EAT
Eating Vegetarian, Eating Healthy A Difference? As Local Restaurants Go, Indeed By Rick Charette
Many of Taiwan’s Buddhists are vegetarians
Photos / Maggie Song
In
Taiwan many restaurants serve people who do not want to eat meat, either for religious or for health reasons (their own physical health and the health of Mother Earth). And the simplest way to classif y such restaurants follows this natural division – vegetarian (religious) and health. We’ll use a popular chain called Easy House Vegetarian Cuisine to explain. Despite the “vegetarian” usage, Easy House classif ies itself as a health restaurant. Vegetarian restaurants are of ten places of simple décor, religious chanting plays in the background, many are buffets and you pay by weight, oils are used in the cooking, and for religious reasons such strongly f lavored items as garlic, leek, and onion (said to excite the passions) are avoided. Health restaurants such as Easy House of ten have sophisticated décor, upscale, personalized service, and
Typical healthful dishes served at Easy House
set-menu offerings, and Easy House plays soothing modern mood music. A cosmopolitan clientele seeking a healthier lifestyle and wanting to dress up and go out for a tasty meal is targeted. The Easy House menu ranges the world, moving f rom dishes
Easy House classi fies itsel f as a health restaurant with a cosmopolitan clientele seeking a healthier li f est yle based on Italian angel hair pasta and truff les to milk and banana (the last in a delicious four-item health drink), each entrée showing creative “Chinese characteristics.” Water is used to cook, not oils, and unlike pure-vegetarian eateries, garlic and, as we’ve seen, milk are used – clearly indicated on the menu. The clientele at Easy House is 70% health-conscious, 10% pure vegetarian, and 70% female.
Many
health restaurants are organic, but Easy House is not, awaiting greater consolidation of local organic standards and instead stressing f reshness and quality and working closely with suppliers. There are 19 entrees offered, and af ter considerable taste-testing (there’s an outlet near my home) I especially recommend the Taiwanese Five-Color Chestnut Fry, the various chestnuts sof t, spongy, or meaty-chew y and the sauce orange-f lavored, and the Milky Vegetable Hot Pot, the milkbroth not heav y, Brazilian mushrooms highlighted.
EAsY HOUsE VEGETARiAN CUisiNE ( 寬心園 ) A dd : 51 , Alley 4 , Lane 345 , Ren ’ai Rd., Sec. 4 , Taipei City ( 台北市仁愛 路 四 段 345 巷 4 弄 51號 ) Tel : (02 ) 2721- 8326 Websi t e : w w w.ea syhouse.com.tw (Chinese)
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Travel in Taiwan