I had a day off work and decided to do just that and head down the coast from London to the seaside town of Brighton.  The train journey from my home in London to Brighton is very easy and with only one simple change takes just over 90 minutes door to door. So, you would think I would have travelled there more often but before this visit I had only been there on a flying visit about a decade prior to this trip. I had been wanting to go back and properly explore Brighton and with the weather so good if felt like there would be no better time to do it.

Brighton is known as a hip and trendy area of the modern UK with a bit of an artsy flare that attracts a youthful and diverse  crowd. The popularity of the seaside town goes back centuries though and since the turn of the 19th century one of the main tourist attractions in Brighton has been the Palace Pier which is now known simply as Brighton Pier.

Still operating today, it harks back to a bygone era of domestic British seaside holidays. Filled with penny arcades and fair ground rides, it is a lot like what Americans would call a boardwalk but instead of going along the beach it stretches out into the sea.  Sure, it resides just on the wrong side tacky for most modern tastes but if you go with the right mindset you can enjoy the cheese and the step back in time.

Brighton Pier

The main purpose of my Brighton day trip was to practice my photography. With so much of the old and new in Brighton and the seaside and all its creatures to boot it felt like a good place to take my camera and see if I could get a bit better at what has become a favourite hobby of mine.

I arrived in Brighton at 8am so that I could hope to capture the beach area of the town as it was coming alive. There is something I really enjoy about observing places are they are waking up for the day. I did a mixture of colour and black and white photography just to see what I liked the most.  I  found myself enthralled by the remains of the burned down pier that still resides in the water at the other end of Brighton Beach to the Brighton Pier. I  spent a lot of time trying to get decent shots of that before moving onto photos of Brighton life – both human and animal.

Here is just a small selection of the Brighton photos I took that day. If you are interested in seeing the whole day’s shoot then feel free to check out my Brighton Flickr Album.

Remains of Brighton West Pier

Brighton Sea Bird

Brighton Pier Game

Of course, as somebody that runs a food blog, enjoying the food that Brighton had to offer was also high on my agenda. Not least because along with the slightly new age reputation Brighton has developed, the town has also grown a reputation for having a good vegetarian food scene.

It was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to find this promised vegetarian food treasure on Brighton Pier.  Sure, it had tons of food and much of it would technically qualify as vegetarian but it was mostly candy and junk food. It was fun to look at but my teeth hurt just thinking about eating any of it.

Brighton Candy

So, I moved away from the Brighton waterfront and moved into the modern Lanes shopping area of the town.  Sure enough, tucked amongst the quirky and fashionable shops were a number of vegetarian restaurants.  My main dilemma was to decide which one of these Brighton vegetarian restaurants to try.

The first vegetarian restaurant that I stumbled on was the Infinity Foods Cafe which looked really lovely and inviting. What I liked the most about the look of it was that it looked like it was fitting so well into the cafe culture of the street and wasn’t sticking out as “the vegetarian restaurant”. Just a few minutes down the street the same people also run Infinity Foods which is a giant (by the standards I have seen) vegetarian food co-op store. If I had a bigger bag and budget I would have filled myself up with goods. Instead, I just bought a few little things to try (green tea soba noodles was one..trying those out shortly) and packed them away as I continued the search for the place to grab my vegetarian lunch.

Infinity Foods Cafe, Brighton

In the end, I settled for a vegetarian burger joint that was on the other side of the street from Infinity Foods Cafe. I would love it if there were so many vegetarian options so close together in London.

I had heard of the Red Veg vegetarian burger place before. They used to have a branch in the Soho area of London but I had always been a bit shy to go. Not the least because I was fairly sure I wouldn’t be able to convince any of my meaty friends to join me when I hadn’t even tried it out on my own before. Face it, you can get really good veggie burgers but you can get really horrible ones too.  I was punished for putting off trying out the London branch of Red Veg because it closed down and I never did get a chance to try it out.

When I walked past Red Veg Brighton I new that it had to be the time to give them a try.

Red Veg Brighton

The menu board outside of Red Veg made it easy to see the selection of vegetarian food on offer. Not only do they offer a good variety of different kinds of veggie burgers but their vegetarian menu was expanded to cover various falafel and salad dishes. Plus, they had all the chips and onion ring sides you would expect to find at a burger joint. The prices were also pretty attractive with the most expensive of the veggie burgers costing £3.50.

