Vegan restaurant series-Vegan's Prague in Prague

Honestly, no idea how to start. It has been really long time, my last blog post was published more than 1 year ago and I don't want to promise anything like "I'm back, I'll write more often and blabla" because I really don't know. What I know so far is that I really would like to start to review  restaurants where I have been, from the closest one next to my house to the farthest one.
For some of them I'll not have personal pics simply because I would write about places where I have been in the past or because sometimes I'm so hungry and I can't wait to bite the food. Some of my pics can be found in my Instagram profile and normally I take my pics from there to publish here as I can't wait to share it on IG.

This is exactly what happened last Monday in Prague when we decided to try Vegan's Prague which is Nerudova 36, Prague. The location is amazing and easy to find, not so far from the city center and well served by public transportation; I suggest to leave the car at home as I didn't see any parking place around. The only drawback is that it's on the second (or maybe third? Not sure) floor and I'm not sure if there is a lift so it can be hard to reach for people with disabilities .
The environment is nice, clean and good smelly (no smells of fried food or similar which for me it's important because I definitely hate when my hair smells like french potatoes); as you can see from the picture in their website, there are 2 floors: the second one is simply amazing with the view to the Prague's castle and the typical Prague's rooftops. We didn't make the reservation but we just had to wait some minutes to have our 4 seats table and luckily it was next to the children's place so my son had the space to play and we to rest and enjoy. Anyway I recommend to reserve in advance especially during lunch and dinner time: we were lucky to find free place just because we have been there at 2.30 pm.

Just like the majority of Czech restaurants (probably in other Countries it's the same, but personally I've never checked) is it possible to find the complete menu in the website, available in English too and the content is very clear, tidy and understandable; not so many dishes which is a very good choice for me: better to have less choice but prepared with care and precision.
This is was we ordered

For starter we had Avocado Tartar. Simple and amazing, the taste is similar to Guacamole but it's more creamy and delicious, served with home made fresh bread.
For the main meal my initial idea was to try one of the burgers, then I thought that I usually eat burgers in Brno as we have some of  junk vegan restaurants here (I'll talk about this topic in another blog-post because there's a lot to dive deep on this common phenomenon) then I decided to try the real Czech cuisine by ordering a delicious Tradicni Bramborovy Goulash (Traditional potatoes goulash) and my hubbie got the Staroceska Veganska hostina (Old bohemian vegan feast).

My goulash was very good, a little bit heavy for my taste but for a normal stomach (=with still gallbladder on it!) really tasty and rich. Served with home made bread which I decided to dive in completely, wait a couple of minutes to absorb the goodness and then enjoy. It's not visible from the pics but it's a lot of goulash, the plate is the one for pasta (or soup) and it's all filled in. I wasn't able to finish it, but my hubbie wasn't sad for that.
His dish was very particular, not heavy at all but anyway rich of taste; I tried all he had, a combination of different wheat each one seasoned differently and I really liked it.

But the best of best was the cake. I'm not really raw enthusiastic, I like raw cakes but sometimes they are too heavy and taste too much oily. But this one... omg... this one was pure heaven.
We took one caramel and peanut raw cake in 2 and I couldn't stop eating it although I was already full by the goulash. The best raw cake I've tried, really.

I forgot to mention the drinks: my hubbie took a beer and I got malinova domaci limonada (home made lemonade with raspberry); nothing to say about the beer as we are in Czech republic and we have the best beer in the world, but the lemonade was perfect: not too sugary, with fresh raspberry. Perfect.

The waiter and the waitress were very nice and available, kind and patience and they contributed to create that nice environment which, combined with the good food and drinks, give you the certainty to come back.
The prices are visible in the menu and considering the high quality of the food and drinks, the friendly service, the portions and the location I would say they're cheap.

I will difenetly come back in my next visit in Prague, meanwhile if you had or will have he chance to stop in there, please leave a comment and let me know your experience as I love to read others people opinion!

