Dubrovnik Vegan Scene: Moskar Konoba Restaurantby Randi / August 31, 2013
After spending a lot of time inland and in Bosnia & Herzegovina, I spent almost 5 days in Dubrovnik, the lovely crown jewel of the Adriatic. If coming from Mostar, like I was, you can take a pretty comfortable bus for a few hours and stop halfway through to see the sight above. How freaking beautiful is this. After the week in the mountains, it was nice to see the crystal blue water.
Old Town Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is such an interesting little town, really unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is entirely walled in (or at least the Old Town is, where most tourists will remain), a tiny fortress of a town surrounded by steep cliffs and the beautiful ocean. You’ll enter the Old Town by one of three gates, most likely Pile Gate, the main one from the major road outside (which leads up to the fancy Hilton). I’ve never been in such a densely touristed place.
Strolling on the Stradun
Dubrovnik is a really easy destination for frightful travelers, because it is 100% for tourists. No locals live anywhere nearby – it is all the tourist trade. It’s pretty safe, and it’s incredibly easy and manageable. Kind of like an inoffensive Disney World but with history.
The main thing to do is mosey along the Stradun, the main boulevard through the Old Town, and wander all the little streets leading off of it. You can’t get lost; you’re walled in. The streets are filled with restaurants, cafes, shops, gelato purveyors, and, of course, cathedrals and museums. People-watching along the Stradun is first-rate, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Franciscan Monastery Cloisters
One of the first things you’ll see upon walking through Pile Gate is the Franciscan Monastery Museum. It’s a pleasant little stop off the Stradun with charming cloisters, providing some calm from the throngs outside. It also houses one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe, and it’s still operating today.
My favorite activity in the Old Town was walking the city walls. For 50 kuna, you climb atop the city and stroll along the walls for a few hours, all around the city, and catch the most incredible views. I recommend going just before last call, around 6:30 pm, as it’s less crowded and you get great light as the sun sets.
My favorite activity in the Old Town was walking the city walls. For 50 kuna, you climb atop the city and stroll along the walls for a few hours, all around the city, and catch the most incredible views. I recommend going just before last call, around 6:30 pm, as it’s less crowded and you get great light as the sun sets.
|
|
|
The pictures you take when walking the walls (all of the above) will pretty much be the standouts of your entire trip. You see everything and it’s all so perfect. It also helps you get a handle on the city, so it’s not a bad idea to go early in your visit.
|
The guide and my boyfriend jumped off this cliff, from about where the sun hits at the top.
My other favorite activity? Kayaking! This might have been my favorite part of the whole trip because I love to be active and kick ass. And I kind of kicked ass.
The picture at left shows a little inlet that we pulled into about halfway through the ride, so we could swim. Also, the guide (and my boyfriend, because crazy) jumped off of that cliff. I know. It’s really high.
Outside Pile Gate, you’ll find tons of guys handing out fliers about kayaking trips from different companies. I’m pretty sure they are all generally interchangeable. I chose a late afternoon trip, hoping that the sun wouldn’t be as brutal. We kayaked about 3 hours, on a surprisingly far-reaching route circling Lokrum island. You kayak in 2-person boats, and most people had never kayaked before. (If you are alone, you’ll probably get paired with a guide, so that’s a plus.) It can be as easy or as strenuous as you want. I definitely recommend doing this if you can! It was pretty exhausting but so enjoyable. The company provided sandwiches (and packed fruit for me!), plenty of water, and had waterproof tubs for cameras and such. Once we were back on land, the guides opened a few bottles of wine for everyone to share while we chatted about our travels and backgrounds. We had such a great time!
The picture at left shows a little inlet that we pulled into about halfway through the ride, so we could swim. Also, the guide (and my boyfriend, because crazy) jumped off of that cliff. I know. It’s really high.
Outside Pile Gate, you’ll find tons of guys handing out fliers about kayaking trips from different companies. I’m pretty sure they are all generally interchangeable. I chose a late afternoon trip, hoping that the sun wouldn’t be as brutal. We kayaked about 3 hours, on a surprisingly far-reaching route circling Lokrum island. You kayak in 2-person boats, and most people had never kayaked before. (If you are alone, you’ll probably get paired with a guide, so that’s a plus.) It can be as easy or as strenuous as you want. I definitely recommend doing this if you can! It was pretty exhausting but so enjoyable. The company provided sandwiches (and packed fruit for me!), plenty of water, and had waterproof tubs for cameras and such. Once we were back on land, the guides opened a few bottles of wine for everyone to share while we chatted about our travels and backgrounds. We had such a great time!
