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We just got back from a trip to Britain. I was over doing research at the British Library and at various other smaller archives. This post is about the vegan deliciousness we found in Britain, so I’ll not write about the research here. I will say, however, that I will never, ever get tired of going to the British Library. It is truly one of my favourite places on earth!
Anyhow, on to the vegan goodness…
This was my first visit to Britain as a vegan. On previous trips to the UK I was impressed not only by the vegetarian options but also by the convenient labelling of veggie options at pubs, grocery stores and the like. We are moving quite a bit further down this road in Canada, but have quite a ways to go on this front. Anyhow, because of these previous experiences I figured that the UK would be pretty good for vegan options and labelling as well, and this certainly did turn out to be the case. As we were sitting at Gatwick waiting for our flight home, for instance, we popped in to a pub and not only got a delicious cask ale but also noted the how many times the word “vegan” appeared on the menu. If anyone can point me to a Canadian airport that has this kind of awesomeness I’ll bake you a batch of your favourite vegan cookies.
Research conducted before we left for the UK pointed us in the direction of Vx (pronounced “V-Cross”) on our first day out in London. Vx is the headquarters for the “Secret Society of Vegans” and is also a shop that offers so many wonderful vegan products, including packaged sandwiches and other convenience options.
This made a lovely picnic to take over to the British Library as Vx is just a short walk from King’s Cross Station.
Picnic from Vx
Among the many items we bought at Vx (t-shirts, tote bags, sandwiches, biscuits, etc…) was the best darn vegan “cheese” I have ever tasted. I’d read about the launch of Vegusto prior to leaving Canada and hoped I’d find some in London, but wasn’t getting my hopes up. I’m so glad that Vx had some. This is, quite simply, the best vegan “cheese” on the planet. I like Daiya and Dr. Cow, but Vegusto is miles better than either of these wonderful products. It is, in fact, so like “real” cheese that the only complaint I’ve heard about it is that it is eerily too close to cow’s milk cheese for some people’s comfort level. I’ve been enjoying “Ploughman’s lunches” with the Vegusto and am looking forward to making a “cheese” and chutney sandwich with it. I just wish it were available in North America. I brought home 3 packages of it, and am quite seriously planning my next trip to the UK around the availability of Vegusto.
Another shop we found was Alara in Bloomsbury. This was a combination health food store/cafe and also had many fabulous vegan treats.
Vegan treats from Vx and Alara.
Further research (and advice from some lovely folks) pointed us in the direction of two London restaurants – Mildred’s in Soho and Manna in Primrose Hill. We’d heard great things about both places but we’d also heard that it was tough to get a table in either of these fine establishments. Mildred’s doesn’t take reservations, so we simply lucked out in getting a table on a Friday night. We were able to make a reservation for Manna and it was good we did – it was completely booked solid by the time we dined there on Sunday night.
Mildred’s is a tiny little place with nearly frenetic energy and is cozy and fun! The staff is very friendly and the food was spectacular. I opted for the mushroom and ale pie (vegan of course!) which came served with a side of mushy peas. I was in British vegan heaven! My only disappointment was that I didn’t save room for dessert as it looked like there were some pretty lovely vegan puddings on the menu.
Dinner at Mildred's
Manna was more of a “fine dining” experience and was the kind of place you want to linger in for hours. After the disappointment of not being able to eat dessert at Mildred’s, we planned appropriately and deliberately didn’t eat much leading up to dinner at Manna. We enjoyed starters: hummus (one of my lovely dining companions judges a restaurant by the quality of the hummus and was most impressed in this instance!) and also a plate of nachos served with a vegan cashew-based cheese. I will admit that I was curious to order this primarily to check out the faux cheese – as you can tell from this post I’m on a bit of a mission when it comes to the vegan “cheeses” these days. Anyhow, in this case it was a soft “cheese,” sort of like a cross between ricotta and sour cream – perfect for nachos!
Nachos, Manna style.
For the main course I ordered the spaghetti, described on the menu as a house specialty and I can see why. It was delicious!
We didn’t miss out on pudding this time and ordered the vegan tiramisu cheesecake and the vegan crumble (complete with vegan custard) to share. They were fabulous! Simply put, the desserts at Manna are worth the price of a plane ticket to London!
In short, both restaurants were delicious and well worth checking out. It was such a treat to be able to order so much off the menus – I am so used to getting the one vegan (or veganizable) option that I was a little overwhelmed when it came time to make decisions about what to order. This is a good problem to have, in my opinion!
