with it. Hurrah!

Unsurprisingly, the main thing to do in the Lake District is walk. From Grasmere you can walk up to Easedale Tarn, which you can see is rather beautiful. We were ill-prepared and didn’t have much water with us, so we didn’t make it to the top for fear of dehydration and collapse, but we had a good scramble up and would have loved to have been more prepared. Maybe next time we’ll do it properly – we’ll definitely be heading that way for more gingerbread!

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread Shop vegan, vegan gingerbread, vegan gingerbread Grasmere, vegan Grasmere, vegan Lake District, vegan mofo, vegan travel, vgnmf16 | 16 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Barcelona

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Jenny

UPDATE: this restaurant closed in 2017

I’ve already written about how much I loved Barcelona (here and here), and how most of our time was spent on Gaudi pursuits. Torre Bellesguard is one other Gaudi building we visited, and as it’s a little off the beaten track you can actually enjoy it a bit more – nobody tutting at you for stepping in the way of their selfie, no long wait for a photo opportunity of the most stunning spot. Dr HH and I both rated this as our top Gaudi site, largely because we were actually able to get close to things and enjoy it.

We booked in advance, but that’s not necessary. The visit cost €9 each with an audio guide, and you can turn up at any point during opening hours but you might have to wait a little while for a staff member to guide you through the inside. Not that waiting around in the garden is a bad thing – the building and grounds are stunning, and the more you look, the more rewarding it is.

The inside is not too shabby either. We had one “guide” who took us from room to room and told us which audio track to listen to, while he played on his phone, and we were a group of seven tourists wandering around. This is very different from the scrum in Casa Batllo.

It’s impressive to get up to the roof and see this face peeping at you: it’s a dragon! The big spire on the building represents St George’s spear, so this is the perfect spot for any proud English person to visit.

And any person, English or not, should prioritise a visit to Gopal (UPDATE: closed May 2017), a vegan deli in the heart of the city. We had these cinnamon rolls for breakfast on more than one occasion (bought the day before and eaten in the comfort of our Airbnb – there’s no seating in Gopal and they don’t open at a respectable breakfast hour for me). They kept really well, and were gooey, sticky and sweet.

We also found room for a donut. This was so good! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chocolate donut, and I’d forgotten how the chocolate cracks as you eat. When will vegan donuts come to Prague?!

And for airport sustenance before our flight back to the UK, I picked up a few savoury snacks. The tortilla was really nice…

…but this pizza bread roll was the star of the show! It was stuffed with a layer of vegan ham, cheese and tomato sauce. There was so much filling, especially the ham, that it was really good value for money.

Gopal appears to be most famous for its burgers, and also seems to do a good trade in their own meats and cheeses – I’d love to go back and check out more of the options. But, let’s face it, I’d probably just stuff my face with baked goods again.

(UPDATE: Gopal closed May 2017)

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Gopal Barcelona, vegan Barcelona, vegan mofo, vegan travel, vgnmf16 | 9 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Prague

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Jenny

NOTE: CLOSED DOWN IN 2023

I moved to Prague in August 2015, and I love it here! It’s not the perfect place, but it has a lot going for it, including a thriving vegan scene.

The Dox Gallery is one of my top recommendations in Prague, even though I’ve only been once. We only stumbled upon it when I read about an exhibition called HateFree? that was taking place there. The Czech Republic is not a very racially diverse place, nor is it very welcoming to refugees. There are fairly frequent anti-Islam and Pegida rallies, which are sometimes attended by the president, and a lot of my students who seem really warm and kind sometimes come out with racist comments so casually that it takes my breath away. So I felt like this could be an interesting exhibition.

And it was indeed. We learned about an extremely unpopular pig farm built on a Roma Holocaust site, hate mail sent to the parents of the Czech Republic’s first quintuplets (born to a non-white family, alas) and an initiative that gives homeless people the chance to cook food for other homeless people.

And the rest of the gallery turned out to be just as good.

