Monday 17 June 2019

Vegan in Scotland, Glasgow, Fort William, Isle of Skye, Inverness, Edinburgh.

We spent just over a week in Scotland, a few big cities, and lots of beautiful scenic Highland areas. We were worried if we would be able to find vegan food options as we toured around, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a lot of very accommodating places.  We had 7 days of adventuring, we hadn't booked any accommodation of specific destination, but we had a tent if we needed it, and most of the time we had some internet to research a few bits. 


Day 1 Glasgow:

We went to an awesome little cafe called Picnic which was quite central, delicious food, great menu, lots of cakes, smoothies and the giant croissants again. We eat had a 'Egg mayo' bap and a pesto med veg toasted sandwich. My friend had lotus biscuit cake, and we had smoothies and I finally tried the infamous empire biscuit, which is a shortbread biscuit sandwiched with jam and topped with thick icing and a cherry. 

Giant vegan Croissants!

When your friends know you blog vegan food.

Trying a vegan empire biscuit. 

Our other day in Glasgow called for lunch at The V & V cafe - all vegan, lots of cakes, and lunch options to eat. the croissants were huge and could be filled with 'cheese and bacon', my friend had the vegan sausage rolls which was served with homemade baked beans. This cafe worked out great to stop in at before the botanical gardens being about a 5-10m walk away. 




Our lovely friends who let us stay in their spare room, also made some delicious home cooked meals in Glasgow from the Green Roasting Tin cook book. Harissa aubergines is on my list to do!

Tomato and orzo pasta 
Harissa Aubergine bake with lemon couscous


Day 3 Fort William

On day three our car broke down, but after a lovely visit to Loch Lomond, and two castles, and Glen Coe, so we still made the most of the day. We quickly found some accommodation, checked in and headed out sharply for some food. The Geographer luckily had a table for us, and had a few vegan offerings including okra gumbo with rice and sweet potato fries (delicious) they swapped the mayo for hummus, and the falafel dish was ok. The meal came to over £30. 





Fort William
For breakfast in our last minute B&B, we were very grateful to have some fresh hot scones and oat cakes with vegan butter, and oat milk for breakfast at our guest house The Gantocks, followed by walnuts and mushrooms, pepper, garlic on sourdough toast. It was about £145 per night to stay here.




Day 4 Fort William
In the centre of the town was The Wildcat which was the perfect brunch spot after our walk up Ben Nevis. We had avocado, edamame, mint smash on rye bread, and homemade beans on toast. To drink we had turmeric root & ginger latte with coconut milk and a chai with oat milk. They also do a selection of zero waste items, and other treats to purchase. I really liked this cafe, and wish it wasn't so far away! I cant remember the price, but this was all fairly reasonable and very tasty. I think around £18. 




Day 5 Isle of Skye
On this day we did a huge sight seeing mission all around the cloudly Isle of Skye, stopping briefly for a thankfully hearty lunch at Columba 1400 a cafe just off the A855 and is an organisation that invests in young people. In the cafe we had a vegan burger, and a jacket potato with veggie haggis and for hot drinks they had soya milk. About £17 for lunch for two. 




Dunvegan, Skye
After our epic day of sight seeing we needed to find somewhere near our campsite that still cooked food before 8;30pm, thankfully Old School in Dunvegan answered our hungry prayers. They had a special of chickpea tagine with couscous and flatbread, and a mushroom pie made vegan for us. This restaurant would require a booking, otherwise you may have to wait for a table, but thankfully they are open very late in the evening. About £35 for dinner with drinks, and amazing service. 



Day 6 Inverness 

I had heard really good things about The Alley Cat its one of the reasons we stayed in inverness, the cafe is fairly new, opened early 2019, and all vegan menu. There were so many great options, the highlight was the sticky toffee pudding to finish, and the amazing marshmallow rings. They had a great selection of healthy and junk food options, the haggis hot dog was delicious, and made with mushrooms. The pie is a scotch pie, which I realised after ordering that my love of fried food was being tested by Scotland, and so I ordered a side salad to go with my meal. About £35 with two mallow treats for the road.






Breakfast in inverness was tricky, so we thought, Alley Cat not opening until 10am, and another cafe locally not open either. a stroke of luck we found a sign saying vegan options outside a pancake house, named Wild Pancakes
We asked before being seated, and were delighted to find out pretty much all the pancakes could be made vegan, as they had vegan topping, and would just remove the whipped cream from them, and had milk chocolate alternatives. So we ordered to stacks of 4 pancakes each! One classic lemon and sugar pancake, and one hazelnut chocolate and strawberry.  Could see some chia seeds were used to make the pancakes, and these did distinguish them for the non-vegan batter. We were really happy and full of tasty pancakes. what a great find. I didn't really find this place when searching #VeganInverness so take note, and tell your friends! Just over £20 for two people with teas. 





Day 7 Edinburgh

We arrived late and so had time for dinner, we had a lot of options but a few we had tried on our previous visit. I had heard about these giant nachos, but at the time we weren't planning to go to Edinburgh, I think I found them researching vegan Glasgow. Auld Hoose, was the name of the place, it was a really cool pud with a focus on food, somewhere our younger gig going selves would have frequented back in the day! The nachos were quiet spicy, I would eat less of the chillis next time, but it was an awesome meal for two, you cannot doubt the potion, I think it was about £13, £20 with drinks, and the limey Guac was amazing!




Our very last stop in Scotland was The baked potato shop - we had visited here in 2013, and remember it fondly, great portion sizes and lots of vegan options. I opted for the salad, as I was missing my vitamins, and everything looked so tasty! We also shared this large potato with Vegan haggis! Lunch for both of us was less than £10, we ate it in the car with our reusable cutlery. 




