Hi Ram, Steve and I live part time in Bulgaria and can recommend lots vegan restaurants in Sofia at least: Soul Kitchen for a more special meal. Dream House, Sun & Moon, Mix o Figs & Loving Hut for daily food. Rawlly on facebook for cakes. All great and you can find them on Happy Cow. Zoya in English and Spirala in Bulgarian (but staff speak English) are healthfood stores for your staples. Hope this helps.

Hi Ram – thanks for your really interesting and informative comment! It’s really interesting to hear from the perspective of an Indian vegetarian/vegan. I hope that you find some delicious vegan food during your travels in Bulgaria!

Yeah it was rubbish with the egg curry :( And since they didn’t use ghee, I thought I’d be in luck and that’d it’d be vegan.

That’s so true about processed food sometimes being the only option and overall that’s going to be worse health-wise! I think longer-term, I want to continue being vegan when I’m at home and travelling in the UK (as much as possible), but I suspect I’ll see how it goes when I travel and not fret about eating dairy if it means a) healthier food and b) being able to eat at all!

Hey Kaloyan, thanks for your comment! We’re in Plovdiv now and there’s a lot of snow here too! We are thinking about going to Veliko Tarnovo actually but we are undecided because the roads have been bad (so bus travel is not so easy). If we go then we will definitely check out GoGreen – thanks for the recommendation!

Mix of Figs had quite a few customers when we were there, so it must be popular! I think that we both really aren’t fond of vegan cheese, but we do know that other vegans love it. I am glad that they have good business though :)

Hopefully we will come back to Sofia some time and get to try Kring and all of the other places. There are so, so many it seems and we are learning about even more places now!

Thank you! I think that you’re right to say that there are other factors at play, such as the ethical sourcing of products and avoiding food waste where possible. Really appreciate your encouragement, we’re constantly discovering more and more vegan options here in Bulgaria, even in predominantly meat restaurants so there’s always something for us.

Yes, for sure. I’d say that veganism is a familiar concept to most people in the UK as well, especially in the south. Do you mean that they cook the curry with ghee rather than oil? That’s also so crazy about the egg, I’ve never had an egg in curry and would definitely expect that to be listed on the menu (because how many people are keen on an egg in their curry!?) Definitely agree about it being worst to waste it. I’d have just eaten it too.

Veganism would be practically impossible for me while travelling if Luke wasn’t also vegetarian (and vegan with me this month). I think that it would potentially drive most people crazy if their travel companion was vegan and they weren’t, especially if they care about what they eat when travelling. To be fair though, we’re in Bansko (Bulgarian mountain/ski town) right now and there are no vegan restaurant here so we’ve been ordering vegan food in meat restaurant and actually having really great success! Lots of veggies, spinach, potatoes, white beans and even a risotto.

I’m still undecided about veganism longer term. I’m definitely interested in a lot of the values behind veganism, and when we’re at home around 75% of the meal I make are vegan anyway. My main concern though is the environment and also health (by that I mean not wanting to processed foods). Animal ethics is a factor for me of course, but not my main driving force. My concern with veganism is that sometimes it pushes you into eating processed foods (white bread, soya products) especially when travelling. Things like soya and palm oil too, aren’t always sustainably farmed and there are environmental costs of importing those foods as well.

Mainly, not eating meat and fish, eating locally where possible, eating unprocessed foods, and ethically farmed foods are my main priorities. Sometimes veganism slots in really well with that, but sometimes it clashes with it. It’s still a learning curve for me, and I think this January will be useful for experimenting and thinking about it further. What about you? Are you thinking you might stay vegan longer term?

Naturally it’s much easier in the UK (no language barrier for a start!) and I’m really enjoying it but it can still be tricky at times. There’s definitely a dilemma when something has unexpected dairy in, like you had with the mayo. I ordered a takeaway curry last weekend and found out that they cook with oil not ghee… then the curry arrived with egg in it! I’ve never had a curry with egg in ever and it’s hard to believe they didn’t list it on the menu. But, I felt it would have been worse to waste it and that there was no point being hard on myself about it.

It’s also harder overall doing it when my boyfriend isn’t even vegetarian – so if we were travelling I don’t think I could dictate that every restaurant be vegan. It’s definitely true that some countries will be easier than others though!

Is veganism something you’re interested in longer term? For me, it really is but I still think I’d have to allow myself to be flexible when travelling and not see it as “failing” if it wasn’t possible to find vegan options.