Tea and Sympatico

Vegan Mofo starts tomorrow and I'm really excited to be taking part again! I'm going for a month long theme this year and here's a few clues. This part of Manchester played a big part in the Industrial Revolution. Marx and Engels visited here and their experiences fed into the Conditions of the Working Classes in England and later the Communist Manifesto. With it's old textile buildings and fire escapes the area often stands in for the East Village, New York amongst other places in films. When I visited the East Village for the first time I felt right at home! Hollywood films shot here include Captain America, Alfie and Sherlock Holmes. There's also a plethora of music venues, fashion wholesalers, galleries and independent shops and eateries. So, old mill buildings, a hotbed of creative activity, radical politics and sights like this vegan burger?.............. Yep, I'll be blogging for the whole of September about Manchester's Northern Qu

Last week I received an email asking if I'd like to review a tea blend inspired by a painting in the National Gallery . I jumped at the chance as tea and art galleries are two of my favourite things. The tea is part of a collaboration between the National Gallery and the East India Tea Company . What caught my attention was that it was more than the usual box of Earl Grey with an image from the collection on the packaging along with some matching shortbread biscuits. The company's tea master Lalith Lenadora has used what's going on in the images to inspire these new blends. As someone who used to work in an art gallery education department where we were always looking for new ways to interpret art this idea caught my imagination. There's 6 teas altogether as shown in this picture. I got sent Blend No 129. This is a blend of fine black ceylon fbop tea flavoured with cinnamon, orange flowers, orange peel, black,white and red pepper, nutmeg pieces, vanilla essenc

Last weekend Matt was playing at The Green Gathering so we headed down to Chepstow just over the Severn Bridge into South Wales. The setting was beautiful, unfortunately the weather was not and neither was the woman who'd taken summat funny three tents away from us who screamed and ranted for most of Saturday night keeping everyone awake and making all the babies cry! We went to some interesting talks though (including one about Superfoods) and had what was the best vegan food of any festival so far this summer. My favourite was Gohan, a macrobiotic vegan cafe who served amazing and beautifully prepared Japanese food. I had freshly made miso soup with this lovely sushi that came in a little bamboo cone. Matt went for the awesome salad platter. Everything on it was great and I need to figure about how to make those millet balls. The Gohan tent also looked beautiful, if you see them at a festival then definitely check them out. The food at Gohan suited me perfectly as I&