Sainsbury's Stonebaked Pizza Bases II: Return of the Bases - 13/12/14

A while ago I wrote about these pizza bases from Sainsbury's and how they are the complete tits. Because I liked them so much, I was very quick to use them again, this time in tandem with the cheddar version of the Violife pizza cheese I also wrote about in ^^that^^ post and MOZZARISELLA!!! which is a vegan version of mozzarella cheese. This is the most "real" tasting vegan cheese I have eaten ever ever (and I think I have eaten quite a lot) - it tastes, looks and feels exactly like mozzarella, and it's way better for you as it's completely plant based. Honestly, it's a complete revelation, and it tastes unreal on pizza.

The first pizza we made was pretty much exactly the same as the one in the last post about these bases (sweetcorn and black olives on top, with the additions of the Violife cheddar cheese and the Mozzarisella):

Like last time, it was really tasty and garnishing with basil helped to bring lots of the flavours out. The Mozzarisella really took it up a notch though (I will not stop gushing about this cheese). V good, v tasty.

Pizza rating: 9/10

The other pizza we made, however, was even better. It was a sort of 'spicy meat feast' deal (we had chilli 'beef', fake pepperoni and red chillies on it) and it was so unbelievably dope: 

The spiciness here was what really made it delicious, and in particular the chilli beef was my favourite of all the toppings (vegan chilli beef recipe: put vegan mince in a pan, cook it, fuck a load of hot sauce/liquid smoke/chilli powder/paprika into the pan also, cook it for a bit, put it on the pizza) - it gave such a yummy meaty texture and was overall really tasty. I couldn't really find fault with this pizza: the beef and one red chilli gave the perfect amount of spiciness and I think it might be my favourite home-assembled pizza I have ever had which is cool.

Pizza rating: 9.5/10 (0.5 knocked off because I had to make it myself and also because I had to share it)

I really cannot implore u enough to buy these Sainsbury's pizza bases bc they really take "homemade" pizza to another level. Truly delicious and authentic.

CHEEZLY BLOODY CHEEZLY - more forays into the world of frozen vegan pizza

Holland and Barrett is a pretty essential shop if you are attempting to live that vegan life, because they sell lots of vegan convenience food, and as much as I enjoy being vegan, convenient is often one thing that it is not. One such convenience food is the range of VegiDeli frozen vegan pizzas that they sell (I previously talked about the Cheese and Tomato flavour one here). These pizzas are great because they are topped with vegan cheese (VegiDeli's Mozzarella style Cheezly), and I have been going pretty hard on them lately so I wanted to write about that, because I want to bring my authentic pizza experience 2 u, my loyal readers.

First of all, here is the seasonal 'Festive Pizza' that is currently available in the range:

(sry for shitty picture, me and Ben were sharing/rly hungry so forgot to take a pic of the full thing, but this gives you the right idea) 

The Festive Pizza has on it turkey style chunks, Lincolnshire style veggie sausage, green peppers, sweetcorn and cranberries. It is very very good, and I was especially into the sausage (edit: that's what she said tehe). Unfortunately, like any frozen pizza really, the base is not of great quality, but I would definitely say that the toppings make up for it. If u are in the market for a tasty vegan pizza for like a Christmas buffet or maybe for your second Christmas dinner (lmao u really expect me to celebrate the birth of Jesus with a fucking roast when pizza, his favourite food, exists?) or something then this is your guy. I am considering buying them up so that I can enjoy them in January and prolong the period before my inevitable withdrawal sets in. 

Pizza rating - 8/10

Secondly, here is that Cheese and Tomato flavour pizza again, accompanied by the 'Meatless Feast':

(yep I had two pizzas they are really small get out of my face haters)

Again this is a shit picture, but you get the idea. The Cheese and Tomato pizza is yummy enough - you kind of get what you expect which is not a bad thing. The Meatless Feast is again very tasty - I especially like the pepperoni slices (you can buy those in a packet from VegiDeli's chilled 'meats' range which is also sold at Holland and Barrett but ur reading a vegan pizza blog so you probably already know that) and the ground beef style pieces, but I coulda done without the ham style chunks - the turkey ones on the Festive Pizza are lots superior. Again, the base isn't great but is much improved by a dip (I'd suggest BBQ) and the cheese is Cheezly so you know you can rely on it. 

Pizza rating: 7/10

So yeah these Cheezly pizzas are great when you can't be bothered to make/assemble/order a vegan pizza, and I would especially recommend the Festive one so get your hungry lil mitts on that while u can! Hopefully VegiDeli bring out more limited edition pizzas for me to eat and then tell you about. That would be great.

28/11/14 - Jamie's Pizzeria, Oxford

A cool thing that has happened to me recently (who knew I had a life outside of pizza) is that I now sing in a super dope band called Dot's Funk Odyssey which is made up of people who are at my university and who like (and are really good at) playing funk and soul music. DFO is so great and so full of stupidly talented people that I am not entirely sure how I fooled them all into thinking I am anywhere near good enough to be in it, but it happened and here we are. 

Anyway, enough of the Self Deprecating Humour™ that u have come to ~know and love~ from restinpizza, and onto the actual point of me mentioning the band I'm in (other than for attention and to have people telling me 'omg of course u are good enough to b in DFO hun :-) ur a star xx'). Most weeks before our gigs we eat as a group before we play, and a few weeks ago, PIZZA was our meal of choice. Obviously I was very excited to combine two of my (v professional) interests, and so here is the review of that pizza. 

The night was November 28th, the place was Jamie's Pizzeria (an offshoot of Jamie's Italian which specialises in pizzas, because a man from Essex has not monopolised the Italian restaurant market enough lol) on George Street in Oxford, and the pizza was a special vegan one made just for ya girl over here. As you can see from the picture, they didn't scrimp on the toppings and I was very pleased that when I asked, the ingredients of the dough could be counted on one hand. The crust was thin and crispy, with satisfyingly chewy crusts, the sauce was a pretty standard tomato sauce, and the quality of the veg on top was really good (special shout out to the mushrooms tbh). For a cheeseless pizza, this was very yummy and I think that I would probably go to Jamie's Pizzeria again which is a good sign. Although they were a bit heavy handed with the chillies on my pizza, which was sad. 

