Our final destination in Taiwan was Alishan, which is up in the mountains. The main reason for visiting Alishan is for the hikes and the mountain views, but honestly, the best thing in my opinion was the chilly temperatures. It was a cool 17 degrees when we arrived mid-afternoon. That was the coldest we had been for weeks! It was thrilling to be outdoors and not dripping in sweat for a change.
Alishan is a national park. It is really, really not a vegan food destination. According to Happy Cow, there are a few places serving vegan options, so we went to one restaurant for dinner. Besides that though, we brought our own supplies for breakfast in the hotel and packed lunch on the go – we were only there for 24 hours so it was fine.
Shan Bin Restaurant
All the shops and restaurants (and there are not very many!) are clustered together in the one main area of the national park. This restaurant is in with everything else, and was easy to find. We got the large vegetarian hotpot and two portions of rice to share between two of us. This was a good amount of food.
The hotpot had a fun assortment of vegetables and mushrooms, along with some tofu. We really liked the taro as its something we don’t get at home and had been enjoying in Taiwan, and enjoyed its potato-like texture. There wasn’t much flavour coming from the broth itself, so we were happy to have some hot sauce on the table that we could add to our dishes for more flavour.
The staff were good and attentive, they came around and poked the pot from time to time and let us know when everything was ready to eat. It was certainly not the best meal of our trip to Taiwan, but we got plenty of protein and enjoyed the experience.
Activities in Alishan
If you’re in Alishan, you’re probably there to do some hiking and see the sunrise and sunset. We enjoyed some fairly gentle walks during our brief stay. (A quick note to anyone who suffers travel sickness – the bus there goes along some very twisty roads, so take whatever precautions you need to.) We kicked things off on arrival by taking the forest railway to Chaoping and walking the Sister Ponds Trail and Giant Tree Trail, both of which meandered through misty forests.
We attempted to see the sunset from the main station at Alishan. When we arrived shortly before sunset, the view was totally clouded over (as it had been since we arrived at the mountain a few hours earlier). Miraculously, the clouds cleared briefly right as the sun was setting so we got to enjoy the mountain view and some beautiful colours – just for a moment. There was only one other family there even attempting to see it because it was such a cloudy day. Remember, don’t write it off automatically if things look cloudy. The view changes quickly!
Like the majority of people staying in Alishan, we were up before the lark to catch the sunrise train up the mountain. The departure time of the train is announced the evening before, and you can buy your ticket then as well. The train was busy, and everyone piled off to scramble for a spot at the same view spot. We quick-marched about ten minutes back downhill on the main road to the old train station and enjoyed the view from there, with only three other people. Again, we were at the mercy of extremely changeable weather, but we got lucky and saw the sun emerge behind the mountains and above a thick layer of clouds. The dawn chorus was the perfect soundtrack! It was well worth the early start.
We slowly wandered along the trails back to town through the forest, enjoying the views along the way. Our final trail was along the disused railway out to an enormous old tree. It was a very quiet walk, hardly anyone else seemed to be heading that way, so it was really peaceful and lovely. The whole stay was really fantastic. It would have been nice to stay a bit longer to enjoy the cooler temperatures and do some more ambitious hikes in the area – even with the limited food options.
After Taipei, we spent two nights in Taichung. I got the impression that not too many western tourists visit Taichung, or certainly not in the summer when we were there, because we were treated a bit like a novelty and everyone wanted to know where we were from and what brought us there. People were so curious and kind! The vegan scene was not as thriving as in Taipei – it’s a much smaller city. But we found some real gems.
Guan Shi Yin Organic Lifestyle
We had dinner here during our stay in Taichung and enjoyed it.
I had the fried king oyster mushroom with rosemary and soy sauce business meal (meaning that it’s served with rice, soup, and two sides). The mushrooms were really tender and well prepared. The dressing was nice, but personally I couldn’t pick out the rosemary taste. It was good nevertheless! The soup had tofu and cabbage in it, and was really tasty. My sides were a little plate of wilted greens and some pickles, which were fine but unremarkable.
Dr HH had the vegetarian black pepper steak business meal (it was vegan, not vegetarian, don’t worry!). He enjoyed the texture of the steak a lot, it felt like a good seitan with a nice crisp exterior. The sauce was good and peppery. He also found the greens slightly dull as a side, but enjoyed the beans.
We also shared a plate of deep fried pepper king oyster mushrooms, which had a fantastic crispy texture and were well seasoned. Lovely!
The staff were really friendly and accommodating, and spoke perfect English to us. Overall we had solid but not mind-blowing meals, and we very much enjoyed saying that we were eating “business meals”!
Jiu Liu Su Shi
This was an extremely cheap and cheerful spot which served us very well in Taichung! The owner was very friendly and was interested in talking to us (via translation app). There was an English menu to order from, fortunately.
Dr HH had the curry noodles and it was very good. The broth had a good thick texture. The flavours were good but it felt just a bit under seasoned. Fortunately there was some spicy sauce he could add. There were plenty of noodles and they had a good texture. The vegetables had a range of different textures which was good for the dish. There was one piece of mock meat on the top, it was quite thin and it would have been good to have some more.
I got the wonton noodles, they were wide, flat, and very tasty. The broth in the dish was also very tasty and enjoyable. There were little bits of mock meat and something with a bit of crunch which both added good flavours and textures.
We each got a plate of ten dumplings too, these were very good. They had quite a fragrant herb in them that we couldn’t identify. They were generously filled with mock meat and cabbage.
Alongside the menu, there was also a buffet option but we didn’t investigate that. It seemed like the other customers were all locals, so it had quite a friendly and cosy feel to it which was nice.
Wheat Allergy Baking Studio
We absolutely loved this bakery! It was a little hard to find at first, as it’s down a small alley into a little courtyard. Our first visit was around midday when there was a decent array of items available. Our second visit was close to 5pm and there were very few things left, so don’t leave it too late in the day to visit!
There are no English names on display, so I’m not 100% sure what each item we ordered was called. The staff explained the items to us in English, so we had a good idea of what we were buying each time, just not the official name.
This one is easy enough to identify – we tried a pain au chocolat. It had a generous chocolate filling. We ate it the day after we bought it and it had lost some of it’s crispness, which is a shame, but not their fault.
Dr HH enjoyed the coffee mochi bun, which had a strong coffee flavour and a fun texture from the nuts on top and the mochi in the centre. We’ve not seen this kind of mochi bun before, so that was fun. I hate coffee, so I avoided this one.
We tried the cheese and edamame bun, which had loads of pockets of cheese and was perfectly baked. It was well seasoned as well with quite a peppery kick which I loved.
We got a chocolate and berry croissant. The chocolate dough was rich and delicious. The pops of juiciness from the berries helped to balance out the richness. This was comfortably my favourite of the sweets we tried.
Finally, we had a charcoal bun with fishy filling. The filling was really savoury and delicious, and the bread was soft. The charcoal added a bit to the flavour as well. We had this on both visits, it was a real highlight.
The staff were extremely friendly and helpful and spoke English to us, and told us about the business and building. It was a great spot for picking up packed lunch and breakfast supplies, highly recommended. I wouldn’t have known it was gluten free were it not for the name either.
Su Zha Long Xu Cai – Shmashuni (Sun Moon Lake)
We took a day trip to nearby Sun Moon Lake, and were a little unsure about where we’d find vegan options. fortunately, Happy Cow helped us out with a couple of potential spots in Ita Thao, one of the bigger towns or spots around the lake. This place was located on the main tourist drag and staff were happy to talk to us in English. We got a large bag of mixed fried vegetables to share. We were going to get individual portions but the staff recommended we just get one to share as it’s a substantial portion. I wouldn’t say it was really big enough for two people as a hearty meal, but it did the job as a relatively light lunch for two.
We were impressed with the frying, everything was crispy and not greasy, and even the paper bag the food came in barely had any oil stains on it. The selection in the bag was good, there were a few different types of mushroom with the little bunches of enoki mushrooms as a particular highlight. There were also some slices of lotus root which had a good crunch to them. Then some needle flowers and gracilaria (according to the sign at the shop) – I don’t really know what they are but they were perfectly fine.
We were asked if we wanted it spicy and we asked for bit of spiciness. We didn’t pick up on much heat from it, but the overall seasoning was good.
We initially got there right at 11am which was the listed opening time on Happy Cow, but it wasn’t open yet. We came back about an hour later and everything was up and running.
Activities Around Taichung
On arrival in Taichung, we headed straight out to the Gaomei Wetlands, which is home to thousands of migratory birds. Alas, not in the summer though! We saw some crabs and a couple of egrets, but nothing too exciting. Still, it’s nice to see the sea, and you might be there at a more convenient time for birdwatching. Definitely do some research on bus timetables though, it was not the most accessible spot.
We took a day trip to nearby Sun Moon Lake, which is a couple of hours away by coach (which you might want to plan in advance if you’re travelling during a busy season – the coach tickets reportedly sell out). There’s a lot you can do at the lake. Our top priority was Wenwu Temple, which was extremely colourful and lavish and offered an impressive view of the lake.
