A very vegan welcome: Can you get a good plant-based meal at the Wellcome Collection?
Being as I'm currently studying medicine, I have a bit of a soft spot for the Wellcome Collection, the London museum dedicated to all things health.
There's a lot to like about the Wellcome Collection: the main collection is fascinating and a manageable size, there's always an interesting exhibition on, and it's free. If you've ever fancied a quick tour around the human body and a look at health from a fresh perspective, then an hour spent at the Wellcome Collection won't be badly spent.
A couple of friends were coming to meet me in London, and put in a shout for visiting the Play Well exhibition. After working our way around the exhibits -- big shout out to whoever swapped the voices of Barbie and GI Joe as a protest against gendered toys -- we were sated for knowledge, but pretty hungry for food.
The downstairs cafe at the Wellcome is always hectic and the vegetarian and vegan options (if there are any) aren't clearly marked. We wandered up to the second floor restaurant, without much hope for good vegan food awaiting us.
I was a bit wrong-footed to find a open quiet space with a decent amount of vegan options, and for London food, not wallet-damagingly expensive.
Aside from a couple of standard vegan nibbles, the menu had a vegan sandwich, a couple of salads, and another two hot mains: a stew and a gratin. The gratin sounded a bit more interesting: tofu, cauliflower, and chickpeas with a side salad.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but here's what I got:

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Mousse, meet pear |
What it missed in looks, it more than made up for in flavour -- a delicious warming Christmassy tinge to the fruit, with a not-too-sweet milky-chocolate mousse. It was just the ticket, and a really generous portion.
In honour of the Play Well exhibition, the Wellcome Kitchen also had some games available for diners -- you can see our dominos game behind the mousse! Turns out my parents were wrong -- playing with your food is actually a great idea.
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Pear, meet mousse |
1 comments
This is a museum that I would love to visit - we have a small medical museum at melbourne uni that has an old Victorian pharmacy which I think was brought out from the UK and it is rather beautiful. Glad the food worked for you even if the presentation wasn't quite what you expected!
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