Valentine's Vegan

Valentine's Day just happens to be my boyfriend and I's anniversary, this year we decided to treat ourselves and booked into Brighton's top notch veggie restaurant Terre a Terre. Well I say treat ourselves, we had vouchers so it wouldn't cost us anything - talk about a win win situation! :)

The Valentine's menu was very tempting with lots of mouthwatering dishes, all with cute Valentine's inspired names! Both the starter and dessert dishes were sharers, leaving us only one difficult decision - the main! I chose 'Kelp, I Need Somebody'!

Getting started

But first our starter of 'Slap and Pickle'...

This contested of 'Brûlée Vous' - which was Jerusalem artichokes served with bay cream, pickled Jerusalem artichokes, deep fried with Poire William and raisin relish.

And.. Arepas Chilli Candy - which was deep fried corn cakes rolled on spice dust served with chilli chelly jelly, avocado hash, oregano and lime mojo and a candied chilli. Phew.

Plus there was a mini Truffle Porcini and Chestnut soup with fennel seed tempura mushrooms.

I don't think I could have picked a favourite out of all these but the tempura mushrooms were to die for! 

Kelp I Need Somebody

Slow soft sake baked aubergine sizzled with tahini, sesame and white miso finish served with edamame wasabi and yuzo pesto, sesame ginger dressed Arame Wakame vegetable thread salad and a hibiscus, amchur, nori salt dusted puffed rice seaweed cracker.

Wow! Notice how the cracker looks like a shark fin hee hee! I have to admit this was really rich, so I did start to struggle towards the end, particularly with the aubergine, but worry not, my other half polished up the last of it. I love wakame salad and the cracker was really tasty, with a wonderful texture.

Sweet endings

Dessert! Orgy Porgy Pudding and Pie sharing platter - I thought I was full but apparently not - I still made an excellent dent in this little lot!

Spice up your life - Coconut milk, saffron rice pudding.

Miss Marble - Snappy pistachio wafers served with snow balls. Kalamansi clementine spiced ice, almond amaretto freeze, coconut rum balls and sparkles. 

Armagnac Tartine - Rich prune and chocolate almond Tartine served with cream finished with apple and pear syrup, prune purée, apple snaps and pumpkin seed praline.

The Miss Marble was really exciting. I know that popping candy is all the rage in gourmet deserts but I'd yet to try it and this was a wonderful surprise! So fun to eat! I also adored the Tartine. I literally couldn't eat another bite after this and almost had to be airlifted home.

Well done Terre a Terre for another amazing food experience!

If you've not been before then check out their website for their regular menu

www.terreaterre.co.uk

Lovely, lovely in Southsea!

What can be better in life than cake and a catch up with a good friend? This afternoon I spent a wonderful few hours with my old school friend and her little ones, we had lunch and put the world to rights over cake. Ace!

We'd heard that The Southsea Coffee Co. in Portsmouth sold vegan cake, and as her son has a dairy allergy we decided we had to investigate!

Set in Osborne Rd, Southsea, the cafe doesn't look much from the outside but the inside is wonderful; a really inviting space with plenty of seating and super friendly staff.

Although the menu wasn't huge the food was lovely - beautifully presented and tasted great too! Plus there was around 3 or 4 vegan cake varieties! The sandwiches are huge - I went for the hummus, sesame and carrot sandwich, just remember to ask for no pesto and butter. I also had a scrummy chocolate cake and the buttercream was to die for! 

My little companion had his heart set on porridge and jam. Unfortunately when ordering we hadn't remembered to check if it was made with milk and on arrival immediately realised it was. It couldn't be made without it either as the porridge contained milk powder. Totally our mistake for not checking but the staff couldn't have been nicer.

Instead the little man was offered toast and jam, which he happily spent a good 20 (sticky) minutes spreading on all by himself and then ate both the giant slices on no time at all. All washed down with fresh juice and raw flapjack. One very happy four year old.

We weren't charged for the porridge and the lovely lady even gave him a little treat to take home, as he'd been so disappointed about the porridge! What customer service!

The atmosphere is lovely - really relaxed and they even had a resident artist working on a mural. My favourite part was the chalk board wall at the back where your little companions can draw and scribble to their hearts content! (OK it was me!)

Well worth a visit if you're in the Southsea area and fancy a spot of lunch, or coffee and cake, I can highly recommend Southsea Coffee Co!

http://southseacoffee.tumblr.com/