Saturday, October 17, 2009

Vegan

Being vegan in Taiwan hasn't been difficult - but it's a far cry from Portland where being vegan is easy peasy. We don't have food fight, or voodoo donuts (maybe that's a good thing?) or the ease of all-vegan restaurants, but we have found lots of good food we really enjoy. We have learned how to communicate that we don't eat meat and Jeremiah's pulled out the chicken dance a few times to help this process. Also, we really don't cook. Our kitchen is small and heats up incredibly fast, it's hard to figure out what ingredients are when it's all written in chinese, and eating out is cheap and easy. I've seen this survey around in the vegan blog world so thought I'd fill out for my vegan experience so far in Taichung.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Soymilk - haven't found anything else

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? hmmm.. rice, noodles and more rice.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? At home I was a popcorn fiend with nooch being the topping of choice. Not here. Microwave popcorn at school is what I've got.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? this is n/a for me since I really haven't cooked here more than the obvious noodles and rice.

5. Favorite pickled item? bamboo shoots. Not sure if they are really pickled, but something's been done to them.

6. How do you organize your recipes? I don't cook here so there are no recipes. But the internet is where I would go.
7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? Trash, but when we take the trash out there is a specific spot just for food waste. I'm not sure what happens to it.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)? Peanut butter, grapes, cereal
9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and making homemade ice cream

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? I haven't had vegan ice cream here yet, but we did scope some out at Loving Hut restaurant. Excited to try it!

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? a rice cooker once we get one. Was sad to leave behind the kitchenaid food processor, mixer and immersion blender.

12. Spice/herb you would die without? Garlic!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Vegan with a Vengeance

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? raspberry jam or preserves. jelly freaks me out.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? something somewhat normal - a pasta dish maybe.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? Tofu - luckily lots of restaurants have it and it's easy to find at the grocery stores!

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? Dinner.
18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? Our dishes are drying on the dish rack (counter space is limited)

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. Frozen bell peppers, gluten peanutbutter rice balls and vegetarian dumplings.

20. What’s on your grocery list? Fake meat, veggies, fruit
21. Favorite grocery store? matsusei because it's just down the road

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet. grandma's chicken and dumplings.
23. Food blog you read the most. Or maybe the top 3? Fatfree Vegan Kitchen

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? anything chewy and fruity - hichews are good and come in grape flavor

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? ummm.... I can't think of anything right now.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with? I'm nervous just buying any food since so few have english ingredient lists.

8 comments:

  1. hey, those are the three foods id take too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. what is nooch?
    2. the food waste goes to local farms and is put in these giant metal tubs where it gets soooo stinky and is spread over crops in giant gardens. we came across several in matsu
    3. ahhh don't you loooove hichew?! mmm lychee is my fav

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love reading this quiz! Fun information! Uncle Ron sent me a text saying he commented on your blog recently but I can't find his comment. Did he comment on an older post? I wonder if it worked or he just thinks he posted a comment! (I did that once!) Hope all is well. I enjoyed skyping the other day (or night)! Love you both

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you ever want to post (or email me a photo) of the ingredients list for some food products that interest you, I'd love to help translate it to see if you can eat it or not.

    (I'd say kale, rice and tofu for my desert island three. Hopefully they would let me have some tea too.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Grilled Cheese sandwiches and tomato soup is the perfect lunch! I love it.
    I wish it was that cheap to eat out everynight here....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Leslie - why am I not suprised we would take the same foods? We'd probably do well stranded on an island together. Well, as long as we didn't have break downs at the same time... and we could take J and B.

    Megan - "nooch" is nutritional yeast; and grape is my favorite hichew flavor

    Lisa - didn't see an Uncle Ron post :( We loved skyping with you too!

    Brett - thanks so much! We just found a new soy product to try out! I'll post what we did with it soon.

    Margalyn - I just saw pictures of Levi on your blog, he is adorable!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. allison,
    agreed. and maybe some kids books to read aloud.
    miss you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Allison, I misread Uncle Ron's text as it came in two parts. He said he wants me to teach him how to post on your blog. He is already reading it but wants to be able to post comments. So we are going to have a 'tutoring' session this week. I hope I can guide him. I'm not sure his email site is listed on the list under 'select profile.' Since I have google, it is easy. Maybe I need to have him open a google account just for your blog? Miss you guys! Love you

    ReplyDelete