The Organic Traveller
Thursday, 13 June 2019

Padua: Organic restaurants and eateries

Uneasiness with industrial agriculture often starts with the brutal reality of how we treat animals, and consequently eggs and meat often are the first ingredients restaurants use from organic farming. In many cities this means that conscious omnivores have a better chance to find a place to eat than vegetarians or vegans. With Padua this is different: All organic or partially organic restaurants I found within the city boundaries focus on vegetarian courses, and all of them are vegan-friendly.

Unfortunately my time in Padua has always been very limited, so all I could find out this time was that my favourite bar in the city centre ceased to exist. So here's a number of places I'd like to try but haven't had the opportunity yet:

Fully organic and vegetarian (needless to say these days: vegan-friendly) restaurant Vegetariamoci a little North-West and over the bridge from the Giardini dell' Arena park is the brainchild of organic pioneers in the region. Unfortunately closed Mondays through Wednesdays.

Also in the neighbourhood of Arcella, north of the main train station, the Osteria di Fuori Porta offers uncomplicated organic dinner, and, on weekdays, lunch, the latter also at a fixed price for 12 EUR including a beverage and coffee. If you take the tram leave at stop "Borgomagno".

Food, art, and concerts -- that's the concept of the Ca'Sana cultural space offering organic brunch on Sundays, and apart from Mondays, late night food. The place is situated a little out of town, near the airport.

If you fancy a pizza Daltrocanto seems to be the place to go. There's more on the menu, all vegetarian and vegan-friendly.

Closed

2019-06-13 19:00:00 [Padua, Padova, biologico, organic, vegetarian, vegan, eatery, restaurant, breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee] Link

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Monday, 10 June 2019

Organic Vicenza

Its lively main street, the Corso Palladio dates back to imperial Rome and, still today, is framed by buildings of the arguably most influential medieval architect, Andrea Palladio.

Silene

When feeling hungry while you stroll through the Unesco World Heritage head for spacious, wholesale organic supermarket Silene in a quiet side way a few meters North off Corso Palladio. As you enter you will notice the self-service coffee bar immediately, open for a coffee, healthy drink or snack even before the supermarket opens itself. But there's a real restaurant when you proceed into the building: At the left hand side you'll pass the open kitchen, and arrive at a water tap where you can refill your drinking bottle with both, plain and sparkling water. There you are: more tables to sit down, you will be served.

The small menu offers vegan and vegetarian Italian wholefood, tasty pasta and risotti of course, but also surprising twists as the hearty risotto-style oat porridge with spring vegetables I had, or carrot-based falafel (which I liked less). A refreshing surprise was the alcohol-free "sangria". Unlikely you can have the same, though, as the menu changes according to season and daily availability of fresh ingredients. Needless to say that the coffee was a delight, too, and the staff helpful and friendly. If you're looking for the toilets: They are hidden at the opposite, right wall of the supermarket, and open for guests.

The supermarket itself will provide you with all daily necessities, all types of fresh and dry food as well as organic household chemicals and a superb choice of organic body care. Unlike other groceries it keeps open throughout the day without an afternoon break. There's a second Silene supermarket a little further west, without a day restaurant though.

All days including Sundays (though not on public holidays) the Vicenza branch of Germany's DM chemist's chain will provide you with a great selection of organic food, drinks, natural body care and sustainable cleaning detergents. The spacious supermarket in Corso Andrea Palladio opened in 2018 and is a great source of eco- and climate conscious products at budget prices, but since the majority of the items still are conventionally produced be careful to check eco and organic labels.

For a treat of ice-cream follow Corso Andrea Palladio to its Western end and proceed straight ahead, past the Giardini Salvi park to the right. The less shiny neighbourhood San Felice hides a gem: Gocce di Bio ("gocce" meaning "drops"), a vegan-friendly fully organic ice-cream parlour. With its modest window front the spot-free place with its fresh-green painted walls is easy to oversee, but unlike other shops it sports a clearly visible organic logo over the entrance. On the premises of a traditional neighbourhood gelateria it's one of the ice-cream and no frills (not even coffee) places you'll rarely find outside Italy serving a mouth-wateringly creamy all-organic delight. Unless you avoid alcohol try the Malaga variety, and you will be cured for all time from that fake yellowy sweet and flavoured stuff with raisins and perhaps low quality alcohol going under this name elsewhere: The Malaga ice-cream here has distinct, melting flavours -- cream, grappa and raisins of highest organic quality, delightfully combined. Unfortunately the place is closed on public holidays.

