Category Archives: Food Festivals

THE WEST MIDLANDS VEGAN FESTIVAL 25th OCTOBER 2014 @ WOLVERHAMPTON CIVIC HALL

Posted in Events, Festivals, Food, Food Festivals, vegan, vegetarian, Veggie foodie by

The next West Midlands Vegan Festival 2014 will be held on Saturday 25th October from 10am-6pm at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

Everyone is welcome, whether veggie, vegan, or neither. There is plenty to interest all foodies and eco friendly browsers. Admission is only £1 and the festival will have stalls promoting healthy, cruelty free and eco friendly products and food.

In 2013 the festival held over 100 stalls, and 2000 visitors attended. half of them non vegans.

Vegan Midlands campaigns and details about veganism and the festival can be found at http://www.veganmidlands.org.uk

The festival is sponsored by Moo free Chocolate and Animal Aid.

http://www.animalaid.org.uk
http://www.moofreechocolates.com

The 2014 festival will include over 100 stalls from clothing, footwear, cosmetics, books, campaign organisations and lots of food.

Caterers present will include Tall Poppy Foods and Shambhus

http://www.Tallpoppyfoods.co.uk
http://www.shambhus.co.uk

For a full list of food, cosmetics, and drink, see the
Vegan West Midlands website under stall holders.

http://www.veganwestmidlands.org.uk/festival/stalls.html

The festival is organised by a Midland Vegan campaigns a small group of volunteers, committed to promoting healthy cruelty free eco friendly plant based diets/life style accross the West Midlands region.

There will also be cookery demo’s, talks and workshops.

See http://www.veganwestmidlands.org.uk/festival/talks.html

including Lizzy Hughes, http://www.ourlizzy.com
and ChangeKitchen http://www.changekitchen.co.uk with Birgit Kehrer.

12-12.45 Vegan Brunch Session with Lizzy Hughes
1.15-2pm Healthy Lunch Ideas with ChangeKitchen/Birgit Kehrer

2.30-3.15 Vegan Vitality with Lizzy Hughes
3.45-4.30 Vegan Chocolate Mousse with ChangeKitchen/Birgit Kehrer.

The festival is held at The Wolverhampton Civic Hall, North Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1RQ.

http://www.wolvescivic.co.uk

http://www.veganwestmidlands.org.uk

http://www.veganwestmidlands.org.uk/links.html

http://www.vegfest.co.uk

http://www.vegsoc.org/groups

http://www.vegsoc.org

@VMVeganFestival

http://www.vegansociety.com

KUSKUS FOODS: VEGETARIAN STREET FOOD HEAVEN AT A FARMERS MARKET NEAR YOU

Posted in Events, Festivals, Food Festivals, Independent, Independent Birmingham, Moseley, Pop up's, Street Food, vegan, vegetarian, Veggie foodie by

Streetfoodin Birmingham is a major success story, yet there aren’t that many completely Vegetarian and vegan traders that showcase their food.

One of the vegetarian and vegan traders is KuskusFoods who specialise in vegetarian food inspired by the Middle East.

They are a family business who produce quality freshly prepared inspirational receipes for Farmers Markets, Corporate events, and private functions.

A real vegetarian and vegan food hero.

Begining over 20 years ago, Moses the chef learnt his recipes in the Middle East and then had the idea of creating a business that would attend farmers markets showcasing all he learnt in the countries he visited. Fresh, healthy, Middle Eastern food.

Moseley Farmers Market is one of the places to find KusKus foods where they provide high quality veggie and vegan dishes.

Kus Kus Foods are Vegetarian Society approved and can be found at Moseley Farmers Market on the last Saturday of the month and the MAC food fair on the last Sunday of the month. This weekend. As well as Solihull, Stratford Upon Avon and Harborne on other dates. See below.

Note They will be at The Malvern Autumn show this weekend. Saturday and Sunday.

Dishes such as
Lebanese Falafal with naked humous,
Arabic veggie kebabs with sweet chilli,
Lebanese Mousaaka,
Moroccan plum and sweet potato tagine.

are available at the venues below.

The food by Kus Kus Foods sounds yummy, I haven’t tried it yet, but please look out for them at a food market near you.

