All posts filed under: varia

Vegans not welcome!

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Yes, they do exist. Restaurants that do not want to prepare a vegan menu. I have yet to encounter a sign on a restaurant’s door that explicitly says so, but there are certainly chefs and many in the catering bussiness who share this view. Over the years, I have contacted dozens of restaurants with the question if they can make us a vegan menu. I have had many positive replies, but onfortunately also many restaurants letting me know they cannot or will not make a vegan menu. Sometimes it’s just a straightforward and simple ‘no we don’t do that‘. Sometimes they add some explanation like ‘it’s not our specialty‘, ‘we don’t work with such products‘ or ‘we don’t think we can give you a satisfying culinary experience‘ or even ‘because it requires a total reorganisation of our kitchen‘. Sometimes they even refer me to vegan friendly places in town. I appreciate restaurants taking the time to reply to my request, even if they answer they cannot or will not provide a vegan menu. Rather they are honest about it, than …

Adding stars to my restaurant reviews

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I have been contemplating this for a while, but decided to finally add stars to the restaurant reviews on The Bruges Vegan. (update Fall 2017: I stopped doing this – see below). In favour of adding stars: It is an easy way to give an ‘overall’ impression of a restaurant I can add it to the title of the restaurant review, so that immediately gives you an indication of our experience (either good or bad). Against adding stars: I find it difficult to score on a 5 star scale (but halves would complicate it too much) I feel al lot of places will fall in the 3 to 4 category People might only judge by the given star, and not read the review anymore (if they ever did 😉 ) A score is a medium of different aspects: food, comfort, service, hygiene, opening hours, etc. Foodwise it might be a 5 star, but comfortwise it might only be a 1 star, so that levels the score. My rating may change over time, as my assessment also evolves the more …

GIVEAWAY! 3 year blog anniversary and 100 resto reviews

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Three years ago, at the end of 2013 between Christmas and New Year, I started The Bruges Vegan Blog. I had already been blogging in Dutch on Graswortels (previously called Veggieleven), but decided to start an English blog to share restaurant reviews and other things vegan related with people from around the world. 3 YEAR BLOG OVERVIEW In those three years, I have published 231 posts on The Bruges Vegan. A lot of those posts are restaurant reviews. But there are also other posts about our garden, homemade meals in our kitchen, reviews from events like vegan festivals or lectures, and some posts about animal rights. The posts about Remembrance day (Armistice day, but not for the animals and The animal do not want our medals and statues) were shared more than thousands of times. I also posted some shop review (30 posts) and posts about vegan products like vegan caviar or Danish pastry. It is rather a coincidence that the 3 year blog-anniversary coincides with the milestone of 100 restaurant reviews (number 100 is published after this post). That …

A word or two about restaurant reviews

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We have visited hundreds of restaurants over the years. And although we have only started this blog fairly recently (beginning of 2014) there are already quite a lot of posts with restaurant reviews on our blog. Here are some thoughts about restaurant reviews, and our take on the matter. #1. A restaurant review is always a subjective account A restaurant review is always a personal account. So many different subjective preferences shape the experience. As we explain in #2 we try to look at the global picture when writing a restaurant review, but even that is of course shaped by our own personal preferences and taste. #2. More than food: everything counts The food is of course the main focal point. A restaurant experience is however also shaped by other factors: comfort, hygiene, service, attitude, location, accessibility, choice of vegan options, presence of non-vegan items (like leather chairs in vegetarian restaurants), …  And a price tag that is in check with the quality. So sometimes the vegan food may have been great, but the restaurant scores less on other points (or …

A critical note about vegan (friendly) places? Don’t you dare!

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This is a comment that often comes up on vegan forums when somebody gives a negative comment about a vegan (friendly) place. You shouldn’t criticise them! You should be supportive. At least they are making an effort, don’t be so negative. They need our love and support, not criticism. The reasoning behind it is that these vegan (friendly) places already have a hard time surviving in a predominantly non-vegan catering world, and we should not be making it any harder on them, but only encourage them and support them, and as such, not criticise them. Of course we support vegan places and wish them the best and try to visit as many of these places as we can! We hope their numbers will increase rapidly in the future. Whenever we see a new vegan place opening, we are excited to go try it out and we give it our support. And when non-vegan places start offering vegan options, we encourage their efforts! We have had plenty of positive experiences over the years and have documented them in our reviews. But just the fact of being a vegan business or …

