Being vegetarian in Madrid

As a rule, I don't think of Spain as being a haven for us veggies. On a work experience exchange in Catalonia when I was 16, I worked in a hotel. I can still remember the smell of the full legs of ham at breakfast and the disdain of one of the cooks, who didn't want to cook me 'something special' when he put together lunch for the staff. 

However, keeping an open mind (my work experience in Girona was a long time ago) and convinced that I'd seen a blog post on Madrid from one of the veggie bloggers I follow, I arrived in Spain's capital feeling hopeful. 

What to do in Ella, Sri Lanka

Ella or Elle is a small town in Sri Lanka's hill country, surrounded by tea plantations. It's a good spot for a few days of hiking, eating and drinking tea. Here are our top things to do while you are there.

1. Take in the views from Little Adam's Peak
A walk up Little Adam's Park is about an hour and a half's round trip from the main street in Ella. The views of the surrounding mountains and across to Ella Rock make it is very much worth the trip.

Eating and drinking in Bruges

Say Belgium and the following culinary delights come to mind: chocolate, waffles, fries and of course beer. And if you want to indulge in any of these, Bruges will not disappoint. Here's our experience of eating and drinking in Bruges:

1) Delicious veggie (yes veggie) friendly restaurant Reliva

As a vegetarian who loves food, I often get disappointed with the opportunities for eating new and interesting food when we are travelling. I wanted to make sure that I had at least one delicious meal while away in Bruges and so went online to research vegetarian restaurants. I quickly came across Reliva, which describes itself as a place 'where fish, mean, vegetarian and vegan food find a perfect match'. 

Arabian nights in Stone Town

Stone Town on the whole was a little bit of a disappointment. Lonely Planet describes it as 'a magical jumble of cobbled alleyways ... (which) make it easy to spend days wandering round and getting lost'.

In reality, it felt more than a little tired, with the once fine buildings in desperate need of some TLC and the 'jumble of cobbled alleyways' filled with small shops selling the same tourist fare for over-inflated prices.

Being vegetarian in Italy

When I wrote the 'Being vegetarian in India' post, I said I had considered leaving the entry blank, as its so easy to be vegetarian in the sub-continent. 

Italy is similar. 

The Italians love good ingredients and good food and make delicious meals regardless of whether they include meat or not. 

Exploring Naples

I had little to no real expectations of Naples, before we visited. I knew very little about the city and we were only really going there as it was the entry point for us to visit the Amalfi coast from the UK.

As our departure date neared and I started to do a little more research, I found quite mixed reviews of the place: some people seemed to love it and others reported that it was dirty and dangerous. 

Happily, what we found when we got there was a very real and lived in city, with beautiful architecture (even if some of the paintwork was peeling or fading) and some fantastic food.

Marinara Pizza from Fresco Pizzeria

And no we didn't find it dirty or dangerous. A bit chaotic and resistant to modernisation perhaps, but friendly and interesting and we never felt threatened,

Being vegetarian in India

I considered leaving this blog post blank, as its so easy to be veggie in India that unlike some of our other posts on eating as a veggie (particularly in South America), I wasn't sure what I'd actually say, other than 'go forth and eat'.

However, I did really enjoy the food we ate for our two weeks in Bangalore and Tamil Nadu and so I didn't want to miss the opportunity to talk food! So, without further ado, here's a selection of some delicious foods that we'd recommend you try on a trip to India.

1) Masala Dosa
A staple of South India, dosas are a type of pancake made from a fermented rice and lentil batter. They are served filled with vegetables and/or alongside various chutneys or sauces. Commonly, they are served stuffed with a mix of potatoes, onions and spices. This is known as a masala dosa. It's really very tasty and became a firm favourite of ours, while on the road in India.

Highlights of Bangalore

Bangalore is not a city filled with must-see tourist sites. Instead, it is a vibrant, lively and fairly modern place where people live and work, rather than visit and sightsee. And this was why we were here. Not to live and work ourselves, but to visit some friends, Sara and Mike, who are working out here and to see a snapshot of their new lives, living in India.

Eating out!

They looked after us very well, taking us to some of their favourite bars and restaurants, introducing us to their friends, hanging out with us by their rooftop pool and lending us their slightly bonkers dog, Joey, to play with.

Being vegetarian in Tallinn

Sitting on the plane on the way to Tallinn, reading my guide book, my heart started to sink. 

"The idea of anyone willingly giving up meat is fairly baffling to the porkchop-loving Estonians", it declared. Those vegetarian dishes that do exist "range from fairly uninspired concoctions of stir fried veggies or grilled cauliflower", read the next sentence.

There was also a warning that any soups or salad that may appear meat-free by reading the menu were likely to include bits of ham. Hmmm ... I thought.

Fortunately, either the guide book writer did not look in the right places or a lot has changed in the two years since the book was written.