Red Veg Menu

With feet aching and the beginnings of a sunburn, I ventured inside Red Veg. The interior was fun and a bit funky without the feeling of trying too hard.  Still being a Weekend Carnivore and not a full time vegetarian, I felt that it wasn’t the kind of place that I would feel out of place. It was clear that even those of us still trying to give up meat would be comfortable chowing down on a burger here. The bright red inside and the giant windows helped to make the place feel bigger than its truthfully tiny nature.

Red Veg Interior

The member of staff that took my order couldn’t have been more pleasant either. She was bouncy and polite and was engaging the customers in genuine conversation while they waited for their takeaway orders. I listened on the sidelines as she explained to a customer that any burger could be made vegan.  She apologized for not offering vegan cheese but explained it was too expensive for them to offer. Her explanation was truthful and believable and showed she knew the product she was selling.

As a rock music fan myself, it was fun to listen to her talk to her friend about the songs that were coming on the radio too. It made me feel as if all the local concert posters on the wall of Red Veg weren’t just there by accident but because it is the sort of thing both the staff and the customers would be interested in attending.

Red Veg posters

After pondering the veggie burger menu for a short period I was sucked in by the mushroom Swiss burger. I find it nearly impossible to turn down the promise of anything involving mushrooms. Plus, one of my all time favourite fast food items was a mushroom Swiss burger that used to be available at the Hardees chain in the States.   I was mighty tempted by the spinach and pesto burger too but  the shrooms won out in the end. With a view to conserving calories I didn’t order a side order. I did attempt to have a diet cola but they didn’t have anything diet. So, I resorted to an organic lemonade.

I took a seat and waited for my veggie burger to arrive. The first thing I liked about it was how it was served just like the more famous burger chains. If you had ordered it as take out nobody would have thought it was anything but a ‘real’ burger. When I unwrapped my veggie burger I was also happy that it looked like a traditional burger. There was nothing ‘tofu burger’ about the way that it looked. The veggie burger looked meaty, the veggies were piled high and the sauces were just as drippy as the big international chains.

Red Veg Burger

More important than looking good, the Red Veg burger tasted great. Meat substitutes are getting to so good now that if they are handled properly in the cooking process they more than “pass” for meat and end up tasting good on their own. The veggie burger pattie in the veggie burger tasted as if it had been flamed grilled even if that might not have been the actual case and it gave the whole veggie burger a great slightly smoky background taste. The mushroom and Swiss combo was as good as ever and the cheese was melt perfectly.   Now I wish that I had gone to Red Veg when they had a Soho branch and I didn’t have to wait to go back to Brighton to have another great veggie burger from them.

Red Veg Veggie Burger

After my burger I went back onto the Brighton streets and continued my photo safari for a few more hours. When my feet were just too sore to continue I made my way back to Brighton station and jumped on a train back to London.  I decided to have a bit of a sweet treat on the journey home and opened up a raw chocolate bar I had bought at the Infinity Foods store.   It was the Fresh As! bar from The Chocolate Heart company. The packaging was very attractive and gave hope for the promised lime and Acai Berry flavour.

Raw Chocolate Bar

Sadly, I have to report that I wasn’t really won over by the actual taste of the raw chocolate bar. I don’t have a lot of experience with raw chocolate so perhaps it is simply how it tastes but it lacked the creamy texture that I am used to with chocolate. Each bite left me with a bit of a chalky after taste that by the end of the bar had reached the level of being downright unpleasant.

The bar looked good so maybe it isn’t the raw chocolate but more a case that the flavour combination of the lime and Acai was leaving that after taste. Either way, I will certainly try a raw chocolate bar again just to make sure but I am not going to rush out and replace my normal chocolate with them. Not the least because you pay a fairly high premium for raw chocolate.

Raw chocoalte bar

All and all I had a fantastic day trip to Brighton. The town is vibrant, there is loads to photograph and there is a ton of vegetarian food on offer.  I shall be making sure it doesn’t take me another decade to visit Brighton again and next time I will be trying that spinach and pesto burger!

Market Kitchen Set

It turns out there are two Market Kitchen filming sessions in a day. We decided to go for the afternoon session which turned out to actually be one and a half shows being recorded. That means that we are in the audience for two episodes. The first of which aired yesterday and the second of which is being broadcast tonight. It seems that when they have a chef in they cook a few of their recipes in a day and then spread it over a few shows.

When we arrived at the Market Kitchen recording, we had a short waiting period downstairs in the lobby. It was at this point that we learned that one of the guests on the show that day were The Wurzels. They were there for a cider tasting segement and turned out to be really nice men who asked us how we enjoyed the light and sweet “lady cider” we had been sipping during the tasting. Too funny!

