All posts tagged: vegan products

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

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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

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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 …

Take a look inside vegan shop Greenbay, London

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shop review #41 – Greenbay is a vegan shop in London. It is located on the west side of town (West Kensington, West Brompton). Quite a bit away from the ‘centre’ of London. We visited the shop when we were in London for a couple of days this Summer. Practically next door is vegan restaurant 222 VeggieVegan, which we visited for lunch (review will follow). We also stopped at nearby Brompton cemetary, which was quite impressive – see pic. It is not really a ‘supermarket’ (as it says on their website), but a rather small store, with two aisles. Packed with vegan goodies though! From cosmetcis and body and care products, to vegan wines, vegan cheezes, candy, ice cream,  and other food items. We always find it so relaxing and reassuring to look around in a vegan shop. No sudden confrontation with freezers full of dead animal parts. And not having to check labels and just being able to choose whatever you want is so comforting. Although we saw a lot of products that we were …

Cosmetics and body and care products at Vegan Mania, Paris

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Shop review #39 – Vegan Mania is small shop in the city center of Paris, in a little alley just around the corner of Centre Pompidou. Vegan Mania also has a webshop and ships worldwide. I often find it challenging to find vegan cosmetics and body and care products. If they do not carry a vegan label, it is often impossible to know whether the product does or does not contain any animal products (with often a long list of obscure sounding ingredients) and whether it has been tested on animals or not. Or one has to do some serious researching online to know the brands and their specific vegan products. So it was a joy to shop at Vegan Mania: all products are vegan and organic. Easy! We visited the shop when we were in Paris for a couple of days earlier this year, and I bought some products.  Would have loved to buy more, but we were with our tandem bike and couldn’t carry a lot with us. Loved the shop! Wish we …

A look inside La Vie est Belle, Oostkamp. Organic vegetarian company.

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La Vie est Belle is a Belgian company that produces organic vegetarian and vegan burgers. They are located in Oostkamp, which is just outside of Bruges. A couple of months ago, there was a press conference and reception for the launch of the RizRiz burger, a new product of La Vie est Belle. The RizRiz burger was launched to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the company. Unfortunately we could not attend this event, but we were invited to come take a look inside La Vie est Belle in Oostkamp. An invitation which we gladly accepted, as it is not every day one gets a chance to look behind the curtains! La Vie est Belle started as a small family bussiness run from the home kitchen, making rice balls and vegetarian burgers for friends and family. The founders, had experimented with vegetarian cooking and organic farming in Africa, more or less out of necesssity. The company steadily grew, together with the rise and expansion of organic shops in Belgium, and fuelled by the demand for vegetarian products …

Enter the vegan world of Un Monde Vegan, Paris

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Shop review #36 – Un Monde vegan is a vegan shop in the center of Paris, on the north side of Le Marais. We paid them a visit during our city trip in Paris, in June. It is a reasonably sized shop, comparable to the size of organic stores like Biovita and Origin’O in Belgium. Un Monde Vegan is stacked with vegan goodies, from the usual suspects like plant milks and vegan burgers, but also books, icecream, cheezes and cosmetics. It is so exciting but also relaxing to look around in an all vegan shop. Not having to check labels to see whether any goods contain animal products (which seems to have become second nature 😉 ! We had the same feeling when we visisted the vegan shop Veganz in Vienna. We couldn’t do any real shopping, as we were with our tandem bike. But we did buy some drinks, as it was a very hot day in Paris! Here are some more pics of Un Monde Vegan, which give you an idea of what they have …

A look inside organic shop Origin’O, Louvain

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Shop review #34 – Origin’O is a chain of organic stores in Flanders, with nearly 20 shops spreaded throughout the region. They are not supermarkets, but reasonable sized stores, with most often a good offer of vegan products. There is also an Origin’O is Bruges (see one of the earliest posts on The Bruges Vegan).  The one in Bruges will be moving to a bigger location soon, at the edge of the city (see pic below). Whenever we are visiting another city, we like to check out the vegan and/or organic stores to see what they have on offer. I’ve been to the Origin’O in Louvain (near Brussels) a couple of times before, and on our last visit, I took some pics. Please note that it is not a vegan shop, so not all the products on the photos are necessarily vegan. The shop does sell a lot of vegan items that are not so easily found in ‘regular’ shops (vegan yoghurt, tempeh, chocolates, cakes, toothpaste…). The vegetables and fruits section is in a seperate …

#120 Fast food dinner at Loving Hut Veganerie, Louvain (2)

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Restaurant review #120 – The Loving Hut Veganerie is a vegan restaurant in Leuven (Louvain, close to Brussels) and part of the international chain of Loving Hut restaurants. There is also a smaller Loving Hut restaurant in Louvain (just around the corner!), and next to those two Belgian Loving Hut restaurants, there is also the Viva Vega! Loving Hut Express, a fast food truck which you can encounter at festivals and other events (for example at Vegan Summer Fest or Fair Festival). We already posted a review of The Loving Hut Veganerie in the beginning of 2016 (see restaurant review #60). The Loving Hut Veganerie is a fastfood type restaurant, with self service: one orders at the counter, where you get an alarm device that notifies you when your order is ready and you get go pick it up at the counter. Afterwards one is supposed to put the trays and trash away. The menu consists of fastfood style dishes, ranging from burgers to wraps, but there are also salads available. There are also several vegan …

Shopping at organic shop Mordan, Ostend (2)

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Shop review #33 – Mordan is an organic shop in Ostend (at the Belgian coast) and has two locations: the oldest shop is the city center (right next to the main shopping street Kappelestraat) and has been there for decades. The other one is at the edge of Ostend, on the Torhoutsesteenweg (review of this one is here: shop review #16). Mordan now also has a webshop, with free delivery throughout Belgium (for any order above 25€). The shop Mordan has been there as long as I can remember. As I grew up in Ostend (and didn’t live far from it!), I know the shop quite well. Mordan in Ostend is not a vegan shop, but sells many vegan products that you won’t find so easily in ‘regular’ shops. From vegan cheese to chia seeds from coconut oil to vegan chocolate, from vegan bread spreads to vegan desserts. Note: as is the case in many organic shops in Belgium, there is unfortunately also a ‘meat and cheese’ counter: One big difference with the other shop at the Torhoustesteenweg is there is no …

Inspired by the Intersectionality Conference at VegFest, London

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A couple of weeks ago, at the end of October 2016, we went to VegFest in London. This was a two day event at the Olympia Conference center, on Hammersmith Road (east London). It is not a free festival: we bought tickets in advance which were only £9 per person (buy one, get one half price). Tickets at the door were £15. We were especially interested in the Intersectionality Conference on Sunday. Arriving at the opening time of 11AM on Saturday, it became immediately clear that this is huge event! We found a long queue going round the block to get to the entrance at the west side of Olympia. We made good progress though, and after about only 10 minutes of queuing, scanning of our tickets and a security check, we could enter the venue. There were two large halls on the first floor, with dozens of stalls. The lectures were in the auditorium and conference rooms on the second floor, where there were also stalls from several NGO’s. The Olympia is a really well known venue, where …