Summer Adventures in Berlin and Dresden

After visiting the wonderful Gnadenhof Melief animal sanctuary Nick and I continued our journey east into Europe with Berlin in our sights. We arrived late one afternoon and headed straight to my buddy Josh's place where we were staying for a few days. Josh lives on the S9 train line which I was familiar with as it's the train I've always caught from the airport into the city and back on previous trips.

Our time in the city got off to a slightly shaky start because my allergies were kinda breaking me. No amount of tablets, nasal sprays and eye drops were doing anything and it seemed like my body was having some kinda breakdown! That plus the ridiculous heat meant that we spent some time chilling on the sofa catching up with OITNB before the lure of croissant sandwiches and cake at Chaostheorie lured me outside. I didn't take great pictures but check out my Instagram for a slightly shoddy cake pic! The next morning, okay, afternoon, Josh was at work but Nick and I ventured out into the heat to grab some food at the Goodies cafe at Veganz by Warschauer Strasse.

We went with sandwiches and a chocolate chip cookie because you can't really go wrong there and it was a solid lunch. My sandwich was full of delicious egg salad and I wished that I'd remembered to buy a tub of it to take away! 

The next day we had plans to meet up with my online friend Lea who writes the blog Vegan in Berlin and so we wandered to Neukölln to meet her at Cafe Vux stopping at vegan co-op Dr Pogo on the way. I remember visiting Dr Pogo back in 2008 when I first visited Berlin and it was even better than I remembered. The shelves were stocked with every vegan thing you could imagine wanting or needing. I like that this place is less focussed on imported products than Veganz because it means there's more space for the German products I get excited about like streich spreads.

I was apprehensive about re-visiting Cafe Vux because Nick and I had a frankly terrible experience there a while back where the dude behind the counter was so rude to us that it completely ruined my day and my opinion of the business! I'm super happy to say that this time around was completely different, they're in a new location and the woman working the day we visited was beyond lovely. I'm glad that I feel like this is somewhere I can recommend now because the food's great and really, just look at these cakes!

I wasn't feeling super up for sugar because of the heat so I opted for a bagel sandwich with cheese which was fantastic. I loved that there were three different cheeses to choose from and the strong cheddar I picked was just that, strongly flavoured and totally delicious.

Hanging out with Lea was super fun, we chatted for ages over food and then spent some time exploring the city together. I love meeting up with other bloggers especially when they're also awesome vegan feminists! 

One place I was beyond excited about finally getting to visit was Sfizy Veg. I know it was open last time I was in the city but I was travelling with a pizza hating friend (it's okay, she came over to the delicious side early this year!) so I didn't made the trip. This time though the dudes I was hanging with happened to be as stoked about pizza as I am so we went big with our orders! The menu at Sfizy is utterly ridiculous, I've never seen such a great pizza menu anywhere in the world. I choose from the fish section and went for an old pregan fave of tuna but with added capers for a little extra saltiness. Nick went with a chorizo topped pizza and Josh got something with peppers on that I pretended didn't exist! We also got some garlic focaccia because why not y'know?!

This was some seriously great pizza, great base, great tomato sauce, good cheese, a solid amount of toppings. So perfect. In any other city I would probably have eaten here every single day but this is Berlin so there are a tonne of fantastic options around every corner. One such spot is Kopps, an upscale bar and restaurant located in Mitte. We met up with Nicole from Vegan Nom Noms and tucked into Kopps' epic all you can eat brunch buffet. We were all far too hot to take proper pictures (seriously, we felt like we were melting and actually considered eating our brunch in the bathroom where it was a few degrees cooler!) but this was plate number one. 

As you can see the buffet has a great spread of sweet and savoury food, I was particularly enamoured by the eggless egg salad and the little berry cake. According to Nicole the secret ingredient in the egg salad is noodles!! What?! That kinda blew my mind but it makes sense, she has a recipe for it on her blog if you'd like to check it out. There were plenty of different breads to choose from on the buffet as well as sliced meats and cheeses, an expansive yoghurt / fruit / granola station and pancakes which were wonderful with some berry coulis. After brunch we desperately needed to cool down and the idea of getting back on the S Bahn was making us all feel queasy so we headed for the mall! Haha! It was fun I swear! We found a store selling air conditioners and tested them out, played on some massage chairs and I gazed at my dream camera before we decided to head back out into the heat so that we could get some ice cream. Veganz wasn't too far away and Nick and I had to stock up the van fridge for our onward journey the next morning so it seemed like the perfect stop. I grabbed a mini tub of this Lime and Basil gelato from Professor Grunschanel and it was the most perfect, refreshing treat for a hot day. I loved it.

