All posts tagged: Antwerp

Sea Shepherd in Antwerp: a look on board the Sam Simon

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One of Sea Shepherd’s ships docked in Antwerp a couple of weeks ago. The Sam Simon anchored near Antwerp’s city museum MAS and during that couple of days crew offered guided tours on the ship. Sea Shepherd is international marine wildlife conservation organization. They use direct action tactics to protect marine life, for example disturbing whale vessels and seizure and destruction of drift nets. I visited the ship with a Dutch friend. It was fascinating! Some information that was shared during the tour: there are a lot of signposts with Japanese language on board the ship, that’s because the ship was originally a Japanese vessel new volunteers start out as sailors, cleaning, doing the simple on board tasks and can later on take on more responsibilities life on board is taken very seriously, no fooling around, and no alcohol on board. If you fool around you leave at the next harbour! The Sam Simon has participated in several operations (see the stickers) The Sam Simon is named after American television producer and writer Sam Simon (co creator of the Simpsons), who donated the money …

I won the lottery! Dinner with Sea Shepherd crew and Tom Waes on board Sam Simon, Antwerp

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Sea Shepherd is international marine wildlife conservation organization. They use direct action tactics to protect marine life, for example disturbing whale vessels and seizure and destruction of drift nets. One of their ships, the Sam Simon, embarked in Antwerp for a couple of days and was open for public visits. I visited the ship with a Dutch friend earlier in the week (review with many more pics of the Sam Simon will follow here). On that visit, I gave a donation to Sea Shepherd, and as such entered the lottery to win a dinner for two on Saturday evening on board the ship, with the crew and Tom Waes. As it is with lotteries, one never expects to win … But this time, I did! 🙂 I got a call on Saturday afternoon and of course I gladly accepted the dinner invitation for two. We had the opportunity to talk to the crew and some volunteers from Sea Shepherd Belgium. And we also met Tom Waes (Belgian actor, director and TV-presentor), who is an ambassador for Sea Shepherd and Captain Alex Cornelissen (CEO …

#22 Restaurant Bali, Wommelgem ****

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Restaurant review #22 – Bali is an Indonesian restaurant (obviously) in Wommelgem (about 7 km east of Antwerp). It had been on our ‘to visit list’ for many years (we love Indonesian food!), but for many reasons we never managed to get there before. One of those reasons being the restaurant not being open for lunch (usually the time we are in the area). There are plenty of Indonesian restaurants in The Netherlands (given the historical link with the country), but they are a rarity in Belgium. So we were glad we finally managed to get to restaurant Bali in Wommelgem. Besides other vegan items on the menu, there’s also a vegetarian rice table for 25€ per person (minimum of 2 persons), which can be veganised. We asked to leave the item with egg out of the rice table, which was no problem. We also checked whether the ‘fried banana’ (often included in Indonesian rice tables) didn’t contain any egg. The waiter was very friendly and made no problem to go check in the kitchen. As a …

#19 Restaurant Lombardia, Antwerp **

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Restaurant review #19 – Restaurant Lombardia is a well know place in Antwerp. (Update – SEE NOTE BELOW) Despite the announcement on their website (“Our menu card is more than 80% vegetarian, so we can proudly call ourselves a vegetarian restaurant“), Lombardia is not a vegetarian restaurant, since they also serve fish (tuna) and meat. They do have vegan and gluten free options standardly available. It is only open till 6 PM, so no dinner. There’s also the option of take-away. We’ve been here a couple of times over the years. Last time was some weeks ago. We actually wanted to try out raw food restaurant Eten Vol Leven, but unfortunately that was closed. The Lombardia experience Least that can be said is that Lombardia’s interior is very colourful. The walls are decorated with scraps and clippings from magazines and newspapers, often boasting about the restaurant or its owner, and enlarged printed tweets from (pseudo-) famous people mentioning their visit to wonderful Lombardia. It’s a chaotic patchwork of different bits and pieces glued together. The place is jammed packed with different types of …

#15 Restaurant Rosenobel, Antwerp ***

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Restaurant review #15 – Rosenobel just opened a couple of months ago. It was announced in several media as being a vegetarian restaurant, although they also serve non-veg items. On their website they state to have a ‘vegetarian inspired kitchen’. We had already emailed to ask whether they also have vegan items standardly available and got an affirmative reply. Great! The restaurant is located at the foot of the cathedral in Antwerp, and although we knew this, we walked by several times in search for this restaurant. There is no sign on the front wall with the name of the restaurant, and given the lounge seatings behind the front windows it’s not really apparent this is a restaurant. To be clear and prevent you from wandering in the cold like we did: if you are facing the front entrance of the cathedral, restaurant Rosenobel is located on your left. We were there for lunch on a Saturday and the restaurant was remarkably quiet (just one other table besides us). Vegan items are not indicated on the menu …

#13 Restaurant De broers van Julienne, Antwerp **

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Restaurant review #13 – De Broers van Julienne is a restaurant in Antwerp well-known for its many vegetarian options. They mainly work with organic ingredients. Several sites list this as a vegetarian restaurant, but it is not (also serves fish). It also has some vegan options standardly available. I had been to De broers van Julienne on my own a couple of years ago, and wasn’t really impressed. It was on a cold snowy winter day, and although I had hoped to warm myself in the restaurant, it was unpleasantly cold inside. Don’t know whether their heating system was broke or if it was always like that, but there was a small heater placed in the middle of the room, that really couldn’t heat the spacious place. I remember a waitress who could hardly speak any Dutch, and replied to my question whether a certain dish was vegan: “gluten free?”. It wasn’t that reassuring and I can’t even remember what I had for lunch at that visit. I did remember the uncomfy chairs and slow …

shop Antwerps Kookhuis, Antwerp

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Shop review #5 – Looking for a special silicone baking mold? A set of professional kitchen knives? A juicer, blender, coffee machine or other kichen tools? Antwerps Kookhuis is a shop I like to visit whenever I’m in Antwerp. I’ve found many items here, that I haven’t found in other cooking shops in Belgium. From the outside windows the shop doesn’t look very big, but inside you encounter many different rooms, packed with baking and cooking material. They also have a large selection of cook books, but hardly any vegan cookbooks (that would be my only minus about the shop 😉 Some more photos from Antwerps Kookhuis: On my last visit, I bought these items: molds for chocolates (each 7.95€ and one 11.95€) and a muffin plate with bundt shapes (34.95€): Antwerps Kookhuis is about a 15-20 minute walk from the city center (City Hall – Cathedral). Antwerps Kookhuis, location Terninckstraat 1 2000 Antwerpen 03/226.98.98 See our list with shops, which may interest vegans