This month’s Tucson Vegan Night Market brought together more than 60 vendors ranging from food trucks to tattoo shops on its second night of the year.
Taking place every three months, the festivities took up residence on Saturday night beside the dry banks of Rillito Park at the Heirloom Farmers Market Pavilions. New and returning vendors created an assortment of ethnic foods; no animals were harmed in the making.
“There’s such a fixation on the meat in a culture’s food, that we forget we can be creative,” said Patricia Espinosa, a Cuban vendor on her first night at the Vegan Market. She said her chickpea empanadas have the same flavor as the traditional meat-filled ones, making them a natural fit for the event.
The festival, which is celebrating its two-year anniversary, was co-founded by Shane Reiser, owner of Tucson Foodie, and vegan food influencer Hannah Hernandez.
“It started at a house club and we were expecting 200 people but 1,300 showed up,” said Reiser. Two years later, even on a 103-degree day, Reiser said they consistently get 3-5,000 people coming to the events.
It’s not only vegans attending, said Reiser. “8 out of 10 people here are not vegan, but they come for the experience, for good food, regardless of whether it’s vegan or not,” he said.
This month’s event also saw chefs Pablo Valencia and Christian Padilla, both Tucson area natives, curate a special VIP dinner. The duo met only 3 months ago but were able to execute a fusion dish of fried yakisoba yakitori stixxx (fried Japanese noodles on a stick) with your choice topping of either a smoked ancho elote, a citrusy grilled nopal, or a mushroom crema with tortilla ash and pickled fresno.
“It started as a stoner idea,” said Padilla. “We were wondering how to make noodles on a plate more interesting. So we put a stick in them.”
This was Padilla’s first run with the vegan market, while Valencia had worked it the past two events. The two agreed they wanted to mix their formal French culinary training with their Sonoran heritage, which Padilla said he has become infatuated with ever since moving back to Tucson from Seattle, where he was a vegan chef.
For Valencia, he wanted to return his cooking to its roots, the way it was before convenience.
“If a cowboy walked into a French kitchen with only a fire and a cast iron, that’s what we focus on,” said Valencia.
Like Valencia and Padilla, other vendors brought their heritage to the event, such as Diego Diaz, whose burrito recipe came from his grandma. Throughout the night, he and his father Victor Diaz spun up two types of burritos for the crowd.
If you’re vegan-curious or just want to eat a little less meat, Reiser said he encourages folks to come out to the next event which will take place on September 6 at the same place.
“We’ve got vintage clothing. We’ve got some nonprofits. We’ve got a lot of jewelry. You can get a tattoo. We’ve even got food vendors coming in from Phoenix, from El Paso,” said Reiser. “It’s really something to get excited about.”
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