New York style dinner in Brussels

One of the best things about New York is the abundance of great vegan restaurants. And not just the cheap, we_don't_serve_any_alcohol places you can find in a lot of European cities, e.g. Warsaw or Brussels. We are talking real, fine dining experience, with fantastic food, excellent organic wine/beer/drinks menu and a cool interior. Our favourite one was Candle 79 at the corner of East 79th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The same owners also have a more casual Candle Café, at the 3rd Avenue, between 74th and 75th Street. Except for being a great choice for a tasty lunch or a relaxed dinner, Candle Café also has an outstanding juice bar, where you can get fantastic juices and smoothies.

As an example of the exquisite cuisine we have tried at the Candle 79, here is the really delicious Seitan Picatta with White Wine and Capers Sauce with baked potatoes, both recipes can be found in the Candle Cafe Cookbook.

Vegan New York, part one: shoes!!!

Even though it's not a good thing to be jealous, I definitely envy the vegans in New York. I will write a separate post about the vegan food options in NYC, which are plenty!

I have to admit that stopping to wear leather or suede shoes wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I knew very well that that's the right thing to do, I wasn’t at all interested in the argument that it's just a by-product of the meat production, so as long as people eat meat, it would be unwise not to use the skin of the animals. Well, I'm not really interested in any by-products of mass murder.

My first non-leather shoes came probably from h&m or deichmann, they seemed to fulfill all the criteria: made of vegan materials, inexpensive, easy to find. Unfortunately I soon discovered that most of them were not comfortable and of really poor quality.. I still shop high-street brands for shoes, you can from time to time find great stuff, you just have to learn to avoid the cheap, terribly-smelling plastic crap ;) Then there's e-bay, where you can always find great deals, if you're willing to take a bit of risk which always comes with online shoe shopping. But none of these options come close to the discovery I made during my visit to New York last month: Moo Shoes!

Moo Shoes is a fantastic vegan shop in the Lower East Side. They have an amazing selection of beautiful (yes!) vegan sandals, heels, wedges, boots, sneakers, you name it. The price range is also quite friendly, the ones I looked at were between 50 and 200$. Yes, that's more than H&M, but the quality is beyond any comparison. I am a person who loves to walk and who walks a lot every day. At the same time I like nice shoes that are not exactly the same kind that everyone in the street is wearing at a given moment. Well, Moo Shoes has it all! In fact it has more than that - they also sell some clothing, vegan books and magazines, bags.. You can see yourself at their homepage:

http://www.mooshoes.com/

Still, they do even more. At the shop's homepage you can find a list of ideas how to get involved in animal rights issues. The projects include for example volunteering at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary or (obviously;) going vegan. Here's the link:

http://www.mooshoes.com/getactive

The only regret you might have after visiting Moo Shoes (if you're from my side of the big water, of course;) is that you really wish we had a store like that in Europe. I don't even necessarily mean Brussels, but London would be nice. It's a bit easier to take a shopping trip from Brussels to London than to New York ;)

Last but not least, I have to mention the extremely friendly staff at the shop. That includes the humans and the resident cats, who definitely give you the impression that in fact it's them running the place. Every once in a while they wake up from their naps at the counter, just to make sure that the business is going as it should.

Cleo by Helen Brown - not only for cat people

After a few months of winter laziness, I've decided the blog deserves a bit of my attention ;)

I've just finished reading an amazing book, Cleo: How a Small Black Cat Helped Heal a Family by Helen Brown. It doesn't have anything to do with veganism or with animal rights as such, still it is probably the most beautiful book about the relationship between people and an animal that I've ever read. The story begins as a very tragic one - the author's older son, Sam, dies in a traffic accident, leaving the rest of the family shattered, struggling to live on. Hope arrives at their doorstep in the form of the little black cat that Sam had chosen a couple of months before his death. At first Helen wants to give the cat back, but when she sees that Cleo has managed something that nobody else has since Sam's death, to bring a smile on her other son's face, she knows the little animal has to stay. Cleo quickly becomes the most important member of the family, patiently tolerating the ever changing circumstances: divorces, marriages, births, relocations..

Helen Brown described herself as not really being a cat person at the beginning of the book. That didn't last long. Cleo quickly proves what all cat owners know - she is not 'just' a cat, she is a very intelligent, sensitive being, who fully participates in the life of the family, who 'knows' more than people suspect, who helps them get through tough times and who brings indescribable joy into their home. Even if, as most of our beloved furry friends, she can in no time bring the house into a state reminding of an aftermath of a natural disaster or drive the normally patient slaves (after all that's what we are to a cat, aren't we?) completely crazy ;) Amid the joys and sorrows of everyday life she teaches them to express their true feelings, to enjoy every single moment of happiness, not to be afraid to grieve, to be good and kind.

