Being a vegan in sleepy Oldenburg was never a problem for me - even though I didn't know anyone else. I cook at home, have good cookbooks and an experimental spirit reigns in my kitchen. There is one "kind of vegan" Restaurant nearby (blogged
here) and one in
Bremen, you know, this is not
Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. But there must a be vegans out here, because a vegan supermarket opened two weeks ago called Veggiemaid.
This week I went there, and while going there it crossed my mind that coming Easter will be my fourth vegan anniversary. I remembered making up my vegan mind in a sauna in New Zealand on Good Friday. It was a spontaneous gut decision. It was not the animals I felt sorry for (even though the more I more I hear about the way they are kept, the more appalled I am), it was a pure matter of taste, dairy products started tasting like zoo. And the switch from vegetarian to vegan made me feel better while
our little family was traveling around the world.
The place is run by young woman,
Stefanie, and looks fresh and well-stocked (on the left you see vegan dog food).
I have the opinion that you can get everything you need from a vegan diet of vegetables and fruit, grains and legumes and am naturally sceptical about meat and dairy substitutes. But those substitutes make it beginning vegans easier, I think, and are often hard to get (on depending where you live, of course).
Soy meat of all shapes.
For a try, I bought a bunch of substitutes.
PS: If you want to know about the shop, it has a Facebook page
here.