The best views were from the ropeway though. Alas the ropeway doesn’t really lead anywhere good so you just have to do a roundtrip. But with views like this, who’s complaining? You can also take boat rides between three different points on the lake, which is a convenient and scenic way to get around. It’s possible to walk some of the stretches alongside the lake too, but it wasn’t clear to us exactly how open the routes are, and it was far too hot in the summer anyway!
After reviewing the Taiwanese restaurants last week, this post is a bit miscellaneous – one fusion restaurant, one bakery at which we tried almost everything, and an incredible place for ice cream. Let’s see what Taipei has to offer today!
Vegan Amore
Taipei has loads of listings on Happy Cow, but a lot of them are small market stalls or places with no seating or air conditioning. It was hot and humid during our visit and we were permanently drained as a result, so we were desperate to find eateries where we could have a seat somewhere cool. For that reason we broke our usual ‘don’t get western food in Asia’ rule, and visited this place in a very well air conditioned mall. And in its defence, some of the dishes were fusion!
Dr HH kept us somewhat on track by trying the Sichuan spicy spaghetti with peanuts and vegan pork. He was very happy with the spice levels and thought it had a good tingle from the Sichuan pepper. The pork was nice and added some good texture. This was a tasty dish.
I had the tagliatelle carbonara with vegan bacon, which was absolutely not fusion. I was served spaghetti rather than tagliatelle, which is a shame because I love tagliatelle, but the dish was really nice. The sauce was creamy and generous, though maybe a little under seasoned. Fortunately the bacon provided a nice salty hit.
This was not one of our culinary highlights of Taipei because it wasn’t really the dining experience we wanted – but we were very grateful to have a chance to sit down and cool off, and the food was perfectly pleasant.
Hip Pun
We visited this all-vegan bakery so many times during our stay in Taipei! It really made me wish I could bake bread, or at least that we had similar options to these in Prague.We really loved this bakery and highly recommended it. It kept us well stocked up for breakfast and packed lunches on our trip, and even when we visited within the last hour before closing, there was always still a decent selection.
A lot of the items we tried were stuffed or filled bread buns. The ham and garlic bun tasted exactly as it should – plenty of ham and garlic! We enjoyed this one.
The meat floss bun wasn’t too exciting, unfortunately. The bread was good, but the small meat pieces tasted a little sweet and we would have preferred bigger chunks. I saw a lot of meat floss buns in convenience stores, so this seems like a big thing in Taiwan. It’s always good to see a veganised version of a popular local dish!
The black pepper with tofu was the standout savoury bake we tried. There was plenty of soft and moist tofu inside with lots of black pepper giving it a good bit of kick, the seasoning was excellent. I would love to recreate this at home!
The ham and rosemary snail was well seasoned and generous with ham. Again, this would be a good one to recreate at home.
The maple mustard ham was tasty if you’re a fan of mustard (I am not!). It had a good amount of ham and cheese inside but there wasn’t a lot of flavour from the cheese. Still, it was nicely balanced.
The sea salt butter bun was a bit disappointing, the salty butter was all concentrated in one spot. Maybe this would have benefitted from being heated up so the butter would melt and spread more, but we were eating on the go without heating opportunities.
The egg yolk and taro bun was enjoyable and part of our attempt to eat plenty of taro while we had the opportunity. The sweet taro worked well with the savoury flavour from the yolk.
Moving on to sweet things now – the earl grey and maple bun was sweet and delicious. The tea flavour was a little subtle, but pleasant.
The scones were the only item we tried that were not perfectly baked – the chocolate ones were a bit too crumbly and dry for us. The cranberry scone had a better texture. Flavour-wise, everything was good!
The cinnamon roll was good, it was big and generously filled. It’s not the best we’ve had, but it was good.
The cranberry chocolate bread was big, it was filled with a chocolate spread and the cranberries added nice juicy pops of sweetness and sharpness.
The chocolate cake bread was a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate bread baked around it. It was decadent and enjoyable. I’d never seen anything like this before, and I’m not sure I could bring myself to recreate it – it feels like a bit too much unless you’re on holiday!
The chocolate filled bread was okay. The chocolate cream filling was smooth and rich but it wasn’t very well distributed throughout, making some parts of it a bit dull.
And finally, on to the dessert counter. The Basque cheesecake was tasty, Dr HH enjoyed the slightly savoury element and different texture from the egg yolk sections.
The salted caramel cake was tasty and sweet, but we didn’t notice much salt.
The chocolate brownie was tasty but was more cake than brownie, with good chunks of nuts.
The sesame cake wasn’t quite sweet enough but the bake was good and the cream smooth.
The French pudding tart had good pastry and a lovely smooth filling.
The chocolate mousse was great, very decadent with a great smooth texture. The chocolate flakes on top were a good addition.
Not everything was a total hit, but overall we were extremely satisfied with what we tried. And what a variety of items they sell! Imagine having this much choice regularly!
Nice Cream
I think bubble waffle ice creams were all the rage a few years ago, then I totally forgot that they exist. In Taipei, they continue to thrive! Nice Crema is an all-vegan ice cream spot which offers cups of ice cream, or milkshakes, but we had our hearts set on the gelato waffle. It’s quite clear from the menu board how it all works. There were at least six flavours of ice cream available when we visited, and a few waffle flavours as well. When we ordered, we were told it takes about ten minutes to prepare, which was fine by us. There were four seats at the bar and no other customers on a weekday lunchtime, so we took a seat to enjoy our treats.
Dr HH got a chocolate chip waffle with Sicilian pistachio and chocolate ice cream, plus chocolate sauce.
I got an original waffle with soy milk and Oreo cookies and cream ice cream, plus chocolate sauce. Both of us received our orders served with a Lotus biscuit on top. We enjoyed the ice cream, especially the chocolate, which was very rich. I thought the texture of the Oreo one was not quite right, it seemed a bit too frozen and hard rather than creamy like the others. The waffles were excellent, crisp outside and soft inside.
All in all, this was delicious and highly recommended!
Activities in Taipei
Despite the overpowering heat, we enjoyed a few outdoor activities in Taipei, including the botanical gardens. They weren’t the most thrilling gardens we’ve seen, but we did enjoy spotting some birds that we don’t get in Prague. It was fun to see the plants that we only get in the hot houses in the Prague botanical gardens, just growing normally in Taiwan.
We also took a walk around the pond in Da’an park which is home to an incredible number of birds. There were millions (millions, I say!) of egrets and herons of all different kinds, basking on the low branches and nesting in the trees, plus various other birds swooping in and out. We had our binoculars with us so we could look at them in close detail, and it was so amazing. If you want to do some birdwatching, this is certainly the place to go.
We also somehow hauled ourselves up Elephant Mountain. Even though we went early in the morning to avoid the hottest time of day, it was absolutely baking and I have never sweated so much in my life. It’s not actually that long an ascent – it’s called a mountain, but it feels more like a big hill, and it’s right in the city. But it’s all steps and it’s all tough. We had plenty of water and stopped in the shade whenever we could, but it was still a hard climb. The views made it worth it though – we loved looking out at the Taipei skyline. It also felt completely different from the walks we did in Korea and Japan where the plants and trees were a bit more familiar to us. This felt properly tropical! If you are a keen walker, this is a fun activity for your trip to Taipei.
We spent just over a week in Taiwan, and really loved it. People were so friendly and helpful. The cities had a lot going on, there was a lot of natural beauty, and the food was excellent! We spent a few days in Taipei, battling the intense heat and humidity, and were very impressed with the vegan scene. Best of all, there were lots of restaurants at which lots of small sharing plates were encouraged. We were thrilled to get to try lots of different dishes. Here are the Taiwanese restaurants we tried there – other eateries to follow next week.
Yang Shin
We went to Yang Shin on our first night in Taipei and loved it so much we went back for one more visit later in our trip. It was absolutely heaving on both visits, so I strongly recommend a reservation (you can book online easily). It’s vegetarian, and the menu clearly indicates with picture symbols which dishes contain milk, eggs, and honey (this system was quite common in Taiwan and Hong Kong, we found). There was a huge array of vegan dishes, and we seized the opportunity to try quite a lot of them! On our first visit, we ordered five dishes for two people, and felt like we could have gone for one more. The dishes were brought over when ready, not served all at once, which means you can never get a photo of the table straining under the weight of all the food, sadly. But at least you get everything while it’s piping hot!
We kicked things off on our first visit with the chopped mustard greens and tofu wrapped in bean curd sheet. They were a bit dry, and we would have liked some dipping sauce, but they had a good flavour and texture. I love bean curd, but it’s not something that is served much in Prague, so this leg of the trip was heaven for me.
The Beijing duck style king oyster mushroom was a pancake dish that we assembled ourselves at the table. The crispy bits made for some fun textures, but the flavours didn’t pack a punch unfortunately, so it was nice but not mind-blowing.
