Vegan Southern Feast: Sausage Okra Gumbo, Bacon Cornbread, Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, Perfect Brussels Sprouts

The renowned restaurant Tredwells, in the Seven Dials area of the West End (close to “Matilda”!), has joined the happy trend of mainstream restaurants doing special-night plant-based supper clubs. And yes, they do mean vegan. Calling their one-night-a-month supper club “Vegwells” to be adorable, Tredwells in their attempt this past Monday has lept ahead of the competition. I’d expect nothing less from a restaurant of Marcus Wareing, the celebrity chef with the two-Michelin starred restaurant in Knightsbridge (remind me to look into whether that one is vegan-friendly too, and thus a candidate for the Vegan Michelin series). So I just googled Marcus Wareing and was like ‘hmm why is he sooo familiar looking’ and realized it’s because he was on an episode of Masterchef that Husbo P and I watched during our short but EMBARRASSING hate-fueled obsession with that terrible addictive af show. Anyway, the Tredwells chef, Chantelle Nicholson, has created this ‘plant-based’ supper club to highlight the magic that can unfold when you focus on good, sustainable ingredients. As the author of an apparently vegan (!!) cookbook called Planted, she seemed up to the challenge of impressing me with this meal. Spoiler, she did.

​Chef Chantelle spoke at the start of the meal, which is when I realized that like a true supper club, every table in our basement room was part of this special night and we were all going to be served the same courses at the same time. I like that! It made it seem extra special and like a real event. I am pretty sure this was the first edition of this new version of their supper club, which will be held on the last Monday of every month and must be booked (and paid for) in advance. I am not sure how often the menu will change, but given the restaurant’s dedication to sustainability, seasonality, and innovation, I assume that it will be different each time. Although if the desserts wanted to stay the same, I would be happy.
 
The concept focuses on five ‘plant-based’ courses, and I was assured that everything was vegan. I’m always nervous when places use the phrase ‘plant-based’ (more on that later), so even when someone tells me it’s all vegan, a part of me never really is certain. Well, thanks to Chef Chantelle’s welcome speech, I was finally at ease, because she mentioned how they were using fun new ingredients like ‘the water from chickpeas’. GIRL I almost screamed! High caliber chefs embracing the magic of aquafaba (remind me to ask her if she’s familiar with this name for it) (I’m asking you to remind me of a lot of things but like it’s in writing now so don’t worry) makes me so happy. And I figured, if they’re using aquafaba, I’m pretty sure that means everything is vegan.
 
Our waitress was very sweet, and after I quickly and repeatedly emptied my small-to-medium (it wasn’t a thimble, but I downed it in a sip) water glass, I said ‘would it be possible to get a pitcher? I think it would be easier for all of us’ and she laughed and brought me one so huzzah. 

The first course was a little jar of mushroom mousse that sounds weird but was great. The caramelized shallots seemed to be concentrated at the bottom, which I didn’t know, so my last few bites were a little too full of them, and the pickled mushrooms were big ole strips to be eating out of a tiny jar with a teaspoon. But those are just little quibbles because this was hella delicious. I’d be happy eating that again. 

Course 2 was avocado, lemon, and kohlrabi, which the chef said was her idea of summer in a dish. And it was very summery and bright, and I was glad to have something fresh and refreshing, even though it wasn’t anything revolutionary. You always need something to break up heavier foods and stronger flavors.

For the main course, we were served a chickpea panisse, which is a fried chickpea flour cake kind of thing from the south of France. If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with chickpea flour and run out weekly because I make socca probably too often. It’s the best stuff and there are endless ways to use it. So I was excited to get it as my main, especially since that meant at least a little bit of protein. It’s rare to see someone at one of these ‘plant-based’ shibangs give us more than vegetables, so I welcomed these sort-of frittery, sort-of cakey slabs heartily. I was also just happy that we got this dish because the other ‘plant-based’ item on their restaurant’s regular sample menu was grilled cauliflower, and you know what happens when a restaurant tries to give vegans a slab of cauliflower as a meal (I burn it down). The socca fingers (new name) were very good and not super dry like mine always are. They were served with grilled onions (a few too many/too big for my taste), mint salsa, and very thin slices of whatever white veg that is, fennel maybe? Good stuff. 