Their arrival was entertaining because the receptionist clearly had no idea who they were and thought they were part of the studio audience. Once, they had cleared that up they went up to the Market Kitchen studio and the rest of us followed shortly after.

Market Kitchen set decorations

My first impressions of the Market Kitchen studio was a feeling of having a slightly surreal moment. We were in an office building in a leafy area of Camden (no where near Borough Market despite them clearly suggesting the show is related to the market) that resembled more of a dusty warehouse then a studio. Yet, when we made our way up the stair case we were suddenly in the brick walled set that looked exactly as it does on television.

All of the food you see in the background in the show is there and looking great but largely it isn’t real or has been rendered inedible so that it will survive under the hot studio lights. What is real though, is the coffee bar at the back of the studio. All throughout the filming there is a real staff back there serving coffee, tea and hot chocolate to Market Kitchen studio audience.

Market Kitchen coffee bar props

Market Kitchen studio

Our hosts for the day at Market Kitchen were Matthew Fort and Tom Parker Bowles. The chef’s were Richard Corrigan and Luke Dale Roberts.

Matthew Fort at Market Kitchen

Tom Parker Bowles at Market Kitchen

It has to be said that the menu for the day wasn’t very vegetarian friendly. Richard Corrigan cooked us two dishes that were spread across the two shows. One was roasted apples and sage with calvados with black pudding. If the black pudding was removed, that would be a really nice vegetarian dish. It isn’t the healthiest in the world as it uses both butter and cream but still yummy. The other dish was mackerel with a beetroot salad.

Luke Dale Roberts cooked a springbok dish which we weren’t allowed to taste. I suspect that was based on cost as the information pack they gave us at the show lists the cost of springbok at £7.99 per 160 grams.

With all that meat being cooked, the dish of the day for me was actually a vegetarian dish. I was somewhat shocked it was by Matthew Fort since I am rarely overwhelmed by his recipes on Market Kitchen. However, when you do something right, then you do it right and he did with his mango fool recipe.

Matthew Fort's Mango Fool Recipe

It was such a lovely and very simple recipe that I went home and made it the next day. I followed his recipe apart from in two aspects. Firstly, in his version of the mango fool, Matthew Fort used Alphonso mangos. I have never seen that variety on sale at any of my local stores. So, I used the same weight of normal mango flesh and added a bit of the suggested caster sugar to sweeten it up slightly. Then, at the last moment I decide to add some lime zest to the top of the mango fool recipe. I think that worked very well to lift the whole flavour of the delicate tasting dish.

All and all we had a wonderful day out at Market Kitchen and I would love to do it again. If they ever do a more vegetarian friendly show I would love nothing more than to be in the studio audience one more.

As I mentioned in my last Weekend Carnivore update, I am currently visiting my sister in the Philadelphia area of the United States. I grew up in this area before moving to London in 1996. Whenever I go home it is as much about getting the chance to have all the food I grew up with as it is seeing family and friends. Anybody that lives in a different country or even city than where they grew up will certainly understand.

Whatever city you visit, they are going to claim to have the best food. Well, let me just put my cards on the table and say flat out that Philadelphia and the surrounding area has the best food of any city in the United States. After all, there has to be a reason I ate so much and got this fat and I am more than willing to point the finger straight at the amazing food that the Philadelphia area has to offer.

Today, I paid a visit to one of the top foodie destinations in Philadelphia – Reading Terminal Market.

Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

Reading Terminal Market is an indoor food market that holds a lot of historical value for the Philadelphia area. The market first opened in 1892 after a push to move the hoards of outdoor street merchants into one – less obstructive – location. Reading Terminal Market was one of the first places to operate a commercial refrigeration facility. It was a huge refrigeration system that allowed for the safe storage a wide range of produce even in the sweltering heat of a Philadelphia summer.

Location was key to Reading Terminal Market. It is called Reading Terminal Market because it was located alongside the train depot from the, then significant, Reading Railroad. This location meant that farmers from the Pennsylvania farmland could use the train to take their fresh produce to city for sale. As history marched on, it also meant that suburban housewives, could have the merchants at Reading Terminal Market put together baskets of shopping for them. They would then put the baskets on the trains and the housewives would collect them at their nearest station.

