Don't keep it secret!

I'm pretty sure you've heard before about the "Secret Society of Vegans" and if you haven't it's time to know all about it! SSOV has been producing vegan gear in London since 2004 and in 2009 they decided to open their first shop in Camden Town. In the beginning of 2010 they moved to a new place, called Vx, the new home of SSOV.

Since I've heard they had opened the shop I wanted to go there and never had the chance until last week! So, what's so special about the shop? For me, the most exciting thing is that it's not (just) a food shop (I know you don't believe, but I think about other things too!). They sell clothes, vegan shoes, books, grocery AND food.

We ended spending more than a couple of hours there and it was amazing. Everybody in the shop is very nice and we had the opportunity to meet one of the guys responsible for the Accidentally Vegan (they supply the shop with some of the most amazing vegan treats, include a vegan profiterole that is to die for!). It was a lovely afternoon and I bought some great stuff.

Besides the shop, they have a lounge in the basement where you can relax, drink some coffee while eating some of the delicious vegan treats and chat with the friends.

Vx is totally wort it a visit when in London! And don't keep it secret, spread the word as much as you can.

Vx

73 Caledonian Road

Kings Cross

Vx on Facebook

Accidentally Vegan on Facebook

Music and food trip to London

Oh, boy! I thought I had written about London here before and now I realized I didn't. I wrote about the trip we've done last year but in my old column in a Brazilian website. Shame on me. But well, better late than never and now I have even better tips and photos, so here we go!

London must be in every TOP 5 cities for vegans. It's very vegan-friendly and the prices are decent too (well, I always compare to f***ing-expensive Dublin!). And being a tourist there rules too. Me and Matteo went there in the end of April to see Descendents for the first time. The show was on of the biggest frustration of my life cause Milo (the singer) lost his voice after the third song. But well, this is not a blog about music so this was just an introduction (you know how much punk/hardcore is a big thing in my life!).

We stayed three days in London and went to some places to eat, including the vegan Thai place in Camden Town that is a must (it's all you can eat and it's basically in front of the tube station and close to most of the venues we go to). The place is not hard to find but I can't remember its name (sorry about that!) but there's a sign in the front door "vegetarian Thai buffet" and the place is big enough to see it :P Just one note: it's almost impossible to go there two days in a row cause the food is heavy, everything there is fried and in your first day there you will really want as much as you can, so do it right!

Second food stop was Gallery Cafe. The guys from the Vx store (I'll write a separated post about it) recommend us their vegan pizza. It's served after 3:30 so we decided to go there before the Saves the Day gig on Tuesday. Can't describe how good was the super cheesy vegan pizza! One of the best vegan pizzas I've ever had. Could eat there every day (yeah, you know, I do love pizza). The place is vegetarian, not vegan, but they have vegan options and the staff is pleased to help you to "build" your favourite pizza.

Gallery Cafe

St. Margaret's House
21 Old Ford Road

Bethnal Green Third stop was Ms. Cupcake. When I read that they had opened a store in London I got so excited and couldn't leave the city with a least one visit. They're located in Brixton so we took the tube and, have to say, I had the best cupcake of my life there: a Ferrero Rocher cupcake. We had the honor of meeting Ms. Cupcake in person too and she's a lovely lady. The shop is big and it's in a nice gallery with a coffee shop in the next door, where you can order your vegan favourite coffee to have with your cupcake. Matteo had the Triple Chocolate one (which also comes with homemade vegan marshmallows on top!) and I had another one, Raspberry Cheesecake. So, next time you're in London, make sure you'll stop by Ms. Cupcake, it's 1000% worth it!

Ms. Cupcake

408 Coldharbour Lane

Brixton

And our last stop before coming back to real life was Maoz Vegetarian. I know it's not a meal, but I love falafel and Maoz is handy, cheap and tasty. The filling options in London are great and the falafel balls are delicious too. And the shop is at Soho so it's always a good idea to walk around the area too.

Maoz Vegetarian

43 Old Compton Street

This is it! There are at least a million other vegan places to go so I'm sure I will have to keep going there to keep this blog full of tips.

