By Casey Neill
A Sri Lankan tasting plate was the star of this year’s Edgy Veg Awards.
Throughout April, Ranges residents supported local venues by tasting and scoring vegetable-based dishes at 46 pubs, cafes, and restaurants across 12 villages in the region.
“Gone are the days where you would go out and get a plant-based dish and it would just be a potato on a plate,” Edgy Veg Awards co-ordinator Claire Rowland said.
“A lot of people want to eat more veg, they want to eat healthier and they want it to be delicious.
“We want businesses to be innovative and really show what delicious food you can make from plants, and encourage people to eat more by doing so.”
The project, delivered by Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group’s Veg Action, is in its fourth year.
“We started in the Macedon Ranges with 13 businesses,” Ms Rowland said.
“Now we have 46 over two shires.
“It’s evolved in terms of the numbers of business involved and the level of support for the competition.
“At first, people weren’t sure what it was about or what we were trying to do.
“Now a lot of people take part. We’ve got a lot more enthusiasm. People are really keen to back the activity.
“We had more than 750 votes.
“That’s actually probably a small percentage of the people who actually visited the businesses.
“They would have been driven to try it but they may not necessarily have scored.”
The Macedon Ranges was home to two of the five winners.
Kyneton’s Fook Shing won the restaurant, bar and hotel nod with its taste of Sri Lanka curry plate, featuring coconut cream cashew nut curry, sweet and sour pineapple curry, and jackfruit curry, served with a coconut sambal.
“That was a mix of really creative Sri Lankan dishes with a real mix of flavours,” Ms Rowland said.
“I think that dish had the highest number of votes and the highest average score.”
Macedon Ranges Wholefoods in Gisborne took out the cafe category with a mushroom jaffle, filled with market-fresh mushies and vegan feta.
“Last year they had a green goddess jaffle,” Ms Rowland said.
“The simple jaffle – they’ve really raised it to make it taste delicious.
“It’s a very humble dish but the comments on it were amazing.
“They got visitors from out of town to try the dish, but also a lot of support from locals.”
The competition moved into Mount Alexander Shire this year after Healthy Loddon Campaspe approached Veg Action. Sixteen businesses took part.
Maldon Bakery’s curried lentil and vegetable pie won the bakery category, while Toby’s chocolate cake from Five Flag Merchants in Campbells Creek won the cafe award.
Shedshaker Brewing’s gnocchi alla Romana took out the restaurant, bar and hotel prize.
The Castlemaine venue served up semolina gnocchi with peperonata, a traditional Italian stew with capsicum, tomato, and onions.
“We will have to start thinking fairly soon about next year,” Ms Rowland said.
“I think Mount Alexander is keen to do it again, and there might be other areas that are keen to expand and evolve Edgy Veg.”
