All posts tagged: shopping

A look inside shop Holland & Barrett, Bruges

Published by

Shop review #51 – Holland & Barrett is an international Chain (UK based) with also several shops in Belgium and the Netherlands. Holland & Barrett sells “a wide range of vitamins, minerals, health supplements, specialist foods and natural beauty products.” (taken from their website). There is also a Holland & Barrett shop in Bruges, in the Noordzandstraat (not far from ‘t Zand and the Dweersstraat).  I only recently discovered that H&B have a decent range of vegan labelled body and care products (e.g. shampoo, bath and shower wash, toothpaste, face cream), and now regularly do some shopping there. They also have some food items (nuts, special flours), and a wide range of vitamines and other supplements (vegan vitamine D for example). Here are some more pics from inside the Holland & Barrett in Bruges. Holland & Barrett, location Noordzandstraat 59 8000 Brugge 050/33 9477 website: https://www.hollandandbarrett.be/stores/brugge-9007 See our list of shops, which may interest vegans.  

Eat your heart out! A look inside vegan supermarket Ecocentre in Barcelona

Published by

Shop review #48 – Ecocentre is a vegan shop in the city center of Barcelona. We went to Ecocentre after visiting the nearby Sagrada Familia and having lunch at vegan restaurant La Trocadero. (More reviews of Barcelona HERE). View this post on Instagram Hotdog! It's been a long time 😎 Lunch at vegan resto La trocadero. Near Sagrada Familia. 🌭🌭🌭🌭 #barcelona #sagradafamilia #gaudi #animalrights #veganbarcelona #barcelona #latrocadero #urbanveganfood #veganfastfood #notdog A post shared by trudi_brugesvegan (@trudi_brugesvegan) on Feb 1, 2018 at 3:18am PST   The front of the shop is rather small, but after opening the door and upon entering we were overwhelmed by the size of Ecocentre. Whooot! It’s a (small) supermarket! The place is packed with vegan goodies, food items like cereals, cookies, pasta, but also faux meats, icecream, cheese and pies and cakes! And also some books, cosmetics body and care products and cleaning products. It is so exciting to visit a vegan shop, and certainly one this size! But also so reassuring, since one does not have to check labels to see …

Vegan products at organic shop Luzerne, Beernem

Published by

Shop review #43 – Luzerne is an organic shop in Beernem, about 15 km from Bruges. Luzerne means lucerne or alfalfa. The shop was founded more than 25 years ago and although Beernem is a rather small town, organic shop Luzerne is quite well stocked with a wide variety of products (food, but also cleaning products and body and care products). Luzerne is also only 5 minutes from the exit on the E40 highway, so this is also a handy stop for vegans travelling through Belgium and looking for vegan products for on the road. There is always parking space available, as Luzerne is situated in a quiet street (and there are also some parking places in front of the shop on the pavement). And it is open on Sunday morning! When entering the shop, one is always warmly welcomed by Gerda who runs the shop, and she enthousiastically gives advice or helps out when looking for a specific product or brand. This is not a vegan shop, but there are many vegan products and organic brands …

Shopping at GoVeg vegan shop, Liège

Published by

Shop review #32 – Goveg is a vegan shop in city center of Liège (in the south of Belgium, 200 km from Bruges). We had already got to know this shop during Vegan Summerfest in Ghent last year (see review here). We planned a trip to Liège to visit the Human Zoos exposition in La Cité Miroir (more about this very interesting exhibition in a later blogpost!) so this was a perfect occasion to do some shopping at GoVeg. The Goveg vegan shop is nor far from restaurant Como en Casa (actually in the same street), where we had lunch (review will follow). The shop is not really big, but it is packed with the ‘usual suspects’: body and care products, soy chuncks, vegan shoes, grains, nuts, jam, cereals, chocolate, etc. Also several coolers with vegan cheezes, sausages, pizza, burgers, etc. I was happy to find a pack of ‘vegan eggs’ from Follow Your Heart, which I quite like to eat scrambled! And also the vegan caviar that I had discovered first in Ghent and later also bought at …