View during the ride up
Another fantastic thing to do? Climb Mount Srd! Ok, not with your feet, but in a cable car – even better! (I found one of the funniest ever admonitions against doing something in the Rick Steves guidebook. It says something like, “If you are in great shape, and it’s not too hot out, you might consider taking the cable car up and walking down the mountain.” Hahahaha. So yeah, don’t try to hike up it. Also, cable cars are fun!) The cable car entrance is a bit tricky to find, about a 10 minute walk outside Ploce Gate. The view from Mount Srd is so worth this ride.
View from Mt. Srd of the Lapad peninsula, where many big hotels (and locals) live. Kind of far but a nice area. |
View of Old Town Dubrovnik. You can see Lokrum Island to the upper left. |
Buza, the beach/bar carved into the cliff face.
My last must-do thing to tell you about is Buza, a bar carved into the cliffs that doubled as a beach!
Dubrovnik doesn’t really have beaches (you go to the islands or to Montenegro for that). However, this little cliff bar-beach was even better – no sand, no hassle, just drinks and jumping into the water! So much fun! Also, the bar has one of the best drinks in the Balkans – Schweppe’s Bitter Lemon soda. I don’t usually like soda, but I loved this.
You reach Buza from the corridors near Ploce Gate. It’s a little tricky to find. Ok, a lot tricky. I don’t remember how we finally found it, but it was worth the trouble! You just sit at a table, order a drink, walk a few feet towards the cliff edge, and jump!! Then you can climb back up to your seat, relax, enjoy your drink and the view, and then jump again! Lather rinse repeat. It’s really the coolest. There were people of all ages enjoying the spot, and there are many rocks of various heights to jump off of. I was a little skittish at first, and I didn’t go very high, but I still had lots of fun.
Dubrovnik doesn’t really have beaches (you go to the islands or to Montenegro for that). However, this little cliff bar-beach was even better – no sand, no hassle, just drinks and jumping into the water! So much fun! Also, the bar has one of the best drinks in the Balkans – Schweppe’s Bitter Lemon soda. I don’t usually like soda, but I loved this.
You reach Buza from the corridors near Ploce Gate. It’s a little tricky to find. Ok, a lot tricky. I don’t remember how we finally found it, but it was worth the trouble! You just sit at a table, order a drink, walk a few feet towards the cliff edge, and jump!! Then you can climb back up to your seat, relax, enjoy your drink and the view, and then jump again! Lather rinse repeat. It’s really the coolest. There were people of all ages enjoying the spot, and there are many rocks of various heights to jump off of. I was a little skittish at first, and I didn’t go very high, but I still had lots of fun.
A shot of Buza beach/bar from atop the City Walls
The town of Kotor
Speaking of Montenegro…
Definitely go on a day trip from Dubrovnik to the Bay of Kotor! It’s beautiful, and it’s a really easy and fun side trip. There are plenty of tour companies around the Stradun, and most of them have affordable, small-group van tours to Montenegro. We drove on the famous road featured in “Casino Royale” to get to the Bay of Kotor, and our driver told us every Montenegrin hated the movie because shooting shut down this very important road for people who actually had to use it. Stupid Hollywood! The Bay of Kotor is so nice to drive around. Then we spent about an hour touring the nice little town of Kotor, during which I hit my head so badly that I thought I had internal bleeding, so that kind of colored my experience. I think it was the concierge at Hotel Vardar who helped me and got me medicine and ice, so shout out to her! Thanks for saving me! After Kotor, we played on the (painfully pebbly!) beach of Budva. Such fun times!
Definitely go on a day trip from Dubrovnik to the Bay of Kotor! It’s beautiful, and it’s a really easy and fun side trip. There are plenty of tour companies around the Stradun, and most of them have affordable, small-group van tours to Montenegro. We drove on the famous road featured in “Casino Royale” to get to the Bay of Kotor, and our driver told us every Montenegrin hated the movie because shooting shut down this very important road for people who actually had to use it. Stupid Hollywood! The Bay of Kotor is so nice to drive around. Then we spent about an hour touring the nice little town of Kotor, during which I hit my head so badly that I thought I had internal bleeding, so that kind of colored my experience. I think it was the concierge at Hotel Vardar who helped me and got me medicine and ice, so shout out to her! Thanks for saving me! After Kotor, we played on the (painfully pebbly!) beach of Budva. Such fun times!
