Interview Questions:
I recently interviewed Harald from Vegalicious Website (www.vegalicious.org). He and his wife are vegan chefs in Amsterdam who run a popular vegan recipe website.
1. You have been traveling by RV on holiday. What kinds of vegan food and snacks do you bring with you on your journeys?
Vegalicious: When we travel we usually bring most of our vegan supplies with us, like various bread spreads, ramen noodle soup mixes for lunch, vegan cream sauce that is packaged in small cartons as well as tofu, TVP and a couple of cans of Asian seitan. For quick and easy pasta meals we usually pack some jars of tapenade, just watch out that there is no fish or cheese in it. Most of these ingredients can be found at better stores or health food stores, but we try to have enough on board for at least a week.
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2. What are some of your favorite quick and simple meals that a vegan can prepare in RV, while camping, or in their hotel kitchenette, while on an extended holiday?
Vegalicious:In our RV we have a stove with 2 gas burners, so we usually prepare 1 pot meals, or some that require 2 pots. Very nice are various risotto meals like ‘Orange Risotto with Tofu, Pumpkin and Apricot’ www.vegalicious.org/2007/02/24/orange-risotto-with-tofu-pumpkin-and-apricot or ‘Tofu Sugat Snap Peas and Banana Risotto’ www.vegalicious.org/2007/09/18/tofu-sugar-snap-peas-and-banana-risotto/. Gnocchi meals like ‘Gnocchi with Fava Beans, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Sweet Bell Pepper’ www.vegalicious.org/2010/07/05/gnocchi-with-fava-beans-sun-dried-tomatoes-and-sweet-bell-pepper and ‘Sauteed Gnocchi alla Fungi’ www.vegalicious.org/2007/04/17/sauteed-gnocchi-alla-fungi also work very well. We usually alternate these dishes with vegetable main meals. Cans of stewed tomatoes easily become a nice sauce, mixed with some frozen mixed veggies and served with couscous or pasta. If you like Asian, stir fried veggies are an alternative and quick and easy to prepare. I always keep soy sauce and a basic selection of herbs and spices on board.
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3. Which vegan ingredients or condiments do you stock up on, at natural food stores during your trips?
Vegalicious: Mostly just spreads for sandwiches and breakfast. We enjoy various flavors of mustard. Sandwiches, are usually a vegan spread on the bottom slice of bread, then lettuce, then tomato sometimes, avocado, the mustard on the top slice. That helps to not use up the vegan spreads. If one likes peanut butter, then sandwiches made with peanut butter are also a good idea.
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4. Are there any vegan food items that you feel are difficult to find across the world (or Europe) in a typical market?
Vegalicious:Tofu is sometimes difficult to find in regular grocery stores. If they don’t have it in the health food section one can sometimes find it in the Asian section. Seitan and vegan cheese are much more difficult to find, but otherwise our experience is that you can find most vegan foods at larger supermarkets or health food stores in Europe.
5. What are some of your favorite travel destinations?
Vegalicious:We really enjoy France, it has such a variety of nature and culture. France is really well prepared for camping of all sorts. Germany is also a great country to go camping in with a lot to see, wonderful nature and many places for campers to stay.
6. Which European countries are the best and worst for vegans?
Vegalicious:Both France and Germany are very vegan friendly. The larger cities have supermarkets that are very well supplied with vegan foods and health food stores can be found in most districts. Even smaller villages out in the countryside have surprised us with what has been available. In Denmark the supermarkets had less vegan products, but also here we were able to find health food stores with vegan choices. Until now Spain was the most difficult country to find vegan supplies. As we usually prepare our own food we can’t say much about eating at restaurants in these countries.
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7. Do you have any advice or comments regarding extended travel for vegans, either traveling by RV or living in foreign countries for the short term?
Vegalicious:When shopping for food at regular grocery stores in a foreign country, it is essential to know the words for milk, egg, etc. in that language and bring a small dictionary. So when reading the ingredient list on a package you know what to watch out for and if necessary you can translate unknown words.
If you know which country, and cities you will be visiting, it is a good idea to look up the locations of health food stores and vegan friendly restaurants on a site like HappyCow (www.happycow.net).