(Musical flourish)
(Country rock music plays)
Mena: Now if I told you a vegan show was heading to Texas,
you'd probably say I was totally nuts.
Well, here it goes.
The Lone Star State: famed for cowboys,
ranchers and barbecue.
But deep in the heart of Texas is a vegan oasis.
Austin, it's always bucked the standard,
and now it's growing.
Austin's burgeoning tech scene is bringing all walks of life
to the southern city.
With major growth, the food scene follows,
creating a demand for plant-based fare.
Austin's still heavy on the meats,
but now there's a host of gastropubs,
pizza joints and casual burger stops
serving southern comfort food with a vegan twist.
And, oh, yeah, plant-based barbecue maestros
firing smoky vegan brisket and delectable crawfish boils.
If there's any doubt plant-based eating is growing, just think.
If Texas has killer vegan food, you know the world is changing.
♪
I'm Mena Massoud.
I'm travelling across North America
and eating my way through some of the coolest cities
to show you how beautiful meals,
talented chefs and restauranteurs
are making plant-based living delicious and attainable.
So join me as I show you how the world is evolving vegan.
♪ I been chicken baking ♪
♪ All day long ♪
Oh, yeah, fried chicken, beer, and buttermilk biscuits:
mainstays of the Texas gastropubs.
The Beer Plant and its beer rail
is no different, except its Southern dishes
are all plant-based.
Executive chef and longtime vegan Emily Rayburn
is a musician and chef who has worked in all kinds of kitchens.
But cooking an all plant-based menu
at The Beer Plant is her dream come to life.
Alright, Emily, so we are making biscuits.
Butter biscuits.
As Southern as it gets.
- Yeah. - Okay.
Pretty Southern.
Traditional biscuits, you got buttermilk, butter,
all kinds of just--
Butter. Yeah.
(Laughter)
So we're going to eliminate all that
and we're going to make it vegan.
Let's do it. You want an apron?
Is it going to get messy?
It's going to get messy.
Here we go.
Alright.
They are good ones.
Wow.
So we're going to take all-purpose flour,
and then you're going to have salt, baking soda,
baking powder.
So, usually, you would use a whisk.
I actually choose not to.
Why is that?
I like to feel things with my hands.
- So do I. - Okay, great.
- Let's go for it. - Yeah.
Okay, and then tell me about this incredible butter.
So you take vegan margarine.
You have to freeze it, and then you cheese grate it,
and it makes these really cool little shreds.
Mena: I don't think I've ever cheese-grated butter,
but now I know.
Alright, so this is all going in?
Yeah, all of it.
Mena: Oh, yeah.
Now the fun part.
You literally just take the flour,
and you're going to dust it over your butter.
And you don't want to, like, do it too much.
You want it to be pea-sized.
You still want it to be cold because that's the secret.
It's cold butter when you put it in the oven.
Wow.
And then we're going to take our buttermilk.
It is just lemon juice and nondairy milk.
Sorry, what?
You want to have a dance party?
Because we will.
Are you proposing something?
Do you dance?
All right, sorry. What was that again?
- One more time.
- Buttermilk. - Lemon juice.
Nondairy milk.
Vegan buttermilk?
Vegan buttermilk.
- Alright. - Now the fun part.
You are going to mix it.
Oh, yeah, get in there.
You want it slightly sticky.
Looks pretty good.
Biscuit maker.
Very nice.
And we're going to take the dough.
Mena: Boom!
And you'll just get it in the perfect little square.
And then what I'll do is I'll pat it down.
I'm going to get you going, and then it's all you.
- Okay. - This is really good dough.
- Is it? - Wow. Yeah.
Thank you.
Emily: This is like the best part of it.
Like, you want to feel it.
Okay.
Oh, I'm feeling it.
- I-- Same. - Oh, I'm feeling it.
I'm feeling it.
And then we're gonna take this.
We are going to flour.
Okay, technique. Okay.
I think that's the best work I've ever seen.
Cut it right down the middle, like, right here.
Okay.
And then we're going to flip it over like I had it.
- Emily: You, like, pat it down. - Mena: Oh, okay.
Just like a nice, like, little like... ooh.
Like a little ooh? Ooh.
- Okay. - (Laughter)
Ooh.
We're making biscuits.
Alright, we're gonna flour it just a little bit on the top.
- Okay. - Perfect.
♪
(Coughs)
Let's make really big biscuits.
We are in Texas.
The bigger... the better!
♪
Now I'm just taking over.
I'm only here to keep you company.
(Laughter)
♪
I saw the smoke coming off you on that one.
(Laughter)
I'm getting ready to dance later tonight.
We're gonna go howdy towdy, rowdy mowdy,
right here, after we eat dem biscuits!
(Laughter)
I'm stealing that.
I am stealing that.
Guess what time it is?
It's baking time.
We're going to pop it right in.
And how long are those going to cook for?
10 to 12 minutes, that's it.
- That's it? - And it's biscuit time.
I think we have done a fantastic job.
What are we going to pair up with those beautiful biscuits
that are cooking in the oven that I know we nailed?
I'll give you one guess.
- Fried chicken. - Fried chicken.
