Flicking the Vs: March 2018

A recipe for vegan simnel cake: A delicious, easy to make Easter treat

I've been meaning to make a simnel cake for Easter for years. Easter holds no significance for me as a festival, but I love foo...

london

More adventures in zero waste (not all successful)

A few weeks ago, London was knee deep in snow. Well, ankle-deep. Alright, maybe toe-deep. Anyway, there was snow, and as always, it meant ev...

When I saw US vegan chain By Chloe was opening in Soho, I made a mental note to get down there as soon as I could get the time. I'd seen the pictures on Twitter, checked out the menu online, and one morning I was passing by that way, I stopped in for breakfast.

My breakfast ended up being up a memorable meal, just not in a good way. I don't like complaining about places, let alone all vegan places, but I found the whole thing a bit of a let-down. I guess part of the problem for By Chloe is that expectations around any vegan restaurant opening are so high, especially one that's already built up an all-star reputation across the pond, the reality will always fall a bit on short.

So, combine the high profile with some high prices and some less than stellar food, and the experience is all a big bag of shrug.

The menu is split into burgers, salads, pasta, sides, and brunch stuff, as well as 'London by Chloe', a section dedicated to English classics with a bit of a post-war, Dick van Dyke vibe to them (this is an excellent idea on By Chloe's part. There's never enough tofish and chips in the world for my liking).

Despite the awkward hour of my arriving, By Chloe was respectably heaving: the vegan and vegan-curious had turned out in force. Given there's also not enough vegan brunch in the world for my liking, I chose an Early Bird - scrambled tofu, maple sausage, market greens, spinach and seven grain toast. Sounds like a good idea, huh?

The reality was a bit different:

£9 in central London doesn't even buy you a whole slice of bread, or indeed any vegan butter for the bread. It doesn't get you any dressing for the salad either. The bisected bread felt distinctly on the mean side, while the rest of it was more clumsy oversight.

The maple sausage was made with lots of good things, like lentils, beans, and nuts, but working the way through the nut-studded-yet-damp texture was a bit like eating a mouthful of the Thames foreshore. The scramble actually tasted pretty decent - a step up from the average tofu - but was stone cold, and dribbling water (scramble juice?) On the side was a small tub of what might have been sriracha's more astringent cousin: all the heat without much flavour. I have an awful feeling this is what carnists think vegans all eat and laugh at them for it.

In short, I didn't love it. I wanted to, but I couldn't. Maybe by Chloe was having an off day when I visited, maybe the place hasn't hit its stride yet, maybe the cook who made it was hungover. I really like By Chloe's menu ideas, so I'd give the place another go if I was in the area. I'll be bringing my own sriracha, mind.

And onto Nosteagia. A couple of people had mentioned that there was a place in Shoreditch selling vegan bubble waffles to me (thanks, friendly waffle spotters!), so I had to stick my snout in.

Nosteagia is a tiny little place on the top floor of Boxpark, where you can grab bubble tea, bubble waffles, and sundaes, all with a lot of vegan choices - in fact, the first thing I saw on the menu was this week's vegan special. Hurrah for places that have vegan specials! And not just vegan specials, but really, really good vegan specials!

I got my waffle on with this beauty, the Oh My Coconut - a bubble waffle cone with Oreos, banana, sauce and the vegan ice cream special of the week, mocha. If I had to choose only one ice cream flavour to eat for the rest of my evening, it would probably be mocha, that's how much I loved it.

The waffles aren't cheap - mine was £8.50. But you know what? I didn't begrudge a penny of it. I ate the whole thing smiling, because it was that good, and that fun, and the people behind the counter were so nice. £8.50 for a big waffle and a bigger smile seemed like a bargain.

By Chloe
eatbychloe.com

Drury House
34-43 Russell St
London WC2B 5HA

Nosteagia
nosteagia.com
Unit 58, Boxpark Shoreditch
2-10 Bethnal Green Road
London E1 6GY

breakfast

By Chloe's breakfast and Nosteagea's bubble waffles: A tale of two vegan meals

When I saw US vegan chain By Chloe was opening in Soho , I made a mental note to get down there as soon as I could get the time. I'd see...

Like almost anyone you care to mention (hey, maybe even you, dear reader?) I have not enough time in my life, and not enough money in my bank. Does that mean that I can't have be at least halfway environmentally friendly? Happily, not a bit of it. Not crapping up the planet can actually save you time and money.

