Treats from Todmorden

Yesterday was a train trip out to Todmorden, a little market town 17 miles from Manchester, with my friends Susan and Deb. First stop was lunch at The Bear. The food in the cafe is all veggie with good vegan options and a great health food shop downstairs.


From front to back - vegan panini with olives and tomato and various salads, deli platter and a homemade mushroom burger. We were quite full but after a little breather managed to squeeze in coffees with banana cake and chocolate truffle cake. Full marks for both!



There's some great independent businesses, a market, second hand bookshops, antique shops, charity shops etc in the town, great for ambling round on a Saturday afternoon.

Even the train station houses artist studios and the waiting room has a magnetic memo board to play with and a case of books you're encouraged to borrow and return when you've finished with them.

I was really excited when I found a stall of baked goods on the market and everything turned out to be vegan! It was run by Emily of Whistle Stop Cafe and Blue Dodo Bakery. I managed to restrain myself from buying one of everything but came away with an apple scone, veg and ale pasty, mushroom and leek pasty and a snackers bar which is chewy peanut, chocolate, crispy rice and caramel. There were also fabulous looking big cupcakes at £5 for a box of 5! I was so excited I forgot to ask to take a photo.

Other spoils included a vintage ceramic cake slice from the antique shop next to The Bear. Luckily for my bank balance the wooden cake stand from my last visit had been sold. I got the Gustosecco rice pudding mix from the shop part of The Bear. It's elderflower, crystallised ginger and apricot flavour. You add 2 pints of 'milk' to the mix and bake in the oven for 1 and half hours. Thought it would be a good lazy dinner party dessert. There was also a lavender flavour and a chocolate and cinnamon mix too.

Comments

  1. Siobhan13 March 2011 at 20:09

    That food looks incredible! Love the cake slice too. I just bought some vintage cake stands off of Ebay, They're amazing, but not for bank balance either! x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tea and Sympatico13 March 2011 at 21:04

    I love a vintage cake stand. I've got one on my kitchen window ledge that I use as a fruit bowl so it can stay out all the time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sally Kitten14 March 2011 at 09:46

    *swoon* that all looks so divine! I'm really impressed with the "snackers" idea as well. I'll have to go there when I come over in June :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tea and Sympatico14 March 2011 at 19:52

    Cool, if you need any tips on places to visit/ eat in the area Sally let me know. There's a link to my email on my profile page :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Velovegan24 March 2011 at 10:46

    Wow, food from The Bear looks amazing! Especially that mixed platter! Mmmmmmmmm, got me hungry now you have! :-p

    ReplyDelete

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