Monday, 20 June 2022
To no surprise Padua has branches of the
artisanal ice-cream parlour chain
Grom in the very city centre. They are located at Piazza dei Signori and in Via Roma. But since the formerly Italian chain was acquired by Unilever in 2015 and turned into their natural ice-cream brand all promises to organic ingredients have disappeared.
Fortunately there's an alternative: About 50 meters to the right from the Grom at Piazza dei Signori you'll find the city's only fully organic ice-cream parlour,
Gelateria Gnam Gnam, and in 2022 it was definitevely more frequented by locals than the Grom next door!
It is amazing how much delight one can add to natural artisanal ice-cream when restricting oneself to 100 percent organic ingredients. The Gnam Gnam fare is extremely delicate, with a lot of (changing) surprising flavours such as grappa or "cookies and cream", about one third of them vegan. For an extra surplus you can choose the flavour of your wafer cone: plain of course, or perhaps ginger, cinnamon, liquorice...?
The (vegan) slush goes under the name Venetian ghiacciate, and can be had in surprisingly many different flavours. The one dubbed "exotic" with peach and mint was extremely delicate and not overly sweet. The coffee ghiacciate is a deliciously melting dream, ways better than the extremely tasty one I had many years ago at a Grom branch in Florence. In 2022 the large ghiacciate serving comes at 6 EUR.
Apart from this you can also have freshly pressed fruit juices or chocolate-coated ghiaccioli (iced lollies). The coffee for the caffe affogato (espresso with ice-cream) unfortunately is made from coffee capsules and -- like the ghiacciate -- served in one-way paper cups.
If you find it difficult to part buy a package of organic meringues or a small glass of the organic spices they use (like cinnamon, liquorice, curcuma or ginger) for you or as a small gift.
For a change you may also try ICream.it north of Prato della Valle. Their ice-cream is hidden in locked containers instead of openly presented, an important sign for high quality ingredients and no fuzz processing. Flavouring ingredients like basil or matcha often are organic and play the most important part in extremely smooth non-diary ice-creams (I had an intense yet delicate lemon-basil which unfortunately isn't always available). The milk used in the non-vegan flavours is not organic, but feel free to enquire about the origin of the ingredients: When I was there the staff was both friendly and knowlegeable. In 2018 a single scoop went for 2 EUR, and I did not have the time to check whether the place still exists in 2022. Let me know if you do.
No longer organic or no longer existing
2022-06-20 15:00:00
[Padua, Padova, biologico, organic, vegan, ice-cream, gifts]
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Sunday, 12 June 2022
Those with a sweet tooth may feel in heaven when coming to the comparatively ugly urban sprawl which comprises the municipality of Selvazzano Dentro south-west of Padua and north of Abano Terme: In the neighbourhoods of San Domenico and Tencarola, devided by the crossing of the river Bacchiglione you will find a confectioner's shop cum day bar, an ice-cream parlour and finally a supermarket serving customers preferring organic food and delights.
When entering the municipality from the west following Via Euganea your first stop should be at a roundabout with
an Italian day bar cum Viennese-style cafe cum confectioner's shop where the main ingredients are organic.
At Pasticceria Da Angelo you will find organic and vegan options clearly marked, and the friendly staff will proudly and often even unasked point out what's organic. If you don't feel like a delicate ice-cream or a gorgeous pastry along with an organic coffee drink (with organic soy milk if you prefer) have
a tramezzino sandwich or toast together with a freshly made organic smoothie, or an organic soft drink. Vegan sandwich options are readily available, with organic "cold cuts", while the meat items on non-veg versions usually aren't organic. A serving of ice-cream comes at 1.40 EUR, with each additional scoop for 1.10 EUR. Vegan varieties aren't restricted to fruit flavours, you can also choose among a number of flavours made with rice or almond drink. Buy a bag of organic cookies to take home if you like, and if you're lucky there may be an organic lunch, dinner or ice-cream special during your stay. Advanced booking by phone is required for such an event.
