2019 Hits and Misses

Posted on December 30, 2019 by Jenny

I’m back! The last few months have been busy and tiring, but I’m keen to shift my priorities and get back to regular blogging in 2020. I’ve missed it! I’m getting back into the swing of things with my regular hits and misses post. As always, it’s been hard to narrow it down to just five hits (and tricky to justify five misses, which is usually a good sign). As veganism goes increasingly mainstream, my expectations get higher and in general I’d say the quality and variety of options are improving every year. I’m excited to see what great food lies ahead in 2020!

Hit #1: Veganitessen, Seville

I’m always happy to tuck into tapas in Spain, and we had a very successful trip to Andalusia in October. There were a few contenders for the hits list, but ultimately this spot in Seville was the winner. All of the tapas dishes we tried were good, but the seitan was the most flavoursome we’ve ever had so it deserves a special mention. And I had one of the all time great slices of cake. Full review coming in 2020, I promise!

Miss #1: Cafe Electric, Prague

There aren’t that many vegan options in Prague city centre, so I was excited to see this one which serves meaty and vegan dishes. The first time I went I ordered the vegan matcha pancakes and was very satisfied. The second time I ordered the vegan chicken dish, but it turned out that it was just regular chicken, and it had been accidentally labelled vegan on the menu. But they brought the chicken to me twice before anyone actually realised that I was asking for a dish they didn’t have. Poor labelling and bewildering service!

Hit #2: T’s Tantan, Tokyo

We might have had better ramen at Engine Ramen in Kyoto, but T’s served us extremely well in Tokyo and we ate a good number of dishes from the menu during our trip. The first bowl of ramen we had really set us up for a great three weeks of adventuring and feasting. Bonus points for having a branch at the airport too!

Miss #2: All Nippon Airways

Nobody has great expectations of aeroplane food, and I do not travel well anyway, but the ANA vegan meals were extremely disappointing. I honestly thought I was going to be sick when I ate the meals on our outbound flight, and just took my own snacks for the return leg. It’s disappointing to me that Ryanair are now dishing up vegan lasagne on their flights, yet the big airlines still can’t rustle up anything more exciting than fruit salad for “dessert”.

Hit #3: Kansuiro Ryokan, Hakone

This wasn’t necessarily the best food we had in Japan, but it was a wonderful experience. Being waited on hand and foot was weird, but we loved trying so many little dishes and getting the traditional experience. Totally recommended for anyone looking for a vegan-friendly ryokan in Japan.

Miss #3: Cafe Atl, Osaka

We paid more for two small pieces of raw vegan cake here than for two massive bowls of noodles in a restaurant around the corner. The cake wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t mind blowing either, and it’s one of those things that makes veganism seem less accessible.

Hit #4: Shams El Balad, Amman

Dr HH and I reminisce about the za’atar bread we shared here at least once a week. Everything was delicious, but that bread was something truly special!

Miss #4:  Hip Hop Chip Shop, Manchester

A few years ago I had a battered sausage from this place that was one of the best things I’d ever eaten. Now in their permanent location they’ve switched from their mock meaty sausage to a more vegetable based one, and it was quite the disappointing switch. It wasn’t awful, but it was a let down compared to what it used to be. Here’s hoping they bring the mock meat back in 2020!

Hit #5: Pastva, Prague

Shout out to my local lunch spot! They have a different lunch menu every day, plus some truly incredible desserts, and the best chai latte in Prague. Points for consistent excellence!

Miss #5: Peppe’s Pizza, Tromsø

There weren’t too many vegan-friendly eateries open over the holidays in Tromsø, so we had to go to Peppe’s Pizza a few times. My general rule on non-vegan places is that the vegan option should always be something they’d be proud to serve to meat eaters too, and I just don’t think that was the case here. The vegan pizzas had Oumph!, which was delicious, but they swapped the cheese for vegan aioli – a poor substitute, and let’s face it, you’d never slop cold mayo onto a pizza and serve it to meat eaters, would you? Bring the cheese!

 

What were your highlights of 2019? Any big misses? Where should I eat in 2020?

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Vegan in Prague: Burrito Loco

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Jenny

For a long time, I have felt like the only vegan in the world who hadn’t tried either the Beyond Meat or the Impossible Burger. There has been so much buzz about them, but I’d never seen them in a supermarket or in a restaurant…until the last few months, when they finally started popping up on a few menus in Prague.

Burrito Loco is a Mexican fast food chain in Prague which is open 24/7 and is very good at labelling its vegan options. It seems like you’re never more than a 10 minute walk from a branch of Burrito Loco, making it a really solid option for emergencies. Besides picking up a vegan burrito en route home from a late flight occasionally, it’s not really a place I visit much. But Dr HH and I needed a quick bite one evening and decided to give the Beyond Meat burger a try at last, as they were advertising it fairly prominently outside (and inside) our local branch.

