Buddha’s Day 2007
Buddha’s Day and Multicultural Festival was once again held at Federation Square (you can read about last years visit here). This time I paid less attention to the cultural activities and more to the the food activies. Well it was noon and we were hungry 
The first stall down by the yarra was a line of ladies deep frying tofu. I was quite impressed with the production line. They cooked just the right amount to allow one to receive a piping hot plate of deep fried goodness, as opposed to a plate of cold rubbery badness.
And this is the goodness - three rubix cube sized blocks of silken tofu, crunchy on the outside and deliciously soft on the inside. Sprinkled with chopped coriander, it was also given a good squirt of hot and sweet chilli sauce. It was a delight to watch the steam rise from the cubes as you cut into them with your fork.
I don’t know what the heck this is called, or really what it is even, but I gather it is intestine?!? Uh huh…gross. But of course, this is intestine that is not intestine, because it is actually rolled and spiced tofu skin. They were crispy on the outside and disturbingly soft on the inside. Salty and five-spiced, I could only eat one as I felt a little icked out (in theory ;-)) Or perhaps it was meant to be sausage?!? I dunno. Anyone?
More production line action, this time $3 cobbed corn or $1 radish cake.
EG ordered the radish cake, which I must say, was really delicious. Grated radish (and perhaps some other vegetables?) were brought together and barbequed. It maintained a soft mashy interior and a crunchy exterior - yum. It was served with an impossibly small dollop of satay sauce and a perfect amount of super hot chilli.
This was an interesting choice - a sticky glutinous rice roll wrapped around a deep fried chunk of youtiao and what appeared to be a vege version of pork floss. It was interesting as far as flavour and texture was concerned. I don’t know if I’d go it again voluntarily. But interesting to try.
Now to some really faux products - this is a vegetarian “peking duck” roll. A thin crepe was wrapped around seasoned vego “duck”, cucumber strips and a large leaf of butter lettuce. It had the flavour of five spice, but actually missed out on the hoisin sauce (which really, is one of my favourite bits).
Mmm…more deep fried goodness in the form of vegetarian curry puffs. Three for $2, they provided perfect curry snackage between courses
A steaming bowl of Vietnamese pho, complete with braised potato/yam and vegetarian mystery meat in the way of sliced “beef” balls. How wonderful to have such perky basil, chilli and lemon to add freshness and flavour.
Now to a less perky soup - laksa. After sampling Laksa Me recently, this one really doesn’t compete. But it was okay coming from a food stall - spicy coconut broth soaked tofu, carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts and egg noodles. It was a little overdone as opposed to bursting with freshness.
And finally to dessert (well as close as I was going to come to it considering all the red bean pancakes had sold out!). I can’t remember the name of this one, but basically it’s a red bean / soy bean / grass jelly / ice cube / gula melaka / coconut concoction. You have to stir it all up with your spoon, and then dig in and chew/sip/chew. I really enjoyed the liquid portion, though I found the beany bit a little heavy going towards the end. But it was refreshing!
Written by mellie on
May 20th, 2007 | Tags: festivals, vegetarian | Category: Uncategorized
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May 22nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
I ate some of that pho. Not impressed! The basil leaves didn’t save it for me. Left it for the seagulls. I think your setting yourself up for failure when you make vegetarian BEEF noodle soup.
The atmosphere down there was nice though. We enjoyed the day.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Hey noodle - to be perfectly honest I only tried a little of that particular pho (it actually belonged to someone else). So I guess it probably did suck when one got down to the “beef” etc ;-). I just thought it looked the business with all the fresh goodies. Thanks for voicing your opinion on that.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Wow, Michael and I are bummed that we missed Buddha’s day - so many curious bits and pieces to sample! It was a pleasure to discover it through your taste-testing anyway.