The origins of Reading Terminal Market are still echoed in it today.There are still a number of fruit and vegetables stalls that offer those living and working in the big city the chance to enjoy fresh produce from the Pennsylvania countryside. Certainly, I am always impressed with the stacks and stacks of fruit and vegetables for sale. It ranges from exotic fruit to things as humble as the tomato. Yet, even those humble tomatoes look great, don’t you think?

Tomatoes at Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

Just about all the fruit and vegetable stands at the market look great but one of them really stood out for me on today’s adventure was the Fair Food Farmstand. They aren’t solely a fruit and vegetable stand, as they do sell some meat too, but I really liked the whole idea behind their business.

Food miles is such a buzz topic in the UK at the moment. If these folks are anything to go by, it looks like there are plenty of people in Philadelphia that feel the same way about eating local food. They source their food from sustainable farmers in the surrounding Philadelphia area. To me, that is keeping the spirit of the original merchants alive. I especially liked that fruit that had gone a bit too soft aren’t thrown away. Instead, they are offered up at a reduce price. It might be ugly but it will still make some yummy jam!

Cranberries at Fair Food Farmstand

Leeks at Fair Food Farmstand

Another echo from the founding days which can still be seen in the modern day Reading Terminal Market is the influence of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German in ancestry. In fact, many people call themselves Pennsylvania German instead. The confusion comes from the word ‘Deutsch’ which means German but eventually came to be written as ‘Dutch’. Most people outside of the United States will think of the Amish when they think of Pennsylvania Dutch. They are just one group of people that fall under the PA Dutch umbrella. My own family background is ‘Dutchie’ but not Amish.

The Amish do play a large role in the modern Reading Terminal Market. They bring products from their Lancaster County farms into the market to be sold. The things they sell range widely from freshly butchered meats to preserves and even to amazing Amish baked goods. I told you it was this food that made me fat!

Amish man selling dried food at Reading Terminal Market

Wherever you go in Reading Terminal Market, you are going to run into Amish or Mennonite people selling their food items right next to the most outlandishly modern food stalls. I have to admit, I loved seeing that clash of cultures living to peacefully together.

This Amish run stand caught my eye because of the freshly ground peanut butter they were selling. It doesn’t get much more fresh than that! Even as I am typing this my mind is drifting off to fantasies of a peanut butter sandwich made with their freshly ground variety and washed down by their fresh pressed apple cider. Apple cider in the USA is non-alcoholic but I am sure I would be left in a food coma nonetheless!

Freshly ground peanut butter at Reading Terminal Market

It isn’t all Amish and fresh vegetables though. The selection of food temptations at Reading Terminal Market is nearly endless.

Those looking for vegetarian friendly goodies with a bit of sophistication, can head to the gourmet themed stalls. Oils and cheeses from around the world are in no short supply.

Fancy oil for sale at Reading Terminal Market

Sweet tooth’s are well catered for too. There is chocolate, cakes and candy to be had throughout the market. However, for me the one chocolate stand that stands out miles apart from the rest is Chocolate By Mueller. In fact, when I am far away in London, when I close my eyes and think about Reading Terminal Market, their stall is the first to dance in my mind’s eye.

If you can cover it in chocolate then these guys have probably already done it. They combine expert chocolate and candy making skills with a (in)famous sense of humour. This comes out in the different chocolate molds they do that range from chocolate teeth to chocolate ears and lungs and even chocolate mice.

Chocolate noses

Big candy suckers for sale at Reading Terminal Market

I satisfied my own sweet cravings by taking one some of these chrystalized cream waffers. They are a light, but solid, candy that melts in your mouth. Most varieties are some sort of mint but there are cinnamon and orange varieties too. I never really see these outside of the Philadelphia area. So, I grabbed a few to munch on the train ride back to my sister’s house.

Reading Terminal Market candy

With all these foodie goodies around, it is only a matter of time before tummies start to rumble. Reading Terminal Market has that covered with rows and rows of restaurant stalls. Near enough any cuisine you can think of is represented but it would be a lie to say that the market is put together with vegetarians in mind. Most of the restaurants are based around a meat product but there are often vegetarian options on their menus too.

For example, I saw this really yummy looking vegetarian sandwich on sale at a really busy cheesesteak stand. I have to admit that part of the reason I took a photo was that it was called the ‘Euro’. I am not really sure what makes it a ‘Euro’ sandwich other than maybe some of the ingredients have an Italian slant. Either way, it really looked yummy. If I could ever find broccoli rabe in the UK, I would try my hand at making my own version.