As good as all the savory dishes were, dessert brought everything to a whole nother level. I know what you’re thinking: um, y’all crazy. Dessert on ‘plant-based’ menus at non-vegan restaurants are universally tragic. They’re always futile attempts that show zero awareness of what vegans want (they always seem to be trying to be low-sugar or healthy or whatever and you’re like I’m eating out at a restaurant do you think that’s what I’m here for?). But against all odds (take a good look at me nowwww), dessert at Tredwells was the best freaking part. These little jars of deconstructed strawberry meringue pie were astounding. It was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had, and probably the best in the Non-Chocolate category. Simply sublime. It actually made me giddy (probably the sugar rush) and I started acting a little loopy and I shouted “ANOTHER ROUND GOOD SIR” and husband was sooo embarrassed but I wasn’t because I wanted more. Like Jon Lovitz and his rock shrimp ravioli, I could have eaten 100 of these. Man alive I really want to have this again. They had to have used aquafaba for the meringue, which was a little more mousse-y and not as stiff as you’d expect if it was on a pie, but considering it was all in a little jar it worked for that form. The strawberries were perfect, and that scorched surface was gorgeous. LOVES IT! 

I also loved the second dessert! Yes we got a second dessert that was also wonderful! Screw every other ‘plant-based’ menu! This was toasted hazelnut pudding with hazelnut caramel, just out of the oven so the waiters warned everyone not to touch the dish (I did of course because they said not to and it was extremely hot even ten minutes later). The pudding-y cake was great itself (I didn’t really see where the caramel came into play? it was probably mixed in maybe) but what made this dish was the dark chocolate sorbet on top. The little discs of sorbet were extra extra frozen, so that when it was first served, you literally could not cut into the sorbet with a spoon. They were softened by the heat of the cake! So they slowly melted a little and would mix into the hazelnut pudding and it was so lovely and delicious and I was very very full and very very happy. You know how many ‘plant-based’ menus we’ve tried in London and elsewhere over the years – have you EVER seen a place provide two incredible desserts (besides Alinea?) like this? I can’t think of anywhere right now and I’m impressed.
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So yes, you’ll notice I’ve been using ‘plant-based’ in quotes allatime because I forking hate that phrase, especially when the user is using it instead of vegan. I’ve said in lots of posts (and probably ranted to you in person if we know each other (and on twitter) (and instagram) (complaining is my jam)) why it is problematic, but for a quick refresher: Plant-based is not a real term. Businesses, including restaurants, pop-ups, AND companies selling regular supermarket goods have been using the phrase – for a while now – to mean anything based on a plant. Meaning, when I found a protein bar at the grocery store that screamed “Plant-based!” on the box and I went to check the ingredients, it contained milk and egg. Its first two ingredients were oats and apples – so it was “plant-based” in the truest in-quotes meaning possible. Bless their f-ing hearts, it was founded on plant materials, I guess they were saying, but they added non-plants to it and no one can do shit about it because who is defining ‘plant-based’? Honestly, to me it makes more sense, to get into the semantics of the word ‘based’, that it would mean something that is centered on plants but not 100% entirely made of plants. Like how movies are ‘based on the true story’ or ‘based on the book’ but are never exact copies. They’re just based on it. And I realize that mainstream companies do this because using the word ‘vegan’ would scare away potential nonveg customers – but would it really? Is there any evidence that Joe Spare Ribs wouldn’t try the new vegan menu if it said Vegan at the top but he would if it said ‘Plant-Based’? 

And this rant, and be sure that I’m always going to make this rant (see, e.g., my review of Plates) ​is a little unfair to put on this review, because the chef and staff at Tredwells seem much more amenable to using the V word than others; I mean the chef even has a vegan cookbook. But, it’s messy to me that they commit so hard to the phrase that it informs the code for their regular menu – V means vegetarian, but P-B is used for plant-based. That’s not a very commonsensical code for vegans to look for on a menu. I see that on a menu, I think there’s peanut butter in there and they’re coding it to warn the peanut allergy sufferers, but then, as a fanatic lover of peanut butter, I would do my peanut butter dance and order every peanut butter thing on the menu and so when it turns out it was all the vegan stuff I would, well I would be fine but disappointed because hot damn I love peanut butter. You get what I’m saying. I’m joking yes but it is a wee bit unintelligible for something that is supposed to easily inform customers, especially since vegans are probably the ones looking for the plant-based items. People just trying to eat more vegetables but without real restrictions can use the common sense skill of reading item names without needing a code. I would never think to look for p-b next to a dish name to see if it’s ok for me. And I’ve never seen that before anywhere, so it seems like bending over backwards to avoid using the v word. That kind of mental acrobatics is a big turn-off and I wish people would just embrace the word vegan, especially as ‘plant-based’ continues to get more and more bastardized by commercial ventures. 

Aside from my requisite p-b rant (not peanut butter) (I know you thought I meant peanut butter right), the experience at Vegwells supper club was a real treat. Everything was delicious and some dishes were extraordinary. I have no idea how they will top these desserts but I believe in them. And I’ll let you know, because I will definitely be going back.

