Vegan MoFo 2014!

I'm very excited to announce that this year I will be taking part in Vegan MoFo for the first time ever!!

For those of you who have never heard of it, the MoFo stands for Month Of Food (so therefore Vegan Month of Food) and encourages bloggers from around the world to blog on a regular basis about vegan food. I first discovered this last year whilst I was still a vegetarian, and spent hours trawling through various bloggers posts and as a new vegan, I'm excited to be taking part this year.

Vegan MOFO 2014 runs for the whole month of September and I will attempt to blog on a daily basis. Those of you who are familiar with my blog will understand that sometimes I struggle to blog on a monthly basis so I'm setting myself quite a challenge. Especially since I'm off to Barcelona for four days in early September.

Although themes are optional, I've decided to do a theme for each day, hopefully to help me keep on track:

Monday Bakes: It's depressing going back to work, so why not soften the blow with baked goods?!

What I Ate Tuesday: Simple.  Take pictures of my food and post it. What I Ate Wednesday does sound better but I've already got a theme for Wednesday...

Wrap-It Wednesday: Wednesday in our house equals wrap night, a chance to blog about my favorite recipes and to discover new ones.

Apple Thursday: Our apple tree is overflowing with apples again.  This is a chance to discover new ways to use them up.

Barcelona Friday: I'm hoping to write a few different posts on my upcoming trip to Barcelona

Pizza Saturday: We have Wrap Wednesday, and I'm currently trying to make Pizza Saturday a thing in our house to discourage us eating out so much. However sometimes it's unavoidable so if it's not pizza, I'll write about whatever we eat.

Seitan Sunday: I have wheat gluten, but tend to use it to make chickpea cutlets. However I think it's time have a go at making my own seitan and try a few different recipes.

I'll try to stick to the theme, but I'll try and prepare some off-topic posts for whilst I'm in Barcelona, and on Saturday 13 September I'm off to Blackpool Vegan Festival so I'll be doing a blog about that instead.

I hope you enjoy it, and wish me luck!

Bolton Food and Drink Festival

Bolton town centre, like many town centres has suffered the effects of recession and as a result, mostly consists of pound shops, charity shops and an awesome market. Although I love a good hunt round the charity shops and pound shops on occasions and I love the market, for most of the year there isn't much there to attract the crowds.

That all changes on August Bank Holiday, which is when Bolton holds its annual Food and Drink Festival.

I can hear all you critics, Bolton is hardly the most happening of towns but take it from someone who has been to quite a few Food and Drink festivals, Bolton's is definitely worth a visit.

This is my third year of visiting the festival and every year without fail its grown and taken over more of the town.  I could go on about it, but I think I'll just take you through some of the goodies I bought and hopefully persuade you to pay a visit next year...

We actually ended up going twice this year, and on my first visit I had only one place in mind for my lunch- The Hungry Gecko. The Hungry Gecko is run by Master Chef contestant and fellow Mancunian Jackie Kearney. As a vegetarian, Jackie always ensures that there are veggie and vegan options available so I knew I wouldn't starve! I did have a bit of a panic when Barbarella (the name of Jackie's food trailer!) wasn't in her usual spot, however this was short lived when I realised she had been moved to a prime spot in front of Bolton town hall. And I was even happier to see that as usual, Jackie had come up with some exciting vegan and veggie options.

My mind was instantly made up as soon as I saw the words 'veggie duck' and I opted for the baked spring roll with plum sauce. Which was delicious, however as a result I would have liked to have a bigger portion.

Next stop was The Kitchen on Great Moor Street's stall for dessert, the choice this time was a bit more difficult, it was a toss up between the walnut and date brownie or a chocolate tiffin. As usual, most of the food available on the stall was vegan and in the end I went for the walnut and date brownie, because I can never pass on a brownie.  This didn't taste like your ordinary brownie and it didn't have the chocolate hit I was expecting, however it was lovely and moist and there is nothing worse than a dry brownie!

On the second day I headed straight to The Hungry Gecko again, because on the first day I spotted the Bombay Frankie, which was described as 'Mumbai's burrito', and I'm a fan of anything that comes in a wrap. I went for the vegan version (obviously!) which was aubergine and potato masala, which again was yum!

For dessert, I had noticed one of the churro stalls (there was two this year) advertising vegan churros, so I grabbed a portion with sugar and cinnamon. Unfortunately the chocolate sauce was not vegan, which was a shame but I adore cinnamon so I wasn't too distraught.

So that was the food I ate there, but I can never go to these markets without picking up other things!