Kus Kus Foods for a taste of veggie/vegan food heaven.

Office: 0121 373 2805
@kuskusfoods
http://www.kuskusfoods.co.uk

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Birmingham Summer Market Saturday 2nd August 2014

Posted in Events, Festivals, Food Festivals, Independent, Street Food by

This Saturday 2nd August their is fun in the sunshine at the second seasonal Summer Market.

From 12-7pm at The Bond on Fazeley Street Digbeth experience artisan vendors, for food and crafts, local artists, street food, bars and music.

If you have a penchant for all things Independent and vintage this is for you. The entry fee is £1.50 for adults and children free.

The Bond is near the canal side and has a court yard, covered terrace and an indoor area. If it rains there is plenty of shelter, if its sunny, then take your sun block 🙂

There will be a good time summer atmosphere, where a vintage routemaster bus will serve liquid refreshments such as real ale and cocktails.

There will be handcrafterd necklaces, art deco notebooks, and vintage jewellery being sold.

Vendors include: To be updated

-Becky’s Bhajis
-The Bournville Waffle Company
-Brum Yum Yum
-Independent Birmingham
-Deli@Edgbaston
-Sixty Three Islands
-The Mexican Bean
-Pizzafireslice
-Sai Buddha Belly
-Big Daddies Diner
-Waffle Speak
-Jabberwockyfood

See them at The Bond Company, 180-182 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5SE.

@theBondco
@seasonalmarket
http://www.summermarket.co.uk
@independentB’ham
http://www.independent-birmingham.co.uk

Should be a great day of all things Independent:)

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The Ethical Chef and The Green Gathering Festival 2014

Posted in Events, Festivals, Food Festivals, Pop up's, Supper Clubs, Wales by

I encountered The Ethical Chef only a few weeks via Twitter and then through his superb website http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk

The Ethical Chef was created in 2010 by Deri Reed. A chef specialising in vegetarian cuisine and one extremely passionate about food, health and the environment.

Born in Carmarthen near Cardiff, Deri Specialises in organic veggie cuisine, he is the ‘chef du jour’ and creates ingenious Welsh recipes from the ingredients on his doorstep in Cardiff. He was trained at Veggie restaurant Cafe Paradiso in Cork, Ireland, and offers a Supper Club for £17.50 for three courses which is available at select venues throughout the year in Cardiff and at Festivals and featured at Cradiff’s street food festival and Abergavenny food festival.

He can also be booked for weddings, events, food festivals and can be seen at Cardiff’s riverside market Sundays 10-2pm.

The Ethical Chef use compostable and biogradable packaging and plant starch cutlery which minimalises our impact on the environment. Deri sees the reduction of food waste as imperitive to a balanced environment and vegetarianism is key to this.

For his recipes and supper clubs he uses seasonal, organic and local where possible ingredients to create sumptious vegetarian and vegan food.

The Ethical Chef appeared at Glastonbury 2014 and created dishes such as foraged fruit in an elderflower syrup on yogurt and museli and an organic smoked chilli on a bed of herbed bulgar wheat, Glastonbury chedder and Yeo Valley yogurt with fresh corriander.

These dishes won The Ethical Chef the peoples choice Green Traders of Glastonbury 2014 award, a major achievement via Twitter.

They will be there again next year to cook up a storm.

RECIPES

The best part of The Ethical Chef website in my opinion is the directory of recipes that make up the Vegetarian ethos of Dewi Reed.

These recipes are available on http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/recipes or many of them are available on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEthicalchef

Some of my favourites are

1. Vegan Carrot Cake recipe: http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/recipe/carrotcake-vegan

2. Vegan Courgette Cake: http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/tagged/vegan courgette cake

3. Butter Bean Cassolet: http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/recipe/embassy-cafe-butter-bean-cassolet

4. Glastonbury Chilli: http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/recipe/glastonbury-chilli

There are many others on the website and online.

THE GREEN GATHERING FESTIVAL 2014

The Ethical Chef will be appearing at the forthcoming
Green Gathering Festival from the 31st July-3rd August 2014 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire. Wales.

http://www.greengathering.org.uk

The Green Gathering are a charity that promotes education for sustainability powered by wind-sun-people.