A look inside shop Vegetarian Shoes in Brighton, UK

Published by

Shop review #21 – I’ve already posted several reviews of the restaurants we went to in Brighton during our mini break there this Summer (there are still some more to come!). Brighton not only has a large collection of vegan eateries and restaurants with vegan options. There is also a shop of the well-know brand ‘Vegetarian Shoes’. It’s located in Gardner street, which is in the main shopping area of the city. And it is right across from a Loving Hut restaurant (world wide vegan restaurant chain). We were there on a Saturday, and the street was made into a pedestrain zone, with terraces in front of cafés and pubs. The weather was beautiful, so it was a nice atmosphere! Although you can nowadays easily find vegan shoes online, I do find it difficult to buy shoes online, as I definitely want to fit and ‘feel’ them (out of 5 shoes I try, most of the times only one ends up being comfortable!). So I was eager to go to a ‘real life’ vegan shoe shop, where I could actually fit …

Our visit to vegetarian shop Veggie4U in The Hague (NL)

Published by

Shop review #20 – Veggie4U is a vegetarian shop on the edge of The Hague, founded in 2013. The Hague is one of the larger cities of the Netherlands, and although Amsterdam is the official capital, The Hague is the political capital of the country. We only spent a couple of hours in The Hague, but it seems like a nice, relaxed town. Definitely want to visit again one day. And it is actually very close to Bruges, only about a 2 and a half hours drive away! Following our lunch at the new vegetarian restaurant Hortus (blog will follow soon!), we paid a visit to vegetarian shop Veggie4U. It is labelled a ‘supermarket’, but I would rather call it a reasonably sized store. It is a vegetarian shop and not a vegan shop, so note that not all items on the photos are necessarily vegan. They do have many vegan items though: The shop sells mainly food items, with also some body and care products. There are several freezers with many ‘meat replacers’ items, and also a large selection of vegan icecream from Professor …

A visit to cooking shop Bianca Bonte, Oostburg (Nl)

Published by

Shop review #14 – We found shop Bianca Bonte in Oostburg a couple of years ago, when looking for a juicer. Although across the border in the Netherlands, it was at that time the closest shop where we found a Versapers slowjuicer (= a Hurom juicer).  Oostburg is only 29km from Bruges. On a previous visit to Oostburg, we had a vegan dinner at restaurant Het Stadhuis. There’s also a Chinese restaurant in Oostburg (Ocean city) with some items on the menu card which may be vegan. Want to check it out next time! Cooking shop Bianca Bonte is located in the main shopping street of Oostburg (and Oostburg is not that big, so it’s easy to find). The store has all kinds of kitchen tools and machines, pots and pans, juicers and mixers. They also hold workshops, but haven’t seen anything on the agenda specifically focused on vegan cooking. There’s also a selection of bulk tea available, and some olive oils. A large selection of cooking books, but the only vegan one I could find was ‘De dunne vegan’. And …

A look inside shop Horeca Totaal (1), Bruges

Published by

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 …

A visit to organic shop Biovita in Roeselare

Published by

Shop review #9 – Biovita is a new organic shop in Roeselare (41km from Bruges). It opened at the end of 2014. Biovita now has three shops: two in Bruges, and this one in Roeselare. Biovita is not an all-vegan shop, but they do have many vegan products available that you will not find so easily in other ‘regular’ shops. For example vegan cheeses, icecream or non dairy milkdrinks, tempeh, silk tofu, nuts, seaweeds, etc. They also clearly label the products as being vegan, lactose free or gluten free (but as you know, it’ always best to check and double check). Roeselare is too far for us to go shopping on a regular basis (the two shops in Bruges are of course closer to us). But we were in the neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago and paid them a visit! Here are some more impressions from the new shop in Roeselare. There’s plenty of parking next to the shop. Style is similiar to the shops in Bruges, and they also have a selection of toys (not so much available …

shop Antwerps Kookhuis, Antwerp

Published by

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