Wales & The Westfield

So, on Friday Heidi & I visited the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush. It is basically an extremely large mall with a movie theatre, grocery stores, and a ton of restaurants...not to mention tons of clothing stores. We shopped quite a bit and definitely need to go back because we have not even seen half of it! While we were there we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho. They mostly serve the traditional Vietnamese soup, Pho (hence the name), but also had other things. I got a tofu and button mushroom pho and some vegetable summer rolls. Here's a photo of them:

The pho is a broth based soup with lots of rice noodles, tofu and mushrooms in this case, and fresh bean sprouts, chillis, and coriander (cilantro in American English). The summer rolls are on the side with a spicy, sweet chilli sauce.

On Saturday, Heidi & I went to Wales for a two day sightseeing and horseback riding tour. Our first day we visited a town called Chepstow, which is famous for Chepstow castle. Here is a view of what I believe is the Wye River outside of the castle.

These flowers were growing out of the wall of the castle, hanging over the river. I thought they were really gorgeous, so I took a photo of them!

Here is a photo of me sitting in a chair in a restored portion of the castle. I look rather royal, right?

There was some sort of festival/parade thing going on in Chepstow while we were there. Here is one of the floats from the parade. I thought it was strange because the darker skinned people in the back were actually painted white people. I'm not sure whether this should be considered offensive or not... Anyways, there was a festival and the marching band was playing Lady Gaga...hmmm, strange festival!

The next town we visited was the town of Tintern, which housed Tintern Abbey, Wales's first Cistercian Abbey. I didn't go inside, but it was plenty beautiful from the outside!

The last town we visited was Hay on Wye, which was where our hotel/hostel was located. It was basically a town of book stores and nothing else. We could hardly find a grocery shop! Two of the people on our trip didn't like that and saw it fit to look through the windows. They were a married couple and he was wearing her hat...this was only one of the strange things that they did.

After we arrived at our hotel, the Baskerville Hall Hotel (named after the Sherlock Holmes story, the Hounds of the Baskervilles), we quickly got some dinner. Beans, chips, ketchup, brown sauce (fake HP sauce but still tasty), and a Strongbow! What a delicious dinner while we waited for the US vs Ghana World Cup match to begin. Unfortunately for the US, we lost...

The next day we went horseback riding in the Brecon Beacon national park in Wales. Here is a photo of my horse, Roody. He was wonderful, although a bit naughty! At the end of the ride he even managed to squish me between two other horses, which resulted in losing a stirrup. At least we were close to the end, but riding with one stirrup is never very fun! The horseback riding was amazing, but my bum really hurts now!

Here is one of the views from the Brecon Beacon national park that I got on my camera while horseback riding. The Welsh countryside seemed to go on forever and ever!

After horseback riding we headed over to a local pub, called the Three Horse Shoes, for the Sunday roast. I was a little concerned about what the vegetarian option would be, but our trip leader managed to get me a lovely vegan risotto! It was so delicious along with the steamed vegetables that accompany the usual Sunday roasts and the Strongbow cider. Unfortunately we had to leave the pub just as the England vs. Germany match was starting up...England lost anyways (4:1).

On our way back to London, our group made a brief stop in Oxford, rather than a service station. I got to see Christchurch college, which is what this photo is of. Even though we only stayed for an hour and all the toilets were locked, I really enjoyed seeing the campus! I hope to be able to return to Oxford someday so that I can see a little bit more.

So, this photo has absolutely nothing to do with Wales, but during lunch break from class I got some tasty veg Indian food from the Hare Krishna man near the SOAS campus in London. It was super tasty and free! Doesn't it look delicious?

Meet at the Lion's Testicles?

Apparently this is a legitimate place to meet for class. For class on Monday, we walked down the South Bank of the Thames River. This is where we met for the walking portion of class:

Classy, right? Apparently there is a story that medical students at St. Thomas' hospital (that's Florence Nightingale's hospital) in London come and steal the lion's testicles after their exams every year. If this is actually true, they are readily replaced. As we walked down the South Bank, we came to a grassy area, and there were so many strange people sleeping outside. Here are photos of some of them:

I think he was my favourite - I mean, look at that classy belt and funky socks!