Dining out is always a matter of trust

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As you can tell by the number of restaurant reviews on our blog, we have visited quite a lot of restaurants over the years. Yes, even as vegans (I stress this because some people think that is impossible) and even in restaurants where at first glance this may not be so obvious. Yes, we have had some bad experiences. I’m not referring to the the rabbitfood that we’ve sometimes been served, but to dishes that are not vegan. For example a dish containg oystersauce, although explicitly labelled on the menu as vegetarian (and yes, also having checked whether it didn’t contain any eggs or dairy). But on most occasions, we have enjoyed a vegan menu. At least that is what we think (and hope)! Dining out always involves a risk. One can try to minimise that risk, for example by clearly informing the restaurant beforehand on what vegan means, explaining what you do and do not eat. But nevertheless, the risk that some dishes may contain animal ingredients cannot be taken away completely. Although we realise that dining out always involves some …

Graduation day video: to the zoo, the rodeo, or …. ?

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This is undoubtedly one of the stangest videos I have seen in a long time! The scene is a graduation class in Japan, where students receive their diploma. Otherwise I won’t give any spoilers, my comments are below. Just watch it for yourself first! (note: there are no animals used in this video, and no images of animal abuse). Graduation class of 2014 It’s a very special day, the first day of a new journey: the students receive their ‘diplomas’ and hear their final destination, the job they have to do. This is what they’ve worked for all these years. “But an end is also a beginning” is the thought of a girl graduate, central in the video. The nose rings already lead to suspect they are not just ordinary students. Indeed, we learn it’s the graduation ceremony of the ‘cattle of 2014’. One graduate’s destination is Yamada farm, another one is off to a Rodeo Park in Texas. The graduates are not called out by their name, but by their number. The girl that was reassured by her friend that she will …

Dairy: from yummie to yuk

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dairy everywhere Up until a couple of years ago, I still ate dairy. Not so much a glass of milk (never liked that), but a lot of ‘processed’ milk. A sandwich with cheese. Mac & cheese. Pizza with cheese. Icecream with fruit and whipped cream. Yoghurt. I quite enjoyed it! Yummie! And there’s also a whole series of products of which you do not realise that they contain dairy. Milk (or whey or milkpowder) is included in a broad scala of food items, from bread to pizzadough, crisps to sauces, chocolates to cakes, soup and bread spreads. A couple of years ago, we went vegan. That means no animal products, so also no dairyproducts. You can read more about the reason’s why here. In a nutshell: for exactly the same reasons why I went vegetarian all those years ago: first and foremost for the animals. I also take note of the environmental aspect and the health reasons involved. Stolen mother’s milk I see dairy in a totally different light now. I see it as mother’s milk of cows, sheep …

The inside of a leather jacket

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Chinese artist Cao Hui made a series of sculpturs of everyday objects that are often made of leather, like a couch, gloves, shoes or a suitcase. He also shows the inside of these objects, with organs, fat and flesh. The artist wants to challenge the way we look at everyday objects. On the website of the Lin Lin Gallerij, Cao Hui explains: Increasingly uneasy and dissatisfied with merely describing surface appearances, artists now attempt to plumb the inner reaches of things; an agenda that apparently moves into science or other fields. It seems artists are no longer happy just being artists, but are driven by their inborn love of performance to try out new roles, such as philosopher, scientist, doctor or perhaps even engineer. According to this info the sculptures are not made with real leather nor organs, but with products like resin and fibre. The artist doesn’t seem to want to bring an animal rights message, but the images do make you think about the issue, no? Leather is not a by-product Leather or animal skin …

I spotted someone with this shopping bag in Brighton!

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We spent a couple of days in Brighton earlier this Summer. It’s a small but touristic town in the south east of England. We chose to go to Brighton, as we read there are so many options to eat out for vegans. And there surely are! It was great. I will be posting reviews of the restaurants we visited later! On our stroll through the city center, we spotted a lady with this shopping bag from Veganz (German vegan organisation/supermarket). Pigs are awesome Cows are cool Please don’t eat them ’cause they rule! Great! I just impulsively went up to here, told her that I loved the bag and asked if I could take a photograph. Must have been very odd that a complete stranger suddenly comes up to you to ask to photograph your bag 😉 But I thought it was very cool to spot this and see likeminded people 🙂 We had a very short chat. She had bought the bag in Berlin, but if I remember correctly she was from the UK herself. Anyway, thank you …