The Bay of Kotor
And on the way back to Dubrovnik, we got to take a ferry! I don’t know why that’s so exciting!
Our group included about 7 people, including two couples on their honeymoon. Everyone was pretty cool! We ate lunch together in Budva, where most restaurants have the ubiquitous ‘vegetarian platter’ of cooked nightshades.
Our group included about 7 people, including two couples on their honeymoon. Everyone was pretty cool! We ate lunch together in Budva, where most restaurants have the ubiquitous ‘vegetarian platter’ of cooked nightshades.
I probably wasn’t allowed to take this picture.
Once back in Dubrovnik, we were lucky enough to catch an outdoor performance of the opera Cosi Fan Tutte, as part of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. What a wonderful show! I love opera, and I love seeing it in other countries. This festival performance was lovely. The cast was really talented, and I thought it was a solid production, especially given the difficulties of performing an opera at night outside! If you are thinking of going to Dubrovnik during the summer, go during the festival!
If you’ve looked into a visit to Dubrovnik at all, you’ve probably learned that renting apartments, rather than booking hotel rooms, is the way to go. There’s a big fancy Hilton outside the main gate, but staying in the Old Town is so much more convenient and fun. We stayed in the lovely and well located Amoret Apartments, in every guide book, located near the Cathedral. It was a very nice, but I have reservations about recommending it, because the woman who runs it is kind of a lunatic. She was well aware of our expected arrival time, and we planned to meet then so we could get the keys from her, but still we had to wait nearly an hour in the hot sun, standing in front of the Cathedral with our luggage. At one point, I asked a waiter at a nearby restaurant if I could use the bathroom. I explained that we were to be staying in an apartment just above us, but the woman was keeping us waiting. He asked, “Oh, you mean Branka?” and I said, “Yes! That’s her. You know her?” He replied, “Unfortunately”, and pointed me to the bathroom. I mean, it was too late to do anything about it, but dayyyyum. We wasted a few more hours over the weekend waiting for her for various reasons, so if your time is precious to you, I recommend you go elsewhere.
However, I do recommend that you stay somewhere in the Old Town, because it’s so convenient and because crazy random things happen at night, like this acrobatic troupe performing on our corner!
If you’ve looked into a visit to Dubrovnik at all, you’ve probably learned that renting apartments, rather than booking hotel rooms, is the way to go. There’s a big fancy Hilton outside the main gate, but staying in the Old Town is so much more convenient and fun. We stayed in the lovely and well located Amoret Apartments, in every guide book, located near the Cathedral. It was a very nice, but I have reservations about recommending it, because the woman who runs it is kind of a lunatic. She was well aware of our expected arrival time, and we planned to meet then so we could get the keys from her, but still we had to wait nearly an hour in the hot sun, standing in front of the Cathedral with our luggage. At one point, I asked a waiter at a nearby restaurant if I could use the bathroom. I explained that we were to be staying in an apartment just above us, but the woman was keeping us waiting. He asked, “Oh, you mean Branka?” and I said, “Yes! That’s her. You know her?” He replied, “Unfortunately”, and pointed me to the bathroom. I mean, it was too late to do anything about it, but dayyyyum. We wasted a few more hours over the weekend waiting for her for various reasons, so if your time is precious to you, I recommend you go elsewhere.
However, I do recommend that you stay somewhere in the Old Town, because it’s so convenient and because crazy random things happen at night, like this acrobatic troupe performing on our corner!
And in the mornings, a market pops up near the Cathedral, with fresh produce, delicious candied nuts and other goodies, and lots of souvenirs. Those candied nuts were so good. Unfortunately, I ate all of mine way too quickly. (And they were supposed to be gifts, too.)
As the city is so touristy, the food can be really overpriced for the quality you get. But I did eat at two commendable restaurants, Moskar Konoba and, of course, Nishta, the only vegetarian restaurant.
As the city is so touristy, the food can be really overpriced for the quality you get. But I did eat at two commendable restaurants, Moskar Konoba and, of course, Nishta, the only vegetarian restaurant.
Most people focus an entire trip to the region on the Dalmatian coast, and with good reason. I’m so glad this trip allowed me to experience the rich history inland and in Bosnia and Montenegro, but Dubrovnik was a fantastic place to end. I’ll definitely need to return so I can see the islands, Split, and Plitvice lakes.
