Veganswife's profile

More About Me

Reasons why I prefer to eat vegetarian or vegan:

I turned vegetarian in 1977 as a health experiment and have stayed 'almost vegetarian' ever since. My husband has been vegan for over ten years and I eat a lot of vegan meals with him. However, I detest soy milk and prefer light, organic, milk and yoghurt and, occasionally, cheese. I also eat some sustainably farmed or line caught fish as well as free range (organic if I can get them) eggs. Cruelty-free is important to me as are environmental issues. I am a member of the New Zealand Green Party. A purely vegan diet does not suit my digestive system and I feel best with some light dairy, eggs and occasionally fish. In social situations Inwill occasionally eat free range chicken if other options are not available.

I joined HappyCow Members Community because:

I travel a lot. Since retirement at the start of 2013 I have been travelling with my husband, who is vegan (hence my avatar, Veganswife). Travelling with him in Tamil Nadu, India was easy - almost all restaurants are vegetarian with many vegan options. Other South East Asian destinations (such as Malaysia) proved difficult, because 'vegetarian' is often seen as including fish products. I found Happy Cow invaluable here and used it on our recent trip to France (possibly the least vegan friendly of all cuisines!). Having the GPS on Happy Cow enabled us to quickly locate restaurants in Aix en Provence, Bourdeaux and Paris, and in the UK Edinburgh, Cardiff and Liverpool.

Here are some places I've been that I liked... and places that I would like to visit one day:

Most recently (2014): Tamil Nadu, South East India, including Chennai, Pondicherry and Mamallpuram. Malaysia - Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu (great food also at the nearby rasa Ria Shangrila resort). Enjoyed Singapore. Have reviewed restaurants at all these places. This year (2014) we also loved Edinburgh, Bloomsbury (London), Cardiff and Welsh coastline, Liverpool. In France - Aix en Provence, Bordeaux, Paris. Have travelled a lot in my 67 years.

Some of my favorite veg*n foods include:

Frys brand vegan sausages, coconut yoghurt, fresh nuts of all types, tamarillos and gold kiwi fruit, papaya, Whittaker's Dark Ghana chocolate (a new Zealand brand), vegan curries of all types, fresh organic free range poached eggs on grainy fresh toast, my own home made Bircher muesli.....

Here are some books, movies, magazines, and my favorites that I would recommend to other HappyCow members:

Revive Cafe cookbook