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Have a plant-based diet in Angola.. is it possible?

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Angola, land of contrasts, music, dance, earth smells, nice people and colourful landscape. Angola is still a difficult country to visit and lacks in touristic infrastructures. The differences between the capital city Luanda and the rest of the country are abysmal in all aspects, so food is no exception. Angola is in south-central Africa, from its past Portuguese cuisine has significantly influenced Angolan cuisine.

Luanda is one of the most expensive cities in the world and has some imported vegan and vegetarian products in some supermarket at a very prohibited price and some restaurants with vegan/vegetarian options available.

Vegan restaurant in Luanda

The Healing Space it’s the first vegan, vegetarian and alkaline restaurant opening in Angola’s Capital and so far the only one. They serve delicious food using quality ingredients with Angolan, Brazilian, Mexican, and Lebanese influences.

If you are visiting or travelling to another place in the country the story is completely different. You will struggle to eat out because there are no options available.

Markets

Going to the markets will be your best option. Here you can buy ingredients to prepare your meals.

If you don’t need many things you will find things to buy on the roadside. It’s very common to see mostly women and children selling fresh vegetables and fruit.

For a wider range of choice, the markets are the place to go. Just keep in mind that Angolan markets are massive and busy and you will need help to find them. Most of the time they are located in the middle of a shantytown.

In the markets, you can find seasonal fruits, vegetables, roots, beans, and some cereals (rice, flour, corn, etc..) but they don’t have much variety.

Outside Luanda will be quite difficult (if not impossible) to find a supermarket with vegan options due to the lack of supply and demand, or even a restaurant with a vegetarian or vegan option.

If you are staying in a hotel you can make a special request, for a vegan meal, but don’t expect anything fancy. If there is a possibility just to cook your own meal, that will be the best solution!

Traditional Angolan food that is accidentally vegan:
  • Funge: Plain carbohydrate made from cassava with a texture like mash potato, generally served with a full-flavoured spicy sauce.
  • Farofa: Toasted cassava flour with a salty and smoky flavour.
  • Feijão de óleo de palma: Stewed beans in a palm oil sauce.
  • Mukua: Dried fruit from the baobab tree, often used for ice cream.
  • Kussangua: Traditional non-alcoholic drink made from cornflour.
  • Chikuanga: a bread made from manioc flour, served in a wrap of banana leaves (from northeast Angola).
  • Cocada amarela, yellow coconut pudding made with sugar, grated coconut, egg yolks, and ground cinnamon. (vegetarian)
  • Doce de ginguba, peanut candy.

photography – all rights reserved – Ana Rocha

Travel in Angola

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Although it’s difficult to get and travel through Angola, no doubt that there is something really special about this country that makes it worth all the struggle.

So let’s uncover some of Angola’s travel mysteries and have a look at what to expect while exploring this stunning country.

Markets

Markets are the place where everything happens, they buzz with life and are a great place to meet and talk to some friendly locals and of course, buy fresh produce.

Don’t expect anything fancy here, only a lot of dust, and very basic infrastructures made out of some sticks, mud, and fabrics. The markets are normally massive and depending on the location and time of the day, can also be very crowded, so be patient, and on guard.

It’s also usual to see women and children selling fruits, vegetables and gasoline on the side of the road. You can also see between the thousands of street sellers in Angola, people selling car spares, school manuals, toilet paper, toilet seats, cell phones, well… literary everything.

Beaches

Angola has beautiful, quiet and untouched beaches but also beaches full of life, people and loud music. Angolans love to have a good time, to drink, dance and listen to music being Kizomba, kuduro and Semba the most popular genres.

Angola’s Countryside

Angola’s countryside is the vision of a country that is suspended in time with a past of war that didn’t disappear from its walls.

Picturesque small settlements, baobab trees, rivers, mountains and deserts are the richness of this country. The small settlements tell stories of a resourceful population that makes everything from nothing.

Slams

Slams in Angola are called musekes (musseques), it’s impossible to count how many you will see spreading through the country. An image of a sad reality. Extreme poverty and social inequities.

Nature at its best

Angola is a country with immense natural beauty that changes drastically from north to south, east to west.