Related Posts
Grain Store Unleashed: Poss Best Pop-Up Restaurant Ever
Not that I’ve been to many pop-up restaurants (have I?) or other things cool people do, but even so I’m pretty sure Grain Store Unleashed ranks towards the top. First of all, they have an all-vegan menu available (if you ask for it). Second of all, they had the best water speed I’ve ever seen outside of American Chinese food restaurants. And most importantly, all the food was good, some very good, some great.
Grain Store Unleashed, housed in the main restaurant area of the Zetter Hotel, was the summer pop up of the King’s Cross restaurant Grain Store. The actual/long-term Grain Store is a supposedly vegetarian-friendly restaurant that really isn’t. Every time omnivores want to eat with me, they suggest Grain Store because it’s so veg-friendly. But I mean, come on. They have a few vegetarian options, and vegan stuff is marked — but the only vegan dishes are bread, gazpacho, and sides. No mains. There’s a note on the menu that says some dishes can be made vegan, but it doesn’t say which ones. Also, seriously, not even one already-vegan main? You do not make my list for places I will give money to if I have to do all the figuring out.
But luckily for everyone, they put on Grain Store Unleashed, a much more adventurous and much more accommodating type of dining. If they are smart and/or nice, the restaurant will decide to either do the Unleashed-style pop-up again, or, better yet, add the vegan dishes to their subpar menu. Because this vegan menu was great!
But luckily for everyone, they put on Grain Store Unleashed, a much more adventurous and much more accommodating type of dining. If they are smart and/or nice, the restaurant will decide to either do the Unleashed-style pop-up again, or, better yet, add the vegan dishes to their subpar menu. Because this vegan menu was great!
|
|
GSU (not to be confused with probably 10 colleges) was one of the nicest meals I’ve had in London, so it pretty much blows that it was short-term. It offered three different set menu options: 4 courses for $28.50, 6 for $34.50, or 8 for $39. (As always, I mean the local currency (pounds here) but I only have the dollah on my keyboard.) I would normally be like hells yeah, give me the 8, but after close inspection, I saw that you only got a vegetable tartlet (hehehe TARTLET) out of that, plus both desserts instead of one. However, the second dessert was strawberries in Gran Marnier, which is like, first of all, I’m not going to pay you for fruit for dessert at a restaurant, thanks, but secondly, don’t ruin the fruit with alcohol. So 6 courses it was. You can also order a la carte but it didn’t make sense; 2-3 dishes and you’d be at the same cost so why would you do it!! Let’s look at all the food I ate!
|
|
Oh, funnily enough (is it), they had an amazing drinks menu. Normally I am just a tap water person, but these drinks were so interesting that I had to get one. Hoorayfully, the non-alcoholic options were just as cool sounding as the booze. While my two companions got the lavender margarita and fig daisy (the latter just for the name, I think, sounds like a book character), I got a really great bergamot and apple iced tea, which was a low-key level of sweet (yay) and had a good tinge of bergamot and apple, even though I have no idea with the former tastes like. I do remember it being in The Body Shop toiletries from when I was like 11 but that’s the extent of it. I also have been saying it wrong my whole life, apparently, because I thought I was being smart and fancy by doing a long-o, no-t sound, but apparently the last syllable is pronounced like the apple juice company. Do not like.
So the food! They started us off with an avocado toast plate, compliments of the kitchen, which is pretty much the greatest way to start off any meal. Or any kind of event, really. Avocado toast? That you weren’t expecting? That is free? Yippee! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a 100% perfect experience, because you could tell the puree came from avocados that they bought in this country (England). You could taste that they were not yet ripe when they were cut, and also that they never would have ripened anyway. That’s what avocados here taste like. Blergh. Still, not great avocado toast is pretty good.
So the food! They started us off with an avocado toast plate, compliments of the kitchen, which is pretty much the greatest way to start off any meal. Or any kind of event, really. Avocado toast? That you weren’t expecting? That is free? Yippee! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a 100% perfect experience, because you could tell the puree came from avocados that they bought in this country (England). You could taste that they were not yet ripe when they were cut, and also that they never would have ripened anyway. That’s what avocados here taste like. Blergh. Still, not great avocado toast is pretty good.
I will never frown upon free toast
Potato paper!
Next was the ‘Vegetal oyster, potato waffle, and broccoli dip’. Intriguing! The ‘oyster’ play came from a cold green vegetable mixture on one of those thick white spoons that oysters are served on, topped with edible flowers. It was good I just have no idea what it is. The big brown piece of paper was actually the potato waffle, which was mashed potato dehydrated into a cracker. Pretty fun! The broccoli dip was delicious, like a mild broccoli-flavored hummus. I would have loved more of the broccoli dip instead of the unripe avocado opener.