- Right. - Let's do it.
But--
- It's not chicken. - It's not chicken.
Because we're vegan.
So what is it?
We're going to be doing lion's mane mushroom.
There's a lot of hype around lion's mane mushroom.
So we're going to take it.
I press the water out of mine.
So you're going to take it, do a nice press.
Let's do it together.
Oh, yeah, and I totally see the water coming out of it now.
Oh, yeah.
So we're getting that water out
because I'm guessing we're going to deep-fry it.
But first, we are going to drop it in some buttermilk.
Mena: Gonna dredge it.
Emily: One good time, a good dredge.
The buttermilk that we used in the biscuits.
- The buttermilk. - Same thing.
Homemade buttermilk.
And then we're going to coat it on both sides.
Wow.
That's going to be great.
Now we're going to fry it.
Deep-fry it. My favourite part.
♪
(Oil sizzling)
Oh, baby.
♪
All right, so we're going to get our biscuits.
Mena: Wow. Look at that.
Texas size.
That is the biggest biscuit I've ever seen.
Like I said, everything is bigger.
I want this one.
Emily: It's good.
Alright, let's plate.
- Emily: Right there. - Mena: Wow.
And then sausage pepper gravy.
Did you say sausage gravy?
Plant-based sausage.
Wow. We're in Texas alright!
We're going to do another one,
because you know what? It is Texas.
Oh, man.
♪
And then we're going to top it with some chives.
Oh, get out of here.
I can't wait to dig into this.
♪
Time to settle in for a Texas-size bite.
Just look at this hunker.
Oh, yeah, that gravy on there.
That chicken has got a nice crisp.
♪
Mmm.
Now, that's a definition of comfort food right there.
Southerners know how to do it.
And the fluffy biscuit...
Oh, man.
♪
Seriously, it's cooked to perfection,
and it was so simple to make,
or at least you made it seem simple.
Wow.
Buttermilk biscuit gravy fried chicken,
like, why is that a staple here at Beer Plant?
When you think about Texas, the last thing you think about
is vegan.
Yeah.
And I think that it was just really cool to bring something
like this into the restaurant.
Because most of our clientele, they are not vegan.
Why is there such a desire for plant-based restaurants
by non-vegans?
I think that once people are starting to eat vegan food
and, like, realizing, my stomach's not hurting.
I feel great after eating it.
I can go to the gym and do like,
everything I wanted to accomplish in my day,
versus, whew...
I gotta take a five-hour nap.
If this wasn't vegan and I ate this whole plate,
I would, like, be in a coma.
I also feel like, by creating something that a meat eater
would eat, why not try it?
Do you think Austin, as it grows,
is going to just move towards this idea
of more vegan plant-based?
By the looks of it, it wouldn't shock me,
in about five years,
if over 50% of Austin's plant based.
Wow, and you can just always come here.
The whole menu's vegan.
The whole menu.
The whole thing.
Even the bar.
Including these biscuits! Look at that.
Look at that beautiful vegan biscuit.
♪
Don't make me want that biscuit!
You want it. I know you do.
Mmm!
(Light upbeat music)
♪
Mena: One serious Southern feeding and I'm already stuffed.
Time to walk off those buttermilk biscuits
and find an Austenite to show me around town.
- Hi. - Hey, Erin.
- How's it going? - How you doing?
- Good. - Mena.
- Welcome to Austin. - Thank you very much.
Who better than Erin Russell,
a culinary journalist and editor of Austin's Eater magazine?
She's a born-and-raised Texas girl who's completely
in tune with Austin's food and culture scene.
(Upbeat instrumental music)
Where are we headed?
We're going to go see some of our famous street art and murals
around town. There's a lot of them.
Alright. Murals, a great way to get to know a city.
What do I need to know about the food scene in Austin?
Austin's a super casual city.
Even at the nicest restaurants, you can wear shorts
and it's fine.
We have all sorts of different influences.
We have Southern food. We have Tex-Mex.
We have a lot of new people coming into town,
so it's always a really exciting scene.
This is the Greetings From Austin mural.
It shows some of our really cool Austin landmarks,
like Barton Springs, Texas Capitol, Congress Bridge,
and UT.
♪
Spread love the Austin way.
What does that mean? What's the Austin way?
We have a lot of people moving here
from different places.
And we like to be friendly people, so...
This is very nice. Very cool. Onto the next.
Yeah.
♪
For this mural, we have a lot of Austin things
packed into one space.
We have the bats that come out under Congress Street Bridge.
You should definitely go see them. They're kind of a trip.
- Here? - Yeah.
- In Austin? - Oh, very much.
Lots and lots of bats. (Chuckles)
You have the live music capital of the worlds,
which is the unofficial Austin slogan.
And you have "Don't mess with Texas,"
which is our anti-littering campaign.
Anti-littering?
Yeah.
I thought don't mess with Texas was like, you know,
the Texan attitude, like don't mess with us.
I mean, that too.
Wow.
Well, all I saw was the pita and capital,
so, uh, I'm getting hungry.
I'd love to take you to one of the best new vegan
restaurants in Austin.
You're speaking my language, Erin.
Yeah, let's go.