That night Nick and I headed to Let It Be, Berlin's vegan creperie and burger bar, located just up the street from Sfizy, to try their crepes as we'd heard great things.

It was late when we arrived and even later by the time we got to eat. I was getting pretty hungry but it was totally worth the wait. We ordered one Woody Harrelson, one Moby and a side of mac & cheese. I feel pretty terrible for putting such a crappy picture up here but the food was so great that I just had to write about it.

The Woody Harrelson came stuffed with ham, cheese, leeks and cream sauce and as soon as I took the first bite I knew I was going to have trouble sharing! It was ridiculously good and I can see why people say this is their favourite place to eat in Berlin. The side of mac and cheese wasn't to our taste, the pasta was perfectly cooked and it was just the right amount of cheesy but there was just so much black pepper going on that you couldn't taste anything else. It was a shame because with a little less pepper this would have been a fantastic mac and cheese. The Moby we ordered was a dessert crepe filled with applesauce and cinnamon and again it was love at first bite. It was fantastic and I was amazed that something so simple could be so damn good.

I have always been a big fan of Berlin ever since my first visit where I ate at Nil, got sugared up at Cupcake and brunched at Hans Wurst (does anyone else remember that spot?!) but I feel like Berlin gets more and more vegan friendly every time I visit and now I have to add Sfizy Veg, Cafe Vux, Kopps and Let It Be to the must visit list alongside OhLaLa, Nil, Chaostheorie, Veganz, Dr Pogo and Voner.

After our time in Berlin came to an end Nick and I were heading to Poland but I could't be so close to Dresden with the time and means to get there without swinging by to visit my friend and fellow blogger Constanze from Seitan Is My Motor. We originally met when I visited Berlin for the first time and we've kept in touch online ever since. It was great to see her again! We met up at Tanteleuk, a little cafe with great vegan options, where we hung out on the balcony and talked politics, life and veganism for hours.

To sustain our chatting we needed to eat and I got a mock meat sandwich with salad and a slice of apple and berry cake which was totally delicious, not too sugary and the crust was spot on.

I would definitely recommend this spot! We would totally have checked out some more of Dresden's vegan and vegan friendly places if we'd had more time and if it hadn't have been a Monday. I was definitely a little sad to have missed out on 100% vegan spot Cafe V-Cake.

After lunch Constanze took us on a tour of the area (Dreden Neustadt), showed us some of her favourite spots, pointed out cool street art and even helped me find some amazing soy yoghurt. It was a great day! I was sad that we didn't have more time to spend in Dresden, it's a cool city and if Poland and the excitement of exploring a totally new country hadn't been calling us away we'd definitely have stuck around for longer. 

I'm currently writing this from a vegetarian cafe in Krakow where I've been munching on pierogis and writing all afternoon, I'll tell ya all about it next time!

Veganz Berlin

One place I re-visited over and over again during my trip to Berlin was Veganz, this entirely vegan supermarket has two locations and I frequented the super convenient Warschauer Strasse location over and over. Situated in a prime location right by the S and U bahn station of the same name the building not only contains the Veganz store itself but also all vegan cafe Goodies, Mio Matto vegan restaurant and avesu, a vegan shoe store. 

Upon entering the door you're drawn towards Veganz fresh produce to your right and Goodies pastries on your left. You can imagine which way I turned most often!

Within walking distance from our hostel Goodies was usually our first stop of the day. They have a wonderful selection of breads, cakes, pastries and sandwiches as well as a refrigerator chock full of salads. I can never resist a croissant and this one was flakey outside and soft inside, whilst it wasn't the best I've ever had it was by no means the worst. It could have been perked up with some jam or margarine but my German doesn't stretch that far!

My buddy Tabitha went for a spicy sweet potato lentil bagel which seemed like an odd combo to me but apparently it was quite delicious. I also grabbed a soba noodle salad (not pictured) from their chiller on the way to the airport. The noodles were smothered in peanut sauce and it was chock full of peas, it was so good that I ate most of it on the train on the way to the airport! 

