Hi Friends, Still recovering from the joys of being away in England (Newcastle upon Tyne) for a football match at the weekend (we didn't win but we drew against Spurs, happy enough!). Now, travelling can be a bit difficult if you are vegan/veggie or have special dietary requirements. If I'm going out to eat at home (in Lisburn/Belfast) I will always check ahead by reading menus on websites or phoning ahead to ask if any vegan options are available. When we're away in Newcastle I usually only eat in a football pub called The Strawberry where we are regulars and they will adapt the menu to make me vegan food. We ate out one other time at The Shark Club gastro bar... you may have heard of these, it is a Canadian chain... a kind of sports bar... not really my scene as the music was really pumping very loudly... showing my age here! ... but it came highly recommended so we thought it was only fair to give it a chance. My partner Geordie told the waitress that I was vegan & she was absolutely brilliant, she sat down with us and went through the whole menu to see what she could come up with & then she went to the kitchen to discuss it with the chef. I ended up with a beautiful starter of vegetable lettuce wraps (not First Date Food... I ended up using knife/ fork as it was a wee bit messy but really tasty) and then a gorgeous Thai vegetable stir fry.
We were staying in one of Jury's hotels, we did a bit of shopping of food for the room. We went to Holland & Barrett & got soya drinks/ desserts. Then we found a really good little Sainsbury's, one thing you have to be really careful about shopping in the UK, especially on the mainland is that a lot of food is halal but not labelled as such and being sneaked into food, so I have to be 100% sure that food really really is vegan (I am not anti-Islamic, far from it, but as you may know halal & kosher food means that the animals cannot be stunned before slaughter). So we got some bread and fruit juice there and we had packed herbal teabags in the suitcase so we were all set!
When drinking in the bars it is important to me to know that what I am drinking is vegan friendly. If you're not already aware, you might be surprised to know that a lot of animal ingredients are used in the filtration process of some drinks, e.g. fish bladders can be used to make white wine become clearer by attracting the sediment to stick to it! Bit yucky even if you aren't vegan/veggie!! And Fanta and Lilt contain fish gelatine :-( I stuck to WKD Blue, (not too many, believe it or not), diet Coke or soda water & lime.
If you have any other tips about where to shop/eat or where NOT to shop/eat I would love to hear them.
'Bye for now friends,
Lots of love
Fiona
xoxox
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