Not Only Meatless Monday: vegetarian

Showing posts with label vegetarian. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Feature: Finding a vegetarian restaurant/store (part II)

To find a vegetarian eatery, try looking near a temple.

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Feature: Finding a vegetarian restaurant/store (part I)

Restaurant Review: -- Fulong Railway Lunchbox (Fulong, New Taipei City)

Chishang (池上) in Taitung County (台東), Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County (嘉義), but most of all Fulong (福隆) in the old Taipei County are all famed for their railway lunch boxes. Originally (and still) sold to passengers from the station platforms, these towns also now have lunch box restaurants in the nearby streets, and indeed, there are Fulong and Chishang lunch box providers in neighbouring towns and further afield.

Having tried and failed to purchase a vegetarian lunch box on the platform, NOMM bought one from the nearest store, at No.5 Fulong St. (福隆街).

The omens looked good, there was even a sign taped to the counter listing the ingredients, and translated into English by the owner's daughter.

The vegetarian version listed "rice, marinated dried tofu, cabbage, dried radish, seaweed, marinated gluten, vegetarian ham, pickled cabbage, corn, carrot, potato, bean" all for NT$55.

NOMM passed on the vegetarian ham and was rewarded with an extra portion of vegetables.

Here ended the good news. The food was gross. Perhaps walking further from the station might work, but when NOMM tried this, we were asked, "Do you mind if the vegetables are cooked in lard?"

Perhaps a packed lunch is advisable for a day at the beach.

Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Thursday, 17 November 2011

News Brief: Happy mother donates vegetarian lunch boxes

A woman who married into a rich and prominent Hong Kong family and who has waited almost ten years without giving birth to a son or daughter, last year went eat at a vegetarian restaurant in New Taipei City. There, she prayed for a child to a statue of the Bodhisattva Guanyin (觀音), and having had a child, this year has donated HK$800,000 (ca. NT$3.1 million) to the restaurant to provide 1,000 vegetarian lunch boxes per week for the next year, the Apple Daily reports today (full Chinese-language article here).

Accepting the money, the boss of the Lianhua Veg Restaurant (蓮花素食館) on Fuhe Road (福和路) in Yonghe District (永和區), said that they would start giving out the first 500 boxes this Saturday with priority to public welfare and social organizations.

Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Sunday, 23 October 2011

News Brief: former VP Lu urges vegetarianism, cooks meal

Former ROC vice president Lu Hsiu-lien (呂秀蓮) cooked a vegetarian dish and called on people to “eat less meat, drive less and waste less” while attending an environmental event at the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, the Central News Agency (中央通訊) reported today (full Chinese-language article here).

These were the best responses to the growing problems of global warming caused by emissions of climate-change gases, she said.

Formosa Television provided more details (full Chinese-language article here) about the dish Lu offered, while saying that since she frequently cooked at home she was not nervous about doing it in public. Having sautéd bitter gourd (苦瓜) and king oyster mushrooms (杏包菇), she sprinkled a little sesame oil, and then simmered the dish to develop the flavors.

Lu said she had been a vegetarian for the last four months.