Taking the long way around

Copenhagen vegan

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Post by:joe panelI’ve not written a Berlin blog post for a couple of weeks, and I’m not going to write one this week either because I’ve been in Copenhagen, so I’ll write about that instead!

First of all, I was surprised at the scarcity of vegan places in Copenhagen. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Berlin’s seemingly endless array of vegan food, but compared to other European capitals of a similar size, Copenhagen felt lacking.

My favourite place of the trip was the Astrid och Aporna Spiseri which translates roughly to “Astrid and the Monkeys’ eatery”. It’s an all-vegan burger-and-hot-dog place, and very nice it was too. Unfortunately the chip fryer was out of order when we were there, but the burger was large and tasty.
Astrid och Aporna vegan burger bar signAstrid och Aporna Copenhagen vegan burger.JPG

Astrid och Aporna also have a vegan grocery store/cafe in Copenhagen, which is really clean and bright with a wide range of vegan groceries, toiletries, etc. (We were particularly excited to find Fentimans fizzy drinks as they were a favourite treat of ours in the UK!). They sell a lot of VBites products which have been rebranded by Astrid och Aporna with wonderful cartoons on the labels. I really like the designs, very fresh and happy.

Astrid och Aporna shop front in CopenhagenAstrid och Aporna branded VBites products

Also well worth visiting is a brand-new vegan ice-cream shop called NiceCream. They sell ice-cream as a lolly on a stick, no scoops here. There are many flavours, we shared one peanut butter and chocolate, and one toffee strawberry. They were really tasty! Highly recommended.

NiceCream Copenhagen vegan ice creams.JPGNiceCream Copenhagen vegan ice-cream-lolly

Copenhagen has four raw vegan places and we visited one café called Raw 42. I’m not a fan of raw food as a concept as it feels to me like a fad diet tacked on to veganism’s moral and ethical standpoint, but the sandwich I had was very tasty with lots of avocado, which is always a winner. We also had a tasty tomato stroganoff (which was hot, so perhaps this raw thing isn’t what I thought it was anyway?).

Raw42 Copenhagen - avocado sandwich

The one non-vegan place we bought food from was right near our apartment, a pizza take-away called Express Pizza. They had a separate vegan menu with a range of vegan pizzas, plus a wrap and a sandwich. It was a good pizza although nothing to get too excited about, unless you’re a hungry vegan in Copenhagen.

Express Pizza Copenhagen vegan pizza

There are more vegan-friendly places in Copenhagen which we didn’t have time to visit, including a café in Christiania which a few people have mentioned to us and is apparently almost fully vegan, so if you have any recommendations let us know in the comments.

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Veganz news

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Post by:

joe panel

I’m sure it’s not news that Berlin has two branches of the Veganz supermarket (by the way, does anyone get the pun in the name?), but for me perhaps an even greater sign of progress are the Veganz sections in one of Germany’s mainstream supermarkets, Kaiser’s (know as Tengelmann in Bavaria for some reason).

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Veganz section in Kaiser’s

Highly visible vegan labelling in prominent locations in a major supermarket is a good sight to see. I feel it helps to normalise the word and concept. This in addition to other products proudly promoted as vegan, for instance in Kaisers’ own chilled sections.

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Not Veganz section – just Kaiser’s own vegan advertisement

It’s not just Kaiser’s either, other supermarkets are pushing vegan products as well. Veganz also has concessions in Metro and Globus supermarkets. It’s good to know if you desperately need to do some midnight vegan shopping from treats to staples, there’s somewhere to go. Seitan powder, dried soya chunks, vegan cream (pouring or whipped), energy bars, sweets and chocolate, kale chips, cooking spices, omelette mix… (p.s. If you’re wondering, the pun in Veganz is that ‘ganz’ is German for ‘everything’).

Reminder: Join Joe for Berlin Vegan Drinks this week and join the Facebook page for future updates.

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Eat in Birmingham

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Birmingham, you are on a massive vegan roll at the moment.

First there was this news of a vegan shop opening and now you can go along to this vegan-friendly food and drink event this weekend.

Check it out.

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Vegan Rotterdam

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Post  by:

joe panel

I’m going to take a brief break from Berlin this week, and tell you about a unique vegan restaurant called Gare du Nord. Despite the name, it’s not in Paris but actually in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and we visited in November last year.

