Liverpool's 1st vegan taco night
Report and photos by Sean Taylor.

LIVERPOOL'S Maguire's Pizza Bar has played host to what we think could be the City's 1st ever vegan taco night. This reservation only, pop up event was organised by Jay Jones of "Black Masa"; so called because of the black colouration added to their masa dough.

The night, well day started at 2.50pm, as the hungry punters were beginning to gather outside for the 3.00pm opening, while Jay and his 2 assistants worked furiously to prepare everything for their 3.00pm sitting. My own meal wasn't to be until 8.00pm, so I had 5 hours of watching people eat before I could indulge myself.

The meal consisted of a set menu of 7 small courses. The 1st of these was a humble offering of quinoa nachos, which served simply as vessels for Jay's 3 homemade salsas:- "citrafixion," "gaia goo" and "witch trial." The taco courses were given equally dark and eerie names on the menu, the 1st of which was "Night forager" with shitake and portabello mushrooms. This was followed by "Salem's lot," my personal favourite dish of the evening, a taco comprised breaded seitan. This was followed by a vegetable hash, and then by the jackfruit taco "Tinga ritual."

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was the penultimate course, which appeared to be simply corn on the cob. Not being a vegan myself, I had never eaten sweetcorn without a generous portion of melted butter, but this was served with garlic and "nutritional yeast," an apparently popular vegan friendly seasoning which is described as having an artificial cheese like flavour. The final dish of the evening was a tofu taco named:- "Ether spell."

Having spent the entire evening observing the hard work that went into an event such as this, it's clear that Jay and his assistants, Louise and Laura, deserve the highest praise. They worked tirelessly all night to ensure it went off without a hitch.

For more information follow Black Masa on Facebook and also on Instagram.

It was interesting to note the high number of non vegans in attendance; a testament to the quality and originality of the menu. This evening bucked the notion that vegan food is either uninteresting or simply lackluster substitutions for "proper" meat and cheese dishes. Vegan or not though, this is the sort of event that it would be great to see more of across Merseyside; a simple and modest showcase of the talent and inventiveness that the area is known for. If the popularity of this inaugural event was anything to go by, we won't be left waiting for long.