With health and fitness in mind, two legislators are advocating more vegetarian repasts for traditional Lunar New Year family get-togethers instead of the traditional multi-course banquets.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said she made major changes in her diet after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012, and began to pay more attention to what she eats.
She said she no longer eats red meat and has forsworn the occasional junk food meal.
Photo courtesy of Lin Hung-chih
Having to battle cancer forced a total readjustment of her lifestyle, she said.
“Taiwanese customs call for eating big, sumptuous dinners during the Lunar New Year holiday, but in preparing the holiday get-together dinner these days, I insist on having more vegetables, and have eliminated processed food of any kind. I cook more fish and less with red or white meat,” she said.
As she recuperated from her chemotherapy treatments, Chiu said she used the time to learn to make stewed soups.
“Taiwan produces many fruits in all seasons, so I use fruit as base for soups, such as jujubes in winter, apples and Oriental pears in spring, summer and autumn. They are very suitable for making soup,” Chiu said.
“After cooking at high temperature, the fruits will release a sweet aroma. The soups are tasty, and can be consumed without adding any salt. Now I cook soups at least once a week, such as apple with lean meat soup, healthy chicken soup and mixed vegetable soup,” she said, adding that her husband, Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得), really enjoys the soups.
Chiu made a big pot of fruit-based soup for her family’s Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner so the whole family could have a healthy meal, she said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Hung-chi (林鴻池) has been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years.
“Since I began to eat a vegetarian diet, complemented with mixed mushroom dishes, a long-time problem with gastro-intestinal hemorrhaging has gone away,” he said.
Lin published a cookbook, Easy Art of Vegetarian Diet, showing how to prepare 20 courses.
One of his specialties is “mushroom in oyster sauce,” which uses “monkey head” mushrooms, ginger slices and water lily stir fried in oyster sauce, sesame oil and broth.
Lin said a Taiwanese all-vegetarian fotiaoqiang (佛跳牆, “Buddha jumps over the wall”) stew-soup is a good choice for the Lunar New Year holidays.
“You need soy bean sprouts, ginseng fibers, jujubes, bamboo fungus, Chinese cabbage, cubes of taro, chestnuts, assorted mushrooms and other vegetarian ingredients for this dish. Put them into the pot and stew for about one hour. It is an excellent dish for a family get-together. It is healthy and can be enjoyed by everyone,” he said.
Many people have to socialize at night for their jobs, which means eating big, multi-course dinners, which are usually filled with a lot of meat, fish and other high-protein dishes, he said.
“I encourage the public to have a vegetarian meal at least once a week,” Lin said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the