After the pizza, we went to play a gig and I truly believe that the pizza made us funkier. Just another of pizza's divine properties, I guess. *looks into the distance, shakes head wistfully*

Pizza rating: 8/10

Jamie's Pizzeria, 24-26 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AE

at home with pizza - Cheezly and Tomato // some other next pizza I made ft. Sainsbury's bases and Violife pizza cheese

At the minute I cannot afford to be a fancy lady who is wining and dining on delicious vegan pizzas all the time because I am an idiot student who was really bad at trying to save money in the summer. That however is a story for another day.

What I want 2 talk to you about today is (duh) pizza, and more specifically, homemade pizza. I haven't yet taken the plunge into making my own dough (but when I go home for Christmas I swear down it's gonna happen and when I post about it you will all cry like you have seen the face of God) but I have assembled a number of pizzas over the last few weeks, so I can definitely give you the lowdown on what's good in the world of shop-bought(ish) pizza.

So first of all there was this cheezy lil number, which I bought from Holland and Barrett for probably about £3, and then added peppers and tofu:

This is a pizza made by the company which makes all of the Cheezly cheeses (the ones you can get in Holland and Barrett) and it is pretty yum. Though I would not say that the tomato sauce or the base are anything particularly special (this is not to say that they aren't satisfactory/can't be jazzed up with some herbs and olive oil) it is super convenient to be able to go to the shop and buy a vegan pizza with actual cheese on that you can just freeze and then shove in the oven at your behest. I love being vegan, but it is not often this convenient, so this pizza gets plus points for that. My only real downside to this pizza is that it is quite small and is obviously not ready for the jelly of a seasoned pizza eater such as myself, as I could probably easily eat three pizzas this size in one sitting. In all though, I was into this Cheezly pizza/would eat it again/am interested to try the 'meatless feast' variety. 

Pizza rating: 7/10

This takes me onto the second pizza that this post will cover:

This pizza was more of a self-assembly job, but considering the toppings were sweetcorn and olives, it was not very labour intensive. Just letting you know in case you were worried I was putting myself through extreme trauma in the name of pizza. (FYI I would probably put myself through minor trauma for pizza i.e. like maybe I would stub my toe or stand on a plug) I have made lots of this kind of pizza and written about it on this here blog before, but with this one I do actually believe I have perfected the art of the assemble-at-home vegan pizza, because I have found both the optimum crust and cheese. 

The baby angels over at Sainsbury's (big up yourselves Sainsbury's honestly) have, in their Italian section of the fridges, started stocking freshly stonebaked pizza bases which you can top yourself at home. I think that everyone can agree, this is a complete gamechanger. Whilst the types of self-assembly pizza bases you can buy in boxes are okay, they never ever pack that authentic crunch of the crust that you always get with a stone bake. Sainsbury's have changed all of that. They have changed everything. *Prayer hands emoji* 

However, to add to my elation (lol), I also happen to have finally found a truly great vegan pizza cheese (it rivals my love of Tofutti Mozzarella style slices and also smells way less terrible/is not slimy) - take a bow VIOLIFE PIZZA STYLE. A truly cheese-like vegan cheese which is also soy free if that's what you like, it melts absolutely great and gives a very authentic cheesy flavour and texture. I'm also pretty sure it's what Basilico use on their vegan pizzas, so there's that. Put together, this cheese and a Sainsbury's stonebaked base created a pizza that I absolutely love and which will be my home cooked pizza standard for a while to come I think. It reminded me of the Pizza Express shop bought pizzas which I used to absolutely love before I went vegan, so that was a nice trip down memory lane for me. 

Basically, meat/dairy eater or not, get to Sainsbury's and make a pizza on one of these bases bc it will be a tru party in your mouth. And not a shit party either, like one after a christening. I mean a properly sick one, like that one New Year's Eve house party which is actually good and makes you disappointed on every New Year's that follows it. 

Pizza rating: 9/10

That is it from me now folks - until next pizza xoxo

Voodoo Ray's, Dalston - 1/11/14

When people hype stuff you automatically go in expecting fireworks. It's why I thought Nando's was going to change my life in 2010, and it's why I bought some New Balance last year and some Nike Free Runs this summer (don't worry I hate myself so you don't have to). Hype, therefore, is obviously terrible.

But apparently I never learn not to trust it, because I was super pumped to go to Voodoo Ray's last Saturday. I heard they did vegan pizza by the New York-style slice, all of which sounded more than good to me, but I shoulda known better (actually feel a Tay Swift style ballad about this place coming on). The pizza was… okay. We ordered 4 slices of their vegan special which had a bunch of veggies and a pesto-like sauce on it, but, um, they dropped one of our slices and we had to get like a Halloween special with a curried pumpkin base. It was fine, but I was sad that I didn't get the pizza I wanted. Here are some photos of the pizza:

The top photo is the pumpkin one, and the bottom photo is the veggie one. The quality of the toppings on these pizzas was definitely pretty good, but I felt like the base was slightly hard (maybe something to do with the slices being reheated after sitting and waiting on the counter). I do enjoy a crispy base, but I like there to be a little softness on top, too, which just was not there. The tomato sauce was, again, pretty nice but largely unremarkable. It was a fine pizza, but I gotta admit, I expected more. 

It wasn't like, a bad experience, and if you find yourself on Kingsland Road needing pizza/a vegan snack, you could totally do worse than going here. But just make sure they don't drop your damn slice *side eyes Voodoo Ray's to infinity*

Pizza rating - 6/10 (minus 1 point for dropping the pizza. Y'all should be carrying pizza slices around like newborns. Protect them at all costs.) 

SORRY/A MASTERPOST OF AMAZING PIZZAS

I am literally terrible and haven't posted anything for about two months. I am very sorry to the one avid reader of this blog (Hector Craft) for my transgressions. But now I am back with good news - first of all, the restinpizza zine is still on its way. We have experienced some delays in the process (i.e. me being incredibly lazy) but things are getting back on track and we're hoping that it'll be with you by the beginning of December. We're also working on doing a launch night at a venue in London which will hopefully be super dope and involve bands and free pizza.

