Archive for August, 2009

Dream cake, vegan, by Rose Elliot

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Vegan Victoria cake

I baked this cake today, and in the book where I got the recipe from it’s called “Vegan Victoria Sandwich Cake”, but for me it really is a dream cake: it’s super yummy, vegan, fast and easy to make…what more do you want?

Nobody will actually believe it doesn’t contain eggs or milk, as it’s so moist and looks like a “normal” cake.

First, a few word about the cookbook: it’s “Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook” by Rose Elliot, from BBC Books, it sells for 12.99£ and it’s worth every penny. All the dishes I’ve tried from it are very very good and turn out just as they should, no need to tweak the recipe, which is uncommon, I think!

There are plenty of beautiful photos, too, and the name of the author is a guarantee by itself.

So, click on the link down here for the recipe…

(more…)

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Cornish food part 2

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

As I wrote in the previous post, I have been to some very nice vegetarian places in Cornwall, and they came as a surprise because I wasn’t expecting any veggie restaurant/cafe.

I already wrote about the Bean Inn, it is worth a trip if you are in the area.

In St Ives centre there is a very nice cafe called Terra Viva (next door to the library); the same owners run an organic hairdresser next door.

The cafè is small but very bright, it’s entirely vegetarian and there are plenty of vegan options, they serve salads, sandwiches, main dishes, soups and ice cream.

We had a coffee with some vegan ice cream, made out of cashew nuts (from Tofutti). The address is Gabriel Street, Royal Square and their telephone is 01736794447.

Up the road from the cafe there is a farmer’s market once a week (I think it’s on Thursday, but I’m not entirely sure) which is quite small but worth a visit, there are also the people from the Bean Inn selling veggie food. We bought homemade jams, local strawberries (they were absolutely great), chocolate, cornish cheese (yummy!) and some indian snacks.

Our best dinner was in a small restaurant on the harbour, a little hidden away (it’s on a first floor and you can’t see it from the street, but there is a sign). The great place is called Spinacio’s but it’s not an Italian restaurant despite the name.

It is just one year old, and the atmosphere is nice, maybe a little bit on the dark side, and it has a strong accent on seasonal ingredient. I had a beetroot and new potato rosti with goat’s cheese, broad bean mash, some wild greens and minted peas, my husband had a curry and it tasted really good, my rosti was delicious, and the peas were superfresh and not overcooked (it is a rare thing in UK!).

For pudding the hubby got some home made macaroons, with orange flavoured  chocolate chips, and said it was one of the best dessert he ever had!

Spinacio’s tel. n. is 01736798818

There are some other vegetarian restaurants around Cornwall, we happen to read a local magazine with the names of the best veggie places, we copied some down, but didn’t visit, so here they are:

Lettuce and Lovage, tel 01872 272546, 15 Kenwyn Street, Truro TR1 3BU

Johnny’s Cafe 50 Penpol Terrace, Hayle (TR274BQ) Phone number: 01736-755928

Treetop Cafe, The Monkey Sanctuary near Looe Cornwall PL13 1NZ  Tel 01503 262 532

And one in Plymouth, Devon, just in case!

Veggie Perrin’s 97 Mayflower Street, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 1SD, UK. Tel: 01752 252888

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Cornish foods

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that finding veggie foods has been much easier than I thought.

It’s much easier to find a “fish and chip” around every corner, though…but at the end of the day, if you want a snack on the beach, forget the calorie count (and the sky-high G.I.!) and you can always grab some chips, the kids will not object too.

We had a couple of not so nice experiences, and both in attempt to eat a pizza, the first one was rather bad, the second one better but still not a good pizza.

But I try to keep this blog positive and I will talk about the nice things: we stayed at a vegetarian bed and breakfast which also ran a veggie restaurant in the evenings (just some evenings though, if you plan to go better call them to check they are open).

The b&b is called Coast and it’s in Carbis Bay, the restaurant is called Bean Inn.

The menu in the restaurant changes quite often and it’s a nice mix of world foods, all with seasonal ingredients, some dishes I can remember are “tarka daal” with very nice garlic naan bread, the daal is a lentil cream you scoop up with the bread; I had a strange but nice tarte, with blue cheese, walnuts and grapes, a very good puy lentil, stilton salad with roasted beetroot pure.

As for the hotel itself, it’s nice but we had the room on the ground floor which was terribly damp (which is the main “ingredient” in the local weather) but they gave us a de-humidifier. The rooms on the second floor had the most amazing view on Carbis Bay.

One of the owner is an artist and you’ll find her pictures and art pieces everywhere, and many are for sales (cards as well).

The greatest thing for me was breakfast, because you could choose from the hot menu, as well as toast, jam and the like, there were things like scotch pancakes with maple syrup and bananas, full english (veggie) breakfast, toasted muffin, a knickerbocker-style glass of yogurt, fresh fruit and muesli… We had the pancakes many times and I have to say they were delicious!

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St. Ives, Cornwall

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

St Ives after the rain

I wanted to go to see St. Ives and I finally went!

We had a nice little holiday in Cornwall, and I have to say it’s a great place, completely different from the rest of England, there really is a “surfer’s coast” feeling, despite the rain, that is.

The town itself it’s small but very nice and a lovely place to just wander around. There are lots of shops and in high season it’s terribly busy, and cars are allowed in narrow streets of the centre, which makes walking around a bit uncomfortable.

We have been to the Tate St Ives, and the building itself it’s probably more interesting than the art collection inside…but it was a windy stormy day so it was a good place to be, we had a nice lunch in the cafe and this is the view from the cafe:

view from the cafe in Tate St Ives

We also managed to be on the beach as well and enjoy the sun, there are lovely beaches and you can walk from one bay to the next though coastal paths immersed in lush vegetation, which makes it very pleasant.

We then rented a car and were able to go a bit further (there are buses but you would need more time to see as much).

We went to Land’s End, and I’m not sure it’s worth the trip, because they make you pay for parking the car and they’ve built a big shopping place with cheap attractions (there was a Doctor Who one!!!)  which makes the place look like a very tired theme park.

The view it’s still beautiful but the shopping place it’s just awful.

We visited the Minack Theatre, which is absolutely amazing:

Minack Theatre

It’s a theatre built into the rocky cliffs, and the seats in the lower area are carved with the names of the play they’ve showed

Minack theatre seats

It is still used, but you need to book your tickets in advance, it is quite small so it gets full quickly, but it is opened for visits, there’s also a small exibition that explains how it was built, and that’s very very interesting.

Climbing down a very steep path you reach the beautiful Porthcurno beach:

Porthcurno

As you can see from the photo it was a beautiful day and we spent the rest of the day on the beach.

Cornwall is a gem, really beautiful.

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