All about... Blazing Salads

It's unbelievable that Dublin has basically five vegetarian restaurants and I still didn't write about all them here. If I had to choose one or two words now to define Blazing Salads it would be "life-saver". During these busy days, it's being the best place to eat or to go to grab some food to take away.

Blazing Salads is more like a deli place than a restaurant. It's small, but with a great atmosphere and offer salads, soups, cakes, snacks and desserts. They also have a bakery that offer a selection of organic bread. I first went there in September of 2008, while we were in Dublin for the first time, to decide if we would really move here. I loved the snacks options and my favourite one was the vegan pizza slice. But at that time I got that idea that it was a place for salads lovers and I'm not one of them, or at least I wasn't. Because of that I stayed a long time without going there.

But since I'd started to work one block away from there, I decided to go there more often. And I have to say that it was a great idea! For the last months me and Matteo are eating more salads in general, so it's easier now for me to go there. And they also have one of the best hummus in Dublin! It's hard to find a place to eat there during the lunch time, cause the place it's designed to be a take away option, but it's not being a bad thing these days cause the weather in Dublin is surprisingly sunny and warm. So I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can, having lunch in the roof of the office building.


You can choose between 14 salads option and you pay for the weight. The price is fair enough and they offer quality food. They also have some organic, gluten-free and vegan products to sell there.


If you're in town or if you work around the area, stop there and try it. It's worth it and you can become addicted!

The Blazing Salads Food Company
42 Drury Street
Dublin 2


Couscous + green quinoa salad + hummus

Italy, (not too much) vegan, Italy

My husband is Italian, so for the last 5 years and a half I've been learning a lot about Italy and I go there often. Most of the times is just to visit family and to have amazing vegan foods at home. But this time I did a week as a tourist cause my mom came to Europe for the very first time and one of her dreams was to go to Venice. So, to Italy we went. Me, Matteo, mom and a friend of her. 7 days, 4 cities.

The first stop was Matteo's city, Soresina. It's a small city part of Cremona and very close to Milan. We spent the day there and had a early birthday lunch to celebrate my 35 years old. On the second day we went to Milan. After that it were three days in Venice and three days in Rome.

Lunch time at Matteo's house - Soresina

My lovely vegan b-day cake, made by my sister-in-law

Vegan fruit ice cream

Vegan biscuits that you can find in the supermarkets

Vegan biscuits that you can find in the supermarkets

I don't have too much about vegan food to share with you this time cause we went - most of the time - to regular restaurants. But there are some things that I think it's important to know: some cities in Italy doesn't have too many vegan or vegetarian restaurants. Check Vegan Cow to good tips, but it's really hard to find specific places. But, no vegan will starve in that beautiful country cause some typical food are naturally vegan! You will always find spaghetti al pomodoro or spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino. If you go to a restaurant that is also a pizzeria, you will have the marinara pizza and the best thing about it is that you can ask for a marinara with any vegetables you want (Matteo's favorite is with artichoke and mine is with black olives). Most of the places serve ciabatta bread free (you can ask for the oil to eat with the bread, it's too good) and it's vegan.

Marinara pizza

Spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino

Fresh cherries in Venice

And when in Rome... Try two typical Roman food: pizza bianca and pizza rossa. They're perfect for an amazing breakfast. And there are (at least) two places in Rome that you should go: Mondo Arancina (they have one vegan option of this snack called arancina ant it's made with rice and tomato sauce) and, at the same block, Gelarmony Arte Del Gelato Siciliano (they have many vegan ice cream options - soya and rice - and an awesome homemade whipping cream! And I don't need to say that it is my favorite place in Rome too, do I?).



That's it for now. I hope I can go to visit some other cities in Italy this year to make more useful posts for vegan people traveling in Italy.

Mondo Arancina
Via Marcantonio Colonna, 38

Gelarmony Arte Del Gelato Siciliano
Via Marcantonio Colonna, 34

Summer, hot Summer, in Rome

Shake your body

If you're stopping here for the first time, you don't know that, but ice cream is my favorite food. Like, top 1 (and I have a milkshake tattoo in my left leg!). I could eat ice cream every day. Having said that, this post is about a new (well, not too new anymore) place here in Dublin that sells milkshakes: Shakes Milkshake Bar.