What to visit and where to go
  1. Namibe, beaches, a magnificent desert, and Mucubais Tribe
  2. Lobito, great beaches
  3. Benguela, architecture and beaches
  4. Malange, national park and waterfalls 
  5. Serra de Leba, fantastic scenery 
  6. Catumbela, scenery, river and crocodiles 
  7. Cunene, Himba tribe and scenery 
  8. Chibia, Muila (Mumuila or Mumuhuila) tribe and the Mukumba tribal market
  9. Lubango, colonial architecture
  10. Oncocua, traditional place where different ethnic groups live, the Himba, the Mucawana and the Mutua.

Have you ever been to Angola? Find here all you need to know before going on a trip to Angola.

photography – all rights reserved – Ana Rocha 

Discovering Angola – Travel guide

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Angola was my home for 2 years and I have great memories about this colourful, warm, magic and not yet well-known county.

Travelling through Angola is a real challenge, that starts with getting a visa. The country is not really open to tourism and to be fair doesn’t really like visitors… Although it seems that things are changing slowly in this regard.

Luanda

If you are lucky enough to get a visa you will land in the international airport of Luanda, Angola’s capital city. An extremely expensive place with a high level of violent crime, where you can’t walk on your own after dark. I’ve been to Luanda many times, but I don’t recommend it.

Angola has miles and miles of coastline, rainforests in the north, the world’s oldest desert in the south, and savannah in between.

Language and food

You need to know how to speak Portuguese to be able to communicate. A very low percentage of the local population can communicate in English.

Outside the big cities eating out is also difficult. There are no restaurants, so you will need to find where the markets are, buy the ingredients and cook your meals.

When you find a place selling food expect it to be expensive and some have poor hygienic conditions.

Transports –  getting around

Compared with Luanda the rest of the country is relatively safer but there are no reliable or safe public transports.

The options are the local minibuses that are called Candongueiros, painted in blue and white or you can also get a ride from a motorbike called cupapatas. 

This is the informal economy, they don’t belong to a company, so there is no timetables, no stipulated stops or standards by any means. 

The candogeiro’s driver shouts trough the window to advertise where they are going to. The cupapata is mainly for short distances and will go anywhere you want.

Both options are used by locals but are very unsafe. They have very bad driving habits and do unimaginable things like driving on the sidewalk. I don’t recommend you to use any of these options as a tourist. Because to do it you really need to know well what is going on and speak the local lingo.

Before buying my 4×4 I used those options and was involved in some minor accidents. But you see almost daily road accidents involving both cupapatas and Candongueiros. Road sinistrality in Angola is a serious issue.

Renting a car is difficult and extremely expensive, but getting your vehicle (4×4) is essential. Just bear in mind that driving standards and some road conditions are poor, to say the least. 

There is a good road between the capital Luanda – Lubango and Namibe but getting into remoter areas can be rough.

Police Officers

Angola’s police officers are notorious for asking for bribes—known as gasosa. It’s safe to say that if you are driving you will not miss this experience.

I can’t count how many times I was stopped and accused of an imagined traffic infraction and then offered to pay for a gasosa instead of paying a fine. My advice is – always offer to pay the fine.

Mines

When exploring less well-established routes outside major towns, mines and unexploded ordnance remain a problem, sometimes even in ‘cleared’ areas. So try to travel on well-established routes.

Accommodation

Outside the capital, accommodation is scarce, expensive and most of the times the conditions are deplorable. Once I stayed in the only place available in a remote country-side village, where there was no running water, the toilet was a hole on the floor, there was no electricity, and can’t even start describing how dirty it was, all of this for $100USD p/night! I know shocking.

Power and water can be cut off for days without notice, having a generator it’s essential.

Sometimes the best option is to camp on a deserted beach 🙂

Topics to avoid

Basic rules of politeness are essential at all times anywhere you are in the world. But in Angola, there are a few more things that you should keep in mind. Avoid talking about the government, politics and the civil war. Angola is a democracy in name only, and Angolans can be nationalistic and proud.

It will happen that when you are talking to a group of Angolans the discussions will turn to politics, just try to listen more than talk.

Be ready for the mosquitos

Mosquitos are your public enemy number one, try to keep safe. The last thing you need is to get malaria or even yellow fever. To enter the country you’ll need an International Certificate of Vaccination (Yellow Card)

Pollution and lack of basic sanitary conditions

There are a few severe problems with garbage, fly-tipping, open-air sewage, polluted water and in the big cities air pollution is very poor due to the heavy traffic and obsolete vehicles.

