Trip Report! Day Two: London

Thursday was our only full day in London, so we woke up ready to cover a lot of territory. We set off first thing for Buckingham Palace. It was on the opposite corner of the park so we took the tube and got off near this thing, which turns out to be the Wellington Arch.

The walk through the park was gorgeous. We got really lucky with the weather in London. Sunny skies, perfect temperature.

There were tons of people hanging out around the palace. We sat for a while and watched the crowd before continuing to walk through the parks toward Trafalgar Square.

This arch marks the transition between the parky area and Trafalgar Square. I had no idea what it was until I just googled right now and discovered it's the Admiralty Arch. It looked pretty impressive, anyway.

Trafalgar Square is where the National Gallery & Portrait Gallery are, which are free ("suggested donation") so we decided to check those out. We weren't too impressed, honestly. The best thing I remember seeing was this famous portrait of Elizabeth I.

Ben wanted to eat some of these desserts in the cafe pretty badly, but we just had a little snack to fortify us for our journey to our lunchtime restaurant.

We ate lunch at Mildred's, a vegetarian restaurant in Soho that came highly recommended. It was pretty great. I ordered a burrito and asked, "is it spicy?" and the waiter said kind of dismissively, "It's Mexican. It's got chiles in it." I thought it was sort of hilarious to get a lecture about Mexican food from a British person. I used to live in Los Angeles!

Ben got the veggie burger of the day, which was mostly carrots, I think? And he reported that it was delicious.

After lunch we walked up to the British Museum, mostly to see the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon friezes. I thought I'd taken a picture of the Rosetta Stone but apparently not - there was a huge crowd around it, so that's probably why. I got the Parthenon, though!

The British Museum is very impressive.

We spent a lot of time there looking around. My feet were tired.

Cat mummies! There were people mummies, too, but who cares about that.

Ben was particularly into the Chinese jade and Neolithic tools and sculptures. The Museum really is packed with some pretty amazing stuff.

Ben took a nap when we got back to our hotel and I thought he looked funny.

We did dinner at Khan's, an Indian place we ran across near our hotel. The service left a little to be desired, but the food was terrific.

And that was London! We felt like we made efficient use of our London time, and were pretty anxious to get onto the Scottish part of our trip.

Trip Report! Day One: London

We had a direct flight from Raleigh to London, which was awesome, except that it got in at 7:00 a.m., which was 2:00 a.m. in our heads.

We knew we had to stay up for most of the day and try to go to bed at a reasonable hour so we could get on UK time as quickly as possible, but it was rough. We took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station, which was fortunately less than a mile from our hotel, and then walked the rest of the way.

I knew the hotel (Kensington Gardens) was not going to be fantastic, because the location was incredible and it was only $129 a night. However, our time in Tunisia taught us that as long as we have safety, cleanliness, hot water, and towels, we will be good to go. We aren't choosy.

We arrived at the hotel at 9:00 a.m., kind of doubtful they would let us check in so early. The manager was a very nice, very personable woman who seemed familiar with exhausted early morning arrivers from the US, and said she could give us a room immediately - but it was on the top floor. Or we could wait until the afternoon for a second floor. We were grimy and exhausted and gosh, we can handle some stairs, right? So we took the top floor. And then we found out it was SIX flights up. Poor Ben, trying to carry both suitcases by himself (he insisted! and then relented after four flights and let me carry mine the rest of the way).

The room was very small, but it was clean and had hot water and towels and we felt pretty safe from robbers way up there on the sixth floor.

Our plan was to get cleaned up and then wander in the neighborhood near our hotel, which was just a few blocks from Portobello Road, Notting Hill, and Kensington Gardens. We went over to Portobello Road, which was picturesque but not too busy, given that the big market day is Saturday.

We quickly realized we can cover quite a bit of ground in not very much time, and decided to go all in and head for some tourist attractions.

We took the tube from Notting Hill to Westminster, to see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. I really wanted to go inside Westminster, as I remember it being really impressive and moving, but it doesn't open until 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, apparently, and there was a huge line of people waiting to get in. So we took pictures and moved on.