The second bit of good news is, despite my absence, I have still been eating pizza! (How could I not though rly, I think at this point I would probably get withdrawal if I stopped) And I am here to provide you with a masterpost of all of those pizzas, including pictures to make you really really really hungry. Get excited.

1) Pizza Paco, Barcelona

We went on holz to Barcelona in September and this was the only pizza we ate because we couldn't find any anywhere else :( know that this pizza probably looks hella plain, but sometimes simplicity is best (also none of the other pizzas were vegan lol) - this pizza was a v pleasing experience, was topped with oregano and some chopped garlic and had a really crunchy crust. Big up Pizza Paco. 

Pizza rating: 7/10

2) Basilico, London 

We ate this pizza the day we came back from Barcelona. Basilico pizzas are really really nice, and have the cheesiest vegan cheese I have had yet. I was very into it. I am a thin crust lady, and this ticked all my dough-related boxes, and the sauce was really great, although it did get a lil overpowered by the cheese at points. Basilico do two different vegan pizzas, and one is a vegan margherita to which there's an option to add toppings so you can basically design yr own pizza. AND the garlic bread (below) is vegan! AND they deliver! AND they do hella big pizzas like 15 inches or something which I haven't had yet but someday will. Maybe I will buy one and wear it as an ostentatious pizza ruff, like in Elizabethan times but edible and delicious. I don't know what I am talking about either. 

Pizza rating: 9/10 (that cheese!)

3) Papa John's, Oxford

I have written before about my warm feelings for Papa John's pizza - it is really stodgy and satisfying and unlike Domino's they don't include like milk or whatever the fuck else in their pizza bases so well done to them. Sadly they don't do vegan cheese, and we were too lazy to put any on, but this pizza was still very tasty and it did its comfort food job very nicely. 

Pizza rating - 8/10

4) Gallery Café, London

I just wanna take a sec to profess my love for Gallery in general. It's an all vegetarian/mostly vegan cafe in Bethnal Green and it is so amazing. Their food is always so impressive, and they do breakfasts, cakes, sandwiches - basically everything you could ever want. They also have theme nights (they do a chip shop one every Thursday and serve tofu fish and chips which is obviously delicious, and I think a diner night every Tuesday with vegan hotdogs, burgers and MAC AND CHEESE). Also, as you can see, they do pizza. It is a joyful thing. ~Rustic~ but thin, soft crusts literally smothered in the cheese of your choice (vegan or dairy, bring ya mates) and topped with basically whatever veggies you like. The pizza above has black olives and rocket and it was rly rly tasty and filling. I am feeling happy just thinking about it. 

Pizza rating: 8/10

5) Pizza Artisan, Oxford 

…or, the first pizza to ever receive a perfect score on this blog some months ago. Srs accolade. Ben had never had Pizza Artisan so we went last weekend after finding out that not only do they make amazing pizzas, but they also do vegan cheese. If it is possible to improve on perfection, Pizza Artisan did it. All of their toppings are so high quality, their sauce is so authentic tasting and the crusts are baked to to optimum deliciousness in their wood oven. I have nothing bad that I could possibly say about this pizza. Their service is great too - you can choose from about 4 different kinds of oils to have on your pie and there are bespoke extras for certain kinds of pizzas (swear I heard fennel seeds being offered but only for some pizzas - that's some bespoke shit). Basically, top class pizzas taken hella seriously. These guys treat pizza as an art form and that is how everyone should treat it. *Kisses fingers*

Pizza rating: 9/10 (it was a really busy Saturday night and we had to wait for like an hour in the cold, so whilst the pizza was 10/10 the overall experience of the pizza was slightly tarnished by this)

I hope that this ~round up~ of pizzas has served as something of an apology for my absence. I promise to do better next time. Happy Friday, eat a pizza this weekend xxxxxx

a very belated Beacons Festival

hello lovely pals! apologies for something of an absence, but I am back with a very good and cool post. 

I wrote a few weeks ago about a gr8 opportunity I got to be the only food blogger at Beacons Festival 2014, and I now have for you here an ~official round up~ (that is something journalists say isn't it?) of all my favourite vendors at their Street Food Festival. Pretty much everything I ate was incredible, and I wanna say a particularly massive thanku to Dough Boys Pizza and the boy Ben Davy for all the hookups (feel like I'm doing an Oscars speech) and for choosing properly great food for me and all of the other hungry festival-goers to chow down on. 

So, with no further ado: 

1) Dough Boys Pizza///@DoughBoysLeeds

Starting with these guys 'cause my heart belongs to pizza. Dough Boys know what they're doing and they do it dope. Soft, bready dough compliments a super authentic-tasting sauce ('just like my grandma used to make!' - imagine me saying this in an exaggerated Italian accent and also wearing a large moustache and u get the idea), which is all topped off by really great quality toppings. Our special vegan beetroot pizza was all kinds of delicious, and the sunny weather made it even better. Also, these guys had my favourite sales patter of the festival so there's that.

If this sounds up yr street (if you're reading this blog it almost definitely is), you can catch the Dough Boys at their slice bar at the Belgrave Music Hall in Leeds. Tell 'em I sent you.

http://www.belgravemusichall.com/kitchen/

Belgrave Music Hall, 1-1a Cross Belgrave Street, LS2 8JP

2) Bundobust/@Bundobust

Bundobust had to come next 'cause they were the only stall I ate from twice. I ate two consecutive meals of the mung bean curry and if I'm real with you it might be my favourite curry I've ever eaten.  Simple and perfectly portioned, this not-quite-dal but who-cares-because-it's-better-than-dal has everything you could wish for from curry - amazing texture, gr8 flavours and just the right amount of warming spice for a cold night time at a festival. 

