A couple of months ago, I was walking past rows of street vendors selling deep-fried Oreos and fried milk in a Kenting night market when I finally came upon a stand which displayed vegetables on skewers. I rejoiced and placed my order. But my heart sank quickly to the pavement when, in one swift move, the vendor lifted the skewer from the grill, dipped it a steaming pot of sweet, sticky sauce and handed it to me with a big smile on her face.
It’s no secret that for the more health conscious, and particularly in light of the recent food scandals, it can be a daily struggle to find a healthy, non-sweet, non-greasy meal in Taiwan.
Daisy Lin (林黛西), the founder of Bright Side Projects, a charity-based non-profit that helps underprivileged children, recognizes this. On Sunday, her other group, It’s A Vegan Affair, which organizes monthly potlucks and gatherings at restaurants, will be hosting, along with a few Taipei-based vegan bakeries, Taiwan’s first ever large-scale vegan bake sale.
Photo Courtesy of Fresh Bakery & Cafe
The event, which will be held at Grandma Nitti’s Kitchen, is part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale, a bake-a-thon which takes place across many different countries to raise funds for charitable causes. Proceeds from Sunday’s sale will go to Bright Side Projects and Animals Taiwan, another non-profit devoted to the care and rehabilitation of injured stray animals.
NEW VEGAN EATERIES ON THE BLOCK
This is the first time that a vegan bake-a-thon has received such widespread support from the local level. Vegan restaurant chain Loving Hut’s Pingtung City branch participated in the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in 2010, but it lacked support and publicity. Lin says that not having corporate backing was certainly a reason why the event had a more widespread appeal this time around.
Photo Courtesy of Ooh Cha Cha
“It’s not just a vegan restaurant hosting an event, but people, both vegan and omnivores, taking the time to share a part of their lifestyle,” Lin tells the Taipei Times.
She adds that the number of bakers and volunteers who signed up is indicative of how people are becoming more willing to test out new foods and ideas. In fact, most of the participating bakeries, such as Fresh Bakery & Cafe (新鮮烘焙坊), Mianto (米愛多), Ooh Cha Cha (自然食), Soul R. Vegan (靈魂餐廳) and Nakedfood (裸食私廚), have only opened recently or within the last two years.
Lin was pleasantly surprised to discover the number of vegan eateries popping up in Taipei, but she also says that “they are still under the radar for the general population.”
Photo Courtesy of Mianto
Dairy-free diets, she adds, have been around in Taiwan for quite a while, as evidenced by the number of vegetarian buffets, although such places were, in the past, often greasy and for reasons that were primarily religious or dietary.
“That seems like it’s less of a choice than a compliance order, so it’s still a disassociation from health,” Lin says. “There is a lot of ground to tread in terms of linking veganism and vegetarianism to healthy eating and the even bigger picture of environmentalism.”
‘SILENT MOVEMENT’
Photo Courtesy of Soul R. Vegan
Lin, who became a vegetarian in 2012, has been imparting her love and knowledge of healthy eating to friends and people she works with. One of the biggest question she gets about vegan baking is how it is possible to replace milk and eggs — the two most essential ingredients for baking, both of which derive from animals — with non-dairy products. Eggs, she says, can be replaced with flax seeds, bananas and applesauce, while soymilk, almond milk and oak milk could act as substitutes for animal milk.
The farm-to-table movement, which involves growing food locally and usually on organic farms, has been gaining traction amongst restaurateurs in big cities across the world. However, it’s only recently that such ideas and practices have spread to Taiwan, prompted mainly by the recent food scares and the media’s reportage of it.
According to Lin, there’s “a silent movement of youth returning to farming, connecting them to the origins of their food, and subsequent promotion of organic, locally grown crops.”
She adds that Taiwan is fortunate to have such fertile land and that many people are able to afford healthy food products — “now we just need to demand it.”
Sunday’s bake sale provides a good opportunity to introduce people not just to the benefits of healthy eating, but also to how delicious healthy food can be. Featured goodies include mango mousse tarts, lychee cranberry cupcakes and raw lemon coconut bars.
“Cheesecake” is also on the menu. As Lin says, “tofu and cashew nuts might amaze you in what they can do in a delicious, legitimate cheesecake that has no cheese.”
She adds that it’s been “an amazing opportunity to see people come together as a community, willing to open their palates and their hearts.”
As for me, I’ll take a raw lemon coconut bar over a sweetened veggie skewer any day.
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