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Magic Rock Tap in Huddersfield opened its doors earlier this month for their annual vegan festival. Equipped with a crisp £20 and my trusty sidekick and part-time vegan friend Sian we hopped on the train on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Day-to-day Magic Rock Tap serves up 15 of its own in-house beers on tap, the majority of which are vegan or vegetarian anyway, accompanied by a small but hearty menu of firm pint-pairing favorites like their vegan curry and Yorkshire Ploughmans.
We arrived around 2 on April 8th, and were greeted by a whole host of diverse street food stalls, as well as cash bars outside and a very well manned bar in the brewery itself. After close inspection of all food on offer we decided to whet our whistles and grab some bevs while we waited for a break in the queues. I'm a sucker for a sours so opted for half a Sour Passion. Sours by the pint are too heavily acidic for my 5ft nothing digestive system, though this has a lot to do with my weekly red wine intake. Sian went for the firm favorite and World Beer Cup award winning Salty Kiss, popular enough now to even be available in my local M and S back down south.
After a couple of swifties we were on to the food.
Wholesomejunkies The Holy Mountain Kitchen Dapur Malaysia Mac Daddies Dabbawala "Meals on Wheels" Vork pie Bakeorama Cakes Northern Bloc Sugar Spun Sisters The Unusual Chutney Company
With so much to choose from we finally ended up deciding on Dabbawala for a samosa starter, served with chana masala and mango chutney, it hit the spot on flavour but lacked the kick I always want in indian cuisine. Then for mains we shared a couple of dishes from Dapur Malaysia; satay "chicken" skewers and a lemongrass/ginger/chilli veg curry with coconut rice. This packed a punch, satay should be eaten in moderation but they went in on the portion sizes this time, which was nice to see. A small family unit serving up mum's home recipes, keeping the queues down to quite a short wait for our dishes, well executed and well seasoned.
Having never eaten meat or fish since I was born I grew up pre-Quorn, my mum and dad turned vegetarian at uni in Manchester in the early 80's. My mum knew the importance of a balanced diet and was always wary of making sure we were fed every food group. In actuality this is insanely easy to do, and her cooking was the dog's b's every day. This didn't mean though, that the flavour was forgotten; weird wonderful tastes and spice and world food made up my childhood and now goes into my cooking. It always disappoints me when traders or restaurants forget we have taste buds too, there's always a lack of salt and spice and the ingredients themselves being forgotten.
Despite my doubts, I think Dapur Malaysia nailed it. Unfortunately (fortunately for them!) Mac Daddies and Wholesomejunkies had completely sold out in record time very early on, desperately trying to botch some meals together, which still looked amazing I have to say.
A quick visit to the Unusual Chutney Company for souvenirs left me with Habanero chilli jam, the Dark Arts chutney (using Magic Rock's Dark Arts beer to cook the veg with) and a Roasted Garlic and Onion chutney, at just 3 for £10 were an absolute steal, and safe to say they were demolished soon after back home.
All in all it was a complete success, busy all day with queues til the early evening, dogs in abundance which always makes Sian happy, and it was refreshing to see how many families and young children had been brought along to enjoy and sample vegan goodness, hopefully instilling a few good ethical morals in them. A real community, drinking damn good beer and eating an impressive and varied set of food from vendors based all over the north.
