The royal noodles soup is a take on the Vietnamese dish Bun Bo Hue and it’s lovely and fragrant. Photo: Martin Conway.
If you’re a vegan, you’re likely well acquainted with Dickson’s Au Lac.
Having first opened its doors at the turn of the millennium, I think it’s safe to say they’re a Canberra institution, and you only have to look at the award-lined walls to see how loved they are by the vegans of Canberra.
For vegans, Au Lac has an obvious function. Often confined to the periphery of menus, where there might be a sad veggie patty or a lone mushroom looking for a friend, Au Lac offers a world where worries about rogue fish sauce or secret honey making its way into the dish are non-existent.
I don’t fall into the category of a vegan, a vegetarian, or even vegan-curious.
My penchant for pork runs strong, so what am I doing here writing about one of Canberra’s most beloved vegan institutions? While pork has a stranglehold on my heart (hopefully only as a metaphor), I do enjoy the occasional meat-free meal. After more than 20 years of regularly walking past the doors of Au Lac, it seemed overdue to pop in and see what they can offer someone like me.
The extensive menu covers dishes from a wide range of Asian cuisines, including Malaysian, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. It’s also worth noting that they specialise in meat alternatives, and what this means in a practical sense is that you won’t be eating lentils and green things. You will be eating dishes in which a soy-based meat alternative replaces the primary protein, which makes them ideal for meat-eaters looking to reduce their meat intake.
Peking duck pancakes inspire the soy duck wraps and are a good place to start when trying soy-based meat alternatives. Photo: Martin Conway.
Across two visits, I dipped into a range of the cuisines on offer, some successful, some less so, and it all started with the soy duck wraps.
As a meat-eater, this entree will likely feel very familiar, as it is inspired by Peking duck pancakes, with a slice of soy duck, a stick of cucumber and a little hoisin, all wrapped in a thin wrapper.
If this is your first foray into soy meat alternatives, it’s a great place to start. The ‘duck’ somehow manages to have a crispy exterior and duck-like texture. Sure, it isn’t succulent and juicy like duck should be, but the flavours are good, and think of the duck you saved that day.
The soy chicken satay skewers come piping hot and are subtle but very enjoyable. Photo: Martin Conway.
I will do my very best not to compare every soy meat alternative to the real thing; that’s not what it’s really about here. This is really about opening up great options for those who choose an animal-product-free lifestyle, and it wouldn’t be fair to continually make comparisons.
The next entree really did have me forgetting all about meat, and that’s the soy chicken satay skewers. Arriving at the table piping hot, these skewers have a lovely textural chew and while the satay sauce is reasonably subtle, the overall dish was a winner.
The southern BBQ pork is a mountain of non-meat that’s sweet and tasty. Photo: Martin Conway.
Moving into the main dishes, Southern BBQ soy pork is an impressive mound of non-meat that’s a little sweet and a little chewy (in a good way) with a nice little crisp on the outside. I could imagine packing away a plate of these with a good beer, … hang on, isn’t beer vegan?
To accompany the soy pork, I fought with my dining companion to ensure we ordered the rendang. I had misplaced optimism at seeing how the famous Malaysian dry curry could be recreated without beef. Turns out it can’t, and this dish is maybe best compared to a sausage curry with loads of thick, soupy gravy. Maybe the less said about that the better.
The rendang prompted the second visit, and I was so pleased that we went back, as the next round of mains was a winner all round. The Vietnamese crepe had a lovely crispy shell and came with all the sides to wrap it up in the traditional way with herbs and lettuce. This dish would normally come with a fish sauce-based dipping sauce, and the fishless variety was decent.
The Vietnamese crepe is stuffed with tofu and bean sprouts and comes with sides to wrap it in. Photo: Martin Conway.
We wrapped up the two visits with the highlight for me: the royal noodles soup. This vegan take on the Vietnamese dish, bun bo hue, had a much lighter broth than the traditional beef version, but was lovely and fragrant with lemongrass and ginger. The soy-beef alternative was texturally pleasing and not sausage-like. The bean-curd knots were tasty, and the tofu had a soft centre, which I enjoyed. The dish comes with a plate of Vietnamese mint, mint, lemon and chilli to add to the soup. I ended up demolishing this bowl of soup with extreme fervour.
Now that I’ve been inside, I think I might be a changed person, not because I went one meal without meat, but because I can now stop making wisecracks about the likelihood of the food being overly salty from the tears of vegans who’d rather be eating meat. There wasn’t even one sad vegan to be found in there, just a room of satisfied diners and two happy carnivores enjoying a meat-free meal.
Au Lac is located at 4/35-39 Woolley St, Dickson. They’re open from Thursday until Sunday, from 11:30 am until 2:30 pm and 5 pm until 9:30 pm, and Monday to Wednesday, from 5 pm until 9:30 pm. There is a second outlet in Woden at Westfield Woden, Shop G90A Corinna St.
Original Article published by Tenele Conway on Region Canberra.
