Veggie Garden

Mis amigos, I swear I have not forgotten you or my quest.  Believe it or not today is actually the first day since coming to Spain that I have been able to use my laptop!
First, I was living out of a hotel, and then I moved in with my host mom (who is super sweet and trying very hard to understand what vegans eat).  The converter I have only works for 2 pronged appliances and my computer plug is 3 pronged.  So, I had to wait for my mom to come to Spain (more on that later) to give me a 3 to 2 prong converter so I could plug that into my European plug converter!  See, it is very complicated.  Then, I stayed with my mom while she was here, and my program had an academic trip from Friday morning till this Tuesday evening.  Consequently, I have a lot of catching up to do of blog posts that I've wanted to write.
This post will be about a diamond in the rough of meat and cheese filled restaurants.  I found, through the amazingly useful tool Google, a restaurant in Barcelona called Veggie Garden and I was determined to try it out.  While I may have gotten a wee bit lost getting there, and very lost getting back, it was totally worth it.  Not only is the place so cool to look at, murals all over the walls and ceiling, but the food is tasty, healthy, and cheap(y).

A little peak inside with all the murals

I got the "menu" which is basically the daily special.  I got to choose an appetizer, main course, dessert, a drink (water or wine) and it came with bread.  And the best part of all of this was that it was for 8.25 euros, or about $11.  This is very reasonable considering the quantity and quality of food you get.


So first up was my appetizer of marinated vegetables with a pesto sauce on top!  While I really enjoyed it, I thought there was a bit too much eggplant.  But otherwise it was quite delicious, and a nice cool start to my meal on a hot day. 

 Next was my main course.  I do not remember what it was called because I pointed at someone else's table and said "yo quiero" which literally translates to "I want."  (As a side note I've found I need a lot of practice thinking on my feet in Spanish).  So while I do not know the name of the dish I can tell you more or less what it was, and how much I loved every bite.  Obviously the bottom left is rice, next to that are two large pieces of very thin bread.  It seemed like the naan version of tortilla chips.  Then some breaded veggies, in a tempura style with pickled onion and a nice curry sauce that was cold.  On the top, from left to right, there was my basket of bread (I did not eat much of it because it really did not go with my meal), then two hot curry dishes with veggies and lentils!  Those two were my favorite parts of the meal.  The green on the right was a hot spinach and seitán dish which I was not so much a fan of because I was hoping it would be something like paneer saag.

 Finally I had a choice of dessert, and i chose the chocolate mouse.  This did not have the consistency of mouse, more like a thin pudding.  And it was clearly made with some kind of grape juice.  So while it was not what I was expecting, it was very delicious and a great sweet treat to end my meal.

Being vegan in Barcelona is much harder than in Washington D.C. by far, but places like this make it worth the struggle.