Not enough ice-cream or arriving after half past nine in the evening? Well, you can be helped.
Gelateria Soleluna a few meters east opposite Hotel Piroga uses more than 80 percent organic, and predominantly locally sourced ingredients for their granite, gelati, and ice cakes. A delight not to be missed,
one ice-cream scoop goes for 1.40 EUR, each additional one adds approximately 1 EUR to your bill. Personally I prefer the delicate, creamy dairy flavours to the vegan fruit-based ones. The granite are available in two sizes, for 2.80 or 3.50 EUR – the refreshing lime-mint or coffee varieties will get you going in a minute on a warm summer day. Unfortunately the granite are served in one-way plastics cups, each with one-way teaspoon and straw, so you will produce a lot of waste.
On bank holidays the shop keeps open as on Sundays.
Groceries
To buy everything you need organic, from fruit and veges over dairy products and vegan alternatives to dry food, natural cosmetics, the forgotten towel or household detergents follow Via Euganea in eastern direction, cross both, the bridge over the river, and the street side. Here, on Via Padova (the street changes its name in Tencarola) you'll find a well assorted NaturaSi supermarket which also has a small section of self-service zero waste dispensers for grains and a few other dry foods and refill for most household detergents. This would also be the place you had to do most of your organic shopping when living in one of the villages in the vicinity – your next real options being the NaturaSi in Abano Terme or, naturally, the ones in the city of Padua.
Closed
- Come una volta, Montegalda,
Via Roma, 45 (neighbourhood grocery)
2022-06-12 10:00:00
[Padova, Padua, Selvazzano, Montegalda, organic, biologico, zero_waste, vegan, ice-cream, supermarkets, coffee, cafe, grocery, bodycare, household, confectioners]
[direct link · table of contents]
Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Decent artisanal ice-cream made from organic milk has been readily available in Salzburg's inner city for years, but the first 100 percent organic gelateria opened only in March 2019: Höfingers Eisladen located next to Mozart's birth place at Universitätsplatz may be new as a light and pleasantly decorated ice-cream shop, but the Höfinger family has been making ice-cream in town since 1933. (Given the year I'd expected some historical details on the company's website, but unfortunately there are none.)
At present the ice-cream is being sold from the very plastic containers that the manufacturer also delivers to restaurants like
Organic Pizza Salzburg, but the ice-cream tastes delightfully fresh and creamy and is well worth the 1.80 € the single scoop. Two scoops come at 3.40 €, three at 4.50 €, every additional flavour adds an extra 1.40 € to the bill. As for all other ice-cream makers in this blog post the ice-cream is heavier than you may be used from Italian gelaterie, and there's a range of flavours (like the poppy seed ice-cream) that are special to Austria.
The place is used by an organic confectioner's shop during the cold season – most of the ice-cream shops listed here re-open somewhen between mid of March and early April. However, the second Höflinger shop, the Kiosk "Unten am Fluss" at the Southern side of Marko-Feingold-Steg (the pedestrian bridge with the love locks) sold organic ice-cream already early in March, 2022.
The Höflinger shop also sells coffee drinks from a small home-sized coffee automat, but you may prefer to proceed next door to Fabi's Frozen Bio Yogurt located within the very building of Mozart's birthplace which sports a real bar-sized Italian pressure machine. This clean, no-frills ice-cream parlour uses organic milk, both for their extremely tasty frozen yogurt and the Italian-style coffee drinks.
In addition to the plain yogurt they occasionally have a passion fruit variety. Unfortunately the organic promise in the name of the place is restricted to the milk. Neither the toppings (with a notable exception of some caramelized nuts) nor the coffee sold here are organic. The yogurt comes in small, medium and large sizes, always in cardboard cups with a plastic spoon. So even if you choose to sit down with your frozen yogurt at one of their tables in- or outdoors you cannot avoid waste. This is not comprehensible as the coffee drinks are being served in creamware, and even worse: you pay less when taking it away in a one-way coffee cup.
