VeganMoFo Day 4 – A review of Zizzi’s

For day 4 of VeganMoFo, we were asked where we eat when we want someone else to cook.

Honestly, we don’t go out to eat a whole lot. I know some people go out to eat almost every night, but I enjoy cooking (hence the food blog!) and so we only really go out on special occasions, or when there are vegan events going on.

Sometimes we like to go to the monthly vegan market in Sneinton, Nottingham, where they usually have some lovely street-food and of course plenty of vegan goodies to buy. But other times, a sit down meal is best, and lately we’ve been turning to Zizzi for that.

Back in March, Zizzi unveiled a new vegan menu including a pizza with vegan cheese!! This was incredibly exciting to vegans all around the country, because we are so used to just getting “extra vegetables, no cheese” on our pizzas. Finally, we could go to a mainstream place and get pizza with cheese.

You can get a plain “margherita” pizza with just a tomato base and the vegan mozzarella, or you can get a pizza with three different toppings for just a little extra. In the one above, I had olives, balsamic onions, and roasted tomatoes. It was delicious, and the cheese is lovely and melty!

This autumn, they also released a new menu including a vegan lentil ragu, which I had recently. It was also delicious and a lovely addition to the menu.

They also do vegan side dishes, such as the above “Tuscan Potatoes” which are rosemary roasted and lovely. Plus vegan cider, pictured in the first photo, by Aspall!

One thing that is great about Zizzi is how they put a little sticker on all of the vegan dishes that says “vegan”. For those, like me, who can be a little paranoid about their food, this is a lovely reassurance that your food is indeed vegan. You can get their pizza to take out too, and they even put the little vegan sticker on that!

So, I would highly recommend Zizzi to anyone looking for not too expensive vegan food in the UK.

 

Gloucestershire Holiday, Part 3.

So, here goes the final episode in our holiday to Gloucestershire.

The day after our Cotswold’s walk, we decided to venture a bit further from our base, and head down to Wales. Cardiff, to be specific. A long time ago when we were dating, we had a holiday near Swansea but neither of us have ever been to Cardiff before and it seemed like a good place to visit.

The day was a little grey and chilly, but we walked through Bute Park, which contains the walls of the castle. We didn’t go in the castle as it was quite dear, but we saw the outside at least! After getting a bit cold, we headed inside to the National Museum, which had a lot of art exhibits including a very harrowing one on Mametz Wood, the battle in the First World War. It’s free to enter, so if you are going to be in the area, definitely pay it a visit.

 

For lunch, we headed to the Cafe Atma in the centre of Cardiff. An all vegetarian, egg free cafe, almost all the menu items can be made vegan (and they’ll let you know too!). I don’t usually order curry when I’m out – probably because I figure I can make curry myself – but this looked too good to pass on – and it was amazing! Mild in heat but not in flavour, I had a chana dhal and a peanut butter subzi, with puri, cauliflower pakora, and rice. It was lovely! And the drink you can see in the background – strawberry & blackcurrant – was also very tasty.

 

The next day – our final day – we went on a last walk around Gloucester before we checked out of the hotel. Fresh and early in the morning, the docks were absolutely beautiful. We also got to have a look inside the cathedral too, where the organist was playing some warming up music.

We then headed to Cheltenham, where we found there was a farmers market going on with not one, but two stalls with vegan options! First was the Veggie Deli where we bought a polenta bake to eat for lunch, and then we came across Flamingo’s Vegan Bakery, which was a lovely stall! They had millionaire’s shortbread and I had a nice chat with the owners about how they make their caramel (they condense their own soy milk! That’s more work than I can put in!) and of course I had to buy some to sample. I also got the pictured wonderful chocolate and peanut butter cookie sandwich. I am not sure I’ve ever had a cookie sandwich before (unless you count Jammy Dodgers and Bourbons) but this was delicious.

Finally, we headed home – and were quickly greeted by the neighbour’s cat, who seemed to have missed us!

Gloucestershire Holiday, Part 2.

After our day in Bath, we decided to head to the nearby Bristol. The two cities are less than fifteen miles from each other, and we’d originally planned to visit them both on the same day. We soon realised though that since Bath had such a wealth of places to visit, we just wouldn’t have time! So, two separate days it was.

But first off, we headed for the seaside! Portishead is a town just a little outside of Bristol and although it doesn’t really have a “beach” exactly, it’s still a beautiful little place with some very enviable houses!

Next onto Bristol itself, where we prepared to explore and shop. We came across St Peter’s Church in the city centre Castle Park, an old church – possibly the oldest in Bristol – which was bombed in World War II after being used as a hospital, and is now preserved as a memorial, with lovely gardens growing herbs and useful plants.

 

We then went on to have lunch at VX Bristol. Describing itself as “Vegan Junk Food”, it has a little shop selling vegan essentials and more – loads of mock-meats and cheeses – but also a restaurant where you can get some great food. I had the “Philly”, which is a burger and cheese in a cob, grilled! Like a toastie! The cheese went all melty and delicious. Greg had a regular burger which he said was delicious too. We also got cakes to take away (we were too full to eat dessert immediately) and they were lovely but no photos as they did get a little squished on our way back!