Now, I'm really not sure what this guy's problem was. Is he drunk? Did he just get really tired, really fast? Was he ill? I'm not sure, but it looked pretty unusual. The funny part was that nobody else seemed concerned.

Here's a few more. What are these people thinking? Do they sleep at night? If not, they chose an odd place to be nocturnal.

Moving on to a new topic, here is one of my typical breakfasts when I eat in my room. It's cheerios, chopped apple, almonds, and vegan rice pudding from Whole Foods. Yum!

On Tuesday night, Heidi and I went to a Lebanese restaurant called Levant on Wigmore St. It was super classy - there were rose petals on the table! I had a tabouleh salad (on the left), and hummus (creamy tan stuff on the right). We also got fresh, puffy pitta bread, which was soooo good! The rose wine wasn't bad either.





Other than all of that stuff, I have been pretty busy with my internship. I attended a nutrition seminar yesterday at City University in London. I felt like such a professional! It was great to go to and I think that I got some great ideas to incorporate into my work with FoodCycle. Oh, and by the way if you haven't voted for us yet online, check my twitter for the link and vote. We could win $25,000! This weekend I'm off to Wales on Saturday through Sunday - I will be sure to post photos from that as soon as I am able to!

Thank God for Walking!

Eat, Eat, Eat! It seems that that is one of my main hobbies lately. I'm a bit like a caterpillar about to turn into a butterfly: trying to eat as much as possible in anticipation for some sort of metamorphosis...except for the fact that I'm full grown and there will be no transformation. Good thing we walk nearly everywhere here! On Friday, Heidi & I went to Neal's Yard Salad Bar for dinner. They have way more than just salads there! I had a Brazilian risotto that came with fried bananas and a fried potato thing. I also had some homemade chocolate soya soft serve 'ice cream.' Here's the photo of the risotto. I forgot to take one of the ice cream - it was just too exciting!

After having dinner in Soho, we went to a play called 'Holding the Man.' All I can really say about it was that it was extremely entertaining and if you ever get the chance to see it you really should. On Saturday, Heidi & I visited Camden Market to do some shopping and grab a bite to eat. We went to Marrakech, a Moroccan restaurant situated within Camden Market. We ate outside, so it was perfect for people watching. Since Camden Market is the number one tourist attraction in London, it was a great place to be able to see more strange people than one would ever think possible. Here is a photo of the tajine, pitta bread, and mint tea that I had to eat.

After we were finished at the market I stopped at InSpiral Lounge, an almost entirely vegan cafe, to grab a dessert to go. I got this huge, delicious chocolate chip cookie. I ate it dipped in soya milk and it was so, so good. I need to get back there for a meal sometime in the near future.

Here's a quick photo of Heidi & I sitting outside at Marrakech while we were people watching at Camden Market!

On Thursday when I went to Whole Foods I purchased some vegan chocolates. Well, here they are with the lovely background of my London city guide! Don't they look just fantastic?

Today, Heidi & I went to the Regent's Park and watched pigeons and people while drinking this £6 bottle of pinot grigio from Odd Bins on Marylebone High St. It was tasty and there were a lot of funny people at the park.

To the right is an example of the funny people at the park. These two girls holding the one shopping bag made us giggle. What did they buy that was too heavy for them to carry on their own? Or did they just want to make sure they didn't lose each other? The park wasn't that busy!

Mmmm...Whole Foods & Wahaca

So, the past few days have been defined by food! Last night, Heidi & I went to a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca and I got a yummy hibiscus mojito and summer vegetable burrito. Here are the photos:

Yummy vegan rice pudding - how amazing! One of the many gifts from Whole Foods!

So, to the left here is an entire case of vegan desserts at Whole Foods - heaven! I had a piece of raw chocolate cake, which was more of a cheesecake/cream pie texture. I think that may have added to the deliciousness!

This is apparently 'wet' garlic. I don't know what makes it wet or anything, but it looks interesting!

So, these next photos are just some food cases in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods - they are all vegetarian/vegan. I think this one is mostly tofu/meat substitute things.

