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Lunch at 78

21/10/2014

Head out from the centre of Glasgow towards the wheeze-inducing hills of Kelvingrove Park, turn right down a nondescript street of Wimpey-style student apartments that could double as retirement flats and there you will stumble upon 78, the former home of Stereo and part of the music-themed vegan empire that is Mono, Stereo and 78.

This Scottish empire certainly has a student feel, and we wonder whether 78 will fail our pot plant test - fortunately it doesn’t, as the loos are very much 1950s public house!

78 is in fact a cross between your favourite village pub complete with fireplace, tall pine benches, and long bar, your great aunt's house pre-clearout with worn down paisley pattern velvet sofas and tapestry Queen Anne armchairs, and a student union with gig posters and sticky tables. 78 even has a corner bookshelf stacked with LPs and a wall frieze of old 78s.

Our mission was to test the claim that 78 does the best vegan lunch in town. Verdict: seriously yummy. Seriously. There was a list of tasty specials, and the bartender had such enthusiasm for the vegan quesadillas (with cheese that actually melted) that we wondered whether she would explode with glee.

The special burger was indeed special, although we had a nagging feeling we should have gone for the quesadillas. Who cares, though. We'll certainly be back. Our burger was deliciously creamy and combined sweet potato and chick pea with a hint of curry powder and cinnamon. It was juicy, and a far cry from the standard dry vegan patty of chickpea and carrot. Top marks. It was excellent.

If we had a tip for improvement it would be to drop the hummus. The chef clearly had such anxiety about the burger being dry that our already juicy and flavoursome burger had a thick layer of hummus on top. Not necessary.

After lunch, and unable to move mid-food-induced-coma, we settled in for coffee and cake. What a treat! This was just about the best vegan chocolate cake we've tasted. Fluffy and cake-like rather than the usual dense slab of carob, which tastes of self-raising flour as someone has vainly tried to conquer the laws of vegan cakery with baking soda. This proper cake was light and heavy with the taste of chocolate, laid on a bed of vegan cream.

Your teatimes and your waistlines will never be so full, and all for £4. If anything, the hot chocolate was too sweet, but we were less concerned. We were smothered in chocolate.

It was the perfect accompaniment for the curious teatime scene that followed, as a pigeon flew into bar, no doubt trying to get in on the scrumptious food action, and a curly-haired student tried to chase it out. You're slap bang in the middle of student central here, and presentation and service could certainly have been a little more tip-top. This is grunge rather than fine dining, and there was a whiff of 70s pine. However, the shabby chic won through, even with the bonus pigeon, and this can rightly claim to be modern vegan/trendy rather than outdated 70s ratatouille and watery stodge. Of all the places in this burgeoning vegan empire, this is the one to watch.

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Voted best UK vegetarian restaurant

16/10/2014

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In a slightly off-the-beaten-track part of Glasgow city centre, in an 80s yellowish brick and light blue steel enclave that could have been lifted straight from a Milton Keynes superstore, lies Mono. Welcome to the UK’s Best Vegetarian Restaurant for the 2nd year running.

Given the accolades, we thought it was time we checked it out.

On the plus side, Mono is 100% vegan, so you can genuinely order every item on the full menu without having to beg that cheese is left off (and then send the dish back when the well-meaning waiter forgets). Four brewing vats welcome you as you enter. Another plus: a vegan microbrewery producing its own ginger beer. It would be even better with vegan craft beer, but perhaps licensing doesn’t permit that.

The biggest plus though: pizza. How many times have you wanted pizza, and had to restrain yourself for fear of being served desiccated flatbread with a thin layer of tomato paste, some limp basil and a burnt crust? For, as you experienced vegans know, that is your destiny when you order a Margherita without mozzarella.

