Portsmouth Vegan Festival and Earth Takeaway

Is it time to go?

Greetings humans! Well, it seems to have been a while since I’ve posted anything, hopefully you’re still in good spirits and haven’t missed my witty humour too badly. I wouldn’t want you getting withdrawal symptoms now!
After many, many weeks of solitary confinement in Charlie’s room (ok, I had Charlie) I was finally allowed out into the fresh air to join Charlie and Jack at the Portsmouth Vegan Festival, which, surprisingly, took place in Portsmouth. I for one was raring to go, the humans were understandably quite excited too. 

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Are we nearly there yet?

What a selection

On entering the building, we were subject to a bag search, what a surprise that was for the human who opened up Charlie’s bag and found my pink, stripy self inside. ​​Like the good vegan-fest regulars they are, Charlie and Jack opted for the VIP tickets which included fast track entry and a goody bag full of samples and vouchers – yum.
First out the bag was Sheese cheese, which are made with soya and coconut oil and exist in many flavours. The flavours Charlie and Jack got were the garlic and herb spread and a creamy cream cheese – that’s its name technical folks.
The humans also came away with Rawlicious kale chips (or crisps as we say in Britain), Abakus crunchy jujube sprinkles for topping porridge, Well and Truly vegetable drink, SunWarrior vegan protein (pure brown rice) and some tea, the bottles of which have temporarily been misplaced so I can’t relate the brand to you. Gee, are humans useless?

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That's one good solid block of fudge

​Once the goody bags had been thoroughly inspected, we headed into the first room of stalls. Here we found many bamboo based products, Greenpeace, vegan Baileys by Besos de Oro, who also made some excellent chocolate, and Mariner’s Fudge.
Neither Charlie nor Jack are alcohol connoisseurs, however they are chocolate lovers, so the Besos de Oro chocolate was popular with them. The flavours included peanut butter and berries, all four choices on offer were divine.
Mariner’s Fudge offered around ten varieties, the humans were spoilt for choice. This array of options included vanilla, chocolate, chocolate orange, Biscoff, Oreo and salted caramel in tablet and fudge varieties. The tablet was harder, the standard fudge softer and gooier, but every flavour was excellent and after prolonged and careful sampling, Charlie settled on a salted caramel tablet and Jack on a chocolate orange. The flavours in all were exquisite and the humans say these were not easy decisions to make, but someone had to do it.

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So very, very busy

​We then ventured into the main auditorium where a sea of stalls flooded our senses. The room was full of hungry vegans and non-vegans alike, sampling and purchasing the delicious food on offer, trying on clothes and learning more about veganism.
Our first stop was at a scone stall named Secret Scones. Their products were soft on the inside with a perfect crust and topped with the company’s own buttercream.
We wandered happily amongst the stalls, visiting Uncaptive clothing where the humans were particularly chuffed to find a T-shirt asking the question ‘Protein?’ after which, many forms of protein were pictured included lentils, nuts, pulses and seeds. A T-shirt every vegan needs.

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​Viva la Vegan was well patronised by the humans, Charlie buying a very stylish denim jacket, a patch and some badges and Jack buying a badge too. The jacket was made using a plain, unwanted denim jacket, printed with a lovely vegan slogan and design. The humans were pleased with their badges and patches, Charlie being particularly sold on the Vegan Army patch, and the free tote bag that came with the jacket, too, of course.

Here comes the Vegan Army. This patch and the badges became the most recent editions to Charlie's bag which is thoroughly weighed down with badges, patches and pins already

Vegans rock. Cruelty free. 'Nough said

​Jack attempted to buy a jumper from Jade Green Vegan, but they had sold out in his size, however we spent a good while chatting to the friendly stallholders and discussing their range of T-shirts and jumpers.

Paula's Bakery

Dark Matters (it does)

Home Kitchen - Vegan

Mr Nice Pie

Just a selection of Solkiki

There's a good looking pie

Now, let me get back to the food. At Paula’s Bakery the humans bought a peanut butter and chocolate muffin which was both huge and deliciously chewy. Dark Matters’ most delectable brownies were on offer, where the humans shared a fabulous cherry and almond brownie. It was a wonderfully large slice and just the right amount of goo. ​There were savoury options on offer too, a purchase of vegetable samosas from Home Kitchen – Vegan who were selling Indian food platters. These samosas were cold, it being the end of the day by the time we got round to them, but this didn’t take away their excellence in the slightest, these samosas weren’t greasy which is always a plus for the health conscious amongst you. Not that Charlie and Jack could be considered health conscious today, the amount of food, free samples or otherwise, they consumed.
Mr Nice Pie also had a stall, from which we bought a Swedey Todd pie, you won’t be surprised to hear this had swede in it, as well as a selection of other lovely veggies. The pastry was excellent, at risk of sounding like Goldilocks it was not too dry, not too crumbly, it was just right.
Solkiki chocolate was also on offer. This has now been termed Superior Chocolate between my humans, it can only be described as such, with only two ingredients (cocoa beans and sugar), seemingly infinite different flavours were produced. Roasted and unroasted beans produced different flavours, as did different cocoa bean to sugar ratios, there was also a nougat white chocolate on offer with a delectable nutty taste. Solkiki had also been awarded a Taste Award for one of its white chocolates, fending off its non-vegan competitors which we were all thoroughly pleased with.​

Brownie anyone?

So this is my lunch, right?

​Despite all these delicacies, the humans still made room for lunch. Jack had a sesame seed halloumi and falafel pitta bread from the Greek Vegan Deli. This was the third time Charlie and Jack have eaten their food, and it is fast becoming a favourite, for Jack especially. Charlie wanted to try something from a different company and settled on the Space Needle Burger from Sicily to Seattle. This burger included their own special, slightly spicy sauce, Red Leicester style cheese with a quarter pounder burger and onion rings. Salad was also crammed into the bun, including avocado, it was impressive.
Lunch was then washed down with milkshakes, raspberry for Charlie and strawberry for Jack. These were from GoFro, made with almond and soya ice cream and were wonderfully thick.

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Thick and fruity deliciousness

My Constant Readers will be pleased to see the vegan information from Earth has expanded

​Well, that pretty much sums up the day. The humans were feeling considerably rounder than when they had entered, economically poorer, but intellectually richer having learnt large amounts about many products which I tasked Charlie with remembering to assist me in the writing of this edition. The humans had to take a walk to wear some of it off, but they then headed to Earth Takeaway in Petersfield. Constant Readers (which I hope all of you are, and yes, that’s a Stephen King reference, Charlie insisted I put it in and as a lover of books who was I to deny this request), you may remember Earth Takeaway. If you’re not a Constant Reader, you can use those helpful tag things on the side of the blog entry to navigate to my last entry on Earth Takeaway. As the humans were rather full, they decided not to get dessert (this borders on sacrilege, you should be able to imagine how full they were) and just settled for the main event.
Charlie tucked into a breaded chicken-style sweet chilli wrap and Jack ordered a Big Earth burger, which was a double cheese burger, gherkin and salad. Stupid humans forgot to take a picture... Both went down well, and the humans rolled back to the car (ok, I’m exaggerating) and the journey home.

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Viva la Vegan!

​The day was a thorough success, the humans might not be able to afford to buy anything for a month or need to eat for a good few days, but they had a great time and I was happy at being able to get out and surprise a few people with my presence in the world!
Until my next entry folks (which will hopefully be after a shorter interval than between this and my last entry),
Chesh.

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