Again, Bundobust is based in Leeds - they just opened an ALL VEGETARIAN!!! venue which also serves craft beer (lol I say that so casually as if I know what it is) and I would get my butt down there sharpish if this curry is anything to go by. Easily my favey dish of the festival.

http://www.bundobust.com

Bundobust, 6 Mill Hill, LS1 5DQ

3) Yummy Yorkshire/@YummyYorkshire

VEGAN CARAMEL ICE CREAM HAD ME LIKE *PRAYING HANDS EMOJI*. I was so excited to try these guys out, 'cause I knew they'd have some vegan flavours. What I was not expecting was to be told, when I asked which flavours I could eat, that ALL BUT ONE was dairy free. It was so cool to have such a big choice, but I had to go for caramel and I definitely made the right decision (though it was a toss up between that and their mojito flavour which also looked amazing). This stuff was rich and creamy and everything you want from ice cream. I was in raptures (I kept going AS IF THIS IS VEGAN after every mouthful). Yummy Yorkshire are based at their family farm in Huddersfield, where the ice cream is also made. Swoon. 

http://www.yummyyorkshire.co.uk/

Yummy Yorkshire, Delph House Farm, HD8 8XY

4) Noisette Bakehouse/@NoisetteBakes

I wanna cry at the memory of this cake for real. I had a slice of the orange loaf and it did things to me. My mouth is literally watering as I type this. Noisette Bakehouse was hugely popular at Beacons - by the Sunday morning, these ladies had pretty much sold out of everything, and for good reason. The cakes all looked gorgeous, and tasted even better. I was also really heartened to see the number of animal friendly options on offer: again, there was more choice than I think most vegans are used to, so that was an extra treat. 

From what I can gather, Noisette Bakehouse doesn't have a permanent address just yet, but if you're anything like me, you'll be hoping to catch their Madeleine Express at a food market near u soon. 

http://noisettebakehouse.com/

5) Margo and Rita/@MargoandRitas

Ain't al fresco dining without a lil Latin, right? Margo and Rita were serving up tacos and nacho boxes over the weekend, and everything was in good, spicy, flavoursome order. Our nachos were doused in fresh pico de gallo and a smoky chipotle sauce, and finished off with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of coriander. The freshness of the salsa was especially pleasing, and the portion size was great (but where, for the love of god, were the burritos? I woulda dug that pico on a burrito so hard). 

Like Noisette Bakehouse, Margo and Rita are roving souls - you can catch 'em at events up and down the country.

http://www.margoandrita.co.uk

Beacons was great////I ate too much food////but it doesn't matter because it was all delicious////go visit and find out about all of these class vendors immediately. Mwah. 

 

Alfie Birds, Birmingham - 4/8/2014 and 12/8/2014

or, 'A pizza so nice I ate it twice'. 

Something which is really cool is tasty pizza. Something which is even cooler is tasty pizza which is pretty much on your doorstep. When that tasty pizza also comes with *whisper it* ~vegan cheese~ shit gets positively icy.

As far as I can gather, Alfie Birds is a relatively new endeavour in the Custard Factory, which is a lil complex of independent shops and offices in Digbeth, near the Bullring in Birmingham city centre. It's a real nice place, and they do a selection of food - namely pizzas and burgs - and have a full bar. I like it there a lot, which is why I went twice in nearly a week. The choice of pizzas is vast, and the topping combinations are generally not traditional ones, but they work nicely all the same, imho.

Their vegan pizza is called a Vegan Pesto, and comes with the aforementioned vegan cheese, caramelised onions, spinach, tomatoes and - u guessed it - a vegan pesto ~drizzle~ (the olives in the pic above from my second visit were a very welcome surprise). I would say that I was into this pizza. I think the first time around the crust and base were a little firmer than the second time, and I appreciate a lil bit of crunch with my bite, so that was A+. The second time around things got a lil softer, a lil chewier, but it still tasted good so *Kanye shrug*. Toppings wise, I would say that caramelised onion is a super strong flavour to put on a pizza when you're also combining it with other stuff because it tends to take over (kind of as if it's Beyoncé and the other toppings are Kelly and Michelle), so I was pleased that on my second visit there was a little less of that stuff - don't get me wrong, it tasted good but I think it was nice for the other toppings' confidence that they were able to get some shine - and a more balanced pizza as a result.

In general, Alfie Birds is a really great place with v reasonable prices and inventive pizzas so go hang out there and get yourself a slice or five.

Pizza rating - 7.5/10

Alfie Birds
The Custard Factory, B94AA

THE ABSOLUTELY DEFINITIVE LIST OF THE BEST VEGAN SPOTS IN COPENHAGEN

There are a few lists like this knocking around on other sites, but this one is ofc the best. Something which can be frustrating when you are trying to eat vegan and you visit a new city is simply knowing where to go to get tasty food that you can actually eat, at a good price. So, I'm writing this post in order to help that cause - Copenhagen-visiting vegans/people who generally like delicious and non-mean food, look no further, for I am come.

(P.S. sorry this isn't a pizza post, but I felt it my public duty to report on all the dope stuff I ate. I hope u understand)

1) GRØD 

GRØD is a restaurant with two locations in the city. They pretty much only serve porridge (pretty sure they also do a form of risotto in the evenings, but don't quote me on that/check the website or something I don't know). This probably sounds sort of insane but honestly, they have it down to an art form. The one in the picture is made with soy milk, and is topped with fresh strawberries and something called rodgrødskompote, which is an amazing red berry compote. Though it isn't entirely dairy free, GRØD offers varieties of their porridge made with both soy and rice milk, so it's rly vegan friendly. The surroundings are stylish and minimalist, and the staff, like all the Danes we encountered, are beautiful and so polite. Price-wise, I think it's fairly reasonable - the dish in the photo cost me around £5, which was completely worth it for a) the level of "omfg delicious" and b) the obvious high quality of the ingredients they use. In all, GRØD is totally worth a visit whether you're into porridge or not - if you are, it'll be a total paradise, and if you're not, you'll be a convert before your visit is over. 

GRØD, 50 Jaegersborggade and Torvehallerne, Hal 2, A8

https://www.facebook.com/groed

2) Express Pizza Nørrebro

Having already raved about this place like a crazy lady here, there isn't much else to say. This is my favourite vegan pizza I've ever eaten and I just feel sorry for everyone who hasn't experienced it yet.