Fear no longer. The pizzas we had were plump, doughy comfort food with tasty fresh vegetables, a thick layer of tomato sauce and garlic cream cheese. The purist might complain that they were not pizzas, as the base was more doughy loaf than thin crust, but these tick the craving boxes for vegans. As it was a Monday, we had two for a tenner, which eased the pressure on the Extraveganza coffers. The falafel sandwich was more standard, and could easily have been less interesting, but was in fact excellent. A staple it may have been, but it was made to perfection and wowed us.

The vibe of Mono is definitely sixth-form-cum-community-centre. It has a second-hand record store to one side, a book shop on the other, a central, raised seating area with beaten-up sofas, and a restaurant area with pine tables and benches. The serving area has a rollup shutter that screams university bar.

The university resonance doesn’t stop there either. There’s a disco on occasional Sundays, and a full gig calendar throughout the year. You’ll be transported back to Freshers’ week, and wonder whether you’re going to end up in a strange room after a night of vodka shots. The Sunday gigs may challenge your eardrums, so don’t think this a place to take the family for Sunday lunch as you introduce them to veganism.

We do like Mono, and we’ll definitely be back (in fact we’ve already visited twice). It has a clear Bohemian charm. However, the fact that this restaurant has beaten off all competition to be voted best vegetarian restaurant of the year shows that we still have a long way to go if vegans and non-vegans alike are to get the same dining-out experience.

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The Extra in Extraveganza

13/10/2014

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This week the Extra in Extraveganza gives his insights into life with a vegan.

Help! I'm dating a vegan

I have a confession: I am not vegan. But I have something to say, which I think you’ll want to hear, and probably explains why you found your way to Extraveganza.com anyway: I am going out with a vegan.

So how on earth did I end up dating a vegan?

As a child I was raised on a macrobiotic diet which meant that I did not have red meat or dairy products. So perhaps there were buried in my early memories the seeds of a vegan-lover. On one occasion, in my early childhood I asked my mother if she would buy me a frozen fish. She anticipated that it would be for supper (at a time when money was tight), but when the frozen fish arrived home, I placed the fish in a Sainsbury plastic carrier bag filled with hot water and tried to thaw it back to life.

There ensued a rapid lesson on the nature of life and death. I cried and cried as she explained that we needed to eat the fish. I was inconsolable, and in the end my tears won. The fish was buried in the garden, to be eaten by worms but not humans.

So, deep in my psyche, is an empathy with animals. And I am on the road to being a fully-fledged vegetarian. But dating a vegan, particularly in London, is a whole different life experience.

I am aware of all the compromises you vegans have to make to be with us. I know we’re a little less enlightened, and a little less considerate. We know we should be vegan, for so many reasons. We know it’s likely to be one of the key ways to save the planet. We just struggle with having to make so many adjustments in a world that doesn’t cater for vegans. But you tolerate us, because we are making progress. Slow progress.

But have you ever wondered what it's like for us? Is the compromise all in one direction?
I hope I might shed a little light on our own coping mechanisms.

I used to detest people I perceived as fussy eaters. Or at least I thought so. Isn’t food a proxy for many things in life? I am a particular fan of puddings. Gooey, sweet and luscious puddings. I have the sweetest of sweet teeth. If someone doesn’t want their sticky toffee pudding, drenched in caramel and cream, then I start to wonder what’s wrong with them.

It helps that the Vegan is worth making the effort for. Trampling on all those vegan stereotypes. She’s not emaciated. She smiles politely when people say "You don't look like a vegan". She has oodles of energy. She has time in her life for lots of things. She just happens to think that animals should not be harmed or worse, simply to feed her.

She was vegetarian when we first met, so I was eased into a new way of life. The biggest challenge, since her switch to veganism, is undoubtedly going out.

I love to go out. I am a terrible cook, but also don’t have as much time as I would like. I love to socialise with friends and have the freedom to head wherever the night takes me.

