A Vegetarian Paradise

According to WorldAtlas, Taiwan has the world’s second highest rate of vegetarianism, with more than 3 million vegetarians among the population, and some 6,000 vegetarian restaurants in the country. Our “vegetarian-friendly” environment has been acknowledged by international media, including CNN and Wanderlust magazine.

A long history

Influenced by the West, modern cuisine places a high premium on meat. However, vegetarianism has been gaining popularity across the globe ever since the term “veganism” was coined in Britain in 1944 to promote abstinence not only from meat-based foods but from the use of other animal products as well.

Vegetarianism has a long history in Taiwan. Kaim Ang, adjunct research fellow in the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, has co-authored a book that explores Taiwanese history through the lens of food. Drawing on historical documents, he traces Taiwan’s vegetarian culture back to the Dutch colonial period (1624–1662). Vegetarianism put down roots in Taiwan long before it became a fashionable trend. Subsequently, certain types of religious fasting, which encouraged believers to practice vegetarianism at home, were introduced to Taiwan. These fasting traditions had their origin in Luoism, an influential variant of Chinese folk religion. More recently, Yiguandao—another Chinese millenarian sect that advocates a meatless diet—has prospered on the island. In modern Taiwan, a significant proportion of the populace continues to reject meat for religious reasons.

In response to this demand, distinctive local vegetarian snack foods have been developed in many places across Taiwan. Huang Shengjie is the founder of the biggest Taiwanese vegetarian group on Facebook, with more than 220,000 members. He tells us about his explorations of local vegetarian cultures: for example, Yilan’s xilurou—an iconic dish made with napa cabbage, shredded pork, carrots, mushrooms, duck egg, and other ingredients—has a vegetarian version named xilugeng; and noodle soup with braised vegetarian meat is called tianxiang mian in Taoyuan, but shuxiang mian in Hsinchu. “What’s most interesting about going vegetarian is that we can discover various vegetarian cultures in different places,” Huang says.

Changhua people are accustomed to vegetarian food in their daily lives.

Taiwan’s vegetarian culture has a long history, percolating through the populace many years before veganism became fashionable.

The Buddhist swastika can be seen on the signs of many vegetarian eateries in Changhua, pointing to a close connection between local vegetarian culture and religion.

Many of Changhua’s famous street foods, including bawan (meatball dumplings), have vegetarian versions.

Vegetarian Changhua

In Changhua, perhaps more than anywhere else, we see very vividly how vegetarianism has penetrated local life. Food writer Chen Shuhua has described the ways in which vegetarian foods tug at the nostalgic heartstrings of Changhua people who live elsewhere. Brought up in Changhua, Chen now works in Northern Taiwan. In her book on Changhua’s food culture, she tells how whenever she returns to her hometown, she visits a vegetarian eatery to buy tofu skin wraps to bring back with her. Even though Chen is not a vegetarian, these local dainties—filled with diced bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and vegetarian meat—never fail to assuage her homesickness when she cooks them in a soup flavored with pickled cabbage.

Local historian Xie Jiayin takes us through the streets of Changhua City, home to many religious venues that date from the Qing Dynasty. Next to these places of worship, we come across vegetarian eateries whose signs show the Buddhist swastika. The foods they sell range from tofu skin wrap soup and noodles (the usual yellow noodles, as well as flat rice noodles and cellophane noodles) to artisan dishes inspired by high-end classics, such as vegetarian goji berry eels, fotiaoqiang (“Buddha jumps over the wall”), and mushroom and bamboo fungus soup. Xie, who likes to indulge herself in vegetarian street foods once a week, easily navigates Chang­hua’s richly varied vegetarian culture. “In Changhua, you can find vegetarian versions of almost all meat-based street foods, including bawan [meatball dumplings], wagui [savory rice pudding], bao [steamed buns], zongzi [rice dumplings], tangabiko [tube rice pudding], and salty deep-fried chicken, not to mention vegetarian buffets.” The dazzling range demonstrates just how popular vegetarianism is in Taiwan.

Rich in religious culture, Changhua is home to many places of worship. Founded in the 1800s, the Tanhua Buddha Shrine promotes vegetarianism and is locally referred to as a “vegetarian shrine.”

With an eye to the commercial potential of vegetarian food, 7-Eleven, Taiwan’s largest convenience store chain, has launched its own vegetarian brand.

Founder of the biggest Taiwanese vegetarian group on Facebook, Huang Shengjie uses social media to promote Taiwan’s vegetarian cuisine.

A new trend

Since the 1990s, vegetarianism has made headway in many parts of the world, but people no longer practice it merely for religious purposes. Now associated with health and environmentalism, vegetarianism is more often regarded as a lifestyle choice. As issues such as environmental protection, animal welfare, and carbon reduction take hold, and as the general public becomes more aware of nutritional science and preventive healthcare, increasing numbers of us are keen to try “flexitarianism.”

This new trend contrasts with some strict forms of religious vegetarianism that ban pungent plants such as scallions, garlic, chives, onions, and asafetida. While vegetarian restaurants used to fall outside many people’s orbits, now even meat-eaters agree that “it’s nice to eat vege­tarian from time to time.”

