Plastic-free takeaway
Plastic free lunch from Ba Ba Rolls
While the Market may be known for its famous South Melbourne Market Dim Sims, Mama Tran has also been serving up its own version of one of Victoria’s most famous (or some would say infamous) creations for over 36 years. Customers tend to be fiercely loyal to one or the other and will happily argue about whether SMM Dims Sims’ or Mama Tran’s has the ideal amount of cabbage or best spice mix (the right amount of pepper being hotly contested).
Mama Tran, who also have over 16 varieties of dumplings and a range of noodle and rice dishes, don’t see it as a competition and just want their customers to be happy. To ensure this, they have continued to adapt their offer to the changing tastes of their customers over the years, including the addition of gluten free dumplings last year to cater to coeliacs and those wanting to remove wheat from their diet.
Mama Tran with her crystal prawn dumplings
One thing that has definitely changed over their time at the Market is customers’ attitudes towards plastics. Mama Tran was first opened by Tran and her husband Dieu Ky in 1988. Back then, plastic was the new wunderkind on the block, offering a lightweight and cheap option for their takeaway offer. Since then, growing awareness of the damage that the production and disposal of plastic does to our planet has seen plastic containers increasingly fall out of favour.
Last year, the Market commenced the phasing out of plastic take away containers and Mama Tran now provide their delicious takeaway offering in plastic free packaging. This transition was made much easier thanks to the help of Tran’s daughter Sue, who runs Dragon Room Chinese in the Food Hall with her husband Tan.
Sue from Dragon Room
Sue did all the hard work researching and sourcing the best plastic alternatives for both of the family businesses, which took some trial and error. The paper noodle boxes introduced first weren’t popular with customers, so they then switched to paper lidded containers, only to then have a hard time convincing some customers that they held the same amount as the old plastic ones.
The one remaining plastic item is their soup containers, a problem shared by Food Hall neighbour Toan at Ba Ba Rolls, who has also been unable to find a non-plastic alternative that will hold hot soup for extended periods. While there are bioplastic alternatives out there, these offer their own environmental problems as unlike the plastic options, they currently can’t be recycled in Victoria. Both businesses look forward to improvements in bioplastic recycling so they can one day make their businesses completely plastic free.
In the meantime, a better option for plastic free dining is already available – bringing your own reusable container. BYO containers are accepted across the Market, and Toan and Sue agree that their aromatic hot pho or wonton soup will taste even better eaten out of your own glass or ceramic take away bowl.