restaurant review 245 – Urban salad is a take away place (also some seatings) in the Bijlmer area in Amsterdam. It is part of a chain with a handful locations throughout the Netherlands. It is very close to the music venues (Ziggo Dome, Arena, etc).
restaurant review #196 – The Lab is a restaurant in the city center of Maastricht, with some vegan options. Actually, it is more a pub/cocktail bar, than a real restaurant, with loud music and a dark, hipster pub atmosphere. It seemed very popular with students. We visited at the end of June, when we were on a holiday in the area. I doubted whether I would post this review on my blog, as The Lab is not a place that I recommend. But then again, I think it is also important to share less favourable experiences (see this blogpost: a critical note on vegan friendly places? don’t you dare) It is very rare that I am thoroughly disappointed about a place. As is the case here. When we came in, the first thing we noticed was a very strong ‘toilet’ odour (and not in a favourable way). There were still plenty of tables available and we could choose a table to sit. You can compose your bowl or choose from one of the available options. The …
Shop review #24 – Chow Chun is an Asian supermarket in the city center of Ostend. It is located in between the Casino Kursaal and the Kapellestraat (Ostend’s main shopping street). It is not a vegan shop, but we did see a selection of vegan goodies that are not so commonly found in regular shops in Belgium. And also some rather rare fresh vegetables. These photos give you an impression of the size of the store and what’s for sale. Note that not all items on the photos are necessarily vegan, since it’s not a vegan shop. Here are some items that caught our eye (I didn’t have time to check all of them for ingredients, but at first glance they looked vegan): This is what we bought: mock duck and mock chicken, soybean pudding, crackers and fried gluted with peanuts (seitan). (11,30€). Chow Chun, location Van Iseghemlaan 50 8400 Oostende +32 (0)59 80 13 68 website: https://www.hetwinkelweb.be/handelaar/detail/chow-chun-supermarkt
Restaurant review #45 – A couple of weeks ago, we went to Indonesian restaurant Lemon Grass in Tielt. Tielt is a small provincial town in Western Flanders, about 35 km from Bruges. We love Indonesian food, and there are plenty of Indonesian restaurants in the Netherlands. Mostly it’s no problem to get a full vegan ricetable. So whenever we are in the Netherlands, we try to visit one. Unfortunately there are not that many Indonesian restaurants in Belgium, so we were pretty happy to see Lemon Grass open in Tielt recently! Looking at the menu, I saw a couple of dishes that I guessed were vegan. I called in advance to check, and indeed there are vegan options on the menu, so we made a reservation. Upon arriving, it seemed not really necessary to make a reservation (it was a midweek evening, we were alone at first, then another couple came in). It was quiet and relaxed. Upon checking with the waiter for ingredients (who was very knowledgeable about it!), we ordered the following: Springrolls with vegetables as a starter (6€). This is …
Restaurant review #41 – Texel is an island north west of Amsterdam. There are only a handfull of small villages on Texel, but the island is very touristic, so there are quite a lot of hotels and restaurants. Not that much options for vegans though. In another blogpost, I’ll give our vegan view on Texel, and places where you can have a vegan meal (and also some restaurants that replied they can’t fullfill our vegan needs). We were at Texel for the weekend, and on one of those days, we dined at restaurant Opduin in De Koog, a very small town on the west side of the island. Every Saturday evening, restaurant Opduin serves an Indonesian rice table (besides the regular menu). I had inquired in advance if we could get a vegan Indonesian ricetable (explaining what we do and don’t eat) and got confirmation. So we made a reservation. When arriving at the restaurant, the waitress said she was told it would be difficult to get a vegan ricetable. Duh? I told her I had gotten confirmation beforehand and asked …
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 …
Shop review #3 – There’s a nice selection of soy sauces at the organic shop Origin’O in Bruges. Not only the standard tamari and shoyu, but also different flavoured ones. We normally use standard tamari and shoyu, but decided to give these special ones a go: the teriyaki (sweet soy sauce) and the coriander and wasabi tamari. Nice additions in our kitchen, with a more distinct flavour. The Teriyaki is a new addition in the range of organic LIMA products. Next to the coriander and wasabi, there are many other seasoned soy sauces from LIMA. We use quite a lot of soy sauce: in marinades (e.g. marinating tempeh or tofu or boiling TVP), in making seitan, in stews, as a sauce in woks or on rice, to fry sunflower seeds in, or just as a dip sauce for snacks.
Restaurant review #4 – De Graankorrel is a vegan/macrobiotic restaurant, in the city center of Ostend (29km from Bruges). It’s located behind the town hall, just a 10 minute walk from the sailing ship/museum ‘Mercator‘. Vegan Strangly, this place is not so well known among Belgian vegans. When asked about vegan restaurants in Belgium, most vegans will probably mention The Loving Hut in Louvain and Komkommertijd in Ghent. Most seem never to have heard of De Graankorrel, although it is very well known among Ostend locals since decades. I’ve also never encountered any tourists here.There also seems to be some confusion whether this restaurant is vegan – or even vegetarian – or not, some people saying the restaurant serves fish. I’ve visited this restaurant in Ostend several times during the last couple of years, and every time lunch was all vegan. I’ve enquired again on my last visit (January 2014), explicitly asking whether they sometimes serve fish or not and whether everything is vegan? The waitress (also the chef) assured me that everything is vegan and …
Restaurant review #1 – Some British friends told us that in one of the small alleys not too far from ‘tZand, they’d seen a sign in front of a restaurant that mentioned ‘vegan’. What?? really??
The Bruges Vegan 