Road trip 1 - Oswestry and VBites Chester

I'm afraid I'm currently back to having no computer, hence the lack of blogging recently. The laptop I bought about a month ago broke almost immediately and I ended up returning it and getting a refund. I've finally decided to go for a refurbished model through someone we've met locally who runs a computer business and hopefully I'll have that soon. As an added bonus he is also going to get us started on kombucha brewing! Does anyone make their own kombucha and do you have any tips or ideas for flavours? And talking of brewing check out these vegan beers.


We've had a couple of little road trips in the last few weeks. Our first one was to Oswestry on the Welsh border. We came across a great family run wine and beer shop called Twelve Green Bottles. As someone who used to work in a wine shop I was really impressed with this place. It was really nicely set out AND they had marked products as vegan on their price labels which is not something you see very often!


On our way back to Glossop we passed through the town of Chester. Chester is a town I know really well as I spent three years studying there. Most excitingly Chester has a VBites counter within it's huge Holland and Barrett store. For anyone reading outside of the UK, V Bites are a major producer of mock meats, mock fish, vegan cheese etc and are owned by Heather Mills.


It was fantastic to be able to choose anything from the menu. Although it was lunchtime as I'd had a cooked breakfast back at the B and B in Oswestry I didn't fancy fast food and I opted for porridge. It was made with steel cut oats and sweetened with Sweet Freedom before being topped with tried fruit and nuts. On a cold day it hit the spot and was a generous portion. I was impressed that it was also made in a pan on the stove rather than in a microwave.


Matt decided not to have a second breakfast and went for a classic beef style burger instead. He also polished off a cheese and ham pasty before we remembered to photgraph it and it was a thumbs up for both.


We also picked up some V bites sandwiches to take home for our tea. They were smoked salmon with cream cheese and watercress on a malted bread. I love their smoked salmon but it's so difficult to find. I would have bought a packet of it but they didn't even have it for sale there just on sandwiches. I love it on a bagel with some tofutti cream cheese. The stand out of the two sandwiches for me was the baguette at the front of the plate. This was tuna and mayonaise and it was sooo good.


There was also a selection of cakes. We went for these home made peanut butter cups.


At a pound each they were great value and really tasty.


My only criticism of VBites is that there is no seating. We ended up sitting on a bench in the street to eat our lunch. It was a really cold day but the sun was out, I'm not sure what we would have done if it was raining. Not having anywhere comfortable to sit meant that we didn't buy drinks. I would definitely visit again though and I was impressed by the food offer and the customer service.

Comments

  1. Had to laugh at the image of you sitting on a bench eating your porridge.

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  2. Haha, outside the BHS I used to work in :)

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  3. We get some of the VBites products here, but no where near the range that is available in the UK. I do quite like them! That is so cool that they have a cafe style place.

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  4. I didn't know you studied in Chester - that's where I was born! I haven't been back as an adult but those VBites desserts certainly make it look tempting.

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  5. That peanut butter cup alone looks worth it!

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  6. That burger looks totally yum! I get stressed out when I can't sit somewhere to eat. I am definitely not an eater on the go! The peanut butter cup looks better than any I've had!

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  7. I've never managed to find the vegan smoked salmon down here. Next time I'm in Chester, I'll have to get me some and one of those peanut butter cups too!

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