Vegan food gets a bad rep. For meat eaters that look down on vegans, the idea of meat substitute seems laughable. Why have the substitute when you can have the real thing?
Well, today I’m showing you guys a special vegan food market held once a month that no true foodie should miss out on. Why?
Because a true foodie doesn’t shun any form of cuisine. A true foodie only shuns what doesn’t taste good.
Here are all the details:
SYDNEY VEGAN MARKET
- ADDRESS
The Market EQ, 122 Lang Rd, Moore Park
The vegan market is held on the 3rd Sunday every month at Moore Park. The market opens from 9am – 4pm.
I invited my parents along as a fun day out, and also because all three of us aren’t very experienced with vegan food.
I’m a meat eater. I love beef. I grew up eating meat. All of this means, I’m very very ignorant when it comes to vegan food. The common ingredients, the cooking methods, the flavour palettes.
Completely new to me.
So I figured having my parents with me would be a fun way to experience something new together.
It was extremely hot the day I went, but thankfully there were shaded areas. However most of it was out in the open.
My advice is to put the sunscreen on THICK.
Here’s a quick layout of the area.
Fun fact: November is world vegan month. (Didn’t know there was a month dedicated to it)
There were so many food stalls, but there were also other stalls such as entertainment, arts & crafts and other items. The place was pet friendly, family friendly, so bring your dog and toddlers along!
Best part of it is the free parking at the Entertainment Quarter for 2 hours!
We started our food adventure with vegan lasagna.
I honestly couldn’t tell it didn’t have any meat in it, which I thought was pretty incredible since lasagna typically has a strong beef flavour from mince.
If I was to compare it with the non vegan version, I would still happily order and eat the vegan one. Both my parents couldn’t tell it was vegan either. So that’s 3 meat eaters saying the vegan lasagna didn’t taste like vegetables.
The “cheese” was also a lot better than the vegan cheese I tried cooking with in a previous video. Click here to watch the vegan cheese that doesn’t melt.
The cheese they used melted and behaved like real cheese, while the vegan cheese I bought at Woolies …well, let’s not talk about that disaster.
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Next up we got a pulled pork crepe with slaw. This instantly got me curious when I saw it on the menu.
And watching them cook it made me even more curious.
The crepe is made from this floury powder mixture dusted onto the pan instead of batter. The pulled pork uses jack fruit which is barbecue flavoured. The slaw and cheese is then added on top with some crushed cashew nuts.
Does it look like a pulled pork crepe? No.
Does it taste like a pulled pork crepe? No.
BUT does it taste good? Yes.
It was really good. The textures of the different vegetables and the sauced jack fruit as well as the cashews made it really fun. And as my mum puts it “stimulates your tastebuds”.
It’s something you could eat even if you’re full. It goes down easily and it’s just a fun dish to eat I’ll happily order again.
My dad is a big fan of meat pies, so we had to get one for him once he saw it.
The pie wasn’t bad, but it lacked the flavour depth you get from meat. The filling was generous and overall, it wasn’t unpleasant. However, saying that, I would prefer a meat pie over this substitute.
So…as I was sweating in the heat and my grey shirt was getting “social-media-unacceptable”, a nice lady from the Hong Kong street food stall came over to give me their coconut mango sago drink.
(I must have looked like a breath away from heatstroke for her to walk over to me from so far)
The coconut mango sago is actually a drink I love and order each time I go to a Hong Kong dessert place. And this place made it extremely well.
The balance of sweet, tart and creaminess was perfect. The amount of fruit pulp and sago balls was also perfect. Not too much that it feels like I’m eating a snack, but not too little that I still get a good mouthful with each gulp.
We also tried their vegan char siu buns which were also really good.
You could tell it didn’t have meat in it, but the flavour profile was very similar to the char siu buns you get at dim sum restaurants.
Another item we tried out of curiosity was the chueng fan and curry fish balls.
The curry tasted like the curry you get on Hong Kong streets, but the fish balls had a different texture than what you would expect.
The chueng fan on the other hand was a real winner. Extremely well made, silky smooth with a bite to it. Not mushy, not gritty, not heavy.
My mum even said it reminded her of the chueng fan she grew up eating. So that’s a big compliment.
Ok, so we definitely went over the 2 hours of free parking by now and there was still lots to eat.
It was time to get a chilled dessert to beat the summer heat.
We found this vegan ice cream place called Supernice Kream and had to get some. My favourite from the place was the passionfruit because the texture and consistency was the most similar to ice cream, and the passionfruit was so refreshingly good.
The perfect summer treat.
Next up, I found this very cool looking ice cream van serving a whole bunch of chilled “creamy” goodies.
I ordered an Affogato because my dad wanted iced coffee and I couldn’t find any.
SO, hot espresso with ice cream was the next alternative.
The coffee was rich and the vanilla ice cream was also refreshing. Another great treat to beat the summer heat with.
…I thought dessert would conclude my vegan adventure, but my mum had room for more and wanted to try the vermicelli. We got a Shantung Chicken with taro ball and rice noodle bowl.
This thing was massive, filled to the bring and required balancing skills and a strategy to eat!
The Shantung chicken was the typical Chinese vegetarian bean curd meat. Meaning, you can tell it’s not meat, but it still tastes really good.
The taro balls were pretty much just taro and vegetables. I would probably pass on those next time. But the rice noodles, were cooked perfectly. Nicely seasoned, evenly cooked and the ratio of noodle to extra veg was perfect.