(*makes note in diary for 2008*)
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:48 am
Hi Cindy - definitely put this one in your diary as the Buddhist intent makes it a veritable vegetarian feast (therefore right up your alley!). It is usually held in April/May, and I get the heads up here.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 am
Hrmm..i wonder if there’re more festivals to come (more food to try!) I heard the Japanese festivals just went by (on Sunday). I missed out coz I had to study for an exam on Monday. Anyway, I think that concoction u had for dessert is “Ice Kacang”? From the description of it, sounds like “ice kacang”
May 25th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Aaahh! The boy and I were really looking forward to this too — can’t believe I missed it! Spent the weekend cooking for his birthday instead.. at least he was grateful
The tofu looks AMAZING. Some of the dishes you tried looks really interesting, nothing I’ve really ever seen before (e.g. the sticky glutinous rice roll wrapped around youtiao). The radish cake looks really good as well - may have to add this to my Best-In-Melbourne search as well as the eggtarts
May 25th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Have u heard? The Melbourne Italian Festival is on soon (now?) Would you know if there’ll be lots of food to sample? And will u be going?
May 25th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Hi Mellie,
Sounds like a wonderful day of food tasting! We have pencilled it in for next year.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Wow, all the food looks yummy!
I’m really curious about the glutinous rice roll/youtiao/pork floss thing. I missed Buddha Day this year though, might look to go next year.
May 27th, 2007 at 7:40 am
It all looks really interesting. You get to try all the good stuff
May 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Hi moodie foodie - there are some great festivals held in Melbourne. The hard bit is finding out where and when they are! A good source of information is White Hat. Sign up to his email list - you’ll receive a weekly summary of what’s happening around town.
Hey mel. - uh huh, the radish cake was fantastic! You certainly may add it to your “best of” hunts
Hello gourmand - a tip for next year - make sure you go on the first day. Some of the yummier dishes sold out by the time I got there.
Hi mouse - yes, I was curious about the glutinous rice roll too, which is why I wanted to sample it. I really loved the crunchy youtiao inside the soft and sticky rice. But the floss was just a little too sweet. It was bizarre.
Hey squishy - uh huh, I love to get out there and expand my culinary horizon
May 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Hey Tummy Rumbles,
Great review, thanks for all those tasty looking pics!. Once again, I wrote down this feast in my diary but didn’t get a chance to go down on the weekend, because of a rather dreaded head cold. I think, a bit of that hot sweet chilli sauce would’ve been just the kinda kick I need!
May 29th, 2007 at 3:00 am
Hiya m’s nemesis - ooh, sorry to hear you had a head cold (I feel your pain as I’m suffering one right now!). Don’t worry, it’ll be on again next year, and I’m sure bigger and better
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:21 am
actually, the dessert you have is called Chendol. Ice Kachang is a similar dessert that’s topped with a mountain of ice shaving, laced with various types of colored syrups. there usually is sweet corn, palm seeds, red beans, etc at the bottom for discovery.
chendol is typified by the green starched jelly/noodle thing (which i think is called chendol as well) that you’ve captured in your photo.
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:51 am
i forgot to mention that one of the reasons vegetarian laksa usually doesn’t compare to other laksas is that, well, as Noodle suggested: it’s difficult to get beef without beef. much of laksa (lemak) cannot be replicated in a buddhist vegetarian manner largely because of the latter’s lack of the key ingredient, shrimp. not to mention, even basics like garlic, and (i’m quite sure) onions.
buddhist vegetarian meals are more often for affectation purposes, meant only to *look* like the original ‘flesh-based’ dishes. so really any comparative remarks made in this entry isn’t so much a case of apple against apple, but apple against orange.
(sorry to be a stickler for details, but seeing as how i did grow up in a part-buddhist household…)
June 3rd, 2007 at 2:05 am
Thanks for all the info guys (or girls). Much appreciated!
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:59 am
Hey there solvent_d - thank you so much for providing some wonderful information. You are not being a stickler for details, you are just more informed than I
You know, I think I could forgo a lot of meat dishes, but if I had to cut out onions, garlic, ginger etc., I would be a very unhappy girl