Vegan in Spain, part 2 (and Amsterdam)

Where were we? Oh right, Cartagena, Spain. After we caught some z's we were up and on the road again. We were headed to our final destination in Spain, the city of Valencia. On the way we stopped to check out the beach in Alicante, and grab some lunch. I had a vegetarian restaurant lined up, but my friend was not up to trying another meatless restaurant after the Loving Hut experience, so she left me and walked around the area to find some tapas. The restaurant that I dined at is called L'Indret.

L'Indret is open for lunch only, offering a 4 course daily set menu with 2 choices per course. The price is 11 euro and includes a bottle of water or a personal size bottle of wine. I explained to my server that I am vegan and she confirmed that everything on the menu for the day was vegan, hoorah! She pointed out that there was some yogurt on the salad bar to watch out for. The choice for the first course is always either fresh carrot juice or the salad bar. I went for the salad bar, and piled up a plate with greens, beets, corn, cucumbers, olives, sprouted lentils, whole wheat noodles, and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast (!). So wonderful! For the second time being exposed to a salad bar in Spain I again noticed that they don't offer much for dressings. There was some thick soy based dressing (I assume it was dressing, but they did point it out as being soy based), so I put some on the side a mixed a bit in to wet the contents of the salad. It was pretty plain but it did the trick. Perhaps they aren't big on dressing over there?

I had a hard time translating the two choices being offered for the second course--I could tell that one was an Indian spiced soup of some kind but I had no clue what the other was. Feeling adventurous I went for the unknown, which turned out to be vegetable barley stew. What you see here is a giant bowl of barley, mushrooms, green beans, onions, and barley in a hearty broth. It was delicious but very filling--I only ate about half so I would have room for the next two courses.

I pulled out my pocket dictionary to help translate the two choices for the main course, but it didn't end up helping me at all. I made a random choice, which turned out to be a pan-fried croquette of beans and veggies with a crunchy exterior smothered in a brown gravy. The side was a rich creamy cabbage casserole of sorts. The croquette with gravy was amazing, but I would kill for that cabbage recipe.. oh my word! I really can't even begin to imagine what is in it other than the cabbage. Trust me, if I knew how to ask what was in it I would have!

No sooner than I cleaned my plate, my server was back telling me about the numerous vegan dessert options. There were several cakes, soy puddings, and some others I am not remembering now. The cakes sounded good to me, so I asked her which was better, the chocolate or the espresso cake. She suggested trying a half slice of each, win! These cakes were very European, not super sweet like cakes tend to be in the US, and the icing was very pudding-like. This dessert was the perfect ending to the best meal that I ate in Spain. I so wish that this was the vegetarian restaurant that my friend tried with me instead of Loving Hut, because this is how it is done, my friends!

After lunch we took a walk on the beach and took a few photos by the water and the castle. We asked a girl to take a photo of us together, and the result was one of the most hilarious photos from the trip. We think she was a little distracted and cropped out the castle by mistake. Not sure what distraction I am talking about? Click the photo to make it larger, you can't miss it!

The water was great, it was like a warm bath! That surprised me for late September, but I guess that is how the Mediterranean is since there aren't ocean currents coming in to cool it down. Too bad we didn't have time to go for a swim! Back on the road we went for the final leg of our coastal tour of southern Spain.

Views from the car - Alicante to Valencia

We stayed at Becca's friends' house in Valencia, and when we arrived there was a pitcher of sangria waiting for us. The drive had been very exciting, but we were both ready to stay put for a couple of days. Our hosts were wonderful, they took us around the city to museums and the Valencia Cathedral. They also took us for paella, the famous Spanish rice dish that originated in Valencia. Paella is cooked outdoors on large coal burning grills in gigantic iron skillets. We had to jump into a photo to illustrate how large the dish is.

The traditional paella includes rabbit, snails, chicken, and vegetables as pictured above, but they made a vegetarian serving with just the veggies for me. It is hard to see all of the good stuff in this photo, but there were fava beans, Italian green beans, and artichokes. Scrumptious! I plan to recreate this dish soon.

I may have made it look easy to eat vegan in Spain, but it isn't the most vegan-friendly country. They love ham, and they love to hang cured slabs of it from the ceiling in restaurants. When we went to tapas restaurants there were only two dishes that I could order: pan con tomate (bread with tomatoes) and patatas bravas (fried potatoes, ask for no mayonnaise). I had planned to eat a steady diet of gazpacho, but unfortunately it was out of season and I didn't even get to try it once. So sad! Eating vegan in Spain is not impossible, but I do recommend doing your research ahead of time.

