Well, I made it to Europe and back, and now I’m more broke than ever. Seriously. But I had an amazing time seeing tons of art, ruins, monuments, etc. etc. My favorite place was probably Rome, which was the first city I stayed in (and now also the first city to find cocaine and pot in the air, which may have swayed my opinion–just kidding). In terms of veganism, it was also the easiest. I ate pizza for almost every meal, my favorite being the Roman style square pizza with sauce and peppers (‘pepperoni’ in Italian), often folded like a sandwich. There were other vegan slices too, such as potato with olive oil, and plain marinara with garlic and basil. I ended up eating the former quite often in Florence and Venice, where there were fewer options. If you’re ever in Rome, go to Blue Ice, which has excellent soya gelato. I got vanilla and cappuccino and it made my night.

In Paris, we had a kitchen.. something I would recommend if you’re staying there for more than a few days. Everyone told me I would “fall off the vegan bandwagon” in France, but I was not tempted by the cheese and had plenty of other options. There’s a natural food store with vegan cookies and all the staples and more, called Naturalia, although even the regular grocery store had soy and rice yogurt. And there’s lots of Asian food and falafel stands. As for London, no problem at all.

I should have a picture of one of the meals I made in Paris at some point, after I get my film developed and somehow scanned. For now, here’s what I ate BEFORE I left.

Lachesis, famous for her Seitan O’Greatness, has mastered a meal that was my favorite for years: fettucinne alfredo. It really does taste the same.

The recipe in progress is here (scroll halfway down). Clearly I only made the sauce, because I could just pick up some noodles and silken tofu and be satisfied. It makes a ton, by the way… for the amount of sauce I like, half of a recipe was 4 servings.

See?

And here’s what I took with me on my trip:

Simply granola with dried cranberries, apricots, raisins, raw pumpkin seeds, and coconut flakes.