What impressed me was the no pork belly bites which look the part and it is something different from the range and now it is commercially available.
Vegan pork belly has been served in restaurants but just not on the supermarket shelves until now.
Anyway first thoughts, it did look like realistic plant pork belly!
The skin part aroused my curiosity on what it could be, whether it was some sort of rice cracker but on closer inspection after I bought it, the skin turned out to be bread.
The skin part aroused my curiosity on what it could be, whether it was some sort of rice cracker but on closer inspection after I bought it, the skin turned out to be bread.
The amusing thing is that you cook it skin side up as if it were real pork belly.
It comes with a side of BBQ sauce which you apply on the skin crackling when it is almost done in the oven.
After glazing it, the vegan pork belly pieces look no different to your regular pork belly except the fat layer has changed colour from white to yellow.
As a food connoisseur, I always try things without sauces to see how it tastes and then with the sauce to see how it improves it overall.
I tried a piece without the glaze and you could really taste the five spice just like the spices you find in aromatic duck.
Eating each layer separately to see what they were, the bottom most layer (the meat) had some chewy mushroom stalks and it was overall starchy beans in texture which reminded me of eating Chinese taro puffs.
Moving to the second layer, it was something squidgy like fat and probably made of tapioca starch and possibly coconut milk according to vegan pork belly recipes.
The final top layer, the skin was the best because it was crispy yet airy bread which mimicked the crackling so well.
Overall, if you try a piece of pork belly without the glaze, it is like eating something starchy with a chew and crisp texture loaded with five spice.
This is where the sauce comes in because the sauce they concocted is rather meaty in taste which I think comes from mushrooms and it also has a lovely BBQ smokey aroma and taste which brings the pork belly together.
I definitely felt that a generous glaze does the trick and so far and this is my favourite item out of the Plant Pioneer series.
Just like roast pork belly, some pieces are better especially in the middle where you have uniform bread and it also roasts better than the edge bits which are likely going to get burnt.
The sleeve information indicates that this portion is enough to serve 10 which means you get a piece each so I think it serves 2 - 3 people more like!
Video Review:
The no pork belly bites appear to have been quite successful that they now have Plant Pioneers no pork belly bao buns which is basically the same stuff paired with bao buns.
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| meat free roasting joint |
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| no beef steaks |
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| no chicken gyoza |
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| chorizo shroomdogs |
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| no salmon fillets |
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