I'm on a semi-retired models quest to eat my way through Hong Kong or any other city I travel to
with the help of food bloggers
I want to learn more about the culture,
meet new people and discover exciting new tastes in the places I am in
Today we're going plant-based
Veganism, which was once seen as only a strictly religious cuisine in Hong Kong
is now rapidly taking off with the younger generation
With the ever-growing number of health-conscious restaurants, groceries and markets.
It's never been a better time to think more about what you eat
Through speaking to locals. I learned that it's not only about taking care of animals,
but also your health, the earth and the community
This morning we're meeting up with Charlotte at Urban Coffee Roaster in Seung Wan
Hello, I'm Charlotte.
I am a photographer and also a visual designer
I also opened an online shop which sell clothes
I have been a vegan for half year and I have been a vegetarian for three years.
So to start off we're at this cafe
and Charlotte chose this cafe because it has vegan milk options
Yeah there are vegan milk options
let's talk about your journey because you mentioned that you loved meat before
Yes
And then you transitioned into vegetarian and then vegan
So can you tell me about that process?
When I decided to become a vegetarian it is quite hard for me.
It's not just about myself but also it's affect my family
Their lifestyle and my lifestyle doesn't match
So that when my mom wanna cook me a lot of like meat dishes
the dishes that I'd like to eat a lot before.
It's now No. Yeah, I think that cooking for Chinese family
it's a kind of act of showing love
it is and families do like family-style like they share all the dishes
So you eat all together. You share the same food
It's not like Western where your plate is your plate
Yeah, so it's very difficult because then whatever the family makes is what the whole family eating.
Yes, for the whole family
so how are they able to adjust?
I actually have a quite difficult relationship with my mom like
like one and a half years
but slowly she accepted Who I am and
she saw that I am so persist on my journey
and how I learned to cook by YouTube videos
And so you a cook yourself?
Yes, but just very simple things. Yeah
I'm not a good good cook, but
She saw my persistence and I think out of love.
She finally go to
like borrow some books about
vegetarian and how to cook me a dishes and
she even research about a vegan restaurant in town
so that we can all hang out together
but like the first year
it's what's very hard. Yeah, I think I love love everything is okay
First we're heading to my personal favorite vegan restaurant in Hong Kong
Actually, no, we're running into a friend
Guys, this is Cara G. We are at the same agency before
She's a supermodel
she started Jeannie Juicery here, which was the first and most popular Juicery in Hong Kong and
and just all-around boss woman
Cara is also a big health and animal activist.
So it was actually really fitting that I ran into her
Okay, our first stop is Mana.
What do you usually get besides the
I think the salad.
Salad box? Yeah, I love that
We went with the purple sweet potato fries
And a mixed salad box, it has kale,
quinoa with beans at the bottom here, roasted vegetables and
Some chickpeas with a like a tangy barbecue sauce.
What you want to go for first?
fries? Yeah
I think they actually baked it instead of fry
Baked it yeah because it's not oily
But it's crispy on the outside and really soft on the inside, like seasoned really well.
I love these fries. I eat them on a weekly basis.
I like to mix all the sauces. Yeah
Really? Yeah
In sweet potato categories the purple sweet potato is the most are less sugar
and the most healthy more if you eat sweet potato food.
So a lot more vitamins
Yes, the carbs level is lower, a little bit lower than the others
So it is very good
Try mixing them
You would get like the creamy but the tangy sweet.
And then the sweet potato, salty, all these flavors together.
Yes, very good, I never thought of mixing it
I mix it everything. I like all the sauces.
My favorite salad here is definitely the kale salad
Because they make this homemade dressing. That's so good
And their kale isn't like bitter like it's really nicely flavor
and also have some quinao
I like pumkin
It's a roasted pumkin
So good
Next Charlotte recommended something cold and sweet
that's perfect for these hot days and also very instagram-worthy
Right here. Oh where people are lining up
What do you think makes your acai bowls different
A couple of things
I like to think about our acai is that it's a, you know, it's Brazilian food
in a Hawaiian style but with an Asian twist as well
Lot of companies they use like apple juice
some sort of milk, or water to blend the acai
but what we do differently
we used something called Law Hong Guo
We distill the water from it and then use it to blend our acai
So it is a natural sweetness
We went to a fellow youtuber and vegan
what's your channel?
