Asian Foodhall ‘Bang Bang Oriental’ houses vegetarian new kid on the block ‘Veggie Wok’
This week Ethics Girls were invited down to London’s biggest Asian foodhall ‘Bang Bang Oriental’ to sample the delights of a new food outlet called ‘Veggie Wok’. Located in Colindale, North-West London, ‘Bang Bang Oriental’, in Mandarin meaning ‘Good Good Oriental’ encompasses a food court with over 20 individual kiosks including Indo-Chinese start-up ‘Veggie Wok’.
We were made very welcome by Manav, the charming and friendly owner and asked him what inspired him to launch his first food business selling Indo-Chinese cuisine. He revealed that when thinking about the business he wanted to serve Indian style food with the speed of Chinese cooking techniques and developed a fusion of styles to achieve this. At Veggie Wok you select the ingredients like mock duck, tofu, paneer and bean shoots and customise your own dish. These are quickly transferred to the wok at high temperatures, where they are cooked in a matter of a minutes. The results are fresh and flavoursome, full of Indian and Chinese notes and served with staples like rice or noodles.
We created our own dish by choosing from an exotic range of fresh vegetables (all woks include cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts and peppers) including pak choi, water chestnuts, French beans, peppers, red onions and chilli. You can choose from a number of succulent protein rich foods like paneer (Indian cheese), quorn, mock duck and tofu as well as a selection of sauces including classic soya, scherwan, sweet and sour, Thai red curry, Thai green curry, satay and black bean. As lovers of udon noodles, we opted for them with black bean sauce, but they also have hakka, ho fun and rice noodles as well as jasmine and brown rice.
We tried the ‘Protein Boost’ dish and chose to have brown rice, sweet and sour sauce and a mixture of protein alternatives and exotic veggies. This was really tasty, as was the noodle dish. We were also persuaded to try one of their most popular sides of masala chips, which were also very palatable and we couldn’t resist trying the vegetable spring rolls, which were crunchy just how they should be. While we enjoyed all the delicious food, the owner brought over yet another special dish of cassava, an East African root vegetable, which he boiled and fried and added a tasty sauce. The coconut milk was served chilled in fresh Thai coconuts with the shell removed. This drink was so refreshing, complimented the food really well and was worth the visit alone.
The eclectic mix of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Malaysian cuisines on offer in the food court celebrate Asia’s vibrant culture and the energy is very similar to what you may find in a bustling Asian Street Food Market. Good vibes all the way!
As well as the colourful collection of kiosks upstairs, Bang Bang Oriental boasts the Golden Dragon flagship restaurant on the ground floor (the dim sum is freshly made), a community space available for hire and a children’s play area. Award-winning architects Stiff + Trevillion undertook the transformation of the building and the design blends minimalism with oriental culture. We loved the fiesta red Chinese lanterns hanging from their sky-high ceilings.
Veggie wok is the only pure vegetarian, mouth-watering fusion of Indian and Chinese cuisine at Bang Bang Oriental and it also caters to Vegans too. We can see Veggie Wok expanding into East London soon and wish them every success in the future.
‘Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall’ is open Monday to Thursday from 11.30am until 9.30pm, Friday to Saturday from 11am until 10pm and Sunday from 11am until 9pm.
Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall, 399 Edgware Road, NW9 0FH
Written by Julia Nelson and Matt Fletcher