Well, the restaurant does have a strange link to Berlin actually. One of my specialist subjects is the former East Germany. For anyone interested in recent history, what happened in this part of the world during the 45 years after the war is fascinating.

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New Vegan Drinks

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Post by:

joe panel

You know, Berlin really is the city that keeps on giving, if you’re vegan. Hardly a week goes by without some new addition to the city’s vegan menu.

But one thing that Berlin has lacked is an equivalent to the London Vegan Drinks event… until now! (Well, until Friday 17th of July, anyway.) 

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Glorious food experience

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It has taken me a while to get around to posting these photos, partly because I didn’t want to be reminded of the fact that this stunning food is served daily on the opposite side of the world.

If you have room for a new goal on your bucket list, scribble ‘Gracias Madre Los Angeles’ on a scrap of paper and throw it onto the pile of things you must experience before you kick it.

Gracias Madre is a 99.9% vegan restaurant (honey in some cocktails… don’t get me started!) located in West Hollywood with an original location still operating in the San Francisco area. We visited the WeHo outlet during a recent trip to Southern California so we could satisfy our cravings for vegan Mexican food.

Let me give the page over to the photos as I believe they don’t need much help in conveying the glory of the food crafted and served by Gracias Madre. 

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Green Market

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Post by:

joe panel

This weekend found myself and my little vegan gang at a little festival called the Green Market, a small festival which happens three times a year.

The ‘summer edition’ took place next to the river Spree (in part of the former Berlin border strip, for any other history geeks out there!).

And though it may be small (about 30 stands?) the market has quality over quantity, as in addition to vegan clothing, shoes and accessories, there were tons of delicious things to eat.

Plenty of burger and wrap trucks, an ice-cream stand by Kontor (reviewed previously), and – behind a crowd of excited vegans – a new doughnut company called Brammibals, who are currently seeking crowdfunding for a new shop.

So without further ado, check out the following food photos:

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Vegan Ethiopian

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Post by:

josh panel

A trip to Little Ethiopia

Most Los Angeles vegans will already know about Rahel – it’s a vegan Ethiopian restaurant that has been on Fairfax for years and years. The secret to its success? Consistently amazing food. I’ve dined there multiple times over the years and on each occasion, Rahel has nailed it. A couple of weeks ago I was in LA and met my friend Brian for dinner. Check out the photos below of the ‘Millennium Special’ platter which included a dessert. Forgetting that I can never finish the platters, I also ordered a sambussa and instantly regretted it (although it was delicious).

If you’re familiar with Ethiopian food then you’ll know that the feast platters are served on a bed of injera and include many different and diverse dishes. Accompanying this were some of the tastiest vegetable and lentil stews ever, which combined with the injera made a mouth-watering combination of flavours and textures. The melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin stew was out of this world.

The dessert, a little like baklava, was nothing to write home about but who cares after such a delicious platter?

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You can visit Rahel online and make sure you pencil in a stop when you are in Los Angeles.

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Discount in Berlin

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Post by:

joe panel

One of the great things about living in Berlin is that there’s a Veganz vegan supermarket a 10 minute walk away, or even less on the bike. Veganz is really more of a mini-supermarket, though they do have a huge range of products available.

But like all supermarkets, Veganz often has special offers or last- minute reductions on items nearing the end of their shelf-life. This is great for a cheapskate like me. My eyes can sense those bright orange price stickers before I’ve even set off. As a result, we end up trying exotic foodstuffs that are normally out of our price range. (Our freezer is full of bags of grated Daiya cheese that were a bargain at €0.99 each!)

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This will change your view

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Which city on the planet has the most vegan ‘heat’ and ‘buzz’ at the moment?

I’m sure you are rattling off dozens of city names in your head right now. You are thinking of all the familiar destinations you hear about when people talk about vegan hotspots. Los Angeles. Berlin. Glasgow. New York City. Portland. Austin.

Well, how would you react if I told you a lot of the above are about to be trumped for vegan superiority by Warsaw, Poland?

A reader we will call Luke (because that’s his name!) sent me the following video and I have to be honest when I say it completely took me by surprise. Made by a production team named wawangrada, this 30-minute long video is an exposé on the truly staggering  presence of vegan food in the Polish capital.

I can hear the groans of the soundbite-only consumers already, but I implore you to take half an hour out of your day to watch this short documentary. It is one of the most eye-opening chronicles of vegan eating I have ever seen.

Video highlights include:

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