The task – write about a vegan lunch when you aren’t vegan…hmm well, it’s actually quite easy to do after a filling lunch at The Flying Duck! It’s not one of the first places us Foodie Explorers think of for food, being at basement level hidden away from the main road and somewhere we’ve been at night for gigs and clubbing so yeah, maybe it was about time to actually eat there!
The menu at Flying Duck has mains including chorizo and Scotch bonnet jambalaya with home baked ranch and chive biscuits, New England style Jackfruit Crab cakes made with jackfruit and sweet potato and served with 3 chilli piccalilli. If these don’t grab you then there’s a range of burgers and even a classic Berlin style doner kebab – which you can also get to take away for that authentic Berliner experience! Since we were feeling that Berlin dive bar feel, we ordered a beer and a Fritz Cola rhubarb spritz. Memories of Friedrichshain and summer days listening to good music and drinking inexpensive German beer…
Still believing that we were in Germany we decided to live life dangerously and eat a doner kebab sober. Generally made for that time after a few drinks when you don’t really care what’s in it or what it tastes like. But would a vegan doner kebab still hit the spot? And would that feeling of guilt, wondering what exactly we are eating, still hit us as we munched our way through? Well, what exactly is it if not meat? Well it’s seitan – that probably doesn’t help either! What is seitan then? Also known as ‘wheat gluten’ it is very definitely not gluten free! Eaten predominantly in Asia, for centuries, it’s made by rinsing and cooking wheat dough to remove the starch, which results in seitan. High in protein and calcium and low in fat so perfect for anyone looking for a non-greasy kebab alternative. When the kebab arrived the ‘meat’ was mixed with both chilli and garlic sauces with a side of crunchy slaw and salad. We must admit, it did look good and quite a healthy portion. And I mean healthy in the other sense too! Crispy seitan with lots of flavours, we honestly couldn’t tell you that it was vegan! A hit for both of us so definitely one to get when visiting again.
We also ordered the New England Jackfruit crab cakes with chunks of Jackfruit and sweet potato mixed together in a falafel-style dish. The 3 chilli piccalilli was hot, maybe too hot as the sauce was needed for the three large cakes with not enough moisture to go round them all. The cakes themselves weren’t dry so much but they were really densely packed so after two of them, more sauce was needed (we took the final one home in a ‘doggy’ bag).
Our toilet checking of venues is well known, and we won’t talk about that here…it’s a bit of a dive bar and place for gigs so expect accordingly. 😉
In brief
Didn’t miss the meat at all.
Rumour has the doner kebab is tastier here than at Vöner vegetarian restaurant in Berlin!
Like a late night kebab but way nicer and you don’t hate yourself at all afterwards.
A must visit for the veggie, vegan and food-curious out there.