The Supermarket of the Dead exhibition was fantastic: lots of paper replicas of real items that are burned in China to send them to relatives in the afterlife. Who wouldn’t want a gun with them in the afterlife? Or a bucket of KFC, or a packet of batteries?!

There was also an exhibition about the evils of money. I enjoyed these $2 bill pigs, as well as nooses made from cash. Most interesting of all were some photographs of slave labour in different countries around the world, including Nigerian prostitutes working in the wilderness outside Rome and child labourers in a leather factory, with a warning about knowing where these dirt-cheap clothes come from.

The outside terrace has a view of the rotating red skull pictured up top, and a Jesus made of shoes.

And on the upper floors there was an exhibition based on Brave New World, which was suitably creepy. It featured plastic dolls whizzing up and down tubes, leading up to a baby conditioning centre which was just awful – which means it was really well done!

I know absolutely nothing about art, and I only like things that look pretty or things that give me something to think about: all of the exhibitions here covered the latter, so I would really recommend it. It was 180kr each, and well worth the money.

And on the food front: here is a year in cake from my favourite supplier, Moment. There are a lot of treats here, but in my defence it’s actually more than a year and it’s from two people, so this is definitely an acceptable amount of cake, thank you very much. Moment is the best cafe in Prague: they always have about six cakes to choose from, and they’re pretty much always excellent!

CHEESECAKES:

Chai latte cheesecake: so flavoursome. The chocolate layer on top really makes it.

Gingerbread cheesecake: it looks almost the same, but it’s different, I promise. It was really good and gingery!

Chocolate coconut mousse cake: small, but sublime!

Chocolate mousse with whipped cream: this was every bit as good as decadent as it looks. Oh for a crunchy base, though!

Coconut cheesecake: a weird texture, not very smooth and creamy. A bit more base would have been nice too. Great flavour though.

Moment Choc Orange Cake

Chocolate orange cheesecake: so decadent!

CZECH SPECIALITIES:

Molehill cake: this is a traditional Czech cake, consisting of a spongy chocolate layer, sliced banana, a mountain of cream and some chocolate crumbs on top. Unsurprisingly, it’s very good.

Cherry and poppyseed: Czechs love a good poppyseed sponge! Despite being a little burned on top, this was lovely.

Moment Poppy Seed and Plum

Plum and poppy seed cake: this, on the other hand, was really weird, and didn’t taste of either plums or poppy seeds. This one now always gets a definite no from me.

TEA & COFFEE:

Coffee and cardamom: it contains coffee beans, so there’s plenty of flavour for all you coffee lovers.

moment-coffee-cardamom-choc-cake

Coffee, cardamom and chocolate: the coffee flavour only came from the decorative coffee beans, so even a coffee-hater like me could probably have handled this one.

Chocolate coffee cake: reportedly a good strong flavour.

Coffee cake: this looked so inviting that I hoped it would have a really mild coffee flavour so I could enjoy it too. Alas, it tastes very much of coffee. Coffee-lovers, rejoice, I suppose.

Matcha cake, two ways: finally onto the good, tea-based stuff! This cake always has a fantastic texture. The green icing is more appealing, of course.

FRUITY CAKES:

Raspberry: simple, fruity and delicious!

Blueberry cake: it looks really fun with that bright blue icing! I hate blueberries too much to try it, but Dr HH said it actually wasn’t that fruity.

Orange and lemon triple layer cake: vibrant and zingy!

Pina colada cake: a sure sign that summer had arrived!

Moment Blackcurrant Cake

Blackcurrant cake: I hate Ribena with a fiery passion, but I loved this! It was really fruity, in both the sponge and the icing.

The chocolate lemon salt cake: it would have been so good with just a little sprinkling of salt. As it was, the big salt crystals were a bit too much. Chocolate and lemon were a winning combination, though, and the icing was spectacular.

Strawberry and vanilla: pretty, tasty and triple-layered.

016

Chocolate orange cake, in three different forms: this is always a winner, however it’s presented.

