63-97 Kensington High Street
I love London. Okay, it's not the most challenging place, because you can speak English. So everyday tasks don't totally confuse you. You can converse with people. You understand the prices. You can read menus. You get "it". It's like that States, but it seems more educated. But not so organized that it's totally dull. I think of it as being the States, but 2.0.
Crazy amount of European Raw Food Stuffs!!
So we were in Europe recently for some work. And as usual, we tend to figure out our own plans. So we rented an apartment for a few days in London, instead of staying in the mainstream hotel that my hubby's workplace provided. Usually the hotels are quite nice, but a bit dull, and generally a "name brand". And not on High Street. I mean, who can resist High Street? And our place was super close to the Kensington Whole Foods. Which may be the most beautiful Whole Foods in the World. Seriously, I felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Except it was like little vegan girl in a wacky wonder vegan extravaganza. An insane Whole Foods. It felt like endless flights of OrganicUtopia. Levels upon Levels of Endless Goodness. A Wine Bar. A Craft Beer Keg area. Locally Grown Sprouts for CHEAP! Vegan Confections. The top level with several restaurants........I think my hubby & I both worried that we may not want to go anywhere else in London!!
All these awesome treats....Including Sea Buckthorn Berries! Which of course taste terrible. But I always try to get all superfood when we travel.
This brand rocked. I didn't go for the chocolate, but it looked amazing.
Jaw dropped when I see a counter full of Vegan Marshmallows. And a confectionery display that had "Suitable for Vegan Diet" signs on the majority of the handmade sweet heaven. I don't eat marshmallows or sugar, generally. And I didn't this time either. But I was just so thrilled that all of this was available! It was me "choosing" not to eat it instead of just "not" being able to eat it because it contained blood, pus & animal guts. No, it was happy vegan sugar stuff.
Okay, it was really tempting and I may have lingered. Thankfully no one was really attending the counter at that time so I could just browse. And Browse. And Browse. Seriously, ALL vegan stuffs! All those little red signs say "Eat Me I am Vegan"!
Okay, like if the confectionery display was not enough. Chocolate bars. And loads. Scads. Really, seemingly an endless supply of Vegan Chocolate. I mean, I am the new Vegan Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.
Crazy. I have never seen this much Cow Free Chocolate.
And I don't do Vegan Cheeses much either.....But my love does. And we both were shocked to finally come in contact with this mysterious "Sheese". Which isn't really available, at least near us, in the States. It's Scottish. So hubby had to acquire some. They also had a lot of other vegan cheeses......Seriously, these Londoners are way outveganing us. In a very big way.
Really, Blue Style?? Really??
Ridiculous amounts of veggie meats. Veggie sausages. Loads of this stuff.
Um, not vegan. But hubby simply had to have a picture of something that said "Spotted Dick" Pudding Bars. Eating vegan all these years has not increased his maturity level. Thank Gawd, right?
Yes, we just had to pass by this counter again!! Look at all that amazing stuff! How do Vegans in London not just get hugely obese with all this selection??!! Of course it is probably kind of pricey, but we don't really know what anything is in pounds. Our brains are already hurting from the stupidly long flight on the stupid Iberian Airlines. And we don't care about pounds, on our tummy or otherwise. We just want to actually rent an apartment IN this Whole Foods.
Rumor has it that Austin has Craft Beer too?? But our lame ass juice barless WF in St. Louis, has NO veggie Juice and NO barely juice. Not freshly squeezed anyway. Mini-Kegs from Whole Foods. This is why WF enhances marriages. Little RawVeganFlirtWifey can eat her hearts content with overpriced raw CarawayGlutenFreeCrackers and Hubby can Get Organic Pan & Craft Beer which won't make you fat or have any harmful effects on you, because it's from Whole Foods, right?? So that makes the beer healthy, right?????? Um, Nope honey. It's still beer......But I won't bug you too much about it if you don't complain about my foo foo crackers and locally grown sprouts.
WHAT??!!??!! We didn't have to pay premium price to eat at the raw place, Saf, on the 3rd floor of Whole Foods?? You can buy all the good stuff right here, in the Whole Foods. No arrogant waiters involved. (We had a nice waitress, but the waiter kind of blew-----).
Raw Vegan Cheeses from Saf. I had to indulge because I only got a salad & juice when we went. So the cheese tasted great, but I tried to just try it & then pass it to hubby. As I didn't want to eat 1/2 pound of nuts!
I am still hearing about how amazing this Sheese is.........He thought this was way better than Daiya or any other brand he has bought in the US. Guess it was really "hard" like "normal" cheese.
So we didn't hit the bars after his workdays......this is what his "spot" looked like. Remote Control. Beer. Olives. Sheese. Bread. Adapters for all the "i" Appliances. Oh, and band aids for me, because I always need bandaids!
Unattractive lighting, but my midnight snack. Salad from Saf. It was good, but honestly, probably overpriced for some cut up veggies & some dressing.