When the weather was clear and dry we took advantage of Goodies plentiful outdoor seating options and enjoyed many, many slices of cake. 

This perfect looking chocolate mousse cake with a raspberry topping was my favourite. We found that occasionally the cakes were a little dry so I started choosing by going for the newest looking cake rather than by flavour which is a method that I find works pretty well!

Both Veganz locations are chock full of European vegan products as well as the things I think most of us in the EU are excited by, the US imports! As well as Tofurky roasts, slices, sausages, and pizzas, I spotted both Daiya and Follow Your Heart vegan cheeses, Eat Pastry cookie dough, Dandies marshmallows, Upton's seitan and Coconut Bliss ice cream. Pretty cool right?!

Having been the the US recently and with plans to go back in the not too distant future I skipped most of the US imports, apart from the Dandies, I can never resist a bag of delicious puffy marshmallows, and came home with a bag overflowing with German salami, some of the best sour gummy sweets I've ever eaten, huge bags of vital wheat gluten (so that I can make seitan all the time) and a few bars of my favourite Nirwana Noir praline chocolate.

The second Veganz location up on Schivelbeiner Strasse is stuffed with just as many amazing vegan treats and, in addition to the store, they also have a Goodies cafe. Wonderful. I had a thoroughly enjoyable apple frangipane tart and we both tried a toffee cake which to be honest was not great due to the overwhelming cinnamon flavour.

Back at the Warschauer Strasse location we tried the vegan brunch at the upscale and beautifully decorated Mio Matto restaurant.

*Sadly Mio Matto has now closed but you can get a comparable vegan brunch at Kopps and there is still a vegan restaurant at this location above Veganz*

An all you can eat set up is always going to be a winner in my book and we loved checking out their plentiful buffet before filling up our plates with mock meats, tofu scramble, salads, potatoes and fresh fruits and veggies. There were also plenty of different breads to choose from as well as muesli, yoghurt and little chocolate cakes.

It was one of the best brunches I've ever had in the city, it even rivals my previous favourite brunch from the sadly closed Hans Wurst. I wish that somewhere in Brighton would do a euro-style vegan brunch like this, I'm sure I'd become a regular.

If you're visiting Berlin do not skip Veganz. Honestly, this place is vegan heaven and I am more than a little excited that London will be getting it's very own Veganz in 2014.

Exploring Berlin.

I spent the last weekend of October in Berlin with one of my very best friends Tabitha. We had so much fun! She's my oldest Brighton based friend and I actually met her and my dude Nick at the same time, shitty jobs can apparently bring great things into your life. We're both kinda busy and don't get to hang out often enough so a weekend break was the perfect way to squeeze in a whole lot of silly friend time. We both adore Berlin, this was my fourth visit and her sixth or seventh and it was super fun showing each other our favourite parts of the city. A joint favourite and a place we knew we'd be heading for as soon as we arrived was Vöner, this all vegan kebab joint serves frankly enormous seitan doner sandwiches which come with your choice of herb, tahini garlic or chilli tomato sauces. I went with tahini garlic because if it was up to me I'd make it a law that people must put garlic on everything!

We both love to explore cities on foot and ride the u-bahn so we went all over the city eating, meeting dogs (real and not!), looking at street art and taking pictures of everything!

Our favourite place to warm up and chill out was Ohlàlà Tartes Shop. (Note: As of 2016 Oh La La is closed) I fell in love with this beautiful French style cafe on my last trip to Berlin in 2011 and I'm happy to report that Tabitha now loves it as much as I do. We endeavoured to try as many of the delicious things on offer as possible and started with hot chocolate and flavoured lattes.  My hot chocolate was delightful, I love this style where you mix the warm milk with the melty chocolate, it's so creamy and decadent.

I got super overexcited when I laid eyes upon the crepe menu, I might've even done a little squeak! I adore crepes especially the savoury cheese stuffed kind and they aren't something I often stumble upon. 

As was only right in this establishment I chose a Parisienne crepe which came filled with ham and cheese. It was absolutely perfect, I mean how can you go wrong with a melty cheese stuffed crepe?!

This cafe has an amazing selection of sweet treats filling the counter and tempting your tastebuds. We endeavoured to work our way through as many as possible starting with this beautiful and perfectly light chocolate mousse cake.