Ceased to exist

A few years ago the following gelateria served very nice organic ice-cream but unfortunately did not survive:

2019-06-10 11:30:02 [Vicenza, biologico, organic, vegan, ice-cream, coffee, supermarkets, grocery, eatery, restaurant, breakfast, lunch, bodycare, household] Link

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Saturday, 18 May 2019

Berlin: Organic Moabit

When you're captured in the boring conference centre Moa-Bogen (not far from the Berlin main train station, Hauptbahnhof) where not even the tea bags in the conference area are organic (with the notable exception of one type of simple black tea which was available from one single tea bag dispenser) all you want is to go for a stroll at lunch time. But this is not Kreuzberg and it's not so easy to find organic food options. What I discovered in the vicinity were two vegan day cafes with more or less limited use of organic ingredients, both not more than a five minutes walk away (though in opposite directions).

Around Birkenstraße tube station

Geh Veg

For cheap and simple, filling vegan food find the ice-cream-shaped neon light of vegan Café Geh Veg next to the Birkenstraße tube station (the name is a mesh up of the literal translation of "go veg", the German word for pedestrian way -- Gehweg -- and the German phrase "Geh weg!" meaning "go away"). This small and somewhat shabby place serves breakfast until 2 pm as well as black bean burgers, salads, bagels, wraps and cakes. Unfortunately it’s only partially organic: The bagels, the tempeh and the soy and the oat drinks are organic, most of the tea bags and soft drinks are, too, but veges, yogurt alternatives and the ice-cream usually are not. The coffee is even cheap conventional supermarket fare. Questions about the origin of the ingredients were dealt with in a friendly way, but the staff does not seem to be very knowledgeable. Note that the toilets are next door.

Valladares

For way nicer surroundings in Spanish style walk in opposite direction: Directly located at the pleasant retreat of Stephansplatz with a nice children's playground surrounded by Wilhelminian style houses you'll find Valladares Feinkost. It's not only a 100% vegan café, but also a small organic grocery selling organic dry products, dairy alternatives, wines, lemonades, water and even natural cosmetics. The coffee is roasted in town but not organic, the plant-based drinks are. According to the barrista fresh veges used in the dishes would usually be organic, but there's no commitment to what's organic and what not. Unfortunately the cakes aren't. The oat-drink-based cappuccino I found too sweet (due to the brand), so here the one from Geh Veg was better, despite the inferior coffee.

Alt-Moabit

Domberger Brot-Werk

From Birkenstraße take the U9 tube one stop to Turmstraße, and you're in the heart of Old Moabit, with busy shopping streets and pleasant residential areas. Here you'll find the Domberger Brot-Werk, a true artisanal bakery with an open bakehouse as part of the shop. It smells deliciously here and you may be surprised by the limited selection of items -- just a few types of bread and rolls, and one type of cake if you come in time for the latter. But the taste! I still regret that I did not buy a loaf of bread to take with me, since the Bavarian-style pretzl I had was overwhelmingly tasty: fresh from the oven, with an intense flavour of wheat and baking stone (although Bavarians would probably complain about the softness). The bakery itself is not certified organic, but uses certified organic flour, eggs, and milk. The fruit for the cake and other ingredients come from the Kreuzberger Markthalle 7 and may not be organic. Needless to say that you can have a coffee, too, probably also in front of the place when the weather is nice.

For 100% organic ice-cream head for the Eisbox ice-cream parlour a few corners away. Unfortunately I run short of time, so share your experience with me if you come here.

There's also an organic supermarket of the small Berlin-based LPG chain a few meters further west which also offers fully organic lunch. Their bakery counter opens an hour before the supermarket, at 7am. The LPG groceries are organised as a co-operative with a focus on regional producers and neighbourhood welfare, offering discounts to its members. Its name matches the common abbreviation for the agricultural production cooperatives in former East Germany.

At the main train station

Within the city's huge main train station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof (which you can reach within a few minutes on the TXL bus from the Turmstraße stop located on Alt-Moabit street) it's hard to find a supplier of organic provisions (you'll have to fall back to the conventional Rewe supermarket or the Rossmann drugstore and check for organic labels). I could not find any eatery using organic ingredients, but you can at least have organic coffee drinks and tea at the Pret a manger self-service cafe. When you enter the station from the southern exit at Washingtonplatz this is the first place to the left. They use fresh organic milk from the Bavarian Andechser dairy, but unfortunately none of their cakes, cookies, sandwiches and other own-brand snacks are organic.

