my favorite vegan meals around the world
although i’ve been traveling my whole life, it’s only been four years since i dove head first into vegan travel. when i went vegan in college i knew that the transition to plant foods would be a little difficult, but with some research it’s as easy as omnivorous travel.
food is big when i travel. i’m awake into the wee hours of the night researching the best vegan restaurants wherever i’m going. i can confidently say that i’ve had some of the best vegan food in the world.
this post isn’t my favorite vegan restaurants, it’s my favorite vegan meal experiences. this is not a definitive list of where to eat. it’s a drive down memory lane of my favorite moments involving food.
you can get great vegan food most anywhere, but meaningful meals are much closer to my heart. hopefully this inspires you to find the beauty and mindfulness in your food.
veggie breakfast toast in split, croatia.
croatia was the first country i visited after going vegan, and i thought it was going to be way harder than it was going to be. split treated me well, with restaurants having labeled vegan options and a lot of fresh pressed juices.
my favorite meal wasn’t at a restaurant. we rented a tiny villa along a side alley with a million steps leading up to it. is was original, authentic and my sister and i couldn’t stand up all the way in out attic bedroom. i loved it.
every morning, my mom would go to the bakery a few doors down and get fresh bread. it was the local’s daily spot, and they’d run out of bread by 8am every day.
my sister would wake up and sauté zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes in olive oil. we set up breakfast on our cobblestone patio and spent the first moments of the morning eating fresh bread and the most flavorful veggies on earth.
fruit salad in ubud, bali
yes, a fruit salad is genuinely on my list of favorite meals. lemme explain.
traveling from colorado to bali is a loooong trip. i flew from denver to san francisco, and had a 10 hour layover where i ate sushi and did yoga in the airport. after my 14 hour flight from san fran to singapore, where i sprinted through the airport to see the marvels in the coolest airport in the world, i took my flight from singapore to bali, where i finally got to my villa in ubud after more than 24 hours of travel. whew.
it was only 4 in the afternoon, and i was planning on exploring ubud for the day when the famous bali downpour convinced me to stay inside. i did my best to stay awake so i could go out after the storm passed, but i fell asleep at 6.
11 hours later, i woke up to a beautiful bali sunset and cried tears of joy that i was finally there. this was a dream trip i had been planning for a year, and i had a whole week to explore before i did my yoga teacher training.
i sat outside on my patio, enjoying the humidity on my skin as the sky turned from pink to light blue. the owner of the hotel was surprised to see me awake, and asked me if i was hungry. i hadn’t ate in 20 hours, at the breakfast she brought me was the most beautiful thing i had ever seen.
along side a huge plate on banana coconut pancakes, she brought a huge bowl of exotic fruits dragonfruit, jackfruit, avocado and bananas. it was everything i expected bali to be: abundant, fresh, and full of life.
peanut noodles in san diego, california
it was my second trip to san diego in the span of two months, and life felt so magical. i was going to a spiritual business event, flying in was breeze, and i dropped my bags at my hostel and immediately went to mission beach.
the hours ran by as i swam in the cold pacific and laid in the sun. i talked to people on the beach as a pod of dolphins lazily floated by. i watched the most magnificent purple sunset i’ve ever seen. the abundance mindset was high.
when the dark set in, i knew exactly where to go for dinner. i’d been to soul shine cafe before. if i personified myself into a restaurant, it would be soul shine. pastel blues, mantras, and the moon cycle adorned the walls. crystal infused teas are included on the menu, as well as a wide variety of healthy vegan dishes.
i love a good peanut noodle dish. ask anyone, i will do unspeakable things for peanut sauce. the peanut noodle salad i had was the right crunch with creamy sauce my little sunburned heart needed.
p.s. shortly after paying i accidentally knocked over their whole p.o.s system. it’s fine, but now i can’t go back out of pure embarrassment.
coconut curry in mo’orea, french polynesia
mo’orea is not the most vegan friendly place on earth. the heart shaped island next to tahiti is well known for fresh fish and sea food, and they don’t focus too much on anything else.
i wrote a whole vegan guide to mo’orea that highlights the best spots to get vegan food around the island, but seeing as i was traveling with my omnivore family, our priority was not vegan spots. i ended up eating a lot of french fries and rice.
one vegan item mo’orea does have an abundance of is coconut, and they make some amazing dishes with it.
my favorite meal was our first day on the island at a restaurant aptly named “sunset restaurant”. not only did it have an amazing view of the purple-pink sunset, but it had labeled vegan options!
while my family got piles of seafood, my coconut curry came out hot and fresh and creamy as hell. my family even abandoned their food to eat mine!
everything at somebody people in denver, colorado
there’s not much of a story here. it was a friend’s birthday, somebody people was the new hot vegan restaurant in denver and we all went.
but the food. holy shit. every single thing i had there is burned into my memory as the best thing i’ve ever had. they highlighted new flavors that were unknown to me, and all their veggies were so high quality.
somebody people has a rotating menu so i can’t recommend exactly what i got, but if you are in denver you need to have that experience.
what has been your favorite vegan meal experience? comment below!
while you’re here, check out my vegan guide to san diego!
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