Highlights of the food tour were: hot scones, of which we have now sources the recipe, yay!
Pancakes. Copious amounts of Irn-Bru. Vegan haggis (McSweens is available at Watirose) And those giant Croissants!


Hope you enjoyed my pictures from food adventures in Scotland, if there is anywhere else you recommend, we plan to make a return visit! Comment down below. >

Sunday 3 February 2019

Vegan in Prague



In November we had a romantic city break for 3 days in Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic. 

Our trip was Saturday to Monday leaving London that morning. For brunch we had sampled the new vegan offerings at Yo Sushi at Gatwick airport. We arrived around lunch time, and still had some Pret baguettes we had picked up for the flight.

We couldn’t check into our apartment until 2pm, but could drop our bags off. So we explored a bit of the city, got our bearings from the Charles bridge and found a vegan 'chimney cake', which is kind of like a pasty, bread with cinnamon sugar, the origin of these is debated, but it's a touristy treat. Both vegan cinnamon swirlies were found west of Charles bridge, heading towards the castle. 







That evening we visited the fairly new Forkies which was right beside where we were staying. Ordering one burger and mixed fries (potato and sweet potato!), and one broccoli noodle bowl, and  two awesome smoothies with tahini. The restaurant is self service, order at the counter. There is more seating downstairs. Meal for 2 was about £15-£20. 





It was still early after dinner, around 6pm, so we walked all round the city together exploring the beauty of the bridges, and castle at night.

Then time came to try some vegan ice cream. Creme de la creme; great choice of vegan options, both fruity sorbets and creamy rich . Had to buy the biggest possible. I can’t help but think of a favourite drag queen. (BenDeLaCreme)




Sunday we hit up Loving Hut for an early lunch after a look around the city. Loving hut was inside a mall and pay by weight, and it was epic! Loving hut is a world wide brand, usually our only resource for vegan food years ago whilst backpacking in Asia, it has some religious connotations, which is also why it is all vegan, however you wouldn't be able to guess that from eating here. All kinds of mock meats, asian dishes and western foods were available. 





 Around 2pm we went looking for some sweet treats. We had a few failed attempts at foods; trying to get pancakes from Satsang in the evening the night before, (when they’re only a breakfast food) and trying to get doughnuts from this Blue Vegan Pig Shop doughnut shop. Both were a tram ride away. 

Luckily the waffle-shop has loads of vegan options and it was blooming delicious and beautifully presented. They only took cash, luckily I still had some. The menu was how you chose your toppings, including cereals, fruit, and vegan Notella and Biscoff. They also had some good smoothies. 






For dinner we hit up Forkies and Creme de la Creme again as we didn’t want to use public transport or go too far. This time trying the fish and chips and the hot dog, the curry dip with it was lush. 





Our last day came around too quick. We found a second shop selling tunnel cake. Thanks to Instagram. Both happily munched on that hot cinnamon goodness. Slightly different to the first both good in their own ways. 






Found a cute coffee shop near the smallest alleyway. It served plant milks and vegan bites. We each grabbed a drink before heading to the next sight and to support a local business, it was a bit more like uk prices.  




Craving some traditional Czech food we had planned to visit a restaurant we spotted on the first day thanks to its huge banner. 'Vegan's Prague'. We ordered the daily special burger in a beet bun with crispy potatoes. Then some more traditional steamed dumplings with tempeh in a lovely roast vegetable sauce. Followed by dessert steamed blueberry dumplings in berry sauce. Around £30 for two meals, a dessert, and beers.







That concluded our last day in Prague, and we caught the very cheap metro and train to the airport. we grabbed a large juice each in the external area of the airport and using the last of my Czech cash. 


We grabbed one last ice cream bowl before collecting our bags, are you seeing a trend here?



Inside security I really struggled to find anything vegan to eat. The airport had an odd layout like L shaped and hard to find anything. We grabbed some sweet wafers, pretzels and crisps to munch. But as our gate was called we found a Mexican place, and asked about vegan options, (usually fairly easy to get vegan at a Mexican place). It was probably the most expensive food in Prague and we just got two burritos (20 quid). But we were happy to have a good meal as we knew we wouldn’t be landing in England until around 11pm. 




That concludes our first trip to Prague, our 3 days of vegan eats. Some success and some failure. Would happily go back for a weekend and try some of the other vegan eateries further afield.

Please contact me if you can't find any of the above mentioned places, I've listed the addresses and you should be able to find links on my instagram @theHungryDropkick

Prague eats; 
Cinnamon bread swirl named 'Trdelnik'  
Waffle point U Kajetana - (cooked fresh, some wait) - Nerudova 248/17, 118 00 Malá Strana, Czechia
Sweet Dream Czech bakery - Mostecká 281/7, 118 00 Malá Strana, Czechia
Forkies - Veleslavínova 93/10, 110 00 Staré Město, Czechia
Loving hut - Spálená 2121/22, 110 00 Nové Město, Czechia
Creme de la Creme - Husova 231/12, 110 00 Staré Město, Czechia
Creme de la Creme 2 - Národní 23, 110 00 Staré Město, Czechia
Waffllin' - Francouzská 230/10, 120 00 Praha 2-Vinohrady, Czechia
Cafe by narrow alley. Bakeshop - U Lužického semináře 99/22, 118 00 Malá Strana, Czechia
Vegan's Prague. Nerudova 221/36, 118 00 Malá Strana, Czechia
Juice before security at airport. 
Burritos at airport.