We took a couple of day trips – the first one to Brighton where we briskly walked over to Vegetarian Shoes as soon as we got off the train. I have ordered from Vegetarian Shoes online before, but was so excited to check out the store first-hand. We managed to restrict ourselves to 2 pairs of shoes each, but this had everything to do with the lack of space in our luggage and nothing at all to do with the selection of cute shoes in the store. So many pairs to pick from!
There are a staggering number of restaurants, pubs and cafes in Brighton that cater to vegans. I think next time I’ll stay a few nights just to check them all out! This time we made our way to The Prince George Pub where we had some pints and split an order of vegan sausage (made with carrot and coriander). Dessert (or pudding) was a vegan ice cream sundae and I was especially tickled when it came served in a pint glass. (seriously, why don’t I live in this country?!)
Our next day trip was to Cambridge where, in addition to punting on the river, oogling the gorgeous old buildings and having a lovely visit with a former student who is now finishing up a PhD at Cambridge, we made two visits to the Rainbow Cafe – vegan lunch AND dinner!
This was a wonderful trip for so many reasons, and it was especially fun to track down all these fabulous vegan-friendly businesses. I can’t wait until my next trip to the UK!
I took my new red shoes from Vegetarian Shoes out on the River Cam.
Spring has been a bit of a whirlwind here so far! The last little while has been one of the most hectic times in recent memory.
I took an quick trip out to Edmonton for the Cross-Pollination workshop at the end of March. This was probably the best professional gathering I’ve ever attended – it was a small, invited group of people which allowed for really good discussions. There were no concurrent sessions and we all were asked to workshop our papers, which had been circulated ahead of time. There were so many interesting topics discussed and it was just amazing to have the opportunity to really think deeply about how “environmental thought and activism” (to borrow from the event sub-title) can emerge from the arts and the humanities. So many excellent papers and so many exciting ideas exchanged. I think I thoroughly enjoyed the entire event, but if I had to pick a highlight I think it would be Lyndal Osborne‘s discussion of her work. Absolutely incredible stuff! (and to think I used to be both a student and a sessional instructor in the same department as Lyndal but did not actually meet her until this workshop. How odd!)
While I was in Edmonton I got to have a quick whirlwind visit with my parents, which was lovely! We went for a celebratory dinner at Padmanadi, one of the most delicious vegan restaurants I’ve ever been to! The food is Chinese food-style, but made with analog meats instead of the “real deal.” Loads of yummy fresh veg too! What a treat it is to be able order anything from the menu!
I also got to spend a fabulous evening with Fiona, a good friend who I haven’t seen in ages because she has been living in places like New Zealand, the UK and Alaska. The stars aligned and we were actually in the same city for the first time in about 5 years! We went to the Hotel MacDonald for old time’s sake (we used to go there for drinks and to restore our sanity when we both lived in Edmonton) and had a blast ordering a ridiculous amount of ridiculously expensive appetizers ($10 popcorn anyone? But it was tossed in truffle oil, so…) We were too busy yakking to take any photos, but it was such a great night!
The week after I got back from Edmonton was the “Thinking About Animals” conference at Brock. It was so amazing to see such a great turn-out for this event. I don’t know the exact count, but people came from all over to discuss, debate and think critically about relationships between species. It was fabulous and I was sorry that I had to miss so many sessions due to teaching and other commitments. (the perils of attending a conference at one’s home institution, I guess)
The 2011 Niagara Social Justice Forum came on the heels of the “Thinking About Animals” conference. I was part of the organizing committee for the NSJF this year, so it was an especially intense time. We had a great day for the forum – beautiful sunny skies, perfect for the nature walks along the escarpment that were booked for mid-day. There were 18 workshops on a wide range of topics (everything from youth homelessness to water access and social media to the rates of diabetes in Aboriginal communities), an “art space” (featuring an exhibition of images to raise money and awareness for Toronto Pig Save, a children’s art competition and a craft table where participants could paint messages of social justice on a banner and make their very own compostable plant pot and then plant an heirloom tomato seed donated to the event by Tree & Twig), a performance by WomEnchant, and a screening of NFB’s Reel Injun. A long, wonderful, rich and rewarding day!
I thoroughly enjoyed all of these events, but I’m glad that the pace is going to slow down a bit now. Classes have ended and it is time to turn my mind to summer research/writing + gardening. I’m looking forward to some new adventures on both of these fronts!
