Oil, bread, and tomatoes – Vegan in Andalusia – Plant-Powered Nomad

Spain isn’t a country that most think of as being a haven for vegans, especially being vegan in Andalusia, where I fled to in February when Ireland and the UK got too cold for me. Unfortunately it was still cold in Andalusia, but without the benefit of central heating. Oops. Didn’t think that through, did I. Some day I need to go and learn lessons from seals on how to grow blubber under my skin to stay warm.

Luckily, food was something that was still in my life, so I might have been freezing but at least I wasn’t starving too. And although the main fair for vegans in Andalusia is tostadas con tomate y aceite (toast with crushed tomato and oil), a regional breakfast that you can ask for anywhere, there are plenty of other vegan options too. Here are my vegan adventures in Andalusia.

TARIFA

In off season Tarifa is small, sleepy, and very pretty. As the kitesurfing season kicks off, tourists and part-time residents flood in and it becomes a kitesurfer’s haven. It was quiet, but I loved it in February as it was just starting to warm up and there were lots of opportunities for windy beach walks and hikes.

The EcoCenter – vegetarian

Tarifa EcoCenter is a restaurant with an organic shop at the back where you can buy things like seitan, tempeh, and various healthy type foods. For €10 you can also order an organic seasonal vegetable box that comes every Tuesday.

Everything I ate at the restaurant was excellent, from their pizzas to their salads. It’s mainly vegan, but it’s worth checking.

Cost: midrange.
Taste: yummy
Would I return?: for a nice dinner, definitely!

Chilimosa – vegetarian

I was so excited to discover that Chilimosa was right next-door to my first apartment in Tarifa… only to discover that they’d gone away on holiday for a month. Visiting Tarifa in off-season definitely has its downsides!

Cafe Azul – serves meat

If you’re looking for a place that does a good, cheap soy latte (caffe latte con leche de soja) and a tostada con tomate y aceite, then look no further than Café Azul. It’s not got wifi, and it closes in the afternoon for siesta (like everywhere else), but if you want somewhere to meet for breakfast it’s perfect.

CADIZ

Cadiz definitely isn’t as vegan friendly as Tarifa, but it’s an extremely pretty town to walk around for a day. A little bigger than Tarifa, there are lots of winding streets that all look the same and are easy to get lost in. If in doubt just follow the sound of the sea.

La Isleta de la Vina – serves meat

They may not be veggie, but they have a clearly labelled vegan tapas menu and their food was good. As it’s tapas one won’t fill you up – we split 5 between two of us and it was a decent amount of food. They have hummus, falafel, and a ‘burger’ which is more like a vegan quiche thing.

SEVILLE

Seville has some pretty amazing vegan food, and even… gasp… vegan cake! It’s not too big a city, so take the extra time to get to the vegan friendly places rather than relying on regular restaurants, or you’ll be eating a lot of espinacas con garbanzos (chickpeas with spinach), the vegan friendly tapas that’s on almost every menu.

Bar Cardomomo – vegan

The owner is one of the sweetest women I’ve met, utterly enthusiastic and friendly. I popped in there at the end of the day and we spent quite a while using google translate to have a conversation. I only tried one tapas – the burger – because I was curious what a tapas burger was like. It turns out it’s a really really tiny vegan burger, but a tasty one. I tried a piece of cake too, and it was decent.

Cost: cheapish.
Taste: like tasty home cooked food, miniaturised.
Would I return?: sure, but mainly for the owner’s company.

Veganitessan – vegan

This is my favourite place on the list, hands down and no contest. It’s a small stall in an indoor market, but there are plenty of options on the many and an amazing selection of cakes and pastries. We tried two of the burgers, which were tasty and the potatoes that came with them were amazing. I know it’s a little odd to rave about the potatoes, but they were some of the best I’ve ever had. I took away a chocolate croissant to eat on the bus the next day, but ended up eating it at 1am instead… it was calling to my from my bag, and my willpower caved.

Cost: cheap.
Taste: burgers were good, desserts were amazing.
Would I return?: definitely, and in fact I did later that day.

