Tea and Sympatico

  NQ=Vg. I've been making the case why I think Manchester's Northern Quarter is one of the UK's best vegan destinations. I've finished my 20 Vegan Mofo posts and there's even more places with vegan offers that I've not managed to fit in! So, here's a shout out to places I've blogged about before - Earth Cafe , Oklahoma , Simple and Odd who are all well worth a visit too if you're in the area. To finish up Vegan Mofo 2013 here are my top ten reasons why the NQ is amazing for vegans. 10. Soya milk is everywhere Loads of cafes in the Northern Quarter have soya milk so no matter where you are you can pop in for a brew. Or treat yourself to an incredibly good soya latte at places like Eastern Bloc or Icelandic coffee shop Taak . 9. Fab fast food Even the dreaded fast food places are vegan friendly! Get a mexican treat at Barburrito or Panchos or visit the 100% vegan Go Falafel . And every knows chips are better up North. 8. Arts and c...

If you've been following my Mofo posts where I've been blogging about vegan eats in Manchester's Northern Quarter you'll have noticed one name that keeps cropping up again and again. All of the people I interviewed picked out this place and it's dear to my heart so I wanted to save it for my final Mofo post. V Revolution initially opened as a record shop selling some vegan groceries. As time has gone on the shop has evolved and become a cafe too. It can be found right at the end of Oldham Street. Alongside the vinyl, zines and t-shirts you can pick up all manner of vegan cheeses, faux meats, snack bars, icecream, chocolate, marshmallows etc. And the burgers, oh my, the burgers......How about a mini mac? Or a jack fruit based pulled pork sandwich with home made coleslaw. Or a Schnitzel Royale with extra bacon. This one is the Towering Inferno. There's even a loyalty card for their specials. In their unwavering dedication to produce...

I'm going to let you into a secret. The BEST hot chocolate in the world isn't in Paris or Oaxaca or Barcelona though I've had pretty good ones in all those places. It's to be found in a tiny shop on John Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter and the best news of all is that it's naturally vegan. Bonbon Chocolate Boutique is a magical place and has to be seen to be experienced. It originally opened as a pop up shop last Christmas and luckily for us Mancunians it's stayed around. The shop both smells amazing and is also beautiful to look at. There's a big cauldron of hot chocolate which is made from Valrhona Chocolate, cocoa, spring water and a little muscovado sugar. It is completely dairy free and you can get flavourings such as orange or chilli added to it most of which are vegan too. They also serve icecream, cakes and chocolates that are made on the premises. I can highly recommend the raspberry beer ones! Bonbon also sells that finest...

When I was at Glastonbury festival this year, I met two lovely vegans from the North East called Nathan and Daniel. They were playing on the Leftfield stage with their band ONSIND and Nathan was sporting a "I love Vegan Junk Food" sticker on his guitar. With the band due to play in Manchester's Northern Quarter in a few weeks time, I caught up with Nathan for a special Vegan Mofo interview. Tell us a little about the history of ONSIND and the sort of things you guys write about? Onsind is a punk duo from Pity Me, Durham! We've been really good friends most of our lives, and have been in this band together for about seven years. In that time we've toured all over the UK, Germany and USA, and have released three albums, as well as several EPs and other releases. We write about all kinds of things, but I think everything we do is imbued with politics, in the sense that we are a DIY, vegan band and so even when we're singing about personal stuff like depre...

Ning is a Malaysian restaurant and cookery school that has been in the Northern Quarter since 2006. They must be doing something right as they've recently opened branches in York and London. and in 2012 they won Best Malaysian Restaurant at the Asian Curry Awards. Ning is right next door to V Revolution and has the vegan 'V' symbol proudly displayed as part of it's branding. But how does that translate to the food? Well the menu is very clearly marked as vegan. It also makes it clear what is gluten free and what is nut free. It's a brilliantly clear system which offers quite a good choice for vegans. Nyonya Lime Curry with Thai fragrant jasmine rice I will say straight off that Ning isn't budget eating. Obviously the vegan dishes are cheaper than the fish and meat offerings but even so it's in the region of £5-6 for a starter and £10-14 for a main course once you add in rice or noodles. However there is a special deal on the menu where you get t...

Dominic Berry is a poet who has just completed a run at the Edinburgh Festival with his show "The Dragon who hated poetry". He's also well known as a vegan poet, not just a poet who happens to be a vegan but someone who writes poetry about issues connected to veganism. Dominic lives and works in Manchester's Northern Quarter so he was a perfect choice for this years Mofo theme! How long have you been vegan and what brought you to make that decision? I was a real jonny-come-lately to being vegan. In 2008 I 'came out' proud as vegan to the world (that was a not-so-subtle self reference to my 'hit' poem, 'I'm Coming Out as Vegan'. Us poets gotta plug our 'hits' whenever we can. I say 'hit' with inverted commas cos I'm not sure poets really have 'hits', but if they do, that is mine. If I was Lulu then that would be my 'To Sir With Love'. Or my 'Independence', depending on your age and dep...

Bakerie is situated on Lever Street in the Northern Quarter. Since it opened a couple of years ago it has had great food and wine options for vegans (one of the owners is vegan). The menu changes every few months and currently there's a Superfood salad, puy lentil and vegetable stew, a falafel and humous sandwich and a fancy beans on toast. All of these come with bread made by the Bakerie chefs and things are clearly labelled as vegan. For my most recent visit my friend Siobhan and I went for a glass of white wine and one of the famous Bakerie boards. Apologies for the quality of the i-phone photos, as it's a bar the lighting is quite low. All of the vegan boards come with a pot of home made hummus, a pot of beetroot puree and some green leaves. You then get to choose three other small dishes. There are six to choose from in total so we went for all six to share. Usually as a vegan tapas style eating is a no-no with there being very little for us on the menus at Spanis...