It is hard to believe that in a few short hours 2010 will be over and the year 2011 will be ushered in. All-in-all 2010 was a pretty good year. I started it off with a 6 month sabbatical which I found amazingly productive and restorative. It was nothing short of luxurious to reconnect with my research in such an in-depth way. I’ve also been reminded during this year just how happy I feel when I’m knee-deep in a research project. Work?! This is the stuff that keeps me ticking!
The other big focus for me this year was my commitment to veganism. I’d been a vegetarian for years and years and years, but the PCRM’s “21 Day Vegan Kickstart” in March gave me the push I needed to make the transition to a vegan lifestyle. I’ve been having a great time trying new recipes, learning how to veganize things, reading vegan cooking blogs and, of course, buying vegan cookbooks!
I’m not a resolution sort of gal, so instead I’ve made a list of my top 5 favourite things about 2010. In no particular order:
1) Visiting the George T. Angell memorial in Boston. I’ve been reading so much about his work, so this was pretty special.
2) A fabulous road trip out to Nova Scotia for the first-ever ALECC conference at CBU. Yeah! Here I am trying to blend in with the landscape along the St. Lawrence.
3) Organizing the first-ever Walk for Farm Animals in Niagara. So amazing! I’m still blown away by the wonderful turn-out we had for this event and am looking forward to the 2011 Niagara Walk for Farm Animals!
4) Any and all time spent with Jill the rabbit and Jenny the cat.
5) I’m going to cheat a bit here and combine a couple of related wonderful things in to one point – this year I had my first trip out to the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada and two trips down to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY. All three of these trips were wonderfully inspiring and life-changing. A shout-out to all who give their time, money, labour and love to animal Sanctuaries. May we one day have one in the Niagara region.
And one last bonus point — I had a great trip out west to visit my mom and dad in Leduc this fall. It was a short trip, but we packed a lot of fun in to it!
Happy 2011 everyone! May it be a happy, healthy, productive and peaceful year.
This weekend we drove down to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY to attend the Celebration for the Turkeys. This event, of course, takes place around the same time as American Thanksgiving and is a symbolic way of both celebrating the animals rescued at Farm Sanctuary and remembering those millions and millions of animals who are not as lucky. At this event turkeys like Daphne and Velma get fed tasty treats like cranberries and mashed pumpkin.
We spent a few hours at the farm, hanging out with the cows, pigs, chickens, geese, goats and rabbits. I absolutely love Farm Sanctuary — one of my favourite places on earth!
After spending time at the Farm, we all gathered at the Harbor Hotel for a vegan thanksgiving dinner. So delicious! The menu included: a yummy salad with pomegranate, a pumpkin soup that might just be the best soup I’ve ever had in my entire life, mashed potatoes, a beans and greens mix, Tofurkey, assorted veg and some delicious desserts (including chocolate dipped strawberries).
We stayed at the Marmalade Cat B & B in Watkins Glen and enjoyed a delicious vegan breakfast, complete with french toast. (thanks Sally!) There were 3 lovely cats who lived at the house — Charlie, the orange and white cat, was especially friendly!
Good Groceries was right next to the B&B and it was great to shop for products that we can’t yet get in Canada — things like the Tofurky pizzas with Daiya, Soy-based Whipped Cream and Field Roast sausages. (I know, I know! Prepared foods are not the most nutritious and we generally don’t eat them, yet it was really exciting to see and purchase products I’ve heard about in the vegan blogosphere but have not yet had access to. I promise to use them sparingly!)
While we were down in the Finger Lakes region we decided to nip over to Ithaca. I was so looking forward to going to the Moosewood Restaurant, but it is only open for dinner on Sundays. My disappointment was short-lived though — we found a funky little waffle house that had vegan waffles. Yay!!
At the end of October I took a quick trip out to Alberta to see my mom and dad. I only had a few days for travel, but we packed a lot of fun in to those few days! One of the highlights was the new Leduc Rec Centre. Wow! I’m really impressed! (apparently so are the Edmonton Oilers) We had a great time skating and swimming — it was wonderful to warm up in the hot tub after a spin on one of the three skating rinks.
I was also delighted to see the new C-Line transit system set up between Leduc and Edmonton. For years and years I’ve wished for this kind of service and I can’t quite believe it is in place. Congrats to all those who helped make it happen!! This is wonderful! I see the early ridership numbers are a bit low, so come on all you Leduc folks — get on the bus! And while I’m on the topic, shame on Greyhound who apparently held this thing up. Seriously? We’re talking about 2 different kinds of bus services here. The C-Line hooks people right in to Edmonton’s LRT system (oh yeah, kudos to Edmonton Transit on the expansion to this system over the past few years! Amazing!!) and allows for commuting, the Greyhound station isn’t exactly part of a transit hub!