Rather worryingly, the menu listed it as “Guacamole free”, which had us wondering if the guacamole was included at no extra charge, or if there was no guacamole to be found (happily, it was the former). We also got a choice of salsa (mild, medium, spicy) and some standard salad thrown in there as well, plus some crisps and coleslaw on the side.

The burger was interesting – it was pretty much as I’d expected from the reviews: good meaty texture and taste. It was definitely one of the more convincing vegan burgers I’ve tried, but not necessarily one of the tastiest – I might even have preferred the M&S version. I feel like this one is ultimately designed with the meat eater as the target customer, not people who are already vegan. It seems to be doing its job in at least piquing the curiosity of enough meat eaters to get them to choose the vegan option more frequently, so bravo for that! I won’t be going out of my way to have it regularly, but I’m pleased it’s out there in the world!

What’s your take on these new, mega meaty vegan burgers? Which is your favourite?

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Vegan in the UK: High Street Sausage Roll Wars

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Jenny

Back in January, the UK’s dominant high street bakery, Greggs, created national headlines (and attracted the ire of Piers Morgan) when they launched a vegan sausage roll. I was displeased that they introduced it the day after I flew back to Prague after the holidays – it seemed a little personal – and I had to settle for watching from afar as my local vegan Facebook group in the UK blew up with notifications about which branches of Greggs were selling them, which had sold out, and how delicious they were. All the while, a few people were quietly pointing out that rival high street bakery Pound Bakery had been selling vegan sausage rolls for quite some time, to much less acclaim/irritation.

I immediately announced to Dr HH my dream scenario: a blind taste test of the two vegan sausage rolls so we could say with confidence which was best. We spent months discussing it, and finally this summer it happened! Dr HH trotted over to the local mall and picked up two of each, then plated them up in the kitchen, and presented them to me like so.

Anyone who is familiar with these two establishments could probably guess which was which, so I probably should have been actually blindfolded for it to be a true test. The Greggs sausage roll, which costs £1 a pop, is the one on the left with the neater pastry styling. The Pound Bakery version, sold at two for £1, is the looser, paler, less ornate roll on the right.

They were both really good sausage rolls with a lovely meaty filling, but the Greggs one was the clear winner. The pastry was flakier, and it was a bit more generously stuffed. The Pound Bakery one was nice, but a little greasier. Dr HH declared me a snob for preferring Greggs, but had to concede that he agreed with my assessment.

And let’s face it, there are no losers in this game. I’d happily eat either of them by the bucket load, and I’m really excited to see vegan options going truly mainstream. The real question is why sausage rolls have never made it big internationally. I’ve never seen one in another country. Are we keeping it secret as some kind of post-Brexit negotiating tool? Is the rest of the world rejecting it for some insane reason? Why has the world embraced the hot dog over this majestic and far superior creation?!

What’s your vegan sausage roll of choice? Non-Brits, have you ever had a sausage roll?

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Vegan in Prague: Eaternia

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Jenny

After being stuck in a food rut for a good few months, I have finally broken free! I was hoping to return from my trip to Japan feeling reinvigorated and with a renewed enthusiasm for both discovering new vegan places and writing about that, and I’m pleased to say that that was indeed the case. Prior to that, I was so demotivated that I hadn’t even bothered to visit a new, all-vegan place just 15 minutes from my office. Finally, I have righted this great wrong.

Eaternia is a very casual, cafeteria style place. It has a jukebox and a rocky kind of vibe. It’s very, very vegan. Like most Czech places, there’s a daily lunch menu, which always features some kind of dumplings on a Friday, and an evening menu as well which has a burger and hot dog alongside two dishes that are novelties on vegan menus in Prague: langos (actually, I’ve seen that once as a daily special and once at a festival), and poutine.

Dr HH ordered the poutine. It was a bit light on the gravy, which was all at the bottom of the portion and didn’t taste very strongly of mushrooms, but he enjoyed the chips and melted cheese a lot. As someone who doesn’t like my food very saucy, I’d say this would have been the perfect poutine for me.

The langos, on the other hand, was a bit too saucy! The fried dough itself was spectacular, but I wasn’t expecting quite so much ketchup. It was nice, but a bit much.

Based on price, we’d assumed the langos would not be enough to fill me up, so I got some chips on the side. They were really good chips, but they were all weirdly short! I wonder if they’d somehow been stuck with the smallest potatoes in the world?!

