All posts tagged: mushrooms

#89 Nice vegan dish at Bistro Belle de Jour, Ostend ****

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Restaurant review #89 – Bistro Belle de Jour is a small place in one of the quiet streets of the city center, at the back of cultural centre De Grote Post. (update: new location 2019 see below). It’s a two minute walk from shopping street Kappelestraat, I had inquired some time ago whether vegan was possible, and that was said to be no problem. So when making the reservation, I requested this again. Communication on the phone didn’t go very smooth (the lady answering didn’t seem to understand Flemish very well), so we were a bit anxious to go. But we were quickly reassured upon arrival. Chef Els came personally to give us some vegan suggestions, based on the vegetarian dishes of the day (listed on the chalk board) and what’s available in the kitchen. We were seated at a little table at the window, with antique glass vases on the windowstill. There is one large table in the middle, sharing space with others. When we make a reservation again, I would definitely ask for a private table, …

#38 Our dinner at resto Taj Mahal, De Koog (Texel, NL) ***

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Restaurant review #38 – On one of our evenings in Texel, we went for dinner in Indian restaurant Taj Mahal, in De Koog. De Koog is a small village on the western side of the island. Texel is 370km from Bruges, North west of Amsterdam. I did not inquire beforehand whether we could get anything vegan, since this is usually no problem at Indian restaurants. There are several ‘vegetarian’ labelled dishes on the menu at Taj Mahal in De Koog, of which some appear to be vegan. We inquired which dishes would be suitable for us (no eggs, no dairy, ..), and were advised by the waitress. So we ordered shabji biryani (mixed vegetables with rice and spices, 15,75€) and shabji curry, a curry dish with vegetables (without the cream, 15,25€). And these side dishes: baked vegetables (Shabji Bhajee, 5,25€) and mushrooms with onions, tomatoes and chili (Mushroom Bhajee, 6€). Dinner soon followed, and the waitress suggested herself that we share the dishes as a sort of ‘rice table’, which was what we were planning to anyway. …

Finding vegan goodies. A visit to Asian Supermarket Circle, Leuven

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Shop review #15 – On one of our recent visits to Leuven, we discovered Circle, an Asian shop in the Brusselsestraat (no website). On the front window it is labelled as being an Asian supermarket but it is not really that big. Big enough though to look around for about half an hour. We only had about 10 minutes and we weren’t looking for anything in particular. So we just strolled around the shop, out of curiosity. I find it nice to discover new vegan items in a shop I’ve never been to before! Here are some of the items that caught my eye: And some of the dried mushrooms/seaweeds: Some more impressions from the shop Circle itself: Asian Supermarket Circle, location Brusselsestraat 114 3000 Leuven – Louvain 016/43 35 52

A look inside shop Horeca Totaal (1), Bruges

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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 …

Stuffed pumpkin with quinoa and beans

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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 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 …

#9 Restaurant Réliva (2), Bruges ****

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Restaurant review #9 – Restaurant Réliva is – so far as we know – the only restaurant in Bruges which has a vegan 3-course menu standardly available. It is not a vegan restaurant, but vegan is always on offer, and besides the 3-course vegan menu, there is sometimes also another vegan suggestion. We already visited Réliva in the Summer of 2013 (see our previous review here). And we liked it! (see edit below) We recently went again for lunch (February 2014). We were there first, but the place soon filled up and was nearly full for lunch. So we suggest you definitely make a reservation (we overheard the waitress telling some other people it was already fully booked for dinner that night). Both of the main courses of the ‘veggie’ menu were vegan so we could each have something different. We got a little appetizer of mushroom creme and basil with our drinks. And some bread and olive oil. This was our 3-course menu (35€): Pumpkin chestnut soup (organic) with some brandy and liquorice * Lasagne …