Let's do it.
Sunny's Backyard, a cheerful southern restaurant
bringing everything people love about pub food
to the plant-based community.
It's owned and operated by wife and husband team
Charrissa and Merritt.
They're experts at creating meat-centric vegan menus,
and after heading one of LA's most prominent plant-based pubs,
they're running it back in Austin.
Hey.
- Hey guys. - Hey, y'all.
- Who's this little guy? - This is Sunny.
Mena: Hello.
Hi, welcome guys.
Very cool spot.
Thank you.
We've got kind of a gastropub.
There's influences from all different kinds of cultures.
Charrissa, you want to take these guys inside,
have a seat, and I'll start making some food?
Yeah, let's do it.
Alright, great, let's do it.
Chef Merritt's a real Texas boy through and through.
And it ain't easy running a plant-based restaurant
in a state known for its barbecue.
But, challenge accepted.
Alright, what do we got here, Chef?
This is our hot chicken sandwich.
It's double battered, double fried,
and then a house-made Dijon aoli on top,
and a little vegan brioche bun.
Oh, very nice.
Yeah.
And what's the base of the chicken here?
So the chicken is a little bit of soy,
a little bit of a pea protein isolate.
This is the best vegan chicken that I've ever had.
Mena: This one right here?
Merritt: Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. We got a cut it in half there.
Oh, my gosh, look at that.
I got have a taste.
Oh, yeah, I love the seasoning on that.
Yeah, thank you.
Mmm.
This is a home run, man.
(Chuckles) Thank you, man.
(Sizzling)
♪
These are going to be our bulgogi bao buns.
So we got little bao buns on the bottom.
We got a citrus-glazed spare rib on top of that,
sautéed in our bulgogi sauce
that we make in-house.
There's one for each of us, so I say we dig in.
Merritt: Yeah, sure. Ladies first.
Thank you.
Like a gentleman, Mena. Thank you, sir.
Of course. Look at that beautiful, fluffy bao,
and these actually look like ribs.
Cheers bao, cheers.
Cheers, yes.
Thank you, Chef.
Hey, my pleasure.
Mmm!
You get the crispy that you would get normally from, like,
a fatty rib. It's delicious.
- Thank you. - I love the spicy too.
Yeah, it's got a little heat, that's that chilly on top.
Spicy, sweet, just perfect.
Oh, man, the fact that this is plant-based is surreal.
I don't think anyone coming in here and tasting this
would know that it's vegan.
No, there's been plenty of people who have not.
And that's what you want, man. That's what it's all about.
That's our goal, yeah, 100%.
Well, we've got our brussels sprouts salad,
tossed in a Ponzi reduction.
We've got some pickled vegetables on
top and then a house made gochujang aoli,
and some chiffonade Thai basil.
Erin: I want to get the actual vegetables.
Yeah, exactly.
This looks delicious and nice and tender and soft with sauce
on top, a little bit of crisp from the pickled cabbage.
This is fantastic, and you nailed
the Southeast Asian flavours.
It's like Southeast Asia meets Texas.
That's right.
Southeast Asia has some of the most delicious food
in the world, period.
Do you think that's a thing in Texas right now
because so many people are just, like, flocking here?
They're moving from all different states,
all different parts of the world and they're coming to Texas.
That is true.
You know, it's becoming a melting pot hub for culture.
When I started at Eater four years ago,
we do a survey at the end of every year
where we have food experts tell us what they think is missing
from the Austin food scene.
And every year, we would have people saying, you know,
I want more international food.
And now we're starting to see less of that.
Because there's been so much that's opened here
that's different places.
When I was growing up, it was just Tex-Mex
and chicken fried steaks.
It's so nice to have, like, all the foods that
I've gotten to have while I've been travelling.
Yeah. Well, thanks a lot, man.
I am going to finish
my double-stack vegan chicken burger.
Alright.
I can't believe you're not going to take a nap after this.
♪
I'm going to have another one.
(Laughter)
(Light upbeat music)
Mena: If Austin's culinary scene is synonymous
with one thing, it's the thousands of food trucks
splayed across the city.
And in East Austin, there is one totally unique food collective
that's changing the game.
The all plant-based food truck park anchored by Vegan Nom.
It's the brainchild of the wildly imaginative
Chef Chris Rios.
♪
Chris...
Hey, what's up, Mena.
Hey, what's going on, man?
Nice to meet you.
Welcome to East Austin.
This is a cool space, man.
Chris: Yeah.
Mena: This like an all vegan paradise right there.
Chris: Yeah.
It's an all vegan food park.
And these two are yours, right?
You've got Nom Burger and Vegan Nom?
Chris: Yeah.
As soon as I became vegan, 10 years ago, I started Vegan Nom.
Mena: So, fair to say you were one of the first, like,
vegan food trucks in Texas?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Probably the first.
I mean, when I started, like, no one knew what vegan was.
They were like, "What's vegan?"
I'm like, "Okay, let me show you."
So you're doing what you know. I love it.
Yeah, man, it's awesome, dude.
- You ready to do this? - Yeah. Yeah.
- All right. - I'm ready to eat!