Fried
Dish #2 was one of our favorites, because we love fried things. It was the courgette flower and tofu fritter, with tapenade dressing. It was like a plate of tempura, which no one is going to fight with. The huge block of soft tofu appeared at first to have a disagreeable ratio of fry-to-tofu, but it was really good. The long zucchini flower’s ratio was almost too far in the other direction, with such a delicate vegetable tempurafied. Regardless, both were great and came surrounded with a very necessary and very well-matched olive tapenade. w
Fisssh and chips and vinegarrrr vinegarrr vinegarrr
‘Pickled heritage radish, beetroot and samphire, cauliflower cous cous’ was good but needed some work. I was super excited about samphire, which I’ve recently been introduced to. Given its natural saltiness, it makes sense to pair it with pickled stuff. But it needed something creamy and/or light paired with it. It was a beautiful dish, but altogether was just a little too salty or vinegary. Cauliflower couscous I believe is always a mistake – it’s just ground up raw cauliflower so people can act like they are eating a grain when they think grains are bad. It’s nonsense and it always tastes like nonsense. Here, it did nothing to offset the vinegariness, whereas an actual grain would have provided the necessary counterpart.
Much better than green tea
One of the most impressive parts of the meal was the ‘Wild mushroom tea’. I was hesitant about mushroom flavored tea, but quickly realized that that just means soup. More accurately, broth, and really unbelievably delicious broth. My friend who knows more about MSG that I do said it tasted like MSG (that’s a good thing), because mushrooms are high in glutamates or some such science and these were cooked (brewed) into tea (broth) properly. REALLY incredibly delicious for such a simple thing!
The final savory dish was our big fun main, ‘Artichoke stuffed with veggie chorizo and walnut, summer vegetables, rouille’. Rouille I learned is an olive oil-based garlic, saffron, and chili pepper sauce. This dish was really good, and it needed more of the rouille, not just because I know what it is now but because it was really great. I can always do without whole tomatoes given to me to bite into and 100% of the time burn my tongue because the insides were just cooked and are boiling, but at least they were good tomatoes. I loved the grilled lettuce, which people don’t do enough, and it was so nice to be given a huge artichoke heart with all the work already done of deleafing it. The chorizo was great too. Pretty excellent dish!
Finally, I’m so happy that I chose wisely with the dessert, because mine was soooo good. ‘Coconut and Kaffir lime tapioca with sweet potato’ sounds a little of my beaten path with desserts, but it was one of my favorite things ever. I never really had tapioca pudding before. It’s really good. The coconut and lime combo was mild and lovely, and the little hunks of sweet potato worked well and luckily weren’t candied or anything stupid like that. I want this all the time!
|
|
Grain Store Unleashed was such a fantastic meal! I hope they do something like this again.
GRAIN STORE UNLEASHED AT THE ZETTER HOTEL
Water speed: Really good for London!
Service: Equally good and attentive.
Bathrooms: Oh my the bathrooms. You had to go out sort of towards hotel reception but down a spiral staircase through a few rooms of really…interesting bars. You just spiraled downwards through business people’s conversations and were like don’t mind me just have to pee! Sooo weird. The bathroom door was very heavy.
Food: Really nice overall and I’m so glad I got to go.
Bonus: I learned about glutamates and tapioca.
Eating Vegan in St. Petersburg: So Much More than Buckwheat and Pickles
I knew St. Petersburg would be the easiest place of the summer for me to find vegan food, but I didn’t know it would be so good too! I made a HappyCow list a mile long before we left, but I barely scratched the surface of it because most regular restaurants had something I could eat. Being so close to western Europe means the vegan thing is starting to catch on, and there are a few restaurants that have gone all in with menus labelled with vegan options! For the most part though, you have to just figure out with your brain what dishes could be vegan, but there are lots of options. When all else fails, there’s Teremok, and there’s pickles, and there’s hleb (bread, the most important word to learn).