The kung pao deep fried stinky tofu was fantastic – really spicy and moreish. It was our first time trying stinky tofu, and definitely not the last (in fact, we ordered the same dish again on our second visit). If you’re a bit unsure about stinky tofu, this is a great gateway dish as the crispy coating and other flavours take the edge off a bit. I found that generally it smells terrible but tastes amazing. I’ve been desperately looking for stinky tofu recipes since getting back to Prague, but sadly it is not easy to make yourself. I’ll need to find an excuse to get back to Taiwan!
The Cantonese BBQ cha siu bao were a bit too sweet for me, but Dr HH enjoyed them. To be honest, I generally find this kind of dumpling a little too sweet, so this was probably poor choosing on my part.
The deep fried mushroom puff was amazing and we had it again on our second visit. It had an almost takoyaki style soft, gooey texture inside the crispy coating, with a lovely savoury, peppery taste and earthy mushrooms.
The stir fried taro cake in xo sauce was exceptional. We’ve not had much taro in our lives so it always seems like an exciting option. Here the taro had a great chewy texture and was really well complemented by the crunch of the rice cakes. The sauce was delicious too.
The stir fried Chinese yam and eggplant in oyster sauce was good. The yam was quite crunchy and surrounded by soft and slippery aubergine which made for a good contrast of textures. The sauce was flavoursome too.
The Yang Shin signature Shao Mai was okay. It tasted fine, but didn’t really have any particularly strong flavour. We were expecting it to be a bit fishier, but as always we are a bit scuppered by having stopped eating meat when we were so young that we haven’t had meaty versions of most dishes! We didn’t really know what these should taste like, we were just guessing.
We also had some stir fried flat noodles. The big, wide noodles were a hit, and the flavours and textures were fine, but it was a bit oily.
This was such a great spot. In particular, the stinky tofu and the mushroom puffs were absolutely perfect in both texture and taste. Everything else was good too, and we were tasting dishes we’d never seen on a menu before, which was really fun for us. I highly recommend this spot for vegans in Taipei.
XiangHe – Serenity
Serenity was a similar spot, with a varied menu and clearly labelled vegan options. It was much quieter than Yang Shin, but it was quite busy so you probably want to make a reservation just to be on the safe side. We got 4 small dishes to share and two bowls of rice and there was plenty of food for two hungry people.
Who could resist a dish called sautéed vegetarian pork intestines? The meat pieces were well seasoned and had a bit of a bouncy texture. The greens added a nice bit of crunchy texture, and the chillies weren’t too spicy. We had no idea if this was a close approximation of intestines, but it made for a tasty plate.
The mapo tofu stew was delicious, lots of slippery tofu with some of that Sichuan pepper tingle. The sauce didn’t taste quite as strongly of the doubanjiang chilli paste as others we’ve had and this also led it not being bright red like other versions too. As someone who makes a lot of mapo tofu these days, I am in awe of how they managed to serve it with so many of the silken tofu pieces intact. Mine fall apart the second I stir it or scoop up a ladle for our bowls!
The king oyster mushrooms in vegetarian oyster sauce were excellent. What’s not to love about meaty slabs of mushroom with great texture? The vegan oyster sauce was very flavoursome. The broccoli on the side was fine, but it wasn’t seasoned and was a bit wet – really not adding to the dish.
And of course, we couldn’t resist more stinky tofu! We tried the steamed stinky tofu stew. It was good to try this version without the additional flavours in the Yang Shin dish – we got to focus fully on the stinkiness of the tofu! I could have eaten another pot of this, honestly.
We were served a couple of little mochi at the end which I think we’re licorice flavour with a red bean paste inside them – perfectly enjoyable. We were also served free tea and refills throughout the meal.
The menu was I think not as extensive as at Yang Shin, but it was still full of novel and exciting dishes for us. The stuff of dreams!
Lai Xin SuShi
We kept seeing the word “SuShi” on Happy Cow, and realised that it translates to ‘vegetarian’ – so this is absolutely not a sushi restaurant! This was a cheap and cheerful vegan spot specialising in noodles and dumplings.
Dr HH got noodles with miso, spicy, and sesame sauces. The noodles were delicious, nice and wide. The sauces didn’t really pack enough of a punch for him, though. The chilli was strong, but the other flavours a bit too mild.
I got the braised meat noodles. I loved the noodles too, you could really taste the freshness. The meat pieces were tasty but there wasn’t much sauce and it felt a bit under seasoned.
We also got a plate of ten cabbage dumplings to share. The cabbage dumplings were the only fresh flavour they had made in the restaurant that day, the others were from frozen. The other fillings might have been more exciting, but we opted for the freshness. They were really tasty, the dumpling wrappers were the perfect thickness. They were generously filled and there was lots of flavour in them.
We got a side plate too. You can pick these up from the counter yourself and add them to your meal for 35NT$ (less than a pound). This was some nicely seasoned tofu slices that we both really enjoyed – there were a few different things to choose from.
The food here was not a total hit like the previous two spots I’ve reviewed, but it was much cheaper and still really fresh and fun.
Activities in Taipei
We saw a few cultural sights in Taipei, including the National Palace Museum. Unfortunately the big attraction in the museum, a jadeite cabbage, was not on display when we visited, but we saw lots of other great items and took lots of photos. Our only complaint about the museum was that it was quite poorly serviced by buses, so it was a bit too much effort to get there and back. Ultimately I’d still recommend it though.
We swung by the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall without really checking what it was – it turns out it’s a memorial to a dictator. Rather than sharing that with you, here’s one of the other highly photogenic and less problematic buildings from the same square.
Long Shan Temple was one of my highlights of Taipei. It was a real shift again from the religious sites we’d seen in Japan and Korea. The attention to detail was absolutely extraordinary, we just walked around with our mouths hanging open and our phones up trying to capture every single carving and colour. Really beautiful.
Less impressive to us was the Contemporary Museum of Art, which unfortunately was a bit too contemporary for our personal tastes. Most of the exhibits were video-based, which is just not my favourite medium, so it fell a little bit flat. It’s always nice to be somewhere with air conditioning though!
This year has been a great year of food for me! I enjoyed so much delicious food on my long summer trip, it was quite hard to select a top ten. A couple of local spots in Prague make the list too, they have served me faithfully this year. There are a lot of Tokyo eateries on this list – no wonder I’m already planning another trip! In no particular order, here are my top ten food spots of 2024.
Indelicious, Prague
This has fast become my favourite eatery in Prague. It’s not fully vegan, but they have loads of vegan options and are constantly adding more and trying new things. The sev puri is the stuff of dreams! More here.
Vegan Ramen UZU Kyoto, Kyoto
This is one of the places we were most looking forward to in Japan, and we still reminisce about it on a weekly basis. Being forced to rub essential oils on your hands is a bit much for me, but the art and atmosphere were really fun, and the food was amazing. This ramen was unlike any of the other ones we had in Japan, and Dr HH had an incredible Sichuan dish you can read about here.
Wheat Allergy Baking Studio, Taichung
We went to some good bakeries on our summer trip, and this was the best. This croissant was delicious, and the savoury breads were just as good.
Kung Tak Lam – Tsim Tsa Tsui, Hong Kong
This place had such an exciting menu and we loved the selection of dishes we ordered. The lovely view across the water didn’t hurt either!
Vegan Bistro Jangara, Tokyo
In a year of delicious ramen, this is way up there with the best. We ordered two different types of ramen, and both had really flavoursome broth and tasty mock meat. Full review here.
Dosa Dosa, Prague
I can never resist a dosa, and this all-vegan restaurant has at least three options on the menu. They also do vegan lassis, which are otherwise unheard of in Prague, and have an excellent selection of cakes. The banana bread is a favourite of mine, for its massive chocolate chunks. More on Dosa Dosa here.
Isakaya Masaka, Tokyo
A rare, non-ramen spot from Japan! We had a sensational mapo tofu and some of the best vegan chicken I’ve ever had in this casual lunch place in a mall food court. And I’ve had a lot of good vegan chicken! You can read more about the dishes here.
Yang Shin, Taipei
Yang Shin will always hold a special place in my heart as the place where I was first introduced to stinky tofu. What a revelation! Our numerous other sharing plates were also full of interesting flavours and textures. We went twice in Taipei, and I’d love an opportunity to go again!
Hip Pun, Taipei
Another Taiwanese, all-vegan bakery! We tried almost every dish they had in this bakery, it catered to us for multiple breakfasts, packed lunches, and desserts. The black pepper with tofu bun was truly the stuff of dreams!
Saido, Tokyo
The menu we chose here contained far too much food for me, but it was really fun to try loads of the traditional dishes of Japan, veganised. It’s hard to choose a favourite course, so peruse the full review here to see what we got to try.
Here’s hoping for more delicious discoveries in 2025!
Our second and final stop in Korea was Busan, where we encountered generally better weather than in Seoul, much to our relief. The vegan scene was not quite so thriving, but we did pretty well here, though we only stayed a few nights. Here’s what we ate in Busan.
Soban Vegan
This restaurant is really highly rated on Happy Cow, so we were keen to give it a try even though the menu didn’t really wow us.