For our first London meal, we stopped at a noodle shop across the Thames from Parliament. It was in the same building as the Marriott. Here is a Molly'n'Ben Travel Tip: If you're wandering around a city being a tourist and you have to pee, go to a hotel. Just walk in briskly like you know where you're going and surreptitiously look for the restroom signs in the lobby. We developed this strategy in New York last year and it has not failed us yet! Anyway here are the noodles.

After lunch we decided to walk over to St. Paul's Cathedral, which I had not seen the last time I was in London. It was kind of a long walk but nice, right along the Thames. We went by the London Eye but decided not to go up.

Here is a tired self-portrait.

There was quite a bit of construction activity in London, I guess because of the upcoming Olympics.

We really liked the neighborhood around St. Paul's - lots of tiny, winding streets between the buildings. It's hard to believe they actually drive on these roads, but I guess they do.

St. Paul's was huge and gorgeous, of course. You can pay to go up to the dome, but we were quickly discovering that we're pretty cheap when it comes to tourist attractions. We went inside to look around but didn't pay for the whole tour.

We were getting pretty delirious by this point so we took the tube back over to the neighborhood around hotel and went for a walk through Kensington Gardens. We started by walking down a road on the edge of the park that turned out to be lined with embassies. They were all very impressive, but there were signs everywhere saying "No Photography." The only visible security we saw was outside the Israeli Embassy, where they had guards armed with machine guns and a big barrier wall protecting the gate.

We reached Kensington High Street at the south end of the park and turned back north through the gardens to see the Palace. The last time I was in London, in 1998, Diana had just been killed the summer before and there were huge memorials all over the place. It was more subdued this time, and unfortunately the front view was also torn up with construction activity. It was a gorgeous day, though.

Finally we had made it until 5:00 p.m., which we deemed sort of okay for going to bed. So we went back to the hotel and crashed until 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

Mac & Trees with Buffalo Tempeh

Oh, weird vegan food, how I missed you.

More Appetite for Reduction tonight - actually, for most of this week. This is a nutritional yeast based fake cheese sauce with pasta and broccoli, with a spicy tempeh on top. I used half the hot sauce called for in the recipe and it was plenty hot for me.

I worried that we might not be into the nutritional yeast sauce after eating cheese in Scotland, but apparently this stuff is actually really good, because we both loved it.

Chili Verde Con Papas

And we're back! Pictures from our (non-vegan) trip to Scotland will be forthcoming but right now I'm sickish and too tired to make a big vacation post.

Tonight I made an Appetite for Reduction stew recipe I hadn't tried before. It's tons of kale, yukon gold potatoes, white beans, and cilantro, and after being flavored with lime juice and agave it becomes magically delicious. Ben said, "this is ten times better than I thought it was going to be." Yes!

I'm glad to be home and making my own food again. It would have been very difficult to be vegan in rural Scotland, but I can easily do it at home and it makes me happy to be back in the swing of things.

Broiled Tofu, Coconut Butternut Rice, and Pineapple Collards

All of these recipes are from Appetite for Reduction, and I've made all of them before except the pineapple collards. I'm always looking for ways to jazz up some greens, and this turned out to be a good way! In addition to the pineapple, they're seasoned with garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil.

We're headed to *S*C*O*T*L*A*N*D* this week so there won't be any posts for a while! But you can look forward to an exciting trip report when we get home.

Curried Chickpeas & Greens

This is one of the Appetite for Reduction recipes I hadn't tried yet - a quick, easy, delicious curry of kale & chickpeas over brown rice.

Very good for a fast weeknight dinner.

Broccoli Chowder

Can you tell I'm ready for fall? It's not quite soup time yet but I can't help myself. This is a nice broccoli chowder that also has some parsnip and yukon gold potatoes in there. I used to make a broccoli chowder with tons of cheddar cheese and sour cream, but this was just as good without all the dairy.

I defrosted a couple of our homemade buns to eat on the side. THEY ARE SO GOOD. I can't believe I haven't regularly made my own bread before. I'm hooked on it now for sure.