Find here more about what to see and where to go while travelling through Angola.

photography – all rights reserved – Ana Rocha 

Travelling in Armenia as a Vegan

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Let’s start by saying that if you think veganism is too difficult or rare in Armenia, luckily you’re completely wrong ?

Not that Armenia is full of trendy vegan restaurants and cafes, far from that. Armenians really love their meat and food is pretty dairy heavy… but because some traditional Armenian dishes are actually vegan.

Lent probably has an impact on it. Christians abstain from animal products for some time during the year and some restaurants even have a Lent Menu.

When eating out you can always find something vegan, like hummus, falafel, nuts, dried fruit or tabbouleh (green salad).

Here is a list of traditional Armenian food that is accidentally vegan

Tabbouleh – Salad made of bulgur, mint, onions, and tomatoes, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Ghapama – stuffed baked pumpkin dish with boiled rice and dried fruits and nuts.

Lavash – A thin flatbread made with flour, water, and salt, and sometimes sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds.

Armenian garden salad – Made with tomatoes, basil, parsley, cucumber, romaine lettuce, salt, lemon juice, wine, vinegar, and olive oil.

Dolma – cabbage leaf rolls stuffed with rice, a variety of herbs and normally meat but you can just ask have it without it.

Jengyalov Hac– flatbread stuffed with green herbs.

Soups – vegetable soups can be found almost everywhere. Aveluk soup, Cornel soup and Rose hip soup are a must.

Basooc dolma – pickled cabbage leaf with lentils, chickpeas, red kidney beans, and grains, mixed with spices. It is served cold and sometimes with dried apricot.

Lenten Dolma – grape leaf rolls stuffed with rice and spices.

Yerevan has some great places serving delicious vegan meals that you can try while travelling in the capital city of Armenia. Here is a list of the TOP VEGAN RESTAURANTS IN YEREVAN.

Do you know any other Armenian traditional dishes that are vegan-friendly?

Top Vegan places to eat in Yerevan

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Armenian cuisine is rich in vegetables, meat, fish and lavash (flatbread), what doesn’t mean, that is not a good country to travel as a vegan. Especially the capital Yerevan. 

You start seeing some vegan/vegetarian dishes poping in the menus slowly in Yerevan, and many traditional Armenian dishes are accidentally vegan.

From my experience, Yerevan restaurants, in general, serve quality food and have always some options for vegan even if not identified as such.

Here, is a list of great places from where you can have a delicious vegan meal while travelling in the capital city of Armenia, Yerevan.

TOP vegan restaurants in Yerevan
Jengyalov Hac

Cosy place that serves just one dish, the delicious Jengyalov Hac a flatbread with an assortment of about 20 types of fresh herbs from Artsakh. This is a great place for a cheap, traditional, tasty meal in Yerevan.

Dr.Veggie
A health-food shop and vegan cafe with an entirely vegan menu, serving some local dishes without meat. They have salads, dolma, blinchik and delicious soups.
Life food 

Raw vegan restaurant with a beautiful terrace space on Saryan Street. The food is delicious and they make creative combinations of flavours. They serve amazing burgers, pizza, ice cream, cake, drinks, bowls, soups and wraps.

Twelve Tables

A restaurant with great vegan options like soups, salads, bruschetta, burger and an absolutely divine raw vegan chocolate cake that you can’t miss.

Gouroo Club & Garden 

A cosy restaurant on Saryan Street offering organic, sustainable, natural, and local food. The most popular vegan dishes are the salad with avocado and apple, Soup Laksa and Cauliflower steak. The green juices are also a must.

Soul Kitchen

A Western Armenian home-style cooking restaurant that offers some absolutely delicious vegan dishes.

Elie’s Lahmajun

A cosy traditional family-run business that has some vegan options and exceptionally friendly staff.  They serve Armenian food in the heart of Yerevan and have an affordable menu and delicious food.

Crumbs The Bread Factory 

A coffee shop specialised in European bread and pastry baking.

But apart from the huge bread varieties its also a perfect place to stop and have a cup of coffee or a light healthy lunch. They have a few vegan options on the menu, including a baked falafel sandwich, soup, a delicious vegan sandwich and salad.

