Our Week in London

We've just had a little visit to London and were lucky enough to be able to house sit for some friends whilst they were off to a wedding in Vegas. We were based in Hackney and had the fab co-operatively run Black Cat Cafe within walking distance. Seeing as we arrived on a Thursday evening and Thursday is pizza night at Black Cat it would have been wrong not to sample some. Pizza is available by the slice or as in my case you can order a whole one to yourself. It was fantastic vegan pizza with chargrilled veg, pesto, tomato sauce and a generous amount of cheese.

Matt went for the lasagna and declared it the best lasagna he'd ever eaten outside of his own home. I tried some and can concur, it was wonderful. In total our meal came to £21. Not pictured are two Whole Earth Colas and a big chunk of Rocky Road we took home to share. For home cooked organic food I thought that this was fantastic value, particularly for London.

The following morning we headed to Borough Market which is where Matt used to live. He popped off for an hour to meet a friend whilst I had a read of the paper in the Le Pan Quotidien tucked away just behind the market. I'd not been in a branch of Le Pan since a holiday in Brussels in 2001 but I wish we had one in Manchester. I was impressed with how many vegan options they have and how clearly labelled they are. My Matcha latte made with almond milk was huge and delicious.

I'd noted our lunch destination on one of my favourite blogs - Flicking The V's. Situated just by the Shard, The Moveable Feast is a 6 month pop up vegetarian and vegan lunch destination. Joey had posted about some amazing looking homemade pasta and tiramisu from Pomodoro E Basilico and we were fortunate enough to catch them on their last day as part of this venture. Instead of pasta their dish of the day was smokey seitan burgers with peach salsa and home made mayonaise served with a side of sweet potato fries. Oh my word this was good.

You need a close up of the burger. Even the bun was home made. We had a little chat with Sara the owner and chef and she very kindly gave us a complimentary piece of the pizza that she'd made for the Moveable Feast staff. London people, if you've not tried Pomodoro E Basilico food before get yourself down to Camden Market where they have a stall, you will not be disappointed.

On Saturday evening we headed to North London for our friend Susie's 'Do Ya Think I'm Forty' party. Yep, that's right a Rod Stewart themed 40th bash complete with fancy dress and a Rod impersonator. To fortify ourselves for the event we popped back to Black Cat for a big breakfast. This was tasty with fried potatoes, mushrooms, home made baked beans, scrambled tofu, maple bacon and a pancake. We also paid a bit extra for a Vegusto sausage.

Here we are, suitably 'Rodded'. Blimey it was hot in those wigs!

After the excesses of the weekend partying we went for some lighter foods for our last few meals. This meant heading to Inspiral in Camden for a lemon dressed asparagus green salad.

Matt's choice was a hemp tartlet which was filled with a mix made from sun dried tomatoes, pesto and capers. He was surprised at how filling this was.

My favourite bit of our meal there was my Banana Blast smoothie and this raw sushi that we got to share.

Not pictured but somewhere that we got both take away salad boxes from and also where we had a meal with friends is Tas. This London chain serving Anatolian Turkish food had tons of tasty veggie options. I had so many places I wanted to try in London and we only managed to get to a fraction of them we must get another trip planned soon!