I also tried a pear mousse bomb which was filled with an even lighter mousse than the previous cake, something I hadn't thought possible, hidden inside were some sweet delicious pear pieces.

Tabitha taste tested this gorgeous chocolate nougat thing that I forget the name of, it was dense and filled with a gooey caramel, definitely an intense dessert option.

Another of my favourite discoveries from previous trips was Viasko, I ate lunch there twice last time I visited Berlin and this time we went for dinner where we started the night as we meant to go on, with booze! These cocktails were up there with the best I've ever tried, my TransMelonMan was so good that I finished it in record time and had to order another before our food had even arrived.

We arrived around 8pm and quite a few menu items were done for the day so I decided to go with a salad starter...

...and my companion had the soup of the day which, to her delight, was mushroom. My salad was delicious but really huge and super filling for a starter,  the mushroom soup was simple, rich and beautifully creamy, everything I remember dairy and cream laden mushroom soup to be.

My main was this huge tofu and sweet onion covered Flammkuchen, a dish I'd seen on many a German menu but never tried. The cheese portion was a mix of homemade nut based cheese, a melty dairy cheese alternative and tofu. 

Tabitha ordered the seitan gyros, a classic choice and Nick's favourite dish at Viasko. Our mains were tasty for sure but we both agreed that they were far, far too salty, the combination of that plus the slow service when we needed our water glasses refilled meant that we only finished around half of our mains. I would definitely still recommend a visit to Viasko though, I love the atmosphere there and 90% of the food I've tried has been outstanding.

If you've been to Berlin recently or follow me on Twitter or Instagram one place I'm sure you've noticed is missing from this post is Veganz, Berlin's amazing vegan supermarket chain. Don't worry I haven't forgotten about it I just loved it so much that it's getting a post of it's very own, watch this space!

Berlin Part V - Making the most of our last day.

On our last morning in Berlin we took a walk around the neighbourhood we'd been staying in & stumbled upon a large health food store called Bio Company. As soon as we walked in we saw the fresh bread & cakes, of course I headed straight over there looking for any sign of veganess. I wasn't disappointed as they label their vegan options very clearly.

I wasn't sure what these little buns were but we picked one up anyway, sadly they turned out to be quite bland. They were soft & slightly sweet though so I think if you were in possession of something like a tub of Chocoreale they could certainly become something delicious. We also spotted vegan chocolate muffins & took one to go...


...from a distance it looked so promising but sadly this was probably one of the worst things I've ever put in my mouth. I wish things like this didn't exist as it makes people think vegans are crazy people who like dry, hard, hideous baked goods. If you're starving & this place has sold out of everything else vegan then maybe give it a go but don't say I didn't warn you!

Thankfully the store which is located in Friedrichshain on the corner of Rigaer Strasse & Voigtstrasse has shelves lined with vegan goodies from soya milk's & puddings...

...to mock meats of all kinds, ready to eat falafel, tofu's & spreads.

There are 5 or 6 Bio Company stores located in and around central Berlin so definitely keep a look out for them if you're on the hunt for vegan food.

For our last meal in Berlin we headed straight for Yoyo Foodworld. It happened to be en route from our apartment to the bus stop, perfect when you don't want to have to go to far with a bulging suitcase. Also, their pizza's are so good that I really wanted another one.

This time I chose the Hawaiian, this is the pizza I always make at home. I always used to think pineapple on a pizza was weird & gross but somehow since going vegan my taste buds have changed to allow me to enjoy the deliciousness that is warm fruit on pizza. Another bonus to this newfound love is that Nick still detests pineapple on pizza which means more for me!

After lunch we decided to pay Caramello Eis one last visit & I decided to go crazy & try something different from the usual chocolate praline soya ice cream that had become my regular order. Of course I stuck to chocolate but this time opting for the sorbet.

It was good but not as good as the ice cream. It was more refreshing though and it was a proper dark bitter chocolate which I certainly enjoyed.

I'd been waiting all week for Cupcake to make a chocolate cupcake so I was super excited to spot this beauty behind the counter when we popped in on our way to the airport. We'd just eaten all of that pizza & ice cream so we saved it for the plane.

For some reason if there's going to be an empty seat on a plane it'll be next to Nick and I. I don't know if it's our ridiculous hair or my tattoo's and piercings but I think people find us intimidating. I'm certainly not complaining but it makes me laugh because surely there's nothing less intimidating than a couple eating cupcakes and watching Gossip Girl!

