AS someone who once found it hard to fit in five fruit and veg in a week, nevermind a day, I could never have imagined that my name would find itself on a vegan restaurant booking form.

In fact I had often thought it impossible to comply with the "five a day" aim, seeing as drinking several pints of orange juice to fight off a hangover only left you with one solitary score on the fruit and veg chart.

Growing up - through no fault of my mother - I opted for a daily evening dose of meat with only a mild mouthfull of greens. This meal came after a day spent at school where the food of choice was usually sandwiches, crisps and plenty of chocolate in the Whitecross High canteen.

But as a broke foreign language student living in southern Spain, something happened when a mixture of little income and an average vocabulary left me with no choice but to eat the only thing that was on offer in Andalucian homes and tiny cafes.

Hidden in the hills above Crdoba, most daily menus offered just one starter and one main, meaning that my uncultured mouth was "forced" to try such oddities as asparagus, olives, chickpeas and butter beans.

I also remember, on one particularly hungry afternoon, being presented with a complimentary plate of beef tomatoes in a backstreet bar.

As a teenager these would have been ignored but, being free and also starving, I tucked in.

The result was a revelation as the sea salt and olive oil combined to produce a sensation that was far superior to even the best brand of salt and vinegar crisps.

Here I was stuffing the fruit down my face as if it were a doner kebab but, of course, there was not a spot of regurgitated meat or chilli sauce in sight. I ordered another San Miguel immediately just so I could get my hands on some more free tomatoes. How my world had changed.

And so more than a decade on from my Spanish education I find myself eagerly looking forward to attending a "raw vegan three course meal" in, of all places, my hometown of Hereford.

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Vegan way proves a hit in Hereford