Vista Weekly Popups

The plant-based food scene is growing throughout San Diego. And a big part of this growth is Vegan Food Pop-Up, which now boasts three monthly locations, thanks to the November 12 arrival of its Saturday market in North Park. The farmers-market-style event attracts vendors from all over Southern California, bringing everything from sushi to dog treats (including donuts and jewelry), all of it made within the bounds of a plant-based lifestyle.

Organizer Michelle May launched Vegan Food Pop-Up as a bimonthly event in Encinitas back in 2019. Now having made it past a few Covid-era speed bumps, VFP is expanding toward a goal of hosting a market somewhere in the county every weekend.

The market is currently scheduled to pop up the first Saturday of every month at the Heritage Museum in Encinitas (12 p.m.-4 p.m.), every third Friday at the Local Roots kombucha brewery in Vista (5 p.m. to 9 p.m.), and every second Saturday at the North Park Mini Park (12 p.m. to 4 p.m.), which was recently installed behind the Observatory music venue.

But May—who also operates vegan space ice cream and coconut jerky brand Seva Foods—is not finished. Approaching holidays in November and December preclude launching a fourth weekend in 2022, but the vegan entrepreneur is already on the hunt for additional spots. She says, “I’m hoping that by January we’ll be ready to announce at least one more new location.”

Michelle May Vegan popups

In addition to bringing the plant-based market to additional communities, one of the reasons May wants to increase the number of market days is that she says she’s got a waiting list of vendors wanting to participate. “There’s just such a hunger (pun intended) for these kind of events that it’s been really easy to book them,” she explains.

The pop-up expands mostly by word of mouth. In a tight-knit Southern California vegan community, Los Angeles and Orange County-based vendors have grown to appreciate San Diego’s reliable vegan demand. To the north, May speculates, a higher frequency of vegan events leads to uneven attendance and increased competition between vendors. They’re willing to come south, she says, because “They tend to do better at the pop-up than they do at some of the regular markets in L.A.”

May does her part by carefully curating each event to prevent overlap and prevent food waste. “I’m straddling this very fine line of wanting a great user experience for my attendees,” she says, “I don’t want them to wait in line too long or—God forbid—get there and all the food’s gone.” She invites roughly 50 vendors to the Encinitas market, while Vista and North Park run smaller, about 30 a piece. A few core vendors appear at every market, including plant-based fish substitute SeaCo Catch, Vegan Mirai Sushi, and Maribel y Olivia Cocina, purveyors of vegan Mexican dishes such as jackfruit and mushroom birria.

The vendor drawing the longest lines at each event is OC-based food truck The Donuttery. “I don’t think you can mention the pop-up without talking about The Donuttery,” May says, “They are without a doubt the most popular vendor that we have… the line is usually nonstop.”

While most of the food vendors represent 100 percent plant-based businesses, May is open to omnivores that serve vegan-friendly menus. One example, Sabor Piri Piri Kitchen, appears regularly at farmers markets serving traditional dishes of Mozambique, but for the pop-up it forgoes chicken curries for the broccoli, black eyed peas, and collard greens of its vegan menu.

the-donuttery.jpeg

Similarly, the baker behind market mainstay Bonjour Patisserie has found ways to produce plant-based versions of traditional French pastries including croissants and crème brûlées. “He’s worked really hard to source some really high-quality vegan butters,” says May, noting Bonjour will be one of the vendors appearing in North Park.

Clearly, culinary diversity is a priority at all the pop-ups, but perhaps the best reason to attend regularly is that vendors at the pop-up have been the first to introduce local vegans to a growing spate of plant-based meat alternatives coming to market. The past year has witnessed the introduction of meat replacements by Omni Foods, Next Meats, and Nature’s Fynd, which makes sausage and cream cheese out of mushrooms. Attendees can be the first to try these meaty treats, in addition to activities like tarot card readings, henna painting, and reiki massage.

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Civico 1845

Civico 1845

Let’s be honest. Plant-based cooking in some states is a pretty grim experience, bordering on an ordeal (i.e. South Dakota, where not much grows except cows). But San Diego is the “farm” in farm-to-table (very literally—my editor tells me that when Alice Waters and Jeremiah Trotter and Wolfgang Puck were starting the movement in California, the farm they often pulled from was Chino in Rancho Santa Fe). San Diego’s weather and soil yields an unnaturally long growing season that blows the mind of any recently transplanted chef. Plus, San Diego County’s more than 5,000 farms rank tops of any county in the U.S.

End result? An infinite array of vegetables. And better ones. Now that it’s summer, we’re talking peak plant—with stone fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, you name it.

Even so… and no matter how far the plant-based arts have come, there is still a stubborn resistance movement among some San Diegans.

“They automatically think no cheese, no butter, no meat, means no flavor,” says Pietro Gallo, executive chef of Civico 1845 in Little Italy. “It really all comes down to salt, seasoning and sauces, just like any carnivorous dish.” The Italian restaurant relaunched its vegan menu in May (an Italian restaurant with a full vegan menu is still a rarity), adding dishes like linguine al verde, topped with spinach pesto, marinated red beets, zucchini, lemon zest, and roasted hazelnuts.

On behalf of the reticent omnivores, I sought the advice of Gallo and other San Diego plant-based specialists on how to eat more plant-based at home, while still being excited about eating as a human practice.

Tip One: Soak Your Veggies

Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and citrus. Bathe those veggies—all of that marinating will inject them with a ratcheted-up flavor and natural fats. “Give your vegetables time to absorb those flavors and they completely transform into something new and delicious,” Gallo says. “There is a lot of citrus in Calabrian cooking in general.”

Tip Two: Shop Local, Duh

Having access to some of the world’s best fruits and vegetables, do the logical thing and ascertain them. Even the most average cuts of meat will taste pretty delicious thanks to the presence of fat. But no marinade can salvage bad veggies (for instance, tomatoes that are picked unripe in Florida, packed onto trains, gassed to ripen, and landing in California weeks later). Plants start to deteriorate in flavor and nutrients the second they’re plucked from the ground, so the best plants are obviously at farmers markets—scattered all across the county, from Oceanside to Imperial Beach. That’s the key to the main dishes and vegan baked goods at plant-forward Parakeet Cafe, says co-owner Carol Roizen. Like the just-dense-enough vegan banana oat muffin, which are indistinguishable from the traditional versions.

Tip Three: Spice It Up

The spice rack is the cook’s toolbox. Lean into it, especially with plants. Also, get fresh herbs which taste far more “alive” and fresh. Powerhaus Pizza in Pacific Beach specializes in high-protein and alternative pizza crusts like whole-grain with ground flax and plant protein. And owner Anisha Blodgett and her team use a healthy amount of fresh basil, garlic, and lemon juice. For their Margherita pizza, she doesn’t just use basil—she covers the entire pie with it.

Tip Four: Texture, Texture, Texture

When cooking at home, I use pepitas (pumpkin seeds) on everything, from egg and cheese breakfast tacos with a squeeze of Sriracha to oatmeal. “I like using different kinds of nuts, like sunflower or pumpkin seeds, sprinkling on different textures and adding to the flavor profile,” Blodgett says. Readers can also roast veggies for a crispier texture, puree for silkiness, hand-mash for somewhere in between.

Tip Five: Keep It Simple

Roizen saves her simplest and most salient point for last.“Start with the food that you already love,” she suggests—then add plants. “For example, if you love lasagna, maybe find a recipe to make it with mushrooms instead of meat, you might be surprised how good it tastes.”

The post Teach Me Something: How to Cook Plant-Based Dishes in a Carnivore World appeared first on San Diego Magazine.