The first stop on the first day, right after going to The Hungry Gecko was Franca's stall which was next door. Franca's is a pizza takeaway in Bolton town centre run by actual Italians, as well as the takeaway, they also tour the local Food and Drink and Christmas markets selling their other produce. A few years ago I spotted them at an event in Manchester and tried their garlic mushroom bruschetta topping and was instantly hooked. Now every time I see their stall, I make sure I grab a jar of it.  It's great in a mushroom risotto and even on toast, perhaps with a bit of No Moo Melty.  Whilst finding the link for this blog post, I discovered that you can buy all their stuff now online- woo hoo!

Now I'm a cider gal, so when I spotted two stalls selling locally brewed cider I was very excited.  The first one, Lancashire Brewery is registered with the Vegan Society, so I knew I was in safe hands and picked a bottle of their two ciders- Copper and Blush. So far I've only drank the Copper which had a lovely crisp smooth taste.

The other cider stall was Red Bank Cider, which is brewed in Bolton. Unlike Lancashire Brewery it isn't registered with the Vegan Society, but the great thing about visiting small businesses at these events is that you get to talk directly to the owner who assured me that they were vegan friendly.  They do flavoured ciders as well as more traditional ciders, I picked up a box of their three flavoured ciders to- blueberry, strawberry and rum to take along to a birthday BBQ. Out of all the flavours, I would say the strawberry was my favorite.

As a chocoholic, I'm always keeping an eye out for interesting vegan chocolate. There were two stalls at the market selling vegan chocolate- The Chocolate Cafe, which is a business in nearby Bury, who are very good at labelling their vegan chocolates, their dark chocolate and ginger bar is divine. The other stall was one I hadn't seen before was called Chocolate Magic, and on closer inspection also had chocolates that were suitable for vegans, although not labelled as such.  I went for the dark Belgian Chocolate, hazelnut and oranges (I love hazelnuts) and the dark Belgian chocolate and sea salt, because I kept seeing so many milk chocolate and salted caramel bars around and this was the closest thing to it that was vegan!

So far I've only had the sea salt one, and I'm not too sure what I think- whilst eating it you get a mix of the salt and chocolate but then there is a weird bitter aftertaste which I'm not too sure about.

Oh and I nearly forgot my other purchase! There was also a stall called Real Thai Pies, which was advertising a 100% vegan vegetable green thai curry pie, which you could buy baked to eat then or frozen to take away.  I went for the frozen version which we had for tea with lattice fries and roasted cauliflower and broccoli- yum!

I hope I've persuaded you to pencil in Bolton Food Festival in your diaries for August Bank holiday 2015. Hopefully it will continue with tradition and grow more and have more vegan options next year!

Wigan- The Coven and Nooch

The Boy is working lot of evenings and weekends for the next three months, which means that I will be having a lot of Boy free weekends coming up.

I've always been fond of Wigan, it's a place I visited regularly when I was little, I used to love going to Wigan Pier and the experience and exhibition centre which has unfortunately closed, I have a fondness for Wigan Athletic (I'm not a football fan, but I love seeing small local teams doing well) and it's home to Uncle Joe's Mint Balls (hehe balls!) which are vegan friendly.

I'd heard about Wigan's vegetarian bistro/restaurant, The Coven and had learnt of the new gluten free and vegan shop, Nooch on facebook. So given that I have a free afternoon I decided to check them out.

First stop was The Coven on Hallgate, because I was thirsty. I'd heard rumours that it was quite a small place, but I wasn't expecting what I saw when I walked in- the place is tiny! And at first I was very confused because there isn't actually a counter and I thought I might have come in the wrong entrance, however the friendly waitress talked me through the drinks they sold, which included Fentimans so I didn't have to listen to the full list and went with my usual dandelion and burdock.  I  also ordered a slice of chocolate goo cake with vegan ice cream and went to sit in their garden- you have to go out the main door, turn right at the corner and through the back door.  You pay at the end of the meal, so in order to do so, I had to leave the garden and walk back to the main entrance- they must have a lot of trust in their customers!

The cake was extremely dense and chocolatey, just as you would expect a something that is described as a chocolate goo cake to be.  This is the kind of cake you would order after a two course meal and then instantly regret it because it was so rich and your already stuffed but you try your best to eat it because it's delicious.  The vanilla ice cream was Swedish Glace which I love as it has such a strong vanilla flavour, unlike a lot of other dairy ice creams. I'd love to try Booja Booja, but it's so pricey!

The Coven do proper food too and also runs workshops.

Next stop was Nooch, which is a couple of doors down from The Coven on Hallgate.  Me and The Boy tried to find this place previously when we were going through Wigan and for some reason I was convinced the shop front was green and that it was on the ground floor. We couldn't find it, mainly because the shop front is red and the shop is actually on the first floor!