Chili-Lime Tofu and Mexican Spaghetti

This pasta recipe is actually the Pasta de los Angeles from Appetite for Reduction, but Whole Foods didn't have angel hair so I got spinach spaghetti. I used amazing heirloom tomatoes and a whole container of spinach and it was great. I felt like the tofu (also from Appetite for Reduction) might be overkill, as there were already beans in the pasta for protein, but it really was great together.

This was the last tofu recipe from the book that I hadn't yet made! I'm really closing in on finishing this book entirely. Lots of soups to go and a few vegetable side dishes, but I will knock those out this winter.

Homestyle Loaf

OKAY. I feel like "lentil loaf" and similar are used as sort of the default Gross Vegan Thing that omnivores like to make fun of. And, I admit, I share this prejudice. Who would eat that crap?? I think a major issue is that the word "loaf" is so unappetizing. Even "meat loaf" sounds pretty gross when you think about it.

So tonight, I decided to challenge my prejudice and try the Homestyle Loaf recipe in Vegan Diner, which is rapidly becoming my favorite cookbook. I've made a lot of her recipes, and have been blown away with every single one - so I figured she would be a dependable place to start for my venture into Loafs. In this recipe, the "meat" mixture is Boca crumbles, shredded tofu, oatmeal, and ground walnuts, with some onion & garlic & celery plus ketchup and soy sauce and various herbs. I KNOW it sounds suspect, people. But look at it out of the oven - nicely meatloafy:

And here it is sliced up.

It was GOOD. Ben said, "This reminds me of my mom's meat loaf," and that's exactly what Julie says in the recipe, that she made it as a substitute for her mom's meat loaf! Therefore, it must be true.

I also slivered a bunch of brussels sprouts and sauteed them with shallots and garlic and salt and pepper. Ben is an avowed brussels hater - and he ate these all right up. SUCCESS!

All-American Burgers & Banana Pudding Pie

Tonight I made another recipe from The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, the All-American Burger. It's a pretty basic one - the main ingredients are mushrooms, TVP, and vital wheat gluten, with some nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, ground mustard, and onion powder for flavoring. I also made more of her plain white buns that we really love, and the Cool Slaw from Appetite for Reduction. The dressing is cashew-based and Ben asked me if it contained heavy (soy) cream, so I'd call that a win.

Please note sleepy cat in the background.

For dessert I made the Banana Pudding Pie from Vegan Diner. I had my doubts it would work out, as I so far haven't been too awesome at making pudding from scratch, but it did! The bottom is lined with bananas and the pudding is vanilla, but it all works together to be nice and banana-ey.

Harvest

Look at all this basil, you guys!

We only have one plant that I've been using steadily most of the summer, plus I made and froze one batch of pesto a couple of weeks ago. This is easily enough for three more batches to freeze. The plant is looking pretty sparse now, but we have a good two months before it gets cold here so I think we'll be able to get quite a bit more out of it. Yay!

Next year we're going to get plant lots more herbs. And not kill them. Ben is a very conscientious gardener, actually, which is good because I am not.

Brazilian Black Bean Stew

This Vegetarian Times recipe is one that we've been making for a couple of years. It's simple and good, but for some reason I always have a hard time talking myself into eating sweet potatoes. I don't know why, because I like them just fine, but I always feel like maybe it won't work out.

There's a wide variety of healthy things in this dish - sweet potato, black beans, red pepper, tomatoes, mango, cilantro - and very little oil, so it makes me feel good to eat it. The hardest part about the recipe is not eating up all the mango before it's time to add it to the soup.

I have repeat dinners planned for the rest of the week so there won't be much food excitement coming up, but stay tuned because we went to St. Louis for Labor Day and I have lots of pictures to post!

Miscellaneous

This dinner is called "use up all the perishables before we go out of town." I made my true love Smoky Tempeh from Veganomicon, sauteed some zucchini and spinach in a little Earth Balance with salt & pepper, and steamed some corn on the cob in the microwave.

Aside from the marinating of the tempeh, this took about ten minutes and successfully used up all the vegetables in the fridge. Except the cabbage that has been in there for three weeks and miraculously still looks like new. I'm going to do something with that eventually, I swear.