Right after leaving the hostel, we ran across the tiniest hole in the wall bakery with huge Georgian-style lavash breads in the window, the kind that’s a big floofy circle with two handles coming straight out the sides. I want bread handles! I went in and found an old babushka cooking her breads. That’s all it was, a tiny place with an old grandmama and her oven and her bread. The bread looked amazing and I asked for one. Well, first I tried to ask if it was just bread or if it was stuffed with cheese like that sort of thing sometimes is. Problem is, I didn’t know how to say “stuffed” and babushka didn’t know a lick of English. I knew how to say “with cheese” and “with milk”, so I said those phrases in question form, but she thought I was asking to get the bread with cheese on it, and she doesn’t do that, and so there was much confusion. I somehow got it across that ‘no cheese/milk is good’, then I THINK she said ‘just flour and water!’ or something to that effect, and we finally established that the magic looking fluffy as all get out bread was safe for me. Unfortunately, it being a tiny little hole in the wall, babushka couldn’t break the 1000 ruble bill we had – we had JUST gotten money and hadn’t been able to break anything and SHE wasn’t going to break it! Her breads cost 40 rubles! The change would wipe her out! So husband ran back to the hostel to make change (there was nothing in between, really) while I…tried to make conversation. It did not work but it was hilarious and fun. Another woman came out and I THINK she said she was from Georgia (the country), and after a few moments of me saying nonsense I realized she was asking where I was from, and like always I didn’t know whether to say USA or London so I said both. It was a lot of confusion on all fronts. Luckily, Husband got back soon and we bought THE BEST BREAD EVER. Of course I don’t have a picture of it or the babushka because I’m pretty sure it was all just a hallucination, but I will always remember this amazing bread and this ridiculously fun first encounter with Russian people.
pickles!
For dinner on that first night, we were around the popular (and well populated) Nevsky Prospekt, with all the side streets shooting off of it full of hopping restaurants. We looked at a few menus before choosing the very adorably titled Masha i Medved, or Masha and the Bear. They had a long menu, which yes means it is probably a tourist trap, but also means lots of options and higher chance of veg items. That’s the tradeoff, I think, with going to maybe more expensive touristy places – they usually have more vegetables. Of course we started with a pickle plate, and while I’ve never been a huge pickle fan, I am ready and willing to eat them all across Russia, especially because I couldn’t fit my bottle of probiotics in my overstuffed pack. The pickled mushrooms were kind of weird, but the pickled green beans were surprisingly yummy. Luckily the boys ate the hot peppers; I was in no mood.
Yummy eggplant and mushrooms (okay and red pepper) |
apparently I forgot to take a picture of my salad but you know what cucumber and tomato looks like! So here’s a pic of my glass of mors (cranberry ish juice) instead enjoy |
For my mains, I had lots of small veggie dishes to choose from. Most focused on potatoes and mushrooms, and I figure I’m going to be eating a lot of those two things (and not just because I know the words for them!) as we go more east in Russia. So I chose the cucumber, tomato, and red pepper salad, and the grilled eggplant & mushroom dish. Both contained red pepper, so it was a lot of red pepper, and you know I’m not the biggest fan of red pepper, but I need to not get scurvy so I did my best. Both were very basic, standard versions of their respective dishes, but that’s fine, especially when travelling. I just want vegetables. The stir-fry actually tasted really good. I liked it. Hooray for Masha. Hooray for the bear.
just realizing now that the box even says vegan and ‘no dairy’ oops forest for the trees
Back on the Nevsky Prospekt, we went into the Singers headquarters, which is now a huge bookstore, and I zeroed in on their snack section. And lo and behold, a box of bars! I spent decades reading the ingredients, or trying to, before realizing that they actually said the word ‘vegan’ on the front. Oh us vegans and our immediate flipping to the underside of the flap to get to the ingredients, never assuming that our work would be done for us! I bought three. They are amazing, some brand called ‘Take a Bite’, and I did, and I need to find more in Moscow because they are just like Larabars – raw mixes of nuts and dates and other dried fruit, and some with cocoa. Obsessed.
After dinner and before clubbing (just kidding) (well we did go to a bar really late) (so tired), we went into a cute little fruit shoppe to stock up for breakfast. I bought the most beautiful looking apples, a bunch of good looking bananas, and a box of cherries. I was obsessed with the bucket of cherries, and if I was allowed I would have jumped in. I love cherries, and I live on bananas, and giant apples, as big as you could find, are probably my favorite food in the world. So, even though I labelled everything and put them in the hostel fridge in a bag with my name on it, of course someone stole my bananas and my magical apple. Of course. They left the box of cherries. They were sort of sour. Like my view of humanity.
love this cherry bucket! I also adore cutting into whole watermelons but we saw a lot of watermelon in our Kazakhstan researching so, saving for that
DO YOU SEE THESE INCREDIBLE PEANUT BUTTER FLAVORS THE CHERRY BUCKET STORE HAD??!! I can’t even get over it. I wasn’t allowed to buy them. No fun purchases! (No room, really)
cute little space!
