I tried…

It’s supposed to be good for my health, plus it’s good for the environment, a mitigation against climate change, so how can I not cooperate?

I’m talking about going vegetarian, or vegan; the first step was learning the difference between the two. Good old Google says: “A vegan diet excludes all meat and animal products (meat, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy and eggs), whereas a vegetarian diet excludes meat, poultry, ?sh and seafood. However, there are a few variations of a vegetarian diet that depend on whether you eat or exclude eggs, dairy and fish.”

Well-meaning friends said to take baby steps; start with going meatless just one day a week, which was easy enough, since I do like my veggies – kangkong, patola, zucchini and talbos ng kamote in particular. I also love fruits; santol, lanzones, latundan bananas and I’ve been gorging on Guimaras mangoes which are so good this year (last year wasn’t a very good mango year). Per advice of our Food for Thought columnist, I no longer buy apples and oranges, since they’re imported.

The trick, proponents say, is to be creative with your recipes, and your ingredients. The well-meaning ones also nudged me along by sending me substitutes – tofu burgers, meatless giniling, vegan adobo… I dutifully tried all of them, and ended up slathering the burger with ketchup, drowning the giniling in Mama Sita barbecue sauce and using the adobo sauce to flavor my rice. Perhaps I have to up my culinary creativity a few notches. But I must say I like my tofu as tofu (or tokwa) and not pretending to be a burger or a steak. I have tofu recipes a-plenty, with or without adding meat. The same goes for mushrooms; they’re great as mushrooms, no need to try and be something else.

During a visit to Taiwan some years ago, we joined members of the Buddhist sect Tzu Chi, visiting its headquarters in Hualien and its various most impressive medical facilities throughout Taiwan. Our meals were strictly vegan, variations of soy-based products, mushrooms and, of course, vegetables. The meals at their facilities were pleasant discoveries – varied textures, quite tasty, although somewhat oily. Other meals were non-meat as well, including one fancy dinner that featured a filet mignon look-alike made of mushrooms.

Yes, I did enjoy the vegan food – up to a point. I have to confess that the dissidents among the group – count me among them – loaded up on bacon and eggs and ham and sausage, toast and croissants slathered with butter at the hotel breakfast buffet each morning, while the converts and disciplined ones had congee with vegetarian condiments. I was just so happy that tea was an approved beverage, since Taiwan has some really fine tea.