World Vegan Day in Dublin

Tomorrow (November 1st) the world celebrates the World Vegan Day and, yes, I think it's a day to celebrate. Celebrate the small victories that the animals are having and, most important, keep on fighting for them.


There will be an event in Dublin, the Fun Hat Table Quiz, for the World Vegan Day and I hope to see some new and old faces there (mainly non vegan people! It's a great opportunity to be around some vegans and get informed). It will be fun too!


I'm starting to bake some cupcakes for tomorrow cause Sweet will be contributing for the event :)

Italian memories veganized

Yesterday Matteo decided to "veganize" a recipe that takes him back to childhood: cotechino servito con polenta e lenticchie (sausage served with polenta and lentils). We've bought this vegan sausage from Fry's Vegetarian a few days ago and he was excited to try it in the Italian dish (that's usually served for Christmas but he wanted to make sure it would be good first).


It's really an easy dish, fast to prepare and the result was amazing (don't let the pic fool you, it's delish!). All you need is to cook some polenta (instant polenta works fine), make your favourite lentil sauce (we used canned lentils - 2 cans would be better than one if you're cooking for two people) and cook and fry the sausage. Put all together and you're done!


I really enjoy cooking (or in this case just eating) meals that take us back home, to all these memories and reconstructing them in a vegan way is an wonderful way to keep memories alive and to build new memories, suitable to the choice we've made, the choice for life.


(Here's a picture of the original dish)

All about... Cafe Fresh

 I'm not sure why I haven't written about vegetarian restaurant Cafe Fresh here before... When I was working in town last year (exactly at this time) I used to go there basically every day for lunch. They have soups, hot meals and sandwiches and also added a salad bar to the options this summer. Prices are fair, staff is great (and the owner is lovely) and it's located inside The Powerscourt Townhouse Centre and I really like enjoy the building.

Me and Matteo are going there more often lately and we really enjoy the food. Also, since last year, they've increased their vegan options (this is something that's happening at Cornucopia too and it's great news). The only think I still don't love are the desserts. I usually have one cause I love sweets as you know and also cause it's a way to support the vegan options. I can't explain why I don't consider them amazing (something about the texture maybe?) but usually they have more than one vegan option, including a chocolate cake and some fruit pie.

Anyway, if you're in Dublin, go to Cafe Fresh. It's really a good option for vegans.


PS.: Talking about places for vegetarians and vegans in Dublin, it seems that Juice is closed. We tried to go there twice in the last weeks and it was closed. Considering that Dublin doesn't have that many veg restaurants this is really bad news. Let's see if someone will keep it as a vegetarian restaurant at least.

(vegan) food photography

I was feeling very tired today (and particularly heavy) so the husband decided to cook our dinner. Not happy with just the cooking he thought we deserved a nice presentation too. He made white risotto, Linda McCartney Country Pies and dressed the plates with a lovely water crass, rocket and spinach salad.


My only "job" was to photography and eat! Couldn't be better, have to say.

Liebster Blog award

I think this is the second blog award I get in all these years and it's a lovely one, thanks Vegan... but not scary!

“Liebster” is German and means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favourite’. 

The idea behind this award is to bring attention to bloggers who have less than 200 followers and show your support during Vegan Mofo!

The rules of winning this award are as follows:

1. Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the big wide web!

Many of the blogs I read have more than 200 followers and some of them have no numbers so I have no idea about the numbers, but I decided to suggest just the ones which have less as suggested by this award so here we go:

* Bite me (I'm vegan)
* Tea and Sympatico
* In My Vegan Life
* Kale and Cookies
* Vegan and so Forth


Hope you can show them some love, it's really warming to get new readers and comments.

Back to Barcelona & fast food overdose!

 Last weekend me and Matteo went for three days to Barcelona to a friend's wedding. I was excited to go back, have only been in Barcelona once, in 2009. And it was probably my last travel until the baby is born (and also after for a while). We had a great time! Weather was amazing (so warm!) and we saved the Friday to walk around and eat (of course).


We didn't go to many different places. I have to admit we got addicted to vegan fast food place Gopal. In 2009 we didn't go there because the reviews on Happy Cow weren't good (huge mistake!) but for the last two years I've heard just good things about the place so when we arrived there on Thursday night we asked my friend to take us there. OMG! The burgers there are just perfect. I could say as good as the ones from Yoyo in Berlin. Gopal has a huge menu of burgers (19 options I think!) and they also sell cakes from Lujuria Vegana - and I was dying to try some of them cause a Brazilian friend of mine is working there and I've seen some pictures that looked like heaven in the format of sweets. We asked for burgers and french fries and there was no more room (even in my giant belly!) for the cake. Of course we asked to take away and it was our Saturday breakfast. We got the Excelcior cake (hazelnut praliné-chocolate textures) and it was the best cake I've ever tasted in my life.