Bar Ecologico Gaia – vegetarian

Attached to a giant health food shop, Bar Ecologico Gaia is a more upscale restaurant than the others on this list and is well established in Seville as a vegetarian restaurant. About 50% of the menu is vegan, and there are some interesting options. I tried the bulgar wheat which was delicious and was a nice change from the oil and bread.

Cost: moderate.
Taste: delicious and healthy.
Would I return?: for a nice meal out, yes.

Mama Ines – serves meat

Best (and cheapest!) breakfast I had in Andalusia of tostada, latte and orange juice. I would have gone here every morning if it was closer to where I ended up staying. The tostada bread was light and fluffy with a crusty outside, and the tomato was thick and tasty. The tostada, orange juice and latte cost €2.50.

Cost: cheap.
Taste: mmmmm… *daydreams*
Would I return?: definitely.

Have you been to Andalusia? What did you find to eat that wasn’t bread and oil?

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Motorbike crash in Cambodia – Part 1, the crash – Plant-Powered Nomad

*Warning, featuring graphic pictures of blood and gore, but also some more amusing moments.*

On a beautiful November day in Kampot, Cambodia, I was driving down a mountain when I got a corner wrong and the next thing I knew I was on the ground trapped under my bike. Maybe it was the PMS clouding my head, maybe I was tired, maybe it was the crappy handling on the dodgy rental scooter, maybe I was just daydreaming too much about the guy I was with and not paying attention.* Or maybe my luck that seems to charm me when I travel ran out. Whatever happened, I was relieved that I seemed okay, except for my leg being trapped. Cambodians appeared from out of the hillside and stood around staring and talking Khmer, my friend appeared too, and an American driving past saw what happened and stopped his bike to help. The two guys lifted the bike off me and that’s when I saw my knee, and the bone sticking out of my knee.

Boker mountain, the last photo before I crashed.

“She’s going into shock,” I heard the new guy say. “We need to get her to the hospital. Come on sweetheart, can you get up?” They pulled me to my feet, taking my bag from me. I got on my friend’s bike behind him, noticing the taste of blood in my mouth from a split lip and, worried, checking my teeth. All still there, but one banged. I could feel blood running down my arm from a scratch on my elbow. I felt shaky. My knee, which I was trying not to look at, was numb. I thought dimly that my leg the bike had crushed would hurt in the morning.

We were driving for barely 5 minutes when I felt something was wrong. Richard, behind us, shouted something and we pulled over. “You’ve got a flat!” he said, pointing at our back tire. The air in it was totally gone. The situation was so ridiculous that I had to laugh. Richard’s bike was a bigger bike, and not a scooter, but it was still a squeeze for the three of us to pile on, me in the middle. My 6′ friend had to hold his feet up the whole time to stop them dragging on the ground. I lost track of time, but about thirty minutes later we arrived at Sonya Kill hospital, a small and unfortunately named hospital at the bottom of Kampot mountain, where they took me into a room and lay me down.

There’s bone under the dirt.

“How much your weight?” asked the pretty Cambodia nurse who was going to get me some morphine before cleaning me up. I shook my head. I hadn’t weighed myself in about six months.

“58 kilograms?” I guessed, and she repeated it to the male nurse in Khmer. He turned around and looked me up and down critically, one eyebrow raised. Then he gave me a disbelieving look and shook his head. He spoke to the female nurse.

“Okay, you have to go other room,” she made a weighing movement. I looked at my leg, then back at her, then back at my leg, then back at her. She got the point. “Okay, I bring here.”

I turned out to be 60 kilograms. The male nurse looked vindicated and wrote it down on the sheet. “Calling me fat, way to kick me when I’m down,” I muttered to my friend. I was looking forwards to the morphine though. The pain was becoming a little too much to handle. They injected me, and cleaned me up. The pain was horrendous. If I never feel someone picking rocks out of the bone in my knee again, it will be too soon. After what seemed to be forever they bandaged me up and sent me to be x-rayed to check if anything was broken. Richard was waiting outside, talking to a friendly nurse.

My elbow healed fast, my ankle not so much.