Finally, we paid a visit to the cathedral in Bristol. A beautiful cathedral and mostly empty by the time we got there, it also has some lovely well-maintained gardens which we visited.

The next day we went on a walk in the Cotswold’s. We followed a walking guide from the National Trail website, taking us along part of the Cotswold Way and through the beautiful villages of Stanton and Snowshill.

We walked up some enormous hills, but were rewarded by some stunning views of the countryside around us. Apparently from some parts of the walk you can even see into Wales, but we weren’t quite sure!

We packed a lunch with us – cobs with some “lunchmeat” style slices I made and salad and crisps! Good food for being out walking. We’ve done a few of the walks from the National Trail website and I’d highly recommend them.

We were exhausted when we got home from the walk and stayed in the hotel again (watching Olympics once more!), ready for the next day out, which I will post soon in Part 3!

Gloucestershire Holiday, Part 1.

This past week, we have been holidaying in the Gloucestershire/South West area. We spent five nights in a hotel in Gloucester (complete with a fridge and a microwave – essential for vegans!) and travelled to various places nearby. As always, we took a whole lot of pictures of the area and the food, some of which I’ll share in this post!

The city of Gloucester is itself quite beautiful, and on our first evening we went for a walk in the sun. We found the cathedral – which was at the time closed due to it being quite late (ah, the deceptively bright British summer evenings!) – but from the outside it was still an awe inspiring sight.

We walked down by the docks which were very windy and full of seagulls – but again full of lovely sites. Pictured above is the Johanna Lucretia, which starred in the film Amazing Grace (about William Wilberforce and his campaign to end the slave trade). The docks were surprisingly quiet and it was a lovely walk.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the pizza place Fat Toni’s. They offer vegan cheese on all of their pizzas at no extra cost – which is wonderful news! We decided to try it out, along with a pot of their vegan pesto dip. They also offer vegan ice cream, but it was a rather large tub and with no freezer to store it in we had to pass! I had the “La Franca” pizza, with artichokes, garlic, tomatoes. It was delicious and so good to have a pizza with vegan cheese readily available!

After a good sleep in the hotel, the next day we decided to have a day out in Bath, since it was only slightly over an hours journey from our base in Gloucester – and having recently graduated with a history degree (and a slight focus on ancient history) I was eager to see the city!

Bath Abbey is simply stunning, and it’s well worth having a look inside (free entry!) – pay attention to the great windows at the west and east – one depicting Old Testament stories and the other depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. They are very impressive!

Next we walked up a very very big hill (seriously an endless amount of steps) to Alexandra Park, where we were rewarded with this amazing view of the city. It’s hard to get an idea from photos of the view, but you could see the whole city and beyond – it was well worth the walk.

I didn’t manage to take a picture of lunch – which was a tempeh wrap from Harvest – but I did get a photo of this lovely drink I had – I love rhubarb and this had a wonderful rhubarby taste to it! We bought our lunch to take away and ate it in the Parade Gardens in the centre of Bath, alongside the river Avon. The gardens do have a small entrance fee (£1.50 per adult) but since our lunch was fairly cheap we decided to pay for the privilege of being able to sit down and eat!

 

Finally, we went to the Roman Baths. These are not cheap – a £15.50 entry fee per adult (though I got a slight discount with my student card!) but if you can, they’re well worth it. It seems like they’re going to be packed, and to be honest they are pretty busy, but it isn’t a bad thing. In fact, being busy it kind of forces you to take time to look at the exhibits and appreciate them. Do take one of the audio guides – there are some fantastic commentries by Bill Bryson along the route!

At the end of the day, we were tired and didn’t fancy eating out and so just had food in the hotel room whilst we watched the Olympics – but that was good enough for us! Having a microwave and a fridge made that easy.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the holiday, coming soon!

 

Road Trip Snacks! – Vegan MoFo Day 29

The penultimate prompt for Vegan MoFo 2015 is “What would you bring on a vegan road trip?” Now, if hypothetically I was going on a vegan road trip and had unlimited funds, I’d probably buy expensive vegan chocolate and snacks from specialist stores. But…although that’d be super tasty, I can’t afford that and I haven’t done that! So I’m sticking with what I know.

When we go on “road trips” (there’s only so much road to trip in the UK!) I tend to stock up on cheap and easy snacks. Mostly sweets and things that aren’t so great for you – but who cares, are holidays really meant to be healthy?

So here I have a selection of the treats I like to buy, all of which clock in at £1 or less!

First lets start with the savoury. These Rosemary & Olive oil Ritz crackers are awesome, and I get them from any supermarket. Bring along a pot of hummus to dip them in!

I love Pringles – and they’re great because they have a little “tick” next to the word vegan on their ingredients list if they’re safe! But these are also really good and only £1. Tesco’s version. Their plain ones are also vegan.

Marmite crisps!! Make sure to get the Walkers brand, as the other older brand of marmite crisps are not vegan. These are recently back and are strangely good. Can buy in packs of six from supermarkets.

