On Tuesday, Mr Thrifty and I went to London. We fed our tummies with some great grub.

For lunch we had Mexican burgers from Red Veg in Soho. Veggie burgers with salsa, guacamole, jalapenos, vegan mayo, lettuce. Spicy hot and super yummy.

With fries and onion rings.

Then we bought some sushi from Japan Centre (near Piccadilly Circus) to have at home.

Inari, cucumber hosomaki, avocado roll, spicy fried tofu roll, inari ura maki roll. I loooove sushi. Gotta learn how to make it.

Here are a few more piccies of vegan stuff I found to eat on my trip to Canada.

Little Caesars veggie pizza

Both the crust and the sauce at Little Caesars are vegan, so it’s a doddle to order a vegan pizza. They weren’t chintzy on the veggies either. I did miss the Cheezly that I have on homemade pizzas, but it was still really yummy. $10.99 for a large pizza.

New York Fries

These are nothing like fast food fries (and that’s a good thing). They leave the skin on the taters, for one, and they’re fried in non-hydrogenated sunflower oil (unlike, say, McDeaths, who fry theirs in beef tallow).

Not only that, but you can load them up with your choice of toppings: onion, chopped tomatoes, olives, pickled onion, hot peppers, relish, ketchup, mustard, two different hot sauces, two different vinegars, and two seasoning powders.

Super yummtastic. Around $2.85 for a small order.

Falafel at Extreme Pita

This was really good, though not as nice as the falafel at Happy Camel. $5.79 for a “small”, which actually was a good size.

Veggie Sub at Quiznos

Mmmm, delicious, most especially because it had guacamole on it. More pricey than Subway, though, $5.99 for a small.

Oriental Veggie House

Very tasty food at this Chinese vegetarian restaurant. Not as good as the Bo Kong in Vancouver, but still deelish. Above photo is Peking veggie beef hotpot. Also had lemon “chicken”, roast “duck”, mushroom fried rice, stir-fried veggies and spring rolls. You can peruse their menu here.

Taco at Taco Bell

At first glance, the menu at Taco Bell doesn’t have any veggie (never mind vegan) options. But you can substitute refried beans for meat in anything. This is a crispy taco with beans, lettuce, tomato and hot sauce. mmm, mmm, good. And only 99 cents.

And on the flight back:

Saag aloo with rice and chutney

Again, pretty decent for airline food, though I would have appreciated some garlic in the saag aloo. The chutney was a nice touch. Also had a small white dinner roll, marinated bean salad, small bottle of water, and for dessert, the typical thing vegans get served when no one knows what else to give them: fruit salad.

All in all, I have to say it was pretty easy to find vegan food in Canada. Next I’ll be blogging about some food booty I brought back with me, including totally-to-die-for organic vegan maple sandwich biscuits!

Well, the eating continues here in pays de boeuf, and it’s been remarkably easy to find vegan victuals.

There is a large Chinese supermarket, T&T, with a good offering of interesting things for vegans, including an impressive selection of faux meat from Vancouver’s West Best Vegetarian Market. Veggie shrimp, smoked chicken, roast chicken, crab stick and much more! Their hot food takeaway has a couple of vegan selections as well, and of course there are all of the interesting Chinese fruits and vegetables, including the very smelly durian fruit. (Novelist Anthony Burgess compared eating durian to “eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory”. Errr, I’ll pass on that, I think.)

Now on to the latest selection of vegan yummies:

Harvey’s veggie burger

Oh, this was soooo yummy! I really like the way Harvey’s assembles the burger in front of you, so you can choose exactly what goes on your burger. No accidental mayo mistakes! And only $3.79.

Subway veggie delite sandwich

The Subway chain has restaurants worldwide. This sandwich is piled high with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, green pepper, onion and hot peppers, and topped with mustard and sweet onion dressing. Subway will lightly toast the inside of the bun on request, and this is definitely the way to go, as it keeps the sandwich from getting soggy. Cheap at $3.29 and oh so good!

T&T steamed vegetarian bun

I love love LOVE Chinese steamed buns. These are huge, and stuffed with all kinds of yummy vegetables. Great value… only $1.59.

Bean curd sheet & broccoli with rice noodles

One of T&T’s hot food takeaway selections is “bean curd sheet in mushroom sauce”. Yummtastic. With rice noodles (also from T&T), and broccoli, this made a delicious meal. A large container of bean curd sheet is $7.99, but that’s enough for four or five portions when served with noodles and veg.

Yves veggie bacon butty

Safeway (and probably the other supermarkets too) sell the Yves line of veggie faux meats, including these bacon strips, which are better than the Redwood ones that I buy at home. Makes one fine butty. Around $3.79 a package, but you get 12 strips.

