I’m ready to give vegetarianism another shot, but I’d like a few pointers along the way. I’m not sure what kind of pointers I need, but (almost) anything would help.
I think I’ll start by not having meat for EVERY meal (maybe just lunch), eating more fruit and uh, eating more vegetables I guess.
I turned vegetarian a long time ago, so I don’t really remember exactly how I went about doing it. I think I just stopped eating meat over night. Something that would help would be to find other vegetarians as a sort of “support group.” I also think that if you try to eat the things you regularly eat, but without the meat, then it might provide a smoother transition.
Also, something handy to know for being a vegetarian in Taiwan is that garlic and green onions are, at least sometimes, not considered vegetarian. So, if you don’t care about eating them, then you might need to be more specific when you ask if something is “su de.” Another useful phrase I recently learned is “nai dan su,” which means you can eat dairy and eggs.
If you care to look for a vege restaurant while talking about Linux and being a nerd, let me know. Good luck.
Maybe next time I’m in MOS Burger (yeah, I know) I’ll order two cheese burgers, hold the burger. I was thinking about going cold turkey, but I wouldn’t want to go through any beef withdrawal.
Though I’m not 100% vegetarian, I no longer cook meat. I probably eat meat once a week, and usually when I’m at my inlaws house and my mother-in-law cooks, or when I’m with others eating at a restaurant.
My first bit of advice is an obvious one: learn where all the good, cheap vegetarian restaurants are near your place of work and home. I get great veggie lunches for about 60NT.
At home, I’ve learned that the simpler, the better. I’ve really grown to like xi fan with added dong doufu, boiled leafy veggies, and especially lima beans. I like to add some of the veggie rou song (the veggie version of that shredded, roasted pork stuff) for flavor. I can make a pot of that and it will last for three nights. Simply add a little water and veggies every night, and throw it in the rice cooker.
In the morning, I like to have a healthy cereal with sugarless doujiang, or toast.
Don’t go cold turkey, it’s a hell of a shock to the system (ask me how I know). Just cut the meat out of your diet gradually, and figure out in advance where the protein is going to come from instead.
Strictly vegetarian food in Taiwan generally sucks. The buddhists here deny themselves garlic and chili, so the only flavoring you find in the swastika places is oil and MSG. It gets old really fast. Myself I like to cook anyway, and in Taiwan I started to eat seafood to make up for the sparse choice in vegetables and the paucity of protein outside of soy products.
The other thing that sucks about vege food here is that most are these foaming at the mouth religious types that are denying themselves meat for karma points. They are still very much attached to the idea of eating animals, so they go for food which looks and tastes as much like meat as possible. I find this limits the chefs unfairly as to what they can do with the materials they have to work with. Indian vegetarian cuisine is far better, IMO.
[quote=“hsiadogah”]Strictly vegetarian food in Taiwan generally sucks. The buddhists here deny themselves garlic and chili, so the only flavoring you find in the swastika places is oil and MSG.[/quote]Chili’s OK. And I’ve eaten in some great vege restaurants here. But I agree with you in general.
Another useful thread:
[Vegetarian food in Taiwan
Yeah, I agree with hsiadogah actually. I wasn’t really trying to recommend that you quit cold turkey.
I agree with the other posters also. Especially finding where the good vege restaurants are. There are many resources about where the vegetarian restaurants are, but I haven’t “found” that many of them in my area yet.
I had no trouble at all going ‘cold turkey’. I was waiting for some sort of shock or the feeling of missing meat. It never happened.
I disagree about the quality of the vegetarian food here too. If you look around there’s vegetarian places with good food. Not all buffets (or all noodle-shop style veggie places) are of the same quality.
How about a weekend outing to Bruce’s Kitchen Garden - delicious veggie food with garlic and onion if you want it. 12:00 Sunday? Anyone up for it?
Brian
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I had no trouble at all going ‘cold turkey’. I was waiting for some sort of shock or the feeling of missing meat. It never happened.
