If you’re a vegan you might recognize this routine. You ask if something is vegan. You ask another guy at the store if it’s vegan. You go away and you come back another day and you double check. You maybe even get invited into the kitchen. You discuss eggs. You discuss milk. You bring up cheese, fish juice, the whole 9 yards. Finally you are convinced it is vegan. You relax and enjoy it.
Then about a year later – for some reason you don’t really understand – you ask again. And they say… No! It’s totally full of eggs and sheep brains… who told you it wasn’t? Me??? No! My cousin!
Anyway, had a couple of disappointing revelations last week to share.
1- The bitterest of all. I scoured the Marais when I arrived here looking for the elusive chocolate filled vegan croissants promised by this joker here: guess what… I didn’t find them… or any chocolate filled vegan unicorns either. But I did find these almond croissants at the lovely Murciano Bakery on Rue des Rosiers, which were actually more like crescent-shaped marzipan pastry rather than the flaky “French Croissant.” Then last week, I just had to ask one more time in front of my out-of-town vegan friend and… guess what? Full of eggs. Barf me out …
2-Amorino. The widespread chain of Italian glaces artisanales. There’s one very close to my place, and I have been guaranteed repeatedly that the sorbets I get there are just fruit, sugar, water. Ingredient lists were checked. What could possibly go wrong?
Then the other day, I don’t know why, I had to check again and right there with my kids already holding their cups she tells me “Why no… it has milk protein in it.” Don’t think switching to their chocolate soy ice-cream is going to save you because it is full of eggs.
I hope that I don’t need to update this post with more horrors… but I will if I have to, dear vegan readers!
Vegan Pilgrim 
EWWW there’s egg in their soy ice cream?????
soooo disappointing and nauseating- i had it twice last week!! first time consuming milk in like 6 yrs 😦
concerning vegan croissants there’s one place in Paris that makes them : Le Boulanger de Monge (123 rue de Monge).
They have regular croissants and croissants “vegetaux”. You have to come early in the morning because they run out pretty quickly.
Thanks for the lead on vegan croissants. I was about to head over but thought I’d call first. It sounded too good to be true, and it was. Although they do replace the butter with sunflower oil they still brush the top with egg for “dorure”, the lovely golden color. The search continues…
This isn’t quite the same as getting a croissant at a quaint boulangerie, however: you can get vegan croissants and vegan pain au chocolate at the Loving Hut–they’re made at the La Borie commune (in Southern France?), and imported to Loving Hut, which sells them in little bags. They’re best if you take them home and pop them in your oven (or toaster oven, in our case) for a few minutes. We hadn’t had croissants for a very, very long time, so these were a real treat!
They sound yummy! I wish that the Loving Hut here in San Diego could also import them from La Borie. Thanks for sharing this info: I’ll write a post about this so that vegans in Paris don’t miss out on this rare opportunity .
since reading these messages i feel hopeful of finding vegan pastries when i visit paris. i want heaps of them to eat while i visit the louvre. happiness galore.
my boyfriend is french and he said there is “no such thing” as a vegan croissant.
I found vegan croissants today!
There is a vegan cafe-restaurant called “The Loving Hut”, and they also sell some vegan items to take away, like vegan biscuits, chocolate, “cheese”, etc. They also had some packaged croissants! They are meant to be heated in the oven first, though.
The Loving Hut, by the way, has some nice vegan desserts (everything is vegan there). I had their banana split. The vegan whipped cream was delicious, as was the soy ice cream!
~ Rachelle