Below my personal opinion with marks from 0 to 5. Let me say that 5 it's very hard to achieve especially with food parameters as I'm really demanding.

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Me 5 months as Vegan. Today.

Lots of people still ask me: but why are you Vegan? And they continue: you must eat meat, milk is good for your body, your body needs all the vitamins you can find only in animal products...
Honestly, even if all those lies were true, I don't care: I prefer to be sick, weak and to die instead of feeding my body with death and suffering.

Why am I vegan?
Watch this documentary and if you'll be able to watch it until the end, then I'll ask you: why do you still eat animal products?

Open your eyes (and your ears)





You could believe at those lies they tell you to convince you to eat animal products; you could believe to yourself when you say that "meat has a great taste, cheese tastes like heaven" but you can't deny all the suffering and pain seen on this documentary.
Fork over knives or Cowspiracy are great documentaries, but regarding those you are allowed to say "well, it's only one side of the coin"; when you see Earthilings... oh just see it. I'll not add anything more.

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Alternative meat in Czechoslovakia

I'm not a huge fan of the alternative meat simply because if I've chosen to not-to-eat meat, why should I eat fake meat instead? That's weird.
But the main issue a vegan meets in central-European country, far from the sea, often far from the sun, far from the healthy good environments which are dreams for us is that veggies and fruits are... what can I say without being offensive? Poor, bad, without taste, low in variety and I don't want to continue because I don't want to be offensive as here I always consider myself as a guest, although I work and pay contributes. I come from Italy and there the variety of veggies and fruit are higher (but it's still not the paradise for vegan..)

So, as I don't want to eat the same potatoes-zucchini-legumes-pasta-rice-cabbage-frozen spinach-cauliflower-apples-bananas-pear-peas, sometimes I eat fake meat, but what do I consider fake meat?
Probably you already know tofu, tempeh and seitan, the most famous "alternative protein": I don't like plain tofu, I prefer it with coconut milk and asian-style food. Seitan.. uhm... to much gluten for me  I prefer to eat it once per month. I hate tempeh, it's disgusting. Then there is soia like soia steak, granulated or morsel: I like to prepare italian ragù with granulated but I absolutely hate the hamster-food taste of the steaks.

Funny as hell there is a product here in Czechoslovakia (I've found it in SK and CZ so let me use the old name of the Country) it's Goody Foody.

There are different varieties, I've tried them all

• Good food steak with beef flavor
• Good Food SCHNITZEL with chicken flavor
• Good Food medallions with vegetables
• Good Food Gyros & Kebab with chicken flavor
• Good Food SMOKED with chicken flavor

and believe me they taste like meat, also the "structure" of the product is very similar to meat. So let's take a look at the ingredients (this is the chicken flavored one):

Ingredients:

vegetable protein (soy, wheat), rice flour, vegetable fibers, soy flour, wheat starch, egg white, whey powder, water, vegetable oil, lactose, salt, yeast extract, malt yield vinegar alcoholic beverage, flavor, garlic, dried , dried ginger, pepper

seems not bad, but it's also not vegan at all! Unfortunately I discovered this right now (stupid me! that's why I consider myself still "Vegan in training") so this would be my last meal with Goody Foody, last Sunday.

Another product I've found only here in Czechoslovakia is Robi maso (Robi meat).

This is Vegan and really really healthy, look at the ingredients, this is the plain one:
Composition:
blend of vegetable protein, beetroot, water, salt, 
natural coloring: HEM - 3595 - 30/04/04 - 11597th (Arpink red)
it's a very good product, hight in vegetables protein, low in calories

»Ener. value:  523 kJ / 127 kcal
»Protein:  20.8 
grams» Carbohydrates:  10.76 g
»Fat:  0.03 
g» Cholesterol:  0 mg»salt:  0.78 g

it has a big defect for me: I absolutely don't like it! It's chewy, chewier than seitan and it has no taste so to make it better you have to add other ingredients: you can fried it, add soia cream, add oil so the taste is better (there are also some ready to use different preparation here: Robi.cz , but I really don't like the "chewy effect".

