I ♥ Paris - Final post

First things first: I'd like to ask susansoltis, the lucky winner of the book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, to contact me as soon as possible.


Now, back to my trip to Paris. I know you might think that three posts for a couple days in Paris is too much but I went to really good places and I like to read detailed reviews about vegan options around the world, they always help me when I'm traveling and I wanted to do the same, with a lot of photos too. On Sunday we did more sight see and went to the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral before lunch. Then we met Sabine to go to Maoz.

I will open a very important parenthesis here to say that I love falafel and it's one of the easiest vegan options to find around the world and that EVERY SINGLE TIME that I eat a falafel sandwich I remember my BFF Filype. He's Brazilian and he lives in Santos and I wish he lived close to me and that we could travel together and hang out every day. But it's not possible so I keep myself happy thinking about him in good moments (L). And I know he LOVES falafel as much as I do or even more. And I'm sure that he would be the happiest person on earth if there was Maoz in Brazil.

Unfortunately I was too busy filling my sandwich a million times and chatting with Sabine (L) to take pictures but you can have an idea checking Maoz website. The place is vegetarian and if you eat there you can fill your sandwich with the options they have in the buffet. Another great advantage of Maoz is that it's opened until late in the night, being a perfect option for after a late hang out.

After eating as much as we could we went to a ice cream shop that was supposed to have vegan chocolate ice cream but they don't have it during the winter. We had coffee and said goodbye to Sabine. And it was time for more sight see: Sacré-Cœur Basilica and Moulin Rouge.



And after this it was time for our last food stop in Paris: Tien Hiang, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. Once again the food was amazing (if you like fried stuff, have to say) and the price was decent. Matteo ate so much that I couldn't believe!

First, me learning (better late than never) the proper way to eat spring rolls:

Now the rest of the food (check their menu here, it's huge!): Just one important note: the restaurant is quite small, most of the people take away. But if you arrive there early like we did you'll find a table to enjoy your meal there!

That's it! Go to Paris and enjoy the vegan food! I have not enough words to thank Aurelia for the amazing weekend we had and I can't wait to see her again.




Tien Hiang
92, rue du Chemin Vert
75011 PARIS
Opening hours: 11h30 to 15h and 18h30 to 22h30


I ♥ Paris - Part I
I ♥ Paris - Part II

I ♥ Paris - Part II

Our first day in Paris was perfect for the food. It was a rainy day but it wasn't cold. We didn't saw many touristic places but we went to the Louvre and walked a lot around there to burn some of the calories we had consumed at Loving Hut (see first post about Paris here) and we took some rest in the beautiful Jardin des Tuileries eating some amazing olives stick bread!




Aurelia took as to Saveurs Végét'Halles for dinner. We were surprised when we got there for two reasons: first we have been there in 2007 but the placed used to be La Victoire Supreme du Coeur. I have to say that I loved even more the new restaurant. The menu is larger, with more vegan options (it is a vegetarian and vegan place) and the price is more decent (or at least the meals are bigger). The second surprise is that we met a friend that used to live in Dublin. It was really amazing and a good surprise!

One more time, we had amazing food. We asked different dishes again to enjoy as much as we could:

Entrees:

Crudités et Tofu
(raw vegetables with sesame tofu)

Omelette Végét’Halles, épinard-champignon

(Végét' Halles Omelet, spinach-mushroom)

Terrine de champignon avec sa confiture d’oignon
(mushroom terrine with onion jam)

Plats:

Rôti de champignon avec sa sauce mûre et ginbembre
(Mushroom Roasted with blackberry and ginger sauce)

Escalope de seitan avec sa sauce aux champignons

(Seitan Steak with mushroom sauce)

Dessert:

Crème au Chocolat

They have some good deals for lunch and evening, don't forget to check them on the menu (they are in the last page, not in the first one!). And they are opened from 11h30 to 3pm and from 6pm to 11pm.


Saveurs Végét'Halles
41 Rue Des Bourdonnais
75001 Paris
Tel: 01 40 41 93 95

I ♥ Paris - Part I

I went to Paris in 2007 for the first (and only) time until this weekend. I had amazing memories about the city but not too much about the (vegan) food. Four years later Paris is a way more vegan friendly and I had the best weekend ever there.

The first reason for having such a good time wasn't the food though. I went there with Matteo to meet Aurélia, my little sister. She is not my real sister, but she is like a sister. I have just one brother and the idea of having a younger sister sounds amazing to me. I use to say that friends are even better than family cause we choose them. And two years ago life gave me this amazing friend-sister that I love from the bottom of my heart and every time I meet her is just perfect. She won't be that closer after July (she's moving to Canada) and I wanna see her as much as I can until there. She made an amazing plan for our weekend, including vegan food and sight see.