Eat&Fit

A great place with a fair amount of vegan options, perfect to go for a cup of fresh juice, a delicious snack or a light healthy meal.

Karas 

A vegan-friendly fast-food franchise with some vegan options such as Lenten dolma, vegetable cutlets and lentil soup.

Have you been in Yerevan, are there any other worth mentioning places serving delicious vegan food?

Travelling vegan in Georgia

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Georgia is a stunning country to travel to and the vegan food is abundant, fresh and delicious. When you find your way around the meat and cheese, you discover a whole world of beans, veggies, bread, potatoes and mushrooms.

One of the reasons Georgian food is so vegan-friendly is because of the Orthodox fasting periods, that many adopt, where they can’t have any food from land animals. You will find that many restaurants have a ‘fasting menu’.

Many local Georgian dishes just happen to be vegan, making our life easier while travelling. In Tbilisi, you have some choices of restaurants and cafes serving specifically vegan food, but outside the capital, the reality is different.

I assure you will not have any problems to eat vegan even when visiting small villages.

Here is a list of some of my favourite vegan dishes that you can get from a regular place in Georgia serving local food.

Vegan-friendly Georgian food
Veggie pâtés

Pkhali – different coloured balls of vegetables minced with walnuts and seasonings, normally with garlic, onion, herbs. The most common are spinach, aubergine and beetroot.

Eggplant with walnuts (Nigvziani Badrijani) – Slices of eggplant that filled with walnuts, coriander and garlic, served cold topped with pomegranates.

Red pepper stuffed with walnuts – as the name says is a red pepper filled with hearty walnut paste.

Beans and bread

Lobio – It’s a bean stew served in a clay pot, made with red beans, onion, garlic, herbs, and local seasonings. Mchadi – cornbread that is usually eaten with Lobio. Comes in fried and non-fried varieties.

Acharuli, Stew boats – a boat-shaped bread from Georgia, is the most popular filling melted salty cheese and egg. Although I found other options, from aubergine stew, wild mushrooms, spinach and other greens and even with tomato and cucumber salad.

Georgian Pastries: Lobiani – Is a mashed bean-filled bread easily found everywhere. Similar to lobiani is the Mkhvlovani- made with a mixture of different kinds of herbs. I did find other pastries that were vegan but couldn’t memorise the names.

Georgian traditional dumplings

Khinkali – The easiest vegan ones to find are the ones with potato and mushroom fillings, but I also found some with beans and spinach.

Mushrooms

There are several dishes with mushrooms served in clay pots.

They also have wild stewed mushrooms, fried mushrooms, grilled mushrooms, etc.. If you are a mushroom lover like me Georgia is heaven on earth. 

Ojakhuri with mushrooms – instead of the traditional potatoes with pork, this one is with mushrooms.

Shilaplavi – Kind of a Georgian risotto with mushrooms.

Vegetable stews

Ajapsandali – is a vegetable stew made with onion, potato, aubergine, pepper, tomato, parsley and other seasonings, a little bit like a ratatouille.

Salads 

The most common one is Cucumber and Tomato Salad with a creamy walnut and herb sauce, but there are various other kinds of salads too. The Georgian beetroot salad with tkemali (plum sauce) is also quite easy to find.

Mexican potatoes – Thickly cut potatoes with lots of seasoning. They can be fried or baked.

Pickles – you can order mixed pickles or plates of specific pickles.

Vegan Georgian Sweets

Churchkhela –  also known as the Georgian Snickers is a traditional sweet made from nuts and fruit juice. It is extremely delicious, nutritious, healthy and energizing. To prepare it the string of nuts is repeatedly dipped in concentrated fresh fruit juice.

Tklapi – Thin fruit sheet.

Pelamushi – reminds a frozen pudding prepared with grape juice and walnuts.

Georgian Markets and Street food

There is no best place to explore Georgian food culture than visiting some of the markets.   Here you can find the best deals to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, dried fruit and grains, coffee and tea, spices and much more.

Street food is not a strong concept in Georgia by any means, but you can occasionally find small stalls selling, fresh fruit, fresh cold-pressed juice and Turkish coffee.

Have you been to Georgia and tried any of these dishes? Do you know any other traditional Georgian dish that is accidentally vegan?

