Tofu Temptress

Forest Cafe, Edinburgh

June 24, 2017 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

I hesitate to use the word hipster as it can be a bit patronising, but I promise you in this case it is meant with the greatest affection. I happened across Forest Cafe one day while out and about in Edinburgh looking for something reasonably priced to eat and boy, did we strike gold with this place.

The whole place is run by volunteers and is a charity that supports local artists. The decor inside and out is decidedly arty. On the ceiling as we walked in hung what looked like a frame filled with upside-down cones made of carpet.

The random bunting, odd posters and intricate drawings on the wall reminded me of many a student flat I’d visited in the nineties and to be honest, I felt instantly at home. Some find art spaces pretentious, but I felt this was the very opposite. There was a casual, friendly approach to service, which suited us fine.

We ordered at the counter, the menu being displayed on a chalk board behind it. Everything is vegetarian here, with most being vegan too, or able to be made vegan on request. We opted for a falafel meal and some nachos. The prices here are incredibly reasonable, which is very welcome in what can be an expensive city for eating out.

The table tops were cut-outs of old maps and what looked like pages from magazines, arranged into collages and laminated. We looked around and there seemed to be a fair few regulars here, some even bringing their canine companions in for a drink. This place is also very near University-land, so students frequent Forest as well.

We didn’t have to wait very long for our food and we decided to share both when our plates came. I tucked into the nachos with glee and although the sauce hadn’t been what I was expecting, it was very tasty. My hands got a bit messy halfway through, and when I asked for a napkin I was given some blue kitchen roll which did the job nicely. The falafel meal had lots of different tastes and the hummus especially was just gorgeous. Both dishes were really well presented, yummy and filling.

We sat sipping on our ginger beer for a bit and took in the surroundings. It seems this place supports all kinds of artists covering everything from knitting clubs, to spoken word, through musical concerts to freestyle humming (whatever that is…) It’s an inclusive place that encourages you to share out any leftover food you may have. They have free bread and a free shop and all of their exhibitions and events are free. It’s a rare thing, especially in a large city.

The longer we sat the more we felt we should try out a vegan dessert, so we shared one of their date slices which was very rich and satisfying with its crumble-style topping. I honestly can’t fault anything about Forest Cafe. The food is scrumptious, the prices very affordable and with an atmosphere of casual friendliness, you couldn’t really ask for much more.

Highly recommended.

Stealth Activism

May 5, 2017 by Tofu Temptress 2 Comments

One for the 'Bacon tho...' brigade — One for the ‘Bacon tho…’ brigade

For many people who become vegans, activism or outreach is the next logical step. Once one finds out about the horrible cruelty involved in the production of animal products, it’s hard not to want to tell everyone about it. Ah, but then you’d be known as the dreaded ‘preachy vegan’. So what to do? You think most people you know and indeed most people in general like animals and wouldn’t want to see them harmed. You want others to make the connection you did. You want to simply communicate with ordinary folk, but know deep down that few people are receptive to your message. Well, there’s one kind of activism that anyone can do, is free and you don’t even need to talk to anyone.

It’s called stealth activism and is super simple. You draw people’s awareness to animal suffering without breaking any laws. How? Well, it has a few forms. The other day there was an article in the press about a young woman who had bought a packet of spaghetti bolognaise from Morrisons. So far, so unremarkable. However, when she took the cardboard off to cook it later, she discovered, to her horror, that a sticker had been affixed to the plastic film. The sticker had a non-graphic picture of a frightened looking cow. With the picture was a message from said cow informing the young woman that her ‘personal choice’ had cost the cow her life. When I read the article I thought the headline should read something like ‘Woman hears truth and feels uncomfortable for five minutes.’ I also couldn’t help feeling that perhaps a seed has been planted and she may return to these uncomfortable thoughts. If a more sympathetic person had been the one to uncover the message, maybe they would’ve seriously considered going vegetarian. Who knows?

Some toys I found for sale in a supermarket recently.