We both got the spicy soft tofu jigae, which was a stew that came with a pot of rice and five banchan dishes (more on those below). It’s difficult to find a dish where the spice levels satisfy both me and Dr HH, but this basically did the job, even if it was a little spicier than I would have really wanted. It contained plenty of nice soft tofu, and the rice was nicely seasoned. We did have our usual complaint in Korea that the only flavour of anything is chilli – this had chilli heat, but no other flavours really.
We also shared a plate of fried mushrooms in sweet and spicy sauce. The mushroom were juicy shiitakes in batter with a nice sauce on the outside. I was hoping the batter would be a bit crispier, but there was a lot of sauce which perhaps ruined that texture. This dish was more expensive than the stew, and wasn’t really worth the extra money for us.
The banchan were really good! We got kimchi, mock beef with mushrooms, sauteed aubergines, cabbage, and a fifth item that we couldn’t identify. Dr HH loved the kimchi, and I was very impressed with the mock meat. These were certainly the most creative and delicious banchan that we had on our trip.
The restaurant also has a selection of vegan products, which was handy as we were struggling to find vegan snacks in convenience stores. I was absolutely delighted to get a couple of bars of Vego chocolate to keep me ticking over!
Sulgodang
I am not always keen on eating at non-vegan restaurants when I’m travelling, in case the language barrier means I mess up my order and I accidentally get meat dishes. Sulgodang is not all-vegan, but it did a great job at alleviating my concerns. There is a clearly labelled vegan section on the menu, and after we ordered the staff asked if we were vegan so they could be sure to bring the correct banchan selection. We were so satisfied that we went back a second time as well.
On our first visit, Dr HH ordered the Korean ramen and found it a bit underwhelming. It didn’t really have a lot of flavour beyond being mildly spicy – our usual issue. It contained noodles and a few vegetables, but nothing particularly fun like tofu or mushrooms. He did get a small dish of rice with the meal, which he chucked in to the leftover broth at the end for a slightly different finish.
I ordered the tofu steak and it was an absolutely gigantic portion of tofu (500g according to the menu). It came with a pot of soy sauce with sesame seeds and spring onions in it. I also ordered a portion of rice to go with it. The tofu had a nice searing on the outside and the texture was fine but it didn’t really have much flavour. It could be so easily improved with smaller pieces of tofu (so you get more of the seared edges) and a bit of extra seasoning. Both of these dishes felt very much like a non-vegan’s idea of vegan dishes.
Nevertheless, we did make a second visit, and had quite similar feedback. I had japchae this time, which was solid but not amazing.
And Dr HH tried the fried rice. It was solid, and he enjoyed adding the various side dishes to it, but we were still not totally bowled over.
The banchan were more impressive, and provided some of the flavour and texture that was missing in our mains. Dr HH was especially thrilled to get some tteokbokki. You could ask the staff for refills of any of the dishes, which was also appreciated.
This restaurant was really conveniently located for us, and we generally liked the look of the vegan options. The banchan were great, the rest of the dishes were filling, and it was pretty solid.
Vegan Food
For something completely different – we were thrilled to spot a gigantic “Vegan Food” sign while wandering around Gamcheon Cultural Village (more on that below). Everyone around us seemed to be having colourful and fun looking drinks and treats, and I was really happy that we didn’t have to miss out.
This is a takeaway only stand which just offers one dish – a brightly coloured mochi with some fruity syrup. We could choose which colour mochi we wanted from an assortment of bright options. I think they all tasted the same though, based on the two we tried. Then there was a choice of a few different fruity syrups. We both got strawberry and mango, which were sweet and refreshing. It was colourful and cute!
Caffeinated
I am always thrilled to find a vegan breakfast available at an early hour! We were so delighted with this spot that we went three times during our stay in Busan. The only vegan options are a smoothie bowl (green or berry) and banana bread, along with plant based milk for drinks.
We enjoyed the berry smoothie bowls, though on one occasion Dr HH got some chunks of frozen fruit that he couldn’t get through. The coconut was a tasty topping, and the coldness was refreshing in the heat and humidity.
The banana bread was nice. It was served warm and in some sweet syrup, which made the dish a little too sweet overall for my personal tastes. But it was a nice light sponge with plenty of banana, and we still enjoyed it.
The hot drinks were good too, and it was quite a spacious and light spot, perfect for a leisurely breakfast.
Rainbow Crust
We found yet another all-vegan bakery in Busan, after Seoul being inundated with them! We got an assortment of bread to takeaway for breakfast or packed lunches, and we were generally pleased with everything.
The cinnamon bagels were generously spiced and really tasty.
The red bean paste buns were generously filled and had just the right amount of sweetness. I’ll never be a huge fan of beans in a dessert, but this was fine.
The vegetable cracker loaf had a good savoury taste which we enjoyed, though it was still quite subtle.
In all cases, the bread was extremely soft and pillowy, just what we wanted. I definitely recommend this place if you’re looking for some picnic food!
Activities In and Around Busan
We had a fun afternoon at Gamcheon Culture Village, which is a fun part of the city with lots of colourfully painted houses, street art, and fun things to spot. We paid for a map to make sure we didn’t miss any of the attractions, but you could easily just wander around.
We were delighted to get outdoors again for the Igidae Coastal Trail. This was a really pleasant walk of a few hours along the coastline, with beautiful views out to sea and towards the city. I would recommend good trainers or walking boots, because there was quite an array of terrain and some of it was muddy and slippy. There were lots of steps too. The travel blogs I’d read suggested it was more of a paved walkway by the beach, and it was not that at all! It was a great walk though.
We also took a day trip to Gyeongju where we spent some time exploring Daereungwon Tomb Complex, where we saw lots of ancient burial mounds and learned about the burial traditions and botched excavations over the years. We also took a bus out to Bulguksa Temple, which was really impressive, and Seokguram Grotto. It was a bit tricky to plan all our bus times, but worth it if you can make it work.
During my vegan research of Seoul, I was thrilled to find that it has loads of vegan bakeries. I envisioned us eating decadent desserts every day. We picked up a few sweet treats, but it wasn’t quite as indulgent as I’d hoped. Here’s what we tried…
Asheville Bakery Cafe
A lot of the bakeries turned out to be bread heavy, rather than dessert based. We returned to this bakery several times to pick up bread buns to takeaway for breakfasts the next day. It is also a cafe serving hot food, which looked tempting too.
We tried a few different ciabattas from here and enjoyed them all. We tried fig, chocolate and cashew, cranberry and pumpkin seeds, olive, and mushroom and potato. The fig and cranberry ones were probably the best because the fruit added a nice juicy hit, which was very welcome and prevented the buns from being too dry. The chocolate and cashew bun was a bit dry from the cocoa powder on top, but it was so decadently chocolatey that I didn’t care too much.
All of the flavours were generously provided – you would never struggle to remember which one you’d ordered because they were all bursting with the relevant ingredient. A few of the buns were a little overdone in patches on the top, which gave a slightly bitter taste, but mostly the buns were excellent.
O.verte Donuts
Trying to find that good dessert we were craving, we visited a mostly-vegan donut place. We got a box of six doughnuts to takeaway: two black sesame and cream, a peanut butter and jelly, an earl grey and almond, a matcha crumble, and a garlic cream cheese.
The black sesame and cream one had a fantastic taste and the cream was a good sweet addition to balance out the sesame.
The peanut butter and jelly was good, but heavier on the jam than peanut butter. That may not be a problem for you though!
The earl grey and almond was perfect, a really subtle flavour and delicious cream.
The matcha crumble was a little dry, I would have loved a slightly stickier icing on top, but the flavour was good.
The garlic cream cheese was a sweet donut with a savoury topping, and Dr HH assures me that it was really well balanced and tasty. I didn’t take its photo because I was so nauseated by the idea of it – but it’s in the middle of the bottom row in the photo above.
We ended up going back for a few more treats later in our week in Seoul. This time we tried the raspberry pistachio, which had a sweet, sharp raspberry glaze and nice crunchy chunks of pistachio.
The tiramisu had quite a sweet glaze and didn’t taste strongly of coffee (although, Dr HH always says this about coffee-flavoured desserts and when I dare to take a bite as a coffee hater, it is extremely strongly flavoured!). It seemed like this one would lend itself very well to some cream on top, based on the components of an actual tiramisu, so it’s a shame it was one of the few without cream.
Finally, the chocolate donut was very sticky, sweet, and tasty.
In general, we found the dough pleasant enough. The flavours were fun and unusual (for us anyway, with a now fairly disappointing vegan donut scene in Prague), and I appreciate the creativity.
I understood that all the donuts are vegan, but not all of the drinks are – I think it’s clear on the menu though. It looked like when we ordered, the staff took six plain donuts and decorated them based on our order, so it wasn’t immediate service, but didn’t take long at all. That’s useful to know because it means that you might be able to order a donut from the menu even if there isn’t a sample one out on the counter.
mtl cafe & bakery
This is not an all-vegan spot, but it reportedly has a few vegan options which are clearly labelled. We went in on a Saturday afternoon and they had two muffins and one chocolate torte out in the case as the vegan options. We got a couple of banana bread muffins to take away for breakfast the next day.
