Sex and The Town

I never thought the words ‘She’s vegan’ would cause more of a commotion in my Greek family than ‘I’m bisexual and dating another woman’ did, but they never fail to surprise me. Even now, over three years later, my mother is still very concerned about me only cooking meat at home once a week – you have an iron deficiency – and even more about me having to accommodate for my vegan girlfriend when we go out to eat – you cannot be spontaneous. And while that’s something we always need to consider when travelling, it has almost never crossed my mind in London. 

As a type-A, former gifted child, I love to plan. And when Ellie and I travel, nothing gets between me and my time stamped daily plans, museum tickets bought months in advance, and restaurant reservations for most dinners. And while it brings me pleasure to go into a holiday knowing I’ve planned it perfectly, a big reason I choose to reserve restaurants in advance is the different approach of most European cities to vegan dining – the all or nothing approach. In every trip we end up going to at least one all-vegan restaurant so my girlfriend, who is also a foodie but way less selfish than me, can have one great meal, as the usual options in local places are chips and vegetables, a tomato sauce pasta, a Pad Thai in an otherwise non-asian or even fusion restaurant – talking about you By the Wine – a beetroot salad of some sort, or a local vegetarian dish sans the cheese. 

While the all-vegan restaurants we have been to so far across Europe, including Rome, Nice, Copenhagen, Athens, and Lisbon, often end up being a culinary highlight for me as well, they are often not as appealing for the more stuck in their ways meat-eater traveling companions – my Greek family for example. That is, however, rarely a concern in London, as most restaurants, aside from virtually every French restaurant in Islington, have several appealing vegan options.

Hence, it doesn’t come as a surprise that London has been voted the most vegan-friendly city in the world for the umpteenth consecutive time. But as a non-vegan, who is conscious about making more sustainable choices but isn’t keen to converting fully, I have found very accessible choices to do my bit for the environment in London, and wanted to share them with you in case you’re also in a path to more ethical dining.

Food Waste Reduction

First, London, and the UK in general, is making headway to reduce food waste. Although the figures are still too high, the UK is the first country to get more than halfway toward meeting the target of halving food waste by 2030. That’s partly due to UK supermarkets removing best before dates on thousands of fresh food products. One more thing I’d ideally like to see in future is removing recommendations from the back side of packaging encouraging consumers to consume certain foods within 2-3 days of being open when it’s a recommendation for freshness and not food safety. I certainly ignore them, especially for dairy and fresh produce – however do not take my advice here as I’m not a food scientist, biologist, or doctor and I might have just gotten lucky for not getting food poisoning from my seven day old yogurt.

Sustainability Apps

Second, several companies have also popped up in the recent years that have made my efforts to waste less food significantly easier. I’ve relied on Too Good To Go – the world’s largest marketplace for surplus food – several times for local pastries when I have friends over for coffee or when I’m looking for a cheap takeout option for one on evenings I’m home alone and want to focus on writing instead of cooking. Additionally, I tried OddBox a couple of years ago and thought it was an excellent idea for cooks that are open to experimenting with new ingredients in the kitchen. Unfortunately, it made pre-planning meals and grocery shopping for the week a little challenging for me due to the element of surprise, so I’ve now switched to wonky veg and fruit from the supermarket. I do, however, recommend it wholeheartedly to cooks more creative and spontaneous than myself, as the quality of the produce was always excellent and their customer service team is very helpful and polite in my experience. Finally, some impressive restaurants have popped up in recent years with a zero-waste mindset, such as Silo at Hackney Wick, which I’m planning to visit this month.

Vegan Corporate Events

Additionally, another recent trend that has made ethical dining more accessible is all-vegan corporate events. Notably, I had the pleasure to attend the Economist GC Summit in the past and I was pleasantly surprised to find out all the meals and finger-food served throughout the day were vegan and very delicious. Sometimes you have to remove the meat option for more resistant meat eaters to give vegan dishes a chance, and I was amazed to find out that a former colleague incorporated tofu in his diet after trying it at the event for the first time.

Invasivorism

Finally, the most interesting ethical dining trend that seems to be currently spreading in London is invasivorism, introduced over two decades ago by conservation biologist Joe Roman. It suggests that we could act as a form of biological control by consuming invasive species, and some restaurants around the city have adopted it by serving Japanese knotweed beer, cornered leek, and muntjac deer tartare.

According to Roman, humans are highly effective predators, and targeting invasive species for consumption — such as Britain’s grey squirrel or the European green crab in the US — could reduce their populations. Moreover, replacing traditional livestock with invasive species could also help curb climate change due to their lower greenhouse gas emissions.

However, there is skepticism about invasivorism’s effectiveness, as some evidence suggests the strategy could inadvertently backfire for certain species by threatening other wildlife when attempting to capture them or by creating demand for these populations, especially when they happen to be delicious, instead of reducing them. Roman points out that in today’s globalised world, species are frequently moved to new areas where they disrupt ecosystems, and efforts should be focused on counteracting these impacts.

Overall, being vegan isn’t for everyone. It certainly isn’t for me, I am too much of a foodie to not be tempted by every single local delicacy when I travel. However, ethical dining is more accessible in London than many other cities so if you want to make an effort towards more sustainable habits, the city is making it easier for you.

Aside from trying out a zero-waste or invasivorism-focused restaurant once in a while, there are easy day to day steps to help you dine more ethically, such as choosing a weekly dinner menu and grocery shopping accordingly with a list, reducing your red meat consumption, and choosing yellow-label options for food that can be frozen.

Being perfect is overrated, and I’m certainly far from – I order steak occasionally, I’ve had chicken slices most days in the last few weeks for lunch out of convenience, and I threw out an entire bag of spinach less than a week ago because I forgot to use it before it went bad. However, by keeping ourselves accountable, we can really go a long way, without even going out of our way, especially living in a city where dining ethically is a more accessible option than in most places around the world.