[/quote]It depends on what you do to amend your diet. I had no idea what I should eat instead, and I sure felt imbalanced for a few weeks. Not sick or anything, just a little underpowered. After two weeks I felt better than I had in years, and stayed that way. Less colds, less illness in general, better temper, better digestion blah blah blah. I’m suggesting that as insurance, MK could make the transition slowly.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I disagree about the quality of the vegetarian food here too. If you look around there’s vegetarian places with good food. Not all buffets (or all noodle-shop style veggie places) are of the same quality.
[/quote]Note I said in general. 
That’s my experience down here in Taichung. Of course there are some great vege restaurants here, but the majority that I have tried are at best bland and unimaginative, and at worst just plain awful. Eating at swastika joints everyday would be miserable, or involve a lot of planning and travelling. I find it a lot easier to balance my diet with seafood and eggs, and easier to get tasty food from a non-buddhist kitchen. That takes some extra communication to avoid the traditional ‘flavor everything with pork’ cooking technique, but it’s do-able. Simply cutting meat from your diet gets you 99% of the benefit of the strict vegetarian diet without the constant search for protein without overdosing on soy products. I also cook a lot myself.
I don’t know much in terms of telling you how to transition, however I can give lots of solid nutritional advice once you’ve done it. Like all major transitions, the more you want to do something, and the stronger the reasoning and conviction behind it, the easier it will be.
I did it cold turkey more than eight years ago and it was not at all difficult, but I had very strong conviction behind my decision for making this change and have never had a problem with straying.
Anyhow, let me know if you need any nutritional advice once you get things rolling. And, good luck to ya.
That sounds good to me. I really need to find new places to eat. Unfortunately, it’s 3:30 on Sunday now, so I missed out this time.
I think Mianbao made a good point when they mentioned a “strong conviction.” It might help you, Miltownkid, to make sure you know exactly why you’re going vegetarian. I assume you do, but if not, it would be a good motivator to stay away from meat.
For health reasons and not religious belief, I went cold turkey about 10 years ago. My greatest difficulty was breaking the habit of going past MacDonalds or KFC and not order a piece of chicken or not eating salmon and sushi.
I really had come to the point of not liking the taste of chicken, so that was habit to break. Giving up fish was much more of a challenge because I like it so much. Then I found some great vegetarian restaurants that knew how to prepare the vegetarian fish to taste like fish. Yes, some of the veggie cafeterias/restaurants are pretty bad, but there are also some very good ones.
One of my favorites is on Minchuan East Road Between Fushing and TunHwa Roads. A Niko Mart, Watsons, Travel agents and the restuarant. On the other side of it are a Hang Ten, McDonalds and Post Office. It has tacky fake flowers outside the door, but the food is really delicious and not too expensive.
So to fill my psychological craving for the taste of chicken (really the crunchy coating) and fish, the veggie texturized proteins are great.
I also find being vegetarian here is so easy because there are many vegetarian stores that sell all the stuff for you to make it yourself.
Recently, I discovered Welcome is carrying a new line of vegetarian dinners. The Thai fish is my favorite.
Health. Some other reasons too, but mostly health. I’ll be gradually moving over. I don’t want to make weird situations where I tell people I’m vegetarian just yet.
I’ll probably still end up eating meat twice a week or so until I’m more settled into my new vegetarian suite. It’s been easy so far, but I have been having the occasional piece of meat here and there (but never bought by me).
Hasn’t even been a week yet though. 
There is a kind of vegetarian here called “rou bian su” which means that you eat the veggies on the side of the meat. I would be considered that kind althhough it doesn’t happen too much. Being vegetarian has so many labels and political connotations to westerners, so I usually don’t like to say I am vegetarian. I just say I like to eat lots of vegetables. If they push, I say I prefer to eat vegetables.
For what ever the reason, a healthy choice.
Jia You! Jia You!
That sounds about right. My mom eats a lot of vegetables and eats fish sometimes.
I was worried about weak or something eating vegetables ( 
what do I know), but then I thought about gorillas and stuff who are for the most part “vegetarian” (and would easily kick me into last Thursday).
Anyway, so quick Intraweb reading put that myth to rest for me.
Vitamin suplements might be a good option for you when you are making a major change to your diet.
