Who's House? The Vegetables' House!

Mushroom Pate With Onion Jam

And A Bottle Of Wine!

     Saveurs VegetHalles was a site for sore feet. It is located in a business and shopping part of Paris, but close to the Seine and Louvre, yet it was feat to find. Let me defend myself. It's down a side street, which we went down at first with the numbers getting smaller and smaller, but then I concluded, without going to the end of the street. The building number is 41, that it couldn't be down this street, right? It also doesn't help that Europe is lackadaisical in numbering their buildings.  No matter my reasoning, boy was I wrong. We walked around, even went into a hotel and asked for directions, but in the end we found it. Perhaps for the second time. I even put a photo of the outside in case anyone experiences my same fate. Luckily for me, the special one is patient with me as I try to navigate foreign lands in the quest for vegan eats.

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Végét'Halles omelet with spinach and mushrooms of Paris

You say Crepe I say Omelet

     After wandering around the city, the host greeted us and asked in French if we had reservations. All I heard was reservation? My response, no. After asking if he spoke English, he said no problem and found us a quaint table in the back. No small feat since the entire place creeping to capacity. See how awesome and accommodating Parisians are! To reward ourselves for our navigation skills and persistence, we ordered a nice bottle of rose wine and two appetizers to start.
     Not everything in the restaurant is vegan, but the majority is vegan and the menu is clearly marked. After pursuing the menu we went with the mushroom pate and omelette.  The mushroom pate was chilled and interesting. Not quite as impressive as  Le Protager du Marais (I haven't located the pictures!). The onion jam was a nice addition. Not sure if that is how it's traditionally served or not, but proof that veganized version of french cuisine can be just as exquisite. The Omelette was equally satisfying, though a little on the dry side without the gushing of vegan cheese found in the crepe of Loving Hut. I'm sure there's a fine point of the difference between them, but they seam quite similar to me. 

Escalope Of Seitan With Mushroom Sauce 

Vegan Meat and Potatoes 

    Like the Loving Hut,  Saveurs VegetHalles showcases how awesome meat substitutes can be. After the long wandering walk, we wanted something hearty, delicious and satisfying. The special one choose the escalope of seitan with mushroom sauce, paired with brown rice some potatoes and perhaps a risotto. The texture of the seitan was delicious and complemented with the creamy mushroom sauce. Exactly the type of meal you want after a busy running with your heads cut off trying to take all that Paris has to offer. 

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Athletic Plate (Chicken Cutlet, Seitan Pepper Steak vegetable skewer shrimp with pineapple & lemon) 

Vegan Meat Lovers!

     Yup, I got the athletic plate. What I really call it is the vegan meat lovers plate. The seitan steak was identical to the special one's plate, but this was a good thing. The cutlet was a decent fake chicken was a tangy dipping sauce. I tried one of the pineapple shrimp, the pineapple was awesome, but the shrimp was a little too much for me. Not in a bad way, but I've never liked seafood to begin with so this wasn't super appealing to me. I did give it a try, though, so I get some points for that, right? Remember this is coming from someone with one of those sophie's vegan seafood dishes in my freezer for almost a year now. I'm too scared to try it. Lucky for me, the special one loved it and ate the rest and I may or may not have gotten some extra seitan out of the deal.

Café Gourmand; coffee, chocolate hazelnut cream, carrot cake, fresh fruit salad

Dessert!

     After that meal, you might be judging me for getting dessert (and to be honest I was stuffed), but I do it for you, my lovely readers. And maybe for my sweet teeth. No matter, I couldn't pass this dessert up. It had portions of every dessert on the menu, kinda like a dessert version of the athletic plate. Every restaurant should take this approach, call it the kitchen sink or whatever. What it does is that it makes  it easier to choose because you get to sample everything.  Plus as an American in Paris, the coffee...err espresso...is so tiny you have to drink it all day. The hazelnut cream was the stand out of the plate and was an excellent way to finish out the evening.

Saveurs VegetHalles Outside

Don't Get Lost! 

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The Battle Of The Vegan Grocery Store: Veganz Versus Un Monde Vegan

Wall of Vegan Cheese

Two Full Cases Of Vegan Cheese!!!

    “Veganism is growing in popularity, especially in the cities – Berlin seems to be a vegan paradise filled with vegan shops and cafes. Berlin has 21 vegan restaurants, and more are opening all the time. Being vegan is definitely ‘cool’ right now in German cities. Everyone asks in the non-vegan restaurants ‘do you have vegan food?’ – there is huge demand and it’s quickly becoming more mainstream."-Veganz, Marketing manager, Ivonne Meyer (quoted from theallanimalvegan.com) 

     I've been sitting around procrastinating writing up the review of my European vacation, because that's what I'm good at. Then, Huffington Post wrote this terrible article about how France and Germany are some of the hardest places to be vegan. I'm actually quite shocked on how little research was done. It reads like trivia pursuit card and is exactly what's wrong with the "b" word (that's blogging for those not in the know. Perhaps the ugliest word in the English language. I'm kinda embarrassed I wrote it). I guess you should never trust an article without a byline.
     I dug up the pictures from our London, Paris and Berlin vacation. You know, actual research, and here is my response to that article (not to mention my two articles on San Antonio, Texas  cuisine Vegeria and Green. Texas was also mentioned in that terrible article). In short, Paris had one of, perhaps the second best place I've eaten, and Berlin is a vegan dream. Surprisingly, london was kinda of a disappointment foodwise. If I can shake this procrastination affliction as Ivonne illustrates. I'll post all the places I've visited and put them on a master page once everything is finished, but don't hold your breath. Until then, this is my cannon fire into the cloud of Huffington Post's misinformation; a battle of all vegan grocery stores, one in Paris and several in Berlin. It sure is hard to be vegan in these places. just do a simple search on happycow.net.