And speaking of new developments, we managed to find time for a quick run in to the newly-redesigned Art Gallery of Alberta (which I still want to call the Edmonton Art Gallery). I especially loved the Reframing a Nation exhibition and Edward Burtynsky’s show, Oil. Of course we couldn’t photograph inside the exhibition spaces, so this image from inside the newly-designed gallery will have to suffice! (That’s my dad waaaaay in the background!)
I’m in Boston for the NEASA conference. The theme of the conference is “The Arts and the Public.” Should be good.
I opted not to fly to Boston this time. With each recent flight I have found myself growing more and more fed up with airline travel. I realized that even “short flights” become agonizingly long by the time one factors in security, customs, weather-related delays, over-crowded runways, etc.
For this trip I decide to take Amtrak down from Niagara Falls. It was a lovely trip, but the goddesses of travel wanted to make sure that I understood loud & clear that things like weather-related delays are not just limited to air travel. Ho hum. I was hours late getting into Boston because high winds knocked out power on the rail lines between New York and Boston.
Ok. Message received loud & clear. Travel can be a royal pain in the butt no matter what form of transportation one takes. I get it.
Having said that, I still think I’d opt for a train over a plane in the future if circumstances permit. It is just a more pleasant way to travel. On both the Niagara Falls – NYC and the NYC – Boston journeys the cars I rode in were nearly silent. It was quiet and peaceful, and I found the gentle sway of the cars relaxing. (so much so that I had a few naps along the way. I can’t recall the last time I was able to sleep on a plane!) The autumn scenery whipping along outside my window was beautiful to look at, and the dining car (yes, there was an actual dining car!) had vegan burgers and Sam Adams. I wouldn’t say it was the world’s best burger, but it sure the heck beats any airline food I’ve had recently (oh wait, that is because they generally never have anything I can eat!). Even the several hour delay in NYC wasn’t so bad — I mean, really, there are worse places to have to kill a few hours! I was thinking about how easy it was to just walk out of Penn Station and go for a stroll. Compare this to when you are stuck at an airport — airports are generally in the middle of nowhere and even if you decided to take a cab from the airport to another part of the city, there is the whole matter of having to go back through security, customs, etc. upon your return.
Plus, it is just a whole lot more fun to take pictures along the rail lines, and, really, doesn’t it always boil down to visual culture in the end anyhow?
We recently drove out to Nova Scotia and back for the ALECC conference at Cape Breton University (more on that wonderful conference in another post). This was my first extended road trip since becoming a vegan so I was very curious as to how things would all work out on that front. My VegOut app for my iPhone was incredibly handy, and there were only a few days on the trip where my meals were an odd-looking mish-mash of whatever animal-free products I could get my hands on.
The absolute, hands-down winner of the “best vegan meal on this road trip” award was a place called Noosphère in Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, Quebec. Some stellar googling on the part of my travelling companion turned up this gem of a place along the shores of the St. Lawrence, about an hour and a half north of Quebec City. Noosphère is both a motel (adorably old-school in the most charming sort of way) and a restaurant that specializes in a Commensal-style vegetarian buffet. Again, I’m not wild on the buffet as a concept, but these veggie places have found a way to take the gross and the gluttonous out of buffet-style dining. In fact, it is the opposite, since your bill is determined by the weight of your plate people tend to take exactly what they can eat and it seems there is very little waste as compared to the gigantic portions served at some other restaurants.
Noosphère is, in short, a delight for the vegan traveller. (I have been referring to it as “vegan heaven” for the past few days!) It is set in a most beautiful part of Canada, the motel is very reasonable (less than $70/night), the staff is incredibly friendly, and the food has a home-cooked delicious quality to it. I am already planning my next road trip back to Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies! The vegan chocolate cake alone is worth the drive!!
We had a slow morning this morning — the 11 hour drive from Quebec City wore us out! When we finally did get up and going we headed out to Peggy’s Cove, that most recognizable East Coast tourist destination. When we arrived we were greeted by sign telling us that this is one of the most photographed landscapes in Canada. I don’t doubt it. Even with the throngs of people and the steady stream of tour buses pulling in, it was a pretty neat place to visit. I kicked off my sandals and curled up like a cat to enjoy the sun streaming down on the rocks around the world-famous lighthouse. I wish I could bottle up the sea air and take it home with me — amazing!