The muffins kept well for the next day and were tasty. They were moist and dense (but not in a bad way), making for quite a hearty breakfast treat. They were topped with some oats and chopped nuts for texture. There was also a sweet sticky sauce drizzled on top which was a nice addition. They were really good muffins, so it’s a shame the vegan options were so few.
Cafe de Fessonia
This café is located inside the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (more on that below), which means it might be convenient to visit. We went here quite late in the afternoon to pick up some snacks for the following day. There were chocolate chip cookies and fig cookies, so we tried both. They were all quite tasty, but none of it was mind-blowing. Vegan items were clearly labelled with a vegan sticker.
Coconuzm
It’s not a holiday until you have some ice cream! We were delighted to find this all-vegan ice cream shop, and on a rare sunny day in Seoul too. There were about ten different flavours to choose from, and the ones we tried all had good creamy textures. We got a couple of large double scoop cones from here and they were delicious.
Dr HH got earl grey and salted caramel. The earl grey had a nice citrusy flavour, but he didn’t pick up much tea from it. The salted caramel flavour mostly came from the sauce drizzled on. It also contained some bits of almonds, which were fun for texture.
I got mint chocolate chip and chocolate hazelnut. I consider mint choc chip to be one of the all time great flavours, but vegan versions are few and far between. The mint and the chocolate chips were good. The chocolate hazelnut was nice, but the coconut flavour was a bit overpowering in this one.
If you do for the double scoop cone, be aware that it is not very stable! Poor Dr HH was trying to tentatively scoop at his ice cream and sent it all tumbling off the cone. Fortunately (and quite incredibly), he caught the flying ice cream scoops in one hand and was ready to carry on eating from a cup. The staff member kindly made him a new one which he was even more tentative with and successfully ate it all. It did make for a significantly more stressful experience than I like to have with an ice cream! Get a cup if you go!
Activities in Seoul
And in this post I’ll share a few activities in Seoul that are neither a palace nor a temple! (See last week’s post for those highlights.)
Dongdaemun Design Plaza featured on all the Seoul itineraries I looked at, so we made a visit too. The DDP is the world’s largest atypical building, however you might define that. It was fun to look at from the outside, but we had a hard time trying to understand what is actually in it and how to get to the parts that are accessible to the general public. We settled for finding the famous staircase. If you’re an architecture enthusiast or if there’s a good exhibition on, you might want to spend more time there than we did.
Bukchon Hanok village also featured prominently on blogs about Seoul. Our map app took us there in a roundabout way, but ultimately it seemed like there was just this one street of old timey houses that is the big tourist attraction. It felt like a bit of a tourist trap to us.
Speaking of tourists traps – struggling to find another indoor activity to get us out of the rain, we made our way over to Starfield Library at the COEX Mall. Just looking at these shelves you can probably identify some difficulties you might have in accessing the books. This library looked to me like it exists just for social media. At least it was out of the rain and we got to see some top notch posing!
While I was bedridden (I had a mild cold), Dr HH spent a few hours at the National Museum of Korea, which is most famously home to a helmet from some ancient Olympics. We wouldn’t have gone to this museum were it not for the rain, but he said it was fine.
He also stopped by the Leeum Museum of Art but was a bit underwhelmed – though he did enjoy the fun lighting and mirrors in the stairways.
Finally, we did manage to get into the great outdoors on one occasion! We got public transport to the outskirts of the city to Namhansanseong fortress, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. We didn’t pay to go in the fortress, but we did take one of the hiking trails around it for a gentle walk. It was a hazy day, but we still enjoyed a pleasant view of the city. It was good to get some fresh air and feel the sun again!
My first ever trip to Korea was a bit of a mixed bag. I knew that we would be there in rainy season (July), but I lived in Vietnam before, I thought I could handle rainy season – one big, well telegraphed downpour per day, but otherwise clear to be out and about. Alas, Korean rainy season is quite intense! The main problem we had was that the weather forecast changed constantly, so we never had any reliable information about when we should schedule indoor or outdoor activities. If the rain was scheduled for 10am-1pm, we’d not set our alarms, enjoy a lie in, and plan to be out and about in the afternoon. Then of course by the time we woke up, the rain had changed to early afternoon. Then it changed to late afternoon. And on and on and on. It did rain, and a lot, we just never really knew when it would happen, which was a bit frustrating. We had a full week in Seoul, so we did manage to get out and about and see things, it was just all a bit trickier than planned.
Our rainy trip to Korea started in Seoul, so let’s dive in to the vegan scene there. I had been really excited about trying Korean vegan food. We go to a vegan Korean restaurant in Berlin that I absolutely love, so I was hoping for dishes like the ones we get there (find out more here). But to be honest, my overall finding was that the food was either packed with so much chilli heat that I couldn’t bear it, or quite bland. There were certainly some good dishes though, and as a big fan of vegan chicken I was in heaven on that front.
Vegan Insa
Vegan Insa was set up slightly strangely – there was a main building which was full, so we were seated in small room across the courtyard which just had two tables in it. Happily, it was air conditioned. We ordered from a machine in the main restaurant building and paid while ordering, and the staff brought the food out to us when it was ready. We ordered the Korean fried chicken, tteokbokki, and bulgogi with rice.
The Korean fried chicken had a fantastic flavour. It was spicy without being too fiery (despite my complaint above). However, the texture wasn’t quite right. It was quite soft and didn’t have enough bite to it.
Dr HH ordered his favourite Korean dish, tteokbokki, which was served with mandu, fish cakes, and fried vegetables. He enjoyed the spiciness of the tteokbokki and thought the mandu was a great addition with a really nice filling. The fish cakes didn’t taste of fish, unfortunately. The batter on the vegetables was a bit heavy, but still good. The menu said there would be fried shrimp and it was just vegetables, which was a shame.
I ordered bulgogi, which I had never tried before, and it was fine but not really for me. Everything in the dish was quite soft. Every bite had the same texture and the same (quite mild) flavour, so it was not a very exciting meal. I don’t have any other bulgogi experience to compare it to, so I’ll assume that I just don’t much care for this dish in general. I’d definitely visit again but order a different dish.
Maru JaYeonSik Kimbap
We tried to get as much Korean food as we could, rather than going for western options like burgers, so this spot was high on our list. It’s more of a market/food stall place with seating than a sit down restaurant, which means seating is quite limited and it may not be the perfect location when it’s raining. Fortunately we were there when it was more of a drizzle, so we just about got away with it.
We shared the ham gimbap, which were quite tasty. The soy ham was good, but was maybe a bit lost among the vegetables which had sharper tastes and crisper textures.
I also got the mandu. They had the perfect texture and were really well fried, but the filling was a little bland for me. They really relied on the dipping sauce for flavour – and the dipping sauce was excellent!
The bibimbap had a good variety of vegetables and a really flavoursome sauce. It was a hearty potion, but Dr HH was up to the challenge! He’s not that bowled over by bibimbap as a dish, but was quite pleased with this one.
Service was fast, friendly, and easy to understand as a foreign tourist.
Plantude – I’Park Mall Yongsan
One day Dr HH was flying solo because I stayed in the hotel suffering with a cold, so he took the opportunity to go for some fusion cuisine and get an exciting tteokbokki dish he’d been eyeing up.
He got the truffle sea trumpet cream tteokbokki and really enjoyed it. It was interesting to get this dish with a creamy sauce that had a good taste of the sea from the herbs and seasoning, rather than the usual spicy sauce that comes with tteokbokki. The rice cakes were longer than the ones you get in the typical dish, more like a very thick noodle. The fried enoki mushrooms added some good texture too. He was a big fan of this dish.
He also got some garlic bread on the side, which was largely fine but reportedly a bit sweet when he had a bite of it on its own without a dunk in the sauce. What a shame!
Vegan Kitchen
We came here twice while we were in Seoul, and got takeaway as well on the night I was too ill to go out, so you can surmise that we were pretty satisfied with the dishes we got.
Dr HH of course got the tteokboki. The portion was hearty and the sauce was tasty with a good level of spiciness. There were a few bits of vegetables in there but nothing too exciting.
I had the japchae, which sounded like a suitably non-spicy dish. I enjoyed the sesame taste and the texture of the noodles, which were good and slippery. The vegetables in the dish added some decent texture too.
We shared a plate of fried chicken too. This was reminiscent of good chicken nuggets. The coating was really crispy and well seasoned. The texture of the chicken was good and it tasted like chicken too (to two people who have not eaten meat for over 25 years).
On our second visit, Dr HH got the kimchi fried rice. The rice was a bit unexciting, unfortunately. It didn’t have a lot of flavour and he felt the best spicy and sour notes of kimchi weren’t really there. It was also very much just a rice dish without much else to make each bite interesting – but that’s always the problem with fried rice.
He also had the chicken in spicy sauce. The sauce on the chicken was good and sticky, a bit sweet and a bit spicy, but not as packed with chilli heat as he hoped. Obviously it was too spicy for me.
