Hagedis, Den Haag

I’ve been away from home all day and haven’t cooked a single meal. However, I do still have a few pictures of a restaurant meal we had a few months ago, so I think now is the perfect time to post them! This was the first time I ate at Hagedis in Den Haag, but it’s definitely one of the best restaurants I’ve visited so I can’t wait to go again.

As a starter, my mother and I both ordered the Slagedis, which was lovely. I adore fresh colourful salads during summer!

My Dad and my boyfriend both went for the lentil & tomato soup (of the day), which they assured us was equally delicious.

We also ordered some bread with fig-olive tapenade on the side. While all of this was super yummy, our main course was definitely my favourite part of the meal:

Cashew fondue. Rich, creamy, delicious cashew fondue. My Mum and I shared this dish and my boyfriend and father must have loved it too, because they kept asking for bites! :) Chantal from de Plantaardige Keuken posted her own version of cashew fondue (in Dutch), so I’m definitely going to try this at home sometime. It was so good!

To go with the fondue, we both got a selection of breads & veggies:

I love that they offered so many different foods to dip in the cashew sauce! I especially liked the vegetables. One of my favourites turned out to be the (grilled or roasted?) carrot, which probably wouldn’t have thought of myself but it turned out to be really delicious. The plate also included potato, courgette, corn, two types of bread, a breadstick, tortilla chips, sesame seeds (to dip the fondue-coated veggies in!), and a side salad. Oh my, this meal was so good, writing this post is making me wish I could have it again! Cashew fondue is definitely going on my to-make list.

If all goes well I’ll be back to cooking in my own kitchen again tomorrow, so until then, Happy MoFoing everyone!

(I will now attempt to face my overflowing blog feed reader using an internet connection that hardly lets me load pictures. wish me luck!)

Lunch at Baklust! and shopping in the Hague

My Friday was pretty awesome. I’d spent all week working on assignments, and when I finally handed them in on Friday morning, I decided to celebrate by visiting a couple of stores in the Hague. I bought a few Christmas presents, shopped at one of my favourite stores (Lush!), and I had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant.

I’ll start with the restaurant. The place is called Baklust, and I actually hadn’t heard of it until recently! They sell vegan cakes, sandwiches, empanadas, fresh juices, hot beverages (with soy milk!) and other delicious meals! Their menu is on their website (only in Dutch, but check out their website, it looks lovely!), but there are also daily and/or weekly specials available at the restaurant itself. I love the atmosphere at this place. Look:

I love the little birds everywhere, and their logo is pretty cute, too (that’s the sticker on the brown bag in the middle). My lunch consisted of a spicy seitan sandwich, a pink grapefruit juice, and a piece of vegan cake to take out. The sandwich was awesome. I would probably choose a different type of juice to go with my lunch next time (I liked it, but I’d prefer something a little sweeter), but otherwise this was great!

The sandwich consisted of two slices of bread, spicy pieces of seitan, romaine lettuce, red cabbage, and cucumber raita. I’m a little disappointed that the picture turned out a bit blurry and dark, but… at least you can see what the dish looks like.

For dessert, I bought a piece of vegan cake and took it home to share with my boyfriend. We loved it! I don’t remember exactly what was in it (apart from coconut, obviously), but it was really, really good. I’d love to go back and try their vegan chocolate walnut banana cake! They also have sandwiches with hummus or lentil paté, a grilled sandwich with peanut butter, garlic, sambal and apple, and more… yum yum. I can’t wait to go back sometime!

Afterwards, I walked to the Lush store to pick up a few Christmas presents. I usually order their stuff online, so it was nice to be able to look at (and smell!) the products before actually buying them. When I was at the store, I started talking to a man who turned out to be one of the founders of the company, and we had a conversation about the different products and how awesome Lush is in general. That was great! They gave me a couple of demonstrations of specific bath products, as well, which is alway fun to see..

Lastly, I really wanted to go to Thomas Green, a British/American food specialty store that carries a couple of vegan products I’m interested in. Unfortunately, they were out of vegetarian haggis when I visited, but I did get my hands on a package of Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages. I haven’t opened the package yet, but I’m excited to try them!

Oh, by the way, I love the snow on WordPress. I first noticed these little snowflakes falling down on Mihl and Hannah‘s websites, and now the snow has spread to my blog, as well. Fun!

One last thing: I plan on baking a bunch of cookies for Christmas this year, but I haven’t decided which recipes to make. I do have a few recipes in mind, but … Any suggestions? I know there are loads of excellent cookie recipes in the cookbooks I mentioned in my previous posts, but I’d really appreciate specific recommendations, too!