Just recently I spent two and a half weeks in Valencia, Spain with my family. There are some places I’d very much like to tell you about.
Before we went I did my research to find an organic bakery, organic supermarket, and some cafés/restaurants that offer plant-based food near our apartment which was located very conveniently at a residential area between the Old Town and Valencia’s biggest 9-kilometer-long park. Also the beautiful Colon Market was within a walking distance.
Ingredients – Organic Bakery, Carrer de Sueca 40
As their name refers, it is all about the ingredients. The breads are made of whole grains, water, salt and their own sourdough. Our absolute favourites were spelt bread and rye bread with seeds. The prices were very favourable – whole spelt loaf was 3 euros and rye loaf 2 euros. I wish I could find organic bread with prices like this in Barcelona!
The atmosphere was really cosy and the people made us feel welcome. Besides the bakery they also have a small organic shop and café offering sandwiches, muffins, cakes, quiches, and freshly squeezed juices.
The breads are ready by 11am. We usually arrived at about 11:30, bought whole loaf, let it cut into slices and just ate it up sipping soymilk cappuccino. This is our usual delicious brunch 🙂 I know nothing better than freshly baked bread!
Tarta de Zanahoria – macrobiotic plant-based lunches, Pintor Salvador Abril 3
We went there knowing it is vegan restaurant, but was very pleased to discover their food was also macrobiotic.
The owner was very friendly and immediately asked whether we were Finnish as she heard us speaking Estonian, which sounds similar. As it turned out, her husband was Finnish – what a small world! Our kid was really happy when she spoke a few words of Estonian to him.
There was a daily menu consisting of soup, salad buffet, main course (we took vegan sushi and okra dish), and a chestnut cake. All was really delicious!
We didn’t have camera with us when we went there the first time. Unfortunately it was closed the second time we specifically planned to take photos. As it was our last day, we could not return.
P.S. They only open for lunchtime – 2pm-4pm.
Kimpira – Organic restaurant, Convento San Francisco 5
We actually wanted to have lunch at El Verdulito (a place I had found on HappyCow before the trip, and it is really a shame we did not make it there), but once again as it may often happen in Spain during holiday season, it was closed. I was ready to go home to cook a quick soup, but our kid was absolutely determined to dine out. So, my husband downloaded HappyCow application and found Kimpira just 5-minutes’ walk away from where we were standing.
Kimpira is located in the Old Town behind Plaza de Ajuntament. The guy behind the counter immediately tried speaking Russian to us 🙂 It turned out he himself was from Russia. He was very nice and friendly – although it was almost 4pm (closing time) he served the hungry three the daily menu, which was hummus with carrots, chestnut-garlic soup, risotto with chickpeas and garlic, and finally a brownie that was exactly to my liking – not sweet and oily at all.
Again, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they promoted macrobiotic food and even had leaflets on tables about plant-based nutrition with T. Colin Campbell’s photo in it 🙂
Ecorgánic Ecomarket – Organic supermarket
They have three stores in Valencia:
Gran Vía Marqués del Turia 42
Gran Vía Ramón y Cajal 27
Avenida Blasco Ibáñez 66
The first one was close to our apartment and this was where we got most of the food from. Organic fresh vegetables had the most favourable prices I have ever seen anywhere. The orange season had just begun while we were in Valencia, so you can imagine the amount of organic oranges we ate 🙂 Organic oranges were sold at 1.15 EUR/kilo. Paradise, I would say!
The only thing they did not have was nutritional yeast, and I tried from several organic stores.
I would say the prices shocked us when we got back to Barcelona – we spent a lot less even though we mainly bought organic food.
We will definitely go back to Valencia to discover new places and enjoy the ones we are already familiar with!
Nele Liivlaid: founder of Nutriplanet.org She has been into healthy eating for many years, but developed a more profound interest in nutrition and related diseases when she started reading The China Study and other special books on nutrition. After being in real estate and hospitality business for more than 10 years she decided to totally change her path to spread the word about healthy and sustainable nutrition and lifestyle.
