Vegan Travelling

Baba Ghanoush

In this post, I want to share with you the recipe of one of my favorite vegan dishes- Baba Ghanoush or eggplants (aubergine) with tehina
(thina), which is a Mediterranean sauce made of sesame seeds.
Baba Ghanoush is served in Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and other neighbored countries as a side dish or part of the salad’s plate. You can find a lot of variations of it in the different geographical areas.

I use to prepare Baba Ghanoush in this way:
First, you have to roast the eggplants in an oven. Eggplants can be broil over an open flame, if you have such a possibility. It will give the dish very special test.
Do not forget to make small openings by fork in order to prevent eggplants from an explosion. When the eggplants are almost done, I used to add to the oven two tomatoes.
After the eggplants are cocked you have to peel it and then to mash.
Then you have to prepare Thina in the bowl by gradual adding to sesame mixture of lemon juice and little water. Now you can add to thina purified tomatoes, garlic, salt, grinding coriander and onion.
Finally, you can blend the mashed eggplants in this thina sauce and to add olive oil.
The Baba Ghanoush is ready!
The reason I’m so exiting about this dish is its nutrition value. Regard to the combination of thina and eggplants, this dish contains about 32% of Iron Daily Value and about 12% of Calcium Daily value. In addition its contents: vitamin C, Magnesium and Vitamin B6. Not bad at all for the side dish, is in it?

Georgia (Sakartvelo), country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia

I am warmly recommended to visit Georgia. It is very beautiful place with old architecture, nature and very nice people that really believe in hospitality.

Young lady in Georgian costume:   

Views of Sighnaghi:

Sugar cotton man:

One of the first things I met during my trip to Signaghi (one hour from Tbilisi) was this village café with the board outside that welcomes all the guests, including vegans:

The national Georgian cuisine includes a lot of vegan dishes with rich nutrition value. The dishes are spicy and even hot. Georgian dishes usually prepared with a lot of walnut, coriander, garlic, vinegar, red pepper, pomegranate grains, barberries and other spices.
The first dish you have to try is Lobio (kidney red bean) which is a must dish in every meal. Lobio usually prepared with garlic, onion, a handful of basil, mint, coriander and parsley. The general name for the combination of these spices is Khmeli Suneli. This herbs mixture is an ingredient of many traditional Georgian dishes and sauces.

Another culinary recommendation from Georgia is Badrijani Nigvzit. This is a dish with eggplants seasoned with ground walnuts, vinegar (or pomegranate juice), pomegranates and spices. You should also try eggplant rolls stuffed with ground walnuts, garlic, coriander and parsley, spiced with Khmeli Suneli and saffron. 

Ispanakhi Pkhali (Spinach Salad) is also very testy vegan dish. Its ingredients are: spinach with ground walnut, garlic, dried coriander, chopped onion and paprika. You can also try another roll variation: the cabbage stuffed with the some traditional filling (garlic, coriander, onion – all spiced with Khmeli Suneli):
Vegan rolls with walnuts:                            

Finally, we need sweets! In Georgia, you can find few vegan deserts. I preferred a Churchkhela. It is a traditional sausage or roll, shaped madden of hazelnuts sewn onto a string, dipped in thickened fresh grape juice and dried in the shape of a sausage. The color of Churchkhela depends on color of the used grapes Churchkhela was and still daily favorite delicacy of people and necessary component of ancient soldiers’ ration.
Churchkhela:

As you can see, it is really easy to stay vegan in Georgia while having delicious dishes.

Russia and other Eastern European countries

I travel a lot to Eastern Europe. Few years ago it was incredibly difficult to find in restaurants vegan meals.

The main enemy of the vegans in this region is a lack of basic awareness. Most will not understand your diet, and even if you try to explain that you don’t eat any meat, after all the efforts you might still get the chicken pirogues. This actually happened to me in my first domestic flight from Moscow to Yekaterinburg.  I ordered a vegetarian dish in advance, and I got one. The problem was that my food was a 100 years old and a totally rotten. When I turned to the steward and told her that my meal had spoiled she ignored me. When I explained to her, that she had to find the solution, she finally offered her lunch box with the chicken pirogues…

When ordering the salad in the restaurant – be careful. It might be helpful to prepare an exact list of what you don’t eat! Explain to the waiter, that the meat dish is not just a dish with meat pieces but also the meat based soup. Don’t forget to mention, that you don’t eat mayonnaise: you will find it everywhere, in all kinds of salads, potato dishes etc.

Actually, if you try to explain your vegan diet and try to get something to eat this way, the chances not to starve are close to zero. However, there are few solutions!

In the last few years something good has happened that gives us  hope! In the big cities, you will find a lot of Asian cuisine restaurants and Sushi bars. Most of them will have a vegetarian menu.

When I am in Moscow  meeting with my friends, I usually  go to Pekinskaya Utka (Pekin duck) chain:

http://www.ytka.ru/

In their branches, there is a salad bar. You can fill up the plate with all kinds of fresh and pickled vegetables and even soy milk skin (sparja). The salad bar could include:

white wood mushrooms and black mushroom salad, laminaria salad, cucumber and garlic salad, Sichuan style cabbage, assorted soy sticks and mushrooms, celery salad, colored soy shoot salad, Chinese carrot salad, lily shoot salad, soy noodles  and etc.

However, you have to be careful…It has happened to me that I didn’t notice the difference between strips of pig’s ear, squid and radish…

This is a cheap and “friends’ friendly” solution because they will have  lots of choices what to have while you’ve arranged for yourself the safe dish (almost).

I became a vegan almost two years ago, after few years of being vegetarian. I was lucky to begin my vegan experience in Israel which is almost a heaven for vegans for few reasons. First of all, the kosher rules are understandable for all. How can you use the kosher rules in a vegan diet? In any restaurant, waiters will recommend you a parve dish. Parve food is the category of food that is neither meat or dairy and it means ‘neutral’. When you are already sure that these dishes don’t includ meat and milk, you have to check if there are eggs or fish in it. Another reason for having an easy life as a vegan in Israel has to do with Mediterranean diet, because much of local cooking is vegan.

During these two years, half of the time I‘ve spent abroad. I spend a lot of time traveling because my job requires a lot of business trips. The second reason for staying away is my long distance relationship. During last two years, I’ve been  in Russia and Ukraine dozen of times,I’ve visited also Belorussia, Moldova and Hungary. For my own pleasure, I’ve spend every second weekend in Sinai (Egypt) and traveled to Germany, Czech and Italy. 

In this blog I want to share my vegan experience while traveling around these countries.