The dessert counter looked spectacular, so we had no choice but to partake. Dr HH went for the lotusmisu, which looked creamy and delicious. He felt that there wasn’t quite enough sponge in there, and the flavour was a bit confusing – it didn’t taste of Lotus biscuits, it had a hint of coffee, and he suspected there was booze in there. He said it was nice, but a bit weird!

Meanwhile, I had this custard tart. It was spectacular! The crust was almost biscuity, the custard was absolutely beautiful, and the cream topping was surprisingly light. I would have one of these every day if I could…but there were so many other good options too!

We also got a couple of cinnamon rolls to take away for breakfast the next day: they were big, beautiful, and had a really wonderful texture. They kept really well overnight too, which isn’t always the case.

This was such a wonderful little place, and I really wish I’d pulled myself together and visited it sooner! Think of all the custard tarts I could have been eating…

Are you on board with ‘dumpling Fridays’?

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VeganMoFo 2019: Kawaii Monster Cafe, Tokyo

Posted on August 31, 2019 by Jenny

I booked us a table at the Kawaii Monster Cafe in Tokyo for the last night of our holiday, because I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end the absolute weirdness of the trip. Every day of our stay was sensory overload, and nothing made sense like it should, but somehow it was all wonderful and charming. That was all perfectly encapsulated in this themed cafe.

This was a mechanical, revolving birthday cake with Hello Kitty on it, and three women in crazy costumes singing some kind of monster song. It was mental!

All the decor was super fun, there were areas with different themes. I was drawn to the bright colours and cute motifs…

…though this room may have been cuteness overload!

Japan as a whole was, mercifully, more vegan-friendly than this cafe was, at least. I contacted them in advance to check the vegan options (when you buy a ticket, the small print requires each visitor to also purchase at least one drink and food item), and was told it was just the chips and a green salad. I’m no fool: I got the chips! Besides the ketchup and mustard, none of the other colourful dips sounded vegan, so I avoided them. The chips were well-seasoned, and there were waffle fries, which is always a bonus, but it’s a shame that there was nothing more exciting, considering how wild all of the other options were: rainbow spaghetti, exciting burgers, desserts shaped like fun characters. It was a boring meal, but not a boring experience – and happily, it wasn’t our last meal in Japan either as we managed to pick up a bowl of ramen at the branch of T’s Tantan in the airport the next morning!

And so, this is the end of my eating odyssey in Japan, and the end of VeganMoFo 2019. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along, and feel motivated to visit Japan now – personally, I’d go back in a heartbeat if only I could afford it! Thanks to everyone for reading, liking, and commenting, it always makes my day!

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VeganMoFo 2019: Flowers, Miyajima

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Jenny

The floating gate at Mijayima ranks quite highly among the top sights in Japan, and we were pleased to see that it was a very manageable day trip from Hiroshima. We took the train and ferry, and there it was in all its majesty! We planned to see it at high tide when it looks like it’s floating. You can make a day of it and wait for low tide to walk out to it, but the weather was so grim that we didn’t bother.

Not only was it raining, but I also met my old nemeses again: the wild deer! Nara revisited, but at least these ones didn’t act quite so much like velociraptors…

The weather was so bad that we decided just to get indoors and eat rather than wander around as we usually would. Once again, we were really relying on other people’s Happy Cow reviews to help us find the vegan dishes. General consensus was that the last page of the menu was all vegan, and some vegan reviewers specifically mentioned the curry udon vegetables, so we followed their lead. It was a good dish for a rainy day! The noodles were lovely and thick and the sauce was rich. The only downside was that the vegetable selection (potato and carrot) was a bit boring and didn’t do much to liven it up. Still, it was hearty and filling, and got us out of the rain for a bit!

Have you ever been rained out on a big sightseeing day? Did you also recover with a hearty bowl of noodle soup?

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VeganMoFo 2019: Parco alla Pace, Hiroshima

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Jenny

Hiroshima was a very strange place to visit. It’s uncomfortable to be a tourist in a city that was completely destroyed in the worst way imaginable. It’s hard to segue from talking about that history to fun ruminations about food, so for that reason I’m not going to dwell on what we did in Hiroshima or how we felt, I’m just going to stick to the food.

I didn’t find it the best place for vegan options, but it’s fun that we managed to try three different cuisines in the three eateries we visited: Indian, Japanese, and Italian. This pizzeria far exceeded my expectations of a Japanese pizzeria! It served all Italian food and had friendly service, though they do have a sign warning: “We don’t speak English but we have an English menu” – sure enough, it was very popular with tourists (they were turning people away, so get there early), and we all got by with the language differences.