Then there is Klaso, another Czechoslovakian product, which is a mixture of soia beans, wheat, flavors. But I never tried simply because it's not tempting for me: the smell (my husband ate it sometimes), the appearance...  I don't like.

In all bio shops is possible to find also different preparation soia based or legumes based like hamburgers, nuggets, wurstel, steaks: they are quite fine the taste is good but sometimes I'm quite scared about the ingredients.

Just to summarize my point of view: normally I prefer not to eat processed food, but the place where I live and the few time that I often  have to prepare healthy food don't allow me to eat how I would so I have to make a choice: sometimes I'll eat this kind of alternative meat in order to not going crazy.
Furthermore I really appreciate those companies as they are trying to give an alternative to meat to everybody (from today except Goody Foody!) and trying to save the planet (Please watch Cowspiracy).

Go Vegan!

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Quinoa Spinach Potato Burgers

Honestly I'm not a big fan of quinoa: it's too expensive and each grain is so tiny that I waste too much product around every time.
But it's a superfood (please visit this website if you don't know anything about quinoa: Quinoa superfood), it's healthy and good for our body so I try to eat it as much time as I can but every time combined with something else.
This morning I woke up very early and I felt like I need quinoa by the end of the day; I took a look into the fridge and I found few leaves of fresh spinach so I decided to prepare:

Quinoa spinach potato burgers for dinner!

(yes, it was around 11 am, but I like to be ready!)

Easy and nice to prepare, you need:
Spinach (frozen it's ok)
Potatoes
quinoa (I had the multi color one)
garlic
oil
breadcrumb

I did't write the quantity of the food, you can check in my picture to have an idea of the proportion.

First of all remember to wash everything before cooking especially quinoa. I cooked spinach with a little bit of garlic and olive oil, I steamed potatoes and cooked quinoa properly.

I mixed the three ingredients together (removing garlic), added a pinch of salt and pepper and the added the breadcrumb. I did't have the breadcrumb so I blended these crackers, they have sesame too.

I created a burger with my hands, put in oven 180° for 10 minutes one side and the 10 minutes the other side and they are ready!

Please visit my Instagram account tonight for dinner: I'll show you the entire burger with bun, vegetable and more for an amazing vegan burger!

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Home made Granola (Tropical mix version).

It's fall (really? I tough winter was already here as outside it's 4 degrees!) and for me fall means it's time to cook lots of comfort foods. One of my favorite comfort food is granola, in particular the home made granola as the industrial ones are full of sugar and scums.

I really like granola because I can create different combinations and the taste is always great. Today I made this almond plus exotic fruits, I'm going to tell you what you need.

for the syrup

-50 grams of agave or maple syrup

-50 grams of coconut oil (or any other seeds oil)

-50 grams of water

-half table spoon of brown sugar

main ingredients:

160 grams of oat flakes

120 grams of almonds

80 grams of dried fruits (I used tropical mix)

Prepare the syrup: heat and stir all the ingredients for syrup and let them cool down.

Mix all the other ingredients and then add the syrup; mix well and put the mixture in a baking tray then press to have everything at the same level. 

Cook in oven for 40 minutes with temperature 150-160 degrees, but remember to move and shake the mixture every 10 minutes (so for at least a couple of times) by extracting the baking tray from the oven.

Enjoy the solo-version or with your favorite vegan "milk".

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I can't vs I don't want

I can't see something like this:

here

Vegans can't eat this, Vegans can eat that? By the way the content is also switched.
Vegan is not a disease like diabetes, celiac disease or all the other diseased related with food, Vegan is a CHOICE. And as it's a choice, I choose not to eat something, I don't want to eat something, not I can't!

Modified by me 

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