Chocolate banana cake, two ways: a really good chocolate sponge sandwiched with gooey and delicious banana cream. And a sturdier, perhaps better one with gooey banana slices in the middle.

The pineapple, coconut and walnut cake needed to amp up those flavours, but it was good and moist.

Lemon cake: fresh and zingy!

Banana chocolate chip cake: the best of both worlds, fruit and chocolate.

Fig and vanilla: the only contribution from the fig was the decoration on top. I’d have happily left it off and just called it a vanilla cake.

Baobab and chocolate chip cake: I have no idea what baobab really is, but this was sweet and delicious.

Orange and lemon cake: fruity, light and perfect!

Chocolate and strawberry: so pretty!

HERBS & SPICES:

Lemon and basil cake: it’s green! Also, good.

Mint chocolate cake, could have been mintier, but one of their better chocolate sponges.

Coffee and hazelnut, apple and cinnamon: both flavoursome and creamy.

Fennel and anise: an unusual flavour, but a delicious one! It was subtle enough to be enjoyable, and it was really nicely baked. As usual, top notch cream.

Gingerbread and raspberry: the sponge was absolute perfection, and the only thing I would change would be to add a thicker layer of chocolate on top. It was beautiful!

Rosemary and apricot cake: both flavours could have been stronger, but still a nice slice of cake.

Cinnamon and raisin cake: great sponge and flavour.

Speculoos cake (it’s basically cinnamon): delicious!

NUTTY & SEEDY:

Chocolate hazelnut: with a layer of chocolate on top! Just delicious!

Walnut cake: sweet and creamy!

Hazelnut and vanilla cake: we shared a slice of this, but I wish I’d had a full portion. It was sensational!

Chocolate almond cake, two ways on two days: it tasted a bit of marzipan, thank to the almonds, and had a good bake. The icing was sensational!

Chocolate peanut butter: not as gooey and sticky as you’d hope.

Gluten free chocolate peanut butter: much more like it!

Coconut cake, two ways: one of the best, for its moistness.

Chocolate coconut layer cake: simply delicious!

Gluten free chocolate and coconut cake: the sponge was a bit dry, but the cream on top was sublime. That is my kind of cake ratio.

Giganto chocolate coconut cake: it was described to us as a “skyscraper”, as all cakes should be.

Poppy seed: again, that is my kind of ratio.

PLAIN CHOCOLATE:

Chocolate chip cake: gloriously thick chunks of chocolate. Delicious!

Chocolate cake: rich and indulgent, but a wee bit dry.

Carob cake: it didn’t taste strongly of anything, but it was perfectly pleasant.

A chocolate peanut butter brownie, for that rare day when I don’t want a huge slab.

Sweet cup: occasionally we branch out and have deconstructed cake and cream in a cup. It’s amazing, but it fills you up, so be warned!

That is a lot of cake! Which one would you order?

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Moment Prague, vegan mofo, vegan Prague, vegan travel, veganmofo, vgnmf16 | 21 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Vienna

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Jenny

Happy Vegan MoFo! I am going to loosely apply the weekly themes to my travel posts this month, and week one is Treat Yourself. This means I’m essentially posting about cake a lot this week! As I explained yesterday, I’m posting about one restaurant and one activity in a different city every day this month. I’m kicking off with Vienna, because not only was there cake, but it was also Halloween-themed. That’s only a day late!

Vienna 2015 261

We were in Vienna in late October 2015, and we thought it was just amazing (read more about my trip here and here). Like many big European cities, it is a paradise for vegans. And everywhere you look there is something old or grand or beautiful to see, or more likely all three at once.

While it may be most famous for the grandeur of the old buildings, the ones that really turned my head were a little more modern and looked like they had escaped the pages of a Roald Dahl book. This is Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building designed in the 1980s by Austrian artist Friedrich Hundertwasser. It’s colourful, with lots of fun little details to observe, and trees and plants shooting out in surprising places.

