Holiday food - Week 2

We spent week two of our recent holiday in the seaside town of Aldeburgh. We were delighted to discover on the main street the little gem that is Delphines Diner. Small but perfectly formed would be the phrase to describe this place. It also has no web presence so it's a bit of a well kept secret!

There wasn't a lot for vegans on the menu BUT they did offer a vegan hotdog. This was our last lunch of the holiday and we really enjoyed it.

I'd been to VegFest just before the holiday and attended Jojo's talk on vegan travelling. I'd taken Jojo's advice to ask for recommendations on Twitter and was so glad I did when I got a tweet mention the Dolphin Inn at neighbouring Thorpeness.

The Dolphin Inn is a gastro pub that offers a vegan option for each course on their regularly changing menu. We had a shared starter of grilled vegetables and olives and a main of risotto. Risotto is a staple veggie option when eating out and sometimes I find it a bit bland as if leaving out the cheese leaves out all the flavour. However, this was a great risotto, creamy but packed with flavour from butternut squash and leeks.

I think the dessert may have been my favourite part of the meal though. This was a delicious tea poached pear with a homemade ginger biscuit. The Dolphin also offer gluten free options and it was great to see somewhere making efforts to cater to a variety of diets. We were sat next to a large group of women and one of them ordered a veggie dish. Her friend said 'Oh, I didn't know you were a vegetarian?' to which she replied 'I'm not, it just sounds really nice'. Yep, good food is good food and the staff at the Dolphin understand. Definitely one to visit if you're ever in the area.

I mentioned in my last blog post how great the weather was for October.

We enjoyed a day out to Southwold which has the poshest pier I've ever been on! The cafe even did a nice soya latte, great tea and my favourite vegan friendly Corkers crisps.

Instead of the usual amusement arcade the pier has the Under The Pier Show which is a roomful of interactive entertainment made by artist Tim Hunkin. It was brilliant fun.

I don't know what The Booth of Truth told Matt but he came out smiling!

We wondered if the designer was a veggie when we saw the Pet or Meat machine that decides the lambs fate!

There was a deli in the town where we picked up some bits and bobs for tea but we fancied a sit down lunch. We were pleased to discover Enzo's Pizzeria offered a cheese free pizza. It was simple Italian pizza at it's best. A thin crispy base, topped with homemade sauce, mushroooms, fresh basil and black pepper.

Finally here's a few vegan products we found in the shops in Suffolk that were new to us. The East of England Co-Op's carry this range of vegan friendly cakes from Norfolk based Riverbank Bakery. This cherry and almond cake was lovely and good value at around £2.50. We were pleased to discover when we got home that we can also get this range from the food hall in our market in Glossop.

Woodbridge has a great independent wine shop in Woodbridge Wines and we were also impressed by this range of local, handmade chocolate from Deep Mills Chocolate that they carry. The Dutch Salted Liquorice flavour is an inspired idea! The chocolate is really well priced and you can order it online.

The shop also had these amazing crisps made from pasta called Pastinos! These were so good and incredibly moreish. We're down to our last bag so I'm hoping to find a Northern stockist soon!