I have been there three times: the first one was a bad experience 'cause me and Matteo stayed in the line twenty minutes just to heard that they didn't have the dairy free option that evening. But I didn't give up and went there before going to Brazil with the lovely Aoife. I had the chocolate option and it was delicious. They use the vegan ice cream Swedish Glace, which is really good and tasty.


Today I took some time to go there again with Matteo and my-sister-in-law that was spending some summer days here with us and I decided to try the peanut butter dairy free option! OMG! Can't believe how good it was! Matteo had the chocolate one and he was happy with that too.

I hope I can have more time in this busy (and a little bit messy) summer to come back there more times. And, you know, I will be there during the autumn and the winter too.


Shakes Milkshake Bar
15 College Green
Dublin 2

Vegan MoFo III - Day 5 - All about... Barcelona

Today I'm not blogging about my favorite food but about another passion: traveling!

Finally I have time to write about the vegan places I went to during my four days in Barcelona! My Brazilian friend Lubia lived there for an year and gave me some great tips (gracias!). I couldn't check them all, but I went to good places with Matteo and family.

So, here there are the places:

*Juicy Jones: we took some time to find the place (not the street) because it's a small door with the name in graffiti letters that we didn't understand at first what was about. It is famous because of its juices but we went there for lunch. Everything was vegan! When you arrive you can't imagine how cool it is inside with all the colors. It's really a great place. The staff is very nice and the food is amazing! We had the “plate of the day” that was seitan with mushrooms and tomato sauce, salad and baked potatoes. My sister in law asked another option that was rice with a vegetable skewer and a very good sauce (with nuts). I also had a strawberries with orange delicious smoothie. And, of course, we had TAPAS!!! We couldn't go to Spain without trying this typical dish! We chose the black olives one and it is great. It's a kind of pate that you eat with fresh bread.

Address: C/Cardenal Casañas 7, Ciutat Vella

* Gelaati!: if you heard that Italy makes the best ice cream ever, you did hear right! Doesn't matter where you go, if you find an Italian shop, you'll be happy. And a lot of them have vegan ice cream. In Barcelona, we went to this one, Gelaati, that is in the Barrio Gothic (in the Old Town) and have soy and rice options. We got both rice options they had that day: strawberry and chocolate. So, so good!

Address: Llibreteria 7, Ciutat Vella

* Vegetalia: this is a place that we found at HappyCow (because we had another tip but all the reviews said that the place wasn't good, so we decided to try another one). And I'm glad we went there. It was a little bit hard to find it and I had my feet with big blisters after tree days of walking but it was 100% worth it. I loved it. The restaurant, the staff, the food. The menu is vegetarian but they have a lot of vegan options. I asked for a vegan paella (another typical dish that we had to try!) and Matteo ordered a “capricho” (it's a dish that is the specialty of the restaurant), that is rice, seitan, eggplant and a delicious white sauce (that tastes like a tahini). My mother in law got the veggie burger of the day (vegetarian) and my sister in law had sweet potato with brie.

The famous (vegan) paella

The amazing "Capricho"

Address: Escudellers 54.

And during the nights, we had the luck of finding an Arabic restaurant close to our hotel (that wasn't in the central area that has most of the vegetarian/vegan places). I can't believe that I don't remember the name now, but I will add it here when I find the name and address because this place saved us every single night with its delicious hummus, falafel and spinach snacks.


Hope the tips can help you in Barcelona! And if you have any other great vegan places in the city, please share it with us!

You can also check some tips about Berlin, Prague and Paris.

Back from Barcelona!

I'm back after five days in Barcelona and it was amazing! First time in the city and I loved it. We (me and Matteo met his mother and sister there) had a great time and saw a lot of places. The city is lovely and we went to some great places to eat too (yes, you'll read about it here this week).

VeganMoFo starts tomorrow and I'm really excited about it! We're moving to a bigger apartment on Saturday and I have some other news to share with you soon too. That's a great begin for this Autumn.