๐ Unpacking my Bio shopping ๐ in Berlin and Tea party for one โ
I've been in Berlin for the last few days, I made an 8 hour train journey to get here from the Austrian Tyrol. I'm visiting a good friend and turning him from Pescatarian to vegan. Which seems to be successful so far, although he is gone to England now and could possibly slip back into old habits. He very kindly let me sit his apartment whilst away. I know Berlin very well and have lived here briefly and visited well over 10 times but i've never come here as a vegan! I though I'd use the opportunity to test out a few of the Bio stores in walking distance to the apartment. I'm staying near the Spree on the East Berlin side, there are loads of trendy shops, quite a few vegan, raw restaurants and cafes near by. But it's like -6 degrees so I'd rather stay inside, with warm tea and treats...
I made it to the shop to buy my tea and treats just about without freezing my hands off. The first shop I visited was the Bio Company, I spent 16.95 Euros and this is what I came home with.....
I also brought 5 bio bananas for my morning porridge each day but forgot to include them in the picture.
It doesn't seem a lot for the price, but I guess I am spoilt in Spain for good prices. I did buy higher price items that I wouldn't normally buy, it's the time of the month so a girl has to treat herself. The bar of chocolate was 3.49 but its Raw, vegan, organic and very tasty and the honeybush tea was 4.79, caffeine free, light and sweet.
Here's what inside the store looked like (there was quite a big meat and cheese section - which I find quite distressing, as organic does not mean cruelty free) Still there is a wide selection of vegan products and vegetables. The biggest isle of herbal teas I've ever seen, a large selection of alternative sugars and you can even buy quite a lot of different seeds.
The next shop I visited was called Alnatura, they have branded products that I was buying in Mpreis in Austria. I got addicted to the red lentils, because they were so tasty and fast to cook. I spent 19.06 Euros, and came home with a hand full of products. The sweet potato was one of the pricier items at 2.20 but I really wanted to buy for this weeks Iron chef which is the leak challenge. The washing up liquid was almost finished here, it was that really toxic green fairy liquid stuff and they test on animals. My friend reckons it gets the dirt of better (thats what they advertise) but I've found Ecovers formula to be really good at removing everything and its cruelty free / vegan labeled. I hope he likes the nice surprise when he gets back :) I don't normally buy these tortillas, I used to be a real crisp addict and when I get started I can't stop but I guess that's the problem with these bio shops they are full of goodies you want to buy, but unfortunately sunflower oil baked chips aren't exactly nutrient dense but at least a bit healthier than regular crisps. The Nori flakes were 3.49 but I always thinks its better to invest in quality dried seaweed, the regular types are cheaper but often processed with extra nasties.
The Alnatura shop, had a lot more shop assistants compared to the Bio store and they were offering out tasters. They still had that awful meat and cheese isle like in the Bio company. They had a big selection of baking goods and their everyday packaged products like lentils. A big selection of bio oriental products, like seaweed, miso, noodles etc. The prices were a bit confusing, I accidentally brought some tomatoes which I thought were only 0.69 a kilo, but it was for a 100g, so was actually 6.90 a kilo, everything else was priced a kilo so I thought it must of been an offer. Opps!
Finally I tried some bread From an independent shop called Die Backstube Vollkornbรคckerei, I brought a 100% rye and 100% spelt. They are okay but went hard very quickly. German bread tends to be very dense which is normally quite nice and is definitely better than British breads which will set you back quite a lot of money for a decent loaf but i'm afraid no one lives up to the Catalan bakers. I don't know what the rest of Spain has to offer but I found in the south they had nothing compared to the amazing selections of breads in the Catalan region especially wheat alternatives that are fluffy, cakey but crispy outsides. Still I'm enjoying toasting these two breads but the style and taste is very similar to one anther.
I hope you enjoyed unpacking my shop with me, I'll be posting some of my rapid vegan meals soon, great for those lazy days! Stay tuned....
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Gosh I can't wait to go back to Berlin. Everything looks so good. And a girl got to treat herself from time to time. Those little moments make life a little better =)
Germany has the largest organic food market and the largest percentage of arable land devoted to organic agriculture (7,5%) ATM. It's really quite impressive, but you definitely have to face pricey produce as a result, cause this type of agriculture just costs more.
I actually grown my own in the season, but in the winter I can always count on organic cooperatives delivering produce to your door... they've just opened a new one behind the corner and I might check it out.
You think that Spanish bread tops them all? Try Italian one :)
Sorry Conradino i have to disagree about the bread unless you can show me someone who is making old style artisan using whole grains. Whenever I've been in italy it has been a struggle to find anything that wasn't white? Apart from one organic store. For that reason alone altho they are very good bakers of white bread but I don't think white bread is healthy. (I was told Italians like everyone else used to make the old style but somewhere down the line. Someone starting saying brown bread was for poor ppl and white for the rich)
I buy organic produce in spain and it is a little cheaper but I think the whole of spain expects a certain price. Rate as pay isn't as high and benefit system not as good as other European countries.
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oh we got some nice bread down in Andalusia, I have a breadman who comes every Monday where we are parked up and he sells bread that has been cooked in his 100 year old clay oven, wheat, rye, kamut and spelt it's really good and organic xx
wow that bread sounds awesome! id love to try that! :) yea im sure if you know where to get it, the ur always get gd bread in spain, in general has top quality bread. but unfortunately i didn't discover these gems like yours when i traveled around, was really hard to get alternative whole grains.