Vegan in Budapest

I went to the beautiful Budapest with my mum for a few days in August. It is an amazing city and has plenty of vegan and vegetarian restaurants and cafes.

I got a map of Budapest and marked out on the map where all the vegi/vegan restaurants were. I did this with the help of searching 'Vegan' into google maps and of course with happycow.net. This is a very handy way of knowing what restaurants are near by. There was always options nearby the major attractions!


Breakfast was the only tricky part. I'm not much of a breakfast person as well. So breakfast consisted of bread, Starbucks and some fruit. Eden Vegan restaurant on Buda Hill do a vegan breakfast, but we didn't make it over for breakfast.

I stayed in the amazing Corinthia Grand Royal Hotel, Which was amazing! I never get to stay in very luxury places but we got a good deal so why not! The room service menu and the various bar/restaurant menus were very accommodating to those with allergies. Each dish stated if it contained eggs, diary etc. This was great to see. I had pasta on the first night.

Now down to the food. We were luckily located a few blocks away from Napfényes Étterem vegan restaurant. I had a great experience here and the food was great. The menu is available online so we were able to have a little look before. They have loads of vegan pizzas but I had a horrible cheesless pizza that day that was enough to put me off pizza for a while. I wasn't that hungry but I over ate anyway! Don't think I had ever eaten in  100% vegan place before. I went for the ''Fried Pancakes Filled with Vegetable Cream served with Mashed Potatoes and Onions (spelt wheat pancakes filled with spicy vegetable cream served with fried, mashed potatoes and savory tomato sauce)'' and finished it off with some sugar free choccy cake!   

Located at the foot on Buda hill is Edeni Vegan Restaurant.
The location is quite great, it's located right beside the Batthyany Terace metro stop which is on the red line. It is also located at the bottom of buda hill which is home to many many attractions. It's about a 10 minute walk up to the hill. So very convenient, you can grab a vegan breakfast before setting off to Buda castle or you can enjoy lunch after a morning of exploring. Down to the food, I'll be honest in saying that I can't really remember what I had but there was a great selection to choose from, including desserts and smoothies.

      

We ate at Hummus Bar  few times. There are a few located around the city and 2 of which are fully vegi. We never made it to one of 100%vegi ones! But we ate a couple of times at the other locations. They have a wide range of food to offer and lots of vegan falafel options. Seriously handy and very cheap. Also great if you're travelling along with non vegi friends! Each purchase comes with a shot of delicious lemonade which makes you want to buy a whole glass! We opted for the falafel wraps the few times we were there. There is one restaurant located around the corner from St. Stephen's Basillica and also on the same street as the Jewish synagogue. So close to the major tourist attractions, if you're visiting them!

  

    

Lastly we took a trip a Govindas. There are a few in Budapest. Govindas tends to guarantee delicious and filling food. We went to one located near St. Stephen's Bascillica. 

If you're travelling to Budapest as a Vegan, I hope you found this blog post helpful!

An Eco Dublin Guide

I just finished up a 6 month internship with the Visit Dublin team in Failte Ireland. I was working on the www.VisitDublin.com website, which is the official tourism site for Dublin. Just before I left, the newly designed and updated Insider Guides went up. One of which is an Eco Dublin Guide which features lots of tips for  vegetarian/Vegan dining in Dublin. I was happy to see such a useful resource being implemented.
You can download the handy guide here. And check out the rest of the guides too, they're great.

Butternut squash falafel.

I just made these to bring into college. It’s been a while since I’ve cooked due to lack of time. They are so yum and easy to make so here is how.

Half a medium sizes Butter nut squash- peeled and cut into small chunks

Sweet chilli sauce and Honey

400g can chick peas

3 spring onions chopped up

100g bread crumbs

25g plain flour

1 egg yolk

4 cloves of garlic diced

2 teaspoons of cumin/chilli powder/ground corriander

salt and pepper

juice of 1 lemon

handfull of cashews (Optional though)

1. Cut the Butternut squash into chunks and cover with olive oil, a small bit of honey and sweet chilli sauce and salt and pepper and bake under soft.

2. When finished put the butter nut squash into a food processor and blitz and then transfer into a big bowl.

3. Put the drained chick peas, spring onion,Lemon juice, cashews, garlic and spices into the food processor and blitz until it’s a paste. Then transfer to the bowl.

4. Add the flour, breadcrumbs and egg to the bowl and mix together until a wet paste has formed.

5. Get a baking dish and put a little bit of oil on the base. Shape the mixture into little balls and place on the dish.

5. Bake for around 30 mins on a high heat. I turned them around half way through so they were crispy on both sides!

The Happy Pear III

I never turn down an opportunity to go out to Greystones and to The Happy Pear. It was sunny and the thought of eating our lunch outside was tempting so off we went and brought Lola, my dog.

The Happy Pear, as always was bustling with people. It obviously proves to be a popular place to eat. If I lived in Greystones, I would be down regularly.

So I went with one of the daily specials, a Leek and Celeriac gratin with 2 salads. I got a spicy potato salad and pesto pasta. And of course they were beyond tasty. My Mum and Jesse got a Tomato and roasted pepper soup. Who's the fatty?me!