Ok that’s it for the savoury, on to the sweet. Where would a vegan snacks list be without Biscoff? These Lotus biscuits come in handy snack-size packets, ideal for dipping in tea or coffee. Found in packs of 16 in pound shops.

These little fruit flakes are actually kind of healthy. You can get them in all different flavours, they are made from condensed fruit purees and are like mini gummies. From supermarkets or pound shops!

And of course Oreos! These are a pack of 10×2 packs I got from a pound shop. You can get rolls of them too, but here in the UK only the regular and the Golden flavours are vegan.

Bon Bons! Tesco’s own make and delicious. Blue Raspberry is such a nostalgic taste.

Skittles! Skittles are now vegan – they didn’t used to be vegetarian either but they changed the recipe and made it suitable for both vegetarians and vegans. My favourite is the sour flavour.

Talking of Skittles…these are basically Vimto flavoured skittles – you can get them from pound shops. Delicious!

So there you have it, my cheap and cheerful road trip list!

Eating out! – Vegan MoFo Day 19

So today’s prompt is “Lunch on the go” which gave me pause for thought because, well, I don’t really eat out much! What I have decided to do is post a few places around the country that I have had good food at recently. These will be all over the country as we like to visit different cities!

Derby

I have no pictures for here, I’m sorry! But Sound Bites is a wonderful little shop in the centre which sells snack foods to take away and lots of other vegan goodies. It has a cafe above where you can get a sit-down meal too.

Leicester

Leicester is so good for vegan food. Just check out their happy cow page! My favourite is Currant Affairs on Loseby Lane – such a wonderful little shop with a huge range of take-out food ranging from sausage rolls, to cobs, to samosas – and of course cakes too!

This is a nut roll I had from Currant Affairs

Leicester also has the World Peace Cafe near the Cathedral which is totally vegetarian and does some nice sandwiches etc!

My terrible photo of my roasted veg panini from the World Peace Cafe!

Nottingham

Nottingham is another place that is great for vegans! I’ve not been there many times but I have enjoyed it when I have. One place we went was the Alley Cafe which is in the town, it’s a small place and if it’s busy you may have to book, but we didn’t and there was space for us! Delicious food and they do vegan ice cream.

Another place in Nottingham I like (but I don’t have a photo of!) is the Natural Food Company on Mansfield Road. They are a small shop that also has a counter with some really nice snacks.

Leeds

We actually just went here a couple weekends ago! Leeds again has quite a few vegan options but we opted to have lunch at Roots and Fruits which is a lovely place in the Grand Arcade – I recommend if it’s quiet sitting outside in the Arcade as it’s a pretty place!

I got a Kidney Bean patty sandwich

We then went to Out of This World which is a fairly large shop selling all sorts of goodies. I got some vegan “Reeses cups” for dessert which were mmm!

Norwich

Norwich is surprisingly vegan friendly! I never expected it to be, but my mum confirms it (she grew up there), when she went vegetarian as a teenager Norwich was the place to eat!

We had a really lovely lunch at Wild Thyme near the marketplace. It’s marketed as a cafe but price wise it is a bit higher and food wise posher than what you’d get at a cafe! But still extraordinarily delicious. And they make their own hummus and cashew cheese too!

Downstairs from Wild Thyme is Rainbow Wholefoods which is another shop selling groceries and snacks.

Brighton

This barely needs a mention because Brighton is well known as a hugely vegan-friendly place. We went there for a holiday and walked down to the town for breakfast at Wai Kika Moo Kau (what a name!)

I had this delicious avocado bagel!

We ended up getting delivery pizza to our hotel room at the end of the day because we were beat from walking around oohing and ahhing at everywhere (seriously, Brighton is gorgeous). Morelli Zorelli has a huge range of vegan pizzas (ever expanding!) and I wish vegan pizza delivery was more common!

My vegan pepperoni and chorizo pizza!

Brighton also has Infinity Foods which is a lovely large supermarket selling vegetarian and vegan food and household items. It even has a bakery at the back! Nearby it has a cafe, but we weren’t so much of a fan of that one.

So there you have it, my list of places that I’ve eaten at. This is only a very small list and increasingly there are more and more vegan places around the country. Use the Happy Cow website and search your town or city and see what you find!

Norwich

Today we went into Norwich.

First of all we visited Norwich Castle. The castle, from the outside, is not ornate or anything “pretty” – in fact it looks like a prison, which is what it was used as for most of its history.

The castle was built by order of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century AD, however from the thirteenth century onwards it was used as a jail, up until it’s conversion to a museum in the late 19th century.

The castle now is a museum, with a miniature recreation of the original Norman layout inside – it’s quite interesting as I don’t know much about the Norman period. However the castle was full of a group of schoolkids so it was quite noisy!

After we went to the castle we had lunch at Pizza Express. I had the new “pianta” pizza which is a new cheeseless option. It’s good to be able to order a pizza that’s meant to not have cheese on, and this pizza was tasty though quite spicy.

The leaves are rocket on top! It had artichokes, mushrooms, pine nuts, and a spicy tomato sauce base.