Creative chefs and abundant agricultural resources combine to propel vegetarian restaurants to new popularity.
TAWI Executive Chef Tim Hsu displays a Buddha bowl, one of the star items at Little Tree Food. (Photo by Chen Mei-ling)
The camera always eats first at Little Tree Food, where each meal is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. One of the iconic menu items at the vegetarian chain’s locations around Taipei City is the Buddha bowl, a hearty entree with fresh edamame and leafy green vegetables, golden-brown fried chickpeas, crimson chili paste and an emerald dollop of avocado garnished with tight spirals of pink baby radish and yellow and green zucchini. The multihued dish is a perennial favorite with social media posters—but not just for its good looks.
“Our offerings at Little Tree Food are not only delicious and pleasing to the eye, but nutritious as well,” said Ava Wang (王馨瑜), associate community manager of Twice A Week Inc. (TAWI), which manages a portfolio of vegetarian restaurants including Little Tree Food. She referred to the bowl’s main components, including protein-packed chickpeas, avocado with high omega-3 content and fried rice with iron-rich spinach, to support her point that food made without meat can nourish in every respect.
In Taiwan, a country that prides itself on the breadth of its culinary landscape, vegetarianism has a long history. Buddhists and followers of I-Kuan Tao are typically staunch supporters of the practice for reasons derived from the Buddhist precept of “right action,” which forbids killing. James Hsieh (謝政峯), vice general manager of Hung Yang Foods Co. (HYFC) and former head of the Taiwan Vegetarian Association, cited the public’s growing awareness of the impact of meat consumption on the environment as an additional factor. People stay away from meat out of concern for animal welfare, too. “As more and more people keep pets and form close bonds with them, the hesitation to eat meat increases,” Hsieh said.
The association was established in 2005 in response to a scandal involving the addition of meat to vegetarian products and aims to renew consumer confidence in the industry by certifying and promoting businesses that produce and sell vegetarian products with integrity. Today it estimates between 10 and 15 percent of Taiwan’s population is vegetarian to some degree, from those who shun meat at all times to those who refrain from eating it only on certain occasions.
Little Tree Food opened its first location in 2017 and continues to expand, currently offering innovative vegetarian food at four restaurants around Taipei. (Photo by Chen Mei-ling)
Flavor Evangelism
Appealing to vegetarians of all stripes as well as nonvegetarian diners was a challenge for TAWI’s restaurants in the beginning. The first branch of Little Tree Food opened its doors in 2017 and had trouble filling its 52 seats for the initial three months. Executive Chef Tim Hsu (徐兆麟) recalled those early days with a laugh. “I thought I was doing enough by just avoiding meat in my recipes, but sales said otherwise, so I had to think outside the box,” he said.
Hsu started to experiment by offering test items to customers for free to learn more about their preferences, which resulted in a complete menu overhaul. “You have to focus on making delicious food, not just meatless food, especially if you want to draw nonvegetarians,” he said, adding proudly that about 70 percent of diners who come to Little Tree Food fall into that category. Some are unaware that they are in a vegetarian restaurant even after finishing their meals!
Regardless of the appeal to nonvegetarian diners, catering to different vegetarian diets is still at the heart of Little Tree Food’s mission. Ingredients and possible adjustments are clearly communicated to patrons so that full vegans or Buddhist vegetarians can eat in accordance with their beliefs, substituting maple syrup for honey in the case of vegans or removing all traces of the five pungent vegetables, like garlic and onion, for Buddhists. The keen focus on customer needs has served TAWI restaurants well. In the last two years, five new ventures have opened, including a juice bar, a fine-dining establishment featuring seasonal menus, two Little Tree Food locations and an eatery selling pan-fried buns filled with plant-based meat.
TAWI further promotes vegetarian diets with an eatery selling pan-fried buns stuffed with plant-based meat. (Courtesy of TAWI)
Improvements to meat alternatives are another way to spread the message that vegetarian eating is for everyone, and manufacturers like HYFC are innovating with flavors and textures to spark a reduction in meat consumption. Based in the southern county of Yunlin, the company has produced meat substitutes for burger patties, dumpling fillings and “chicken” nuggets for nearly 30 years. In the last two years it has picked up the pace of research by cooperating with entities like the Food Industry Research and Development Institute in the northern city of Hsinchu.
Visionary Future
High school students from across the country in action during an annual contest organized by Fo Guang University’s Department of Health and Creative Vegetarian Science (Courtesy of Fo Guang University’s Department of Health and Creative Vegetarian Science)
Spicy Sichuan dumplings are another popular choice at the restaurant. (Photo by Chen Mei-ling)
Other researchers are also contributing to the promotion of vegetarian diets, particularly Fo Guang University’s Department of Health and Creative Vegetarian Science. The school in the northern county of Yilan is currently the only institution in Taiwan’s higher education system to offer such a program, but the need is great. “Vegetarian cookery can’t rely on the easy standby of meat for quick flavor,” said Chiang Shu-hua (江淑華), the department director. “It takes imagination to dream up exciting new vegetarian recipes.”
This year’s Taipei International Vegetarian Exhibition displays sample ingredients and offers dishes to try out. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
To unlock students’ creative power, professors send them on deep dives into specific ingredients and integrate Chinese herbal knowledge into training. The department recruits more than 30 students each year and arranges internships to prepare them for the Ministry of Labor’s Workforce Development Agency vegetarian cooking license exams. To lay the groundwork for the next generation of vegetarian chefs, the university also organizes an annual contest for high school students from across the country. In March, 41 teams from 17 schools competed for recognition as rising stars on the vegetarian culinary scene.
Meanwhile, last year saw the first publication of Pure Green Foundation’s list of recommended vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan. The Taipei-based nonprofit promotes vegetarianism as a way to attain sustainability, with this year’s Pure Green Veg Food Guide rating
46 restaurants.
The annual Taipei International Vegetarian Exhibition draws crowds who follow meatless diets for reasons from health to religion and everything in between. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
A dish made of avocado and beetroot is beautifully presented at Little Tree Food. (Courtesy of TAWI)
As the sector expands, chefs seek unique, high-quality ingredients, and Taiwan delivers on both fronts. Chiang noted that an indigenous plant called djulis, related to quinoa and valued for its antioxidant properties, has long been cultivated and enjoyed by the people of the Paiwan tribe. In the past five years, it has grown to be a star grain crop across Taiwan. TAWI Chef Hsu said that fig and avocado are also increasingly grown around the country. Numbers from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute back him up: the area of farmland dedicated to avocado cultivation reached 1,149 hectares in 2020, up from 506 in 2011.
Meatless meals are growing in popularity, and Hsu applauded the development. “Taiwan is a truly great place for vegetarians,’ he said. “As the movement continues to gain momentum, I’ve found that our diverse, fresh and locally grown produce is a great boon to chefs like myself. Vegetarian food is more interesting than ever to the dining public, and that’s great news for everyone: humans, animals and the environment.”
Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw