Food Travel Guide for Vegetarians/Vegans

Taiwan is known as a vegetarian-friendly county as it has over eight million Buddhist people. There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants and many vegan restaurants in this country. And as NYCU, GMBA is located in Hsinchu city and has international students coming from different cultures with diverse diets, this article will be a helpful guide to find vegan and vegetarian food.

Traditional Vegetarians Restaurants

This type of restaurant is the most common place to eat for Buddhists and is also popular with non- vegetarian people in Taiwan. Many of them are run by Buddhists, and the most popular style in this type of restaurant is a buffet. You can choose from many kinds of vegetables and plant-based meats. In general, the price is reasonably cheap, they measure the weight of your meal and set the price.

This kind of restaurant usually has a sign of 素食/蔬食, which means vegetarian food. If you want to have local dining experience, go and find this sign. However, vegans must be careful to eat there
since the staffs often are confused about what is vegan and what is not.

One thing that vegans traveling to Taiwan must be aware of is that most meat alternative in Taiwan contains milk or even real meat as the government investigated in 2009. Many restaurant staffs still don’t know or ignore this fact, thus I strongly suggest you not to eat the meat unless you can actually ask them to show which brand they use and its package.

Convenience stores and supermarkets

In Taiwan, you can easily find convenience stores, all opening for 24 hours with high density. Even if you are in a rush or hungry in the very early morning or late at night, you can always grab food from the convenience store. Food in Taiwan is often labeled vegan or vegetarian. They are usually labeled as below in the table.

* This labeled product can be accidentally vegan but not always. It’s very difficult to know whether it’s not vegan or not unless you contact the company. For vegans, I strongly suggest not eating
food labeled as 五辛素 for your safety.

This labeling system is also often used at night markets, however, its credibility goes lower since the food stalls can claim that their food is vegetarian or vegan without government’s authorization, unlike products sold at stores.