Mena: Chris is firing up two of his hottest tickets,
the outstanding trucker-style Brunch Burger
with a side of steaming queso-licious asada tots.
That looks good, my man!
Chris: You know what goes really well with the burger?
Yeah...
Some shakes from Milky Way Shakes.
I like the way you think.
All right, man, let's get it going.
- Mena: Let's get it. - Hey, what's up, Monica?
Mena: Milky Way shakes make
the most refreshing and visually stunning creations.
Monica Burgin is one of the proud owners.
Chris: I know what I'm gonna get,
and I highly recommend The Violet.
The Violet?
Yeah. It's got blueberry, it's got lavender,
house made meringues.
It's off the chain, dude.
Vegan meringue?
They're pretty good.
I'll try one of those.
Mena: Vegan meringue is notoriously difficult
to pull off, but Monica's created
a replica using the water that's drained
from chickpeas, also known as "aquafaba."
Pure, vivid creativity.
- There you are. - Wow. Look at that!
Monica: Well, y'all enjoy.
Amazing.
Thank you.
Thanks, Monica.
- Cheers. - Cheers, man.
Cheers.
Mena: Before we sit down Chris grabs one more thing:
two words that don't normally go together: vegan brisket.
It's juicy, succulent,
and totally subverts what you think of plant-based cooking.
Oh, my...
We're in Texas.
Let's celebrate with some Texas brisket, Vegan Nom style.
You make that in-house?
Oh, yeah.
From scratch, man.
Wow!
This is a Texan meal right here.
Dude...
It looks like legit brisket.
Chris: Dude...
Mena: What do you use to make it?
Chris: It's seitan. I infused some mushrooms in there,
smoke it for about three or four hours,
and, dude, Texas brisket.
This is amazing.
Thanks, man. Appreciate, dude.
Crazy.
And even kind of looks like that marbling that you would get.
Oh, yeah.
You know, nice and juicy.
What's on top?
Coarse black pepper on there.
And I actually put that on last so it doesn't burn.
It's like a finishing technique that I do.
I still can't get over this, man.
You're doing Texas barbecue, vegan style, right!
I'm a eat it all at once kind of guy.
I'm the same way. I like to just go at it.
I want to get a bite with everything in here.
Heck, yeah.
♪
(Chris laughs)
Man! This is killer!
Dude, we're like,
It's the ultimate breakfast sandwich for vegans
or for anyone for that matter.
Genuinely on my top burgers that I've ever tried for sure.
- Oh heck yeah. - For sure man.
I mean, loaded, and it's so Texas, right?
Chris: Yeah. Dude, I'm happy you love it.
I'd finish it off with some maple syrup,
while it's on the grill and hit it with some chipotle sauce
and our Nom Sauce, and it all just comes together,
creates this awesome blend.
That's ridiculous, man.
And you're right. The maple syrup kind of works beautifully
with the brioche bun because brioche tends to absorb that
flavour, almost kind of like a French toast.
Yeah.
It's amazing, man.
And then we've got the asada tots here, right?
Yup.
♪
That's killer, man.
This is like the best Texan meal I could ask for.
I'm gonna do a little bit of this, too.
Oh, heck yeah. That's it.
Dig in, man. Enjoy.
Dude.
Mm. Mm!
Heck yeah, dude.
So our asada tots,
we've got our vegan ground beef,
and we've got our house made sauces,
got our crema and our queso.
Our queso is made in-house, by the way,
nut-free, soy free, legume-based.
Is this what, like, Texas means to you right here?
Barbecue is my first love,
so this is the reason why I created it,
because I always have been passionate about barbecue.
When you first opened up this place here in East Austin,
this neighbourhood wasn't like this at all, right?
Oh, no. Absolutely not.
Growing up in this neighbourhood,
seen a lot of change is.
It started in the 2000s, and it just kept growing
and growing and growing.
Just like the city, it just exploded.
All right, let's give this a try, man.
You hyped this up so...
Oh, dude.
Got some lavender blueberry vegan meringue shake in here.
Oh, yeah.
This is delicious, man.
♪
Wow!
It's like blueberry but with a hint of floral notes.
Yeah.
That's crazy!
This is really, really tasty,
and the meringues are really awesome.
It's my favourite part.
You can literally pick up the meringues like that.
Dude, they just dissolve in your mouth.
Oh, yeah, and everything's made from scratch, dude.
That's awesome, too.
Mena: You typically can't find meringues vegan because they use
a lot of egg whites to make meringue, right? So...
Chris: Yeah.
This is Delicious.
And it's beautiful. It's like perfect.
Well, dude, I want to thank you for inviting me here,
showing me how to do barbecue vegan style.
This changed my life, this brisket.
Dude, I appreciate it, man.
I'm happy that you're here.
Get a chance to see our beautiful city.
Stop by anytime, brother.
Let's do a brisket cheers.
Let's do it, man.
Slap cheers.
All right, there we go.
Alright.
- Mm! - Mm!
Dude.
(Slow tempo rock)
Mena: In Texas, after the grillin's done,
you gotta honky-tonk, or so they tell me.