Express Pizza Nørrebro, Mimersgade 102

http://www.expresspizza.dk

3) Naturbageriet

Cast your eyes upon this cinnamon whirl and surrender yourself to greatness, okay? Okay. Naturbageriet is a bakery using largely vegan and gluten free ingredients, and producing incredible cakes, pastries and breads as a result. Over the course of the time I was in Copenhagen, I think I visited Naturbageriet most (sort of because it was located really conveniently, near the Metro station we used most days, sort of because I would walk over hot coals to get to the cinnamon whirls anyway) - their pastries are so delicious (I also had a pain au chocolate, and something which tasted like a raspberry jam tart but was shaped differently), their prices are excellent (think this guy >>>> cost me about £1, and considering how awesome it was, and the specialist ingredients used, I'd have been willing to pay a little more than that), and the staff are friendly and knowledgeable about the products, as most, but not all of them, are vegan and we had to ask which ones we could have. So, vegan or not, if you find yourself on Frederiksborggade, you gotta go to Naturbageriet for some of the tastiest, most ethical pastries around.  

Naturbageriet, Frederiksborggade 29

4) Astrid och Aporna

Sometimes you just want a burger and fries, AMIRITE GUYS? Astrid och Aporna, located very near GRØD on Jaegersborggade (which is a very cool street in general, with lotsa nice shops and gorgeous people with adorable children/dogs) can fill that gap in your life. This place is 100% vegan, and has only been operating for about 3 months, so it was really cool to be able to visit. They offer burgers, hot dogs, fries, salads, soft drinks and beers, and you really can't go wrong with any of it. Their fake meat is delicious (I'd especially recommend the BBQ burger), and their toppings/relishes are really creative. The hot dogs you see in the photo are their Hot Chorizo dog, and their Smoky dog, both of which were amazing (though if I was pushed for a preference, I'd have to go Chorizo), and crazy cheap - they cost around £3 each and were a more than filling lunch. Again, the staff are real friendly and helpful (pretty much a Danish trait to be honest), so if a Copenhagen vegan burger ~fix~ is what you're after then look no further because this place has everything you might need. 

Astrid och Aporna, Jaegersborggade 39

5) Barburrito

Not to be confused with the UK burrito chain, Barburrito Copenhagen is a slightly classier affair.  Serving burritos, tacos and cocktails, along with a heap of carefully chosen starters and sides, this place is really cool. Though they also serve meat, something really cool about this place is that there is a vegan burrito option on their menu, so there's no annoying "can I get it without sour cream and cheese???" questions when you're ordering. As this place is located in the centre of Copenhagen, it's a little pricier than the other eateries I've mentioned so far, but I'd say that it's definitely worth it for the atmosphere of the place, which is really friendly and it looks great. Oh, and something else completely dope about Barburrito is that before they bring your food out, they also bring you two entire bottles of salsa (habanero and chipotle) for your table so that you can keep squirting it onto your burrito to your heart's content. I loved that the food was colourful and vibrant, and also the people who work here are again, really kind, friendly and knowledgeable about the food. Also the margarita was gr8 and made me kind of drunk, lol.

Barburrito, Skindergade 36

http://www.barburrito.dk

HONOURABLE MENTIONS///STUFF I DIDN'T GET PHOTOS OF

6) Is à Bella 

A gelato joint with a huge choice of vegan flavours - both times we visited there was 6 to choose from which is pretty unprecedented in my experience. I had the strawberry and the kiwi and both were great.

Is à Bella, Smallegade 40, Nørrebrogade 118, and Torvehallerne Hal 1, E8

http://www.isabellais.dk

7) Kate's Joint

Kate's Joint is located on Blågårdsgade which is a street with a number of veggie and veggie-friendly restaurants, but of those I visited, Kate's Joint is the best. They do big helpings of unfussy, tasty African and Asian food (curries abound), and whilst they do also serve meat, they also have a huge number of veggie and vegan options - the night we visited, there were four vegan options which, at an omni restaurant, is pretty great going. I had a vegetable bhuna curry and Ben had tofu and miso and both were great. Kate's Joint is affordable and casual and pretty ideal for a ~relaxed~ evening meal. 

Kate's Joint, Blågårdsgade 12

8) Halifax Burger
The last item on this list is a burger restaurant of already pretty high standing. Though it was pricey, the burger I chose at Halifax definitely had one of the tastiest vegan patties I've eaten in a while (if I remember rightly it was their green pea patty and it was great), with fresh toppings and really, really delicious fries.

Halifax Burger, Frederiksborggade 35, Larsbjørnstræde 9, Falkoner Plads 1 and Trianglen 1

http://halifax.dk/

Thus concludes my overview of the best vegan food I ate in Copenhagen. I read before I went that it's not a particularly vegan friendly place, and I think that's actually really incorrect. The provision for vegans was great and I really had no problem filling my damn face every day so four for you Copenhagen, you go Copenhagen. Go visit this place 'cause it's rly rly rly the coolest.

recipe: (Danish) pizza tortillas

Here is the second post about my time in Copenhagen - this time a (completely easy and foolproof and so obvious that it doesn't really even warrant being called a) recipe for yr delectation. Obviously one of the best things to do when you go on holiday to a new country is to go to their supermarkets and laugh at the funny names for stuff. Pretty much as soon as we got to Copenhagen, this is what we did. Given my affinity for turning different kinds of bread into pizza, we were very excited to discover these on the shelves:

Your eyes do not mistake you. Those are tortilla wraps which are recommended for pizza making. In fact, they are extra thick so that they are optimised for pizza making. As you can imagine, I was overjoyed and had to buy them.

We made pizza tortillas on a couple of different occasions. They make a rly tasty snack - after spreading the squeezy pizza sauce (a genius invention; also considering this stuff is pre-made it tastes pretty good) on the tortilla, we added ripped up Toffutti mozzarella style slices (which is for real the best tasting vegan pizza cheese I have personally used yet - it is really really convincing in a way you would not expect from cheese slices, would recommend) some veggie toppings - jalapeños on one occasion, red onion, black olives and fresh basil after baking on another - and then drizzled them with olive oil for crispiness (v important that u do not miss out this step), and sprinkled some Italian seasoning and black pepper on top. Baked 'em in the oven for 10 mins at 180 degrees, et voila. 