Craving some vegetables to fend off my cold, I got the bibimbap and quite enjoyed it. There was a good range of textures from the vegetables, and I liked the flavour from the seaweed and the sauce.
There was also some banchan (complementary side dishes), the same dishes both time we dined in the restaurant. The cold pasta dish was a little unpleasant for me, but otherwise these were good.
And we were served by a robot! What a novelty! The restaurant wasn’t very busy when we were there, so the robot could easily cross the room to get to us undisturbed. To continue to reduce human interaction, we also ordered from a tablet on the table. Cutlery was secreted away in a drawer under the table. Overall, this was our favourite spot for Korean food in Seoul.
SanChon Korean Temple Cooking
This restaurant was recommended even in the non-vegan blogs and itineraries I was reading, so I thought we should give it a go to try some classic temple food. I’m not disappointed that we went, but I do think it’s ultimately a classic example of non-vegans thinking that something is a really great example of vegan food, and vegans very much disagreeing. It was fine, but not as good as any of the other Korean vegan restaurants we tried on this trip.
We ordered a set meal for two, which provided us with a lot of food.
The first thing we got was a cold pine tea, which had a very strong fermented flavour and tasted alcoholic. We also got a pot of mulberry tea which tasted much better. After that we got a few plates of little starter bites and a couple of soups. Everything was generally fine but unremarkable, though I really didn’t like the taste of the dark cracker thing in the bottom right corner. The highlights were probably the little bits of mushroom and radish topped with a white powder, in the top left corner. We also got a cabbage pancake, which was incredibly oily and therefore a little unpleasant to eat.
The main course consisted of a whopping 16 different dishes along with a pot of miso soup and a bowl of rice each. The soup was tasty, and I approve of how much tofu was in it (the more the merrier, for me). The rice was in a stone pot, so there were some nice crispy bits around the edge, which we both loved. The waiter seemed to be advising us to pour some of our tea into the rice, but he was so quiet that we couldn’t be sure what he said and didn’t want to make fools of ourselves. I tried to discreetly observe our Korean neighbours, who did look like they were pouring tea into the rice bowl, but we weren’t confident enough to go for it. What if it was an elaborate prank?!
Everything from the mains was fine. Nothing was really bursting with flavour, with the exception of a few things that were very spicy (generally anything in bright red sauce was spicy). Some of the greens in the middle had a nice sesame and chilli taste to them, and there was tofu with some bits of seaweed that tasted good. Dr HH enjoyed the spicy stuff, and we both thought the japchae noodles were quite good.
Overall, it was a good experience but the food was not mind blowing. It was fun to be able to try lots of different dishes, but unfortunately nothing really stood out and made us want more.
Camouflage
We did eventually break from all-Korean places to go to this vegan American Chinese restaurant. We came here without really having a sense of what American Chinese food is, but the menu looked like it had some interesting options so we decided to give it a go. In terms of portion size, it definitely aligned with my experience of American restaurants anyway!
Dr HH had the orange chicken with fried rice. We both decided to pay a little bit more and get the ‘real crispy’ option for the chicken. We were happy to report that the coating was indeed crispy, even after a coating of sticky, sweet, and spicy orange sauce. He enjoyed the flavour and found it a well-balanced dish. The texture of the chicken was not good though, it was incredibly tough and chewy. It took a long time to chew each piece, and there was one he just couldn’t bite through.
I followed suit with the teriyaki chicken (real crispy) with fried rice, but I thought that it didn’t taste of very much. Dr HH had a piece and thought it was great, so maybe the coating of the sauce wasn’t very even or my cold was messing with my taste buds. The texture of the chicken here was the same as the orange chicken, and not particularly enjoyable.
The fried rice was fine, it had plenty of vegetables in it but wasn’t really seasoned unfortunately.
We also got a plate of shrimp to share. They had a good bouncy texture and nice crispy coating, but didn’t really taste of much.
All in all, we were a bit disappointed by the textures and some of the seasoning. But maybe it was an off day or we ordered poorly.
Vampire’s Chicken
Dr HH had his eye on Vampire Chicken from the first moment we arrived in Seoul, so we had to give it a try even though it was nowhere near where we were staying or any attractions we had lined up. It turned out to be well worth the detour!
We placed our order on a piece of paper at the counter, but the staff warned us that that the spicy BBQ chicken we wanted might be too spicy for us. They recommended the spicy hot pot chicken instead, so that’s what we got, along with a peanut and chilli sauce. I just got the plain chicken.
The chicken was delicious. The coating was excellent, really well seasoned and very crispy. The texture was enjoyable. It wasn’t really trying to imitate chicken, it was clearly a well made piece of seitan that was enjoyable to eat. The spicy hot pot sauce was perfect for Dr HH, it had great flavour that at first didn’t seem spicy but the heat grew. The peanut sauce was also very good and was milder, with a little chilli kick to it. The food also came with some pickled radishes, mustard, and salt.
It’s a small place with only about 6-8 seats so be prepared for takeaway if it’s busy. It used to be all vegan, but apparently quite recently it started serving meat as well, so make sure to specify if you’re ordering vegan or not. I would definitely recommend this place if you’re a fan of vegan chicken!
Activities in Seoul
There are lots of palaces and temples in Seoul, and we saw just a few of them, which I’ll recap here (other activities to follow in the next post). On the palace front, we were most impressed with Deoksugung Palace, probably because we saw it under a beautiful blue sky rather than rain clouds.
The palace grounds also contain the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a sensational embroidery exhibition on when we visited. We initially expected to just have a quick scoot around the museum, but we were absolutely engrossed. I feel inspired to try embroidery now!
The only other palace we visited was Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was absolutely full of tourists. It’s generally considered to be the best palace in Seoul, so it’s no surprise that it was packed. As you can see, the weather was a bit less favourable on this day, so the colours weren’t quite as popping as in Deoksugung Palace. It was really great to see hills in the background in one direction and the modern cityscape in the other.
We also saw a couple of good temples. Jogyesa temple had a very similar look to the palaces – we saw a lot of this green while we were in Korea! At first it was really refreshing and fun because it’s so different to the colour schemes in Japan, and completely unlike anything in Europe. But every palace and temple used the same colours, so it didn’t stay quite so fresh.
And we went to Bongeunsa temple on an extremely rainy day. This is famous for the huge statue you see here, which did keep things nice and interesting! This is just a small sample of the many palaces and temples in Seoul, and we were impressed with what we saw but not necessarily dying to see more.
I don’t know how I used to make it through one cookbook every month! This year we have quite slowly worked our way through a lot of East by Meera Sodha, and I feel it deserves a blog post. I got this book for Dr HH for his birthday this year because he’s a big fan of Meera’s weekly vegan recipes in The Guardian and I thought it was about time we gave her some money for her good work. Sadly, this book is not fully vegan (it’s vegetarian), but a lot of the recipes are clearly labelled vegan and some others have a vegan option. The book is a real delight, and we’ve made really good use of it throughout the year. Here’s what we’ve made from each section.
Snacks and Small Things
Wild mushroom miso broth
I’m rarely wowed by a miso soup, but this was actually a good one. The mushrooms were fun and the spring onions were a good addition. The broth on its own was not amazing, it needed the additional bits for balance and interest. It produced quite a small portion, serving four only as a side. The taste improved overnight for me, but that’s possibly just because I portioned out the mushrooms poorly so the second day was more bountiful.
Sweet chilli cashews
These were quick and easy to make, though I didn’t get a very even coating. They’re perfectly pleasant, but they suffer a bit in comparison to some Nigella ones I have made a lot which use oil to ensure a better coating, plus rosemary and garam masala for more flavour.
Onigiri
This recipe was not too reliable for me. It didn’t call for the rice to be cooled before forming, which seems essential, or for the rice to be seasoned, so it was lacking in flavour. The paste was hard to make in my blender without adding water. It was also quite sweet, so I added more miso and salt to make it more savoury. The rice helped neutralise it too. The overall taste wasn’t quite for me, but Dr HH was a bigger fan.
Salads
Tomato ponzu salad
This was a simple and effective salad that I served alongside the onigiri. The citrus flavour wasn’t too heavy but there was a nice sharpness. The predominant flavour was sesame, which I loved. I’d definitely have this again.
Burmese mango salad with peanut and lime
I loved the flavours in this, but found the dressing was so abundant that it made the salad a bit soft. I added some fried tofu for protein so this would work as a standalone lunch.
Noodles
White miso ramen with tofu and asparagus
This caught Dr HH’s eye because it was ramen (obviously) and because we had recently tried the dish that this recipe was based on. The soy milk broth was thick and delicious, although he made the mistake of not buying unsweetened soy milk (it still didn’t taste too sweet, in my opinion). The asparagus and edamame added some nice textures and are certainly better than whole boiled bok choi. The tofu on top is not in the original recipe, this was Dr HH’s own pretty standard tofu where he coats it in cornflour and black salt before frying it.