It’s a small festival focusing around all the things that The Ethical Chef stand for. They will be feeding all the hungry people with a supper club throughout the festival. It’s an award winning family friendly festival

For ticketing information and pricing see the website http://www.greengathering.org.uk

For the line up and what’s on see also the website or see twitter for the latest news.

The supper club will be vegetarian and vegan three courses for £17.50.

They will also be serving up CoalTown coffee roasters fair trade organic single origin coffee.

http://www.coaltowncoffee.co.uk

http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/about/why-were-ethical
http://www.ethicalchef.uk/blog
http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk/about

The work of the Ethical Chef is in my opinion to be applauded in our society today. The ethos and attitude, to all things green and to vegetarianism and veganism is singled out in the lovely recipes and awards that Dewi and his team have received.

It would be great to see one of The Ethical Chef’s supperclubs come to The Midlands and maybe Birmingham, well hopefully one day that will happen:)

For further details of the work of The Ethical Chef see the website http://www.ethicalchef.co.uk or twitter @TheEthicalChef

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEthicalChef

http://www.TheEthicalChef.co.uk/recipes
http://www.facebook.com/public/Ethicalchef

http://www.greengathering.org.uk
@greengathering

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CBD Food Festival 2014

Posted in Bars and Pubs, Cafés and Restaurants, Coffee, Events, Food Festivals, Independent, Street Food by

One of my favourite food festivals of the year is Birmingham’s own CBD Food Festival (Colmore Business District) which is on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th July 2014 11am-7pm at Victoria Square off Colmore Row and New Street Birmingham City Centre.

Now in its fourth year, the CBD Festival organised by Colmore BID is a two day foodie extravaganza showcasing and celebrating the excellent food and drink offerings in Birmingham’s Commercial quarter CBD.

For me the best place for bars and coffee shops in Brum.

Venues from the CBD will serve tasters of signature dishes ranging from £1.50 to £5. All food options are priced at £3 or under, a bargain 🙂

All the businesses and participents are local to the area within a 10 minute walk of Victoria Square, including restaurants, bars, coffee shops, bakeries and deli’s.

Included in the participents are:

-Contemporary Indian restaurant Isaacs
-The Bureau bar and deli
-Purnells restaurant
-Purnells Bistro and Ginger’s bar
-Pure Bar and Kitchen
-Urban Coffee Company
-York’s Bakery and cafe
-Hotel Du Vin
-JoJolapa Bar and Restaurant
-Opus Restaurant
-Hindley’s Bakery
-Edmunds Lounge and bar
-The Old Joint Stock pub
-Chung Ying Central
-Asha’s Indian Resturant
-Chi Bar and Restaurant
-The Jekyl and Hyde
-The Old Contemptibles pub
-The Square Peg pub

For Veggies and Vegans that is a feast of good food:

I recomend Ashas, The Bureau Bar and Chung Ying Central, and Opus for food.

Ashas will be serving the lovely Papadi chaat served chilled £3
The Bureau: Beetroot Bon Bons £3
All Bar One: Veg Pad Thai £3
Chi Bar and Restaurant: Pav Bhaji served with a mini roll £3
Chung Ying Central: Veg spring roll with noodles. £3

There will also be cocktails, gin, pimms and cofee and toasties plus cold drinks and champaigne no doubt.

Try Ginger’s and the Bureau Bar for Cocktails and Hotel Du Vin for wine.

Coffee shops Urban and Yorks bakery will be there with your caffeine fix.

There will also be an entertainment programme at the festival, cookery demostrations, drink making demo’s, from top chefs including Glynn Purnell and David Calcombe of Opus Restaurant.

This years festival will also include a programme by The Young Rep, The Youth Theatre Company, Colmore Chorus CBD’s Choir of local business people.

There will also be deckchairs to sit on and a magician.

For full details see the CBD website and the free magazine’s that can be picked up at Snow Hill Station and the Tourist Information points.

It promises th be a fun couple of days with great local food and some fine independents demonstrating their culinary and bar skills.

Should be a fab foodie weekend:)

http://www.colmorebusinessdistrict.com
Twitter: @ColmoreBid

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