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was around long before veganism was trendy. Proudly plant-based since 1998, this Sydney gem serves innovative Chinese and Southeast Asian food to omnivores and herbivores alike, including salt and pepper ‘calamari’, caramelised ‘ribs’ and Shantung not ‘chicken’.
Australia was a very different place when founder and restaurateur Colin Yiu-Kwing Fung migrated here in the late 1970s. While tofu was a diet staple in his home town, Hong Kong, it was a mystery ingredient on Chinese restaurant menus across Sydney.
Sweet and sour pork, fried rice and sizzling Mongolian lamb were "crowd favourites amongst the corporate clientele” during his early days working at The Orient Hotel’s Chinese restaurant in the CBD. “These dishes were perceived as upmarket in those days and set the tone for the Chinese cuisine served in restaurants that became trendy and commonplace in the several years following,” he says.
Fung quickly progressed from waiter to restaurant manager at the Orient Gateway in Moore Park and gained confidence in his English-speaking skills and understanding of Australian culture. Inspired to learn more about the Western way of cooking, he enrolled in a commercial cookery course at TAFE.
Colin Yiu-Kwing Fung with his sister Gloria and Suzy Spoon from Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher. Source: Colin Yiu-Kwing Fung
His first restaurant, on Sydney's Lower North Shore, served predominantly Cantonese Chinese food with a handful of core Western options, including prawn cutlets, fish and chips, rump steak, oysters Kilpatrick and mornay. “This was the norm at the time, even in Chinese restaurants,” Fung explains.
“One of my signature fusion dishes was ‘From Paris to Beijing’: a fresh seafood medley in a bechamel sauce served on an Asian ‘bird’s nest’ (fried shredded potato basket). This felt very natural to me… given that Hong Kong was a world centre of trade and the hub of East-meets-West culture.”
Fung also introduced a range of classic Cantonese tofu dishes, including mapo tofu and salt and pepper tofu. At the time, only 20 per cent of customers knew what the soy-based protein was and gravitated towards more familiar meat and fish offerings.
Some highlights from Green Gourmet's menu. Source: Green Gourmet
The restaurateur is no stranger to plant-based food after becoming vegan himself in 1998. “I believe the food of our culture can be entirely plant-based without any compromise on flavour,” Fung says. “Green Gourmet is proud to serve authentic food that does good for humans, animals and the planet.”
The menu is a harmonious mix of Chinese and Southeast Asian flavours and interestingly, all dishes are free from onion, garlic, leek, chives and shallots (abiding by ancient Indian and Chinese practices). Green Gourmet’s signature main since 1998 is the Shantung ‘chicken’ with crispy wheat protein, pickled vegetables and rice vinegar sauce. The mapo tofu and Sichuan-style eggplant are blasts from the past, cooked using recipes from Fung’s early days at Mosman Gourmets Inn. New innovations include crispy Thai fish made from folded tofu layers, salt and pepper ‘calamari’ crafted from konjac gel (extracted from the root vegetable) and crispy Peking ‘duck’ produced from wheat protein.
Green Gourmet's original Newtown location. Source: Green Gourmet
Fung’s innovative dishes have earned much praise from customers over the years, many of them not vegan. To cater for their growing audience, Fung and his sister, Gloria, opened a second Green Gourmet in St Leonards in 2001. Here, the team transferred their expertise in vegan ingredients to create a full range of and bakery products, including gluten-free brownies, tiramisu and caramel popcorn sponge cake.
My chefs and I have over 100 years of combined culinary experience in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia.
Green Gourmet celebrates its 25-year milestone in 2023 and he's proud to have witnessed the increased understanding and acceptance of veganism over the past two decades. Although the original Newtown site is no longer running (Fung was forced to close it after a kitchen fire in September 2020), the St Leonards restaurant is thriving and he is focused on growing , Green Gourmet’s range of plant-based bao, which is sold in select retailers and at the monthly .
With the continued rise of plant-based dining (and the long-established acceptance of tofu among Sydney diners), Green Gourmet looks likely to remain a staple in the local vegan food scene for years to come.
Mon - Wed 5 pm - 8:30 pm
Thur 11:30 am - 2:30 pm, 5 pm - 8:30 pm
Fri - Sat 11:30 am - 2:30 pm, 5 pm - 9 pm
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