We’re back with a round-up of the products we sampled, bought, and received in our VIP goody bags at London Viva! Vegan. It was such a great event that there was too much to cover in just our event post, so here we are with the rest!
Let’s start with our VIP goody bag – we opened it on camera for you as we do at every event, and you can watch that here:
Now, onto some of the products that we purchased at the show itself. For our lunch, we couldn’t bypass this stall, which offered a full vegan BBQ platter with mac n cheese and slaw.
The BBQ part is basically seitan and jackfruit in a BBQ sauce, to signify ribs and… some other kind of meat? I’m not good at this stuff, since I’ve never eaten the “real” thing. Then there was mac and cheese on the other side with faux bacon bits sprinkled over the top. In the middle was a slaw which was basically two types of cabbage all cut up.
The flavour of the seitan and the jackfruit was fantastic. We both agreed the sauce was great, and we enjoyed the bready, thick consistency of the seitan. Both were a fairly obvious choice, and the seitan felt a little lazy, but then again you don’t want to mess with a classic. The sauce was tangy, but in comparison to the jackfruit we’ve had elsewhere, there was a little room for improvement.
The slaw was crunchy and fresh but a little dull; it came alive when eaten all together with the other parts of the plate but honestly I could have done with out it. The cheese with bacon bits was delicious, and we love the consistency of cashew cheese sauce as was used here. Again, not quite as good as the Cafe So Vegan version, but still good when judged alone.
The next step had to be dessert. We couldn’t walk by this stall without looking at the cookies on display as these are a particular weakness of mine. The prospect of vegan cookies – and, what’s more, cookie sandwiches – was too much to pass up.
Aaaaand they were HUGE. We both opted for the classic chocolate chip option with vanilla frosting. There was a double chocolate option on offer, but this seemed like the best shout, so we went for it.
Perhaps I’m a little sugar deprived (yeah right), but this was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Such soft cookie dough. Such thick and creamy filling. Oh my gosh. I basically had to stop eating halfway through because it was so sweet I couldn’t go on. Of course, I saved it for later because it was too good not to finish! It was a dream and basically I got two desserts for the price of one which is always a great thing.
There were so many great samples around during the day including vegan cheesecake, a few of the brands we have featured from other vegan festivals, vegan pizza, and much more. We’re hugely looking forward to the Brighton event too – look out for reviews from that coming very soon!
Loads of great variety there. I have to say I’d be worried about choice if I became a vegan but you’re showing here thee is no need to worry at all. Mich x
Absolutely Mich, we’re really excited about how the market is growing!
We’ve always had a few vegetarian nights each week, but having been to a few vegan restaurants lately I wonder if we should try vegan a few nights a week. It’s great that there is such a variety of food available.
Definitely, there’s so much on the market now!