restaurant review #288 – Hawaiian Poké Bowl is a chain of restaurants with about a dozen locations throughout Belgium. This is from a visit to Hawaiian Poké Bowl in Leuven a couple of weeks ago. At that time (and now still), restaurants were only allowed to offer take away.
Restaurant review #116 – Histoires d’O is a bistro on the beach promenade in Ostend. I had inquired beforehand via e-mail and received a reply that they have several vegan dishes, like a pasta pesto and a dish with quinoa. We were in Ostend a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, and had no set lunch plans, so this was more sprung of the moment. I did phone beforehand to make a reservation (which turned out not to be really necessary, still plenty of space available) and asked again about vegan options. The lady on the phone seemed to be a bit confused about what vegan means, but we decided to go anyway and hoped it would become clear when ordering. Histoires d’O is a nice place, with a vintage feel. The dark wooden furniture reminds me of old fishermen pubs from decades ago. The chairs are also very vintage, and as is often the case with retro style, not so comfortable 😉 Service was very friendly, and the waitress had no problem checking …
Restaurant review #63 – This is the last restaurant review from our visit to Brighton (UK) last Summer. You can see an overview of all our reviews of our Brighton trip here. I wish I could say I have saved the best for last, but helas. Food for Friends is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Brighton, and a ‘household name’ as it were. So we definitely wanted to visit it during our mini break in Brighton and made a reservation for dinner. It is located in the city center of Brighton, not far from the famous Brighton Pier.
Have you tried spaghetti squash? It’s such a funny vegetable. It looks like a pumpkin, but when prepared, you don’t have ‘chunks’ of pumpkin, but spaghetti like strings. I haven’t seen spaghetti squash much in regular stores in Belgium (they were available at Horeca Totaal when we last visited), but if you have a vegetable garden, you can of course grow them yourself! So we did, and we had a plentifull pumpkin harvest last Summer. The spaghetti pumpkins are the long shaped yellow ones in the middle. We had 8 or 9 spaghetti pumpkins in total! preparing spaghetti squash Preheat oven to 220°. Remove stalk from spaghetti squash. Cut squash in half (either way is ok). Remove the seeds and the middle soft part. Put 2cm water (small 1 inch) in an oven tray. Place the halves in the oven dish, with the open side down. With a fork, pinch some holes in the spaghetti squash. Cover with alu foil. Put in oven for 30 to 40 minutes (the older the pumpkin, the longer it requires. For a pumpkin that was several …
We found these sausage plaits at the British shop Stonemanor in Everberg (in between Leuven en Brussels). Stonemanor sells a variety of frozen Linda McCartney products, which are unfortunately not commonly found in Belgian shops. We were happy to also discover some items that are labelled suitable for vegans. One of the things we bought was a box with two red onion and rosemary sausage plaits. The sausages in the plaits are soy based. Preparation of the plaits is very simple: brush them with a little bit of soy milk and put them in a preheated oven (200°) for 30 to 40 minutes. We had these with savoy cabbage (from our garden!) and quinoa. With some ground cashews on top of the savoy. They were quite nice. And actually very cheap (1,75€ a piece). I wouldn’t eat these every day, or every week even, but it’s a perfect thing to have at hand in the freezer when you don’t have that much time or inspiration to really cook. Linda McCartney red onion and rosemary sausage plaits, labelled suitable …
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 …
Restaurant review #28 – CultuurCafé De Grote Post is a new addition to Ostend (on the Belgian Coast, 27km from Bruges). It is located in the city center, near the Leopoldpark, where you can find the ‘Floral Clock‘ and Ostends famous statue ‘Dikke Matille‘. CultuurCafé De Grote Post is about a 2 minute walk from the main shopping street (Kapellestraat) and 5 minutes from the casino Kursaal. De Grote Post is the former main postal building of Ostend and was built in 1953, and protected as a monument in 1981. The Post closed in 1999, but the building reopened as a Culture Center in 2012, with many exhibitions, performances, workshops, and other cultural activities. The Cultuur Café opened in september 2014. I didn’t really know whether I could get a vegan meal at Cultuur Café De Grote Post, but I had heard they did serve some vegetarian dishes. I hadn’t checked or called in advance to ask, but just decided to go check it out. To my surprise, the two suggested plats du jour were both vegetarian (with cheese) but …
Restaurant review #21 – Chances are you’ve probably been in one of the many establishments worldwide of Le Pain Quotidien. Or at least you’ve seen one of them! There is also one in the heart of Bruges, near the central market place and the Burg. Pain Quotidien is French for Daily Bread. They sell a wide variety of bread over the counter, and you can also sit down for breakfast, lunch or just a coffee with some baked goodies. The restaurant always has one large communal table (for 10 people or more), but also other tables for 2 if you want to have a more private conversation. There’s always something vegan available and vegan items are clearly marked on the menu card. Le Pain Quotidien confirmed to us that the bread served at the table is always vegan. Most of the breads sold over the counter are also vegan, but the raisin bread (kramiek), sugar bread and brioche are non-vegan. UPDATE – see below We were at Le Pain Quotidien in Bruges for lunch on a Friday, and the …
Shop review #4 – De Olijfboom (The Olive Tree) is a small shop close to ‘t Zand. The place is packed with spices, chutneys, salts, a selection of Japanese products, vanille (from many different countries), a wide variety of olive oils and more. And not the regular brands that are available in other shops, but rare and exclusive specialities. At least, we think they are rare, because we haven’t seen any of their products available anywhere else and the owner gave us information on the exclusiveness of some of the brands. It’s not an all vegan shop (eg some of the Japanese products contain fish), but a lot of the products are commonly used in vegan cooking. The owner told us the majority of De Olijfboom’s clientele are restaurants and catering businesses, and there is a selection of their business cards stalled inside the shop. Among which Michelin star restaurants like Hof van Cleve*** (Kruishoutem, 53km from Bruges). There’s a wide selection of olive oils available, bottled, but also tapped: We bought two different types …
The Bruges Vegan 