Culinary adventures in Shrewsbury.

The last time I visited Shrewsbury was a couple of months into my first year at uni and I didn't have much chance to actually explore the town at all. Now that I have spent the entire week here on my second school experience, I tried to make most of it and actually visit some of the restaurants that sprung up here in the meantime, and some that have been here for ages, but I never knew about them.

I've managed to visit two and both experiences have been brilliant.

Momo No Ki
This is a noodle bar in a lovely location just opposite Shrewsbury Abbey. You can either choose one of the pre-set options, or "pimp your noodle" and choose your own combination. I went for the latter option and had udon noodles with yakisoba sauce, peanut sprinkles and tofu.

I must say that the waitress Rebecca has made my visit particularly memorable: she patiently explained the food choices and even helped me to pick the best dessert ever. I was the only person in the restaurant for a while, since I've opted for an early supper, but she made me feel at ease.

Out goes sugar-free.

But this was the most delicious dessert.

From the left, lemon curd, pistachio cake and dark chocolate mousse

Another thing that I really liked about Momo No Ki was the music: a mix of jazz and mellow pop, ideal for relaxing after a stressful first day at school.

La Laterna is a little gem, tucked away behind St Alkmund's Church, with an unassuming entrance and delicious food. It was truly like a piece of Italy in the middle of Shropshire. Have a look:

A cosy interior...

As for the food, it was really good as well. I had Bruschetta Pomodoro for a starter, Ravioli ai funghi for main and homemade tiramisu for dessert.

Add a cheeky glass of house white wine and you have a perfect evening over marking Year 10 mini-assessments. BTW, this is a great conversation starter, it turned out that the waiter has done a Music PGCE, so we chatted a bit about the illusion of long teacher holiday and the pressure of GCSE results.

There are two other places that I really wanted to give a try, but didn't have enough time (or money!): Umami (Japanese restaurant) and AleOli (Spanish tapas café). Hopefully if I'm ever in Shrewsbury again I will have a chance to visit those two.

One more discovery: almond milk latte at Starbucks. It's so delicious. You need to pay an extra 40p for it, but I find it much nicer and definitely kinder to my tummy than regular milk latte.

No more sugar.

I decided to quit sugar for a variety of reasons. It coincided with my body image issues and reducing sugar consumption could lead directly to weight-loss (or at least no weight-gain), so it seemed like a relatively easy option. It was also because the medication that I was taking at the time could lead to increased appetite and I was conscious of my struggle to only have one biscuit. It was also because since childhood, Dad kept saying that sugar is white death (together with salt and flour), so you should avoid sugary foods.

And so I've dumped sugar in favour of protein and healthy fats. I got really creative with my baking, replacing sugar with malt syrup. Veggies filled my fridge and random bits of healthy foods took place in the cupboard.

Is it easy? Not at all.

You do require quite a bit of free will to resist all the rice puddings, biscuits, cakes

Is it worth it? Certainly.

You might ask why all that fuss, but I do believe that you are what you eat, so diet is something that I pay particular attention to now.

There's been visible benefits already. I'm generally less hungry and less tired. I did, admittedly, get a little grumpy for a while, but I'm slowly overcoming this. My body slowly realises, that sugar will not be its fuel. I'm more mindful of what I eat. Quick fixes (see that ready-made pizza) still happen, but much less frequently. I don't get headaches so much if I don't have time to eat regularly. Wins all on sides.

The key is to be reasonable and kind to yourself. I do eat normal desserts sometimes. But I take even more pleasure with them, and I appreciate them more, because it is such an usual occurrence these days.

And now for the recipes.

I've been exploring IQS website and there's been quite a few good finds on there. My favourite is pumpkin protein bars. I was sceptical, and modified the recipe slightly (no protein powder, and baked the thing for 30 minutes), but the result is really tasty, perfectly satisfying all my cravings in the morning. Sweet potato brownies were not bad either, but next time I will actually melt the chocolate rather than keep it in bits to make up for the lack of the slow cooker.