I'll write at least three posts about the places we went in Paris cause I have a lot of pictures that I want to share. Our first stop was

Loving Hut



Loving Hut is in a lot of countries (also in Brazil now, in São Paulo) and I always heard different opinions about the restaurants. It seems that some of them are amazing and others aren't that great. They are independent from each other so the menu changes a lot. But the one in Paris is now in my Top 10 favourite vegan restaurants for sure.

The place is amazing, the staff is nice (and they speak English) and the food is divine and 100% vegan (or végétalien). I won't complain about the price because I think it was decent for Paris standards. We asked for different starters and main courses to enjoy as much as we could of the menu.

Entrees:

Joyeux croustillant

Pépites dorées

Accompagnement:

Riz arc-an-ciel

Plats:

Quiche végé bonheur avec salade composée

Crêpes aux champignons & salade composée

Dessert:

The hugest banana split ever

Loving Hut
92 Boulevard Beaumarchais
75011 Paris 11e arrondissement, France
01 48 06 43 84

Belo Horizonte: another place to eat

I'm so late with the blog posts this month but I have no excuse. I'm enjoying the summer, traveling and being happy. I really like to write here, but sometimes is not possible and, besides that, English is not my mother-tong, so it's hard to me to think about good posts everyday in another language.

Having said that, this is my last blog post about my travel to Belo Horizonte (Brazil), my lovely home town. I spent 15 days there with my friends and family and went to some cool places. One of the good surprises was the new restaurant, Alegria de Comer Bem (that means "Happiness of Eating Well"). I got a flyer about the restaurant at the healthy fair and me and Matteo decided to go there before leave the city.



The restaurant was opened in March and it's one more choice for those who look for a natural nutrition. It is not vegetarian (although the owners have the goal - or the dream - to make it vegetarian in a near future), having some fish and seafood options in the menu, but most of its menu is vegetarian and many dishes are also vegan or easy to "veganize". Inspired by different international cuisines such as Asian and Peruvian, the dishes look tasty and attractive.


Also, the restaurant is in a beautiful old house that was reformed to home it. For the lunch time, there is the option of the "special meal of the day", that include two or three dishes with a more affordable price and also other options of the fixed menu (more expensive). The staff is very friendly too. Currently the restaurant does not have any option of vegan dessert on the menu, but you can request it if you want (and be attended!). The evening menu is more informal, with entries and the restaurant also serves alcohol.


Me and Matteo asked for two different dishes - one more Thai and the other one an Indian option - and we also had fried pineapple with a vegan cream made with "condensed milk" and cinnamon and strawberries.


It's good to see more people investing in options to vegetarian and vegan people in Brazil and I hope they can turn the restaurant in a vegetarian place soon (and keep it open till my next visit to Belo Horizonte!).

Restaurante Alegria de Comer Bem
Rua Congonhas 510, Santo Antônio
Tel: 2511-4168

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*** Para quem quiser ler mais sobre o restaurante em portugues, clique aqui!
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An amazing winter day in Belo Horizonte

Mexican (vegan) food in Belo Horizonte

I'm not cooking these days, but I'm having a lot of meals at my parents house and eating a lot of Brazilian typical food.

Lunch time at my parents house

It's not that hard to find different kinds of food in Brazil (French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Mexican, etc). And we are going to some restaurants. There are just a few vegetarian restaurants in Belo Horizonte, none of them vegan, but we can find vegan options in regular places. It's not the ideal for me, but I'm OK with that. One of my favorite regular restaurants is the Mexican place Chilis Cocina Mexicana.


It's easy to "veganize" some of the menu options and this time we had some nachos as a start and burritos. The burritos here are different of the ones I usually eat in Ireland. They don't have rice in the filling, just a cream of beans (like mashed beans) and I prefer it in this way. I love beans and everything made with them. And the burritos come with some guacamole in the top too, what is perfect. And because we don't eat the meat, the cheese or the sour cream, we got pico-de-gallo (fresh uncooked condiment made from chopped tomato, onion, and sometimes chiles). It was delicious and the staff was very friendly too, attending all the changes we asked without questioning.


