Vegan is Fine for Everyone

 I was in the shower this morning (not an image you want in your head I know) and I read the side of my Lacura Shower Gel that I got from Aldi and it said "Suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians". Then I thought if something is suitable for Vegans then it is also suitable for Vegetarians. 

Although there are exceptions for allergic to reactions to certain foods that are Vegan (Nuts etc) no Vegetarian is going to thing I can't have that because it's Vegan , but a Vegan would have to check out something that is classed as Vegetarian to see if it is suitable for them..

Also someone who is an Pescatarian or an Omnivore should not have a problem with a product that is classed as Vegan (barring allergies), although religion could possibly come into it but essentially , if it's Vegan it is suitable for everyone.

I am lucky enough to live in Newcastle and we have a plethora of Vegan eating places, I'll add to this as I discover more but here's the list with links for you to explores:

• Snackwallah
• Vegano
• Supernatural
• Karma Kitchen

Please let me know the ones I have missed.

Jack Monroe's Peach & Chickpea Curry

And here is the gorgeous Peach and Chickpea curry by Jack Monroe , click on the pic to get the recipe.

Yes this is a very short post , and I may expand it for my Vocal writing , but this is one of the things that I use this blog for. I was gonna share some appropriate music but remembered this TED talk debunking all the arguments against Veganism by Ed Winters.

Ed Winters talk is excellent because it brings in the "just because it's legal doesn't make it moral" argument ,well worth your time , and if you fancy some vegan recipes try the books below.

Turning Lebanese

The Bake in Byker (a lebanese restaurant I have not yest visited but heard great reports about) has a presence in The Grainger Market called Felafel Al Hana, which I visited briefly when it first opened and was treated to complimentary felafel. I had been a couple of times and decided the main courses were too much for lunch, but passed today and checked out the hot starters and these actually looked like more than enough for a meal.

I ordered Batata Harra and Fried Vegetables , which was a more that decent serving of fried spiced potato cubes with sauce , bread , olives , mushrooms and a lot more vegetables , so an aleast vegetarian if not vegan meal , along with a cold jug of water, all for undet four pounds.

Service and the people were very welcoming and I have a few more items on th estarter menu that I am going to try. It is one of the many brilliant places to eat in the Grainger Market and far better thatn most of the chains in The Eldon (Incidentally Giraffe has gone).

You can see what I had here.  It was as good as it looks.
I wasn't sure exactly what music to have on this but as I had just got a new Facebook friend who was a friend of the lead singer with the Coyotemen, Helmut Bruiser,

I think their last single "Can She Cook" should suffice as Felafel Al HAna certainly can cook

Snackwallah Coincidence

It's amazing how I was writing about Bhanga music and Indian Restaurants earlier then decided to gofor a walk a lunch , was wondering how to lunch before deciding on a KFC before diverting to check out the Indian Street Food place in The Grainger Market, Snackwallah.

Snackwallah Platter

What an amazing surprise that was, I ordered a £3 Mixed Snack Platter which I hadn't got a clue really what I was getting but the staff were really helpful and delivered to be a small plate which a think was vegan , but definitely vegetarian (you can see it to the right) and it tasted gorgeous , with some kind of kick to it , but it was an amazingly good  and I will be going again, and thing you should do as well.

If you click on the picture you can see a few more images that I took while I was there.



Obviously this is just a short post, but Iwas training to thing of an appropriate pice which is "Husan" by Bhangra Knights or "Bhangra Knights" by Husan which  was used in a Car Advert many years make.

So it's Friday and I've found another great place to eat in Newcastle.

Here Comes The Weekend

Well today it rained, but I still managed to walk into work and take some videos of a vaguely disturbing area where there is a fenced school and fenced housing. It's almost a Ballardian dystopia and you can check it out here . It is probably all very pleasant but as I said in the last post, "Eden Lake" has left it's mark on me and this is reinforced by Ballard novels such a "Running Wild", "High Rise" and "Concrete Island".

I have managed 14K steps today which is about 5 miles, no great shakes, but it keeps me ahead of my game and this weekend I expect to his 40% of my Million Step Challenge. The thing is you don't realise how many steps you take in normal everyday life , but having said that as soon as you start watching it , the step counter seeps to grind to a halt.

The thing is I find gym's , exercise regimes, and atrict eating regimes incredibly tedious. Having said that I do prefer vegetarian / vegan meals to meats though I am fine with  dairy, eggs , cheese and fish. I knwo some people will boak at me for that, but I like eggs and fish, not all the time , but sometimes.

Anyway the weekend is here for us all to enjoy , so what better song that Dave Edmunds' "Here Comes The Weekend".