“How are you doing?” he asked. I was hopping along and giggling, doing little salsa dancing turns on one leg as I held my friend’s hand for balance. “She’s had a lot of morphine,” my friend explained. I was taken into the x-ray room, and had my leg positioned in various ways. Then I sat outside in the sun and waited. Ten minutes later the doctor came out and gave me a dramatic thumbs up.

“All okay!” he told me. Nothing broken. We were all relieved, and a little surprised; it definitely hadn’t looked unbroken.

They gave me the bill: 4 hours of medical care, morphine, painkillers, antibiotics, and x-rays cost me $58. Crashing in the middle of nowhere definitely had its perks.

My nurse and, left to right, my nurse, Richard, my friend, me on morphine, and my doctor. Yes, that’s my doctor.

That night I had night-terrors and more than once I woke up in a cold sweat and panicked. The next day everything had swollen and the pain was in its full force. I couldn’t put any weight on my leg, and even hopping with someone to hold onto was slow and painful because of the movement. I started to realise that what I’d optimistically brushed off as something I could recover from in a week or two was going to take much longer.

The next day was bad. My friend went up the mountain with the hostel to reclaim the motorbikes, while I stayed in the room with the overweight middle-aged American woman who’d been chasing the much younger hostel manager in an attempt to bed him. In an attempt to distract myself from the pain I sat with her and listened to her tales of all the Adonis-like young men who had been pursuing her. It didn’t seem polite to question the veracity of her stories.

Bandaged up, before and after.

“I’ve never been slim, but then I got this belly,” she grabbed her stomach with both her hands. “And this is just how I am, it’s never going away. But my boobs were just too big, so I got them reduced on health insurance. The surgeon was good, but the stitches on my nipples are now coming out, look,” she put one hand down her top and scooped out a tit. Sure enough the stitches around the nipple were coming out. “You okay there honey?” My eyes had glazed over from pain and I was leaning a little. “You’re in a lot of pain, aren’t you?” She glanced surreptitiously around the room, and then asked me, “do you smoke? My cousin in DC has a farm that I work on every summer for as much high grade stuff as I want. It will take the pain right away.” I was a little desperate.

When my friend came back, he looked at me, confused. “What happened to you?” he asked.

“She showed me her boob and told me sex stories and then got me stoned,” I replied. “Please don’t leave me with her again.”

To be continued…

Bokor Mountain

*I’m referring to the guy here as ‘my friend’ throughout this to keep some sense of having a private life. Read into that what you will, but yes I quite liked him.

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An Industrial Poland Vegan Adventure – Vegan in Katowice and Gliwice – Plant-Powered Nomad

Poland. They’re all about the sausage. Or at least, that’s what my friends who live in Poland like to tell me. Being Vegan in Poland, or even vegan in Katowice and Gliwice, though, is a piece of vegan cake. Or a easy as vegan pie. Or as simple as vegan pierogi. Oh no, wait, that’s not a saying… moving quickly on, here is my guide to vegan food in Gliwice and Katowice.

Like most countries, the larger cities have plenty of vegan options. On this particular trip, though, I wasn’t in the big cities, I was visiting a friend in Gliwice. Gliwice is a pretty anonymous but nonetheless nice small city in upper Silesia, and home to just under 200,000 people – mainly Polish, with the occasional English teacher dotted amongst them. The English level in Poland is pretty high, so it wasn’t too much of an issue finding food and I taught myself to read the basic non-vegan ingredients so I could read labels on biscuits etc. It’s worth taking ten minutes to do this, especially if you’re travelling on through Central/Eastern Europe as there are similarities/crossovers with other Slavonic languages like Czech and Serbo-Croatian.

Vegan – wegańskie
Vegetarian – wegetariański
Milk – mleko
Lactose – laktoza
Whey powder – serwatka w proszku
Yoghurt – jogurt
Egg – jajka/jajo
Cheese – ser

And if you want to eat out in either Gliwice or Katowice, here are some suggestions:

ZIELONY MOST BISTRO – VEGAN – KATOWICE

I was so excited to find this relatively new restaurant in Katowice, the first all-vegan restaurant in the city. When we went to visit it was one day after International Women’s Day and so I was offered a free glass of wine, which was available to all women that week. They offer a decent range of vegan, organic wines and beers included a smoked banana beer that I tried later in the evening. Sounds weird, but tastes pretty decent and not at all like bananas, thankfully! The menu is constantly changing and improving, so instead of a paper menu you have to check the chalk board. It’s not in English but the lovely staff are more than happy to translate and offer recommendations. The restaurant is dog friendly, and they support a local dog shelter and provide food and water for visiting canines.