There’s a few websites where you can purchase similar stickers and covertly pop them onto supermarket meat (or indeed milk or egg) products. Check out how The Vegan Punk does it here. The approach I take is slightly different. For one thing, stickers cost money and I also tend to be a bit spontaneous so would most likely forget to take them with me. What I do is I go into the supermarket toy section, pick up any farm animal cuddly toys (Peppa Pigs are everywhere, but I’ve found cows, sheep and chickens too) and pop them into my trolley. I then wander about getting my groceries until I come to the meat aisle.

I have to be honest with you here, I’m pretty shy and was a bit worried I’d get caught placing them next to the corresponding meat product. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. The meat aisles these days are pretty quiet in general. I’m rarely disturbed as I put cuddly cows next to beef, sheep next to lamb and pigs next to pork. I’ll then take a quick pic and move on, leaving them there.

What do I hope to achieve by this? Well, I just want to assist people in the calmest way possible, to make the connection. I want people to see the irony that we encourage children to love and care for these toys, and yet also encourage them to eat their real counterparts. I want to start an awkward conversation between a child and a parent. I want to make people do a double take. I basically want to encourage people to think, which can never be a bad thing.

As for the supermarkets, they can never tell you you’re out of line. You’re simply taking a product from one area of the supermarket and placing it elsewhere. It’s far less disturbing than when my friend used to find packets of nappies in the booze aisle of the supermarket he worked in. Having worked in shops myself, I can see no reason to object to this tactic. So, if you’re not the outgoing type, don’t feel comfortable ‘bothering’ your friends but still want to communicate with people, stealth activism could be for you. It’s a bit of mischief that might just nudge people onto the right track.

Scottish Farplace Vegan Festival

April 15, 2017 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

It never fails to warm my heart, walking into a room filled with everything vegan. Well, ok, not everything vegan, but everything in there is vegan, if you understand me. I can just walk in and buy whatever I want without having to check ingredients and so on…and I usually do.

This year I went into the Edinburgh Vegan Festival at the Corn Exchange as a VIP. Oh yes, early entry and a goodie bag from Farplace Animal Rescue, were mine for just £15 and it was great to have a sniff around before the hoards descended, for descend they did. I was armed with cash (although more and more stalls take cards these days) as much a method of keeping track of my spending than anything.

I wandered around and bought breakfast, a ‘ham & cheese’ crepe from Flip’n’fast Crepes, their first one of the day. As I took it out to the seating area to have a root through my goodie bag, I passed the Sgai mheats stall, which had a queue already, before the festival had properly opened! I tweeted this fact to my followers and settled down to devour my crepe.

New breakfast food 'Quinoa Crack' - fab! — New breakfast food ‘Quinoa Crack’ – fab!

After another little wander round I headed to the talks and films area. They were showing ‘Live and Let Live’,’Cowspiracy’ (which also comes in book form) and ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ in the screening room during the day. I’d seen Peaceable Kingdom online, as you can too if you like. It’s a wonderful documentary about animal farmers who have awoken to veganism through life changing events. Their stories are worth hearing, but there is some footage that I found quite difficult to watch. I suppose I’m not yet hardened to images of animal exploitation and to be honest, I hope I never will be.

Instead of watching the films, I was lucky enough to get one of the last remaining seats in a talk given by Dr. Alex Lockwood entitled ‘How to turn a man vegan in 45 minutes.’ The talk addressed the wild gender imbalance within the vegan movement (there are far more females than males) and it was standing room only by the time he got started. There are several reasons why men are less drawn to veganism than women, and many of them are cultural. I took a fair few notes to see how I could work on approaching my male friends on the subject. Dr. Lockwood was keen to hear the audience’s stories about their vegan journeys and was an engaging speaker. He wrote ‘The Pig in Thin Air’ which details his own vegan awakening and has earned some fantastic reviews.

It was still a little early for donuts, but goodness knows, there were plenty available. First to sell out were the cream egg flavoured ones made by the ever-reliable Considerit Chocolate. I bought some chocolate bars from them as I always do, and also treated myself to three dream eggs which were indeed a dream come true.