Now, as you vegans know, that is simply not possible if you’re vegan. Current estimates are that 1 in 400 people in the United Kingdom is vegan, which means that bars and restaurants are not able (or perhaps not inclined) to cater to vegans. You know this. You get used to ordering a bland side dish of vegetables, grilled just to make sure there’s no contamination. Drinking water, rather than anything more glamorous. Having the fun sapped out of going out. Splitting bills even though you’re subsidising the meat-eaters. After a while, you stop going out. You’re fed up with being marginalised. Being made to feel awkward just because, quite rightly, you didn’t want to have to kill anything so you could have a snack. Tired of paying your fraction of the bill which, bearing in mind your wilted spinach and mushy carrots, is dispropotionate and unjust.

Interestingly, there is not such a problem in the United States. The number of vegans is greater (approximately 1 in 50 according to some estimates) but also there is a greater acceptance of customer foibles and a desire to ensure that the customer is genuinely happy.

Here in Blighty, where the customer is most definitely last, there is a battle simply to get people to understand what vegan is (No, she’s not from another universe! That's Vulcan, not vegan) let alone to cater for a diet free from animal products.

But there are places to go. It’s just finding them that’s the chore. And vegans of course, so used to being unable to find anywhere they can eat or drink, have come to have low expectations of bars and restaurants. But not us non-vegans. So how do we square the circle?

This thorny issue is what caused us to set up Extraveganza.com. A site for vegans and non-vegans alike. Places that anyone wants to go. They just happen to cater for vegans. It’s a slow process, but we’re optimistic and more and more places are considering vegan options.

In the meantime, the top tips that have smoothed over grumbles at mealtimes, for me (the Extra) and her (the Vegan) are:

(1) Realising that I am the one who is going to have to compromise, but not do it in a way that makes anyone feel guilty. Words that should roll off the tongue are: “I really feel like falafel tonight”, or “I just fancy somewhere that does a good vegetable curry”, whatever my deep-seated desire for a pizza covered in cheese. If you’re the vegan in the relationship, go along with this ruse, and don’t secretly feel guilty that the food world has to revolve around you. Truth is that it will have to revolve around you in the short term (at least until Extraveganza has persuaded a few thousand more restaurants to cater to vegans and non-vegans alike). But that is not something that should play on any deep-seated Catholic guilt you’re carrying. It’s fine to be the fussy one, particularly when it comes to mealtimes and reducing animal suffering.

(2) Whatever the Vegan says, making sure that there’s a good supply of fruit and nuts in my rucksack or her handbag every time we head out. I know she doesn’t want to be difficult, and think that we have to pack for her. And being the beautiful optimist that she is, she convinces herself that we’ll have no trouble finding suitable food as we embark on that romantic stroll along the South Bank or head out on a Boris Bike to Shoreditch. But once the sugar low hits, and there are only burgers and milkshakes in food range, then optimism alone cannot overcome the vegan food emergency. Be prepared. If you fail to plan, you plan to ...

(3) Under no circumstances fly on an airline that doesn’t offer vegan meals. It’s all well-and-good forgetting a backpack of almonds and bananas on the ground, but imagine the ordeal when you’re 40,000 feet in the air, and there’s nothing dairy-free. This has happened. You see, the Vegan will tell you (it’s part of the “I don’t want to be difficult”) that it doesn’t matter, because she’ll pack food before you travel and it will be fine. But then in the hurry to get to the airport, the rucksack is left on the kitchen table, or it’s impounded at the airport when 100ml of hummus is considered a flight risk, or frankly you under-estimate quite how much food you need to cross the pond.

I’ve got many more tips to survive, but I’ll save those for another time. In a way, it’s a wonder that she’s put up with me. There’s a great statistic about more vegan women tolerating a non-vegan in a relationship than the other way round. I suspect the next article should be how to cope with a non-vegan if you’re vegan. I will leave that to her ...

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Lunch at 78

Voted best UK vegetarian restaurant

The Extra in Extraveganza

Help! I'm dating a vegan

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