Huangshan<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, when we climbed all day up a mountain in China and saw literally nothing. We had fun though; we do like climbing towers, and it’s good exercise (more on that below) (I mean sort of, like 2 words).<\/p>\n\n\nAlright, y’all bitches made it. It’s time for the vegan food. So, the food in Belgium is not surprisingly not the greatest for vegans, unless you like living on frites (that means fries), which I do not, because – hot take alert – fries aren’t that great. The HappyCow app is indispensable for Bruges, alerting us to the vegetarian restaurants or at least the veg-friendly ones. We only had two meals in Bruges but we had experiences (run-ins) with a few restaurants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, I took advice from HappyCow reviews and went to Brasserie Forestiere restaurant for lunch, a slightly upscale (meaning, expensive (as all of Bruges is) and doesn’t do tap water oof) cafe that promised to know what vegan meant and in fact has a tofu wrap on the menu. It was fine, they definitely do and that’s definitely true, but it was mostly soy sauce and a lot bell peppers, which I don’t like, so if I knew better I would have chosen the falafel place ‘t Brugs Pitahuis (I get the pitahouse part and I guess I can accept Brugs but I do NOT get the ‘t business (I understand that it’s their abbreviation for the word for ‘the’ but still it’s difficult for me)). But then again, I do get falafel all the time since I live next to a Pilpel (best falafel in London alert) so I’m not mad. I’m especially not mad because the pile of peppers came with a side salad AND a scoop of avocado\/guacamole (best not to ask), and you know how much I love a surprise salad. And salad in general. Why do I love salad so much? Hot tip: mix the whole avo scoop into the wrap and everything is better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, it was decent and incredibly filling, but a wrap it was not. A wrap has LITERALLY one requirement:<\/p>\n\n\n\nyou had one job<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd this clearly failed that. I wouldn’t call this cornucopia of onions and peppers spilling out of an open shell a wrap. Of course I did try to pick it up and eat it as intended, which was forking hilarious (it did not work). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll pass the Frites Museum on the walk back from Forestiere to the main square. Yes, it’s an entire museum dedicated to fries. No, we did not go but knock yourself out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For our one dinner in town, we were eager to try the all-vegetarian restaurant Des Plaats. However, the guy who greeted us was kind of a dick. Fun fact that we did not know: You cannot eat dinner in Bruges without a reservation. And I don’t just mean at this little dick boy’s restaurant; I mean everywhere. We were turned away from several places that were ‘fully booked’ even though they were absolutely empty at the time. Bruges just WILL NOT FEED YOU without a reservation, which okay, I understand, it’s crowded, but we didn’t know. Except instead of just saying ‘no, we’re fully booked sorry’, the Des Plaats bellend was like supes rude, unnecessarily. Fork his boring plaats anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luckily, one restaurant remained to check out, one I’m not sure why we didn’t go to first since it’s entirely vegan: de Brugsche Tafel, a small family-run restaurant that has a small but solid menu and two adorable kids helping their parents out. I wanted to hug them I was so happy they agreed to feed us. It was great, too, and we were happy to support a family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We read a lot of good reviews about the ramen, but they had two specials that sounded good: the mushroom palak with basmati rice, and vegetables in vindaloo sauce, so both Indian-esque dishes. To fit super well with that theme, we got bruschetta to start (I’m funny). The bruschetta was on regular sliced bread, which is funny, but toasted, so it all worked out. It was one the garlickiest foods I’ve ever eaten and I FORKING LOVED it. Husbo, who is less garlic-oriented, said it was almost too garlicky, but I, a person with eye-tal blood who has garlic coming through her pores at most times, do not think so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
also, HELLO? ANOTHER SURPRISE SALAD PLEASE AND THANK YOU<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe mains were great; I think the mushroom palak is the winner but overall everything was, as the Brits say about food which I just do not understand but I guess I have to now, ‘nice.’ A weird thing we both noticed was that they didn’t use any beans, tofu, seitan, &c. Usually we see this lack of protein sources at restaurants that aren’t vegan, especially if they’re trying fancy tasting menus, but not at all vegan places, so that was quite odd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe best part about de Brugsche Tafel (aside from the hospitality, the ability to feed us without buying into the Bruges Booking Malarkey, the family-helping jawn, and the fact that every once in a while we’d see the tiny little girl child climb CLIMB up onto chairs to remove empty dishes from other tables and it was hilarious and adorable) is that THEY HAVE VEGAN BELGIAN WAFFLES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
i could crop this photo if i wanted to –Greg Serrano<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nBaby’s first vegan Belgian waffle! Granted it’s my first time being back in Belgium since being vegan but still, wowee! I remember when I was first in Brussels, I guess 15 years ago, and I had a street waffle with maybe speculoos? and it was great obvs but this was EXCELLENT. The waffle part was so amazing it didn’t even need the chocolate sauce (but I wanted it). They are 4 euro and this little carton was the to-go container but whatever I ate it as soon as we got outside and it was magical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
this is a random statue in Bruges of Papageno, from The Magic Flute. OPERA STATUES FTW<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAs for our lodging, that was a bit of a predicament. Very, very few hotels in Bruges will let you book for just one night. The place we were going to stay in in August was going to be for two nights, so they wouldn’t let us change it to one. (Well, then they said ‘for you, we will make an exception!’ and offered a one-night rate…at the price of two nights. Cool guys.) Luckily, we found the adorable restaurant and inn Hotel Duc de Bourgogne. It’s right on the canal, super quaint and old-fashioned and perfect for the broogie vibe. The old-fashionedness means there weren’t enough outlets, and I wish each room could control its own heating, but there were no real problems on those fronts. The staff was super nice and accommodating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hotel\/restaurant is the white building on this canal. One of those windows was ours!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\ndecent bed<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nconsidering we were directly across from a busy canal-side bar and restaurant, we wished they had heavier curtains in the bathroom! eeek!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nthis was our view from the hotel room<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAside from the loveliness and the chocolate, the best part about Bruges is the dog-human ratio. EVERYONE WHO LIVES THERE HAS A DOG. We saw so many adorbsy puppos my head almost sploded. I took lots of pics (more in my instagram stories, Bruges highlight) but here are my best friends I made:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THERE WERE FIVE OF THEM I WUVVV<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nthis guy let me give his dog treats after he noticed I was following them instead of going to the train station (what can I say) and then told me she had a friend for life so yeah best ever<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nthis is a charming little building with a sign that says ‘Home is where the dog is’, but I knocked and no dog greeted me.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nOk bye babies!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I may have already shared this picture but I don’t even care it’s too pretty<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"come with meeee and you’ll beeeee in a wooooorld of chocolate shops and bridges HOT DAMN Bruges is adorabullllll. I finally went to this charming lil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-d1"],"yoast_head":"\n
In Bruges: Man Alive It's Like a Forking Fairytale - Laughfrodisiac<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n