The range of cakes, as ever, was impressive. My local baker Pitxu, was there and I couldn’t resist a cupcake from her stand. She’s based in the Edinburgh area and I’ve reviewed her work in detail elsewhere.

Food was soon beckoning me again, and by some miracle I managed to control myself cake-wise. I grabbed a curried potato and pea patty for lunch from Sacred Lotus, and wandered over to the other side of the venue. There I found something I really wasn’t expecting to see.

Among the tempting food, worthy charities and vegan businesses sat a car- a Tesla to be exact. I am not an expert when it comes to cars, but I must say it looked impressive. An all vegan car with vegan leather interior is a real innovation. Completely electric, this must be one of the most environmentally friendly cars out there. It’s certainly one of the fastest, going from 0 to 60mph in 2.6 seconds! Ah, perhaps when I win the lottery…

It was around this time that my thoughts turned to what little presents I could get those who couldn’t attend. First into my mind, unsurprisingly, was my beloved dog. I happened across a stand filled with vegan doggie treats called Pooches a Gogo, which were made locally in Fife. They assured me that each batch was rigorously taste tested by their Labradors, so I bought a packet of little bones that made me very popular when I returned home!

Once I’d got some gifts I turned my attention to the many charity stalls. I love learning about the smaller charities. The Maggie Fleming Animal Hospice, whom I’d met in Glasgow in December, have a new project. They’re trying to raise funds to open the UK’s first hospice for farmed animals. I happily donated as I reckon the work they do is just heroic and so, so kind. Donate here if you wish.

Paws2Rescue was a charity I hadn’t heard of before. They take abandoned dogs from Romania and try to rehome them here in the UK. The conditions the dogs are in is heartbreaking and the charity reach out to kind-hearted people via social media and their website.

Donuts selling fast…I chatted to a lovely lady from the Mahouts Elephant Foundation, who supports local people in Thailand who used to own elephants in order to make a living. They help them remain in their villages so their elephants can wander free in the forests instead of being dragged into town. They run camps so tourists can see the elephants in their natural environments and the mahouts go out every day to check that the elephants are safe.

After visiting various skincare stalls including Soul Tree and White Rabbit, I went to the last talk of the day, given by Rebecca Knowles, who is the founder of Vegan Outreach Scotland. She’s had a very interesting life, having lived in all different areas of the world, which I think gives her a good perspective on the issues. Her organisation simply asks people if they are animal lovers and then takes them to the logical conclusion that veganism is for them. As most of us know, this can be a pretty awkward conversation, but to get people’s actions to align with their beliefs can be very rewarding. Rebecca is clearly driven to have that conversation and it’s great to have people like her out there leading a compassionate discussion.

No more cream egg donuts... — No more cream egg donuts…

I was soon pretty tired, but very happy with my haul. I met some lovely people over the course of the day. I also get the feeling that these festivals are becoming far more mainstream and appealing to a far wider group of people. The presence of the car, as well as those selling fitness supplements alongside all the familiar savoury food stalls, cakes, charities and beauty products, was very welcome. Veganism really needs to be ‘normalised’ if we’re going to make a real difference for the animals and if having a liqueur stand , a terrarium stall, and a sporty car is needed to do that, then I’m all for it!

Henderson’s Salad Table, Edinburgh

March 30, 2017 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

Henderson's Deli, on the corner of Hanover Street — Henderson’s Deli, on the corner of Hanover Street

It’s no exaggeration to say that Henderson’s is an Edinburgh institution. The UK’s longest running vegetarian restaurant, it’s been serving customers in Edinburgh since 1962. It has a few restaurants in the city now, but the original salad table, located under their deli shop on the city’s Hanover Street was where I chose to meet a friend the other day.

I have fond memories of this place. As an adolescent vegetarian it was invaluable and I spent many a happy hour in here chatting to my Mum or gossiping with friends. The layout has changed little and it still has a casual, welcoming atmosphere. There’s a section slightly further downstairs that has live music most nights and is available for hire, but we ate in the main part.

