Review: Green Kitchen

Its been another hot day in Brighton and a perfect day for a bit of shopping, a wander through the lanes and soaking up the amazing Brighton atmosphere. Have I mentioned that I really love living here....?

I popped into town this afternoon to run a few errands - I am going to a festival in a few weeks, my annual music Pilgrimage, and needed to invest in a new waterproof jacket to take with me. At the moment the weather forecast for that weekend looks good, sunny and around 20-23 degrees which will be amazing, but it will be sod's law that if I don't take a waterproof with me, it will rain.

Unfortunately I didn't come home with a waterproof today - but the one I want has been ordered online after trying a few on in-store (much cheaper online than in the store!)

However, the jacket wasn't my only reason for going into town....

A couple of my friends have recently begun a very new and exciting venture, they have opened up their very own Vegan Café in the middle of Preston Circus.

Although I am not a vegan myself - far from it in fact, I am really impressed with their ideas for the café and thought today would be a good time to pop my head round the door and sample some of the fare.

Green Kitchen in Brighton is located in Preston Road, about a minute's walk from the Preston Circus Fire Station, and the Duke of York's Cinema. It's run by the lovely Katie and Catherine and has only been open for around a week.

I must admit, the thought of trying to maintain a vegan diet is something that I find absolutely overwhelming - I just wouldn't know where to start! A meat-eater to the core, I think I could probably cope with being a plain ol' veggie, but I could never cut out dairy, eggs, etc for an extended period. I would really struggle to cook a vegan meal. In fact, thanks to Green Kitchen, today was my first ever experience of Vegan Cooking.

I have to say, I am really impressed with the menu!

Today, they were serving from the breakfast menu only, but usually there is a larger menu that includes soups, sandwiches, and burgers that all sound delicious, and a real variety of different flavours.

The breakfast menu is extensive too, includes a full English, French toast, muesli and yogurt to name a few....

And did I mention that everything on the menu is 100 % vegan?! I'm impressed by that alone....

So after a quick look at the menu, I decided on a light Brunch of the Roasted field mushroom, which was served with crème fraiche and artisan bacon. (again, 100% vegan)

When it arrived in front of me, the dish looked really appetising and fresh - a good start, Girls!

I must say I was intrigued with trying the artisan bacon. One of the things that has always puzzled me about imitation meats, is not the taste necessarily - there is nothing wrong with the taste of things like Quorn or vegetarian sausages etc, but when I have tried them in the past, the aspect that has put me off the most is the texture. Quorn tends to have a bit more of a rubbery, spongy texture compared with actual meat - which I don't find particularly appetising.

I was pleasantly surprised with the artisan bacon - the texture was spot on! The taste, although not like eating real bacon - reminded me of smokey bacon flavour crisps!! It was definitely an artificial sort of taste, but certainly gave enough of a meaty flavour and bacony-saltiness to please even hardened meat-eaters like myself!

The mushroom was cooked perfectly, juicy and warm and well seasoned, which worked well with the lovely rich and creamy crème fraiche that accompanied it.

So, my first vegan experience - Absolutely Fantastic!

I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did!

In fact, I was so busy enjoying it, that I completely forgot to get a photo of my lunch, but here is the empty plate, practically licked clean! If that's not high praise then I don't know what is!!! :)

I really enjoyed it and am really looking forward to visiting again in the future.

A few people in the café were having the full English breakfast when I was there, and it looked really delicious - I think I may have to try that next time!

I have a feeling that this little café is going to be a very popular spot for vegans and meat-eaters alike!

Oh, and I very nearly forgot - Green Kitchen is also Dog-Friendly! I didn't have Prince with me today because of my errands in town, but I think he may end up being a regular visitor to the café too!

To view the full menu, opening times and contact details, visit www.greenkitchenbrighton.com

Cuckoo's Nest Dances in Ditchling

Its been incredibly hot in Sunny Brighton this week - temperatures have reached up to 30 degrees, which has been lovely, but also very, very sticky! I love being in Brighton when its hot and summery - the water is absolutely beautiful and its amazing how BLUE it looks when the sun is shining so intensely!

Unfortunately earlier in the week it was just far too hot to do anything, when its still 25 degrees at 9 o'clock at night - makes it very difficult to sleep and walk around. It has meant that Prince, my dog (an ex-racing greyhound) has been stuck inside and hasn't had the walkies that he normally gets - its just far too hot for him :(

Luckily though, although the weather is still beautiful, the temperatures have dropped to a much more manageable 21 degrees, just in time for a night out with some wonderful people!

So, yesterday evening (21st July) was a time for dancing, and for singing, and merriment!

Cuckoo's Nest Morris, the women's side that I dance with, were invited by our good friends Ditchling Morris, to join them for a stand at The Bull Pub in Ditchling. The Brighton Morris Men were invited along too!

We had a fantastic night! Here is just a few of the photos from the course of the evening:

This first photo is of Cuckoo's Nest Morris dancing one of my favourite dances: TIDE.

Unfortunately I was running a little late and so didn't get in this one in time, which was good because it meant that I could take some photos.

I love this photo with Lucy at the front (in red) mid-yell!

Here is another from TIDE - Nice lines on this shot, Ladies!

Ruth doesn't look too happy to be stood next to Roz the Drummer in this photo! Roz looks like she is having fun though! 

Brighton Morris Men

A Ditchling-er, with BMM dancing in the background!

Getting me Bells on!

After we had done a bit of dancing for a couple of hours, we went off down the lane to the next pub in the village, The White Horse. This was a really cosy looking pub that was very traditional-looking from the outside, but big and quite modern on the inside. The staff were amazing and so were the punters - and they didn't mind us gate crashing their evening by making lots of noise and doing a bit of singing!

I love this part of the evening, a few drinks (although lime and soda for me yesterday as I was driving) and a good old sing-song and listening to a bit of music. Love the atmosphere that it creates in the pub too!

Here are some photos from the music session at The White Horse

All in all, a fantastic night out, although it was a bit of a late one - I didn't get home until gone 1am but it was completely worth it! Had a fantastic time!

(photos with permission from Roz Bassford-South)

Here goes nothing....

Hi There,

I suppose I should really start things off my introducing myself a little bit, and to tell you a bit about myself and why I have decided to start this blog.

Well, My name is Vicky, I am a single soon-to-be 30-something living in Brighton in the UK. I live alone with my dog, Prince who is a retired racing Greyhound.

I guess I have decided to write this blog mainly for myself, to document my life and what I get up to. I have so many different things going round in my head that its sometimes difficult to make sense of it all, so I think a blog would help me with that a little.

So this is gong to be a place to document many things: days out, recipes, things I have been up to, restaurant reviews, book reviews and gigs, an outlet for my thoughts - a diary mainly I guess.

I have always tried to keep a diary for so long but have never actually stuck to it, so hopefully this will help with things.

There is so much that I want to do and many things that I like doing, often these moments are only documented by a Facebook post or a few texts, and very often when I look back on these things, I either don't remember what the original post was about, or it doesn't give me enough detail about it.

So, a blog will certainly help with that.

So I guess that's it for now. I have a few things planned for the next couple of weeks, and for the remainder of the year, so hopefully this page will get full up pretty quickly.

TTFN,

Vicky x