  

As you can see from the picture at the top of the post, they came out looking real nice, and they tasted great. If u are about that thin and crispy pizza life, these will be right up your alley if u know what I mean ;-) (I do not know what I mean). Though obviously we don't have squeezy pizza sauce and tortillas directly intended for pizza making for sale in the UK (god bless u Denmark), I'm pretty sure you could make these on any kind of tortilla base and they'd still be great, as long as you don't overload on the toppings. I'd also probably add that really robust flavours don't work amazingly - we were not hugely into the jalapeño pizza, for example - just because a pizza tortilla as a whole is probably a little too delicate for really bold tasting toppings. The black olive and red onion version that you see at the beginning definitely went down best, and made for a really satisfying and speedy snack.

So yeah, pizza tortillas are cool and I am very pleased that the Danish prioritise turning different kinds of bread into pizza as much as I do. Perhaps I have found my people.

Pizza rating - 8/10

Nørrebro Express Pizza, Copenhagen - 26/07/14

Copenhagen is not a city known for its pizza. It is a city of history, architecture, and unfairly beautiful people, but not necessarily of dough and tomatoes and (fake) cheese.

However, it is my mission in life - nay, my calling - to make every city a city of pizza; to seek out the very best pies, exposing them for the world to see (I am being very dramatic, but it is literally that important to me and also I love attention). So, with that in mind, I present Nørrebro's Express Pizza for your viewing pleasure.

I am going to drop a pretty big statement right now: Express Pizza do probably the best intentionally 'vegan' pizza I have ever tasted. Though they also make pies with meat - and for sure, meat eaters should 100% visit too - they use probably the best fake cheese and meat I have ever tasted. I had pepperoni and Ben had ham and we both agree that it was insanely dope. Their dough, and especially the crispy crusts, has a texture such as would convince you it's made by the hands of angels, but it is honestly the sauce that's the star of the show. 

I have an Italian grandma (luv u Nonna), and she used to make the world's greatest pasta sauce - I know I mostly speak in hyperbole but this one is the honest truth. Express Pizza's pizza sauce smells and tastes EXACTLY like that sauce. Ben will testify to the fact that I sat sniffing a slice of my pizza for about a full minute because it smelled so good, and so similar to my grandma's old time-y cooking.

That's why Express Pizza, and especially their vegan pizza, is so fucking great, you see. Because so often, vegan pizza isn't really considered to be authentic (and often, it doesn't really taste it), 'cause it uses different ingredients to the classix. But Express Pizza makes vegan pizza totally authentic - the friendly owner who gave us free Cokes, and their small, mom and pop style location, complete with photos of dark haired, mustachio'd musicians on the walls, definitely adds to that authenticity - and most importantly, it also just makes it completely delicious. Whoever said Copenhagen doesn't know pizza obviously just never went to Express Pizza. 

Pizza rating - 10/10

Express Pizza Nørrebro

Mimersgade 102, 2200 København

http://www.expresspizza.dk

update/////B E A C O N S F E S T I V A L 2 0 1 4

What's up every1, I have returned from Copenhagen like Jesus on the third day (except I was just on holiday and he was like, actually dead) - please expect lots of pizza posts about my visit to the Danish capital soon! I'm also gonna be posting a more general, not necessarily pizza-themed round up of (mostly unhealthy) vegan spots around the city,  a) because those things are useful, and b) because I ate a ton of delicious stuff that wasn't pizza so, again Christ-like, I'll be sharing that with u all soon. Get excited for some srs #content.

But let's put that aside for a bit. My main reason for posting on this sunny Monday morning is to talk a little bit about Beacons Festival 2014. Beacons is a cool ass music and arts festival, which is now in its third year at Heslaker Farm in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Beacons is specifically gr8 because it is, actually and properly, "not your usual festival" - on top of the music (Action Bronson! The Fall! Charli XCX! Way more other dope shit!) there's film screenings, crafts, art installations, and a friggin theatre tent. However, for me what is most exciting about Beacons is the fact that it will also host a full scale Street Food Festival, which I am delighted (that's the adjective people use when they make 'announcements' about stuff, right?) to be covering for restinpizza this weekend!

The reason I wanted to visit Beacons in the first place, and the reason I'm really excited to be writing about it for you all to read about, is because as a veggie, it's really rare to have as much food choice at a festival as Beacons is offering. The range of food that will be available this weekend is mad diverse - every buzzy cuisine you can think of right now, from pies to pan-Asian, Mexican to Middle Eastern, is covered by independent vendors (loads more plus points). They're even gonna have vegan ice cream. Heart eyes emoji.

I wanted to know what motivated the people behind the Beacons street food festival to make food such an important part of the ~Beacons experience~, and why they've chosen the food and vendors that they have, so I had me a lil chat with Ben Davy, who organised the food festival, and who's also a part of Leeds' Dough Boys Pizza (expect lots of coverage on these guys in the upcoming 'pizza my heart' zine and also probably some photos of me trying desperately to be their best mate in exchange for a free slice). Here is that chat, for your reading pleasure:

RIP: Considering that most festivals are content to serve up suspiciously grey-looking burgers, limp chips and a bottle of Coke for more than your annual salary, something different, such as what is being offered at Beacons, is pretty refreshing, right? 

Ben: For us the food offered at Beacons is just as important as the music. Food is what fuels people and good fuel is what you need if you're gonna be partying in a field for 3 days. For years festival food was renowned for being corporate, overpriced, below-average crap, but people just accepted it and parted ways with their money as they had no other choice. The recent rise in popularity of street food has changed all that. It's now possible to get high quality, healthy, interesting food for a really reasonable price and that is what we've brought to the festival this year.

How have you gone about finding vendors for this year's festival? Are you re-using old favourites, or have you mostly gone for new faces? Has there been a particular emphasis on using independent vendors?
We run the monthly indoor street food festival 'Belgrave Street Feast' in Leeds which has served as a great way to try out new vendors, so some have come through that. A lot of the traders I've met through working the street food circuit with Dough Boys Pizza, others we've tried at various events around the country. So there are a lot of new faces but we've mixed it up with a few old Beacons favourites who we've worked with every year, like the Skipton Pie & Mash guys who've become a Beacons institution.   

One thing I've noticed is that the range of cuisines on offer is incredibly diverse - this is so impressive for a three day festival! How important has securing this level of diversity been for you?
Diversity in food is hugely important for me and I think it says a lot about the personality of the festival. There are a few familiar offers in the mix like Reds BBQ, Diamond Dogs and Patty Smith's Burgers for when you need something safe, but then we've got vendors who will make you question everything like Dorshi, Bundobust and Street Fodder. There's literally something for everyone and that's why we're really proud of the lineup. 

