In typical British style, it poured it down, but weren't going to let a bit of water spoil our plans, and we set off to Leeds via Hebden Bridge.
We had quite a lazy morning, so by the time we got to Hebden Bridge, it was around lunchtime, so first stop was lunch. The town is full of independent shops, and quite a lot of the cafes had vegan options. After wondering around looking at all the options (we were already soaked, so getting more soaked didn't seem like such a big deal) we settled on the Organic House, I had falafel wrap and we shared a side of wedges between us. The falafel came with a salad with various sprouted beans etc, which I had never tried before. I wasn't too blown away by the salad, as I'm not a big salad fan but the falafel wrap itself was delicious, I could have eaten two!
To drink I went for a juice, I think it may have contained orange and carrot judging by the colour of it, but all I saw was that it contained ginger and I was sold- I have a bit of a ginger obsession...
The place also sold vegan cakes, but the only options were an apple slice and banana bread (yawn) so we decided to go to a bakery that had an advertisement outside that said they sold vegan cake. Along the way, we stopped in for a mooch around Valley Organics worker's cooperative and The Boy bought a drink. When we went to pay the lady serving us offered us a free raffle ticket as they were celebrating their first anniversary of the shop opening. I explained we were just visiting for the day so she invited us into the back for free cake and chai tea instead. Although the place wasn't vegan, they had a apricot and chocolate tofu cheesecake on offer (the chai tea had milk in) which I thought was a really nice thing to do. Unfortunately, I wasn't too struck on the taste of the cheesecake, I think it may have been the apricot that gave it a strange flavour. However, I still think the whole experience was the best part of our Hebden Bridge trip- it's not often you walk into a shop and get offered free vegan cake!
Eventually we got to the place we were suppose to be going for cake, a place called Saker Organic Bakery. It was a pleasant surprise that when we asked which cakes in the cabinet were vegan, to get the reply:
"All of them"
We went for a millionaire's shortbread and some chocolate slab thing, which I assumed was a chocolate brownie. The millionaire shortbread was lovely, I was never too bothered about millionaires shortbread before going vegan but there is definitely something about wanting something more when you can't have it and I really enjoyed the caramel. However, the chocolate slab thing was a big let down, it was very dry and bitter. The Boy has been to Hebden Bridge before, and has brought back other cakes from this place and they have all been lovely, so I think the chocolate slab was a one off.
Next, stop was Leeds, we didn't get any food there as we were planning to go out for tea at a place in Bolton (review to follow) so we just had a wander round the City Centre, and found an shopping arcade with some pretty impressive architecture.
Later on we stumble upon Leed's branch of Las Iguanas and as it was their happy hour we decided to go in for some cocktails- you get 2 for 1 on the same cocktail, so we chose a cocktail each, and had one of each. I went for a dark and storm (rum and ginger ale) and The Boy chose a Pina Colada, which they make with coconut cream instead of dairy cream, making it sfv. I've never had a Pina Colada before, but it was actually love a first sip- it was like a dessert in a drink form and we both decided to leave the best until last.
We also visited Out of This World, which is Leed's ethical food store, although it isn't a vegan store they sell a lot of vegan friendly stuff as well as stumbling across Little Tokyo, a vegan friendly Japanese restaurant which I really want to go and visit at some point.
All in all this was an amazing trip, which has only strengthened my love of all things Yorkshire :-)
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