London (And Europe in general) just has a lot more bottled (in glass) real juices. Veggie & Fruit juices. They just have veggies and fruit in them. I know, it shouldn't be such a "WOW" thing. But almost nothing in the States does NOT have crap in it. I mean, I feel like 90% of the "food" they sell in the states is just laden with chemical stuffs and it's not like it is going to change, because most people don't even really read the ingredients or really care. They think because the phenomenal US government allows this shit to be sold, that it must be okay. Even the super paranoid conspiracy theory people and the Ron Paul voters and the uber progressive peeps, they just tend to trust their food sources. Or they sigh, and still pick up that case of soda, bakery bread from the supermarket (with 100 ingredients), and meat that probably has BSE, and BPA laden everything. Eye Roll. It shouldn't really be rare to be able to buy "juice" without chemicals in it. But for this US girl, it really is. Rare.
This is my hubby's life force. Dead Bread & "Living" Cheese. I donated my cheese to him to avoid eating ALL of it. Bread from Whole Foods. He LOVES bread. He had little Gluten Festivals every single night. And Raw Vegan Cheese from the Saf to go area, in Whole Foods.
Our apartment rocked, but this was the view. But it rocked. And was pretty cheap!
Oh my. I couldn't pass this up. It was not raw. And it was full of fat. But it was so rich & delicious.
The closest station to our apartment........
Okay, really, my husband is 48.
And still nearly pissed himself everytime he saw or heard the word, Cockfosters.
Sigh. Oh, I do love him so. I nearly pissed myself, watching himself piss himself.
You could rent bikes......"Barclay's" bikes. We didn't, but a friend of ours did. He said they were really "clunky" but he is really into bikes. I think it's cool that 90% of Londoners are not overweight & are able to actually ride a bike. I wish that we had more stuff like that-in ALL of our cities. Not just the profoundly overly hip cities. But in "The Belt". We live in "The Belt'. Like the Crotch. Like the Smelly Crotch. Okay, Our Smelly Crotch has really Cheap Realty & we Currently have health insurance, like today, so I guess ShutUpAboutSmellyCrotch and just get a BulletProofVestForOutdoorKaleGardening.
Look at this adorable kitchen. Everything, and I mean, everything, was from IKEA. Small kitchen, but had everything we needed.
They had different kombuchas..........This one had Puerh Tea in it. So kind of "doubly fermented".
On the left........Kale Chips from Inspiral. Inspiral, I love you Inspiral. A crazy Raw Vegan Mecca, Hippie, Yippie, Yuppie. In Camden Lock area-will blog....
More WF buys. Loved this brand. They had a lot of offerings with zero allergens.
And then Chia Bread. I mean, who can resist??
Cynanide anyone?? So they sell Apricot Kernels here, which have b17 in them. I didn't eat 50 a day as didn't want to risk it. But had never had them before so was pretty curious.
Our kitchen got messy fast. Our life. Organic Wine. And My "Pills". I invested in a pill carrier to put my stash of DIM, D3, DHA, and all my other "VeganHappyStuffs".
So funny. The Bedroom was upstairs. The kitchen basically in the "basement". And the TV room, in the level in between the two. Funny layout.
The street of our "apartment".
High Street Apartments. London. Great. SO funny. We had already given all information before arriving, so basically we rang the bell when we arrived with luggage. Someone from underneath came up, took us up to the apartment, gave us a wifi password & key, and that was it. Nothing about check out. Nothing about anything else.........A very different type of "check in". And it all worked out great. I did have to make sure we didn't have to "do anything" prior to check out. But there was NO check out. We left the key on the table in the apartment! Abdul apparently "runs" this building. I think his parents live on the first floor, but when I tried to ask them something, they couldn't respond at all, because I don't think they spoke a single word of english, or spanish. But I later got in touch with Abdul, and he confirmed that we do nothing. No cleaning, etc...Just leave the key in the apartment!
Location was across from Hyde Park. Really nice & seeming safe place.
Good-bye Whole Foods. I do so dream of a penthouse on top of your lovely Kensington Location. But somehow I don't think that will come to Fruition. However.......I can plant some Kale in our square foot garden in the "hood" at home, and hope we don't get hit with stray bullets, while tending to it. St. Louis is a real fucking dive. I mean, a dive. But hey, you can buy guns at Wal-mart, and how fucking awesome is that??
And Pj feeding Radius & Aubrey. Radius is the barky one. East St. Louis Feeding Route.
Always need fosters, volunteers, dog walkers at shelter, and money!
And Dennis Kucinich on GMO's. I believe the majority of foods in regular supermarkets to contain GMO's. Even in Whole Foods & Co-ops, a lot of food can contain GMO's. So eating fruits & veggies, organic and cutting out all packaged products is probably the safest. I try to read the ingredients for any packaged products or look for the Non-Gmo seal. Typically better brands will specify non-gmo for any soy, corn, or other questionable ingredients. To my knowledge, most fruits and veggies haven't been tampered with much yet. The majority of GMO's are used for "feed" crops, given to animals, which people then kill & eat. But all that corn waste & soy waste is also put into other products. Packaged products.
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The photos are great. I wish that whole foods was in my neighborhood. It looks fantastic. What a fun day at the market.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible tour! I love London and think, maybe after NYC, it's the most vegan-friendly city ever.
ReplyDeleteAh, I never made it out to this part of London when I visited this past spring. Now I'm seriously regretting that! Grocery shopping is seriously one of my favorite things to do when I travel. Guess I just have to go back... ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused... you say you "understand the prices", but then you say you "don't really know what anything is in pounds".
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can assure you that there are plenty of beverages in the UK that are sold in plastic bottles or are not pure fruit/vegetable juice. Whole Foods Kensington is much, much different from your average British supermarket.