Taipei is paradise for vegans. I just had to say it and felt it appropriate to start this post with that one line for vegan and vegetarian (and sometimes, pescetarian), super picky foodies like yours truly.
Taipei has vegetarian and vegan restaurants that host buffets on an almost daily basis. Their meat-heavy restaurants now carry some vegetarian and vegan options in their menus. They also have a grocery store that carries only vegan and vegetarian items called iVegan. Needless to say, I'm itching to go back there so much and explore more of their vegetarian and vegan offerings. One day SOON again, yes.
I promised a post of everything vegan and vegetarian I got to eat around Taipei way back October 2019 so here's a rundown of 'em. They may not totally vegan or vegetarian but at least they're places you can bring even non-vegan friends in and eat and hang out in. Well, ain't that really cool now?
1. Universe Cafe at Taipei City Hall Station
The ones on the pictures are those you can get from here. Sorry, I wasn't able to take a better photo of this humble food stall. Universe Cafe is in the Taipei City Hall station. They mostly serve fresh-pressed juices and some coffee (cold brews, I think?) and raw vegan and ketogenic cakes to-go.
Story time: I abused Google as much as I could while in the hotel room to look for vegan and vegetarian restaurants to eat in and Universe Cafe was one that kept cropping up because it was nearest my homebase. So I kept looking for this one but could not find it anywhere. I lived on Family Mart's fruit slices for dinner and lunch because of this handicap. So, hmn... Stupid me found it later, when I was on my way to Taipei Main Station for a last bout of shopping for food and souvenirs to bring home. Universe Cafe was just there, waiting for me to pounce right after the last of the staircase down the Taipei City Hall station. It's literally right beside the staircase, yes. Also, Taipei City Hall train station was literally just steps away from my accommodation. End of story, still? I gleefully made my way to their stall to get I could get a slice of their raw vegan chocolate and strawberries cake and a bottle of their G5---fresh pressed juice comprising of 5 greens and more---to go to take with me on the sojourn to Taipei Main Station. I ate the cake much later, when I was already at the Taoyuan Airport, waiting for the check-in counter to open for my flight home.
Anyway, I found on some posts that some of their products have meat produces on there so they're not entirely vegan. This post here says so and it takes a more disappointing tone. Not so disappointing for me who's used to some organic restaurants and marts here that offer a combination of produces that still are fresh from the local farms here. Instead, for me who had been living on Family Mart's fruit slices, this was such a GOOD FIND already. Definitely such a relief to find a food stall that offers healthy options that allows me to practice my chosen diet and lifestyle. It's actually only natural for some stalls like this to offer some products with meat produces in them like milk or ghee and some other. They aren't a fully vegan, vegetarian only stall. They also offer some items for those that follow the keto diet. Keto diet is protein heavy and therefore relies a lot on meat and other meat produces.
Still though, advice to vegans especially? Always read labels and ask if you're not sure whether these are vegan or not. One can never be too sure, still, especially when all you see is the presentation, pictures and more of the said products they offer.
2. Vegan options at Taipei Main Station
This same stall is featured on this post here. The first one. I didn't know they had mushroom and radish cakes that were vegan too. I should've checked. Ugh. Next time then...
This restaurant a few steps from the elevator I went up to the second floor to had some decent vegan and vegetarian offerings. I think the dumplings weren't entirely vegan but close. The fillings are vegetables though. Their menu says which are vegan, which are vegetarian and which aren't both. The faux beef in tomato noodle soup is definitely vegan. The lady that served me this one warned me it doesn't taste as good because there isn't any umami in it but I'm vegetarian, borderline vegan so, well, this was IT and more than good enough for me.
If there's any regret that I had for this trip, it's not being able to go around some more and explore more restaurants and food stalls that offer vegan and vegetarian options. I want to go back there so bad now. I'm even down to explore iVegan for stuff to bring home and cook for myself and others. Sadly, not a lot of my folks here yet appreciate vegan food. They're too hooked on anything with meat and I'm avoiding those now. And yes! I do cook some vegan stuff now, too! Especially when I get inspired by some recipes I see on instagram---I follow @veganmamaph on there and a few others---and on back issues of Vegan and Gluten-Free magazines I randomly get from the Booksale branches here! The kitchen can be a happy place for me, yes, apart from my room and a few others. So...hmn...I'd especially go back for vegan milk tea. I'm very curious about Nuttea at this time.
I'm quite envious that Taipei has a wide array of vegan and vegetarian food to choose from while Philippines, especially my city of Cagayan de Oro, only has so few joints to get these from yet. Hmn...I'll post more on vegan and vegetarian options in my locale on here one day soon. I found a few more recently which is good. There are about two restaurants, one doubles also as a mart of sorts, that offer some decent vegan stuff on their menu. One of these restaurants I'm very thrilled to talk about here serves a mix of Middle Eastern and Filipino and Italian (they serve some pizza now?) food. Their falafels are good. They may come off dry but I haven't had a lot of these so I can't really tell. Haha. Anyway, so yay! Yes, watch out for those incoming posts. There'll also be a few others, yes!
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