Page 25 - Varsity Special Issue

22 /Lifestyle / 23

a plant-based diet at least one day a Modern Vegetarian Startups in up meat gradually for a better me and
week, according to the Hong Kong Hong Kong better world,” Chan says.
Vegetarian Habit Survey conducted Esther Chan and Joei Lo became “Anti-COVID-19 restriction on
by Green Monday in 2020. The num- vegetarians three years ago. “At that seating capacity caused a drop of
ber has increased by 44 per cent com- time, most vegetarian restaurants 50 per cent of our business. In July “
pared with the same survey conduct- were traditional Chinese restaurants. and August, we had a six-digit loss
ed in 2018. There were some luxurious vegetarian in both months,” she says. She adds Every bill in a vegetarian
Green Monday, the Hong Kong- restaurants, but they were expensive,” that the pandemic is the most difficult
headquartered plant-based social Chan says. situation since they opened and they restaurant is a life-or-death
venture, was founded in 2012. It ad- The pair decided to open their own expect no improvement in coming vote for the animal.
vocates the adoption of a plant-based vegetarian restaurant in 2017 – an all- months.
diet, and it owns nine retail stores you-can-eat restaurant that serves Kay Kwan King-wun and his wife
in Hong Kong which provide plant- Southeast Asian plant-based dishes Kit Ho Kit-ting is another pair who
based food products. located in Tai Kok Tsui. opened a vegetarian restaurant. The ”
The social venture announced it Chan and Lo are determined to couple quit their jobs last year at the
raised US$70 million from global in- prove plant-based dining can be inno- age of 33 and started a vegetarian café
vestors to accelerate its market growth vative, delicious and diversified with in Sham Shui Po and later in Tsuen
on September 22 on its website. food choices. “We encourage meat Wan. The café serves fusion plant- K wan and Ho in fro n t o f their vegetairan cafe in Sham
Kwan and Ho in front of their vegetairan cafe in Sham
lovers to take a small step to try giving based dishes such as Spicy Thai Im- Shu i P o. (Photo c ou rtesy o f Years )
Shui Po. (Photo courtesy of Years)

possible Spaghetti and Tom Yum Ri- networking with vegetarians who also lack an effective tool to find plant-
sotto. love animals. The group now has over based products. Ching and other ad-
“More and more people are aware 70,000 members. ministrators of the Facebook group
of vegetarianism, but vegetarian res- “The platform connects are also building an app - Veg-
taurant choices (in Hong Kong) are vegetarians, vegetarian- Future, which has lists of
limited,” Kwan says. Inspired by res- to-bes, and plant-based plant-based restaurants and
taurants the couple visited in other businesses. Members ex- plant-sourced shops. The
countries, they develop fusion dishes change cooking recipes, app has a search function
for their menu. recommend restaurants for users to identify non-
to each other and share vegan ingredients like addi-
The Online Vegetarian diet tips in the group,” Ching tives E120 and E966 which
Community says. J oe Ching Pu i -sang are commonly used in sweets
Joe Ching Pui-sang
Joe Ching Pui-sang started a Face- Ching says many vegetar- and cakes.
book community group “The Vegetar- ian restaurants have little resources “Even though conscious entrepre-
ian Youth” 11 years ago in bid to build in doing marketing while vegetarians neurs are bringing greater variety to
vegetarian catering market, we still
need to speed up the change,” Ching
says.
“Every bill in a vegetarian restau-
rant is a life-or-death vote for ani-
mals,” he adds.

Edited by Regina Chen
Edited by Regina Chen

My Meat Ru n Bu dd y in T ai Kok T sui. ( Photo c ourtesy o f My Meat Ru n Bu dd y )
My Meat Run Buddy in Tai Kok Tsui. (Photo courtesy of My Meat Run Buddy)
The Vegetarian Y ou th has o ver 70,000 members o n F acebook.
The Vegetarian Youth has over 70,000 members on Facebook.