From this building, you are just a few minutes walk away from Kunst Haus Wien, a museum for Hundertwasser’s paintings. Photography wasn’t allowed in there, but his work is mere moments away on Google, and again, the building is a work of art (alas, no pictures as it was too dark) inside and out, with wave-like floors, colourful pillars and an impressive array of art. The paintings are usually in bold, often primary colours, strong shapes, some shiny metallics thrown in. There are lots of cityscapes and natural landscapes, and also lots of faces and lollipop trees, everything really dreamlike and beautiful.

vienna-2015-285

The museum also houses models of the other buildings Hundertwasser designed, which is how we found out about Müllverbrennungsanlage Spittelau, a large thermal waste plant in the city. So that was our destination the next morning, and fortunately it’s right outside the Spittelau metro stop so we didn’t need to worry about getting lost.

Vienna 2015 292

The building is too big to fit into one little picture, but this gives you some idea. It was very impressive indeed: imagine winning a golden ticket to look around this place!

Spittelau was only one stop away from our airbnb on the metro. One stop in the other direction brought us close to Nom Nom Bakery. Do I wish I had checked its location sooner and realised how close it was? Of course. But we’re already daydreaming about a return to Vienna, so I’ll be on it then. As it was, we only managed one visit, but it was a good one.

Nom Nom Bakery is more of a cafe than a bakery, but there were only two little tables, so I suppose it is geared towards takeaway. There were a good few varieties of cupcake, along with some cookies and other bakes, and a hot drinks selection.

As it was almost Halloween, I had this spooky cupcake. There was a variety of different decorations, but I loved this web. The chocolate sponge was nice and moist, and the icing was a vivid orange and not too sweet or gritty, as icing sometimes is. It was lovely!

Dr HH went for something a bit more substantial, but we didn’t catch its name. It was probably better than my cupcake, purely because it was more exciting. There was sponge on the bottom, a layer of raspberries, and then a meringue-style topping: crusty on top, marshmallowy underneath. It was sweet, and tart, and amazing.

I couldn’t resist a cute little ghost cookie to take away for later, purely in the name of research. Dr HH felt that this time the icing was a little too sweet, but I thought it perfect. A good biscuit, and lovely icing.

Unfortunately, Nom Nom is only open in the afternoon Monday-Saturday – imagine if they did croissants for breakfast! Even without breakfast baked goods, I’d highly recommend this place. Everything is vegan, the staff were really friendly, and the food was good. The place is a little pink, but when there’s good cake to be had, who cares?!

Posted in Travel, Vegan Mofo | Tagged Nom Nom Bakery Vienna, vegan bakery, vegan travel, vegan Vienna, veganmofo, vgnmf16 | 8 Comments

Vegan MoFo 2016

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Jenny

Tomorrow is 1st November, which means one thing to the vegan community: the start of Vegan MoFo! I chose my theme for this year during the 2015 MoFo (or more accurately, Dr HH suggested it at that time and I pounced upon his brilliant idea).

Every day this month I will be posting about a different city or town I’ve visited and sharing one place to eat and one activity to do there, so I’ll really be combining my love of eating and adventuring. While I will post about some of the cities I’ve covered before, it will be all new content on each post – no recycling here. Yes, I’ve been holding places back all year and I’m very excited to finally share them!

Gdansk (182)

It’s been exciting for me to try to squeeze in thirty visits this year, and difficult to hold material back when I wrote it up so long ago. I’ve been scribbling in my trusty notebook all year and shouldn’t have much writing to do in November itself, which is just as well as I’m helping out with running MoFo this year and will be busy behind the scenes.

I’m really looking forward to getting started, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my thirty places. And fellow vegan bloggers, I can’t wait to see all the delicious food you’ll be sharing too. Let’s do this!

Posted in Vegan Mofo | Tagged vegan mofo, vgnmf16 | 5 Comments

Herbivores' Heaven

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Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Krakow

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Grasmere

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Barcelona

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Prague

Vegan MoFo 2016: Vegan in Vienna

Vegan MoFo 2016

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