Chilis Cocina Mexicana
Ponteio Lar Shopping
Loja R2
Belo Horizonte - MG - Brasil

PS. 1: I created a Facebook for the blog, join me there!
PS. 2: I'm finally preparing the first giveaway of the blog and it will be announced next week :)

Hey, we got that PMA *

I'm super late to write about it, but I don't care, this place deserves a post. In my last visit to Brazil, we went there during the 3 days we were in São Paulo and we'd do the same if we stayed 30 days. This amazing place is a vegan restaurant called Vegacy. Of course São Paulo has other vegetarian options, but I'll write just about it today (even because it's the best one).

Last June Vegacy completed 4 years. The restaurant is an idea of my friend and tattooer Tete (Fernando Franceschi), a vegan straight edge guy that has a tattoo studio called PMA and decided that was time to offer a vegan place to everybody in São Paulo. During the first 3 years, Vegacy was located in a small and nice gallery in one of the most famous streets of São Paulo (Rua Augusta). This gallery used to have some restaurants and a common area for people to eat. Vegacy always had an “all you can eat” system. The food is amazing, the people who work (and had worked) are the coolest people ever and it's a vegan place. There is nothing better than going out to eat without having to ask about what you can or can't eat. And because Tete and everybody that helps keep the restaurant going on are involved in hardcore, they always helped us with the international tours we did with Hurry Up!, making special prices and many times feeding our bands for free the days we were in town.

Tete at Vegacy "new home"

In June of 2008, while we were there with the US band Bane, a surprise came for the guys: the gallery was sold and they had just a few days to close the restaurant. It was a big shock for everybody. But, those guys know how to keep the “positive mental attitude” (PMA) and they started to think about a new place. They wanted a place in the same area because they had built a great number of loyal customers (vegan and vegetarian people and also people that worked around and liked the food – and the price). The good news came after some months: they found a place in the same street, even better, in the same block. But they had a lot of work to do, reforming the entire place. Vegacy was closed for some time and in the beginning of 2009 they reopened at the new place.


I'm always in touch with the guys there and I knew the place was great before even going, but I was so curious! Some of my friends were saying a lot of good things too and I was happy to know that Vegacy was back, “stronger than ever”. In a Monday of June, after the Have Heart show on Sunday, we all (me, Matteo and the band) went to the new Vegacy.

My first impression was “wow it's big and so beautiful!” and I could see with my eyes that all effort that my friends had put in it was worth it. The new Vegacy is the best place to eat in São Paulo. It's big, comfortable, beautiful. Everybody that works there is nice and you can stay there for hours, just chilling after eating. They kept the “all you can eat” system and the food is always good, with a big variation too (they have 10 hot dishes and a big table with 10 different salads and also 2 options of juice of the day – that is included in the price). The place has 2 floors and the food is served on the second one (but you can choose eating in the first one too). And they have amazing dessert options, including vegan cupcakes!

And when I thought that nothing could be better, it could: they're open until 9 pm and have sandwiches, snacks, desserts and juices. Of course we went there at night to try the sandwiches. We got a lentils burger and a chickpeas burger and they're are so delicious! And of course we ate some snacks (and took some to eat at the hotel too).


What I can say to end this long post is: if you go to São Paulo, you MUST go to Vegacy! It's a vegan paradise in the big city.

And more people agree with me:

"A trip to Sao Paulo is not complete to me if I don't go to Vegacy. It has a rich menu, including snacks, sandwiches and desserts. Besides having a great location, close to several other points that I love in the city, the atmosphere is very nice and you can spend some time there chatting and seeing friends."
Fabiano Aguiar, Belo Horizonte, MG)

"Vegacy has some additional good points for being a 100% vegetarian/vegan restaurant and because of its location. I love the variety of the menu, that always includes roasted food or sufles and also some Italian dishes. Talking about dessert, my tip is to have the cupcake, made by the restaurant, which, to me, is the best of São Paulo. Another cool thing is that from Wednesday to Saturday they serve “a la carte” options and also pizza. My favourite pizza is the one with tofu and broccoli, the best vegan pizza I ever ate. The restaurant is also different from the others in the city because all of its cook staff is vegetarian, something very difficult to find here in São Paulo."
(Athos, São Paulo, São Paulo)

"The first, and only time, that I ate at Vegacy was when I was on tour with my band. We just arrived in São Paulo and we needed to get lunch before going to the venue of the show and the suggestion was Vegacy, which, by the way, has a great location. I have heard very great things about their food and was excited with the idea to prove it and to know the place. We were very well attended and the food exceeded all my expectations, it's really delicious! Vegacy was in a kind of gallery, which offered a nice and airy environment. Next time I go back to São Paulo, Vegacy will be a stop for sure."
(Roberto "beto" Martyres, Curitiba, Paraná)