Tredwells “Vegwells” Supper Club, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe for right now
Water speed: I was happy to get a pitcher so I didn’t have to worry about it, but before that, the waiters did a good job filling the water glasses of normal people and their normal drinking speeds.
Service: Overall very nice. It was really hard to get the bill at the end (we paid before, as I said, but you had to pay for service and any drinks you got at the end) because everyone was finishing at the exact same time, so I wish next time you could just pay for service beforehand too, like we did for Plates and others. 
Bathrooms: Around the corner so you pass a little window into the kitchen on the way. Fine, clean individual doors marked separately for men and women.
Food:  Fantastic! And we’re getting closer and closer to getting sufficient protein at these things! Sun’s out guns out!
Bonus: Amazing desserts! Like seeing a double rainbow. 

   This past weekend was the Brighton edition of VegFest UK, and while the food and vendors were nearly identical to the London VegFest, it wasn’t nearly as fun! So sad! Was it because of the crowds? The lack of free samples? The liiiines? The difficult-to-navigate venue? The absence of Vegan in Brighton? Let’s talk about it while I share random pictures! Shall we do it with our preferred method of ranking? 

      First of all, I need to give a huge thank you to Stephen at Friends Gazette for having a VegFest ticket giveaway and to the powers that be for ensuring that I won! If you don’t get the Gazette, you should sign up for its free articles about moral veganism and other good things. I’m pretty sure free tickets were the only thing bringing me down to Brighton on a Saturday, when the trains are notoriously 40 minutes slower than usual and it was freezing rain and the venue was on the water so the rain was like sideways and the wind was so strong and man alive it was just really cold and gross out there. But I was excited to see what magic awaited me inside.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much magic. My favorite part was my early food buying — the early part is key (more on that below). How thrilled was I, coming in from the awful weather, to be immediately greeted upstairs by a fresh juice bar! Damage Limitation (what a name, amiright? Luckily I peaced out before any talk of what the pureed produce would do for my toxins or whatever) had set up a large area for juices and smoothies and it was wonderful. For only $3.50 (listen, I don’t have the pound sign on my computer and I don’t feel like copying and pasting one from the internet or dealing with like writing my own code or some bullshit that people go to years of schooling to learn how to do so just assume I am saying pound, ya dig?), you could choose from two juices or two smoothies. The menu is limited, yes (just like the Damage!), but it made for a much faster-moving line because they could make so many orders at once. I got a ‘The Alkaliser’ smoothie, which included cucumber, zucchini, pear, spinach, ginger, and lemon. It was a splendid combination although I would have liked it to have been blended with ice, and blended a little more successfully (I don’t think they were using Vitamixen). 

But I wasn’t done! No sir I was just getting started. I began the day so ravenous because of how long it took to get there and so I was a bottomless pit that couldn’t be filled. But we had to try. Next up, I beheld the most beautiful sight mine eyes have seen in like days:

STEAMED BUNS! Some rando Chinese stall had STEAMS BUNS! They were GOOD too, filled with meaty somethings! I did the dumbest thing ever when I saw them early in the day and I bought and immediately devoured one. I bought ONE. I went back just one or two hours later and the people in front of me got the last ones. It was probably the dumbest thing I’ve done, not buying more when I had the chance. If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and buy all of them. Or, no, if I had to time machine I would use it as payment to give to someone who can make vegan steamed buns and I’d hire them for life as my personal bun maker because I’m sure most people would be willing to swap devoted services for such a find. I mean but then they couldn’t be allowed to use the time machine because what if I wanted a steamed bun one afternoon and I was like ‘hey amigo where are you I want a steamed bun?’ and like I found a post-it on the fridge saying ‘hey I went to 1768 be back later!’ and like what do I do then. 

       More things that we ate! I had Loving Hut’s soy meat skewers (a whole stick for $1! Can’t beat that even if its sauce will convert you into a follower of Supreme Master or whatever their shtick is), which were really yummy and made me want to go to the/a London Loving Hut even though that seems weird because I’m not traveling and I have other options…but I do like the LH sooo I guess I should. And then my friend and I shared a ‘palito’. I don’t know what this is, but it was something fried-looking on a skewer and it was $2.50 and seemed worth trying. It was pretty good, could have used a dipping sauce, but it was all worth it because while we waited to order, we asked the guy in front of us (who had just been given his palito plate) what exactly it was that we were all buying, and his eyes got really big and he laughed and stage whispered “I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!” It was pretty hilarious. It was like fry dough filled with meat and veggies? 

