At the end of September I finally went to VegFest London! I have been wanting to go to this event for years but always seemed to be away or it would pass me by unnoticed. This time I saw an advert, I bought my tickets and I made sure I got there!
It was packed by the time we got there and the room was boiling but we had a brilliant time and I fully enjoyed meeting some brands I have loved for a long time as well as finding new and exciting brands. We ate loads of freebies/ samples and I ended the day weighed down with bags stuffed full of delicious vegan food and leaflets.
Here are some photos of the day (taken on my phone):
There was hot food galore on offer, everything from veggie burgers and falafel to Caribbean food and I had an amazing carrot, apple and ginger juice with extra ginger. I told the guy "I want it to smack me in the face" and it definitely did that!! In fact it burned lol but it was a nice warming ginger burn.
I have never been a big fan of vegan cheeses, some brands are quite plastic in their appearance and often I find them to have a strange after taste. Almost all of them taste much better when melted rather than eaten sliced or cold. I did really enjoy this Sheese brand though (to the point where I think I tried every single flavour being sampled) and I ended up buying the blue cheese style, the smoked cheddar style and a creamy herb spreadable cheese style. I had the smoked sheese on some beans on toast the other day and it was fantastic! I would recommend this brand :)
I was very impressed with the Big Fat Vegan Bakery! I couldn't squeeze a cake in after all the food we ate so I am very sad (and regretful now I am less stuffed) that I didn't indulge in one of these fantastic looking cakes! I would never have believed that they were vegan just from looking at them, or that vegan cakes like this even existed.
Feel free to drool looking at these photos! The cream...the icing.....the sugar :)
What I did manage to have room for, before seeing the big fat vegan bakery, was a delicious salted caramel and peanut butter cookie from the Mc Cupcake stall. I wanted to try so much more it all looked pretty incredible. I am tempted by the cookbook, although I would rather buy the cakes than make the cakes lol. Yes I am officially put off making puddings after only 17 days of my vegan puddings challenge.
On a more healthy note there were a lot of raw food stalls selling crackers, dips, energy balls, crisps etc. I really liked the Italian herb Rawlicious crackers, they tasted a little bit tomatoey too and would be lovely dipped in hummous! I don't have a dehydrator so I love discovering raw brands and tasting new products that I wouldn't be able to try at home.
Inspiral was another brand that focuses on raw foods. They were selling some really interesting looking kale chips in all different flavours.
These Great Food falafels were my favourite savoury item of the day! I bought 3 packs! They had all different flavours including sweet potato, spinach, Moroccan and spiced. The samples were nice and they were even better served with some home made sweet potato fries and salad when I got home :)
As well as food products there were a lot of organic skin products, I liked the look of these organic and natural baby products which look perfect for a babies new soft skin, plus how cute is the packaging!
Virgin Coconut oil is a great product to have in your kitchen and bathroom cupboard, I loved this display with the coconuts.
Finally I liked the look of this Vegan Tuck Box company. You receive a box on a regular basis containing handy and delicious vegan products. I thought it was a tiny bit expensive because there is such a wide range of vegan products in the local shops these days but if you want to try new things without tralling the aisles then this is for you!
There was so many more brands there but these are the few that caught my eye. We had such a great time and it was nice to meet new people and spend some time with my veggie friends! Not to mention I had my first trip to Wholefoods afterwards (we only have a handful of them in the UK) and oh wow I could have spent a whole months pay check in there!! I bought brownies, popcorn, beer, smoked tofu, cereals and pasta!
Have you been before? What is your favourite vegan brand?