Internationally famous for supplying tasty comestibles, Taiwan’s food industry has been quick to respond to this new tide of vegetarianism. With branches everywhere across the island, each of the major convenience store chains is now selling its own vegetarian products. Since 7-Eleven launched its successful vegetarian brand in 2020, other companies have followed suit. Prominent examples include Family Mart, which has teamed up with the vegetarian restaurant Deli Soys, and Hi-Life, which has joined forces with Easy House Vegetarian Cuisine. In addition to selling vegetarian foods in its own branches, 7-Eleven has even opened vegetarian shop-in-shops, offering more than 300 different products.

Patrons of vegetarian restaurants are also spoilt for choice. With the rise of creative cuisine, many culinary traditions—including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Malaysian—have gained a foothold in the island’s vegetarian market. “Vegetarian culture took root in Taiwan very early, so we boast a good number of vegetarian restaurants and a remarkable diversity of vegetarian foods,” Huang Shengjie says. Furthermore, to cater to religious vegetarians, Taiwanese companies have long been producing vegetarian meat. Nowadays, the plant-based meats made from pea or mung bean proteins are superior to traditional vegetarian products in terms of composition and the manufacturing process. Taiwan’s technology for making vegetarian meat is world leading. Local factories are able to reproduce any flavor, shape, and texture of meat, and this represents a great advantage for our food service industry.

Zhan Shenglin, head chef at Yang Shin Vegetarian Restaurant, applies his culinary ingenuity in order to entice meat eaters.

Yang Shin’s fame has spread far and wide. Even on a weekday, it is usually packed at noon.

Culinary ingenuity

Vegetarian cuisine has often been viewed through the prism of a few stereotypes: it was either awfully bland, such as boiled vegetables and tofu, or too greasy and salty, like vegetarian chicken, tripe, kidneys, and other processed foods. However, owners of vegetarian restaurants have come to realize that they cannot expand their customer base merely by “promoting” vegetarian foods, but that they need to attract meat eaters by improving their culinary offering.

As a result, Taiwan’s vegetarian cuisine, though rooted in mainstream Chinese culinary traditions, is gaining inspiration from the island’s cultural and ethnic diversity. Showing an innovative spirit, it is gradually carving out a future of its own. Yang Shin Vegetarian Restaurant in central Taipei is a case in point. Even on a weekday, it is usually packed before noon. Its patrons are not all vegetarians: nearly half are actually meat eaters.

“Our chefs are all trained in meat-based cuisine. I myself am not vegetarian,” says Zhan Shenglin, head chef at Yang Shin. Zhan’s words may sound surprising, but it is precisely his non-vegetarian culinary background that has enabled him to transcend conventional ways of thinking. It is not enough just to “have something to eat.” Rather, Zhan’s menu attests to his insistence on “good flavors.”

Serenity has been on the Bib Gourmand list for several years, attracting many international visitors.

Craftsmanship

How do we cook vegetarian dishes that titillate the taste buds of meat eaters? Zhan tells us that because vege­tarian foods cannot be sautéed with scallions and garlic, his cooks have created special oils. Enhanced by ingenious use of flavorings, these oils emit the rich fragrances of the vegetables they are extracted from—celery, carrots, shiitake mushrooms—and form a sharp contrast to the unexciting sesame oil used in conventional vegetarian cuisine.

Zhan also mentions that without meat as a primary ingredient, vegetarian dishes are most commonly cooked by rapidly stir-frying seasonal vegetables and other plant-based products. However, to reduce their dependence on ready-made factory products, and to offer a more diverse menu, the chefs at Yang Shin resort to the labor-­intensive art of manual wrapping. Choosing to focus on Hong Kong-style dim sum, which rarely include vegetarian items, Yang Shin has created its own place in the market.

Great minds think alike. Since the first Michelin guide to Taipei was released in 2018, Serenity, a Sichuan-style vege­tarian restaurant, has been on the Bib Gourmand list every year. Serenity and Yang Shin share similarities in how they craft their menus, though they offer very different choices. Serenity’s owner, Tracy Wu, became a vegetarian for religious reasons. In order to satisfy palates accustomed to more robust flavors, she decided to capitalize on the zesty spiciness of Sichuan cuisine by employing ingredients such as Sichuan pepper, five-spice powder, and vegetarian shacha sauce, combined with meticulous craftsmanship. In this way, Wu has successfully put her business on the map.

Having spent many years following the ebb and flow of Taiwan’s vegetarian food sector, Huang Shengjie has been invited by several retail chains, including con­veni­ence stores, to help plan their vegetarian products. He is confident that the success of these big brands will foster the development of the entire vegetarian market and encourage non-­vegetarian establishments to join the fray. For example, Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Pizza Hut have all introduced vegetarian options. Taiwan’s vegetarian scene is rich and varied. Only a decade or so ago, there was only one vegetarian stall at Huang’s university, and when he and his fellow vegetarians wanted to meet up for a meal, their only choice was a vegetarian noodle stand. Since then, vegetarianism has come a long way in Taiwan, not only benefiting locals but also leaving a lasting impression on international visitors, so you will hear tourists say: “Taiwan is a great place to come for vegetarian food!”

Through fine craftsmanship and skillful use of flavorings, vegetarian food can be as appealing as any other cuisine.