If you are looking for some great vegan restaurants in Tbilisi find them here!

photography – all rights reserved – Ana Rocha

Rundale Palace guide

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Known as the “Versailles of Latvia,” the Rundāle Palace is a gorgeous gem worth spending a day visiting while in Latvia.

This 18th Century Baroque palace is located just a little over an hour out of Riga. From its ornate interiors, baroque architecture to detailed, flourishing gardens, everything is a must here.

Rundāle Palace houses a museum which displays applied arts, fine arts and historical expositions.

The French style park is really well kept. you can walk around the rose garden, the Green Theatre, ornamental parterres and the fountain.

The entrance fee for what they call the Long Route is €8, this includes the palace and the French gardens.

How to get to Rundale Palace from Riga

There are no direct trains or buses to reach Rundāle, but it’s still quite easy to get here from Riga.

Take a bus to Bauska then transfer to another bus for Pilsrundāle, where the palace is located. It takes around 90-minute in total (not including transfer time).

photography – all rights reserved – Ana Rocha

Tartu travel guide

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Tartu is located in the southeast of Estonia close to Russia’s border and is the country second city.

Tartu is a university town with a great vibe, picturesque wooden houses, stately buildings, beautiful parks and riverfront and classically designed 18th-century buildings.

How to get to Tartu

Tartu is located about 185 kilometres southeast of Tallinn and connections between the two cities are frequent. The bus is your best option. While there are trains available, they are less frequent and more expensive.

I recommend spending at least two full days in Tartu to have enough time to get a good feel of the city and enjoy some of its unique culture and atmosphere.

How yo move around

The best way to get around is on foot. Most places of interest are located within walking distance of each other. If you prefer there is an extensive and easy-to-use bus system in Tartu.

Best Things To Do In Tartu, Estonia
Raekoja Square (Raekoja Plats)

Tartu’s main square, Raekoja plats is a scenic place, with cobblestone, decorative architecture in shades of pastel colours, classically designed 18th-century buildings and rows of restaurants.

A great place to start a visit to Tartu. This funny-shaped square runs from the city’s town hall down towards the Emajõgi River.

You can find here the beloved Kissing Students Fountain, a symbol of Tartu in front of the Town Hall.

The Town Hall (which also doubles as the tourist information centre) is a neoclassical gem, built in 1789. On the end opposite the town hall, there is a yellow National Geographic frame, one of 21 such frames in Southern Estonia.

St. John’s Church

St. John’s Church is a gothic brick Lutheran church in the Old Town with an eye-catching and beautiful brick design.

The inside is not that spectacular but it is one of the highest buildings in Tartu and it is possible to climb up the tower for views over the city. Inside there are some cool sculptures.

Soup Town (Supilinn neighbourhood)

One of the more unusually interesting neighbourhoods to visit in Tartu is the Supilinn neighbourhood also known as Soup Town.

The neighbourhood is full of old wooden houses and the streets are named after soup ingredients. Soup Town is being rapidly renovated, but still offers an interesting look into Tartu pre-WWII.

Toome Hill and Toomemäe Cathedral Ruins

Toome Hill is home to Toomemäe Park, a lovely green space filled with statues and beautiful monuments. In this place, early settlers built fortifications in the 7th century.

The park of Toome Hill is also home to two curiously named bridges that link up walking paths, the Angel’s Bridge and Devil’s Bridge.

At the centre of Toome Hill are the open-air ruins of the old cathedral that was destroyed not long after during the Livonian War.

The intact part of the cathedral is now the University of Tartu Museum. You can visit the museum and climb up its towers for good views over Tartu.

University of Tartu

Tartu University is the country’s largest university (which happens to also be one of Europe’s oldest!). It was established in 1632, and has been the beating heart of the city for centuries.

The main university building is an elegant neoclassical building in Old Town.

University of Tartu Botanical Garden

The Tartu Botanical Gardens are absolutely stunning and incredibly peaceful, a must if the weather is good. It is free to enter the outdoor gardens, but the greenhouses do charge an entry fee of €3 adults.

Local Street Art

Tartu’s creative spirit is alive and you can see that on the strong culture of street art.

To find from large murals to little portraits you can use the street art map to find and experience the best of Tartu’s graffiti.

Karlova neighbourhood is the epicentre of most of Tartu’s street art and where the annual Stencibility Street Art Festival takes place.