restaurant review #338 – Yasai is a vegan catering business from Ghent. We had ordered a take away menu for Valentine’s day, and Yasai did the catering for a party my husband and I organised earlier this year. So Yasai also does catering on location outside of Ghent. Technically this is not a restaurant review, but I’m posting it in that category anyway 😉 The Valentine’s take away menu:
restaurant review #250 – This is not really a ‘restaurant’ review, as we did not visit an actual restaurant! But gastronomic vegan chef Pieter-Jan Lint and his team did the catering for a birthday party of a friend. It was a beautiful sunny day at the end of Summer, and we were in the back garden of an estate in the Antwerp area. There were sofas, high chairs and benches, a really enjoyable setting, and that also meant one could easily walk around in between courses and mingle with others. So much better than having to be seated at a table for several hours on end! We were served a 10-course menu. This was the menu (Dutch on photo)
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 …
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 …
Shop review #13 – I have visited Horeca Totaal a couple of times. It’s a very large shop aimed at food professionals at the edge of Bruges (just around the corner from organic supermarket Bioplanet). There’s also a Horeca Totaal shop in Ostend. In one of my previous blogposts you can see the tea box that I have bought at Horeca Totaal. Chefs and other food professionals come to get their supplies at Horeca Totaal, but even if you are not professionally engaged in catering bussiness, you can also shop here. When I go to Horeca Totaal, I am still overwhelmed by the place. It is huge! I have too many photos to put them all in one post, so there will be a sequel to this post, focusing more on interesting products for vegans in Horeca Totaal. My impressions from Horeca Totaal – To be clear, it is NOT a vegan shop, and it also has a large butchery and fish section (photos are at the bottom of this post). These are in a seperate – fridge like chambers – of the shop, so you don’t …
Ieperfest is a 3-day hardcore music festival, just outside Ypres (Ieper, 75km from Bruges, Belgium). Since day one, more than 20 years ago, all the food at Ieperfest is vegan! So we went to check it out on day1! To listen to some bands (a trip down memory lane for one of us!), hang out, relax, and get a general impression of the atmosphere. But especially to taste the vegan food! It’s pretty rare to find vegan food at a music festical, so to have all catering fully vegan (and most of it organic too) is really extraordinary! Not having to ask whether the fries are baked in vegetable oil, being able to order food without worrying about hidden ingredients! What a relief! And plenty of choice too! Vegan food catering at Ieperfest: This is what we ate at Ieperfest: For refreshments, there’s of course plenty of beer available, but it’s nice you can also drink organic apple or orange juice (2€). And Koek & Zopie offers a variety of organic coffees. Unfortunately, the rain came pooring down several times, turning the festival grounds …
The Bruges Vegan 