When we arrived, our Air BnB host talked us through her recommendations of where to go and one of her top tips was to go to the vegan restaurant. "It is vegan, but the food is still very good", she told us. And away from the vegan restaurant, we found some very good veggie options. 

Here are our recommendations for eating well in Tallinn as a vegetarian:

Being Vegetarian in Colombia

Like everywhere else in South America, vegetarianism isn't particular popular in Colombia and most traditional fare involves some kind of meat or fish. However, with a little shopping around, you can find vegetarian friendly Colombian food. And of course, in the bigger cities of Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena there are also a range of international options.

Here's what we ate:

Colombian food
1. Arepas: An ubiquitous lunchtime snack or side dish in Colombia, arepas are a type flatbread, made with a pre-cooked cornflour. They come with different types of filling and topping, some with and some without meat. I particularly enjoyed the arepas de choclo, made with sweetcorn, giving them a creamy taste. 

Favourite arepa stand in Cartagena

Being vegetarian in Brazil

Like the Argentinians, the Brazilians do like their meat, meaning that for our just over two weeks in the country, we found that Brazil was not a particularly vegetarian friendly place.

As in Argentina, we found that 'by weight' self- service restaurants, where you are charged by the kilo for the amount of food you put on your plate, are a good option (particularly if you like beans and rice!).

Being vegetarian in Argentina

I may have been able to seek out more vegetarian options in Argentina, if James hadn't been on an ongoing mission to find the best steak in the world. 

Luckily, because of the Italian influence on Argentinian cuisine, pretty much every restaurant in Argentina (including the steak houses) do serve meat-free pasta dishes. However, generally these options are either pasta with a nice (but not especially inspiring) tomato sauce or pasta with a good (but again not particularly varied) cheese sauce. 

To avoid just eating pasta covered with tomatoes, here are some of our top tips for being vegetarian in Argentina:

Being vegetarian in Chile

Arriving in San Pedro de Atacama over the salt flats from Bolivia, we were pleasantly surprised to find a town in the middle of the desert stuffed with a range of good restaurants - all of which had tasty veggie options, which is not always guaranteed in South America. 

Aside from trusty (and yummy) pizzas, the options were quite varied too, including quinoa risottos, stuffed peppers and stir fries. Just walk up and down Caracoles - the main street in town - and take your pick! Be warned

A breakfast of açaí

Açaí berries are a purple fruit from the Brazilian rainforest, which  for hundreds of years have been a central part of the diet of native Amazonian people.

In the last ten years açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) has become known as one of the latest superfoods, alongside goji berries and adzuki beans. Its popularity

Our time in Valparaiso in pictures

Pretty Valpo

Known as 'Valpo' to its friends, this bustling, chaotic port town was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 2003, after locals petitioned the international body to try and stop

Being vegetarian in Bolivia

We’d been told in Peru from travellers coming north that Bolivian food was rather underwhelming and that there was little choice for vegetarians. I’d had quite an easy time in Peru and so was bracing myself for a month or so of nothing but rice and omelettes.

However, while it was true that Bolivia is less foodie than Peru, there were some good veggie options and I only ate about two omelettes in almost two months. (And they were nice omelettes.)

We did have more time to cook for ourselves, so that helped, but even in our homestay, the family didn’t seem to have too much trouble cooking vegetarian.

And there were some great veggie options both at the street stands street and in the restaurants, particularly in Sucre.

So what did we eat and where?

La Paz: In pictures

Arrival

La Paz is quite literally breathtaking. At an elevation of between 3,200m and 4,100m above sea level, even a leisurely stroll around the city centre can leave you feeling short of breath. Most people arrive into La Paz from El Alto, which is actually another city in itself, growing fast into the flat plains above the capital.  The view of La Paz as you travel into the city from ,El Alto, is incredible.  

Being vegetarian in Peru

Being a vegetarian in Peru was surprisingly easy. 

Peru is getting itself known as being a bit of a foodie destination and as well as the Alpaca steaks that James enjoyed along the way, this also means that there are an increasing number of (varying quality) vegetarian restaurants.

We ate very well in Lima. Following the recommendations of Neverending Voyage and Indefinite Adventure, we made a beeline for Almazen, where we enjoyed sampling a range of different types of potatoes, cooked in multiple ways with delicious sauces, as well as imaginatively stuffed tomatoes and a yummy stuffed pancake.

In the beginning: Lima part 1

After promising James that as we were going away for a long time, we would not need to rush round to make sure we had seen everything; our first few days away have been pretty hectic.

Lima was quite hot and is quite spread out and so getting about took longer than I had thought. This combined with the heat made getting around quite tiring. We only nearly fell out once though, which is pretty good going.

We stayed in an area called Barranco, a suburb in the south of the city, which was the capital’s seaside resort in the 19^th century, before falling into disrepair. It’s now almost certainly back on the up and the guide books describe it as a place where artists and intellectuals are moving in – James and I fitted in perfectly.