To make sure we get the full Lone Star deal,
Chef Emily from Beer Plant is taking
me and my girl, Emily Shah,
to The White Horse to gun beers and dance, Texas-style!
We're meeting manager and musician Busty Morris to figure
out what exactly is honky-tonk?
Welcome to The White Horse.
Yeah, yeah. We're excited.
This is the place to be for some honky tonkin' I heard.
This is the spot in Austin for sure.
So happy to have y'all.
What is honky-tonk? What is that?
Honky-tonk is a loose term but it's best described as a dark
crappy bar that plays country music.
We're at the right place, I guess!
You're there. You're there.
It was dive bars where the cowboys would go hang out
and then they also played music
and it was kind of a big thing in the '40s and '50s
and we're just trying to keep that tradition going
of an easy place for people
to come drink and see some music and dance.
Is honky-tonk a type of dance?
It's not.
We do the Texas two-step exclusively at the White Horse.
We don't do any line dancing.
Okay.
It's a great way to meet new people.
White Horse is the place to do it.
Alright, well, let's get the drinking part going.
Got any like infused bourbon?
(Music fades)
We don't have anything crazy like that.
We do a beer and a whiskey shot combo called the Texas Two-Step.
I'll have that!
Some of those?
Yeah, three of those? What do you think?
- That sounds great. - Yeah.
Have you ever had this, Emily?
I have not.
The Two-Step.
But I'm excited.
Well, great. First for all of us.
We give you a cheap beer, and some cheap whiskey...
Mena: Oh, man.
And that gives you the courage to ask someone to
dance out there.
All right.
Okay.
This is what we drink so you're getting assimilated real quick.
Is this a Texas shot?
I notice everything's bigger in Texas.
But this is for scale.
That's a White Horse shot for sure.
Alright, well, cheers.
Cheers.
(Glasses clinking)
Ah!
Not bad by the way.
Nailed it.
A little bit of sweetness.
Yeah, yeah.
I'll fix my face in two seconds.
Now we have to wait two hours
for the dancing to start or what?
Beth has showed up early.
Who's Beth?
She's our two-step instructor.
Oh, okay.
And she is the epitome of the Texas two-step.
Okay.
Mena: Beth: dance instructor, tenth-generation Texan,
and teaches free two-step lessons to prove it.
Whoa-ho!
That's right! Whoa-ho! Hi. Welcome.
So, y'all are ready to do the Texas two-step?
I guess so. We've got a two-step drink combo here.
That's the first part of dancing at a honky-tonk.
- Cheers. - All right, chin-chin to me.
Here we go.
Mena: I'll be honest,
I'm terrified of trying the two-step.
So, we've got the world-famous honky-tonk dance floor.
Mena: As a kid who grew up in Markham,
I am not built for this.
Beth: We're gonna learn those basic steps first.
So, I'm gonna have y'all stand in a line right here,
and I'll stand right in front of you.
And we go left, together, left, then right.
Left, together, left, then right.
That's really it. Um, thanks for coming.
I hope you have a great time in Texas.
- That's it? - It's a wrap. We're done.
Oh, that's right, this isn't a line dance.
This is a partner dance.
Chris, this is Emily. Emily, this is Chris.
- Chris is great. - Thank you.
- Beth: He's a nice guy too. - Golly. "Nice." Come on.
Emily, you're gonna stand right here,
and then, Chris, I'm gonna have you stand right here.
And Emily, you're gonna stand right there.
- Love it. - Wonderful. (Clap) Uh.
(Country music plays) Perfect. Are y'all ready?
We're all gonna go together, and we go this way,
this way, that way.
- This way. - I love your teaching method.
- Isn't it nice? - It's great.
- Beth: Perfect. - Okay, great.
You're gonna give a little push on her side.
- There it is. - Emily: Okay.
Ta-da.
This way, this way, and then turn.
And then when do I throw up?
(Laughter)
So, one more thing to add in.
Back in your frame. Wonderful.
So, gentlemen, I'm gonna take your left hand to your left ear,
and you're just gonna lean a little.
Uh-huh, just a little bit.
Oh, see how you shifted your feet?
- Ah, yes. - Beautiful.
Let's-- Ooh. Oh, well, that's exciting.
Nice, Chris. What do you think?
- That's great! - Is that good?
He put his body into it. You didn't tell me that.
Okay, let's see. Oh.
Oh! Whoo-hoo!
(Applause)
So, if y'all want to practise going in a circle,
we have other friends that can dance with y'all.
Yeah, bring 'em on!
Let's try it.
That looks super.
Let's have some more people come on up!
Come on, dancers, let's-- Come. Let's join 'em.
Wonderful.
♪ You make me feel like I've never felt before ♪
Mena: Well, there it is.
After a couple of turns on the dance floor,
I get the hang of it.
Even get a couple of twirls in without dropping my girl
or blowing a wheel.
And you know what? It's fun. Quintessentially Texan.
And hey, if this show's about people evolving, there it is.
Beth: Oh, there it goes!
(Cheering and applause)
Mena: Thanks very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.
(Acoustic country music)
♪
Mena: Bistro Vonish is known throughout Austin
for its elevated Vegan takes on traditional Czech dishes.
