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#30 Di Coylde, Beernem ***

Published by trudi_bruges

Restaurant review #30 – Di Coylde is a more upstyle restaurant in Beernem, with a traditional cuisine (meat and fish menus). Beernem is about 13km from Bruges. In 2013, we asked whether a vegan menu is possible for two persons, but got a negative reply. Hence, restaurant Di Coylde is not included in our list of restos outside Bruges where vegans are welcome.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a brainstorm day at work, with lunch for all of us planned at restaurant Di Coylde. The organisers listed everyone’s preferences for lunch (fish, meat, vegetarian or vegan – that’s for me, since I’m the only vegan at work 😉 ) and forwarded this list to the restaurant.

This is the vegan menu that I got at Di Coylde:

tomato and courgette crisp
green herb soup (unspecified)
butternut soup with fennel and mushrooms
couscous with grilled vegetables
lemon sorbet with mandarines, nuts, raisins and apricots

tomato and courgette crisp

Green herb soup (unspecified)

Butternut soup with fennel and mushrooms

Couscous with grilled vegetables

lemon sorbet with mandarines, nuts, raisins and apricots

The food was nice, but it was no gastronomical masterpiece. It started promising, with the appetizer and the soup, although these were very small portions. The waitress didn’t specifify what the green soup was. The main dish was rather uninspirational (grilled vegetables). Nice, but it gave me a ‘eaten that a thousand times before’ impression.
The vegan menu was 35€, without drinks, same price as the menus of my colleagues (meat, fish or vegetarian menu), which I thought was pretty steep.
I appreciate the chef made an effort though 😉

Di Coylde, location
Sint-Jorisstraat 82
8730 Beernem
Tel : 050/78 18 18

See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and around Bruges.

#29 Fanny Thai, Brussels *

Published by trudi_bruges

Restaurant review #29 – A bad restaurant experience. Every vegan has had one or will encounter one at one point. At least if you go out for dinner every once in a while (I know there are vegans who don’t, precisely because they have had such bad experiences, or they just want to avoid any risk of eating non vegan items).
So before you read on, just know that we are not recommending this place.

Fanny Thai, Brussels

Fanny Thai is – obviously – a Thai restaurant in the city center of Brussels. It is located near the Stock Market (Beurs/Bourse) and the concert Hall Ancienne Belgique. There are several Eastern style restaurants in this area (Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai). We had been at Fanny Thai a couple of years ago, before going to a show at the Ancienne Belgique. I remember it stood out because they had a large variety of vegetarian dishes with tofu and with seitan (the latter not being so commonly served in Asian restaurants in Belgium). We didn’t remember the name of the restaurant anymore, but we recognised the place when we were in the area again, before going to a show at the AB.

There is a Végé Friendly sticker on the window and several dishes are mentioned seperately on their menu, under the header ‘Vegetarian’. Going by the description, most of these vegetarian dishes appear to be vegan. Many of the dishes can be either ordered with seitan or with tofu.

sticker on door @Fanny Thai

vegetarian dishes announced on the outside menu board

vegetarian dishes, Menu card

As we didn’t want to be late for the show, we just ordered a main course: seitan in red curry (10,50€) and fried noodles with vegetables (10,50€). We asked whether these dishes didn’t contain any eggs nor dairy (no) and asked for the seitan dish to be served with plain cooked rice.

Seitan in red curry, 10,50€

Noodles with vegetables , NON VEGAN, WITH OYSTER SAUCE! 🙁 10,50€

The seitan curry dish was ok, nothing spectacular, more like a soup of sauce with some seitan chuncks in it. At some point during the meal, my partner grew suspicious of the sauce of the noodles dish, questioning that it may contain oyster sauce. He asked the waiter which sauce was used for the dish? The waiter replied it was soy sauce, but when we insisted (so there was no oysters sauce used for this dish?) he confirmed there was indeed oyster sauce used.
Cr@p!! 🙁 What followed was a short discussion about what ‘vegetarian’ actually means. We repeated a couple of times that ‘the noodles with vegetables’ dish is not vegetarian then (as they list it on the menu card), as oyster sauce is made out of oysters (and often fish too). Although the waiter had served us in Dutch up to that point, he suddenly asked to continue in French (which we did). He then replied, seemingly annoyed, that ‘they only serve dishes with vegetables, but don’t claim them to be vegetarian nor vegan, and you need to ask specifically in advance about the ingredients‘.