Berlin Part IIII - Oh LaLa, Cupcake & Viasko.

My birthday this year was always going to be an awesome one as we were spending it in Berlin but it was even better than I could have imagined! We started the day with a continental breakfast of 'ham' slices, Vegusto cheese, bread, banana bread & fruit juice.


This was swiftly followed by presents, it took a helluva lot of patience for me to wait until after breakfast!


I'd wanted the Veggie Burger book for ages & it's damn good. I've only made the Super Quinoa Burgers so far but I'll be making the Bacon Cheeseburger recipe very soon. The cute skillet mitts were a great hint towards the sneaky extra present waiting for me at home, a cast iron skillet! I'd wanted one for SO long & as Nick pointed out it would have definitely pushed our suitcase over the weight limit hence leaving it behind.

After a walk through a park near where we were staying that included the very grown up activity of playing on the swings we headed to new cafe Oh LaLa for lunch (Note: As of 2016 Oh La La is closed). Oh LaLa is a French tart shop which although not vegetarian does have plenty of mouth watering vegi & vegan options. We started with a couple of savoury tarts which I didn't really manage to take a decent picture of!

We had trouble choosing so we shared one tomato & one pepper. They had great thick flakey pastry & I liked that they both tasted different rather than just being the exact same tofu quiche with different toppings. I wished we could have tried all of the other flavours too, the day we were there there were 5 different flavours to choose from. Really though, we were there for the desserts! Little French tartlets - yum!

We were going to share our desserts too but once I saw this gorgeous raspberry chocolate tart I new I'd be keeping it all to myself.

Chocolate & Raspberry is my absolute favourite dessert flavour combo so this was a wonderful birthday treat. Silky creamy chocolate encased in buttery pastry topped with delicious tart raspberries & chopped pistachio nuts. Yum! Nick choose to have the treacle tart which is one of his favourite desserts so I think he was pretty happy with the new not sharing plan!

I did get a little taste because otherwise how could I have written about it here?! The treacle was gooey & incredibly sweet & I loved that it was topped with my favourite dessert nut, pecans. Is it weird to have a favourite dessert nut?! I'll definitely be returning to Oh LaLa for a tart on my next trip to Berlin.

After lunch we headed towards Alexanderplatz to walk around & look at the sights...

...before hopping on a boat to do some more relaxed sightseeing. Of course we planned ahead & took snacks! Brownies to be precise, this is the peanut butter chocolate brownie from Cupcake.


I think I've said it before but the brownies at Cupcake are some of my favourite brownies in the world, it's a closely run thing between them & the brownies from Strong Hearts Cafe in Syracuse, New York.

After our fabulous lunch at Viasko the previous day I decided that I wanted to head back there for my birthday dinner so that's exactly what we did! We ended up choosing the same starter as we'd had for lunch the day before, the Crostini Variation. Not knowing when we'd next be in Berlin I couldn't pass up the chance to eat their delicious almond cheese again. For my main I chose the Seitan Steaks with mashed potatoes, mushroom cream sauce, green beans & root vegetable crisps.

Oh my god it was SO good! The sauce was perfect, the seitan was amazingly tender & I was genuinely really excited to be eating a green vegetable after all of the fast food & cake we'd been eating on the trip. The mashed potatoes were the creamiest most delicious mashed potatoes I've ever eaten...I only wish I had the patience to mash my potatoes this well at home!

Nick went for the gyros plate, I don't think the picture does it justice... this thing was huge!

The plate included the soya gyros, homemade flatbread, coleslaw, tzatziki sauce & hummus. I tried a bite & it was really good, the bread was perfectly soft & I really liked the soya meat.

We were both pretty stuffed after our meals but when I heard that one of the desserts was an apple tart I decided that there was no way I was missing out!

This was well worth stuffing myself to breaking point for! The apples were perfectly soft & caramelised and the pastry was perfect. This was a seriously great end to a days eating!

I always get nostalgic (and hungry!) when I'm writing travel food posts because I want to be right back there trying more food or re-eating all of the fantastic meals I've eaten on the trip. Viasko is definitely one place that I really really wish was closer to me, thankfully I love Berlin so much that there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be back there one day in the not too distant future.