The food itself is excellent – very tasty, decent portion sizes, creative, and very reasonably priced. The only part of the meal that I felt let the restaurant down was the dessert, but considering the work they’re putting into constantly improving the menu I have no doubt that chef will develop excellent desserts in no time at all.

I tried the leek rosti with roast sweet potatoes and an avocado dip, and it was divine. My friend had the big vegetable burger – apart from the fact that I love the name, it was also excellent. A hearty and healthy vegan burger.

Taste rating: healthy, satisfying, full of flavour.
Would I return?: Definitely

MIHIDERKA – VEGAN – GLIWICE

Mihiderka is also a pretty new restaurant, and it the first fully vegan restaurant in Gliwice. The menu isn’t in English here, either, but one of the staff members has excellent English and will happily translate and help you choose if you’re stuck between all the options. Mihiderka has a large range of burgers, and some veganized variations of Polish food. I had the Zapiekane which was similar to a shepherd’s pie but with lentils, and I then had the tofu baked cheesecake to finish. My friend had the sweet potato burger and an IPA beer. While I was waiting for my Zapiekane they gave me a salad to keep me busy, standard procedure for the Zapiekane as it takes a little longer.

The only thing I wasn’t sold on was the cheesecake, but then I’m not a fan of baked tofu cheesecakes in general – I’ve never especially found one that manages to disguise the savoury texture. Otherwise, everything was tasty and the portions we large. The price was exceptionally reasonable. We left stuffed and happy, and ready to deal with the cold outside.

Taste rating: good enough to pretend it wasn’t cold outside, and to blanket my spirit and soul with warm feelings for when I stepped back out into the freezing weather.
Would I return?: absolutely, in fact I met another vegan who lives in Gliwice who goes every day, and I can see why.

BO TAK WEGE PRZESTRZEN – VEGETARIAN – KATOWICE

Bo Tak is a more established vegetarian restaurant, with vegan alternatives and options clearly marked on the menu. I liked the venue a lot, as it seems small downstairs but is light, airy and spacious upstairs with a lot of tables. The waitress was friendly and helpful. We didn’t have much time here, so we only tried one dish which was the mushrooms stuffed with olives and vegan cheese. We had to wait a little longer as the waitress told us the first one they made was too small, so because we were sharing she’d sent it back. This was very considerate of her, but the dish that arrived made us both wonder how small the first one was that this one was bigger! Each of the mushrooms was the width of my thumb. They were nice but not exceptional, but I’d like to try a few more things off the menu.

Taste rating: like mushrooms, olives and vegan cheese.
Would I return?: They did a good soy latte, so I’d go back for coffee and to try a different meal, but I wasn’t especially impressed by how many vegan options there were on the menu, and thought the mushrooms were overpriced for the size.

ZŁOTY OSIOŁ – VEGETARIAN – GLIWICE

We went here for lunch, and of all the places it’s definitely my favourite for the decor. The food is a buffet with clearly marked labels in all dishes stating if they’re vegan or vegetarian, and if they’re gluten free. At least 50% of the dishes were vegan, and they were extremely well priced although the portion size seems to vary.

My friend ordered the goulash, and got a plateful, while I ordered a vegetable slice of sorts, and it was considerably smaller. There’s a free salad bar that you can help yourself to once you’ve ordered a dish, but being Poland everything is pickled and fermented. The food was good and hearty.

Taste rating: like a home cooked meal on a cold winter day.
Would I return?: For a cheap lunch that will fill me up for the afternoon, definitely.

