So delicious you forget the taste of meat"Vegan Project in the Vegetable Market creates with natural ingredients, unleashing the charm of plant-based cuisine

"So delicious you forget the taste of meat. When the cooking technique is right, plants become incredibly delicious." Located in Taichung, "Vegetable Market" Vegan Project is a purely plant-based restaurant. Eason, the owner and also head chef, moved from the art world into the kitchen to create with natural ingredients. A colorful mix of ingredients, from a house-made burger bun made with domestically grown wheat, to a patty made with organic beetroot and organic brown rice, paired with eco-friendly lettuce and dried pineapple, along with a spread and mustard made from organic soy milk, unleashing the charm of plant-based cuisine.

Health starts with eating whole foods; to learn cooking, he dropped out of a US school and returned to Taiwan

Ten years ago, Eason studied art education in Taiwan, and in 2014 went to the Maryland Institute College of Art in the United States for a master's degree in community arts. At the time he took part in a community food program and found that while local art and music creation was very rich, there were also many unhealthy children.

Eason recalls that in the local US community, because parents had long-term alcoholism or drug use, the proportion of hyperactive children was relatively high. "In addition, people in the community ate a lot of overly processed food, like fried chicken, cola and burgers, and ate too few whole foods. The parents ate unhealthily, and so did the children."

After observing this phenomenon, Eason believed that food is very important to people's lives, so he wanted to start from the dietary side. However, he did not have a culinary background himself. "I also couldn't work at a US restaurant, because that would become illegal work." So he dropped out of school and returned to Taiwan, beginning his path of culinary training.

The way of Italian cuisine: bringing local, seasonal ingredients to their fullest

After returning to Taiwan, Eason chose to first apprentice at an Italian restaurant. "European cuisine uses a lot of whole foods, which fits very well with the direction I wanted." He also learned the spirit of using local ingredients from an Italian boss. "He came to Taiwan to open a shop and used Taiwan wheat flour to make pizza dough." As for choosing vegan cuisine, it was because he had been influenced by a friend to pay attention to animal issues, so his learning path moved toward a purely plant-based direction. Later, after eating astonishing vegan food at an Italian restaurant, he confirmed his style.

Besides Italian restaurants in Taiwan, Eason also went to Italy in 2016 to intern at Soul Kitchen, the first vegan restaurant in Turin in northern Italy. He saw chefs making good food with local, seasonal ingredients. "Local, seasonal ingredients are very fresh. Although they may not have certification, they are usually grown naturally, and the flavors are all very distinct and unique."

Eason says that even if it is the same tomato, the flavors grown in different regions by different farmers are all different, and the same handling method will produce dishes with different results. A chef who can use natural, whole ingredients to showcase flavor and the charm of food is admirable.

From the kitchen to the vegetable market and farmers markets, becoming a fan of farmers

The ingredients in the Vegetable Market shop are all grown with organic, natural and non-toxic farming methods. Eason says that when he first opened the shop, he had to go to the vegetable market every day to find vegetables. Later he went to the Xingda Organic Farmers Market to find vegetables. Over time, he developed an unspoken understanding with the farmers, and as business stabilized, the farmers would deliver vegetables or save vegetables for him. Some ingredients were purchased from organic stores.

"These farmers are the people who love the land the most, more than all of us." Eason found that organic, natural and non-toxic ingredients have far more flavor than what he bought at the vegetable market at the beginning, and the same crop from different production areas also has different tastes. Through interaction and exchange with farmers, he felt the hardship of farmers. "Eating a meal, buying vegetables and cooking vegetables takes at most a few days, while farmers spend several months growing vegetables, and during that time they still have to take care of them."

Besides common agricultural products, Eason also likes to look for special ingredients. He took out a small fruit. "This is a thumb watermelon." It is only the size of one knuckle of a thumb, and the outer layer really has a watermelon pattern. It tastes quite refreshingly sweet, with a very crisp texture. This was the result of Eason treasure-hunting at a farmers market.

Classic elements broken down and reassembled: pineapple cake that is not pineapple cake, tea you eat with a spoon

Compared with the astonishing ingredients, Eason's cooking technique is even more distinctive. "Today's dessert is pineapple cake." However, the plate of dessert he brought out was completely different from the pineapple cake remembered as having the same shape as mahjong tiles. At first glance it would make people think it was French cuisine.

"The ingredients are the elements of pineapple cake, but I break these elements apart and reassemble them." Eason pointed at the plate and explained that the jam brushed on the bottom is the traditional pineapple cake filling, made with taro winter melon and Golden Diamond pineapple, layered with a filling made from organic cashews and pineapple, topped with the shop's house-dried Golden Diamond pineapple fruit, then covered with a cookie made from domestically grown wheat, and finally garnished around the edges with homegrown orange mint, a cream cookie made from chickpea water and cape gooseberry. "Besides organic ingredients, I also try as much as possible not to waste. The water left after cooking chickpeas can also be used."

Another dessert is soy milk black tea jelly. "People in Taichung all know two things: Luoshi Qiushui tea and soy milk black tea." Eason transformed these elements. He added agar to soy milk black tea and let it set into jelly, spread a layer of Luoshi Qiushui tea and basil seeds on the tea jelly, and finally sprinkled on a layer of honeysuckle.

After Eason reassembled classic local ingredient elements, he presented a different appearance, and the taste on the palate was astonishing: the "pineapple cake" had the slightly sour winter melon pineapple jam, cashew pineapple filling and pineapple fruit, which together with the cookie tasted smooth and multi-layered; the soy milk black tea jelly, with different textures, let you taste the flavor of a classic Taichung drink.

When the dessert was finished, the bread had just come out of the oven. Eason used Oulamai domestically grown wheat flour to make a dense-textured sourdough bread. After biting into it, besides smelling the aroma of fresh domestically grown wheat, you could also faintly taste mugwort. "Wild grasses are also part of the field, so I dry some plants to use."