The shop itself is very bright and spacious, working near Manchester University I have easy access to Eighth Day, however Nooch has different stock to Eighth Day and in addition they sell clothes, jewellery and various other craft items along with a dedicated area for workshops etc. They have a good relationship with The Coven and I spotted that you could buy The Coven's lasagna in the frozen section along with some of their cakes at the counter.

As well as picking up some Violife cheese slices and  Tofutti sour cream, I also picked up a Round Up, which is a vegan version of a wagon wheel.

I was never a fan of wagon wheels, I always thought the chocolate tasted cheap and the marshmallow was disappointing.  However this gourmet version was really tasty, the chocolate and biscuit was thick and high quality and it was generous with the marshmallow (I think vegan marshmallows taste a lot nicer than gelatin filled counterparts!), however at £2.50 it's definitely a treat item.

The lovely owner of Nooch seems to have grown quite fond of these, and warned me that they can be quite addictive and is constantly posting pictures on the Facebook page of half eaten Round Ups and Vego bars, which they also sell (I resisted them on this trip!).  Maybe I should quit the day job and open my own vegan market stall at Bolton Market, however I would have to show some restraint and not eat all the stock!

El-Piano, York

So we went to visit my Dad in Tockwith, near York and decided to go out for tea on the way back.

"You want to go to go to Monk's Cross, it's great, they have a Giraffe!" Said Dad, Giraffe seems to be his new favorite place to eat.

Now, if you've read my previous blog post about the Trafford Centre, you will know my dismay that the Giraffe there do not sell their only vegan option.  So out of interest, we took my Dad's advice and went to visit the wonder that is Monk's Cross.

When we got there, we were a little disappointed.  Bolton Middlebrook beats this place hands down. The Giraffe didn't even sell the vegan option, and the only other viable option was Nandos, and if I wanted to go there, well I could just go to Middlebrook and then drag The Boy round the new Lifestyle section of the huge TESCO and then the awesome health food shop inside the Tesco that sells tons of vegan goodies too.

So after a bit of a tantrum from me (I don't cope well with hunger) we decided to head to York and visit El Piano,  a vegan and gluten free restaurant in York centre which also has two other branches in Malaga and Granada in Spain.

We got there, got seated and then came the hard part of figuring out the menu- the starters are pretty straight forward, however it was the main that confused us but basically you order a hot dish, some fritters and then a salad.

For starters we both ordered tempura vegetables in a ginger beer batter which came with a teriyaki sauce. For drinks, The Boy ordered a Fentimans Victorian lemonade and I ordered a toffee shake with coconut milk (you could also choose to have it with rice or soya milk).

We both enjoyed our starters, but then tempura vegetables will always get a thumbs up from us. The only criticism I had was the carrots could have been cooked a bit longer.  As for my shake, it tasted quite strongly of banana and at first I thought that maybe they had got my order wrong as there was a banana shake on the menu, however the waiter confirmed that it was suppose to have banana in and kindly added more toffee for me.  I'm not the greatest fan of raw banana, and even after the extra toffee it tasted quite strongly of banana. I may have misread the menu wrong, but this isn't something I would order again.

Unfortunately, my phone doesn't seem to have saved the pictures I took of the rest of the meal, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

For mains I went with sweet and sour tofu, croquetas (which also had banana in, but I think the flavour mellows on cooking) and hummus, The Boy had moussaka, falafels and hummus.  I was a little disappointed with the tofu, there was a distinct lack of tofu and mostly consisted of onions, however the croquetas and hummus were super tasty (especially the hummus), The Boy really enjoyed his meal, and after reassuring me that the moussaka wasn't that creamy I think I might try it if we visit again. Whilst waiting for the main, The Boy spotted that the table behind us had ordered a jug of sangria and despite driving and therefore only being allowed a glass and a half, insisted that we ordered one.  Him being limited to a glass and a half meant that I got to drink the rest of it!

Now I don't often get the option of dessert when we eat out, so despite being full to bursting (not helped by my new skirt I bought off ebay that is a little on the tight side!) I insisted on ordering cake. The Boy ordered the carrot cake, whereas my trained eye instantly spotted the chocolate mousse pie.  Both desserts were lovely, the mousse pie was stodgy just as a chocolate dessert should be, and the carrot cake was light with a little spice.

I would definitely go here again, I usually go to omni restaurants, so to going to a place where I could have everything off the menu was amazing, and not having to worry about whether the wine was vegan was great too. However, the biggest bonus was that The Boy loved it!