Pasta with spicy red pepper sauce and veggie chicken

Rice noodles from T&T ($1.77 for 1 pound package) + Safeway Select spicy red pepper pasta sauce ($2.80 for 700ml jar) + Eating Right veggie “chicken” from Safeway ($4.99 for two breasts) = one scrumptious meal. The veggie chicken is made from Gardein, which is the same ingredient that’s in Grassington’s veggie peppered steaks & chicken fillets, available back home.

I am well impressed with the variety of vegan food available here. I even noticed three vegan cookbooks for sale at Safeway. Clearly those interested in healthy vegan food are making their voices heard, and restaurants and supermarkets are listening!

I am on the road, dear readers, and who woulda thought it would be so easy to find veggie eats in the heart of beef country?

Okay, so it’s not gourmet fare, but it tastes good and it’s cheap.

First up, on the flight over:

Veggie curry with rice, dinner roll, vanilla soy pudding

This was not bad for food at 40,000 feet, 100% vegan, even the margarine which airlines normally don’t bother with. Plus when you order a special meal, you get served before anyone else.

Shredded carrots and houmous in pita, l’il box of raisins

I really liked the combo of shredded carrots and houmous, though the houmous was lacking in garlic. I’ll be using this combo as a sandwich filling when I return from afar. When I was a kid, I would eat raisins if they were in the little Sun-Maid Raisins box, but not otherwise. I always was a sucker for packaging.

Fast food fixes:

Happy Camel falafel

Falafels are usually fried, but this offering from Happy Camel is fat free. Served on a pita with houmous, chopped salad and salsa. Garlicky… yummy. Happy Camel also sell an assortment of other veggie dips/spreads, including a super scrumptious red lentil paté.

KFC veggie “chicken” burger

I have to admit this took me back to my childhood, when I was in love with KFC chicken. This burger has the same tasty coating that KFC chicken does, without the cruelty. Apparently, KFC put this option on their menu after lobbying by PETA. Sadly, only available north of the 49th at the moment.

A&W Swiss Veggie deluxe, sans cheese

I ordered this on the spur of the moment, without any prior research. Unfortunately, I found out afterwards that it is vegetarian, but not vegan, even without the cheese and dressing. Which is a shame, because it is really, really tasty.

That concludes Instalment 1 of What to eat in cowboy country. Stay tuned for more, coming real soon!

We finally had snow on Monday. It was very pretty when the snow was falling, big fat fluffy flakes covering the ground and everything else. Mr Thrifty had a couple days booked off, so we went to the mall. People are wimps about snow here, so there weren’t many people out and about, and the mall was relatively quiet.

We stopped at the food hall at Marks & Spencer, with the thought of picking up something for lunch. I like M&S. They not only have high quality groceries, they also have in place a policy called Plan A (“Because there is no Plan B”). Which means, in their words, they are taking steps to “combat climate change, reduce waste, safeguard natural resources, trade ethically and build a healthier nation”.

I realise that may sound like a lot of corporate mumjo-jumbo-tell-the-customer-what-they-want-to-hear, but they have taken some concrete steps, such as only using free-range eggs in their products, and only selling products which are not tested on animals (which also applies to the product ingredients).

Anyhoo, back to lunch. In the bakery we spied some Peperonata Foccacia, which looked delicious. The allergy tag didn’t say it contained dairy or egg, but we asked the bakery person to look in his book of ingredients just to be sure. Oh joy! The foccacia was vegan! All natural ingredients too… no preservatives or other big unfriendly-looking chemical names.

I have to say that for 99p, it is one of the best takeaway lunches you could have. It was delicious, nice moist dough and tasty toppings. We’ll definitely be having that again.

And, oh yeah, about the snow. It warmed up above freezing the next day, so it quickly started to melt.

Today there is still some left on the ground, but not much.

So I guess that is our snowy weather, done and dusted for another year.

This isn’t so much a recipe as an idea.

Sometimes when Mr Thrifty and I are out somewhere and want something quick and cheap to eat, we’ll stop at the nearest supermarket for the ingredients to make these. It’s a lot tastier than fast food fare (assuming you could even find vegan fast food) and less expensive to boot.

First get yourself a baguette. This works better than regular bread, which isn’t really sturdy enough.

Next is the hoummus, any type will do (though do double-check it’s vegan).

And then, of course, the onion bhajis. Vegetable bhajis or pakoras will work as well.

Tomatoes are a nice, but optional, addition.

If the baguette is one of those big suckers, cut or tear it into pieces, then cut or tear each piece in half. Spread generously with hoummus. Add an onion bhaji or two, and top with sliced tomatoes.

That’s it! So easy and yet so tasty. And beats the heck out of a McDeath Burger.