Posted by Welcome to the Lunar New Year celebration 2020 at Disney California Adventure (DCA)! Let’s eat some vegan food!
This festival runs from January 17 to February 9, 2020. It consists of special food and drink items at four marketplace booths and Paradise Garden Grill, as well as merchandise, character meet and greets (Mulan, Mushu, and Minnie and Mickey in Lunar New Year outfits), Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession, the Lucky Wishing Well, musical acts at the Paradise Garden Bandstand, and a special introduction to World of Color called “Hurry Home.”
Below you will find a summary of the vegan options at Paradise Garden Grill and the four marketplace booths. Happy eating!
Table of Contents (Jump to a section!)
- Paradise Garden Grill (Plant-based Orange Tempeh); Almond Milk Iced Tea; Orange Blossom Cocktail)
- Longevity Noodle Co (Vietnamese Cold Brew with Coconut Milk; Tsingtao Beer)
- Lucky 8 Lantern (Peach Sojito; Hitachino Nest White Ale)
- Prosperity Bao & Buns (Lychee-Grapefruit Gin Spritzer)
- Red Dragon Spice Traders
Paradise Garden Grill
The main event at the Lunar New Year is the Plant-based Orange Tempeh, which is returning from last year’s celebration. It is marked with the new “plant-based” symbol, which means vegan with no modifications. It comes in the full-sized version, or in a smaller version that can be used with a Sip & Savor pass. Here are the menu boards for your reference:
The menu describes it as: “Crispy Tempeh with Steamed Rice and Stir-fried Vegetables consisting of Red Onion, Red Pepper, Broccoli, Mushroom, and Baby Corn tossed in Orange Sauce topped with Green Onion and Sesame Seeds.”
This is the full-sized version, which comes with two Mickey tempeh pieces:
Just like last year, this is very tasty! The orange sauce on the tempeh is great. I wouldn’t say it’s spicy at all, just a bit tangy. The tempeh is nice and nutty. There’s not much to say about this one — it’s a good solid option, and everything tastes better when it’s Mickey-shaped!
Also at Paradise Garden Grill, they have the Almond Milk Iced Tea, which comes either with or without boba.
I spoke with a chef about ingredients on both of these. He said that the Almond Milk Iced Tea is entirely vegan — it consists of Gold Peak iced tea, almond milk, and almond syrup. He said that the boba ingredients list doesn’t have any dairy, eggs, honey, or gelatin. He said that one ingredient listed is “caramel coloring,” which he could not identify the origin of. Caramel sometimes contains dairy, but this list did not list dairy as an allergen at the bottom, so it shouldn’t be made of dairy. You can make your own call, but for all intents and purposes, I would say that this is vegan.
This one is returning from last year as well. The Almond Milk Iced Tea itself is great — you can really taste the almond syrup, and it’s a good amount of sweet. The boba balls remind me of the texture of licorice, they are quite chewy, and some of them were stuck together. Next time I would order it without them, since they don’t add much.
The Orange Blossom Cocktail is described as: “Orange Juice, Gin, Orange Liqueur, Grenadine, and Lime Juice served over Ice with an Orange Slice and Pomegranate Arils.” I asked someone who was drinking it if I could photograph hers and get her review:
She said that it tasted like Sunny-D, so it felt a bit nostalgic. She seemed to be generally positive about it, but not overly excited.
They have two beers here:
- Tiger Beer is listed as vegan on Barnivore.
- Kloud does not have a listing on Barnivore.
Longevity Noodle Co
Here are the menu boards for your reference:
I asked the chef on the long shot that the Vegetable Egg Roll was vegan (sometimes they actually don’t contain egg), but in this case, it does contain egg and is not vegan.
What is new and exciting this year at this booth is the Vietnamese Cold Brew with Coconut Milk. I asked the chef about everything in it, and she said that it is entirely vegan — made with Joffrey’s cold brew coffee, sweetened coconut cream, coconut milk, house-made coconut whipped cream, and sprinkled with cacao powder. It is a real vegan whipped cream, not just a “non-dairy/lactose free” whipped cream that one sometimes encounters that still contains milk.
So this one doesn’t need any modifications:
It’s so exciting that they’re making a real vegan whipped cream for this! It tastes very distinctly of coconut. If you like coconut and coffee, you’ll probably like this one.
They also have Tsingtao pale ale here, which is listed on Barnivore as vegan.
Lucky 8 Lantern
Here are the menu boards for your reference:
So you can see that there aren’t any food possibilities here, but that Peach Sojito is described as: “Craft Soju, White Rum, Simply Peach [juice], House-made Mint-infused Simple Syrup, Fresh Lime Juice, and Soda Water.” I didn’t have anyone to do a taste test or get a photo from, so I can’t tell you much more about it, but if you try it, please tag or message me on Instagram @happiestveganonearth and let me know what you think!
They also have Hitachino Nest White Ale, which is listed as vegan on Barnivore.
Prosperity Bao & Buns
Here is the menu board for your reference:
No food here, but there is the Lychee-Grapefruit Gin Spritzer: “Gin, Lychee Fruit Syrup, Simply Grapefruit [Juice], and Soda Water.” I didn’t have anyone to do a taste test or get a photo from, so I can’t tell you much more about it, but if you try it, please tag or message me on Instagram @happiestveganonearth and let me know what you think!
Kloud does not have a listing on Barnivore.
Red Dragon Spice Traders
Here is the menu board:
Unfortunately the cocktails here have honey. I wasn’t able to find Bottle Logic Hanamachi on Barnivore, though it is pretty unlikely it would be made with any animal products.
Here are some photos of the Lotus Glow Cube that can be added to any drink, as noted above. The button on the bottom allows you to have it fade through all the colors in a rainbow pattern, or to stay on one color. Here it is on blue mode:
That’s going to be it for this year’s Lunar New Year! Keep an eye out for a Youtube video, which I will upload momentarily, where you can see my taste tests and reviews!
If you’re looking for the comprehensive guides to the vegan options on permanent menus all around the Disneyland Resort, here are those links:
Complete Guide to Vegan Options at Disneyland! (January 2020 Update)
Complete Guide to Vegan Options in California Adventure! (January 2020 Update)
Complete Guide to Vegan Options in Downtown Disney! (January 2020 Update)
Complete Guide to Vegan Options at the Disneyland Resort Hotels! (January 2020 Update)
Find me on Instagram for daily updates, and on Youtube for video versions of these guides:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happiestveganonearth/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjFU0LZX4OtGgqIXLrt60Uw
Your Guide to Vegan Options at Disneyland! 