Posted October 23rd, 2012 - 9:40 am by 
from Utrecht, Netherlands (Permalink)
from Utrecht, Netherlands (Permalink)Hi Val,
I'm not Colombian, but I am a vegetarian (mostly vegan) and will be traveling in Colombia early next year, so I'll be very interested to hear about your experiences there! Good luck, and if you need any non-country-specific advice I'm happy to help :-)
Charlotte
I'm not Colombian, but I am a vegetarian (mostly vegan) and will be traveling in Colombia early next year, so I'll be very interested to hear about your experiences there! Good luck, and if you need any non-country-specific advice I'm happy to help :-)
Charlotte
Posted October 23rd, 2012 - 9:45 am by 
from Vienna, Austria (Permalink)
from Vienna, Austria (Permalink)Hi
I am not there any more, but I used to live in Bogotá for a while last year and traveled in Colombia.
there´s a pretty active CS vegetarian group in bogotá and some veggie-restaurants (usually open for lunchtime) => get in touch with them. I am sure they have tipps as well.
Other than that: Arepas, Rice, Platanos, ..
Take spices with you, I´d say, they don´t use a lot there.
Greetings, Doris
I am not there any more, but I used to live in Bogotá for a while last year and traveled in Colombia.
there´s a pretty active CS vegetarian group in bogotá and some veggie-restaurants (usually open for lunchtime) => get in touch with them. I am sure they have tipps as well.
Other than that: Arepas, Rice, Platanos, ..
Take spices with you, I´d say, they don´t use a lot there.
Greetings, Doris
Posted October 23rd, 2012 - 8:45 pm by 
from Manizales, Colombia (Permalink)
from Manizales, Colombia (Permalink)Hi Doris!
I'll take your advice on CS Bogota. Thanks!
Spices are key here for me. Colombian cuisine is pretty basic and almost everything is fried or has meat on it... So its tough.
I'm getting info from different sources and it's been working pretty good. At the same time is easy to loose track and go back to the old habits.
Are you a vegetarian? What's your favorite meal?
Thanks for sharing,
Val
I'll take your advice on CS Bogota. Thanks!
Spices are key here for me. Colombian cuisine is pretty basic and almost everything is fried or has meat on it... So its tough.
I'm getting info from different sources and it's been working pretty good. At the same time is easy to loose track and go back to the old habits.
Are you a vegetarian? What's your favorite meal?
Thanks for sharing,
Val
Posted October 23rd, 2012 - 8:33 pm by from Manizales, Colombia (Permalink)
from Manizales, Colombia (Permalink)Hi Charlotte!
Is very kind you wrote. I refer to Colombians but any comments or experiences are welcome. I wanna learn from the ones doing it... Their reasons behind and they're day by day experience... Maybe share some recipes.
So you're coming to Colombia? I'm sure you will love it! If Im around here by that time, you're very welcome to visit my city Manizales and if you wish, I can offer you a couch too.
How is been your experience as vegetarian? I guess in the Netherlands food offer is way vast than here -It's very hard to get a decent tasty vegetarian meal at a restaurant-.
Wanting to hear from you soon,
Val
Is very kind you wrote. I refer to Colombians but any comments or experiences are welcome. I wanna learn from the ones doing it... Their reasons behind and they're day by day experience... Maybe share some recipes.
So you're coming to Colombia? I'm sure you will love it! If Im around here by that time, you're very welcome to visit my city Manizales and if you wish, I can offer you a couch too.
How is been your experience as vegetarian? I guess in the Netherlands food offer is way vast than here -It's very hard to get a decent tasty vegetarian meal at a restaurant-.
Wanting to hear from you soon,
Val
Posted November 2nd, 2012 - 1:17 pm by from Utrecht, Netherlands (Permalink)
from Utrecht, Netherlands (Permalink)Hi Val, thank you so much, that's very kind!! We (I'll be travelling with my boyfriend) haven't figured out our exact route yet, but we may visit Manizales and if so it would be lovely to meet! And of course, if you ever find yourself in the Netherlands... let's stay in touch!
As for your other questions, I'm vegetarian in the first place for the animals, and after that for the environment, the people & my health. It took me a long time to figure things out though :-) I started out by switching to organic meat (animals in organic farms are treated a little better here) but remaining a complete omnivore, then not eating meat anymore but still eating fish, then cutting out the fish, and finally eating mostly vegan - a journey of about ten years all in all. What has your own journey been like?
I say 'mostly vegan', because my boyfriend has some chickens, and I still eat their eggs, and I eat vegan when I'm in control of my food, but when I eat at friends' houses I'm okay with eating vegetarian - though many of them enjoy the challenge of cooking vegan for me, which i really appreciate.
In restaurants here, it's really easy to get vegetarian food (though the range of dishes is often a bit limited, many chefs are not very imaginative about veg food!), vegan is a little harder but still perfectly possible, especially in many Asian restaurants.
In shops there's a big range of 'faux meats' (based on soy and other beans, fungi and other things), especially vegetarian ones (most contain egg and are not vegan). I'm not a big fan, I don't know why you'd imitate meat if there are so many tasty vegetable dishes out there.I do quite like tempeh though, a fermented soy product, can you get that in Manizales?
I love love love food and cooking, so I haven't really found it a challenge to stay veggie, it's been fun to discover lots of new recipes and ingredients :-) Especially my mother was a bit worried that it might not be good for me in the beginning, but she can see I'm happy and healthy, and she understands my reasons. Is your family supportive of your choice? Do you live with them, or do you have your own place where you decide what ends up on the table?
Recipes... oooooh there are so many I don't know where to begin :-) What kinds of food do you like? Any particular cuisines or ingredients?
take care!
Charlotte
As for your other questions, I'm vegetarian in the first place for the animals, and after that for the environment, the people & my health. It took me a long time to figure things out though :-) I started out by switching to organic meat (animals in organic farms are treated a little better here) but remaining a complete omnivore, then not eating meat anymore but still eating fish, then cutting out the fish, and finally eating mostly vegan - a journey of about ten years all in all. What has your own journey been like?
I say 'mostly vegan', because my boyfriend has some chickens, and I still eat their eggs, and I eat vegan when I'm in control of my food, but when I eat at friends' houses I'm okay with eating vegetarian - though many of them enjoy the challenge of cooking vegan for me, which i really appreciate.
In restaurants here, it's really easy to get vegetarian food (though the range of dishes is often a bit limited, many chefs are not very imaginative about veg food!), vegan is a little harder but still perfectly possible, especially in many Asian restaurants.
In shops there's a big range of 'faux meats' (based on soy and other beans, fungi and other things), especially vegetarian ones (most contain egg and are not vegan). I'm not a big fan, I don't know why you'd imitate meat if there are so many tasty vegetable dishes out there.I do quite like tempeh though, a fermented soy product, can you get that in Manizales?
I love love love food and cooking, so I haven't really found it a challenge to stay veggie, it's been fun to discover lots of new recipes and ingredients :-) Especially my mother was a bit worried that it might not be good for me in the beginning, but she can see I'm happy and healthy, and she understands my reasons. Is your family supportive of your choice? Do you live with them, or do you have your own place where you decide what ends up on the table?
Recipes... oooooh there are so many I don't know where to begin :-) What kinds of food do you like? Any particular cuisines or ingredients?
take care!
Charlotte
