Tuesday 21 August 2007

Holiday eats...plus random cuteness

Well, as you heard in my last post I'm back from my holidays! They were great! I spent a week on a canal boat, on which we were originally planning to go to Bristol, but seriously, you ever been on a canal? Well it's slow. I mean really slow. So we just went a little beyond Bath, which is a beautiful town on the banks of the River Avon. I had some really cool meals out there. Three restaurants I'll mention in particular.

Yum-Yum Thai has a number of dishes that are either veggie or can be made veggie if you prefer. All their food is MSG-free, their chicken is free-range (even though I'd never eat anything from an animal, I like to see people show a bit of interest in how their meat is raised) and they have a selection of organic wines. You can eat in or take away. I chose the (veganized) Pat Thai Kung (which usually has prawns). It was delicious, with cashews and yummy veg including dried turnip, which I'd never eaten before. The fried tofu was a bit chewier than I would have liked, but otherwise it was fab, especially garnished with chilli flakes and salty peanuts.

Sadly, we couldn't get a table at Demuth's, a legendary but pricey vegetarian/vegan restaurant, at a time that suited us. I actually cried, looking at delicious-sounding dishes on the menu like dark chocolate fudge cake and black rice pudding (OK, I was mainly focusing on the puddings here) and knowing they were so near, yet so far.

So instead we went that night to Pasta Galore, which despite what the name might suggest, is a bona fide little Italian restaurant, where you can order freshly made pasta (egg pasta, alas!) and pizza, as well as risottos and other delicious things. If you go there, it looks kinda seedy on the outside, but please, please, go in and give these lovely people a chance! You won't regret it. I went for the "make your own pizza" option, with artichokes, pepper, olives, chilli and basil which I didn't want, but Mum hijacked my order. I also got dessert! If you are vegan you'll know this is no small thing. Mango and passionfruit sorbet, mmmm! This place had a wonderful atmosphere and really lovely staff. The chef did have to stick his head out to see what this strange vegan creature looked like. He looked disappointed at the total lack of tentacles!

To quote Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk, if you have managed to read through all that, here's your reward!



The love of Pie's life, Comet the Alpaca. We were meant to go llama trekking while staying with my aunt in Dorset for the other week of the holiday (the people who run the treks also have two alpacas and a guanaco) but the foot and mouth meant they had to stay on the farm, so we had some "touchy-feely time". They really are beautiful creatures.

Well, I'm going to do another post straight after this, seeing as this post will get too long if I include stuff I've done after I got back.

Bye (but not for long)

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