Touché. So it was our fault. By these standards, the header ‘Vegetarian’ above the list of dishes on their menu card actually means nothing.
Normally we are very wary of the use of oyster sauce in Thai restaurants, and always ask when ordering. We were blinded by the ‘végé friendly’ sticker at the entrance, and implicitly expected them to have good knowledge of what vegetarian and even vegan stands for. Lesson learned. Always check. And double check.
If Fanny Thai would have apologised and admitted making a mistake and showed some intentions to stop using oyster sauce in ‘vegetarian’ dishes in the future, it would have somewhat tempered this nasty experience. But this clearly wasn’t the case.

A disappointing experience, especially since they claim to be végé friendly. We will not visit again.

Fanny Thai (no website), location
Jules Van Praetstraat
1000 Brussel

See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and around Bruges

Fanny Thai

New additions to our lists of restaurants (2014/11)

Published by trudi_bruges

Here are some new entries in the list of restaurants, which we’ve added recently (2014/11):

Books and Brunch (Bruges)

Buddhasia (Bruges) review follows: here

CultuurCafé De Grote Post (Ostend) review here

Fanny Thai (Brussels) review follows: here

Hashtag Food (Bruges)

Mykene (Leuven)

Nectar (Kortrijk)

Rock Fort (Bruges)

‘t Gulden Vlies (Bruges)

Buddhasia, Bruges

Vegan not available, or no reply:

Bistro Mathilda (Ostend)

Hete Patat (Mechelen)

Phare de Vie (Bruges)

Uilenspiegel (Bruges)

For more info: see our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and around Bruges.

Stuffed pumpkin with quinoa and beans

Published by trudi_bruges

As you can see in one of our previous posts, we have plenty of pumpkins from our garden. One of the varieties is “sweet dumpling“, and as the name suggest, it’s much sweeter than other pumpkins (like hokaidos or butternuts). The sweet dumpling pumpkins are also much smaller than the others (about the size of a very large orange) and ideal for stuffing. Fresh from the garden, you can also eat the peel of this squash. But these were already a bit older, so we didn’t eat the peel.

This recipe was inspiration of the moment. Homemade in The Bruges Vegan’s kitchen!

Stuffed sweet dumpling with mushrooms and carrots

Stuffed sweet dumpling, served with mushrooms and carrots

Stuffed sweet dumpling squash with quinoa and beans, served with baked mushrooms and sweet potato (vegan)

Ingredients

serves 2 persons

2 to 3 tablespoons peanut oil
about 125g mushrooms (half of a small tray)
3 medium sized sweet potatoes (bataat)
2 sweet dumplings
1 can (400g) beans – eg red beans, borlotti, …
1 cup red quinoa
1 clove garlic, grated
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped in small pieces
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Clean and peel the potatoes and clean the mushrooms.
Slice them in pieces, about 2cm thick (about 3/4 inch).
Set mushrooms and potatoes aside.

Make the vegan parmesan: grind the cashews, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds and salt. We either use a blender or a coffee grinder to do this.

Preheat the oven to 220°C

Remove the cap from the sweet dumplings, and remove the seeds with a spoon.

Makes some holes in the squash, with a fork or knife. Place them upside down (with the open side down) in a oven tray. Fill the bottom of the oven tray with water (0,5cm or a pink thick).
Cover the tray losely with tin foil, and put it in the oven.

Meanwhile, prepare the quinoa as indicated on the package.
Mix the grated garlic with the spices: cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and fold in the chopped apricots.
When the quinoa is ready, mingle in the apricot/herb mixture. Then carefully fold in the beans.

Check on a regular basis to see whether the pumpkins are done. They are done when you can easily prick them with a fork (after about 30 minutes)
When done, remove the squash from the oven, but keep the oven on. Remove the water from the oven tray, and grease the tray with olive oil.
Fill the pumpkins with the quinoa/bean mixture, put in the oven, covered with tin foil.

Meanwhile, bake the sweet potatos and mushrooms in peanut oil on a hot fire, so they are nearly stirfried. Reduce the heating and keep baking them, turn regularly.

After 15 minutes in the oven, take the tin foil of the pumpkins and put vegan parmesan on top of the stuffed pumpkins. Put back in the oven (without tin foil) untill the parmesan turns brownish, about 10 minutes.

Serve the stuffed sweet dumpling with the fried sweet potatoes and mushrooms.

Yummie!

Shop SHAVT, Leuven (Simply Healthy And Vegan Things)

Published by trudi_bruges

Shop review #8 – SHAVT is a new vegan shop in Leuven. SHAVT is the acronym for “Simply Healthy And Vegan Things“. It’s located in the city center of Leuven/Louvain, and opened in 2014. Leuven is a university city near Brussels (30km) and about 130 km from Bruges.
UPDATE 2017: see below!