Chef Craig is recreating the foods
his Czech grandma made him as a child,
which have become Texan staples.
Craig: Thanks for coming by.
Mena: What are Kolaches, man?
Everybody's talking about Kolaches in Austin.
Is this even Southern?
What's going on here? What is this?
Kolache is a traditional Czech pastry
characterized by its semisweet dough.
The end of the 19th century, a lot of, essentially, Europeans
immigrated to this part of the country
and brought their foods with them.
So, my grandma would have said that this is a Kolache--
or Kolach, singular, Kolache, plural.
It's gonna be the same dough that goes into our savoury ones,
and it's the savoury ones that have become
what somebody's gonna expect
if you're in this part of the world
and you say Kolaches.
Ours are vegan.
Today, I brought you a garbanzo scramble
with spinach, mushroom, and tomato
inside the kolach dough pocket.
A little paprika and nutritional yeast
with a little Dijonnaise for dipping.
All right, I'm excited to take a bite of all of it here
with the-- what did you call it?
Dijon mayo?
(Laughs) Dijonnaise.
Dijonnaise. That makes more sense.
Mm. I love the dough.
It's really, really soft,
with that nice little seasoning on the top here.
Works beautifully with that stuffing of the mushrooms
and the chickpeas and spinach.
Just really, like, comforting, right?
Like comfort food, almost, you know? Really good.
We have a really strong emphasis on scratch-made.
It's worth stressing over the details
'cause we want every little bite to be just perfect.
Yeah, you can just pick this apart
and eat it with the Dijonnaise.
- Is that-- Did I get it right? - Nailed it.
(Speaks with mouth full)
Mena: And this one is, um...
Strawberry, a little vegan cream cheese in the filling.
Powdered sugar on top.
If you cut it in half, you can see--
I was just making sure it wasn't a doughnut, but it isn't.
- It's kind of but not. - Kind of like a Danish.
Mena: A Danish, yes, that's what it's like!
I haven't had a Danish in forever!
All right, let's try it.
(Lively traditional music)
Mm.
I would get this for breakfast with, like, a coffee.
My grandma had to have these on hand at all hours.
Even into her 90s, she'd wake up early, get the dough rising.
Got to make sure there's kolaches out for everybody.
We get to have those connections
as we enjoy these new vegan versions here at this bar.
Well, thank you, man. I appreciate it.
I've been hearing about kolaches and really appreciate you
educating me about these and a little bit about Czech food.
Thank you so much for coming by.
It's always fun to get to talk about the things we love to do.
♪
Mena: Rolling around Austin, taking in the sights,
I start dreaming of my favourite food: pizza.
Luckily, I'm not far from Big Nonna's.
General manager Sean Connolly,
a self-confessed pizza process nerd,
has promised to teach me how to make this
show stopping meat lover's pizza.
But mostly, I can't wait to try my hand at tossing some dough.
Sean, thanks for having us here at big Nonna's.
Thanks for being here.
So, you guys make almost all your ingredients in-house?
Yes, everything we can make in-house we do in-house.
All of our toppings and ingredients
are kind of labours of love.
Which is why I'm here, Sean. I'm here because you do that.
(Laughing) All right, let's make a 'za, man!
What are we making?
Yeah, we're gonna make a couple of Meat Out pizzas today.
The first step to a good pizza is always the dough, right?
The foundation of a pizza is gonna be a good dough.
I've never actually made a fresh pizza.
It's not too hard.
I think you'll get the hang of it no problem.
Mena: Okay, let's go.
So, the first thing we're gonna do is grab a dough.
Got one for you here.
Okay. Let's get that out of here.
We're just gonna take our dough, and we're just gonna plop it
right down onto that workspace.
It should slide right out.
You can just toss that thing. Get out of here.
We don't need it. Get rid of it.
Exactly.
All right, and then we're just gonna dust it up some more.
You're a GM who gets his hands dirty.
I think it's important to be hands on in every aspect.
So do I.
All right, and then once we've got a good dust on it,
we're gonna start pressing it out.
So, I'm just gonna place some pressure down here evenly.
Yeah, looking good. Okay.
All right, once you got it pressed out, give it a flip.
Drop it right back down.
Okay.
And then we'll press it out just a little bit more at this point.
Wow, you take it for granted, pizza.
It just shows up to your doorstep,
and it's delicious and simple, but it's a lot of work, man.
Yeah, and now we're gonna dock it.
So, that means I'm just gonna tap it with my fingertips here.
- Mena: We're gonna dock it. - It's called docking.
Yeah, we're gonna work out the air bubbles.
You might hear a little pop or two.
Once we've got that worked out...
Yes, sir.
...we're gonna give it one more flip, the same way.
A quick flip.
Give it another docking pass on this side.
Not as thoroughly this time.
You can be a little quick and casual here.
Okay.
Sean: And we're ready to start tossing it out.
Oh, we're tossing these?
Yeah.
We're not going to toss them in the air.
Oh.
( Distorted) We're not going to toss them in the air .
So what I do is we're going to flip it up
onto one of our hands.
And just kind of lift it up and then start to turn it.
Once it gets going,
gravity's going to do most of the work for us here.
