I had the good fortune to find myself in Verona for four days in high summer. I braved the 30C+ temperatures to eat my way around the city. I had heard that Italy wasn't particularly vegan friendly. This must have been told to me by non-vegans, because dear reader, Verona was heavy with vegan goodness. Let me take you through the vegan culinary delights of the city
La Magnolia (or Pasticceria Vegana Biologica La Magnolia)
Reader, I have a confession to make. I am a vegan cheese snob. I like the expensive, made-of-cashews stuff - it gives me the creamy but fermented bite I crave in vegan cheese. The rest of it pretty much makes me want to turn a flamethrower on my tastebuds after a bite or two - it's often sad, greasy, and smells a bit like sweaty socks.
La Magnolia surprised me by selling a sandwich with a non-cashew based cheese that didn't taste like sadness and that I actually enjoyed. To be fair, La Magnolia also combined said cheese with some seitan ham and salad, and then wrapped it in a duvet of focaccia. If there's one thing I love more than tasty vegan food, it's epic quantities of tasty vegan food - and I ended up managing about half of this absolute unit of a sandwich before passing it on to Mr Flickingthevs. If you're going to La Magnolia, make sure you have an empty stomach and a hearty appetite.
If there's one thing I like more than epic quantities of tasty vegan food, it's tiny tasty vegan food. Honestly, I love a canape or a miniature version of anything. La Magnolia has a cabinet full of tiny treats, so you can taste everything without lapsing into a sugar-coma - you can see the dainty chocolate treat I had below, alongside some mini-pizzas and a distinctly not-mini croissant, stuffed with seitan and cheese. Again, another vegan cheese I really enjoyed - clearly, there is wizardry at work here.
La Lanterna
If you asked me to close my eyes and imagine the sort of restaurant I'd be eating at in Verona, I think I'd probably have imagined La Lanterna - a small, homey, neighbourhood sort of place, with a menu laden with all the Italian classics you know, and lots you don't. And yep, it would be entirely vegan.
If you're looking to try some interesting pastas, this is the place to come. There were lots of primi piatti that were new to me - aubergine gnocchi! chicory ravioli! - as well as more familiar dishes like spaghetti carbonara and ragout. I picked the capeletti, stuffed with chick peas and mint, with confit tomatoes and aubergines, and I couldn't have been happier. Me and Mr Flickingthevs shared some caponata, below. It was all simple, unfussy stuff, but cooked really well and guaranteed to leave you with a big, tomatoey smile on your face.
Whenever I see tiramisu on a menu at home, I am powerless to resist it. Now, imagine the tractor beam style pull of a tiramisu in Italy! There were other dessert choices on the menu at La Lanterna, but realistically I might as well have been looking at a piece of cardboard with the single word 'tiramisu' printed on it.
There was a slight chalky taste to the langue du chats in it that made me wonder if they might have been gluten free. It was also a bit on the dense side - not the light, pillowy texture I tend to associate with tiramisu. Still, it was a pleasant dessert to eat, and my enjoyment was no doubt increased by La Lanterna's range of interesting digestifs...
Ammazza Caffee
Vicolo Volto Cittadella, 12/A, 37122 Verona VR, Italy
This place made me glad I don't live in Verona, because I know that if I did, I'd be spending stupid amounts of money every day, because this place is lovely.
There are a few reasons for that. First, the service is great. Every time I went in to order, the person serving me was a delight. Second, the coffee is great - if you're a serious-but-not-pretentious about-coffee person, you're going to feel right at home. Third, the whole place is vegan, which is amazing.
The food choices are basically cakes and things on toast. I tried I think about three or four different cakes - carrot and almond, apple and cinnamon, almond, and pear and chocolate. I enjoyed them all.
What I really enjoyed though was the things on toast - below was peanut butter and almond on the left, and pane e pannelle on the right - gram flour omelette, farinata in Italian, and the greatest garlicky creamy aioli goodness underneath. It was good, once I'd finished, I wanted to go back and order the same thing straight away again.
Ristorante Flora
Stradone Scipione Maffei, 8c, 37121 Verona VR, Italy
+390458006300
Have you ever sat down at a restaurant and immediately thought you'd made the wrong decision? Let me tell you, I really thought I'd made the wrong call when I pulled a chair up to the table at Flora. We were the only people there. The dining room was quiet. The music was muted. I almost turned around and wandered straight out. That would have been a really big mistake - I think Flora would be locked in a death-match with Ammazza for the grand title of my favourite place I ate in Verona.
It's the sort of place that gives macrobiotic vegan food a really good name. The gluten free rolls were so good, I almost didn't notice the lack of gluten. The prosecco was poured with a heavy hand. The food was fun and tasty. What more could you ask for?
Apologies for my half-arsed photography here - the picture below is really not doing justice to how good this beautifully was. I can't remember what this dish was called, but it translated as something along the lines of a tofu seafood papillotte - a mix of tofu, olives, tomatoes, capers, chickpeas and seaweed, cooked together in a parchment paper pouch.
I apologise for the photo that follows - it was really good dish.
The papillotte was the right side of sea-brine flavour, and full of good things, and there was more of the delicious cashew cheese and some tomato sauce.
I don't know if it was the inauspicious beginnings, the deft food, or the generous prosecco pours, but I ended up leaving Flora with a big smile. Recommended.
Nosh
Stradone Porta Palio, 5, 37122 Verona, Italy
+39 351 641 8327
Nosh was the first restaurant we ate at in Verona, and it was alas the least interesting. If it sounds like I'm slating it, I'm not - it just had a lot of tasty competition and what daft soul goes to Italy to eat non-specific Asian street food? If you're thinking 'well, that daft soul appears to be you, Flickingthevs', you would of course be right. So why did I end up there? We arrived in Verona late, and as is the way with travel, tired and hungry, and not of too much of a mind to go strolling the streets of Verona hunting for veganity. So, Nosh was round the corner from our hotel, open when we wanted food, and had a decent amount of vegan things clearly marked on the menu, and sometimes, that's just what you need.
Nosh's menu (in English here) has a healthy vegan section. There's starters and sides (dumplings, tasty pops - which appear to be the-not-traditionally-Asian tater tots), pad thai, ramen and rice bowls. The pic above is the rainbow bowl - veggies, rice, tofu, teriyaki sauce and vegan mayo. Was it earth-shatteringly good? No. Was it cheap, filling and tasty? Yes, it definitely was. And extra bonus points for Nosh for offering all their bubble teas in vegan versions. I'd happily go back.
Last but not least - ice cream
There's no shortage of good ice in Verona, but there are two honourable mentions for Gelateria Ballini and QB.
Gelateria Ballini has a couple of branches in the city, and wins my love for having not only everything vegan clearly labelled, but also flavours of ice cream that I haven't seen before - behold, the mighty vegan pistachio!
 |
My other vote of appreciation goes to QB Gelato, which also has a few branches around the city, clear vegan signage and all manner of fun vegan stuff. I had an almond granita. And then some melon sorbet which was mind-blowingly good on a 30 degree day in Verona. And probably on any other day too.
0 comments