The Loving Hut (vegan restaurant part of a worldwide chain) is just across the street and newly open vegan sandwich bar Vegaverso is just around the corner (see our blog). Being so close to one another, these 3 places are easy to combine on a visit to Leuven.

vegan shop SHAVT, Louvain

I think SHAVT is currently only one of three all vegan shops in Belgium (the others being Vedge in Ghent and Veggieshop in Ostend, see our review). Not taking into account some grocery shops who only sell fruits and vegetables that is. It’s a small shop (not supermarket style), but has a large variety of vegan items nonetheless: from ice cream to body and care products, chocolate to cleaning products.

vegan goodies @SHAVT

Owner Kobe has made quite a name for himself with his homemade vegan cheeses! And we were very eager to try some. So we bough the SHAVT’s herby (4€) and the SHAVT’s Classic (4,50€). And also some of his homemade cheese croquettes. All of which were delicious!

SHAVT’s Herby (4€) and SHAVT’s Classic (4,5€)

vegan cheese croquette (with fried potato and spinach)

We will surely visit again on our next trip to Leuven!

SHAVT, location
Charles Deberiotstraat 2
3000 Leuven
Tel: +32 16 58 43 11

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the shop closed in 2017, now only webshop!

See our list with shops, which may interest vegans.

Some more pics from SHAVT:

SHAVT logo

vegan icecream

vegan cheeses @SHAVT

vegan goodies @SHAVT

SHAVT

Kobe from SHAVT

#28 Cultuur Café De Grote Post, Oostende ***

Published by trudi_bruges

Restaurant review #28 – CultuurCafé De Grote Post is a new addition to Ostend (on the Belgian Coast, 27km from Bruges). It is located in the city center, near the Leopoldpark, where you can find the ‘Floral Clock‘ and Ostends famous statue ‘Dikke Matille‘. CultuurCafé De Grote Post is about a 2 minute walk from the main shopping street (Kapellestraat) and 5 minutes from the casino Kursaal.

De Grote Post, Ostend

CultuurCafé De Grote Post, Oostende

Fresh orange juice, 4€

De Grote Post is the former main postal building of Ostend and was built in 1953, and protected as a monument in 1981. The Post closed in 1999, but the building reopened as a Culture Center in 2012, with many exhibitions, performances, workshops, and other cultural activities. The Cultuur Café opened in september 2014.

I didn’t really know whether I could get a vegan meal at Cultuur Café De Grote Post, but I had heard they did serve some vegetarian dishes. I hadn’t checked or called in advance to ask, but just decided to go check it out. To my surprise, the two suggested plats du jour were both vegetarian (with cheese) but could easlily be veganised. The waitress made no problem to go check with the kitchen staff if the dishes didn’t contain any other animal ingredients.
The two dishes were a salad with figs, red beet, pumpkin seeds (and blue cheese), and quinoa with vegetables, rucola salad and olives (and cheese), both 13,50€. I went for the latter.

Quinoa with vegetables, rucola, tomatoes, and olives, 13,50€

A nice salad, and a more than enough portion for me. The dish won’t win any points on a gastronomical scale, but everything was fresh, and the accompanying olive oil made it agreeable.
The waitress told me there will always something on the menu that can be fitted to the needs of vegans.
The Cultuur Café is very spacious, and very nicely renovated. Being a large hall, with many hard materials, there’s bad acoustics though. When I was there, there were just a couple of other patrons in the Café, and service was very swift. My company told me that when the Café is full, it can be a long wait before food is being served.

Eating out options for vegans in Ostend are rather scarce. So it’s very nice that Cultuur Café De Grote Post is making an effort for vegans!

Flower Clock

CultuurCafe De Grote Post, lokettenzaal

Cultuur Café De Grote Post

Dikke Matille, Ostend

CultuurCafé De Grote Post, location
Hendrik Serruyslaan 18a
8400 Oostende
0496/25.84.88

See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and around Bruges

Pumpkin waffles

Published by trudi_bruges

It’s that time of the year! Pumpkins! As you could see in one of our previous posts, we have dozens of pumpkins from our garden. Luckily pumpkins are very versatile and can be used in anything from soups to desserts to baking.
I like these pumpkin waffles a lot: light and crispy! Feel free to replace the sugar with another sweetener (or you could also try leaving it out altogether).
I either use freshly made pumpkin puree, or a portion that I prepared previously and stored in the freezer, on those occasions that I don’t have the time to cut and clean the pumkin.

vegan pumpkin waffles

Ingredients vegan pumpkin waffles

Makes 6 double waffles (like the one in the photo)