During the cold season (which lasts from November through February/March) or on a (very) rainy day the only ice-cream made from organic milk comes from a local chain dubbed Icezeit and is offered by
Cafe Timeless a few steps off the Linzergasse pedestrian area. Prices vary depending on the flavour: Basic ones like coffee come at 1.50 EUR the scoop, more elaborated ones like Rafaello (coconut-white chocolate) at 2.70 EUR.
Icezeit prefers fairly traded and sustainably grown ingredients, and runs several ice-cream shops both, north and south of the river Salzach during the warm season. Creamy, and with a mouth-watering selection of flavours ranging from the usual suspects to greek honey yogurt or peanut caramel, this ice-cream is hard to resist. Avoid the (additional) toppings you can buy on top as none of them are organic.
They also have a frozen yogurt shop opposite the ice-cream parlour in Kaiviertel near Residenzplatz where you pay by weight, and in 2019 a new ice-cream shop opened in the tourist hotspot of Linzergasse.
All Icezeit shops keep open longer than given below when outside temperatures are high while you may find them closed on extremely bad weather days.
Almost side-by-side with the new Icezeit shop in Linzergasse you'll find the Salzburg branch of Eis-Greissler, a Kulmbach-based organic dairy farm producing their ice-cream from the milk of their own cows, often scented with organic spices from the Sonnentor farms (which by coincidence, have a shop next door).
The second fully organic ice-cream shop in town is located in the neighbourhood of Gneis and specializes in vegan ice-cream: The Veganer Eisladen is affiliated with The Green Garden restaurant, cafe and bar and a pleasant destination for a bicycle tour.
Ceased to exist
The following places do no longer exist, even though you still might find references to them on the web:
2022-05-25 14:00:00
[Salzburg, organic, vegan, ice-cream, frozen_yogurt]
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Friday, 31 December 2021
One of the oldest cities in Germany, with roots back in Roman history, a rich medieval history – including the world's oldest intact social housing project, the Fuggerei –, and the birthplace of Bertolt Brecht, one of the most influential writers in modern theatre, Augsburg is without doubt worth a visit. Conveniently located on the railway tracks between Munich and Nuremberg, urban trains ("Regionalbahn"/"Regionalexpress") from Munich central station depart twice an hour (at day time) and can be used with the Bayernticket flat-rate ticket for Bavaria which is the budget option if you plan to travel from and to Munich on one day (one way takes about 45 minutes). Augsburg is also an ICE/IC train stop: These high velocity trains will save you about a quarter of an hour on this route, but tickets usually come at a significantly higher price.
If you plan to stay overnight there's a pleasant fully organic hotel about three kilometers from the main train station, the
Bayerischer Wirt, a certified Bio Hotel
in the suburb of Lechhausen, yet easily accessible by tram and bus or bike.
Although the hotel is located directly at a noisy main road, the outdoor seating area in the backyard is a peaceful oasis. The hotel restaurant serves Bavarian meat and fish dishes as well as internationally inspired vegetarian ones – with varying results: While the roasted meat was perfectly done (rare as requested, caramelized yet melting), and served with the most delicate onion crisps I've ever tasted, the strips of veal in mustard cream were quite bland and uninspired – health food with boringly blanched veges and saltless (though home-made) spaetzle. Instead of ordering bottled mineral water you may fetch tap water from the water dispenser at no cost. Needless to say that all drinks are organic, too, and the aperitifs were a pleasant refreshment in the summer heat. The dessert menu is quite limited – prefab organic ice-cream, home-made cakes and a parfait when I visited.
If a healthy local kitchen with liberal opening hours does not satisfy your expectations of a city vacation, there are two promising day cafes easily reachable for cyclists on the way from the main station to Lechhausen:
Café Himmelgrün near the
banks of the river Lech in Berliner Allee serves fully organic breakfast, lunch, coffee and cakes, and you can also find sustainable gifts and nice things. The cafe is run by Augsburg-based organic bakery Schubert – you may have come across the name at the bakery counters of organic supermarkets, both in Munich, Nuremberg and elsewhere in Bavaria.
