Flicking the Vs: January 2017

Camden Market really has been upping its vegan food game since the opening of Kerb, a collection of street food stalls in the centre of the place.

I first went to Camden market more years ago then I care to think about, where it was a place to hang out among goths and punks, buy a band T shirt and see how many people would try and sell you weed. While most of the youthful rebelliuos air has gone, except in the few stalls selling leather bracelets and other emoware, Camden's popularity hasn't waned. Instead of sullen suburban kids up for a sniff of big city two-fingers-to-the-world attitude, nowadays tourists hungry for a good feed make up most of the visitors.

So what does the market have to offer vegans?

There's one all vegan stall that's worth checking out: Club Mexicana, which sells some of the best vegan Mexican you're likely to stuff in your head in the capital. Dishes like jackfruit burritos or battered to-fish tacos will set you back in the region of £7. Another omni Mexican stall, Luardos, has a vegan option, but as long as Club Mexicana is still selling its goodness, you'd be made to go anywhere else.

Happily, it's not the only all-vegan stall in Camden: Magic Falafel in the Stables part of the market is there for all your vegan falafel needs. If you're into falafel double dipping, Nazari in the Kerb part of the market, while omni, does offer vegan options.

The one herbivore stall that I find myself visiting more than any other it's Cookies and Scream. Cookies and Scream is a temple to all things sweet, wonderful and vegan. From ice cream to shakes, donuts to brownies (and cookies, naturally!) Cookies and Scream is the answer to all your sugar fever dreams and if you're a vegan and in the Camden area, you need to get yourself down there with all haste.

But it's not just vegan stalls dishing out vegan eats: there are now happily quite a few omni or veggie joints offering vegan options:

Maize Blaize has particularly tempting vegan Colombian food
Indian curry stall Sonita's veggie option is also vegan and sounded appealing on our visit
If you're in the mood for Indonesian, Makatcha can sort your out with a vegan rendang - what's not to love?
Chin Chin Labs always has a vegan ice cream choice - fancy!

The only downside with Camden market's rather lovely selection of street food is, well, you have to eat it in the street - there's no seating so you can hunker down and scoff in peace. If you want to take a load off though, you can have a cup of tea and cake in the Camden Market branch of Yumchaa, a small tea chain with a handful of branches across London.

When me and Mr Flicking the Vs stopped in recently on a cold Saturday, we were able to fill up on matcha and a slice of banana and chocolate loaf. If you just want a plain old cup of builders' tea, there are vegan options for that too - they offer soy and almond milk for your brew.

Another option with seating is the Camden Market branch of Voodoo Rays, an omni chain that always has at least one vegan choice (the

If you're looking further afield, there are a number of decent vegan and vegan friendly options outside the market that don't involve moving too far.

MyVillage is a veggie cafe about five minutes up the road from the market towards Chalk Farm. It's got a number of vegan options, including the MyVillage meal below, or a hummus, falafel and salad combo. There are some nice drink options too - treat yourself to a fresh mint, ginger, and lemon tea.

Also within a few minutes of the market are a branch of sushi chain Itsu, which does a reasonable number of vegan dishes, or a Holland and Barrett if you're in the mood for a vegan pasty or sausage roll.

Just across the road from the market is Campbell's Canal Cafe, formerly Inspiral. I've not been in since it changed hands a while back, so I've no idea what the food's like, but it's all vegan (cow milk in the coffee though.)

Any good vegan finds I've missed in Camden? Let me know!

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I survived the first term of this year, made it through the exams (I'm as surprised as you are by that one), and I'm ploughing through the second faster than I'd like. Between now and the end of next month, I've got another set of exams, I have to give a presentation on the disease of my choice (!) to the rest of my year, critique a scientific paper I can barely understand, and complete more other assignments than I'd care to think about. Still, I'm feeling more cheery than I should be with all those horrors on my to-do list, but that doesn't mean I'm not preparing for the weeks ahead when I'll have my head too far down in the books to be able to put together a meal that's any more effort than opening a tin.

