CUISINE / RESTAURANT REVIEWS Food Carts Gluten-Free Langley Vegetarian / Vegan

Gypsy Trunk Gourmet Fare

Before I begin this post, I just want to say that I was excited about trying the Gypsy Trunk Gourmet Fare food cart and I really wanted to like them.  I admire the proprietor’s free-spirited decision to follow her dream (read more about that on the Gypsy Trunk website) and I respect any business that strives to bring healthier choices to the table, however the food in this case left something to be desired.

VanDusen Floral Hall Seedy Saturdays
We decided to brave the snow last weekend and headed out for Seedy Saturdays.  No this is not the latest club night on the Granville strip, this particular Seedy Saturday is an annual seed show of the garden variety put on by the Master Gardeners Association and held at the VanDusen Floral Hall.

You can buy and swap seeds there and also watch presentations and demonstrations.  It was a pleasant way to kill an hour or two, and if you decide to go next time we would recommend arriving early since it gets really busy later on.

Gypsy Trunk Gourmet Fare

When I saw Gypsy Trunk had hauled their food truck down in the cold and snow from their usual post out in Langley I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to try their healthy vegan fare.  They serve a mixture of hot dogs, wraps, and quesadillas, with the wraps being gluten-free as well as vegan.  Wraps are $10-12, hot dogs and quesadillas are $6-7.  All imitation items on their menu are listed in quotes.

Oh, and they serve stevia-sweetened pop ($2) which is cool and a brand of coconut water we haven’t tried yet: Thirsty Buddha ($4).  So far our absolute favourite is T.A.S. brand but this one sounds interesting.

Gypsy Trunk Gourmet Fare: "Apple Sage" Wrap

I sprung for an “Apple Sage” wrap ($10).  All wraps are made with a gluten-free brown rice tortilla and the rice inside is brown too.  The filling was a mixture of Apple Sage Field Roast “Sausage”, dried cranberries, Daiya mozzarella “cheese”, grilled red onion, and Frank’s hot sauce.

It is also supposed to come with guacamole, but if mine had any it wasn’t noticeable to me (I didn’t realize until coming home and looking at the menu that it was supposed to be in there).  I’m guessing maybe they ran out and the cilantro was a substitute, since this is the one wrap that isn’t supposed to come with cilantro included.

Gypsy Trunk Gourmet Fare: Full frontal "Apple Sage" Wrap

The Apple Sage “Sausage” itself was actually pretty good.  Although the taste and texture made it obvious that this was not real meat, the seasoning was sufficiently palate pleasing.  My only complaint is that it was a bit dry.

And that’s my main beefno pun intended—with the wrap as a whole.  Everything was desert-dry and when combined with the bland flavours it made for a pretty boring eat.  “Sausage”: dry.  Onions: dry.  Rice: dry.  Cranberries: dried and overly sweet.  “Cheese”: bland.  Brown rice tortilla: dry and bland.  The scant amount of Frank’s hot sauce included didn’t even come close to helping with either issue.  My recommendation would be to add some kind of vegan sauce (tahini based maybe?  Goddess dressing might work) and really heap it on there to combat the dry filling.  And either go a little easier on the cranberries or use a less sweet variety.

Full disclosure here for any non-regular readers: Wendy and I are omnivores, with Wendy especially leaning toward the carnivorous side.  However we both have vegan and vegetarian friends, and we can appreciate a good meat-free meal once in a while.  Five of us recently went to Budgie’s Burritos and out of those five only two were vegetarian, however we were all satisfied with the vegan dishes we ordered.

What I’m getting at is that while Gypsy Trunk Gourmet Fare may have cornered the market in Langley since I doubt there are many vegan establishments out there, if they want to carve out a niche in Vancouver they need to step their game up.

Gypsy Trunk Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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