Metodi Hristov is an international DJ and the label boss of Set About. Travelling the world, he tells us about the difficulties of living a vegan lifestyle when often eating on the go…

Metodi Hristov: “When I’m at home is very easy to be vegan, because I love to cook and prepare my food. So at home, I mostly eat plant-based food, except when I have no choice but to eat in a restaurant where there are no vegan options. When I’m travelling is very difficult to be vegan and healthy, especially on long trips. Airports and aeroplanes are the worst places for vegans and people who want to eat healthy food. Especially the small airports where usually the only vegan food is chips or food including a lot of sugar. In these cases, I prefer to eat fish or any other seafood. I stopped eating any meat except fish 13-14 years ago. In the first 8 years after I made this step, I was vegan for short periods of time but not a strict vegan. I was eating fish and dairy products from time to time, but I’d wanted to try a plant-based diet for a long period of time, so I became a strict vegan for two years (not even a bite of any animal product). In this period I was struggling a lot during my journeys around the world. I was a fanatic, in this period I preferred to eat everything but animal products, so there were moments during my journeys that I was eating 2-3 days only junk food (bread, sugar, chips…) Especially when I was travelling to South America were back in time it was almost impossible to find vegan food, especially at their airports where I was waiting more than 9-10 hours sometimes. So I started to prepare my food at home before journeys, and I started to carry a lot of food in my baggage. Things like plant-based proteins, all kind of nuts, Goji berry and all kind of healthy powders… also a shaker so I can mix all these powders with water. It was very uncomfortable and it took a lot of time for preparation, but even like that I was not satisfied and I didn’t feel very well. So after two years struggling I started to eat fish again from time to time. I love vegan food and I prefer it, but I think DJ life and veganism are very difficult to combine, except when you are rich enough to afford some expensive extras during your journeys like a chef or someone who can take care of your food. When you are vegan your brain is constantly engaged with the question “where and how to find decent food”. So now I eat only eggs and fish from the animal products, and very very rarely cheese, but that’s only when I can’t find any other decent vegan food. 

I’m very happy I was born in Europe because here you can find vegan food almost everywhere, but I think South America also took big steps in this over the last few years. Today is much easier to find vegan restaurants in Buenos Aires especially compared to four or five years ago. The same thing in Sao Paolo, Montevideo…but in the small cities is still difficult. I love food, so I’m always looking for new ways to eat and live healthily plus be ecologically friendly. So now I’m trying something named the Keto Diet and I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever tried.

In my opinion, the best places for vegan food are London, Berlin and Amsterdam.”

You can pick up Metodi Hristov’s new collaborative release with D-Unity from HERE