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Eiffel Tower at Night

The stars are bright, deep in the heart of Paris!

     Well, I guess this is going to be a silent and picture less battle of Un Monde Vegan, but I hope you'll settle for the Eiffel Tower at night. Not sure what happened, but I didn't take any pictures in the store Well, at least I can't find them. Un Monde Vegan is a quaint little store with just one case of vegan cheeses. I'll post one of their videos below, it is in french, but gives a good look into the store. They did have vegan foie gras, but I'm too scared to open it and try it. Oh, and vegan croissants. One more time for the shameless too scared to put their name on the bylineHuffington Post author, Vegan Croissants. 

     The special one and I headed over to Un Monde Vegan prior to visiting the Eiffel tower. The idea of a croissant, baguette and cheese picnic sounded just the perfect amount of cliche. I'm not trying to rewrite the traveling guide book here. We ended up with croissants, cheezly cheese and these amazing vegan cheese slices from *gasp* Germany. They have a castle on the package, in case you need to find them. Along with enough chocolate, include white chocolate, to fill a suit. Oh, and gummy bears. Don't judge me. They had vitamin C, so I believe they were healthy. Plus, it's best to not get sick when traveling. Either way, if you're traveling to Paris, Un Monde Vegan is worth a visit. It's pretty impressive to visit. It's kinda of exciting to pick anything in a store and not read the ingredients! 

A Chain Of All Vegan Grocery Stores

     The leading photo should give you an idea of how amazing Veganz is. And guess what? There's three throughout germany. Still not impressed? They are expanding to London. Veganz is everything I thought a vegan grocery store should be and more, a fresh produce section, a crazy freezer section of fake meats, meals and ice creams that I've never heard of. Sometimes it was in German so I had no idea what it was, but the best part was I knew it was vegan. Since we only had one more night in Berlin, we skipped the frozen and fresh section and headed for the cheese. I was determined to try them all, those amazing cheese slices from germany, tofutti flavors I've never seen before, cheezly, daiya, vegusto and shreese. I settled for those another german cheese brand (jeezini), parmela and a chives cream cheese from shreese. If you're keeping score that's two all vegan cheese brands in the terrible for vegans country. 

     I've had shreese before thanks to the almighty cakewalk. Unfortunately, shreese is hard to get so it's been a while. Anyway, this was before the daiya cream cheese, but the shreese chives and onion was one of if not the best cream cheeses I've ever had. Yes, better than the daiya version. I hope they start distributing here again. Or perhaps, another trip to Berlin is order. Oh, I also loaded up on chocolate and an ice cream for the road, despite the downpour. I couldn't resit, the flavor was snow white.  The little baby boy ended up with a vegan pig ear as well.

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Vegan Bounty

I Miss Those Cheese Slices.

     As if that wasn't enough to get a win. The veganz location I visited had a vegan shoe store, bakery and an all vegan Italian restaurant (Mio Matto)  from one of berlin's famed chef's Bjoern Moschinski. (I'll make that my next post. Since we had lunch there before visiting Veganz). I was in such awe of the vegan industrial complex that I almost walked away with some brand new vegan shoes from Avesu. I've never seen such an impressive collection of shoes. I can fully understand how women feel about shoes. I could've walked away with several pairs, but luckily for my wallet they didn't have my size. 

Avesu: A Vegan Shoe

So Much Selection, So Little Euros.

     After paying for my vegan bounty, the checkout line brilliantly feeds right into a vegan bakery and sandwich shop called Goodies with some of the hardest to pronounce pastries.  It was a point and head nod here, even though the workers spoke perfect English. It doesn't help with my Jersey pronunciation of bagel.  Again, vegan croissants (that's 3 times now Huffington Post!) were had along with some other sweets beginning with a w and a few zs in the middle of it. I wish I knew enough german to let you know what they were. 

     German pastries are everywhere in Berlin. Mainly because the city has the best subway system. Each station and even on the platforms are shops where you can get coffee, pretzels and other pastries. I was always drooling hoping for a vegan version to sample. Goodies was the cherry on top of the visit to the vegan industrial complex and gave me that german experience, even if I have a picture of a french pastry below.

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Vegan German Croissants

Delicious!

      

     So I guess you're keeping score. It's fair to say that Veganz is the clear winner. The shop was bright, inviting and bustling. Pretty much a normal grocery store that happened to be vegan. But honestly an all vegan grocery story in Paris and several in Berlin (and soon to be London), we're all winners here. I declare that both get trophies. If you're in either city or both, be sure to visit. And get that castle cheese. 

Goodies

Avesu

Un Monde Vegan Video (yes, they have pictures of vegan croissants!) 

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