Every chapter begins with a few sentences of cat wisdom, let me just quote you my favourite ones: Stress - a waste of nap time.

A truly beautiful book about the special bond, love and mutual respect between humans and animals. Just a word of warning, if you're a bit 'soft' like me, you might need a lot of tissues..

Vegan breakfast and/or brunch for a lazy weekend

When I was younger, I didn't care too much about having 'the most important meal of the day'. When you have to get up at 6 am to make it for your train that will bring you to uni, you really don't bother with preparing an elaborated morning meal ;) Things have changed with time, now if I don't get breakfast, I am literally starving at work before 10.. The most common morning choice is porridge, made with soy milk, some fresh fruit, sunflower seeds, flax seeds or some nuts, whatever I have at hand. Tastes great and keeps me full for a long time ;) This weekend however, I decided to try something more special. Yesterday I baked these fantastic banana-walnut muffins from 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. 

What can I say, they were amazing! To quote my husband 'the best muffins I'd ever had';) I froze half of them, so that we can have a delicious breakfast next weekend.

After the sweet treat on Saturday, on Sunday I have decided to got for a vegan version of the classic English breakfast. I didn’t use any specific recipe, except for the Savoury Scrambled Tofu  taken from Refresh by Ruth Tal. The rest was inspired by The Complete Book of Vegan Cooking breakfast recipes. I baked some vegan sausages in the oven, together with a few tomatoes, cut in half and seasoned with salt, pepper and dried basil and a few mushrooms. When the sausages and the vegetables where almost done, I added a few bread slices. I also heated up some beans seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of chili. 
  

Wild rice and tofu salad

It seems that my blog has recently fallen into the winter sleep.. Well, hopefully things will change once the spring comes ;)

In the last couple of months I have bought numerous vegan cooking books, which are just so full of ideas you don't really know where to start.. I will try and post some photos of the food I make from the recipes. They are definitely worth trying, even if you're not vegan, but just looking for some delicious and healthy change from your regular diet. For example esterday I made an extremely simple wild rice and tofu salad from The complete book of vegan cooking:

It was fantastic! Great taste, plus light and filling at the same time.

First snow in Brussels

I've been at home for a few days now, recovering from a flu (regular, not swine, as this seems to be the usual question nowadays). It came as a nice surprise to suddenly see the snow outside the window. It will probably be all gone tomorrow, but it looked beautiful. And it provided a lot of fun for the cats ;) So today there won't be many words, just the photos.

C'est Belgique – survival guide

Living in Brussels is not a piece of cake (or chocolate). In almost four years that I've been here I've managed to discover a few crucial things you need to know/have to be able to survive in the land of beer and chocolate. Here's the beginning of the (never-ending) list:

1. Umbrellas – it seems obvious to bring an umbrella to Belgium. Wrong. Bring a few! The most common view on a rainy and windy day in Brussels is the garbage cans filled with broken umbrellas. There are two strategies how to deal with this problem. You can invest in a really good and expensive umbrella, hoping it will last more than one day or you can keep buying the cheap crap, assuming it doesn't make any difference, as an umbrella fit for the Belgian weather is yet to be made. Personally I practise option number two...

2. Good shoes – if you are a walker who hates the public transport (like me), you will need to invest in shoes. The pavements in Brussels are a piece of art, a very abstract piece of art. The stones come in all possible shapes and heights. Who said that the pavement should be even and not slippery, that's boring! I might be very sleepy when I leave for work in the morning, but after half an hour of fight to stay in a vertical position, I am fully awake. Very clever, I should be grateful...

3. Patience! A lot of patience. Planning a trip to the post office, for example, should not be taken too lightly. Most of them open at 9 and close at 17, so the only time a working person can visit this precious institution is in the lunch break. My local post office has 5 counters. I have never seen more than 2 open at lunch time. Plus, there are always a few 'regulars' – usually middle aged women who seem to know everybody working there and who do not simply come to send a letter or pick up a parcel. You can learn their whole life stories waiting for your turn. The funny thing is – nobody seems dissatisfied, nobody protests and asks for more counters to be open. If, then it's almost for sure a foreigner. The locals just accept things as they are, after all c'est Belgique! This is the phrase you will hear often when asking why things don't work and why nobody does anything to improve it. Why should they? C'est Belgique.. So if ever going to a post office, bring a good book! Kafka might be the right choice (see next point)

4. Sense of humour. Imagine you are a foreigner who just came to Brussels, you hardly speak any French, but you need to go to your local commune office to get your residence permit. You arrive there and to your great relief it turns out they have a special office for foreigners affairs! You hope you might be able to communicate with someone there. Wrong again! You are told that yes, they can speak English, but they don't.. Because if they speak English, people might expect them to start speaking other foreign languages in the foreigners office, for example Chinese.. You understand why Kafka might be a good reading for your post office trip before the visit to the commune?

… to be continued