Caramelised onion and chilli ramen
I worried this would be too sweet, but it was not – we both really enjoyed it. I added some fried tofu as it was a bit light on toppings and protein (you may notice that adding tofu is a common theme for us, always trying to fend off the “but where do you get your protein?” crew). I also added a runny cashew egg (the recipe calls for an actual egg), which really enriched the broth. I feared the broth would be too sweet and European, but the Japanese flavours added at the end did come through and the egg helped with the savoury taste. The silky pieces of onion were excellent.
Ben Ben noodles
Shiitakes are quite expensive in Prague, so I used a mix of shiitake and chestnut mushrooms, but it made such a small portion I had to add tempeh. (I’ve read that the ‘meat’ on top is supposed to be more of a garnish than anything, but I can’t serve so light a portion!) I could not get the mixture to crisp up, so the texture was definitely not right. It was good, even though the Sichuan pepper flavour didn’t really come through as strongly as I’d hoped. It felt very savoury and umami. I’ve never had the dish before, so I’m not sure how successful it was.
Curries
Leek, mushroom and kale subji
Dr HH made this without the kale. It was pretty easy to put together and he found it good without being spectacular. I was a bigger fan, as this is quite an unusual combination of ingredients for us and I enjoyed the novelty of it.
Aubergine katsu curry with pickled radishes
What a treat! The curry sauce was quite thick and tasted authentic to us. Dr HH’s go-to katsu curry recipe is one of Tim Anderson’s, and it was interesting that the two recipes are quite different but produce the same excellent taste. The pickles were a great addition. I needed to use less panko than recommended for coating the aubergines, which were nice and soft. The second time I made it, I used tofu instead of aubergine, and it also worked perfectly.
Jersey royal and green bean istoo
I thought this was a nice simple curry, because I love potatoes and it is absolutely packed with them. Dr HH found it a bit underwhelming and disappointing, because there was no real sauce – just a very thin, coconut milk-based sauce with was immediately absorbed by the rice when I served it. I probably won’t be making this one again, but I still recommend the recipe if your household is a bigger fan of this kind of curry.
Rice
Coconut rice with aubergine and pickled cucumber
Dr HH made this one. When he tried the individual elements here he wasn’t too sure about it, but it worked as a whole dish. The pickled cucumber added a nice burst of sharpness, freshness, and a bit of crunch (enhanced by the peanuts too). The aubergines were lovely and soft and well seasoned. We don’t remember a lot about the coconut rice but we think it was nice change to just regular rice.
Congee
The recipe calls for black venus rice, which is something you cannot get in Prague. I read that it’s a bit similar to arborio rice, so I got that instead, which makes a less dramatic looking dish than Meera’s, certainly. The first night I served it, I didn’t let it cook as long as necessary, so it was basically a mushroom risotto, which was perfectly passable. The second night I cooked it down longer, and the texture was more congee-like, but that made me miss the bite of the rice. It felt like overcooked rice, just a bowl of mush! The pickles were fun, and I served it with a tofu dish (more on that below) which brought some more flavour, but unless I can find the correct rice, I won’t be trying this one again. It’s possible that I am just not a congee fan.
Aubergine larb with sticky rice and a shallot and peanut salad
This was sensational, one of my favourites from the book! I’d never had larb before, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. The aubergines were cooked to perfection, so soft and melting away. The sticky larb dressing was sour from tamarind, it was delicious. The shallot and peanut salad across the top was amazing – I would double the amount of it next time though, it felt a bit of a light portion.
Sweet potato and tenderstem bibimbap
This one is not listed as veganisable, because no alternative is available for the fried egg that this is supposed to be served with. I decided just to skip the egg. It was a bit underwhelming, unfortunately. The sauce was fiery and tasty, and the seasoning on the vegetables was pretty good, but it still just felt like a fairly boring bowl. It’s not the kind of dish that ever really dazzles me, to be fair.
Beetroot and yoghurt rice
I had a pot of yoghurt to use up, so I decided to give this recipe a try even though I’m not crazy about beetroot or rice dishes. Surprisingly, it exceeded my expectations! The sweetness of the beetroot was balanced out by the seasoning. The spicy coconut across the top was a really fun addition, and the cashews added some nice texture. This was easy to make, and very good.
Tofu
Tempeh with pak choi and tomato sambal
I had to cook the tempeh for longer than recommended to get a good colour on it, and I’m glad I persevered. It ended up with a nice crunch at the edges. The sambal was really tasty too. I’m a big fan of tempeh, so I will certainly make this again.
Akuri scramble
This won’t be replacing my regular tofu scramble recipe any time soon. The silken tofu was fun and slippery, but I think I might actually prefer a bit of texture in my scramble, as you get from firmer tofu. The seasoning was a bit bland as well, unfortunately, I would double everything in the future.
Silken tofu with pine nuts
This was tasty! Again, I loved the slippery texture of the silken tofu. The dressing packed a lot of flavour. We didn’t have pickled chillies so I made do with a fresh one, and it tasted fine. We served this as a side along with the congee, and it added some really good flavour to that dish. We’re big tofu fans, as you can see, so we’ll certainly have this again.
Mushroom mapo tofu
Dr HH made it first following the recipe more or less – he just used silken tofu instead of regular firm tofu, to replicate versions of the dish he’s tried before. He added it at the early stage suggested in the recipe, and it swiftly fell apart long before making it to the table. We enjoyed the diced shiitakes as the mince element, but obviously it requires a lot of chopping time.
I have made it twice since, using vegan mince instead of mushroom and sticking with the silken tofu upgrade but adding it later in the process. It is so tasty! In the book, Meera refers to eating this every week in her household, and I do not blame her!
Chilli tofu
Dr HH made this recipe, which Meera has adapted from a paneer dish. The sauce was great, with tomatoes, chillies, and peppers with lots of seasoning. It made for a delicious plate of food. Poor Dr HH sadly only got to eat one portion as he cooked it just before having some dental work done that left him unable to eat solid food for a few days. Fortunately, he had reined in the suggested amount of chillies to make it suitable for me to enjoy solo!
Flour & Eggs
Kimchi pancakes with a spinach salad
The first time I made these, I served us one each as a side dish alongside the bibimbap described above. Despite how small they look in Meera’s photo in the book, they are actually supposed to be 15cm wide, so they are quite large and made for much too big a meal as a side. We’ve now switched to having two each as a main meal, and that feels perfect. I am not a big kimchi enthusiast, but these might just have converted me. They are amazing! The other ingredients in the pancake (tofu, spring onion, bean sprouts) are so neutral that they help to keep the kimchi in balance. The dipping sauce is flavoursome, even the salad is quite refreshing. These are becoming a regular fixture for us!
Aloo paratha
These breads were delicious and relatively easy to make. Dr HH is the breadmaker in our family, so he handled this one. In the past, he has always cooked the tempering for the potato filling, but here he followed Meera’s guidelines and threw the onions and spices in as they were without cooking. After adding flour to the seasoned potato filling, it all came together quickly and easily. He did of course fry them in vegan butter rather than the recommended oil. They were really tasty, and it seemed like one of his least stressful attempts at making this dish, so I think this may be a winning recipe.
Pulses
Quick coconut dal with tomato sambol
Quick was definitely an apt description for this dish, tackled by Dr HH. This dal came together quickly and still delivered plenty of flavour. The coconut and tomato sambol was delicious, it added some good textures and some freshness and zing from the citrus in it.
Sides
Sichuan aubergines
These aubergines contained plenty of the delicious ingredients that go into mapo tofu, so Dr HH was powerless to resist trying it. The aubergines were fried in a good amount of oil to make them delicious. They were definitely on the spicy side. He served them with some short grain rice to make it a whole meal rather than just a side.
Tamarind shallots
This was a tangy and tasty side dish, which I served with the potato curry as suggested by Meera. We were both more impressed with these shallots than with the curry, so that’s probably a good sign.
Sweet
Salted miso brownies
These brownies ended up not quite as salty or miso-y as I’d hoped, but it’s always quite a fine line adding a strong or savoury flavour to a dessert, isn’t it? They also ended up with a far too oily texture – I’m not sure if the amount of coconut oil listed in the recipe is just wrong, or if the use of chia seeds as an egg replacer factored in somehow – I’ve never used them before and it had a really weird slimy texture. I had to throw these away because they were so oily they were just inedible. Not recommended!
Banana Tarte Tatin
This was my first ever attempt at a tarte tatin! My tin was small, so I used half the amount of pastry and banana…but I panicked and used the full amount of caramel, which resulted in a big caramel flood. It was nice, the spices were quite subtle but definitely there to elevate it. On the second day it was slightly too bitter for me when we reheated it, but Dr HH was still happy with it.
Doriyaki Pancakes
This one is not listed as veganisable, but I was intrigued enough to try it anyway. I followed the pancake recipe as provided, but instead of the eggs I used 70g of silken tofu and blended it with the (plant-based) milk – based on a vegan recipe I’d found online. I needed to add more milk to thin the batter, but otherwise this was an easy switch. The pancakes were very sweet and very pleasant. I followed the blueberry cream recipe exactly as provided, just with vegan mascarpone. It was delicious, but it was in no way the thick spread shown in Meera’s photo – the cream just oozed out onto the plate. It was very tasty, but not at all the correct dish in the end. Maybe vegan mascarpone has a very different texture to the dairy version and scuppered the recipe? Perhaps that’s the reason Meera didn’t try to veganise it!
