Moscow, Russia – Vegan Da?

Welcome to Moscow!!

We arrived at our hostel, Godzilla (you really have to love the name), in Moscow, Russia around 9:30 pm and we were famished.The receptionist suggested we go to the nearby supermarket. What a great idea! It was a fancy supermarket with tons of produce and fresh salads. A couple of the salads looked vegan friendly, but having forgotten the word for vegan in Russian, I had to improvise to find out. I pointed to the produce area hoping the woman at the counter would understand vegetables only. She acknowledged that she understood (hopefully) and I left with a delicious rice and veggie salad. I also picked up some avocados and bananas to eat over the next few days (my favorite!).

Day two, we woke up early and I ate the avocado and banana in our hostel kitchen; preparing for a day of snacking given that we had an extremely tight sightseeing schedule with only one full day in Moscow. This was by far our most intense day of touring starting at 8:45am and ending at 1:00am. In 16 hours we hit: The Kremlin, Red Square, a convent, 4 museums, nine churches (all worth seeing for their amazing floor to ceiling paintings and their un-real architecture), a public park with Russian political sculptures, Arbat Street (filled with performers, artists, souvenir shops galore AND a Starbucks), and finally an outdoor sports and military festival (with kids sports demonstrations including tennis, soccer, gymnastics, and paintball, yes, paintball).

I digress from the vegan specifics, but we just saw so many interesting things in our 16 hour day that I had to make mention. So needless to say, I was starving by 10:15 after having only snacks and a Starbucks tea all day, and I had my heart set on the vegetarian restaurant Jagannath recommended by Lonely Planet and Happy Cow. It would seem like Jagannath would be easy enough to find since we navigated our way through so much of Moscow without a hitch. Well, WRONG!! We searched for 45 minutes, staring at 3 different maps, asking other restaurants for directions (they couldn’t even tell me where the street was), and ultimately we came up with nothing. On Happy Cow, I see that they now have additional information on the location that would have been helpful on that day, but oh well. There are reportedly a few other vegetarian/vegan options in this same area including Le Pain Quotidien and Avocado Cafe, but unlucky for me I found none (I chalk it up to exhaustion).

After losing my cool for a few seconds, I pulled it together and we started trekking back to our hostel (stopping of course to take night photos), hoping to find somewhere to eat along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around midnight, we happened upon a cute Italian restaurant where I spotted Gazpacho on the English menu, so I was sold. With only snacks in my belly, I decided to risk it and order pasta (pasta can be made with egg or milk) with tomato sauce, emphasizing no milk or cream to the non-English speaking waiter. He seemed to understand, but when the dish came out the sauce was pink. I froze and didn’t know what to do but then the water came running out saying, “Cream, didn’t know cream!” The dish went back and a short while later (after my boyfriend was done with his pizza) out came another plate with pasta and plain tomato sauce. I don’t remember pasta ever tasting so good.

Although I did not have the pleasure of experiencing any of the vegetarian or vegan restaurants in Moscow, there are many options for a vegan to eat well. Recently, Loving Hut, the vegan chain (I’ve eaten at the one in New York City and it is very good), expanded to Moscow, but I knew going in to the trip that it was too far off from anywhere we would be and clearly we were short on time.

Even with my misfortunes in vegan eating, I really loved Moscow with all of its churches, architecture, museums, history, and energy. We could have easily spent more time exploring this great city, so please learn from us if you find yourself in Moscow, and visit for more than a day!

Our next day we would be off to Copenhagen, Denmark to see all that it has to offer and to check out what there is for a vegan to eat!

Stay tuned for more ecology cool adventures in travel. . .

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