Spring Break: London (Day 3)

If I die, I hope I end up at Cakes N Treats…aka heaven if it were customized for Robins. Things that make this place so amazing include the following.

• Super cute and sweet staff: I was so enamoured by the selection that I probably asked way too many questions that would have led any San Francisco cafe staff member to pierce my soul with a stare of hatred, but here I got not only patience, but I actually learned things! For instance, the sausage they serve with their English breakfast was so delicious that I had to ask what kind it was. I learned all about how Paul McCartney (yes, of The Beatles!) has a vegetarian family, and his daughter has a line of vegetarian/vegan mock meats! This, of course, led me on a journey to try to find the sausages to take back to Spain. I may have also acquired some frozen sausages wrapped in pastry puff that were soooo goood!
• Adorable decor: This ranges from the doilyesque furniture to the tattoo font on the menu chalkboards, to the flash art sheets in themes of cupcakes and sweets, to the EVERYTHING! For proof, see the one million pictures I’m about to post below.
• All-vegan menu: By the name, you might assume that they serve cake and tea. They actually have so much more. Of all the traditional English breakfasts I had while in London (there were 4), this was by far my very favorite! Their coffee menu was more extravagant than Starbucks. I don’t mean this as an insult. It actually reminded me of the flavor options at one of my favorite cafes in the U.S. (Grindcore House in Philly). They had 4 milk options! They also had vegan snickers bars.
• Custom cakes: While I’m not really a fan of fondant, they had the cutest vegan cake that was themed after Corpse Bride!!! As if they hadn’t already won me over.

Who has a teapot shaped chalkboard? Seriously???

Mocha and Caramel Latte made with oat milk.

I know that going to a chain when you’re traveling is boring. You should try to experience new places as a local. However, that being said, going to chains to see the differences can be neat. For instance, Starbucks in Spain all have fresh squeezed orange juice. I love that! So, I was excited to go to a Whole Foods in London to see what foods they had that were different. It was basically ALL of them. I was most excited by the vegan cheese section, where I acquired some Vegusta to bring back to Spain. It was a new kind I had never had before with herbs in it. Here are some pictures I took of the rest of the cheeses that Whole Foods had.

My best find at Whole Foods was organic Hello Kitty pasta!!! I wanted to buy 127649598 of them, but luggage space is always an issue when traveling, so I could only get 4. It might also have been because there were only 4 packages left on the shelf.

Tesco stores aren’t really anything special. They’re kind of like the equivalent to Safeway in northern California or Ralph’s in southern California. However, we had to go there to find the sausages, and they had a number of other cute and/or yummy vegan things.

Itadaki Zen is an organic and vegan japanese restaurant. It differs from Cha-Ya in that it seems more authentic. This authenticity is not only obvious in the food options, but also in the fact that there is a zen garden inside of the restaurant.

After leaving London and arriving in Zaragoza, Spain, I saw this sign in the airport. I feel like this sign should just be posted everywhere all the time.