Conclusion
We really love this book and will be continuing to make good use of it! Even though it’s not fully vegan, we still definitely got our money’s worth from it. Some special ingredients are required in places. We already had quite a lot of Indian and Japanese ingredients, but still had to make a few trips to Asian supermarkets to make sure we had the right seasonings and sauces. The dishes are really flavoursome, and there are plenty of every day dishes that don’t exhaust you to cook, which is great. Definitely recommended!
We originally only planned to spend one night in Osaka, as a convenient base when travelling to the Kumano Kodo. But as some of our Korean plans got rained off, we were back for a few more days and we really enjoyed the vegan scene there. Overall I think Kyoto has more charm and the better vegan options, but we got to try some really fun dishes here too.
Mercy Vegan Factory
Dr HH and I both ordered the deep fried vegetables and kurumafu curry. Kurumafu means wheat gluten or seitan, in this context. The curry sauce was delicious, it was well spiced and full of flavour. There was a good selection of vegetables which provided a pleasing variety of flavours and textures. The star of the show was the fried seitan meat chunks. The coating was so crisp and they were the perfect texture! I absolutely love a Japanese curry, and this was a very good one.
It was actually the promise of a dessert counter that lured us in, as I’d seen this place listed as one of the best vegan dessert spots in Japan. Honestly, we were underwhelmed by our options. Dr HH got a caramel and banana tart and said it was fine. The flavours were good but the pastry was a bit soft.
I had the chocolate cake, which had a good bake and flavour, without being too intensely chocolatey. It was nice, but I’ve had better chocolate cake, and it was nothing mindblowing, as some of the reviews and posts had suggested.
We also got some melonpan to takeaway for breakfast the next day. We’d been on the lookout for vegan melonpan but failed to get one so far. This was really good, the bread/sponge part was chocolate and the outer biscuit layer had a nice crunch to it. They kept well for the next day too. These were better than the cake and tart. Despite being a bit disappointed by the cakes, I’d still happily recommend this place. I want to try to recreate this melonpan too!
Vegan Ramen by Playpen Friends
This was one of my favourite ramen spots in Japan. It’s an all-vegan spot with six ramen options on the menu. I had the tomato tonkotsu ramen. The broth was absolutely delicious, really savoury, creamy and rich. There were plenty of noodles, so it was a filling dish. The fried tofu was also good. There was perhaps a bit too much sweetcorn for my taste, but generally it was fantastic.
Dr HH had the syoyu tonkotsu, which also had a good creamy broth. There were a few different seaweed textures and the tofu was tasty. For both of us, the broth was the star of the show, really delicious.
We enjoyed that these were quite different from any other ramen we had in Japan, the tomato broth especially. It’s always fun to see someone trying something different!
Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka
It was tricky to find this place, as Google Maps took us to entirely the wrong location. Try to follow the instructions on Happy Cow to ensure you find it. This place goes by a different name (and serves a different, non-vegan menu) during the day, and is listed in the mall directory under that other name, so try searching for ‘The Second Room Cafe’ to make things easier.
The selling point during the day is that rather than one large dining room, it’s divided into small private rooms so that people can use them for breastfeeding. We were quite surprised to arrive and be taken to our private room with a giant TV and a sofa and coffee table, both of which were a bit too low for my personal liking. It’s supposed to recreate the comfort of dining at home, but it wasn’t that comfy for me, and I suspect other tall people might struggle similarly. But fear not, the discomfort was worth it! We were really excited by the menu which gave us the chance to try some veganised versions of local delicacies, and we were really pleased with what we got.
We really enjoyed the okonomiyaki. It was a decent size and saucy, but not totally swimming in sauce. The cabbage and meaty chunks had enough bite to keep the texture interesting. I really want to make a good okonomiyaki at home soon, hopefully I can recreate this magic!
We also tried takoyaki for the first time ever, and we were impressed! The server gave us some advice that we appreciated on how to eat it without burning our mouths (poke a little hole in it with your chopstick). The texture was nice and gooey inside and it had a good savoury flavour. It was a fun dish! Neither of us has ever tried the original octopus version of this, so we can’t really comment on its authenticity, but we loved it.
And we tried kushikatsu for the first time. I didn’t know before that this is simply deep fried skewers with meat and vegetables, which sounds good to me. The coating was good and crunchy, while the vegetables and mock meat were tender. This one was a bit difficult to share between two, but we enjoyed it.
For two not super hungry people, we shared the okonomiyaki, five pieces of kushikatsu, and ten pieces of takoyaki (you can select on the menu how many pieces you want), and we were very satisfied with that amount of food. Surprisingly, we found it more expensive than Tokyo. Ultimately, it was worth it to get the fun local dishes we wanted in a convenient location – even with that low sofa!
Oko Takoyaki
We couldn’t resist another chance to try takoyaki, this time in an all vegan spot that specialises in this very dish. As always, there are no reservations. Happy Cow reviewers warned that the queue gets long, so we were there right at opening time, and we still had to wait as we were only third in line.
This place is staffed by one person and it is tiny. The queue is down the stairs, because there’s no room inside to wait. When you are called in by the staff, you step up to the counter and place your order, then pay and get a number. You take a seat in one of the few seats available (maximum ten, I think) and wait for your number to be called. I really can’t emphasise enough how crowded it is. If you want to try to get to the self-service drinks area, you need to hope there’s nobody sitting at the bar. When you’re clearing away your dishes at the end, you can’t reach the bins if there’s anyone at the counter placing an order.
We ordered two versions of takoyaki, one with the standard sauce (pictured above) and the other with spicy sauce and vegan cheese (pictured below). The takoyaki was served with miso soup and a red cabbage salad as well – the soup was really tasty.
Unfortunately the takoyaki was quite burned. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to have a kind of caramelised or charred effect (the one at Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka did not), but it did just taste like it was burned. That was the predominant flavour, as the standard sauce was unremarkable and the balls themselves were very bland. Inside they had a texture that was reminiscent of supermarket veggie fingers from the 1990s – soft, bland potato and small pieces of carrot and pea. Dr HH reported that the spicy sauce added some flavour, but the cheese was unremarkable.
The kushikatsu was better. The mushrooms in particular were juicy and flavoursome.
Between the food, the wait, and the cramped space, this was a real let down. The reviews on Happy Cow are absolutely glowing though, people love it and insist it’s worth the queue, which can reportedly be a full hour. A lot of people seem to be fans of “the vibe” (as the youth say), which I think means the graffiti on the walls and counters. Honestly though, after a long, sweaty day, the last thing I wanted was to be crammed in next to strangers amongst chaotic decor. Good food would have cancelled out those things, like the food at Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka balanced out the uncomfortable seating, but alas, none of this worked out for me.
Riccio d’Oro, Kobe
We took a day trip from Osaka to Kobe, which is not far away at all, and the only food we ate there was an ice cream. It’s not really worth creating a separate post for one spot, so I’m adding it in here for ease.
This was an all vegan ice cream place. There were 12 flavours to choose from and it was a good mix of classic flavours and more exciting options. The ones we tried were all very creamy and I was very happy with the texture.
Dr HH got the green tea and brown rice flavour and the cheesecake flavour. The green tea wasn’t quite for him (not a big green tea fan in general) but it was okay and he liked the nuttiness from the brown rice. The cheesecake was very good, it was a bit lemony and had some biscuit bits as well.
I played it a bit safer (as always!) and got the chocolate and the ricchococream, which was a vanilla flavour with chocolate biscuity bits. The flavours were very enjoyable. The chocolate wasn’t very decadent, but it made for a good treat.
We also enjoyed that there was a hedgehog theme here, it was very cute!
Activities in Osaka
We saw adverts around town for a teamlabs installation at the Botanical Garden, so we snaffled some online tickets and made our way there after dark (it was only open 8:30-10pm in summer, so you can see everything lit up). There were lots of fun light-up, egg-shaped objects that you could interact with, plus various other video mapping and light displays. If you enjoy teamlabs, it’s good fun.
I’d never heard of a quasi national park before, but this was the second one we visited in Japan – Minoh Quasi National Park. We eyed up a fairly gentle but still uphill walk from the train station into the park, stopping off at Ryuanji Temple en route to the big waterfall. It was a much easier walk than some of the more ambitious and exhausting ones we’d done elsewhere on the trip – the intense heat and humidity were getting to us by this point!
We took a day trip to Kobe from Osaka, hoping to do a fun hike and see some other sights as well. From the train station, we hiked uphill to see the Nunobiki waterfalls and reservoir. The waterfalls were excellent, but it was a punishing climb on a brutally hot day. We made it to the Nunobiki Herb Gardens and needed some rest and rehydration! Fortunately, there was a ropeway back down the hill.
We then took the bus over to the Mount Maya cable railway station, and made our way up the mountain to the viewpoint. It’s reportedly one of the top three night views in Japan, and was not shabby in the day time either!
Herbivores' Heaven 