Camden - a gorging tour of north London

Not so long ago, I ended up in Camden. Camden, for my non-London readers, is a bit of north London known for its markets and alternative scene.

It's miles away by tube from my north London home, which means I don't end up there as often as I like, but whenever I do, it's always a pleasure.

One of the reasons I like it so much is its unashamed embracing of the weird, wonderful, fringe and niche mean you can always get a decent vegan meal. And not a vegan by accident meal, a real live vegan meal loudly and proudly marked as such.

I ended up stopping for dinner at My Village, a little cafe on Chalk Farm Road for a bit of falafel wrap, one of the vegan options it had:


My Village's menu was short: soup, salads, falafel and a few combinations of the three.  Falafel for a vegan is inescapable so I tend to steer away from cooking it at home, so that when I'm out and it's my only option, eating it is a pleasure, not a chore.

And eating this one was definitely a pleasure - not the best falafel in the world, but decent and full of crunchy veg.

It was somewhat overshadowed by my second gorging stop in Camden, Inspiral Cafe.

I don't know why I've never been there before. I think it's probably because it's always full to bursting with people who've had the same cracking idea of getting some grand vegan food in, only just a bit earlier than me.

I stopped in for some cake, of which Inspiral has many, and they all look amazing. My slice of amazingness was this rather lovely raw banoffee pie.


It was a Goldilocks of a dessert: not too sweet, not too rich, not too heavy, but just right in all measures, without any of the telltale signs of sub-par raw puddings: too crunchy, too savoury, too effortful.

Not this raw dessert: this was perfect in every way: fairy light of topping, pitch perfect biscuit-type base and a fudgy middle. Wonderful - next time anyone disses raw food (as I admit I have, wrongly, in the past) shut them up with a slice of this.

Inspiral? Inspired.

My Village Cafe
(no website)
37 Chalk Farm Road
London
NW1 8AJ
020 7485 4996

Inspiral Cafe
http://www.inspiralled.net/
250 Camden High Street
London
NW1 8QS
020 3370 3797

Comments

  1. That photo of the raw pie made me take a sharp breath and your description of it is making me want to hop on the next plane to London!!

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  2. I'll put one aside for you! And if you think that's good, their tiramisu is just something else...

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  3. I like raw desserts for a lot of reasons but you're right; they're never really too sweet, which is nice. I find it's more about flavors and texture. It sounds delicious; I've never tried that flavor of anything.

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  4. Banoffee! I want! I have had a vegan, quinoa-based banoffee tart recipe bookmarked for so long. I really need to get on that.

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  5. Camden brings back so many memories! I used to work close by around Mornington Crescent. Camden definitely has quite a good vegan places with a nice health shop too. There's a nice Thai Veg restaurant (6 Kentish Town Road). It's been a few years since I've been there though. That banoffee pie is making my mouth water! Yum!

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