Before our visit to the Hermitage, we went to the first of my HappyCow finds because the top review said it was right across from it. It’s a small cafe called Kafe Troitsky Most, because it is on Troitsky Most, the bridge over the nearest canal. It really is the best place to go when you visit the Hermitage because I didn’t notice much else nearby. So there’s a hot menu on the wall, but there’s a display case of several great looking salads. I asked if I could do a mix of salads and set about picking the best looking ones that I could clearly see were just veggies. I pointed to one in the back that had strips of brown and I asked if it was meat and the super nice lady said “nyet, soya!” They were soy meat strips and everything in the case was vegetarian! Everything in the cafe! Yippee! That soy meat salad was SOO good. I really liked everything, actually. I would totally return if we were here longer. My kind of place, just simple salads that you get to mix together and throw a piece of bread on top.
For a nicer dinner one night, we went to Cafe Botanika, another all-vegetarian place that we walked by at least 1400 times because it was between our hostel and all the things. I was so excited to go to a real sit-down restaurant that was all vegetarian. The menu spans many pages and includes sections of various cuisines, like an Indian section, a Chinese section, an Italian section, which is kind of odd but hey if you can do it, do it. While the food was fine, it was much better for vegetarians that it was for vegans. There weren’t many mains that were vegan, and in fact there were zero vegan mains under the Russian food section! Which is kind of ludicrous! Even it’s famous house burger was not vegan. I could have had pasta or an Asian tofu and veg stirfry, which is like hey I also could have stayed home and cooked for myself. Luckily, they had Russian vegan food for starters, so I got a bowl (more like cup) of borscht for my main and an avocado-filled salad to start. We also shared crudite and hummus, because if you have hummus I’m going to eat it. It was all fine, but I’m just kind of mad that there wasn’t more available. I am really glad I had borscht though, as unremarkable as it was, because here traditional borscht has meat in it. Botanika was a perfectly nice place and if you are vegetarian it would be incredible for you, but for a vegan looking for Russian food or even just stuff that’s interesting, there’s better.
we’re gonna need more hummus
the borscht had 4 kidney beans in it |
i like salad though |
We had great luck with Cafe Ukrop, a small chain of veggie cafes all over the center of the city. We went to two of them! The menu has vegan stuff clearly labeled, and is the complete opposite of Botanika in that stuff you would assume wouldn’t be vegan (like the ravioli and the vegetable cream soup) was indeed vegan. Fun! The food wasn’t anything special, but it was decent and healthy, and the place had a nice vibe and adorable decor, so it was just all good. It’s a sweet place where you can sit for hours because the seating includes sofas, comfy chairs, and even a few porch swings! There are also signs advocating cleaning up the environment and eating organic food. At least I think that’s what it said. It could have been anything.
We tried a lot of dishes over our two meals at two different locations. My favorite was the Caesar salad, not because the dressing even remotely resembled Caesar dressing, but because it came with fried tofu croutons. There were only 4-5 of them in the whole salad though, so they really need to add more to it. I was surprised by the Olivier Salad, it’s like a traditional Russian salad of tiny chopped potatoes, peas, and carrots formed into a circle and covered in mayo, but the vegan version was 1000x better than that nonsense (I’m guessing, because mayo blechh).
We tried a lot of dishes over our two meals at two different locations. My favorite was the Caesar salad, not because the dressing even remotely resembled Caesar dressing, but because it came with fried tofu croutons. There were only 4-5 of them in the whole salad though, so they really need to add more to it. I was surprised by the Olivier Salad, it’s like a traditional Russian salad of tiny chopped potatoes, peas, and carrots formed into a circle and covered in mayo, but the vegan version was 1000x better than that nonsense (I’m guessing, because mayo blechh).
better than it looks |
same for this one |
As for other starters, we had a mushroom soup that was decent, but it came with a little pot of sour cream, and even though the soup was marked as vegan, I just wasn’t sure about the sour cream. Husband wasn’t sure either and he usually can tell what’s vegan or not, so I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing even though this was days ago. We also tried the avocado cucumber rolls, which sounds like boring sushi but was more like roll-ups, with an avocado cream mixed with herbs inside strips of cucumber. They were fine, a good refreshing raw food dish when we needed some fresh vegetables, though maybe needed more flavor/salt.