I'm pretty sure that this is more of the tofu/soya/meat substitutes!

Here's the vegan milks and cheeses. There are so many varieties that I haven't tried and need to! I just can't really be bothered to cook while I'm here unless I'm volunteering for work.

And here's one of my favorites - vegan yoghurts! The brand in the green packaging was particularly tasty!

And here's a photo of Hyde Park in the Kensington Garden/Round Pond area. Heidi & I were watching the swans.They were so, so cute!

Then, I just had to throw this one in there - look at the girl in the floral dress. This was on Oxford St. on the way back from Hyde Park. This doesn't really exactly fit the theme of my blog, but really - her bra is totally hanging out. I just wonder whether she knew or didn't care, or what. I just found it rather unusual...

Food...Finally!

So, I know I mentioned food in my last post. Well, the photos never got posted because I couldn't figure out how to get more than one without the post going crazy. Well, here it goes: this is what I have been eating. And here's a photo of Big Ben at around 21:30 (that's 9:30 PM for those of you who don't understand military time). I swear it never gets dark here!

So, this is typical lunch food over here to the left. Snap pea pods, peanut butter, blackcurrant jam, whole wheat bread, rice cakes, and a golden delicious apple.

So, this is an example of the nutrition facts label on my bread. See how they list everything for 100 g? On this one they also list it for one slice, which happens to be 25 g.

This is an example of 'front of pack' labeling that is starting to be enforced on many foods. I am assuming that the '15 g tbsp' that it is shown for is a portion or serving size, but it is never explicitly stated. It is also very difficult to find out what the size of one portion is of anything around here. Also, see the cute 'vegetarian' label on the right?

So, this one is what regular cheerios look like in the UK. In the states all of the Os are one colour. Here, even the regular cheerios are like the multi-grain variety. They are super tasty too!

Here is a photo of what the actual cheerios look like. What pretty colours!

Here, to the right are some of the soya products that I have been eating. Soya milk and soya yoghurt (I am trying to use British English spelling, so that I get accustomed to it for work - I hope most of you can still understand). Both are super yummy!

Food & Internship!

So, this week:

Monday: Already posted on this, but just to reiterate. I went to class & learned about London a bit. During lunch break I ate a free meal from a Hare Krishna outside of SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), which is near where my class is. It was a delicious curry, rice, and cake. All the food he serves is vegan, he has loads of it, and he is there everyday! I will remember to take a photo next week to post. And he gives everyone monster portions - there was no way that I was going to finish that! Later in the evening I saw the play, 'All My Sons.'

Tuesday: First day of work this week - it went pretty well. I am really starting to see how I am going to approach my tasks. By the way, if anyone is interested, I am working with the charity, FoodCycle (foodcycle.org.uk). I will probably have more details later on, but I haven't asked them yet what kind of details I am allowed to post online. I don't want to give any secrets away. But, I can tell you what they do. They take surplus food from grocery stores that would usually end up in the bin, and use donated kitchen space and volunteers to make it into VEGETARIAN meals for people affected by food poverty. How awesome is that.

Today, I also wanted to post some photos and descriptions of what I have been eating here. Being vegan in London is one of the most amazing experiences ever. There are so many food options. I just received my 'Vegetarian Guide to London,' so I am beginning to plan out what I am going to eat.

In the evening, I walked down to Trafalgar Square and Parliament with Heidi, Elizabeth, Lindsay, and Heidi. (Even though you probably don't know these people, just assume that I do).

First Week!

So, I've spent my first week back to London being extremely busy with my internship and just getting settled in London. For as much as I've been busy, I've had quite a lot of time to explore as well. I've been to the Museum of London, the British Museum, several pubs, a few lovely vegan restaurants, and shopping up & down Oxford St. Ever since I've been back in London I just feel at so at home. Today I went to see the play, 'All My Sons', near Piccadilly Circus and it was just wonderful to see that part of the city again. The play was pretty good, but I think just seeing all of the lights and the fountain in that area were what really made me happy. I hope to have some better posts coming in the future, but since the first week was so insane, I think that this will suffice for now!