Airports and train stations in the U.S. are usually a wasteland for finding vegetarian food, let alone vegan food.  It is so bad that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine rates an airport restaurant as “healthy” if it has a single vegetarian item on the menu.  No wonder frequent travel is associated with poor health and obesity (here & here).

Vegan Char Sui Bao

Mi Lah at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station is an oasis in this travel desert, it sells vegan Asian food with a focus on Vietnamese dishes.  I tried the Cha Sui Bao which are BBQ-Seitan “Pork” buns.  They also sell Spicy Dumplings which are filled with mushroom, cilantro, soy protein and bok choy and are served in a chili sauce and Soup Dumplings which are not Chinese style Xiao Long Bao, but are the dumplings from the Spicy Dumplings served in a clear broth.

BBQ-“Pork”

I think the Asian fake meat companies have cracked the code for making fake pork, especially Char Sui pork.  The filling in this bun was totally convincing in taste and texture and they use a really nice sweet Chinese BBQ sauce.  The bun could have used a bigger ratio of filling to bready bun; you can see in the photo there is a lot of bread at the top of the bun.  But hey, I was able to get a vegan snack on Amtrak!

There is a full sit down Mi Lah in Philadelphia at 615 South 3rd Street which does Tapas style small plates and their original restaurant is in Ambler PA.  At the Amtrak station , you can find Mi Lah in the food court.