Fractured Dreams

Tonight I went with a bunch of friends to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, the first time I’ve been so far this season.

Sitting on the floor up in the gallery, we got told off for our picnic, which we jokingly attributed to the envious looks of passersby indicating that people were jealous because we had the most fabulous picnic. The staff member who sheepishly asked us to pack our stuff away admitted that a couple of people had said something about it. When we pointed out that most people around us had food, he gestured to our “full spread”. Good thing we’d basically finished.

To be fair, it was a big spread — a big mixed salad, a jar of artichoke hearts, a green bean and tomato salad, turkey salad rolls for the girls, plain gluten-free rolls for me, hummous, a bag of salt and cider vinegar crisps, grapes, strawberries, a gluten-free apple and vanilla cake, and a bag of Maltesers. Delish.

The mixed salad I made was a hit and will be in regular rotation for work lunches for the rest of the summer. I threw together: salad leaves, sliced cucumber, chopped fresh tomatoes, fresh asparagus, and avocado, and mixed in a pack of puy lentils cooked with sun dried tomatoes and basil, which kicked up the flavour several notches. Sorry no picture. Next time.

Since becoming a gluten-free, soya-free vegan I think about food a lot. What I can eat, what I can’t. I read the ingredients list of everything before I buy it. And when I find something especially delicious that I can eat I get fixated. Hence my post-work detours to Morrisons in Shepherd’s Bush solely for banofee syrup sponge or my forays out to Fulham for pizza (so gutted the Hell Pizza there closed). And so I found myself on a bus to Camden yesterday afternoon because I’d spent all week daydreaming about the cornbread stall at Camden Lock.

Camden Market is a great place for gluten-free vegans — many of the food stalls cater to veggies, gluten-free stuff is often marked, and there are several Vietnamese restaurants as well as Inspiral Lounge (which is on my to-try list). Vietnamese is a staple of my diet — all rice noodles and rice-paper spring rolls — but the arepas have stolen my heart. Arepas are a traditional Venezuelan/Colombian dish — fried, grilled or baked thick corn pancakes stuffed or topped with yummy fillings. As a recovering cheese lover, the grated cheese is tempting, but once I took a bite of an arepa stuffed with black beans, plantain and roasted vegetables (aubergine, courgette and peppers) I didn’t miss the cheese.



The signage at the Arepa & Co. stall says the plain cornbread is available for sale to take home, although when I asked about it the request was met with surprise. I bought five at £1 each and they generously threw in a sixth. That will keep me in yummy lunches at work for the next couple of days.



Arepa & Co. is in the middle of the cluster of food stalls by the London Waterbus Co. dock. There’s also an Israeli falafel stall and a West African stall, which despite taunting me with the propect of curry goat and rice, also offers vegetable dishes. Turning right, around the dock, there’s a Moroccan stall with vegetable tagine. Plenty to keep a gluten-free vegan happy after building up an appetite wandering around the endless twists and turns of Camden’s vibrant street markets.

I washed my arepa down with a large cup of fresh lemonade (another current fixation) from one of the many juice stalls. And if I hadn’t been so full I would’ve visited the Thai coconut dessert stall (sweet little bites made from rice flour, coconut and sugar) — next time.



P.S. I just found out there is an Arepa Cafe on Queen Street West in Toronto…more reason, along with Magic Oven (gluten-free pizza and pasta), Mimi’s (Vietnamese), and The Big Carrot (juice bar with gluten-free sandwiches and snacks)…as well as my friends of course to look at booking another visit soon…