I'm always on the lookout for readymade meals that are tasty and, well, come in a tin!

When I saw Suma had started making tinned vegan baked beans and sausages, I thought it would be rude not to give them a go.

I think the last time I had tinned baked beans and sausages, they were meat sausages and I was probably about 11. I remember going through a phase where tinned baked beans and sausages were the only thing I wanted to eat on Saturdays and Sundays.

Baked beans and sausages were a celebration of not being in school - I knew if I had enough time to toast bread and warm some beans in a pan, I couldn't be in a rush. I didn't have to put on my school uniform, grab my books, and try to make it in before the first bell rung. I could sit and take my time, enjoy a proper breakfast, and know I had a whole weekend ahead of me.

Now, I know if I'm eating tinned beans and sausages, I've got no time on my hands, and that's probably because I've got to haul myself to school once again!

I'll tell what's not changed though - the beans and sausages are almost exactly the same between then and now, despite those in the distant past being meat and today's ones being vegan. How weird is that? I guess that's either because people making vegan food have learnt how to make it taste almost exactly like meat, or because the meat versions were so cheap they didn't have much in the way of meat in them.

Either way, if you're looking for a cheap (about £1.30-worth) ticket to the Proustian breakfast of your childhood, then Suma's beans are exactly that. The sausages have got the same soft texture, and the same slightly herby taste as they always did, and there are still too few of them compared to the beans. And, then as now, if you're looking for a meal that's decent even when you've got five minutes or less to cook, then just grab yourself a tin opener and get stuck in.

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As far as I work out, there are two attitudes when it comes to brussels sprouts.

The first attitude is that of the sprout dodger: they should be wheeled out for Christmas dinner, eaten under duress, and then the unfortunate digestive after-effects lived through during the Queen's speech. They should never be eaten under any other circumstances.

The second attitude is that of the sprout pusher, who views the sprout as a little ball of surprisingly versatile, green cabbagy joy that sprout pushers, if only they would put aside their cruciferous prejudices, would learn to appreciate.

I'm firmly in the second camp: sprouts aren't just for Christmas, they're for life.

When I mean they're not just for Christmas, that's because the tail end of the continent-sized bag I brought for Christmas is still hanging around, so I need to use them up. This recipe is one of my favourite ways to cook them - there's something about sprouts and soy sauce that's just meant to be.

With that in mind, the other day, craving a bit sushi, I though maybe I'd put some of my leftover sprouts to good use. Add bit of sushi rice to a few lightly fried sprouts and a bit of soy sauce, and you'll get one very happy Joey.

I'm sending this to Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table for January's Eat Your Greens Challenge.

Sprout sushi

Makes six pieces

Ingredients

100mls (not grams) of sushi rice

150mls of water

One tablespoon of rice vinegar

One tablespoon of mirin

One sheet of nori

75g of sprouts, any discoloured outer leaves removed, larger sprouts cut into quarters, smaller ones into halves

A teaspoon of dark soy sauce

How you do it

Rinse the sushi rice until the water runs clear

Put into a saucepan with the water, pop a lid (ideally a glass one) on top, turn on the heat to high.

When the water starts boiling, turn the heat down to low, and let cook for seven minutes.

After the seven minutes, take the rice off the heat, and leave to cool for 10 minutes. (At no point during the cooking should you take the lid off - only after the 10 minutes are up.)

Once the ten minutes are over, add a tablespoon of rice vinegar and one of mirin. Stir and leave to cool some more.

While the rice cools, warm a little oil in a frying pan and fry the sprouts over medium high heat until crisp tender and a little brown on the outside. If the sprouts begin to stick on your saucepan, add a little water to the pan. After about ten minutes, they should be cooked through. Add the soy sauce to the sprouts and turn off the heat.

Once the sprouts and rice are cool, spread the rice after the nori, and roll it up.

Using a sharp knife, cut into six pieces.

Appreciate the joy of sprouts.