cucumber rolls from the heavens |
mushroom soup with the devious sour cream. or not. we don’t know |
For main courses, we tried three – the ‘famous’ burrito, the ravioli, and the lentil burger. I think the burrito (more like a wrap (they are different) was the best of the three and the one I would order again. They said it was their most popular dish. Filled with smoked tofu, lentils, and various veggies, it was smaller and thus with less filling that western wraps/burritos. but it was pretty good. And I don’t know if the wrap was gluten-free, but they did that thing I love about gluten-free wraps where heating it turns the breading into a cracker. I don’t know why I just like it. Probably because anything resembling a soggy wrap makes me nauseous so if you’re gonna veer in one direction go towards the crackery and not the soggy. The ravioli was fine, a pleasant surprise that it was vegan, but it was because it was filled mostly with just greens, not a tofu ricotta like I expected or any sort of interesting play on the greens. Just sauteed plain greens. The tomato sauce it came with wasn’t great but hey they were still ravioli so still fine. The burger I liked, but it could have used more pickles and tomato – I didn’t even know they were on it until I was halfway through, the pieces were so small. The patty tasted a little like frozen peas, which is a little disappointing. It really needed a strong sauce to go on it and it would have been amazing. Kind of true of everything here. It was all decent and nice tasting but nothing was like wow. Still, it was all very satisfying, especially when traveling.
|
|
We also had great beverages from Ukrop – a very interesting grapefruit-basil juice, a beet-carrot-cucumber-apple kind of regular juice, and best of all a halva milkshake! It wasn’t really a milkshake, more of the UK-style of milkshake meaning flavored milk, but it was pretty great! It was just soy milk mixed with halva so you can’t go wrong. They threw in a handful of slivered almonds, some of which stayed on top for the picture while the rest floated down to the bottom, so we spent a lot a lot of time trying to chopstick them up.
juices yay |
halva milk yummm |
But honestly, probably my favorite place in St. Petersburg, and Husband’s too, is Teremok, a famous fast food chain. Russian fast-food, of course, so although it looks like McDonald’s, the already-made ready-to-be-tossed-down-the-counter dishes are blini and borscht and buckwheat porridges with all kinds of meat and cheese, etc. Blini, if you don’t know, are Russian pancakes but are more like crepes, usually stuffed with all manner of food, from savoury to sweet, meat to apple caramel sauce. When we went into our first of many, many Teremoks that we passed, I assumed it was a) just for a lark and b) not for me, considering blini have eggs and milk in them. Well luckily they gave us an English menu because otherwise I’d never have seen this remarkable menu section on a freaking fast food menu:
LENTEN VEGETARIAN MENU! GUYS, that is the dream! In most countries, the traditional food for Lent is vegan food. So that’s a great way to communicate what you’re looking for when you can’t speak the language. I was so excited and shocked to see this. Of course we went back to Teremok enough so I tried three of the four vegan options at least once, and happily they have more in Moscow. Even happilier, they just opened a branch in NYC! How ridiculous is that! That’s actually how we knew about them. Anyway, the buckwheat porridge is probably my favorite food so far. I love buckwheat, so there’s that, and it’s so simple with pickles and a few green onions and whatever, it’s plain and bland and healthy and that’s kind of what I love. Same with the vinagret (mixed chopped veg salad, usually with beet, in vinaigrette) and the pea soup. Plain, inoffensive, decent, healthy food. I’m obsessed. I can’t believe my fave place was pretty much Russian McDonald’s but if McDonald’s had such healthy and good vegan food I’d probably be there. Well just when traveling; I’m not a monster.
|
|
I knowww it ended up being buckwheat (with pickles) that was my favorite dish, the title of this post is so misleading. Not gonna change it. Oh we also ate at a Georgian restaurant and I had this boiled spinach and walnut pate (with more of my favorite bread) that was really good and it was topped with pomegranate so I’m going to share the picture just randomly right now.
I also went to a falafel place called Pita’s and had a very nice cabbage and orange salad and a falafel wrap! There are a few Pita’s across the city. The wrap with hummus is vegan, but apparently the ‘original’ wrap is not! But who would ever order falafel without hummus?!
So St. Petersburg was super vegan friendly and I didn’t even go to all the places on HappyCow! I didn’t even go to like 5 of them! It’s a great city in so many ways, and you will eat pretty well. We will see what happens in the next city!