In front of the cafe's outdoor area the bakery has installed a mobile sales booth for bread, snacks and cakes of yesterday's production, from the quality control desks, with short best-before date or small blemishes, all sold at low fixed prices: A kilogram of bread for example comes at 3 EUR, yesterday's savoury snacks at 1 EUR the piece, and six pieces of cake at 7 EUR. Customers are encouraged to reduce waste and take home their purchase in their own bags or boxes. Unfortunately the booth dubbed Grünfux deluxe is closed in the afternoon as well as on Mondays and on weekends.
Augsburg's long history of textile fabric production, print and trade is reflected in the Bavarian State Textile and Industry Museum, less than 10 minutes from the inner city hotspot Königsplatz by tram no. 6. The museum's cafe dubbed
nunó (from the Japanese word for "cloth") is not only a charming spot in an impressive industrial building of a former spinning mill, but also predominantly and certified organic, serving light and internationally inspired lunch, breakfast and Sunday brunch, and of course a recreational coffee. Meat, bread, veges, and eggs are reliably organic and of regional origin if possible while drinks at the bar are still predominantly conventional. As most museums the place is closed on Mondays and – except for special occasions – in the evenings.
If you are so unfortunate to strand before closed doors the next organic supermarket with a small bistro – a branch of the Denn's Biomarkt chain – is located in walking distance.
Inner city
My absolute favourite for meeting friends or family is the cosy day cafe and bar
Dreizehn within the
Kresslesmühle cultural centre. The food is
100 percent
vegan, properly seasoned and absolutely delicious. There's a daily changing special meal (a marvellously filling mushroom-spiced polenta with ratatouille, fried organic tofu crumbles and salad when I was there) in addition to the small standard menu. Unfortunately it's not possible to have breakfast yet, and when you cannot sit outside next to the old mill stream due to weather conditions it's advisable to book a table.
In the backyard of St. Anne's church, the Annahof next to the fenced city market, the church parish gives host to a lively all-day cafe restaurant cum bar dubbed Anna with a great outdoor area, which is open in the evenings, too. The place serves lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch inspired by international kitchens. Once it was certified organic, but since it no longer is the restaurant is not allowed to advertise with organic ingredients. Nevertheless the managing director assured me that they were still using as much organic produce as before: both eggs, milk and most fruit come from organic
farms and distributors in the vicinity. On the menu
you'll find organic beer (Lammsbräu), on occasions organic wine (ask for it), lemonade (charitea) and ice-tea. For breakfast you can have
organic crunchy cereals, and
the bread comes from the Schubert bakery. Unfortunately meat products usually aren't organic. During the warm season the cafe sells organic ice-cream to take away in a biscuit cone, delivered by the Cramer's confectioner's. Only plain flavours like vanilla, chocolate, plan hazelnut and lemon were available in July 2019, the scoop at 1.50 EUR.
For a light vegan lunch bowl or a smoothie stop by 100 percent organic ice-cream shop Juice 'n Cream in the
Ulrichsviertel neighbourhood.
If you are in the mood for a pizza there's a branch of the partially organic NineOFive chain at
Fuggerplatz.
For a no-frills coffee, snack or lunch you may also head for the self-service cafe at the city branch of the Basic organic supermarket chain
between the state theatre and the cathedral.
Want a liquid give-a-away or treat yourself with a good bottle of organic wine or high-quality juice?
Uli Scheffler Weinhandel in the Bismarckviertel is one of those small owner-run shops that create the soul of a city: Describe your occasion, and Uli will come up with a suggestion for you
that (as to my taste and knowledge) will work (and taste) perfectly. While the shop keeps open on Saturdays you'll have to go without his advice as you'll find Uli at the Mariahilf farmers' market in Munich on that day of the week.