I'm a veggie, and one of the things that made me want to get in touch with Beacons in the first place was the sheer amount of choice for veggies and vegans at the festival. It's so cool, especially when we're so often an afterthought. What do you think that offering so many veggie options brings to the festival?

Again the mix of veggie/vegan/meat offerings is just part of the package: it's diversity, it's interesting, it opens new doors to people. If you stick a paneer wrap from Manjit's Kitchen in the hand of a devout meat eater and make them eat it, there is no way they wouldn't cry tears of joy because it tastes great! Tasty food is tasty food, meat or no meat. I don't want people to think of veggie food as an after thought, or as anything less exciting than meat based food because it's not. IF IT'S GOOD IT'S GOOD      

Finally - where are you personally most looking forward to eating during the festival? Do you have any personal favourite vendors?
I'll probably be too busy making pizzas to eat but my top 5 picks would be... Cafe Moor, Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream, Dorshi, Bundobust and Margo&Rita… but then again Fish& are ace, and Diamond Dogs… and Manjit's Kitchen and Mumma Schnitzel - DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!     

So yeah, if you need me this weekend I'll probably have a gobful of something delicious and won't be able to communicate with you properly, but all for good reason. I'll be posting over the weekend on restinpizza's NEW NEW NEW Twitter and Instagram feeds (@restinpizza666 for both!) with some updates about what I'm eating at Beacons 2014. You can check out their full roster of food vendors here. Peace out xoxo

photo ℅ http://greetingsfrombeacons.com

pizza my heart submissions update

hopefully this flyer explains everything in that last post a little more succinctly. again, if you'd like to contribute with anything at all, I'd l-u-r-v-e to hear from you so drop me an email!

pizza my heart - a rest in pizza zine

Hey everyone. Gonna take a break right now from the NON-STOP ENTERTAINMENT of reviews and talk to you about something else for a second.

I love writing restinpizza, and I hope that some of you enjoy reading it every so often. What I would really like to do more than anything is convert this lil blog of mine into an actual physical zine - 'pizza my heart' is essentially going to be the paper version of restinpizza, and whilst it might feature some content similar to that you see on the blog, it's also going to be a little more varied, with photography, interviews, illustration and lots of other cool stuff, hopefully with pizza contributions and points of view from people who aren't just me.

That is where you all come in - basically, if you think you have something cool to say about pizza or pizza-related topics, and would like your work to be featured in a dope-ass publication that you can hold in your hands, then please shoot me an email and your idea (no more than 200 words pls!) at restinpizza666@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you and collect the work of pizza aficionados in one tastefully designed place.

(if you think you'd like to submit or be involved, but aren't really sure what sort of direction you'd like to take, here are some ideas:

• a profile of the best pizza places in one city (written/photographic/whatever)
• recipes!  
• or you could just write about why you l-u-v pizza
• any sort of ~creative non-fiction~ 
• tbh, anything creative at all)

Please get in touch if you'd like to be involved; otherwise I'll be posting some sporadic updates about the zine, so pls keep an eye out! It should appear sometime in September. 

Thank u for reading, everyone; I will shut up now.

Lauren xoxo 

The Farm, Solihull - 19/7/2014

On Saturday I went for a ~meal~ for my stepdad's birthday at The Farm which is a v nice restaurant in Solihull. Solihull is basically Birmingham but the people who live there will vehemently deny this from inside their wannabe yummy mummy 4x4s on the way to taking Ellie-Mae to her violin lesson, whilst also telling Freddie to "shut the DS the fuck up I'm trying to make an eyebrow appointment". 

Ahem. Anyway so yeah. The Farm. This place is cool and the ambience is lovely and all, but I was not bowled over by their pizza, and as we all know, this is the most important test of any establishment. Ben and I had a pie with spring onion, olives and chillies on it, with added rocket and mushrooms to replace the mozzarella and anchovies we got rid of. The toppings were nice quality, but I did take issue with the chillies which were suuuper spicy and not very flavoursome. I really like spicy food but there just wasn't much else to compensate for the hotness. The sauce was just sauce really, and I actually wasn't hugely into the base, which had a texture which was too chewy for a dough as thin as it was. 

However, I'm not tryna hate because this is a cool place to eat and it's laid out really nicely, so definitely not all bad. Should you ever find yourself in Solihull (let me know so I can pray a rosary for your mortal soul) and stuck for somewhere pretty to eat, maybe you should visit The Farm.

The Inn at The Farm

Farmhouse Way, Solihull, B90 4EH

http://www.lovelypubs.co.uk/venues/the-inn-at-the-farm

recipe: PIZZADILLAS - 16/7/2014

Here is a pizzadilla what I made. Obviously it looks absolutely shit because all of the magic was happening inside (I forgot to take a picture of the magic before I put the second wrap on top because I was shitting myself about it burning sorry), but I assure you, these badboyz are dope. 

Before you do anything with actual cooking utensils, make sure you've a) grated lots of cheese (vegan or otherwise - I used Violife pizza cheese, but any grate-able cheese works), b) chopped up your veggies/whatever elses for the filling (I used red peppers and black olives), and c) made up a lil pizza sauce (passata/tomato puree/garlic/herbs), and perhaps added some extra kick due to the usually spicier-than-a-pizza nature of a quesadilla - I did so by using chilli powder, paprika, cumin and coriander. Alternatively, you could use a ready made pizza sauce, or even salsa from a jar. 

Once you have done that, start to warm up a frying pan and fuck a load of olive oil into it. Make sure both the pan and the oil are quite hot, and then put a tortilla inside it, flat. Wait until the tortilla starts puffing up a bit and little air bubbles start appearing, and then give it a flip over. Wait for the same thing to happen on the other side, and then flip it back to the original side. Then u must work quickly. 

Spread the pizza sauce, whichever you have chosen to use, onto the tortilla, like you would onto a pizza base. Then sprinkle most, but not all, of the cheese on, and crucially, wait for it to melt. It is rly important that the cheese melts for the next bit. 

