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In my home town (Perth WA) there is a Taiwanese restaurant that has meat items on the menu, but which serves vegetarian meat substitute instead.

These meat substitutes are available frozen as in the below picture.

Recently I was in Taipei, where I found many vegetarian restaurants, but none serving this kind of product.

So where in Taipei is there a restaurant serving this?

enter image description here

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I'm guessing you didn't go to "Loving Hut"? It's one of the bigger vegan chains and they're known for their simulated meats that are also found in the frozen/health food stores.

You're right that Taiwan is one of the leading places to find simulated meats. Only place in the world where you can find soy bacon that actually crisps up.

EDIT: A list of locations for their stores can be found on their page too (pdf link).

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    I did actually go to a loving hut, it was good food but I didn't see much meat substitute - maybe I was in the wrong one. It was mostly soup.
    – jsj
    Feb 20, 2013 at 2:47
  • @trideceth12 Interesting, usually they have simulated meat dishes. Maybe you were there at an express location or awkward timing?
    – Stephen Punwasi
    Feb 20, 2013 at 21:40
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What you have shown here is essentially tofu, which is widely used in Asia and is used as a meat substitute product outside of it. This is because there are many people who follow Buddhist or similar religions which promote a vegetarian lifestyle for ethical reasons. Tofu dishes are fairly easy to find in any restaurant in Taiwan, but whether it tastes like meat (due to flavouring) depends on how it's prepared.

Search for 'vegetarian Buddhist restaurants' and you're likely to find places you want. HappyCow has a listing of restaurants in Taipei for instance, as well as Lonely Planet's listing of vegetarian restaurants in Taipei. You should be able to find similar lists for other cities in Taiwan.

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  • The question states: "Recently I was in Taipei, where I found many vegetarian restaurants, but none serving this kind of product." A list of vegetarian restaurants doesn't really help.
    – jsj
    Feb 20, 2013 at 2:51
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    The Wikipedia article you link to directly contradicts your link text: "The idea of using tofu as a meat substitute is not common in East Asia.". The idea of a "meat substitute" is a fundamentally western one, based on a food culture where meat is the primary source of protein, and vegetarians have to find a substitute. It's also very wrong-headed and the main reason why tofu has such a bad reputation. As a meat substitute it will always be inferior. As a foodstuff in its own right with appropriate recipes, it can be very delicious.
    – Michael Borgwardt
    Feb 20, 2013 at 9:11
  • Perhaps I should explain better. Outside of Asia, tofu is used as a meat substitute, but within Asia the concept of "meat substitute" has been influenced by Western ideas. Tofu dishes have existed on their own, but the new Western idea of meat substitute has seen tofu used for this purpose too.
    – Ankur Banerjee
    Feb 20, 2013 at 14:35
  • My experience of eating in Taiwanese homes and restaurants outside of Taiwan is that there is actually a huge variety of meat substitutes, some of which are made of tofu or other soy products, but also gluten and seaweeds (and possibly other things that I didn't recognize or ask about).
    – Max
    Mar 14, 2015 at 15:06

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