Euro vegetarian sandwich

Speaking of cheesesteaks, my biggest discovery on today’s trip to Reading Terminal Market was a vegetarian cheesesteak. For those of you that don’t know, the cheesesteak is the signature dish of Philadelphia. It is thinly sliced beef quickly cooked with onions and topped with cheese. All of that is then served on a long roll to make a sandwich. It is so good and I am not sure you are allowed to live in Philly if you don’t like them. They are without a doubt the one food item I miss the most now that I live in the UK. The fact is though, they just are never going to be a vegetarian food.

That is what I thought anyway until today when I found the Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar at Reading Terminal Market. I have been following them on Twitter for a bit now and was interested in seeing what was on their menu.

Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar

I read their menu and there amongst the various veggie burgers was the vegetarian cheesesteak. Not without my reservations, I felt I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a vegetarian food blogger if I didn’t at least give it a try. I asked the counter staff a bit about their vegetarian cheesesteak. The ‘meat’ part of it is made up of seitan (something I haven’t ever actually seen in the UK but have heard about.), and the cheese is soy cheese. So, in theory this is a vegan cheesesteak.

I placed my order and watched as the woman prepared my vegetarian cheesesteak on the grill. At this stage I was still really unsure and looking around for which stall I would order from next if I turned out to hate this veggie cheesesteak.

Vegetarian Cheesesteak

What a fool I turned out to be because in the end the vegetarian cheesesteak was down right yummy. The seitan had a texture that took a little bit of getting used to but was more like actual meat than many of the other meat substitutes I have tried. The taste was spot on though. If there was one thing that could have made it taste more authentic it would have been to add a bit of grease into the mix.

I grabbed a shot of the cheesesteak before I devoured it.

Vegetarian Philly Cheesesteak

I felt so pleased with myself that I rounded off my vegetarian lunch at Reading Terminal Market with a white chocolate and raspberry brownie from The Flying Monkey Patisserie. Apparently, Rachael Ray would have approved.

Rachael Ray approved brownies

Before I finish this ultra long post, I wanted to share two things I saw around the market that might be of particular interest to my British readers.

On the one wall of the market, there is a showcase of the work of a photographer that has photographed food markets around the world. He is obviously a man out of my own heart. I smiled knowingly when I saw that one of the markets featured in the showcase was Borough Market in London.

Borough Market

Lastly, I was browsing the shelves of a gourmet grocer in the market. I looked up and saw this on one of the shelves. Now, keep in mind that this is a gourmet shop and everything there sells at a premium.

Exotic brown sauce for sale

I was a bit amused that they were carrying so many more bottles of the fruity variety than the normal. Even so, it shows that what is exotic and gourmet is all relative!

A number of months back, Jonathan Ross twittered about being on vacation in California. For a few days straight he would mention that him and his wife were going nuts on these ice cream cupcakes they had discovered.

Now, what about an ice cream cupcake doesn’t sound like a must try? Even if it is simply to have tried something that obscenely decadent. I would go so far as to say they would be the Las Vegas of cupcakes. More flash than you really need but yet you can’t help to buy into it when you are there.

ice cream cupcakes

The ice cream cupcakes were from the American ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery (who really should make a play for the UK market because they would do well, I think) and I knew there was one near my parent’s house. So, I just couldn’t help but to try them out. I mean, it would be rude not to, right?

You can’t buy just one of the ice cream cupcakes. Instead, you have to buy them in a six pack which all but assures you won’t be able to have just the one naughty treat. Luckily for me, I am staying with my parents and I could share them out. The ice cream cupcake six pack includes three different varieties – sweet cream, red velvet cake batter delux and double chocolate devotion.

They all looked so good but I just couldn’t pass up the chance for red velvet anything let alone a red velvet ice cream cupcake. So, as much as it pained me to skip the other varieties I had to make the red velvet my vice for the night.

red velvet ice cream cupcake

The red velvet ice cream cupcake is so insanely indulgent that I almost feel dirty describing it. It starts off with a bright pink frosting topped with sprinkles. Bellow that there is a fluffy mound of white ice cream that tastes like red velvet cake frosting. The creamy kind rather than the cream cheese variety that some people insist on putting on red velvet cake. Then, there is a layer of actual red velvet cake that sits in the outlandishly decadent hard chocolate that sits where a paper cupcake wrapper would normally be.

The only real problem, other than the obvious complete diet violation, is that they actually taste every bit as good as they sound. Which, leaves me with the question of just how long I can hold out trying one of the three remaining ice cream cupcakes that are left in the freezer!