I am Crissy Fan
So nice meeting you
Enjoy your acai bowl
You're welcome you to. Thank you
A lots of different toppings that you see
and I want to mention like their pumpkin seeds and all those almonds
They are very high content of food protein.
So it also gives you a very crunchy taste
so as well balanced. Yes, a lot of protein all different stuff.
Let's go for it. Yes
Like a dessert.
it's cold and refreshing but
Because of the balance of the fats and the proteins and stuff
I feel like it it's also really a filling at the same time. And it is also light
So also the natural sweetness of it, it's very good. And not to mention the coconut bowl.
It's so cute
And lastly we're going to Charlotte recent find
which is so much more than food
we are a local Hong Kong style vegan vegetarian restaurant
and this place is quite interesting because
it's located at a Hong Kong heritage site
And they also do a lot of charity work and give back to the community a lot
So your favorite item here is the five elements tumeric rice right?
it's good to lower inflammation
lower inflammation and also in Chinese
the people always question when the girls go vegan
because they think that it is very cold
It's very cold for your body not very good
because the Chinese always drink hot water and fried food, but are actually
With vegan diets, you can modified the coldness by adding some spice like tumeric
Tumeric is very good for your body and also the inflammation
and sometimes when my throats have some pain or problem
I drink tumeric milk or like tumeric everything
so this is my favorite
Okay, so we're gonna go for that and we're gonna try the lion's mane mushroom and mix mushroom with rice.
This place is super underrated. There's not many people here, the area is very quiet
I have never heard of it before so it's very like under the radar.
Yes, a new restaurant.
We're giving out a secret. Yes
I hope that more people come
Yeah, so they can sustain.
Yeah, they support good causes, they make good food and the staff here are really friendly.
It's like a homie style
Yeah, it kind of feels like a family.
Do you like it?
What are these? oh, it's onion
like the soft onion and those are the
Crunchy carrots and also the crunchy corn so that one bite you have different
Layers of flavor and also the texture
What is this? Peanuts.
It's a peanut root.
Peanut root they grow all of them
What? Are you allergic to peanuts?
Oh Peanut! I thought you said it's a penis.
Oh, yes, with the root.
How's it
That's like this is slightly light peanut flavor, but it's like almost not a peanut yet
So this is like very fresh and watery and looks like the watercress
Watercress and things
Being a vegan you always discovering new things to eat.
Yeah, I never eat this before
It's juicy
She wants to bring the community together
By opening up our connections because our in Hong Kong in the 70s that
Each families are very close to each other
like in when you live in an estate
you actually know all your neighbors in all the floors
They just open the door and the kids are running all over different houses and relationship is closed
But nowadays because Hong Kong has evolved into
more developed country
They are not really close anymore.
Of corse they will close their doos because of security reasons.
everyone is not so friendly to each other anymore
so Blue house aim to bring back this to
so they organize many different exhibition
so they have more local restaurants, promoting local values.
So once you influence the public, the goodness of the 70s'
that people are really close together
so they want to bring the community together, do good causes for
charaties and like promote local farmers and
vegetarian food
Veganism is not just about your eating habit
But about your simplicity life style
or how you recycle thing, how you love the world.
Yeah, I think it's taking care of everything, yourself, animals and the world
it's more than just the animals
It's your whole way of life.
Thank you so much for showing us around
I will link Charlotte below, all her stuff.
She is actually coming out with a book.
Yeah in 10 days, but it's available for pre-order now?
Not available to pre- order but
In Hong Kong and Taiwan bookstores,
so it's about vegetarian and also a simplicity lifestyle.
Lifestyle in White
That's what it means, in white, like a simple yeah
Lifestyle, okay.
So yes, I will link everything below go check her out.
Thank you for watching this episode
I'll see you guys in the next one
Bye