As for Amsterdam, it is in parenthesis in the title of this post because I don't have much to share. We were there for 24 hours, and aside from visiting the Anne Frank house we spent most of our time just walking around exploring the various neighborhoods. It is such a charming place, despite its reputation, I would have loved to have more time there. We only went out for one meal in Amsterdam. I had several vegan options picked out to try but my friend wasn't up for it, so we went for our compromise food: Indian! I forgot to photograph my food or take note of the name of the restaurant, oops. End of the trip, what can I say? Know that there are many great looking options for vegans in Amsterdam, many more than in all of the cities I visited in Spain combined. I hope to return to Amsterdam someday and experience it more thoroughly.

That concludes my 9 day multi-city adventure, thanks for reading along!

If you want to visit L'Indret in Alicante (and you should!) the restaurant address is: C/ García Morato, 5, 03004 Alicante, Spain

Vegan in Spain, part 1

Thanks for all of your comments on my Vegan in NYC post. After three wonderful days in NYC it was time to say goodbye to The Big Apple, and hello to Spain! My travel companion Becca flew into JFK to meet me, and from there we flew direct to Málaga, a beautiful coastal city in southern Spain. In the spirit of wasting no time, we dropped off our luggage at the hotel and immediately left for a 4 hour bicycle tour of the city. It was the perfect way to get the lay of the land and learn the history of the city. This turned out to be one my favorite activities from the entire trip.

We worked up quite the appetite biking and thanks to HappyCow I had a few vegan-friendly restaurants lined up.

Loving Hut was my first choice, which also happens to be the only 100% vegan restaurant that I found in all of the cities that we were visiting in Spain. Loving Hut is a Taiwanese buffet and salad bar, owned by the most adorable elderly Taiwanese couple. The man was very enthusiastic to talk about his love of the vegan diet. My Spanish got me far enough to understand that he is vegan based on his religion, and he showed off some tai chi moves while exclaiming that he is 80 years old - "Ochenta, ochenta!!"

At his most comical moment, the owner was trying to speak some English. When he was talking about his religion he said, "I love! I love!", with his hands positioned over his heart. After saying it several times it changed to, "I love you! I love you!" We smiled at him as we munched away on our salads, and he started walking away continuing to verbalize his love. He disappeared into the kitchen and a few minutes later we heard him shout, "I love you!" over the sounds of the clanking pans. Hanging out with the quirky owners definitely made the experience.

As far as the food goes, I am sad to report that it was not amazing. The salad was light and very refreshing, but the hot foods were lacking. The food was barely warm and the flavors were too bland for my taste. Regardless, I was happy to eat a plateful of tofu, seitan, and veggies, and to support this wonderful couple's establishment. My omnivore travel companion was particularly underwhelmed, and from that point she wanted to avoid eating at other veg restaurants the rest of the trip, which was the biggest tragedy of all!

Check out this fun wall decor in the restaurant! The plaque translates to: "Elite vegan and vegetarian. These intelligent, beautiful, and talented people are vegans or vegetarians. You aren't?"

I came to find out later that Loving Hut is a vegan chain restaurant with locations all over the world. I am curious if they are all set up similarly, serving the same type of food. I so wanted to love this restaurant, and I did love everything about it except the food. Shame!

Dining experiences aside, Málaga was my favorite city that I visited in Spain. The short 24 hours that I was there was not long enough! The next morning we checked out of our hotel and returned to the airport to pick up a rental car. We drove up the coast towards our next stop in Cartagena. We were spoiled by views of the Mediterranean and varied landscapes that Spain has to offer along the coast.

Here is Becca with our little stick shift car. We pulled over to get some shots of the amazing view on the other side of the guard rail.

See what I mean?

We also needed to stretch our legs!

While we were on the road we stayed fueled with our favorite local snack, mercona almonds. These almonds are blanched, then sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. It is a different almond experience, let me tell you--so, so good. Don't pass these up if you have the opportunity to try them. To my delight I discovered that Trader Joe's carries this Mediterranean specialty. Their bagged versions are not as amazing as the fresh ones we picked up in Málaga, but still pretty darn good.


En route to Cartagena we stopped off in the city of Mazarrón for dinner. We had the goal to eat Indian food at least once in Spain (since we love India!), and apparently this little restaurant in Mazarrón was the one to eat at in all of southern Spain. Maharaja Palace was everything we hoped it would be. I ordered a lentil curry and a spicy garlic potato curry, and she ordered chicken. We both shared an order of coconut rice and roti. You give this girl and I some good Indian food and that is when we are happiest!

We left Mazarrón full and happy, but not before we stopped off at a rocky beach on the side of the road. The sun was setting and it was so calm and beautiful.

Onward to Cartagena for the night! We arrived at sundown, checked into our hotel, and went out for some sangria before hitting the hay. We did some shopping and walking around early morning just to see the city briefly, and got back on the road before noon.


Next stops: Alicante and Valencia. More on that, and Amsterdam, in my next post!

Here is where you can find the restaurants mentioned in this post:
Loving Hut - Calle Peregrino, 2. 29002 Malaga, Spain
Maharaja Palace - Avenida de Doctor Meca 116, Puerto de Mazarrón, Spain