It’s the middle of summer (fall doesn’t start until September 23 babe), and I went to the seashore. And by that, I mean to Brighton, England’s seaside town full of goths and hippies and hippie goths. This was a trip to see Nick Cave play a show for his adopted hometown, where he lived for some 15-ish years. And, of course, I ended up eating a lot of wonderful plates of food.
Vegan pub food
When traveling with a self-identified pescatarian who is really a vegetarian most of the time, expect their excitement about vegan pubs to be extremely high. We visited this one at the end of a very long day, in which our flight was delayed at takeoff, and when we landed, the entire plane got a mass message about how some baggage wasn’t put on the plane and they didn’t know whose so good luck to the lot of you because you’re now in the Hunger Games: Airport Edition. My travel partner’s bag was one of those left behind, leading to extra hours at the baggage claim and customer service windows. To say we were in a bad mood on top of being exhausted would be a fair understatement. We also hadn’t eaten any food all day.
So, walking up the nearly vertical side of a hill to The Roundhill Pub nearly killed me. Brighton is made of hills and slopes and stairways, by the way, which was also not relayed to me in advance. But this pub served me a glass of Sauvignon Blanc that was so good it was nearly worth it. It was the best glass of wine I had on the whole trip, as a matter of fact. It was so good that I just emailed the pub to ask if they knew what bottle it was so I could order it.
There was also a lovely cauliflower and white bean hummus served with pickled silverskin onions and green peppers coated with a dash of balsamic vinegar, a British pub tradition, alongside freshly made flat bread. However, I enjoyed scooping the hummus with the onions much more. I went all in on veganism for my order and got a flatbread topped with shredded romaine lettuce, thick-sliced tomatoes, tofu cooked in chile oil that had more than a little kick to it, and pineapple rings tossed in the same oil. The Victorian-era pineapple mania never left Brighton, and is amplified in the summer. I saw and ate them at multiple places on the trip.
Breakfast bake
Handpies, which is not at all what they call them over there, are a great breakfast treat. We went out Friday morning with plans to hit Resident Records and look for some of the exclusive Nick Cave merch it would be selling ahead of the concert that night, only to stumble upon the news that he’d be playing a short set on top of the building in a few minutes. So that was sublime. After we hung around and caught it, we bopped over to the Bella Union shop as well and then I needed some sustenance. Having already dragged myself to Loam for a very nice coffee, we opted to stop at the Cornish Pasty Shop with traditional hand pies in the window and a brewed jug of iced tea, which is a rarity to find, sitting on top of the counter. My friend got a vegan sausage roll while I opted for the cheese and onions. When I cracked this fat pastry open, it was loaded with steaming, translucent pearl onions, broken apart by the layers. It smelled just as wonderful as it tasted.
Sustainable seafood
I wanted, so badly, to have lunch sitting at a seaside cafe, looking out at the blue English Channel. I selected the sustainably caught seafood menu at Lucky Beach Cafe, which is also a B-Corp (and it was not the only B-Corp restaurant I ate at in the U.K.). We weren’t super hungry, so we ordered two fish tacos with pineapple salsa and some hot chiles on top of shredded slaw, and a Caesar salad. Mustard seeds replaced sardines in the dressing, which went heavy on the dijon and much lighter on the aioli. Parmesan was effectively replaced with slides of cucumber and the romaine lettuce was not shredded; instead I could create a lettuce cup and pick up crunchy croutons and fried chickpeas with it. It was frankly just nice to eat lettuce and not worry about it giving me intense digestive issues. The fish tacos are made with miscellaneous local whitefish, whatever is in abundance for the season, and I decided it was okay to eat tacos even if I’m from Texas and that seems ridiculous, because these were more the Cali-Mex style.
That night, we would wait in line for over 45 minutes to get Nick Cave’s fish and chips. The entire concert grounds was a series of big dumb lines for so many food trucks. I asked my travel partner how people possibly knew a truck was good enough to stand in a line 20+ people deep for it. At the Nick Cave truck, all the options had names related to song titles. I had the Boatman’s Cod while my travel partner ordered From Halloumi to Eternity, or fried halloumi and chips. There was also the option to get Kicking Against the Pickles (fried pickles and chips) or Chips! Lazarus! Chips! (a side of chips), Red Right Halloumi Fries (you get it), and Pickles Ain’t No Good. Look, at least we were all having fun.
A little French?
For our final breakfast before heading on to London, I was thinking with my feet which were terribly sore at this point. So, what was close. Enter Mange Tout, a cute and rustic spot in the North Lanes. We snuck in just as the brunch crowds were hitting — Saturday and Sunday nights were Brighton’s Pride celebrations and it seemed like all of England was catching the train in. Our sidewalk table was, again, on the side of a hill and I truly felt like I was falling backwards in my seat for the first 20 minutes. Eventually I adjusted, but I will come up with a unified theory about how all this living on hills contributes to Brighton’s goth-y tendencies.
At any rate, I got what I would learn is the very British twist on eggs Benedict. Basically, no one serves Benedicts anymore. They put it on a large slice of sourdough with crispy edges and a buttery middle instead and, at Mange Tout anyway, they called it les oeufs… fill in the blank with whatever oeufs you want. Mine were Florentine. The server asked if I wanted to add anything to it and I opted for some avocado. This was such a great choice, because it was served drizzled in some of the best olive oil I’ve had in years, with small tomato chunks, capers, and green onions.
The greatest gift of the whole trip was eating fresh produce without worrying. Bring back summers without major cyclospora outbreaks.
