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Continuing my month of actually useful posts, here's my report from the "world's largest and most important food trade fair". The Anuga 2009 opened its doors in Cologne on Saturday and if you're interested in vegetarian food, you might want to consider visiting the following booths (certainly not an exhaustive list):

FIT FOOD - hall 5.1 booth B89 - www.fitfood.be

Fit food's vegetarian delicacies contain no meat and - surprisingly - no soy, either. Instead, they're made from wheat, cereals, vegetables and eggwhite. This is really something different from the other "vegetarian meat" products on the market. I was quite impressed by the samples I tasted. It's a pity these products are currently not sold in Luxembourg, even though their production plant is in Belgium.

Katotofu - hall 5.1 booth D87 - www.katotofu.de

This German company makes a lot more than "just" 7 varieties of tofu. I tried a "MangoCurry SnackBall" (I think) and can confirm that it tastes great even when it's cold (as advertised). Their "Nürnberger" sausages looked scaringly realistic.

Lord of Tofu - hall 5.1 booth D43 - www.lordoftofu.de

No less than 19 varieties of tofu are produced by this German company. All are said to have a distinctive taste due to a secret ingredient Kombucha. They also make spreads for bread and, well, Kombucha.

Tofutown - hall 5.1 booth D28 - www.tofutown.com

Finally a company I already knew, because their "Viana" brand is sold at organic stores and the Cactus chain of supermarkets in Luxembourg. Unfortunately my girlfriend rarely lets me buy any of their products because she thinks they're much too salty (I disagree, but then again, we Germans like to eat crazy amounts of salt). They were also showing soy milk, cream and soy cheese products (Soyatoo brand) which I didn't see anywhere else.

Alfa Sorti - hall 4.1 booth E75 - www.alfasorti.sk

This was really a surprise: A Slovakian company making "vegetarian chicken" and "vegetarian beef" from soy. Unlike many other meat-like products (particularly those made from tofu), Alfa Sorti's products have a realistic texture (I think, it's been a while since I ate any actual meat).

Vegefarm / Soyes - hall 4.2 booth B95 - www.vegefarm.com.tw www.soyes.eu

If you haven't been to Taiwan yet, prepare to be totally amazed because some of these "vegetarian meats" actually taste better than the real thing. "Beef", "chicken", "pork", "fish", it's all there and you can try everything (this booth alone might be worth the entrance fee if you hang around long enough).

Gu Wang - hall 2.1 booth E10 - www.guwang.com.tw

If you've had enough of tofu and "vegetarian meat" by now, here's something deliciously different: Gu Wang (also from Taiwan) makes vegetarian soups, sauces and seasonings. Many of their products are made with Shiitake mushrooms, which I love. If you're wondering what exactly they mean by "brewed delicacies", try the coffee soy sauce.

You can still visit the Anuga 2009 until October 14 (please note this trade fair is "for trade visitors only").

Back to reality

One of my brothers lives in Cologne, so I dropped by to say hello and have dinner together before driving back to Luxembourg. I chose to go to a no-frills organic restaurant close to his place (much to his disapproval). This restaurant, which has superb visitor ratings, turned out to be... closed. From the way it looked, it may be closed for good. I wasn't really hungry, but disappointed nonetheless. Maybe I should move to Taiwan, it's not that restaurants don't go out of business there, it's just so much easier to find good vegetarian food.