     As for the main room stall vendors, my favorites were repeats from London VegFest, including moo free chocolate, with their decent sale prices and giant and generous samples; Landgarten, one of the actually new-to-me vendors there, with delicious chocolate-covered small things; Cocoa Feliz fancy chocolate makers just for their gorgeous beyond belief display; Great Food with their generous falafel and hummus samples (see it’s not just chocolate!); and whoever makes the $150 personal massager. Seriously, I want that massager so badly. It’s amazing. They used it on my shoulders and back again and I felt like I could actually stand up to my full heighth potential and not mimic Quasimodo like I usually seem to do because ow.  

Also, this is hilarious. It’s a ginormous bag of like hemp shavings for building a house or shed. I don’t know.

One more great thing!!! On our train back to London, this old man walked by us up the aisle to exit at an earlier stop, aaaand he farted the entire way. LOUDLY. Like one unbelievable continuous sound for about 10-15 feet. We were CRYING, yet no one else seemed to notice or mind! I guess that it’s common for Brits to pretend not to notice such things but we aren’t British so we lost our minds. The luckiest thing was that this was the one time I wasn’t on the aisle so he pretty much farted in my friend’s face. And lots of other faces. Oh man old people just don’t care. I love it. 

     Most of my ‘bad’ choices aren’t so much commentary on the vendors or companies but on the context of the situation and just lemony snickety events. First up is Titbits Catering. (I mean, first of all, your name is funny. I get that here it’s not very funny, but it’s funny to me because Murka.) The problem? Their stuff looked great, but by the time I was hungry again, they were sold out! NB, it was like 3pm. That’s pretty early for an event going until 7pm, sooo next time know to stock more? At this time, it seemed like most vendors were running out, actually! And if they still had food, the lines were prohibitively long.

   Next: Ananda, oh how I adore your Waggon Wheels, and I thank you for all of your amazing marshmallowy products. But where was your giant Waggon Wheel giveaway this time around?! Why couldn’t I enter to win a 4 foot diameter marshmallow cookie sandwich or however big that miracle was at London Fest? Was it, heaven forbid, actually there and the awful crowds just kept me from seeing it? What a shanda that would have been. But not surprising, because the crowds really were insane and kept us from getting close to or even seeing lots of vendors. We had a very important message for Ms. Cupcake, but it took us a good 40 minutes to find her, even though we were in the correct room. What a mess.

   Another possibly new vendor was cho!, a bottled gazpacho purveyor. This product was not my favorite, as cold garlicky soup can’t really improve upon bottling. I wish them the best though. My issue was that I walked up to the stall once when it was actually empty, no crowd crowding me, which was a minor miracle on this day, and the vendor didn’t even notice me. She wasn’t unpacking boxes or busily settling things up or anything. She just kind of looked through me. For a moment I thought I had become actually invisible and was like whoaaa what should I really do with this superpower besides wait for vomity garlic juice, but then my friend said hey what’s up so I stopped wondering. So I don’t know what was going on here but like that’s enough of that miss. 

   So what was the worst part about Brighton VegFest? It wasn’t that the Big Fat Vegan Bakery sold out so early or that the Beezlebub Doner Kebab stall had up to an hour wait the entire day. It wasn’t even that Teese and Sheese and Frys and other famous food companies were nowhere to be found. No, it was the attendees. I’m sure we’re all lovely people, us UK vegans, but en masse we are f-ed the f up. I witnessed some of the most atrocious behavior I’ve seen in social situations in a long time. Perhaps now that I have experience on the other side of the stall I am more attuned to how rude customers in crowded settings can be, but I was shocked at what I witnessed. People literally shoving others aside so they could attack free samples, others just ignoring the fact that people were in their way and charging through, one man — no joke, we watched this one happen for 5 minutes — eating an entire table’s cheese display while 15 people waited behind him to actually buy the product (he did not). It was rough, guys. All crowds are terrible, it’s true. I just keep having hope that yayvegans! will be better at fighting the mob mentality that turns people into monsters (not animals, we love animals. animals are better than people) but sadly it’s not true. We’re just human I guesssss. But given my time so far behind the stall, here are some tips I have for you for the next vegfest or fest or crowded event you go to:

1) Say hi to the vendor. Acknowledge that they exist. 
2) If you eat free samples, thank the vendor. Or at least acknowledge that they exist (see #1). (Seriously, I saw maybe 2 out of 200 people make eye contact with the person giving them the free food. Others just pretend they don’t exist.)
3) Look around you to see if there’s anyone who might be waiting to get to where you want to go. If there is, don’t just cut in front of them. 
4) In general, just don’t be a dick. Don’t push. Or shove. This is not Times Square. Unless you’re in Times Square, and then all bets are off because you gotta get to that show before curtain. (Remember to turn off your phone.)