The next bit is putting the veggies on top - if the cheese has melted, they have something to cling to rather than falling all over the place like me walking home after I've been out. Once you've put the veggies/whatever on top of the tortilla, sprinkle the remainder of the cheese on top of them. Then comes the difficult part. 

You can do this in one of two ways - if you have lots of time and ingredients, you can simply fold one side of the tortilla over the other and flip it over a couple of times with a fish slice, so that it toasts evenly. Then, repeat all of the above using another tortilla so that you end up with four little slices of pizzadilla, as per the picture. You can put the one you've made in the oven to stay warm (obvious, but protip all the same). Alternatively, if like me, you are a disorganised mess and need to be quick, you can simply place another tortilla on top of the one in the pan, and flip them over so that the new one also becomes crispy. Obviously this flip requires great accuracy and strength of will, but I believe that you can do it without much issue if I was able to, because I am properly useless. I used two fish slice-y type things and held them underneath the pizzadilla on either side, and then quickly flipped it over. Surprisingly, it didn't actually make much mess, and crisis was averted.

Once you've overcome that hurdle, stick it on a plate and eat it. I had mine with fake garlic mayo and a red pepper and olive salad and it was delicious. Go forth and pizzadilla. 

PS: sorry for the lack of photos in this post - kinda shitty when I'm trying to explain how to do something! If you'd like any more clarification of the recipe pls just leave a comment and I'll get back to you on it :3  

VEGAN TAKEAWAY PIZZA: Village Pizza, London - 9/7/2014 and Papa John's, Sheffield - 13/7/2014

When you are trying to eat vegan something that can be annoying is finding decent takeaway pizza. Takeaway pizza has always been a very important aspect of my life at the core of who I am, and I will not allow anything to change this.

Last week I was gross (great) and ate a lot of takeaway pizza. This is a post about that. The first pizza place I'll review will be London's VILLAGE PIZZA (the Old Kent Road branch). Village Pizza is one of London's premier vegan pizza suppliers, even doing pies with vegan cheese (the old classic Mozzarella-style Cheezly from what I can gather) and fake meat. We ordered two pizzas: one 16 inch (ridiculous) Pepe Peppers, consisting of Cheezly, fake pepperoni, jalapeños, sweetcorn and peppers, and one medium Spaniard - Cheezly, fake garlic sausage, black olives, fresh tomatoes and red onion. Here they are in all of their glory:

bby Spaniard

Pepe Peppers, total giant bastard

I wanna first of all give props to Village Pizza for thinking of vegans and making sure they too can get dope, artery blocking pizzas. It is important, in the interests of equal opportunities and so on, that this happens. The slightly bad news was that in both cases, the fake meat (the main draw other than the vegan cheese really) was sort of flavourless and not particularly nicely textured. I was not overly into it. The veg was all really tasty, though, and the pizza sauce was good in a pizza sauce way. However, the dough - special vegan dough also, but tbh I don't understand on any level why anyone is putting milk/eggs in pizza dough - was a little too soft for me, considering how thin it also was. Sad :(. The pizzas were also sort of cold when they arrived. In general, Village Pizza is not my favourite vegan pizza I have ever eaten, but their good intentions are admirable, and next time I'm in LDN I'm gonna be jonesing to try their Hickory BBQ 'za. 

A few days later, this time in Sheffield, we ordered more pizza because the World Cup was on. In a slightly excessive move, we ordered two Extra Extra Large pizzas (the Garden Party, which has the sort of standard list of veggie toppings, and the Hot Pepper Passion which was delicious and really fucking spicy due to chillies and jalapeños) and a small The Greek (more veggies, but slightly hotter due to added peperonata) because there was obviously not enough already. 

A downside to Papa John's is that they don't offer a vegan cheese option, but unlike their main competitor Domino's, Papa John's bases are 100% animal product-free (FYI, in general, their crust is very similar to Domino's - it's chunky and chewy and just really pleasingly bready but not too bready. For these reasons, I think it is really good). So, when the pizzas came, we just grated Cheezly over them, whacked them in the oven and took them out when they looked like this:

close-up of Hot Pepper Passion 'cause it looked dope/I couldn't get
decent photos of the others bc I was too eager to stuff pizza in every hole on my face

Though this might seem like a lot of effort to go to for a takeaway, it was actually pretty minimal and it ended up tasting gr8. Papa John's pizza sauce is on some classic New York pizza shit, and rly complimented both the dough and the veg. I can't praise the dough highly enough, and Cheezly, which featured again on this pizza, is always really good. 

Of the two vegan pizza takeaways, though it required a lil more effort, Papa John's definitely ended up being the better tasting option. Their pizzas made for a more satisfying slice (I would know, I think I ate about 10 and that is not an exaggeration), and there was some left over for dinner the next day. Dope as fuck. 

Village Pizza pizza rating: 6/10

Village Pizza

230 Old Kent Road, SE1 5UB

http://www.villagepizzauk.com

Papa John's pizza rating: 8/10

I'm not going to put an address because their are Papa John's branches everywhere

http://www.papajohns.co.uk 

Pizza Hut, Birmingham - 2/07/2014

Yesterday I hung out with one of my oldest and most lovely pals, Hannah. Whenever we hang out we go to Pizza Hut because it is what we have always done since the dawn of time. 

So. I had a Veggie pizza with no cheese and extra olives on a Pan base. The Pizza Hut Pan base is a thing of immense beauty and I want to take a second to honour it now - at best (i.e. when it's just been freshly served) it's soft and comforting yet crispy. The crust gives just a tiny bit of resistance when you first bite it and it's completely dope. It makes me sort of sad that the colder the pizza gets, the less crispy and more doughy the Pan crust gets. If Pizza Hut could find a way to solve that, they could well have one of the world's most delicious doughs on their hands. And I do not say that lightly. 

The toppings were all very nice and fresh-seeming (though I do take issue with Pizza Hut's black olives which are weirdly shrivelled), and I appreciated how inviting the pizza looked 'cause of all the bright colours. Not too much green, which does often become a problem with veggie pizza, imho. 

Basically u know what you're getting with Pizza Hut (Peep Show fans amirite??) - tasty comfort food AND a free salad bar (big up Pizza Hut couscous tbh) AND free fizzy drink refills. Not bloody bad. 

Pizza rating: 6/10