The menu has a separate page with vegetarian options, including two pizzas with no cheese which are the vegan options. I was infuriated that all the reviews on Happy Cow referred to it as serving “vegan pizza” without bothering to mention that there’s not even any cheese. So, let the record state: you won’t be getting cheese on your pizza here!

Fortunately, it was a good pizza nevertheless. I ordered the #2, which featured tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, basil, olives, and capers. Those are all very good flavours, so it was actually one of the tastiest pizzas I’ve had in a while. Still a shame about the lack of cheese though…

And the dessert menu even listed two gelato flavours that didn’t contain egg or dairy. We decided not to indulge, out of fear that they would actually be sorbets and we’d be wasting our money…

Cheese-less pizza: yay or nay?

 

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VeganMoFo 2019: Yappenachi, Hiroshima

Posted on August 28, 2019 by Jenny

Okonomiyaki is one of the Japanese specialities that we’d suspected would pass us by, due to the fact that it’s a pancake and unlikely to be veganised. Dr HH was excited to try it while we were in Osaka, but was a bit unimpressed with the results. So when we saw a restaurant listed on Happy Cow that specialised in okonomiyaki, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it another chance.

This was a small, very local spot (we were the only tourists), but it had an English menu with the encouraging words: “No meat, no eggs, no problem!” I had a little card with me explaining in Japanese what we do and do not eat – I showed it to the chef and he enthusiastically pointed out which dishes we could have: fresh tofu (not fried), and the pancake with vegetables with either soba or udon noodles.

We sat at a bar around the kitchen area, and the food was cooked on the hot, metal surface right in front of us, which was very dramatic and exciting! Our dishes were cooked on the same surface where the meaty dishes had been cooked moments before, but we saw them give it a good scrub down first so I felt perfectly comfortable with it.

Truthfully, I was quite disappointed to learn that the fried tofu couldn’t be made vegan, but I needn’t have worried – the fresh block was absolutely delicious! The dressing was simple but effective. Honestly, we had some of the all time great tofu while we were in Japan.

And onto the main event! Dr HH ordered the soba version – the noodles on top crisped up beautifully, giving it some nice texture and shape. There was significantly less sauce than he had in Slices, which had to be a good thing too! We ate these dishes straight off the hot surface using a small shovel – we were quite relieved that some locals were served before us so we could imitate them rather than embarrass ourselves by just guessing how to tackle it.

I ordered the udon version, and it pains me to say it but the udon let me down! Udon noodles just weren’t a good match for this dish. They were heavy, wet, and overwhelming, and made the whole thing a bit sloppy and un-pancake-like. It was still tasty of course, but I’d definitely recommend getting the soba version if you visit.

This was one of the more exciting eateries we visited on our trip, and it was an experience we’ll probably never get again! Sometimes trying Japanese food was a little daunting as we didn’t know the correct way to approach a dish and worried about looking foolish, but this was a fun, friendly place and we were happy to get stuck in!

Do you also worry about eating foreign foods in the wrong way and making a fool of yourself? Have you tried okonomiyaki?

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VeganMoFo 2019: Roopal, Hiroshima

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Jenny

I’ve probably eaten more Indian food in Japan than I ever have in my four years in the Czech Republic – when vegan options were scarce, we could always count on an Indian eatery to adapt something for us. Hiroshima was the last destination on our adventure before heading back to Tokyo for the return flight, and we arrived feeling tired and hungry. Roopal was just a short walk from the station, so we decided to give it a whirl.

The menu states that all dishes are made with dairy, but the staff assured us that any of their vegetable dishes could be served vegan, which matched what the Happy Cow reviews told us. So we went for it! We started with samosas, obviously. The pastry was insanely good, but it was all a little bit too salty, which was a shame.

I ordered the potato and aubergine curry, and was not expecting something so saucy! The veg was really tender, and the sauce was good and flavoursome. I ordered it mild and it was absolutely perfect for me.

Dr HH, you will not be surprised to hear, ordered the chana masala. He liked it, but again, it was too salty.

Happily, both dishes came with a very generous helping of bread. We were not expecting two rotis per serving, but it was the best kind of surprise.

It was a good, solid meal, but we were disappointed that it was full of smokers. Sitting in the non-smoking section did not do very much to protect us from the fumes.

Is smoking in restaurants still a thing where you are? Surely it must be almost over now!

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VeganMoFo 2019: Genmai Shinshoku Aisunao, Naoshima Island

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Jenny

Get ready, it’s time for Dr HH’s traditional VeganMoFo guest post!

