Vegetarian in Spain

You look and you will find

I have been a pescetarian for two years and for a while now I have been considering switching out my seafood for a full vegetarian diet. Recently I moved to Spain- known as the meat loving country- and could not have chosen a worse time to be vegetarian. When visiting Barcelona back in August I found very few vegetarian dishes in resturant- menus. As a result, I ended up eating fish everyday. Although I eat fish, the plan was never to have it everyday.

On my third day in Madrid, I went on a little hunt for a food store named Planeta Vegeno (Planet Vegan). Planeta Vegano is located in the largest immigrant area in Madrid named Lavapies. On the contrary to other places in Madrid where people seem so rushed, the people of Lavapies were relaxing on benches small talking. The streets were on steep hills creating a strange mysterious feel to the place. Planeta Vegano is located in one of the steep hills along with indian and jewish returants. It was a little small shop filled with everything from vegan mayonase, lentils, vegan cheese, soya burgers, soya hotdogs, and even fake frozen shrimp, which put a big smile on my face.

Although I was happy to have found Planeta Vegano, it is too far out of my reach to go shopping there all the time. But luckily, that same day when walking around in my neighbourhood, I came upon a health store which had a small supply of tofu and soya milk.

Yesterday, I met up with one of my classmates for tea. After telling him about my vegetarian diet he told me about an amazing place just a short walk from the metro stop Cuatro Caminos. We went there and I was in joy. This place had everything. Even good whole wheat bread which is another hard thing to find in Madrid. The store promoted meditation and yoga selling statues and meditation chairs. In the back there is a cafe serving amazing juice and many vegetarian lunch options. And just down stairs there was even a resturant serving all sorts of vegetarian food! My classmate recommended the risotto. When I thought it couldn’t get better than this, my classmate tells me that on your birthday you get to eat for free when you show them your id! Oh boy guess where I am spending my birthday?

I learned that eventhough it is going to hard to be vegetarian in Madrid, it is not impossible. You look and you will find!