I present to you my top tips for saving time, money, and doing a bit to minimise your impact on the environment. They're meant for students, but apply to anyone.

Buy in bulk

If you are lucky enough to have a place where you can go and buy stuff without any packaging, that's your most world-loving, environment hugging choice. If you're the 99 percent of other people that don't have that option for whatever reason, you can still use bulk buying to save a few pennies and packaging.

Your local supermarket or grocery of your choice will often have different sizes of store-cupboard staples like cereal, teabags, or pulses. If you have space and cash, buy the larger version: it's almost always cheaper to buy big in the long run. Here's a worked example to show you what I'm trying so inelegantly to explain: Tesco sells easy cook long grain rice in 500g, 1kg and 2kg bags, priced at 75p, £1.20 and £2.25 respectively. While the bigger bag costs more to start with, the rice is cheaper. If you buy the small bag, the rice costs £1.50 per kilo, the medium bag is £1.20 per kilo, and the big bag comes in at £1.13 per kilo. Buying the bigger bag of anything normally works out cheaper in the long-run. It also means you'll have to go to the shop fewer times to stock up on all stuff, and less time spent in supermarkets it always good for the soul. And, if you're buying bigger bags of stuff, the packaging to product ratio is going to be smaller - bonus green points.

Feed your freezer
Bear with me for a second, this won't automatically sound like it's going to save you time and money in the long run, but hold on. You know when you're making up a big old curry, chilli, soup - anything that's made in one pot with sauce? Make some extra. If you've got some veg going bendy at the back of the fridge, or a couple of extra tins of beans knocking around, just double up the amount you're cooking. If you've got the energy and supplies, make double the amount you usually do. (It may seem like a proper pain at the time, but chopping a couple of extra veggies is less whole effort than making a whole new meal, which is what the extras end up as: stick any exta portions in the freezer.

The next time you you're feeling too knackered to cook, defrost your extra scran and enjoy. A meal from the freezer is going to be way cheaper and involve way less unrecyclable guff than ordering a taekaway or buying a ready meal. Having a fully-stocked freezer also saves you money in another way: it takes less energy to keep solids (like food) rather than gases (like air - the contents of an empty freezer) cool, so you end up saving on your electricity bill too.

Use up what you've got already
In kitchens across the country, in the backs of cupboards or buried in the bottom freezer drawer are lots of lonely foodstuffs in need of using up. There are tins, jars, packets that always get passed over when you're wondering what to cook. If you're feeling energetic, make a list of the contents of the cupboards, freezer, and fridge. Once you've got everything in front of you, you can start to make up lists of meals that you can use them up in. Got some tinned tomatoes, lentils, and pasta? Make up some vegan spag bol. (Supercook is a good resource that can help with that: you just put in what you have in your kitchen, and it'll spit out a recipe using what you have. It's an omni site, but it's a good starting point for inspiration.)

By using up what you have, you save yourself another trip to the supermarket to pick up new meal ingredients and the money they would have cost, and there's no food waste because those things at the back of your cupboard and freezer don't end up going off and ending up in the bin. Everyone's a winner.

Ignore what you're told
You can save yourself a few bob and a few minutes if you try and ignore kitchen rules wherever possible (apart from these ones, they're golden!) Not only is it fun to not do as you're told, it can also be a way of saving cash. Take those suggestions on the side of the washing powder box saying you need a whole scoop to get your clothes clean? You don't. A couple of teaspoons is enough to get stuff clean. Do your clothes say to wash at 40 or 60? Nah, don't bother. 30 is fine for most things. Cooking something in the oven and the packet says 30 minutes at whatever temperate? Turn your oven off 5 minutes early, and the residual heat will be enough to cook it through. You'll use less energy, it'll cost less, and there'll be less emissions. Can't argue with that.

Don't save anything for best
You know that nice bottle of rum that someone gave you for your birthday? You put in on the shelf for a special occasion, because you'd never normally buy yourself something that nice, or fancy, or expensive? Maybe it's a bottle of wine, or a box of chocolates, or whatever. You know the one I'm talking about. Here's my top tip: why not pour yourself a bit of that rum, or open that box of chocolates. Someone bought that rum for you so you could enjoy it, not leave it on the shelf. Treat yourself. Why spend money on bad rum when you've got the good stuff waiting for you? Today is that special occasion you've been waiting for.