Some cuisines lend themselves to vegan dining (give thanks for falafel and dhal)but others can be trickier to negotiate. Luckily for anyone stinging for the numbing fire of Sichuan food without the meat, Madame Shanghai is hosting a vegan banquet that will cover the table with ten courses of vegan fare featuring fermented sauces and the ‘strange-flavour’ Sichuan is famous for, combining salty, sweet, numbing, hot and sour.
The menu will feature nuts spiked with Sichuan peppercorns, five spice smoked eggplant, ‘strange flavour’ mung bean noodle salad, crushed cucumber and radish with pickled chilli paste, turnip cake with zucchini flower and vegan XO sauce, Chinese spinach and sweet corn dumplings, and steamed pine nut pumpkin dumplings. There will also be a hot and sour soup, wok fried glass noodle with green beans and kale, oyster mushroom with fish fragrant dipping sauce, and Ma Po tofu with soy bean and pickled mustard vegatable. For dessert you can expect glutinous sesame balls with tangerine syrup, peanut and sesame.