I ate vegan and live to tell the tale.

A couple of weeks ago tbV and i were invited to a vegan function with Frys.

It took place last night at the stunning ginger & lime kitchen and so at 6.30pm we nervously approached what, to be honest, we were not super excited about… the prospect of free food when it’s vegan is like saying to me: Hey Brett, have a cookie – it has raiSINs in… We had also sampled the Fry’s veg patties once before and not been super impressed…

The invitation had come from a guy called Brett [good name] who had heard that i’d been blogging about being more intentional with what we eat. A while back i ran an excellent and popular series where i asked a bunch of my friends who were vegetarian or thinking about it, to share their story for the Taboo Topics section of my blog. A number of their stories can be read over here and they were very inspiring and thought-provoking. tbV and i are definitely not vegan or even vegetarian, but for the last yeah and a half we have been doing a week-on week-off practice of food where one week we eat as per normal [which is not a crazy amount of meat compared to many people we know] but then we follow it with a meat-free week. In doing that we cut our meat consumption in half and it wasn’t as hard as we might have thought and has helped us come up with some new and exciting meal options which are great.

This last week was a meat-free week and i decided to try something new. i baked some sweet potatoes in the oven and cooked and chopped up and mashed a butternut and put that mash into the sweet potato. i also made a cheesy white sauce and some cauliflower and broccoli and poured it over that. As a combo meal it was super tasty and really easy. Add that to the list.

But back to the evening. We were arriving at ginger & lime…

As we were sitting drinking a glass of wine and meeting people as they arrived we were introduced to Tammy. Later we find out she is Tammy Fry, of the Fry Vegan Food dynasty, who has just flown in from Australia and is feeling a bit jet lagged and yet totally just blows us all away with a glimpse into her family story and the history of Frys. Her dad Wally Fry started out as a goat supplier – full on meat eater and supplier of goats to be killed for meat – and yet went on a journey that moved him through construction to starting up a family business that was all about vegan food.

The great thing about Frys is that they are very strict about their not GM status and just generally about the values of who they buy from. So more than being a business that makes and sells vegan products, they have a whole values system and way of life that feels really positive and completely enticing.

Frys ships to 27 different countries around the world. Although the Frys family have relocated to Australia to try and work on increasing the market there, everything is still based in South Africa, in Durban to be more precise, although they are vibing the Cape Town market currently and running various promotions here. Saturday’s Fry’s day was completely sold out with people offering to pay double to get in – this is clearly a hot ticket.

But back to the evening, we were introduced to Denise Levy and her staff for the evening: Elmo, Paula, Kim, Michaela, and Aisha. We were a room of about 25 people including visitors from as far as Slovenia and Italy and the evening was a combination of everyone getting involved in the prep and the cooking of the meals [i did have the sadly-uncaptured biggest fire of the evening when some mince substitute i was emptying into a pan of oil had some ice-meets-oil moment but Denise calmly saved the day and let me cook the next batch] and then eating and drinking and conversing with a variety of really fun and interesting people.

With us on the evening was my favourite pink-haired You Tuber, Grant Hinds, who was responsible for the introductions that got us invited to this schweet gig and as always it was super fun hanging out with him. tbV and i both got stuck in to the meal making part of the evening.

We got to meet Brett [good name] who heads up Frys in Durban and is just so passionate about food and people and healthy living. It really was so good hanging out with him and getting a chance to share some vibes. Yes, that’s him with Mumford Chris!

But mostly it was about the food and it was incredible. Yes, you heard me right. Vegan and incredible.

In fact i had not known we were going to be eating vegan food that evening and if we’d just been served the various dishes, i would have had no idea. It wasn’t that it was “good vegan food” it was just really amazing yummy food. A huge step towards me moving away from my fear that vegan = tastes bad.

From the Fry’s Battered Prawn style sushi we were welcomed to the party with, to the thick cut chunky strips asian burrito bowl, rice paper rolls with crunchy asian salad mix and chicken style strips served with Vietnamese dipping sauce, all the way to the Vietnamese spicy mince served in a lettuce cup with asian coleslaw and finally, my absolute favourite, the chicken korma curry pieces with baby butternut and aubergine served with coconut pineapple relish. This was all mouth-watering.

To top it all off, although by that stage most of us were completely stuffed and had to make an effort to find some space for dessert, we were given a bowl of vegan coconut ice cream with grilled spiced seasonal fruit. While i skipped the fruit on that one, cos you know, me, the coconut ice cream was a refreshing way to finish off a complete feast. Mouth heaven indeed.

i know many people [myself included before last night] who would hear the word ‘vegan’ and completely be put off. However, after last night, we are definitely going to be adding more Frys products into our weekly shopping and trying out some of the recipes we got to make together at ginger & lime.

Huge shout out to ginger and lime for the most fun, chilled and mouth-watering presentations and to Frys for some solidly good food and an eye into an area of life where we can do a little more to help look after our planet and eat well at the same time.

Have any of you tried Frys products? What has been your favourite? 

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The folks at PositiveHealthWellness.com are focused on writing about different aspects of better living. In this post, they share ‘Everything you need to know about going Vegan’ – check it out.