Okay.
I feel like I'm moving my whole body here.
Yeah.
Mena: To toss or not to toss, that is the question.
Because I want to toss.
I need to toss!
Once it starts looking about the right size--
So this is the hardest part
is figuring out when it's going to be the right size.
A good catch.
Yes! My first pizza toss!
All right.
Yeah, baby.
Sorry, I disobeyed your commands,
Sean, but I got for it, you know.
I had to just follow my gut.
I respect it.
Gotta follow your intuition.
Exactly.
And once it's looking ready to go,
we're just going to gently drape it down
onto our peel here.
♪
All right, now we're ready to sauce it up.
Mena: Very nice.
Sean: And we're just going to scoop it down the middle
and spread it out to the edge.
♪
How's that looking?
Looking pretty good. We've got a good start here.
Cheese time?
Not quite yet.
So one of the things about our beetaroni--
Did you say "beetaroni"?
Yeah, man, you got it, beetaroni.
You make your pepperoni from beets?
Correct.
Mena: Very interesting.
Sean: It's our signature topping.
♪
It's almost candied but it tastes like pepperoni.
It's about a 12-hour process to make one batch of these,
from beets to beetaroni.
It's a bit time consuming but it's worth it.
I'll tell you, man, that's a lot better than I thought.
Because I'm not a huge fan of beets.
Neither am I.
Mena: Right.
And I was convinced by this.
So these are a little delicate.
It's going to go down underneath the cheese.
That's to help it from getting too crispy.
I'm going to grab a handful of those,
and we're going to lay 'em down.
Mena: Oh, yeah, wowsa! I can't wait to eat this.
Sean: And then we're going to cheese it.
We're going to cheese it?
Sean: Yeah.
So this is our house-made vegan mozzarella.
You make your own cheese?
Yes, yes, we do.
Of course you do.
Sean: Yeah.
It is primarily based in pumpkin seeds, coconut oil
and cultured organic soy milk.
Wow.
Along with some spices, of course.
You've gotta have flavour.
We wanted to do something just with sustainability in mind.
Cashews, while delicious, are a very thirsty nut.
Cashews are a thirsty nut.
We're just going to take one of these sticks here.
Mena: Okay.
Sean: And we're going to lightly grate it.
Mena: It's got a good texture to it.
I can tell it will melt very quickly.
Yeah, it's nice and melty.
All right, the next thing is going to be the smoky tempeh.
We marinade our tempeh to give a smoky sweet and salty flavour
to hit those same kind of notes of flavour
as bacon would but with a completely
different texture and style.
And then the last but certainly not least...
Seitan sausage.
...the homemade seitan sausage!
Seitan is a wheat gluten meat substitute.
Sean: Yeah.
It's one of the oldest meat substitutes there is.
It's a very similar flavour profile
as traditional Italian sausage.
Mena: And you also make it in-house?
Yeah, everything here.
This is going to be delicious. Baby!
Now it's ready to go in the oven.
So I like to say low and slow.
Low and slow!
Keep a low angle and then we're gonna start
to kind of shimmy it back and forth slowly.
♪
(Upbeat instrumental music)
Mena: Wowza!
And just like that, Sean drops the meat-out 'za.
Seriously, these dough wheels are mouth-watering triumphs.
Ah, look at that. Ah, man.
Sean: Dig in.
Mena: Cheers.
♪
Mm!
It definitely tastes like a meat-full pizza.
Got the sausage on there.
The tempeh doesn't taste like tempeh anymore.
No, it really is different.
Yeah, and that beetaroni that you make: ah, man.
It's got that perfect texture effect of pepperoni now.
Mm-hmm.
Ah.
(Crunching)
The beet is the perfect complement
to this pizza specifically,
because I feel like if it was made out of seitan
or something, it might have been too much.
Hmm-mm.
The beet adds a little bit of freshness as well.
Yeah, it gives a little earthiness, a little grounded
to everything, you know.
The cheese is a amazing.
It's creamy, a little bit of saltiness.
It's as good as any vegan cheese I've had.
In fact, that you guys are making it
out of pumpkin seeds, absolutely incredible.
You've been living in Texas for a while?
Mm-hmm.
When I told people I was coming to Texas, they were like,
"Texas, vegan, what are you talking about?"
And if I was to tell someone I was going to have a meat pizza
in Texas, obviously they would think
of something very different...
Yeah.
...than a vegan meat pizza.
Do you think this could have been possible,
like, 10 years ago here in Texas?
Austin's always been a little bit
different and always had a bigger
and more varied vegan scene than a lot of other towns
in Texas, but I don't know.
Veganism has just grown so much and Austin has grown so much
that there's just a fresh demand
that maybe wouldn't have been here before.
Yeah, you nailed it, absolutely nailed it.
I'm angry I don't live here
because I would get this often, for sure.
I'm glad you enjoy it.
Mm-hmm.
And I gotta say your crust looks great.
For a first timer, you're a natural.
Thank you.
(Upbeat instrumental music)
♪
Mena: Any serious visit to
Mena: Any serious visit to Texas is punctuated
by the traditional crawfish boil.
Fortunately for plant-based eaters,
there's now a nahfish boil.
