Tasty burgers and chicken wings without a single chunk of meat

There is a place in Sint-Joost/Saint-Josse that provides deli-­style food that is 100% vegan. It is called The Vegan Butcher's Choice and offers a range of delicious and festive dishes.

When we learned about The Vegan Butcher's Choice, our first reaction was to think: when it comes to vegan cooking, there is a whole culinary world to invent, so why copy current trends in the meat-eating world? “Butcher”? Isn't the word too loaded, tainted with blood? Then, having thought about it, we realised that there is some logic to getting one up on the system by copying it. The reason is that, because meat is so widely available, many of us have constructed our appetites on a foundation of meat dishes. Pavlov was not wrong; it is words such as “burger” and “filet américain” that start your mouth watering.

So, The Vegan Butcher's Choice is like a machine for converting people to the cause of animal welfare (and to the environmental causes related to it). This duo of artisans from Brussels, based in Sint-Joost/Saint-Josse, offers forty or so dishes on their website. We decided to try three of them, as a family: the Mac & Cheez (€15), the Buffalo Chick'n Wings (€15), and the “Special of the Week”, a burger and potato casserole (€16.50). When we were making our choice, we were struck by the vast selection, which ranges from cannelloni to “sausages” and features a variety of “cheeses” and “cold cuts”.

It is possible to place an order for delivery, but we opted to go and collect our meal in person. The collection of the food is highly efficient and Covid-proof: there is minimal contact. There was one small hitch: we would have liked for the reheating instructions to be written on the boxes. In fact, you have to go and look on the website where all the details about the products can be found (including their composition), but once the “Special of the Week” has disappeared from the website, it is hard to know what to do. No big deal.

Best described as superior junk food, the dishes fully lived up to their promises. It tasted right, in part thanks to the generous use of garlic and herbs, and the textures were perfect. We especially enjoyed the Mac & Cheez, which contained little “lardons” that tasted just like the real thing. Of undeniably equal quality, this is a great alternative that would inspire anyone who is sensitive to the suffering of living beings to change their ways.

THE VEGAN BUTCHER’S CHOICE
rue Verbiststraat 6, Saint-Joost-ten-­Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode,
0483-65.67.76 (FR/EN), 0497-13.28.60 (NL/EN), shop.veganbutcher.be
wo/me/We 14 > 19.00, do/je/Thu & vr/ve/Fr 11 > 19.00, za/sa/Sa 10 > 14.00

TAKE AWAY HIGH FIVE:

COIN COIN ••••
Niet Italiaans, wel pastastisch.
Nouveau repaire à pâtes divines.
Not Italian, but still pastastic;
www.coincoinresto.be

ELBOW ••••
Streetfood op z’n Amerikaans.
La street food made in US ? C’est ici.
US style street food.
www.elbowcounter.com

MANGIAVINO ••••
Italiaans zoals in Italië.
L’Italie en V.O.
Authentic Italy.
Mangiavino Ristorante

POISONNERIE KAMO ••••
Sushigenie aan het werk.
Envie de sushi d’auteur ? C'est ici.
The place for sushi masterpieces.
www.poissonnerie-kamo.be

SAINT OCTAVE ••••
Daar is het racletteseizoen.
La saison de la raclette est ouverte.
Here comes raclette season.
www.saintoctave.be