All posts tagged: barnivore

13 Foods that’ll make you want to visit Belgium, but not if you’re vegan!

This overview of 13 typical Belgian foods appeared in The Huffington Post recently. They are listed as thé tourist attraction and appealing feature to come and visit Belgium: the food! Although the Huffington Post has spent a good deal of attention to the rise of veganism in the US (see this overview with keyword vegan), it’s obvious the author of this article clearly wasn’t thinking about the growing popularity of plant based foods or veganism in general. Let’s take a closer look at these 13 typical Belgian foods, and see whether there’s something for vegans in there. 1. Endives in slices of ham, covered in cheese sauce. You could try and veganise the dish, but it’ll take quite some years to come before any traditional restaurant will standardly have a vegan version of this dish on their menu! 2. Mussles with fries. Nope. Mussles are animals. I don’t now if ‘faux vegan mussles’ even exist, but I wouldn’t fancy them anyway! 3. Belgian waffles. Dairy and eggs. Of course you make these vegan yourselves, but …

Vegan organic wines at Biovita, Bruges

Shop review #2 – Wine possibly not vegan, you may ask? Indeed, not all wines are vegan. For ‘clearing’ or ‘fining’ the wine, animal-derived products may be used: isinglass (gelatin from fish bladder membranes), casein (milk protein), chitin (fiber from crustacean shells), egg albumen (derived from egg whites), fish oil or gelatin. So although there is no animal product in the wine itself, it may be used during the winemaking process. Vegan wines don’t use these animal derived products, but alternatives suchs as carbon, bentonite clay or limestone. We haven’t encountered any clearly labelled vegan wines in regular shops in Belgium yet. Common available wines in Belgian shops have no label identifying them as vegan friendly or not. That doesn’t mean they don’t have any vegan wines on offer though. You can look up a brand at Barnivore, which has an extensive list of wines, beers and liquors, too check whether the brand is vegan friendly. We have encountered some brands in the organics shops, which are clearly marked as ‘vegan friendly’ or ‘suitable for vegans’. …