Green Gathering

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'm allergic to some types of chilli and often the only vegan friendly food at festivals is on the spicy side. Matt on the other hand loves a curry and he enjoyed this tea of 'chapati and three' from Authentic Curries. The dahl and spinach curry were actually pretty mild so I was able to have a taste and can confirm that they were very tasty.


Whilst Matt was scoffing curry I went for the delicious pizza from Pan de Mania. This was cooked to order in a woodfired oven and was just how I like my pizza with a thin crispy base. The Vegan Garden pizza was topped with tomato sauce, olives, spinach, seeds and fresh rocket. They could teach Pizza Express a lesson or too!


My drink of choice at festivals even above beer has turned out to be chai! I tried it from three different sellers at Green Gathering. Everyone seemed to have a different approach. Some people made black chai and then left it to the customer to add cows or soya milk. One seller made a vegan one with rice milk but my number one was the vegan chai from the Buddafields Cafe. This was made with soya milk and already sweetened. It was just the thing to drink in the drizzly weather.


All the businesses mentioned do the festival circuit and I'd visit all of them again. Sadly our £25 Aldi tent managed to survive Glastonbury and Tolpuddle but not the Green Gathering. We are going to invest in a good one for future camping. Does anyone have any recommendations for a 3 person tent?

Comments

  1. All Consuming11 August 2013 at 21:42

    On tents I am useless I'm afraid. As ever you have listed a job lot of food that makes my taste buds water! Yum! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. morag12 August 2013 at 10:13

    Can i suggest talking to John about tents? he loves them and would be delighted to give recommendations! A key reason I now enjoy camping is becuase we have a great tent, think its 3 person, its plenty big enough for us and our stuff. We also have the vegan camping breakfast and single pot supper sorted too! PS that sushi looks amazing x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tea and Sympatico12 August 2013 at 13:13

    Morag, thank you! Will message John for recommendations :) x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joey13 August 2013 at 20:51

    I'm so impressed you always manage to find these interesting and vegan friendly places in areas where I'd never expect them. Chai gets the thumbs-up too - it always seems to taste better from someone else than it does at home! If you've got a good recipe, send it this direction!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Deerly Beloved Bakery16 August 2013 at 19:40

    Oh all that food looks amazing! Will have to try and get to a festival or two next year! X

    ReplyDelete
  6. vegan.in.brighton21 August 2013 at 13:53

    Such delicious festival food, I want that sushi now!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hilario30 August 2013 at 03:08

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cola de Mono

Image
Colo de Mono (Tail of the Monkey) is a Chilean concoction traditionally drunk ice cold at Christmastime. Obviously their winters are a lot warmer than ours so in the UK it's more suited to this time of year. The Chileans use aguadiente an overproof cane spirit. I use Cachaca 51 which I have in for Mojitos and Caipirinhas. Traditionally made with cows milk, here is my vegan version. Colo De Mono Makes 1 pint Serves 4 2 cups of vanilla soy milk 1/3 cup of caster sugar 1/3 teaspoon of cinammon 3 teaspoons of instant coffee 1/2 cup of spirit* Bring the milk, sugar and cinnamon to a low boil in a pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Leave to cool. Once cool add the spirit and chill in the fridge. It will keep for 2 weeks. Serve over ice or straight up but make it cold. * Spirit - I use Cachaca but have heard that people use tequila too.
Read more

Interview With Lisa Goddard of Lily and Dilly

Image
If you've eaten vegan cake in Manchester City Centre in the last few years then chances are you'll have eaten cake baked by Lisa Goddard of bakery Lily and Dilly . We caught up with Lisa to find out what set her on the vegan baking path! So, Lily and Dilly? What made you set up as an independent bakery and where does the name come from? Having worked as a stop frame animator for 12 years, I was getting rather fed up with short term contracts, so the last time I was made redundant, I decided not to chase work round the country, and if that meant a career change, then so be it. A friend of mine had just set up The Cocoa Emporium as an independent Chocolatier, so I gave her a hand whilst navigating through the benefits system, mostly to get me out of bed on a morning! Doing baking for her farmers market was fun, as it was one of my main hobbies, so when she asked if I fancied getting a little shop  with her, it seemed a nice chance to start something new. We got the shop...
Read more

Growing your own, bargains and a breakfast recipe

Image
I've started sprouting again! In my old flat I used to do sprouting all the time. The flat was in an old 1930's building and had radiators run from a central boiler room and it was always nice and warm. The constant warm temp made sprouting pretty fail safe. Now I'm in a Derbyshire stone house where it's not as warm the results haven't been as great and I gave up trying  but with this very hot summer we are having I thought I would give it another go and I'm glad I have done. As I already have the seeds it kind of feels like free food too! I'm using these sprouts  from A Vogel. This week I've grown alfalfa but pictured is my first attempt from the week before which was a mix of radish, lentil and rocket which grew into lovely peppery tasting sprouts that we used to garnish our bowl meals for the week. These took 4 days to grow and I nearly gave up on day 2 because I could see mold. Luckily I googled and found out that it wasn't mold at all but r...
Read more