Posted March 15, 2011 by Rob T in General, Veganspiration. Tagged: bratwurst, brighton, dortmund, germany, infinity foods, vegan, vegetarian, vegilicious. 2 Comments

German Vegangstaz, I am very jealous of you right now. I have actually heard that Germany is packed with vegans, but I guess this proves it. Smashing the traditional stereotype that all Germans eat are sausages in different variations with silly names, from frankfurters to bratwurst, comes this tantalising piece of news – Germany (more specifically, Dortmund in Germany) is host to the very first European vegan supermarket. This sounds absolutely awesome, and now, if I’m ever lucky enough to travel to Germany, I’ll be shifting every tourist attraction down a notch and putting this right at the top! And why? Well because the aptly named Vegilicious occupies a total of 100 square metres and is packed with over 1500 tasty products including “chocolate bars, cereals, and even meat imitations, like fake chicken wings, which use cane sugar sticks to serve as ‘bones.'” Now, I can see some vegans cringing at the thought of the chicken wings, but I’m not particularly fussy, so bring ’em on.

I’m pretty lucky to be living in Brighton in the UK where you can barely even walk around some parts without tripping over a veggie burger. We have the wonderful Infinity Foods here, which is 100% vegetarian, and predominantly vegan. But nevertheless, I sometimes feel like I’m walking around a middle-class hippy’s idea of a food shop when I’m in Infinity Foods and the experience can be somewhat off-putting. I’m sure anyone who’s been there will know what I mean (and there must be some Brighton vegans reading this?)

Vegilicious seems to have recognised that, and is offering the authentic supermarket experience. Only your meat fridge is replaced with all kinds of tasty tofu and seitan, and the dairy aisle is packed with soy milk and cheese imitations. Veganism is, day by day, creeping into the mainstream. Vegetarianism used to be rare 30-40 years ago, and now every restaurant from the Michelin starred to McDonalds offer a veggie option. Veganism has some way to go, but it’s growth rate is nonetheless rapid. Vegilicious attribute their current success to this, and we wish them all the best with their project. Hopefully it’ll come to England one day? You know, where all we apparently eat is fish and chips?

That said, you Germans couldn’t resist could you…