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Vegan Madrid – the cake and burger edition – Plant-Powered Nomad

Honestly, Madrid as a city didn’t excite me that much. Sandwiched in my trip between the beautiful, romantic cities and winding streets of Seville and Barcelona, it seemed a little… meh. Except for one thing: the vegan food. While most of Spain has a definite paucity of vegan food, Madrid’s vegan scene appears to be booming. Here’s my selection of what and where you need to eat when you’re visiting the capital, depending on the mood you’re in. Except, for some reason, I was permanently in a burger mood. And then I was confused today when I looked in the mirror at my expanded waistline. Totally worth it though.

BEST GOURMET BURGER – VIVA BURGERS

This is a birthday or special occasion sort of place, or a ‘I want to taste on of the best vegan burgers in the world, because I’m just worth it’ place. Don’t be deceived by their size in the pictures, these burgers are massive. And the frustrating thing is, their starters are also pretty amazing, so you’re going to need room in your stomach. As an appetiser we had the spinach and…… croquettes, which tasted much healthier than the other croquettes I tasted in Madrid, but were delicious in their own right. We dipped them in ali oli sauce, and then when the croquettes ran out I may or may not have eaten the rest of sauce with the spoon when I thought no one was looking. When it came to the burger options we had trouble deciding, they all looked so good! In the end, though, we settled on the…. and the… with an added slab of smoked vegan cheese. Despite the names of real cheese (including Emmental and blue cheese) being on the menu, it is in fact a 100% vegan restaurant. They were utterly delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. If this was my last meal… I’d die happy.

Cost: €13.50 + €1 for extra cheese per burger. €2.80 for a glass of wine, and €6.50 for the croquettes.
Taste rating: like angels dancing across my tastebuds.
Would I return?: wild horses couldn’t keep me away.

BEST FAST FOOD STYLE BURGER – B13 BAR

It me three tries to find B13 open. Why haven’t I learned to check the opening times, yet? When I got there, they didn’t disappoint. They don’t accept card, but you won’t need much cash to fill yourself up here. I’ve a little bit fallen in love with croquettes, so they were an obvious order, along with onion rings and fries that were generous portions and pleasantly crispy. The burger patties were mock meat, Frys – unless I’m mistaken – but I use the same brand myself for the burgers I make at home, so I was perfectly content with them.

Cost: €20 for 2 drinks, 2 burgers, onion rings, a side of fries and croquettes, enough to stuff both of us.
Taste rating: like your guilty little secret turned into fast food, and wasn’t so little anymore.
Would I return?: oh hell yes.

BEST ATMOSPHERE – OVEJA NEGRA

I have a soft spot for vegan places that are full of dogs and t-shirts/pins/patches for sale. It’s not somewhere I’d take my parents, but I’d go there like a shot for a drink and some food with my friends. As we ate, a pug in a silly coat ran around happily getting attention from everyone, and then a greyhound in a jacket arrived who was clearly a regular. Trying to stray away from the burger habit I’ve got myself into, I ordered the chorizo in cider tomato sauce, and the croquettes (that’s not a habit I’m abandoning anytime soon. Anyone got a good recipe for when I leave the country?). Spain being Spain, we were given a basket of bread top mop up the sauce with. My couchsurfing host ordered the burger, which looked decent.

Cost: €20 for 2 drinks and our food.
Taste rating: like it needs some good company and great chat to complete the perfect evening out.
Would I return?: yep, and I’d bring my dog. (That I don’t have, anyone want to lend me one?)

BEST TAPAS/LUNCH MENU – VEGA

Or… best non-burger option, judging by everything I ate in Madrid. I went here twice after B13 foiled me the second time, and we needed somewhere close by for lunch so I decided on a revisit. The first time we had the seitan steak with roast vegetables, and the patatas bravas, the second time was for lunch so it was the set menu – a choice between 2 of each of the starters, mains and desserts. We all chose the seitan kebab and the chocolate liquor dessert. The kebab came with roasted vegetables, which were delicious, and was a more refined kebab compared to, say, the sort at Vöner in Berlin. It was delicious.

Cost: €11.90 for 3 courses on the lunch menu, €7.90 for two. Mains for around €8.
Taste rating: like the Tyrell’s crisps of kebabs and steak plates.
Would I return?: I did already.