“First of all, I want to congratulate Vegacy for the excellent atmosphere and the great menu. Besides the place being pretty nice, the food is spectacular, with a lot of different flavors, where the pleasure increases bite after bite, and any kind of over-eating-guilt disappears, the health thanks and all for a good price. The service, the drinks, the staff attention, kindness and concern with everybody make this place wonderful. Today it is difficult to find places with all these qualities together! Thanks, Vegacy. I'll be back soon!”
Mariana Ramos, Brasilia, DF)

"As far as Vegacy. I know for a fack that we all enjoyed our meal when we ate at the new location. I personally enjoyed the traditional feel that came along with the restaurants all around atmosphere. Have Heart is not a 100% vegan or even vegetarian band and we all thought the food was delicious. It should also be noted that the service was amazing and quite friendly. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a decent meal!"
Ryan Briggs - Have Heart bass player - Boston - US)

Let me know what you think about Vegacy too, let your comment!!




Vegacy
Rua Augusta, 2061
Monday to Saturday
11am – 9h30pm


(* Bad Brains – Attitude)

Taiwanese vegetarian food rocks my city!

Finally I have some time to write about Brazil and I'll start with Belo Horizonte. I know that I already wrote about my home town here before, but this post is about the best restaurant there: San Ro.


Their menu has dishes of Taiwanese cuisine, the same origin of the owners, but it's all vegetarian. None of the recipes, prepared only for lunch, is prepared with meat. We started to go there since they opened the doors because the owners used to have an ice cream shop before that had some vegan options. It's hard to see a place like that having success in Belo Horizonte, so we decided to go there as much as we could to support them and started to invite friends to go there. But the restaurant is in a good area, a commercial area, so people (vegetarian or not) just started to go there and the place now is always full!

They work with a buffet system, very common in Brazil, which consists of salads, desserts and hot dishes and you pay for the weight of your plate (it's not cheap but it's worth it). They have many delicious vegan options like quioza, sushi, vegetables, tofu, fake fish, etc. This is a very specific cuisine, so some people love it but others are not into it. I really like the food there and also enjoy the place (it's big and comfortable). And the owners are really nice.


Here's what some of my friends think about the place:

“Our city may not have the best options for vegans and sympathizers, but San Ro definitely presents itself as an oasis. Great atmosphere and an amazing selection of Taiwanese and Asian well-tempered delights. Not to mention the free tea!” (Ronan Sato, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

“I started to go to San Ro almost 2 years ago. The restaurant looks like a traditional oriental place and always has some traditional songs too, that I really like. As the restaurant started to have more clients, some stuff that sometimes bothers me started to happen, like a lot of people waiting to serve, to seat and and sometimes too much noise, that makes the calm sensation goes away. But I always enjoy the food! They have good vegan options and most of the time they have some of my favourite food like spring roll and yakisoba. I think that San Ro is the best vegetarian/vegan option in Belo Horizonte. And just writing all this made me to want to go there right now!” (Andrey Leonardo de Paula, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

"Although I'm not vegetarian, I believe that San Ro is one of the best options for those who do not eat meat in the city. The Taiwanese food is light and they have a lot of options. The place is relaxant and makes me think about the oriental restaurants of Liberdade, in Sao Paulo, simple but welcoming. My only objection is the price. It's hard to make San Ro a daily lunch option because it's expensive." (Uiara Azevedo, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

“I remember I went to San Ro in 2006 'cause we were in Belo Horizonte to play. A chic place, with great vegan food and amazing vegan sweets. I recommend it to everybody!” (Felipe Chehuan, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro)

“I went to San Ro for the first time less then one month ago and since it I already went there other three times. It's so good to have a buffet 100% vegetarian and don't need to think about what I can or can not eat. And because it's Taiwanese cuisine it has some food that I never tasted before like the spiced soya chunks, that my sister loved and it's also one of my favourite food there!” (Gabriel Cadete, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

“I have to confess that I'd hardly not going to a steak house to go to eat at a vegetarian restaurant. But in this case is different. San Ro has a buffet with a huge variety, different from other restaurants around and the food tastes incredible! And it's a very pleasant place too. I have eaten in many vegetarian restaurants in Brazil and in Europe and there are just a few that I like as much as I like San Ro. I think I'd been there three times and I recommend: If you go to Belo Horizonte, be sure to go there!” (Jefferson Ferreira, from Blumenal, Santa Catarina)

So, if you have the chance to go to Belo Horizonte, stop at San Ro an try this great Taiwanese vegetarian food! It rocks ;-)