GNC vitamin store sells a formula aimed specifically at vegetarians. Obviously it is a meatless formula, and it also aims to suplement and ballance a vegi diet. I buy them at TaiMall’s GNC, but they are a major chain, so you should be able to find them all over Taiwan.
Best,
Gary
Supplementation can be good, and for some necessary, but it too can be complicated. Many commercial supplements are not good quality, with the types and sources of the vitamins and minerals being substandard. Calcium carbonate is a great example, as it is in many mass-produced vitamins and fortified products. What’s unfortunate though is that it is approximately 10% absorbable, so taking 1000mg of calcium carbonate means that 900mg are getting flushed through and not being absorbed and used by the body.
Also important to take note of is the absorbtion rate of nutrients. Vitamin C, for example, cannot be absorbed quickly in large doses. Taking more than 200mg in a sitting, unless the body is severely depleted, will result in the rest of being peed out. Taking it in smaller doses throughout the day, although much more effort and management, guarantees better absorbtion.
If one is not able to get all the necessary nutrients from eating whole foods, then choosing a good quality whole foods vitamin is an excellent choice. These are, however, far more expensive than the traditional GNC or other commerical brand. In fact, they may be difficult to find in Taiwan at all unless things have changed the last couple years.
[quote=“Snowdragon”]Being vegetarian has so many labels and political connotations to westerners, so I usually don’t like to say I am vegetarian. I just say I like to eat lots of vegetables. If they push, I say I prefer to eat vegetables.[/quote]Thankfully things are changing. I used to get all kinds of crap and questions for on the one hand not eating meat, and on the other liking chili, garlic, alcohol and fish (not necessarily in that order). I find it easier and more accurate to say I don’t eat meat, rather than claim to be vegetarian. When people ask why it is I can eat fishes but not cows, I ask them if they ever heard of Mad Fish Disease
Where is it?
Most places I have been, buffet style, shi da area, would cost me 100 to 150 ntd, before I can feel full.
Simply filling up the little lunch box, cost me 100 to 150 ntd. 100 ntd at most times.
Thank you, :)!
I became vegetarian in my late teens and did absolutely everything wrong. I cut out all meat and fish but mostly just ate starchy filler foods instead (fries, pasta. etc.) Within about a year I was thoroughly B12 and iron deficient. I felt exhausted all the time and experienced dizzy spells and black outs. I the end, I had to go to the doctor to get shot up with B12 for a few months and I started taking vitamins regularly. It took me a long time to feel better. Many people in my life took this as a sign that being vegetarian was (as they had warned me) totally unatural and a really bad idea. I took it as a sign that I had better know what the hell I was doing with my diet.
Over the years, I have done a lot of research on diet - both as a vegetarian and as a writer for a health newsletter. Here are my top tips for a veggie diet:
Eat vegetables (lots of them!): This may seem like a no brainer but I’ve known a lot of vegetarians who don’t even like vegetables. If you are eating lots of pasta or - more likely in Taiwan - rice, make sure that there’s more than a few veggies thrown on top.
Eat lots of leafy green veggies: All vegetables have benefits but dark leafy greens are best for providing B12 and iron. Also, be aware that although spinach is known for being high in iron, much of this can’t be absorbed by your body. Chard or kale are actually more beneficial.
Eat lots of tofu and other soya products. These are great for getting protein and there’s lots of really great meat substitutes in Taiwan. Having a glass of soy milk a day is also a great habit to get into (one that I have unfortunately fallen out of lately). Many people find soy milk too beany - I think the Silk brand is the best.
Anyhow, I hope my story didn’t scare anyone off being vegetarian because that was not my intention. I just think that people should realize that going vegetarian can take a bit of work and, if done wrong, can be harmful to one’s health. Oh, and one more word of warning: iron pills can make you constipated like nobody’s business. If you need to take a high dosage of iron to keep your levels up, it’s just not worth it (in my opinion). I have now gone back to supplementing my veggie diet with fish and seafood. I feel good and I don’t have to pump myself full of supplements. Everybody’s different though so you just have to figure out what works for you!