I was a little concerned as to how easy it would be to follow a vegan diet on holiday in Montenergo, after hearing from those who had been that it wasn’t particularly vegan friendly. I anticipated living off bread (unbuttered) and potatoes for the week. I was however pleasantly surprised with being able to order tomato based pasta dishes, vegetable stew, roasted veggies, pizza with vegan cheese and dairy free ice cream.
It got even better when we arrived in the coastal town Budva, where we were spending our last few days. I was in paradise when we found Montenegro’s only vegan cafe. Literally paradise; Paradise Food is a pay by weight plant based café and health food shop. Whilst I was elated to discover this gem, and to eat in a place that is making efforts to reduce food waste, I did feel a wave of panic. As someone who doesn’t shy away from filling their plate, I have spent a small fortune at pay by weight restaurants in London. I needn’t have worried this was by far the cheapest and most delicious meal we ate on holiday!
The eat in and take out, lunch/dinner, menu boasts a cuisine which changes daily. Tuesday was Mexican themed and I ate a plateful of Mexican vitamin salad, Mexican vegetables, green lentil sauce, cauliflower fajitas and salsa. You can also add items sold behind the counter; I went for a slice of pizza, lasagne with seitan which was more like a pasta bake and a potato skin filled with vegan cheese and mushroom. It was hearty, healthy, tasty food.
There was no way that I was leaving without dessert; “are you going to eat both of those” asked my friend in astonishment, and she knows that I can eat. “Yes, yes I am”, I replied whilst asking the cashier to serve me the biggest slice of the cacao and banana pie; I think I momentarily forgot that the biggest slice would be accounted for in the price! I had a slice of the lemon and coconut cheesecake too. Both were delicious and you’d be hard pushed to tell that they didn’t contain chocolate or refined sugar. Sammy was right though, I was well and truly stuffed; the desserts are particularly filling as generous portions filled with nuts, seeds, dates. I didn’t have the sort of the food hangover you get with your local Chinese buffet where you are undoing your trousers. I felt rather virtuously full, particularly as we then decided to forego the taxi and walk back to our hotel. I did almost have a heart attack when I paid my bill, for reasons I’d not anticipated. Not only was it over half the price of what you’d pay for the same in London but at around £10 for a plateful of food and selection of desserts, it was the cheapest meal we’d had in Montenegro!
We returned for an earlier dinner the following day, we wanted to make that they weren’t running out of any of the dishes. There is a constant flow of customers, even past their closing time of 9pm. Wednesday was a Russian hot buffet, two fingers up to my sister who tells me that it is too difficult to veganise Russian food; by two fingers, I mean the V sign of course! I had baked potato with dill, mushroom sauce, cabbage stew, tartar sauce, draniki potato pancakes and spaghetti. Sammy and I shared bits from the cold counter; a seitan sausage roll, burger and pizza.
I learnt my lesson from the night before and ordered smaller slices of dessert, granted I still had to have two, but smaller all the same. The coconut cream filled fruit cake was lush as was the snicker cake. The food was so good that we even bought raw cacao coconut bites – think vegan bounty bars, and a couple of cookies which were less than 50p each, for our flight home the next day.
The staff are so warm and welcoming; it was really inspiring chatting to Sofija who runs the café and has been vegan for 27 years. She simply responded ‘nothing’ when I asked what she’d found difficult about being vegan for so many years. The only thing difficult about Paradise Food is not being able to visit every day; I need to know what the rest of the week tastes like! I’ve been nursing the holiday blues since arriving home; I miss being in Paradise!
About the author: Laura is a civil servant with no qualifications in diet or nutrition but a self-proclaimed, frugal foodie, with a passion for eating well for less and avoiding food waste. When not loitering in supermarket reduction aisles, she runs, practices a little yoga, hangs out with her kitty Tigs and thinks about what she is going to eat next!