1 + 3/4 cup (275g) all purpose flour
2 1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
2 ts ground cinnamon
1 ts grated or ground ginger
1/2 ts ground or grated nutmeg
1/4 ts ground cloves
+++++++++++++
2 cups (475 ml) soy milk
2 cups (425g) pumpkin puree (= a small hokkaido pumpkin, see photo)
5 tbs canola oil
1/3 cup (65g) brown sugar
2 ts vanilla extract

Ingredients pumpkin waffles

Making vegan pumkin waffles

Grease the waffle iron with a little bit of canola oil. Preheat the waffle iron.
In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.
In another large bowl, mix the wet ingredients: soy milk, pumpkin puree, brown sugar and vanille extract.
Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
Bake the waffles according to the instructions of your waffle iron (in our case, being 7 to 8 minutes on level 6-7)

batter vegan pumpkin waffles

The recipe for these vegan pumpkin waffles is based on one in Vegan with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
In this cookbook, it says this recipe makes 24 regular waffles (or 12-14 Belgian waffles). However, We could make 12 regular waffles with these ingredients (= 6 double ones like the one in the photo, meaning 12 single ones of 7×4).
I wouldn’t make Belgian sized waffles with this recipe, since Belgian waffles (which are actually called Brussels waffles in Belgium) normally have a very light texture, which these pumpkin waffles don’t have.

Armistice Day, but not for the animals

Published by trudi_bruges

Armistice Day (or Remembrance Day) and we remember the millions of victims of the Great War and other wars. On some occasions, due attention is given to the millions of animals employed during wartimes and who were killed by bullets, shells, gas attacks or who died of deprivation or starvation. Horses and dogs were used for transport, cats to control the abundance of mice and rats in the trenches and pigeons used as messengers. Animals were also used as experimental subjects for munition, gas masks or bullet proof clothing. Animals as cannon fodder.

Mules in WWI, photo via internet, The Donkey Sanctuary

Probably the most forgotten victims are the millions of wild animals who were exterminated as pests (the rats in the trenches) or the animals whose habitat was totally destroyed by the violence of war (at least those who survived the bombings). How it must have confused and bewildered the migratory birds flying over the thundering frontline. And as many soldiers returned home shell shocked or with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) I suspect millions of animals were similarly traumatised by the violence of war. And then also the countless domesticated animals being eaten and seized by the occupier to supply the troops.

From the battlefield to the slaughterhouse, does it make a difference for the animals? Their suffering is ongoing, it’s still war for them.

On November 11, 1918 the machine guns remained silent. But no peace came for the animals. Today, billions of animals still die and suffer in the hands of humans, for food, entertainment, as experimental subjects, because humans destroy their habitat or because they are considered a pest or nuisance.
From the battlefield to the slaughterhouse, does it make a difference for the animals? Their suffering is ongoing, it’s still war for them. Hopefully one day, they will have their armistice.

Stuffed horse, Exibition Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres (2012)

Cow in trenches, WWI, photo Exhibition Ysertower, Diksmuide (2013)

Use of animals during war, Exhibition Yser Tower, Diksmuide (2013)

dead animals market place Ypres, April 1915, Photographer Anthony

dead rats, Exhibition Death Trenches (Dodengang), Diksmuide (2013)

Tribute to the use of horses , probably during WWI, photographer Mark Caen

pig and German soldiers, WWI

Trenches of Death (Dodengang), Diksmuide

Originally published on our Dutch blog: Wapenstilstand, maar niet voor de dieren.

vegan tattoo

Published by trudi_bruges

Vegan tattoo on my husband’s arm 🙂

Tattoo made by Vanessa from Toryumon Tattoo in Ghent, using all vegan products (ink, after care products, …).

Pumpkins, too many pumpkins!

Published by trudi_bruges

I wanted some more variety of pumpkins in my vegetable garden!
I grew all of the pumpkin plants myself, mostly from organic seeds bough through the organic gardening association VELT. And they all delivered! Plenty!

I store the pumpkins in our cool cellar, and they will keep good for months to come. I also prepare some pumpkin puree (mash) and put it in handy portions (1 cup, two cups) in the freezer. Ready to use for those occasions when I don’t have the time to cut and clean a pumpkin.

This is our collection of all the pumpkins that we harvested this year (yes, I think I overdid it a bit ;-).
Different varieties: Potiron Bleu, Uchi Kuri, Red Kuri, Spaghetti Squash, Sweet Dumpling and Butternut. And some undetermined that just grew on the compostheap.
I just harvested the butternuts today (the bottle shaped pumpkins). These are the most difficult to ripen I find. But I’m taking them inside anyway now, as it’s getting close to freezing point some nights.