Hello! Dr. HH here with my annual contribution to the HH VeganMoFo.  Why have I specifically been drafted in for today’s post? Being a high brow, classy, intellectual individual with an eye for the finer things in life, it was only natural that I write about our day of exploring the Naoshima Art Island.  The day started bright and early from our base in Okayama with me polishing my monocle and dusting off my top hat in preparation for a classy day of art critiquing.

The first thing you spot upon arriving by boat at Miyanoura port is this splendid pumpkin.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to appreciate this piece of art fully as there are so many goons about getting in the way.

It was easy for us to roughly split the island’s museums into two halves for us to tackle before and after lunch.  We hopped on the bus to take us to our first stop, the Chichu Art Museum.  This housed just a few things, including five of Monet’s water lilies. They also had this pond outside that was inspired by said paintings.  There were no pictures allowed of any of the indoor art and we were in the small minority of people who actually followed the rules, so you’ll have to make do with some just some outdoor pictures.  This was our favourite museum on the island, it only had three things in but they were all excellent and the building itself was very impressive too.

Next was the Lee Ufan Museum which housed a selection of what I can only describe as modern art. I remember there being quite a lot of rocks, but not a lot else.  There were also some outdoor bits – I’m sure you can all pick the artistic majesty of this piece I call ‘rock and stick with archway in the distance’.

From here we went to Bennesse House.  This was the biggest museum on the island, which housed a varied collection of modern art and provided some spectacular views of the island.  Much like most modern art galleries, I enjoyed some of the art and found it good fun whilst other pieces left me scratching my head.

It was a bit of a grey and grisly day but the rain was quite gentle at this stage so we decided to take a fairly long walk up towards our eatery before tackling our lunch.  On the way there was a good selection of outdoor art, we spotted some funny looking creatures and the most famous spot on the island, the yellow pumpkin!

Our lunch spot, Genmai Shinshoku Aisunao, was tucked away down a side street near the Ando museum.  On Happy Cow it is listed as using fish stock, but we were informed that everything was vegan and from what I remember the reviews back this up.  We were served this exciting looking lunch special.  In the great Japaense tradition we had become accustomed to, our waitress offered to explained the dishes to us, clarified that the tiny green blobs were made from kelp and excellent with rice, and with that she was off.  Oh well, knowing what things are only detracts from the excitement!

There was an excellent bowl of brown rice, topped with some sesame seeds that gave it a good savoury flavour.  I’m normally pretty critical of rice and it feel it’s quite a dull carb, but here it was a great addition to the meal, and the kelp did indeed add an extra punch of flavour to it. The bowl of miso soup at the front was delicious with a great depth of flavour. The white plate in the back corner had some relatively uninteresting chunks of pumpkin and carrot, but there was a piece of spongy freeze dried tofu that we’d really taken a shine to when it had been served to us before, and once again it did not disappoint.  The rest of that plate had some pickled vegetables and some little cut up noodley bits, which were all good accompaniments to this spread.  The black bowl at the back had some tofu and mushrooms in a broth, which was probably the best part of the whole lunch.  Finally, the dessert plate…we knew from the menu that we were getting a soy milk pudding, which turned out to pretty much be a sweet bit of tofu.  It was perfectly pleasant but not particularly exciting.  What we did not expect was for the beans on the plate next to it to also be a little sweet, that was odd.  Overall, this was an excellent meal that provided us with plenty of fuel for our afternoon wanders.

Next on our list was the Ando Museum, dedicated to the architect who designed most (maybe all?) of the museums on the island.  It provided some models and some background on how the buildings had been developed and extended over the years.  The last thing on the list for us was the Art House Project.  This was made up of five different small locations, each with an exciting exhibit.  It sounded a little like a mini version of the Biennale in Venice so we were quite excited to see what was on offer.  We hustled from site to site in the pouring rain to take in four of the exhibits, but unfortunately they were rather underwhelming.  One consisted of sitting in the dark for about ten minutes, and another was just a small flower arrangement.  The other two were a little more fun but still not particularly exciting.

By this time, the rain was heavier than ever and we had about 20 minutes to get back across to our ferry port so we abandoned the idea of seeing the last of the art house projects and sped off on our way.

This was a great and long day out.  We set off early from Okayama and made an effort to see as much as we could.  I really enjoyed the Chichu Museum and Bennesse House but I could happily have skipped the other museums.  The outdoor bits and pieces were great fun too, and the island was a pleasant place to stroll around…well, it would have been more pleasant if it hadn’t rained all day!  The food was excellent and I would thoroughly recommend a trip to Naoshima Island. If you have even a passing interest in modern art there’s plenty to enjoy, and it’s certainly something a little different from the hustle and bustle of your average Japanese city.

What kind of squash would you most like to see transformed into art?

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