Closed

2019-05-18 18:00:00 [Berlin, Moabit, organic, vegan, cafe, restaurant, eatery, coffee, ice-cream, supermarkets, grocery, bakeries] Link

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Saturday, 10 November 2018

Heidelberg: Cafes and eateries

For being home to so many sustainable and organic shopping opportunities Heidelberg has surprisingly few places serving organic food. The two I found are both very well suited for both, vegetarians and vegans, and essentially self-service, but I wasn't able to spot a single proper dinner restaurant where you're actually waited.

red

Both, lunch, snacks, coffee and dinner can be had at red buffet restaurant, next to the Alnatura organic supermarket on the premises of a former swimming pool opposite the Schwanenteich park. You can choose between two lunch dishes at a fixed price or serve yourself salads and warm one-pot dishes (all 100 percent and certified organic, vegetarian and often vegan) and pay by weight. Order drinks (cold drinks, teas or Italian-style coffee drinks) and predominantly vegan cakes and dessert at the cash desk while you pay, take your tray and find yourself a seat. For being an vegan-award winning restaurant I found the food quite uninspiring, without accentuated flavours, just good ingredients cooked together. Even the perfectly looking vegan hazelnut-espresso cake I had was missing a distinctive coffee flavour -- good, but far from outstanding. Nevertheless the generally pleasant place was crowded (though not unpleasantly), perhaps due to missing alternatives. It's the only evening-open option for eating out, but closed on Sundays. You may also buy food to take with you.

Fein Food

For lunch (though not on Sundays) there's another alternative on the opposite shore of the Neckar river, a few steps North of Theodor-Heuss bridge: The Fein Food eatery serves smoothies, oriental and ayurveda-inspired vegetarian, vegan and omnivore stews, pot-dishes, salads and wraps, though probably not a 100 percent organic.

Closed

The city of Heidelberg still lists the following place in its latest guide to organic and local food, but the place unfortunately closed two years ago:

2018-11-10 14:30:01 [Heidelberg, organic, lunch, coffee, cafe, eatery, vegan, vegetarian, restaurant] Link

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This work by trish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For commercial use contact the author: E-mail · Mastodon · Vero · Ello.

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

Budapest: (Partially) organic cafes and restaurants

The impression may be due to my lack of command of the Hungarian language, but most places in Budapest advertising the use of organic produce surely aim at the affluent tourist -- carefully designed places offering sophisticated Hungarian kitchen, vegan food or the ubiquitous expensive Italian coffee machine and hand-made organic sandwiches and cakes. What they all have in common: gorgeous food, a relaxed and (family-) friendly atmosphere and the complete absence of red-nosed binge-drinking tourists.

Hilda

To dine in style head for the golden-blue shimmering premises of Hilda Food and Mood in Lipótváros serving carefully modernized standards of the Hungarian farmers' kitchen like the goulash soup or chicken paprikash with dumplings as well as advanced sandwiches or salads. The focus here clearly is on organic meat from responsibly raised animals, grilled to the point, but vegetarians are catered for with equal love, with often organic greens, crisp or perfectly done. There's also a selection of organic soft drinks and wines. Unfortunately the restaurant is closed on Sunday evenings but you may also come here for breakfast, brunch or lunch, and if only to marvel at the grand-hotel flair, the mosaic walls, and the dusky pink-golden restrooms.

Just a few corners in Eastern direction you'll find Naspolya Nassolda, a light and clean cafe serving raw, vegan, gluten-free sweets, savoury snacks, healthy drinks and coffee, using a great deal organic ingredients. Prepackaged wafers and cookies from the shop can also be bought from the BioABC supermarket.

Ecocafe

If you feel for a more lively coffee house atmosphere find your way to the Vörösmarty utca metro station in Terezváros and enter a stunning neo-renaissance building of the World Heritage Site of Andrassy avenue to find the Ecocafe. This cafe could be transfered to any other Western metropolis, and you wouldn't notice -- the Italian-style coffee drinks, the wooden tables, the hand-made croissants and sandwiches, the freshly pressed smoothies and small glass bottles with juice, the clean and understated eco design, the families, the students and the digital nomads, a welcoming, yet non-intrusive atmosphere -- it's all here, and you'll feel at home at once. And the best of it all: The place keeps open on national public holidays like St. Stephen's day when everything else (including the main post office within Keleti pu.) is closed.

Right in the vicinity of Keleti station you may check out the Mennyország Szíve Bio Bolt for lunch or snacks, or -- hopefully soon again -- the Házikó Bisztro ("farm bistro") which currently is closed. Both are closed on weekends and public holidays. The Házikó has a second branch in Buda on the premises of the socially and environmentally responsible MagNet bank. Here you can have not only a coffee, but also lunch, snacks or an early dinner made from predominantly organic local produce according to season.

More to try

During my research I also found the following places that seemed likely to (at least partially) serve organic food and drinks, but I did not had the time to try them myself. If you do so let me know whether they are worth to be listed here!

Temporarily closed

2018-10-30 17:00:00 [Budapest, organic, lunch, dinner, coffee, restaurant, cafe, eatery, vegan] Link

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This work by trish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For commercial use contact the author: E-mail · Mastodon · Vero · Ello.