Visiting, Shopping and Body Image, Vantra Restaurant Review

It's been a whirlwind week in and around London! We really barely stopped for a moment this past week.

We saw a gorgeous sunset on Hampstead Heath (and a very cool dead tree that looks like anything you want it to)...

We enjoyed the filtered sunlight in the tall and narrow alleyways of Winchester.

We played with a pair of delightful twins (the children of some dear old friends) who loved posing for photos and then running away as soon as I pressed the shutter: two suspiciously swollen curtains...

and playing 'horses' on Phil's knee.

We visited Phil's stepson, a wonderful, welcoming person,

and spent some time with our beautiful niece, who (of course) adores Phil too, and her parents (I am so impressed with my brother and sister-in-law. Great parents, great human beings).

Traveling around the London area with public transportation is very doable, but is also quite tiring: lots of crowds, lots of walking between stations, lots of stairs up and down, lots of noisy public address announcements... And when I went shopping in Oxford Circus with my mum, I discovered that sometimes nowadays you have to 'queue' (stand in line) just to get back into the underground (subway) station!

The underground looks older - the trains that I remember spanking new in my teens are obviously close to twenty years old now, graffiti'd and worn-out-looking. Lots of renovations and line closures at awkward moments. But I'd never seen building materials stacked under the tracks before! See all those piles of blocks?

I was ambivalent about going shopping with my mum. First of all, I'm a terrible shopper. Second, I don't like crowds. And third, and worst, I had tried on an old pair of trousers (pants) at my folks' home, that I'd worn since my early teens and wore last time I was here three years ago, and they fitted just fine, except that I couldn't do them up! Admittedly, three years ago I still weighed in the double digits, which I no longer do and which most people say I shouldn't, but this threw me for a major loop and gave me little interest in buying clothes, eating, or doing anything except crunches!

But actually, we had a great time. The shopping itself was quite smooth, despite the crowds and the rain, and I learned a funny thing about clothes sizing too. In the photo below, the pants on the left are a size larger than the pants on the right, in a different style.

The purple cords on the left, in the larger size, were tight on my waist and loose elsewhere. The black ones on the right, a size smaller, were very comfortable and quite loose around the waist! Go figure... Not surprisingly, I got the black ones - and my mum got a pair too, so we were both happy.

By the time we got done, it was long past lunchtime, and perhaps I was a little more interested in lunch with that lesson in clothing sizes. And having made you cringe a bit with that body image talk, it's time for a restaurant review! I blogged earlier about our visit to Vita Organic and how they told us that their 'raw food' operation had mostly moved to their new premises in Soho Street.

Mum and I hiked down to Soho Street to find the new place, Vantra.

Liked the look of that mission statement! Liked the young coconuts (whole, not shaved) on the bar.

But 'coming soon' is the operative term: they have a beautiful buffet featuring a lot of raw salads and also a lot of cooked vegan food with sprouts and vegetables and beautiful sauces...

...all along the window to the street, a tempting arrangement... But they don't have any of the raw gourmet stuff yet: the lasagnas, pizzas, etc: that's all 'coming soon.' They do have nut milks and smoothie options, and we got a raspberry-cacao smoothie with nut milk and sweetened with coconut crystals to go with our lunch. One time through the buffet is 6 pounds per person, no sharing. All the plates and 'silverware' are compostable/recycled (great concept, I guess, for a new, up-and-coming place not to have to do dishes on top of everything.

Here's my plate:

(mostly raw, lots of sea veggies and sprouts, but I had to try those giant cooked mushrooms and a piece of aubergine (eggplant) simmered in coconut milk). My mum's plate:

We have some similar tastes! But I wasn't sure about the gluten status of those noodles at 11 o'clock on her plate, or the creamy mixture at 2 o'clock, so stayed away on the safe side.

Naughty me for having cacao, but my mum agreed that the smoothie was delicious! They brought a bottle of agave along when they served it, in case we wanted it sweeter. It was plenty sweet just as it was (no agave for me, thanks)!

She took a pic of me too (but it's a little blurry).

It was a delicious and satisfying meal, at a pretty decent price for central London. I was thrilled that my mum really liked it too, and that she was talking about going back with various friends of hers whom she's sure will love it. It makes me so happy when I can introduce someone to something I enjoy and have them enjoy it too. However, my search for a genuine 'raw' restaurant is still unfulfilled, although if you wanted to eat purely raw at Vantra or Vita-O, they do have a very extensive selection of salads, plus the various nut milks and smoothies. I was sorry that they didn't have any raw desserts, especially since they claim to espouse a low-glycemic philosophy, but truth be told, I generally prefer smoothies anyway.

I'll share more as I can. Just a few more days here, and I'm quite tired today and hoping for some slower-paced days. Back home is snow-bound!

How are you preparing for Thanksgiving?