BEST COFFEE AND CAKE – CELICIOSO

Celicioso are totally gluten free, and have a clearly marked vegan section on the menu. A chocolate cupcake, a chocolate raspberry one, both of those in cake form, and a carrot cupcake. We remain a little unsure of what’s actually in this, considering the vegan and gluten free aspect (I did ask later, they’re rice flour), but they taste delicious. Actually I went back the next day. They’re vegan gluten free, so they don’t have calories, right?

Cost: about €2.80 for the cupcakes and €3.20 for the cake.
Taste rating: like magical fairy candyfloss in the shape of a cupcake.
Would I return?: I went back a day later and got the cake…

Have you been to Madrid? Anywhere I really should have gone? I got into a bit of a burger loop, I must admit… let me know in the comments below.

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Calçotada festival! A burnt onion street party in Barcelona – Plant-Powered Nomad

On the way to Barcelona, my Blablacar driver told me about this Catalonian food I had to eat called Calçots. “It’s these grilled onions, in sauce,” he said. I smiled politely, not really having a clue what he meant, and not thinking it sounded appetising enough to remember. The next day, however, I got a message from The Vegan Word saying her street is having a Calçotada party, there’s a vegan menu, and do I want a ticket. ‘Calçotadas…’ I thought. That sounds familiar, isn’t that the oniony thing?

Calçots cooking on the fire, photo by Caitlin from The Vegan Word

Sunday morning arrives and the street party committee office is a hive of activity. Yes, there’s actually a street party committee office (in what appears to be a large garage filled with papier mache animal heads from a previous event). By early afternoon, tables have appeared and already a crowd has formed. At 2.30, when we head out to find a seat before the 2.45 kick off, the street is swarming with people and it’s only with great difficulty and a lot of negotiating in Spanish that we can find two empty seats. Somebody, clearly cannier than us, brought their own uncooked potatoes in a bowl. I’m not sure what they were going to do with them, but there they were, on the table.

Kicking off

Bread arrived, wine arrived, and after a while hot, blackened Calçots wrapped in newspaper arrived. Calçots are a variety of spring onion that are larger, sweeter and milder. Apparently they were created by peasant farmer Xat de Benaiges at the turn of the 20th century in Valls in Tarragona Province, although their origin is disputed.

Calçots incoming.

Normally a festival held in country villages in Catalonia, it was a little odd to see a street in Central Barcelona fenced off for a barbecue. They were served with the traditional romesco sauce, and slices of bread. As an alternative to the sausages, vegans and vegetarians were provided with a potato, an artichoke, and some roasted peppers.

Calçots wrapped in their newspapers.

To eat the Calçots, you have to peel off the black outer layers with your hands, getting the burned bits everywhere. Then you dip the fleshy inner into the sauce, again using your hands to mount a decent amount of nutty tomato goodness on the stem. Then you tip back your head, lift the whole thing high into the air, and lower it down into your mouth. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. It will probably help if you bring a bib, and some baby wipes for afterwards when your hands turn everything you touch black.

In full swing of peeling, dipping and eating.

The normal number to eat is 15. I stalled at 12. It was a lot of onion, but Caitlin managed the full 15 like an allium eating trooper. Whoever was DJing was having the time of their life – hopping from Coldplay, to Classical, to Salsa, to Reggae before you could say ‘mas pan por favor!’ The whole experience cost us €10 each, however if you don’t like to display your onion eating skills in the public outdoors, you can travel to New York and have the experience recreated for only $100 a head. If you want to stay local, visit Catalonia in February or March to catch the Calçotada season.

¡Salud!

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Plant-Powered Nomad

A vegan without roots

Posted in Locations

Oil, bread, and tomatoes – Vegan in Andalusia – Plant-Powered Nomad

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Motorbike crash in Cambodia – Part 1, the crash – Plant-Powered Nomad

An Industrial Poland Vegan Adventure – Vegan in Katowice and Gliwice – Plant-Powered Nomad

Vegan Madrid – the cake and burger edition – Plant-Powered Nomad

Calçotada festival! A burnt onion street party in Barcelona – Plant-Powered Nomad