Choose from the board... — Choose from the board…

The place has an informal, friendly feel and you simply choose what you’d like from the chalk board, the staff hands it over, then you pop it on a tray and pay – easy.

...and pop it on a tray. — …and pop it on a tray.

The restaurant is fully vegetarian and the vegan options are clearly marked with a ‘V’. They also indicate whether dishes contain nuts or are gluten free, so ‘special’ diets are catered for in abundance.

We both ended up choosing the vegan pizza with salad, which was lovely. The large array of salads is tempting, and the staff more than happy to confirm which ones are vegan friendly.

There's a tempting array of salads. — There’s a tempting array of salads.

I had a gorgeous bean sprout, tofu and ginger salad with mine and polished it all off with ease! To wash it down, I had a Black Isle lager, which I’d checked was vegan friendly.

It’s a great place to hang out as there are lots of tables, so we chatted away for quite a while longer, not feeling rushed or ‘in the way’, as you can in some places. After a while we both decided to indulge in a dessert.

There was a good choice for vegans, so I went for the chocolate cake with coconut cream on the side (soya cream was also available.) It was incredibly rich and very enjoyable. They have a great variety of soft drinks too, so I had an elderflower flavoured one, which was just the thing.

You gotta love the fact they have vegan donuts!

Henderson’s have a totally vegan restaurant as well which is just around the corner and they also have a new restaurant in Holyrood near the Scottish Parliament. I’ll be reviewing these soon I hope!

So, if you’re after a chilled out place to meet with friends or just pop in to take a break from shopping or sightseeing, this is a great bet. Henderson’s also do outside catering too, so if you’re planning a party, give them a call. I hope you find the time to relax at the salad table soon.

Sainsbury’s Vegan Cheese

March 16, 2017 by Tofu Temptress 2 Comments

The full range (minus the pre-grated cheddar)

Everyone had a bit of a laugh some time ago when vegans got all excited about Sainsbury’s stocking vegan cheese. A now infamous post on Facebook went viral when a cheese lover suggested in the strongest terms that vegans should not call it cheese, but ‘Gary or something’. Henceforth, Sainsbury’s vegan cheese was casually and affectionately known in vegan circles as ‘Gary.’

Made by Bute Island Foods (who make ‘Sheese’) from coconut milk, I can highly recommend them all. There are a few different varieties in Sainsbury’s, something for most occasions.

My favourite's the caramilsed onion flavour... — My favourite’s the caramilsed onion flavour…

There’s a cheddar style, which comes as a block, or as a bag of pre-grated cheese, which I’ve found brilliant on pizzas. It melts really well and the block is good for toasties.

The cheddar also comes in a block of caramelised onion flavour, which is my favourite of the solid cheeses. It’s crumbly to slice, but goes well in toasties too, or in a salad sandwich.

...it can be a bit crumbly when sliced though. — …it can be a bit crumbly when sliced though.

The other two solid cheeses are a Wensleydale-stye one with cranberries which is lovely on crackers. It’s quite creamy tasting too, so perhaps a good one for converting the cheese lover in your life.

The last solid cheese is the Greek-style, which is great in a bowl of salad or anywhere else you’d normally use Feta.

My favourite soft cheese is the garlic and herb flavour

There are also two cream cheeses, original and garlic and herb flavour. I love both, but I must admit that for me, the garlic and herb one has the edge on bagels. There’s nothing like a freshly toasted bagel smothered in this stuff – just heaven.

So there you have it. I must admit to being a bit disappointed in vegan cheese when I first went vegan, but it just shows you what progress can be made in just a few years. I’d happily give all these cheeses to non-vegan friends, especially the Wensleydale and cream cheeses. Innovation in this area is improving all the time, so expect to see more varieties hit the mainstream shops soon. This particular range exceeded Sainsbury’s projected sales figures by three hundred percent, so even if profit is the only driver, things are looking good for vegan cheese.

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