Being Vegan in Sydney
Sydney is a reasonably vegan friendly city. The regional influence of Southeast and East Asian cuisine are more responsible for this than the city’s liberal ideals.
Several brands of soy and rice milks are available in all the major (corporate) supermarkets and soy milk, more often than not, is available in cafes across the city. Most Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian and Chinese restaurants will have at least one (if not several) vegetarian options that can be made vegan with a little explanation. The recent (and long overdue) trend in Mexican and Tex-Mex fast food is also another step in the right direction for the herbivores of the city.
On the flip side, the monopoly the corporate supermarkets hold on the city has lead to health food stores being strangled out of existence. Furthermore, what would be called a ‘muscle store’ in any other part of the planet are referred to as health foods stores here. Where is the food we ask? Its definitely not anywhere to be seen on the shelves lined with muscle protein and dietary supplements.
Following trends in Western Europe and North America large health supermarkets are slowly catching on in the city. For better or worse they all have a reasonable range of vegan groceries and all serve to please their rich breeder clientele by also selling overpriced bio-meat and organic goat’s milk* (*or whatever the latest dietry trend maybe).
To add insult to injury in Sydney, unlike North America and parts of Western Europe, the staple ‘when all else fails’ snack food hot chips (fries) and potato wedges are even not vegan in this country. The vast majority are commercially made and are pre-coated with beef tallow. Establishments although rare, that make their own chips on premises are your best bet to satisfy cravings.