Around the main train station – bakeries and package-free
For last minute travel provisions you can buy an organic snack or sandwich at the Hofpfisterei bakery branch five minutes from the main train station. Unfortunately it's closed both on Saturdays and Sundays.
If you have some more time the city's package-free supermarket Ruta Natur is located no more than 10 minutes from the train station, directly on the way to the Stadtmarkt market place.
Alternatively you may proceed to the
Schubert branch at the tram hub of
Königsplatz. There used to be a serviced day cafe but after some reconstruction work the area of the bakery shop has diminished to the sales counter and a small self-service area where you may sit down with a sandwich or snack. When the weather is nice there are also chairs and tables outside. The coffee drinks from the automatic machine could taste better, but everything is organic.
There's another Schubert branch inside the city market, around the corner from St. Anne's church (and you'll find another Hofpfisterei branch there, too).
Sunday-open in Hochzoll
To buy fresh bread, rolls or cake on a Sunday morning you have to commute to 12-Apostel-Platz in Augsburg-Hochzoll where the only Sunday-open
Schubert branch is located. It also sports a cafe, most suitable on weekdays, though.
More on Augsburg
Closed
- Lokalhelden,
Bleigässchen 2,
(vegetarian and vegan restaurant)
- Mom's Table, Maximilianstr. 77 (vegan restaurant)
- Schwarze Kiste,
Gögginger Str. 26
- Sowieso, Schießgrabenstr. 4
(organic
restaurant and cafe, social enterprise)
-
Färberei,
Färbergäßchen 5 (restaurant), replaced by partially organic winery and bar Tante Frizzante und Herr Brand,
Tue–Thu(Fri) 17(16)–23(1),Sat 12–1
2021-12-31 20:45:01
[Augsburg, Augusta, organic, vegan, vegetarian, breakfast, lunch, dinner, Franconian, German, restaurant, eatery, hotel, accommodation, ice-cream, cafe, coffee, supermarkets, grocery, bakeries, zero_waste, unverpackt, wine]
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Monday, 13 September 2021
Ice-cream has never been as popular as during the covid-19 pandemic when ice-cream parlours started early in the season, and grown-ups ceased to preach that it was too cold to have one. (Although, in August 2021, I accidentally listened to the conversation between an ultra-thin insta-styled woman, presumably in her thirties, with her parents at their weekend get-together at a an ice-cream parlour in Bremen -- while temperatures were about 22 degree Celsius: Mother, deciding on a sundae: "Wouldn't you like to have an ice-cream, too?" Daughter: "Oh, no, thank you, it's too cold. I'll have a water.")
As the interest for quality local and organic produce has been increasing (too slowly, but significantly) I wasn't surprised to find a new organic ice-cream spot in the city of Leipzig, while filling the time between two trains with a stroll.
With more than 20 shops within the city boundaries the family-owned conventional bakery Lukas seems to be the largest bakery chain in Leipzig -- probably not the place you might look for organic ice-cream. But in May 2021 they started to produce twelve types of organic ice-cream at their branch at Bayrischer Platz. This must have proved to be a success since I found it at their cafe am Brühl, though only the four most basic flavours (vanilla, mango, chocolate and strawberry), at 1.20 EUR the scoop. The cafe also offers organic fairly-traded coffee (on the spot or in a Recup retour cup to take with you) and a small assortment of organic soft-drinks -- check for the "bio" label. Unfortunaltey th milk isn't organic. The cafe has quite liberal opening hours although I'm not sure whether you can buy an ice-cream at 7 o'clock in the morning.
Just around the corner from the Macis restaurant you'll find the city's organic ice-cream maker, Tonis. Unfortunately I was too late after dinner and could only watch them closing. They also have a second branch in famous Könneritzstraße.
More to try
As mentioned above my time in Leipzig was limited (as was my upfront research) -- but here are a few more tips, for you to try (and tell me if you like):
2021-09-13 16:00:00
[Leipzig, organic, ice-cream, cafe, coffee]
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