I always love people-watching in these high-traffic tourist areas. Some folks seemed to be really enjoying the sights, others seemed like they wanted to rush in and out so they could check off Peggy’s Cove on their list of “things to see.” I overheard a heated argument in the gift shop between a teenager who wanted to buy a souvenir shot glass for a girl back home and his exasperated parents who thought the gift was a bad idea because the intended recipient wasn’t of legal drinking age. Never a dull moment when observing the minutia of other people’s family vacations!
I think the most fascinating thing was watching the steady stream of people attempting the next-to-impossible task of getting a photograph of their family in front of the lighthouse with no other tourists around. (The line up of people trying to take that postcard perfect shot made me think of Martin Parr’s photography) Why do we insist on visually replicating the fiction of being an isolated visitor in any “nature spot” designated as a tourist area? (I’m not sure I have the answer, but I do address this in my forthcoming book, Manufacturing National Park Nature).
A long day of sight-seeing and people-watching left us hungry, so tonight we headed over to The Wooden Monkey. What a fun, fabulous and funky vegan-friendly place. The beer was good, the food was outstanding (such a treat to be able to choose from a number of things on the menu!) and the atmosphere was friendly. I had a pizza with vegan cheese and soy brûlée for dessert — delicious!
(for Melissa)
We’re on our way to Syndey, NS for the first-ever ALECC conference. We drove as far as Quebec City yesterday. We got in rather late in the evening, so didn’t have time for much exploring last night. Today, however, was all about getting out on foot and seeing this lovely city. This is my first time here, so I was super-duper excited to get out and explore. So much to see! So much history. I love it here!
This post, however, is meant to address my friend Melissa’s query about being vegan in Quebec City. The VegOut iPhone app pointed me to 3 restaurants that are described as either “vegetarian” or “vegetarian-friendly”:
1)Le Commensal
2)Cafe Babylone
3)Restaurant Zen
I know this app is linked to Happy Cow. I’m not sure how a restaurant ends up on this list. I do know that from walking around most restaurants and pubs have salads and things that could be easily veganized (i.e.: a roasted vegetable sandwich without the cheese).
I’ve been to Le Commensal in Montreal and Toronto before, so I knew that was the one I wanted to hit. I’m sorry to say I didn’t have time to try the other two on this quick whirlwind trip, but I’m sure they are very good.
Le Commensal did not disappoint — we had a delicious meal! For those of you who have not been to a Le Commensal before, the basic idea is that it is a buffet-style restaurant (I know! I know! I hate buffets too, but this one, for some reason, doesn’t gross me out!) with vegetarian and vegan dishes. Dishes are clearly labelled with ingredients and are classified as “vegan,” “vegetarian,” “contains milk,” “gluten-free,” etc… It is, in other words, a wonderful place for the label readers! It was hot out, so I didn’t try too many of the hot dishes, although I couldn’t resist the vegan spring rolls and the stew made with seitan, chick peas, mushrooms and other yummy vegetables. The assortment of cold salads hit the spot on a hot day, as did the vegan berry cheesecake I had for dessert.
Because we are in Quebec we were able to go to the nearby corner store, pick up some yummy Quebec-brewed beers and bring them back to Le Commensal to have with our meal. The beer ($2 per bottle) + lunch ($9 for a full plate of food) was certainly an affordable option in a city that has “touristy” prices. (we dropped $37 on a not-so-good vegetable sandwich and 2 pints last evening!)
On the same street as Le Commensal were two stores that carried a number of vegan-friendly products (delicious milk-free dark chocolate bars, soy milk, Yves veggie dogs, hummus, etc.):
1)La Carotte Joyeuse
2)Maison Jean-Alfred Moisan
The hotel we are staying at has small bar-sized fridges in the rooms, so I brought along some soy milk, chick pea sandwich spread, hummus and vegan muffins as a back-up in case we couldn’t easily find anything to eat. I’m happy to report that we’ve had pretty good luck finding vegan eats here.
I just got back from a wonderful research trip to Boston, which included many days in the archives of the MSPCA. Before my trip I knew a bit about George T. Angell and the founding of the MSPCA, but I now have a much better understanding of the significance of this organization to the early animal welfare movement. I had such a great visit — I learned so much and everyone was so friendly (hi Jan!).
I would love to post more (including some pics from my weekend tourist breaks to the Arnold Arboretum and the historic North Church), but I’m up against a writing deadline, so these yellow beauties will have to suffice for now.