Ice cream from Gelaaati! and food from Juicy Jones

On Friday we didn't come back to Gopal and decided to go to Juicy Jones, one of the restaurants we've been in 2009 that we really liked it. Everything there is vegan too. We got the daily menu (starter, main dish, dessert and water or wine for €8,50) and the food was amazing again. Their entire menu is vegan and we also asked for a Guacamole Tapas (I was craving avocado for weeks). We definitely had more food than we should but it was worth it (and in our defense I'll say we walked a lot before an after)! I got hummus as starter, cheesy pizza and salad as main course and pineapple and orange mousse. Matteo got gaspacho, a huge Indian plate with rice and three different sauces and a apple cake. Everything besides the desserts was perfect (they weren't bad but not amazing too if you get me!). At night we went to a pizzeria for a lovely pre-wedding dinner and met great people!


For our Saturday lunch, after a quick stop at Gelaaati! for a rice ice cream, we decided to go back to Gopal to try some different burgers. With so many options we had to go back you know?! Too good again. And one more cake to take away, this time the Supreme one (raspberry, pistachio and bourbon vanilla). The vanilla butter cream had a strong buttery flavour but the cake was delicious. Do you think we already had too much of Gopal at this point? Well, they were also responsible for the wedding catering! Too bad I couldn't take pictures but the menu was just perfect.

Burgers and cakes at Gopal

To finish up our trip in great style, after we checked out from the hotel on Sunday we decided to have our last meal in Barcelona before going to the airport and... yes, you got me, we went to Gopal again. But I just got a piece of the Excelcior cake and some bites of Matteo's burger (have to admit we had left overs from the party and I ate most of them as my breakfast).

If you're not afraid of addictions, go to Gopal if you're in Barcelona! Great staff, food, atmosphere, prices and desserts from Lujuria Vegana!


PS. Forgot to mention that Gopal also offers meal options at lunch time if you don't fancy having just burgers all the time!

14 years vegan and some thoughts

October marks the month I went vegan. Back in 1997. I won't explain again why I am vegan but I feel comfortable to write about some things related to my choice here one more time.


One thing that I can say about myself is that I never stop questioning things and this includes veganism. Some people go vegan and they think that's it, they're better than other, they are doing their best and they don't need to look for more information or learn anything else about the choice they've made. I don't agree with that and seeing veganism going more and more mainstream brings me more and more thoughts.

I was already writing this post when I saw today's post of Happy Herbivore, which brought me to one of my main thoughts: to me veganism is about respect. Respect for life. Non-humane and humane. And I have to say, it's a way easier to respect the animals in the world we live today. Humane beings know how to disrespect others so well that it makes me feel sad. If you show respect for the others, respect will come back to you, that's how I think. And we, vegan people, should show even more respect. You won't create empathy being disrespectful with people who aren't vegan. And it's not you who is loosing with this, it's the animals. Being vegan is not about yourself or your ego, it's about that ones who can't defend themselves. If you want to be their voices, be kind as they are.

When I see someone like Lindsay saying she doesn't embrace the term 'vegan' anymore I feel sad, but I can understand. The difference between her and me, right now, is that I'm up to do the opposite: I will always say I am vegan cause the world need to know that there are different kinds of vegan people. Taking a stand for me is one thing I can do for the animals. Does it make me better than you or her? Absolutely not. This is just my way of thinking and acting and, as I said before, discussing, reading, talking, listening, questioning and (always) learning is a great way to be vegan (and to live life in my opinion).

This month I'm celebrating 14 years of veganism, with a healthy and vegan pregnancy and even more love and respect for the animals. I have some more thoughts to share with you regarding to veganism and I'll do this during this month.

Top 5: additional daily readings

If there is any positive aspect of not blogging that much and not being part of the current edition of Vegan MoFo I'd say it is the fact that I have more time to read more. Although I'm not cooking nothing exciting (yet I'm cooking every single day) and not writing, I'm reading many blogs that I didn't know before Vegan MoFo 2011 and this is awesome.


I still didn't go through the entire list of blogs which are taking part of Vegan MoFo 2011 but I decided to share with you my top 5 additional daily readings:


1. Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk... - One thing that I really enjoy about Vegan MoFo is when people decide to have a theme (or a weekly plan) and this blog has one of the most creative ones I've ever seen: Vegan Dinner and A Horror movie. Just brilliant!

2. Vegan Chicks Rock -  I'm still one of those people who eats with their eyes first and this blog has not just amazing food recipes and tips but also divine pictures.

3. Don't Fear the Vegan - first of all, what a great name for a vegan blog! And I also loved the idea for Vegan MoFo: “Vegan A-Z” theme.

4. Hungry Vegan Traveler - I love reading adventures of vegan traveler and it's never too much for me.

5. A Dash of Compassion - one more blog with amazing tips and recipes and wonderful pictures.

I'll probably have another top 5 soon cause I still have a lot of blogs to explore until the end of October!

And how about you? Any great findings during these first days of Vegan MoFo 2011? Share with us!

(All the pictures used here are from the mentioned blogs, please don't use them without giving a credit!)