And so I continue the sugar free adventures. Experiments on the horizon include energy balls and pumpkin amaranth porridge!

Portsmouth Vegan Festival.

I'm not vegan, but when I found out there was a vegan festival just across the water, it was too good an opportunity to miss. I'm really into all sorts of alternative diets, maybe except raw vegan diet, so I was really excited about going to the Festival and trying all the delicious food. The venue was absolutely packed, and the queue outside ridiculously long, which probably proves how much demand there is for such events.

I have to say that cake and chocolate were the dominant food item at the stalls. No complaints here, I absolutely love cake. There was sheer insanity of different types of sweet treats, starting with classic cakes, like banoffee, through tarts, cheesecakes and biscuits, to energy balls and protein bars.

Cake! And more cake!

I tried blueberry no-cheesecake from the South Coast Confectionary. It was my first vegan cheesecake and I can't tell I was particularly impressed. The thing it, the cake was not particularly bad or anything (though the base made of dates was overly sweet and too strong a taste for my liking), but it just lacked the wonderful creaminess that a normal cheesecake has. It was sweet and did the job as an after lunch dessert, but I wouldn't actively choose it to have it again. Despite the high sugar content, I didn't want another piece. So I'm not particularly convinced by vegan baking: honey cinnamon cookies are fine, but in general I feel like I do prefer to have an option of adding eggs, butter or cream cheese in.

Jackfruit was a great mystery to both my friend and myself, but it was everywhere! Apparently you can use as a substitute for anything, so we had bbq jackfruit bap. Interesting flavours, though I enjoyed kale coleslaw the most (rather surprisingly, because I'm not particularly fond of kale). Another discovery involves seitan, though this resembled fatty parts of meat too much for my liking.

Apart from food stalls, there were some stalls with assorted jewellery, vegan clothing, health and beauty products, animal rights information and so on.

 There were cookery demos as well: we went to Easy raw vegan dinner. I must say that although I could probably be convinced by raw chocolate and avocado mousse, raw curry is definitely a no-no. It simply doesn't taste like a curry, but rather like an overly-spiced salad. Not nice at all. Curry should be cooked, that's sort of the point of curry. However, there were some great things to eat there, for instance I gave sweet potatoes brownies a go and those were delicious.

This stall had sweet potato brownies, which I'm determined to make at some point, because they were DELICIOUS.

I have actually made the chocolate mousse at home, it's easy-peasy. Not too sweet, which is a good thing, because I'm quitting sugar (more about it in the near future). Definitely doesn't taste like a proper chocolate mousse, but it's good enough to satisfy my evening dessert cravings and can be classed as healthy, since it has avocados and (added) chia seeds.

Will I go to a vegan festival again? Definitely yes. There's a lot to see and learn there, even though I have no intention to actually go fully vegan. Eggs for breakfast help me to get through the day and the prospect of scrambled tofu is not particularly appealing. But it's definitely an interesting experience.

My top tips?

1. Get there early: to avoid standing at the back of a massive queue.
2. Get there hungry: because there is so much food to try, you really want to have enough space for a few snacks.
3. Get  round the entire venue first, if possible, to get a general feel as to what there is and what you would like to try.
4. Make most of the demos and talks.
5. Keep hydrated: I got a terrible headache that day, because in all this madness I forgot to drink!
6. Have your own containers to get some goodies back home and reduce waste at the same time.

A list of vegan festivals can be found here.

LENT can be a FEAST AND A FAST.

LENT can be a FEAST AND A FAST.

LENTEN DISCIPLINE:
Fast from worry; feast on trusting God.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from hostility; feast on tenderness.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from judging others; feast on Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from fear of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on speech that purifies.

Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on the fullness of truth.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from lethargy and apathy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that sustains.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.

William Arthur Ward (American author, teacher and pastor, 1921-1994)