The Happy Pear never fails to satisfy me, always full of flavor and friendliness.

The Happy Pear II

This was my 2nd time going to The Happy Pear. I don't know why I don't go more often because it's quite near me. Anyway I went on Friday

They just do specials everyday, as far as I'm aware. I got the Cheesy Lentil Bake, which was unreal. It was so tasty. It was kind of curried as well. I need to try make it sometime. I also got 2 side salads. I went with a potato salad with semi sundried tomatoes that was all in some dressing along with some stir-fried vegetables.

Purple potatoes!

After the meal, I drank some really shit coffee that just tasted like warm soy milk. And went on some house creeping around Greystones. SO MANY amazing houses.

Cornucopia Whole food vegetarian restaurant take 2!

I went on a little adventure into Town yesterday with my Mom. There are a lot of areas she isn't really aware of or just hasn't been to in years. We had intentions of doing a lot more exploring but it started to rain.

I firstly brought her on my daily route to college. Across the bridge from tara, up Eden Quay and then up marlbouragh st. I promised her she would see a million pikeys because I'm always telling her about them always been on that street. But of course there was not ONE! Typical. I showed her my college anyway.

We did a bit more exploring and then for lunch. We went to Cornucopia on Wicklow st. I have only been there once before, with her.(http://walkingdogsandwritingblogs.blogspot.com/2010/07/cornucopia-whole-food-vegetarian.html) I need to go more but don't having friends who are up for eating pricey vegetarian food over something cheap is hard to come by.

I don't have great photos of our meal on me right now. I didn't have my digital camera with me, only my film one. I took some photos on my phone though.

I went with the Sweet potato, celeriac and spinach ragout with organic brown rice.

side salads-Garlic potatoes with roasted hazelnuts and a barley salad.

My mom got a Tomato, mushroom and puy lentil soup. She got a herby bread that came with a butternut squash and almond puree/pate thing. She also got a side of ceasar salad and some other simple salad.

The food here is so flavorsome and tasty. So many flavors going on at once. I wish I could cook food like this. The food served here is a fine example of how vegetarian/vegan food isn't bland and boring, as some people may think. I always get asked 'what the hell can/do you eat?'.

I was way to full to get a dessert. I took a fair bit of my meal to take a way. You get very large portions.

This all cost around 20 euro. Not to bad. Well not bad when you're mom is paying :D.

I think I am going to The Happy Pear in Greystones on Friday for the 2nd time. I will report back.

Exploring Prague's Vegetarian restaurants.

Before I went to Prague I checked out if there was any vegetarian restaurants. I found several of them.

I only made it to 2 while there though. We wasted one night searching for one place. The roads over there go in all directions and maps are hard to read.

The first one we went to was a place called Maitrea. It was on a side street but right off the old town square, the busiest area.

We were brought downstairs where the main part of the restaurant was. It was really relaxing and cozy.

The menu was sooo delish. So many things to choose from. But of course I had zeroooo appetite that night.

I went with the Quesadilla with tomatoes, fresh spinach, olives and feta cheese, guacamole, tomato salsa and sour cream.

And my Mom got Red bean chili baked with cheddar in a flour tortilla, rice, tomato salsa, sour cream and fresh coriander

we got a salad to share as well. We didn't need it in the end because our dinners were huge and so was the salad.

Chief salad - Green leafy salad with pan-fried baked potatoes and red onions, spring vegetables, roasted garlic, Madeland cheese, croutons and yoghurt dressing

http://www.restaurace-maitrea.cz

Another place we ate was 'Country Living' a vegan buffet style restaurant and health food store. I wasn't as into this one.

We ate in the court yard

I ate this. I can't even remember what it was. Some tofu stuff and some tempeh stuff. The tempeh was pretty shitty and I wasn't into it.

And some salad!

I bought some vegan raw chocolate in the shop. It tasted alright, I still ate the whole bar on a boat ride after!

I have become so lazy when it comes to blogging. I need to be a good mood to do this. I could write loads more but EFFORT.

For the other times we ate, it was pizza and pasta and lots of ice cream.

There was a little market we came across and they sold loads of punnets of fruit. It all looked so nice!

Cornucopia Whole food vegetarian restaurant.

I have been wanting to go here for a long long time but never quite made it there. To many people are afraid of veg food.
Jesse got me the cookbook and all for Christmas.
My mum said she would go with me so we headed into town on the dart. Ended up spending money on clothes and then headed for lunch.

I got a sweet potato and  tofu curry. I forgot to double check what it was called before I left.
My first choice was the vegan garlic mayo potato salad, so yum!
My second choice was a chickpea one with rocket and roast aubergine among other stuff that was in it.

What the best thing about eating in a vegetarian restaurant is not having to worry about if my food could of possibly been cooked along side meat or been made dodgy. It was great for a change to not have to be thinking about what is going on in the kitchen for once!

I forgot my camera so all I have are low quality phone pictures! 





And my mum got a filo pastry broccoli bake.

You are given a serious amount of food for your money, which I couldn't finish. They have takeaway boxes up at the till, so I filled one up with my leftovers for dinner! Getting my moneys worth.

I need to try all the rest of the vegetarian restaurants in Dublin!