Sleep well my friends.

The Wildflower Hour and The Quest For The Perfect Vegan Sausage

At the weekend I was jealous cos I missed out on a vegan all day breakfast then I saw Jessica at Wildflower was now doing one. While I love Wildflower , often my work lunch break doesn't give me time to get there, have a meal cooked, eat it and then get back in a reasonable time. Wildflower is probably a ten minute (uphill) walk , and fine on a summers day but in the current climate, not quite as attractive a walk, though what's at the end is so worth it.

Gorgeous Wildflower Vegan Lunchtime Breakfast

Then I thought why not use Facebook Messenger and ask them to start a meal for me. So I did. And they did, and when I got there I got a huge come of coffee and soon was presented with and gorgeous all day vegan breakfast. There was toast, with a lovely spread , beans, hash browns, mushrooms and vegan sausages. I will be honest I am yet to find a vegan sausage I like, but it was so filling that I ended up leaving a slice of toast and half a sausage. It was absolutely gorgeous and you should visit to try this and the many other vegan culinary delights in store.











So a combination of social media and an excellent cafe meant that I had an absolutely brilliant lunch (even though it was a breakfast) and has set my mind ticking on what would the perfect vegan sausage contain? I thinking lentils, chickpeas, spices and herbs (not sure which ones) and some way of binding them together but not making it too dense or inedible. I'm sure that some of my culinary friends can point me in the right directions.

I found this recording of The Wilde Flowers featuring Robert Wyatt singing "Memories" which seemed fairly appropriate even though it's almost fifty years old now.

It's Friday and the weekend starts here. Enjoy my friends.

Ten

I've not written for a couple of days , but still feeling absolutely wrecked. I would love a week in bed but that isn't going to happen.

It's been a great weekend spent with friends and enjoying  a lot of vegan and vegetarian food. While I understand the economic benefits of mass veganism, I do enjoy a bacon sandwich. I don't know if that makes me a totally evil person, but I am not going to change in the foreseeable future. Someone once told me that vegetables were really boring, so vegetarian food need to be inventive and enhanced by the use of spices, and this weekends food from The Karma Kitchen, Super Natural and Sweet Memories at Study Cafe

Anyway the weekend has come to an end and as it's ten o'clock on a Sunday night I titled this one "Ten" , so hardly using my brain for that one, although it's probably a score I could use for the food I've had.

Anyway it's time for bed and I could have chosen "Ten"  (the album) by Pearl Jam , or "Perfect Ten" by Beautiful South but I am going for "Call Any Vegetable" by The Mothers of Invention complete with it's Holst - Jupiter sequence. Did you know that the bands name was "The Mothers" but the record company added "of Invention" so the name would be "safer" and not cause offence ... reckoned without Frank Zappa's music....

Sleep well my friends

Nova Vega

Over the past few weeks I have been asked if I am vegetarian , vegan and when did I become vegetarian and was it difficult to cut out meat and fish , just because I ate some vegetarian food. The answer is  I am not vegetarian or vegan, when it comes to eating I am blood awkward and fussy. I eat all the wrong things, I am diabetic , I like a bacon sandwich although I think I may be weaning myself off chocolate , which I adore and today I bought some scales and recorded the terrible fact that the scales tell me I am 114.6 Kg that's like 18 Stone.

Yum

 

Anyway enough of that, last week I visited the excellent Bohemian Restaurant and recorded my thoughts here so you can check it out , apparently one of the top ten British Vegan  Restaurants, it's in Pink Lane Newcastle and is definitely worth your time. They recommended Farplace which is a vegetarian / vegan shop / cafe in Clayton street , that sells  Vegetarian and Vegan products AND supports animal welfare so to quote George Orwell it really is DoublePlusGood , the staff are really nice and when I went in they had the guy from The Nut Roaster demonstrating his machine and selling various nut butters (you can see his oven in action here)



I went with Cashew Nut Butter along with a lentil curry pasty and vegan Victoria Sponge and a Chocolate Orange Scone.

Then today I was walking up Grainger Street and noticed a new cafe called Super Natural , there is already one near Carliol Square but this is a new one and very pleasant it ism, I checked in on Facebook here. As my friend Katie says it's a great time to go Vegan is you are in Newcastle.

The places I've listed are all town center, and they are not the only ones. If you go out to other Novocastrian districts you will find more Vegetarian and Vegan places.

I thought I was going to have to you use Meat Is Murder by The Smiths as accompanying music for this pice buth then remembered The Mothers' Call Any Vegetable which is far more positive , which lets face it Vegetarianism and Veganism is.

Enjoy your vegetables , they keep you regualar.