It's the brainchild of Chef Ray, an avid motorcyclist and vegan
who's tired of being excluded from southern meat-heavy meals.
So he created the no-crawfish nahfish boil
for the Austin community.
Good to meet you, man.
Nice to meet you, man.
So we're doing a craw-fish boil?
Nahfish.
Nahfish boil.
Before I was plant based, I've had the Cajun style crawfish
with potatoes, but I've never had a vegan style nahfish.
Yeah.
What is it? What is it, man?
Instead of the crawfish tails, we use vegan shrimp.
What is the shrimp made of?
It's called konjac.
It's a root vegetable.
It's East Asian, like a yam.
And they make it even look like a shrimp.
Yeah, and the best part about the vegan shrimp
is you don't have to peel all the shells off of it.
That's a good point, man, and if this was a real shrimp,
right back here would be its poop sack.
Ray: Yeah!
Did you know that?
You're probably having shrimp with its poop sack on it.
So, with vegan shrimp, there's no poop sack!
No poop sack.
Yeah, right?
No poop sack.
You heard it from Ray here, no poop sack.
♪
Damn!
That tastes like shrimp to me. Hey, you've got to try this.
Claudia, come here.
Tell me that doesn't taste like shrimp.
Shrimpy.
See? Hmm!
There's so much flavour going on.
Ray: The texture yeah.
And now it's soaking up all that broth,
as soon as we get it in there too.
Be careful. Don't breath that in.
It's a lot of chilies and--
Ooh!
Ray: We have the potatoes in there already.
Wanna taste it?
Ah, man. Yeah, I'd love to taste it.
Let's get me a taste.
I want to see what's going on in there.
It smells amazing!
♪
Oh, man!
Mm, that tastes delicious.
So you've got spice in there,
all kinds of different kinds of peppers?
Different hot sauces. We added oils.
Is there some citrus in there?
I'm getting a little bit of acidity.
Yeah, a little citrus and a little seasonings too.
I'm pumped, man.
I can't wait to get all this flavour in this corn, man.
I can put it in right now actually.
Let's do it. What are we waiting for?
Throw it on in there.
Don't splash it.
Let it roll, man, let it roll.
There you go.
♪
Perfect.
So that's the corn.
I'm guessing that kind of takes the second longest, right?
So we want to get that in there?
Yeah, but it's not too long.
I mean, that water's really hot now, so.
So mushrooms next, then the shrimp and the sausage.
Yeah. Ready for the mushroom?
This will be a little easier and a lot lighter.
♪
Oh, baby.
Oh, wow, that looks amazing. Just floating on top like that.
Ray: Steam them up real quick.
Oh, yeah.
♪
Whew! Look at that.
Mushroom and corn swimming in heaven.
Do the honour.
Mena: Wow. Look at that.
The boil itself doesn't take too long
and when it's ready, it can serve up to 100 Texans.
It's time.
It's time? It's time.
We're just going to put the blackened shrimp
and the sausage in the boil real quick.
Oh, baby! The beautiful shrimp.
(Plopping)
Oh, man. More shrimp?
Oh, yeah, we're gonna add all of it.
All of it?
Ray: All of it.
Really done it with the shrimp now.
Ray: I think we're full here.
Mena: Oh yeah. Alright, look at that.
Ray: Flavour!
Mena: Oh my gosh, you've created a slide right into the cooler.
Ray: Ready?
♪
Oh baby.
Ray: It's not a perfect design.
Look at that goodness.
Alright, so that's it.
This is ready for the table now or what?
Ray: Ready to go.
♪
I think we need a swat team with this-- protect it.
(Chuckles)
Mena: I'm Mena.
- Hi, Mena. - Nice to meet you.
Oh, yes! Oh, baby!
A nahfish boil is an event.
I mean, we're eating off the table, and the local community
showed up in force to indulge.
Should we dig in?
Enjoy, everybody.
All: Thanks.
Mena: Thanks, Chef Ray. Thank you, Chef.
♪
Mm.
Heck, yeah!
Yeah, I love it.
Mena: What do you think?
Very good.
I've never had a real one,
so I don't have anything to compare it to.
Really good. It's honestly on point.
Mena: Yeah.
I'm spending so much time
eating nahfish that I barely notice the band.
♪ Never been ♪
♪ Go and spend your time some other way ♪
So I stick around and catch some live music,
something that's synonymous with Austin.
♪ Loving you is lame, loving you is lame ♪
♪
Mena: And the word "vegan" may be next on that list,
because this city is growing and changing.
From biscuit to brisket, the chefs here are delivering,
when it comes to plant-based southern comfort food.
I've danced, I've tossed, and I've fallen in love
with this eclectic city.
My trip would not be complete without one last stop
to Congress Bridge to watch the bats take flight.
♪
Only in Austin.
(Bats chirping)
♪ There's a train coming down the track ♪
♪ You got to move on, never looking back ♪
♪ There's a train coming down the track ♪
♪ Coming to carry me home ♪
♪ Hear the whistle blow ♪
♪ A hundred miles, hundred miles ♪
(Music fades)
(Ticking)
(Musical swell)