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pro<strong>file</strong>that a Christian should become aHindu … but our innermost prayershould be a Hindu should be a betterHindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, aChristian a better Christian." Muchin the same way, Mark's hope formeat eaters is not that they embracevegetarianism, but that they becomebetter meat eaters. “We all needto be more aware of what we areeating”, he says, “there are manycommercial interests out there tryingto make money out of tricking usinto eating shoddily manufacturedprocessed foods”.Not Only MeatlessMondaytext: Marina BuranaIn this modern era, in whicheverything seems to be aboutmoney and leading hectic liveswith no time to think aboutsomething as basic and important aswhat we eat, like a character in themovie American Gangster once said:“you can't find the heart of anythingto stick the knife”. Fortunately whenit comes to food, we still have peoplelike Mark Caltonhill who wantto make us more aware of whereexactly we stick the knife.Mark, a vegetarian writer wholives in Taipei, has not set out topreach about why it is importantto leave meat aside and become aveggie; instead, his primary concernseems to be how we handle our dailydiet and how responsible we arefor both the environment and ourown body. He has been living herein Taiwan for twenty years and helong considered himself a “failedvegetarian”, always being too lazyto eat less meat or no meat at all. Itwasn't until three years ago that,after reading a UN report sayingthat animal farming for meat eatingis contributing more climate changeiMages: Mark caltonhill, PriMavera racing teaMWhatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was themother.- george herbertemissions than all transportationcombined, he stopped eating meatfor good. Unlike most people whodecide to become veggies, who ingeneral do it for religious reasonsor to protect the animals, Markjust feels his is a good choice forthe planet and for living his life.According to what he says, thisdecision not only changed the wayhe relates with the environment, butit also gave him important healthbenefits.Let vegetarianism grow onyou... or notWhen we first met, he suggestedwe go to a very nice vegetarianrestaurant in Xinyi District so that Icould try its food. It turned out to bereally good, I must say. But Mark'spurpose is far from convincingpeople to try vegetarian food andbecome vegetarians. He respectsother people's choices, but insistson the idea that everyone should bemore aware of what they eat. WhileI enjoyed a good vegetable soup, hequoted Gandhi, who said ''(…) wecan only pray, if we are Hindus, notHeaLtHy food options foreveryoneAll the way from Manchester, andsettled in an Asian country whichhe calls ''home'', Mark has beenfocusing on writing about places youcan visit in Taiwan where they serveamazing vegetarian food, and ondoing research on food issues. Hethinks Taiwan is a good place to bea vegetarian because you can findsome kind of vegetarian restaurantround almost every corner. Thebad thing is that in some cases theycan be difficult for foreigners tofind. That's why he came up witha very interesting blog called NotOnly Meatless Monday (NOMM).In it, he not only writes reviewsabout restaurants, but also doesgood research about food-relatedtopics, such as food and health, foodpolitics, school lunch provision,organic farming, localization of foodproduction, cook-it-yourself, etc.He adds some interesting color tohis blog when he talks about thingsthat matter with a little bit of humor,or when he explains the differencebetween quán sù ( 全素 ; completelyvegetarian) or dàn ni sù ( 蛋奶素 'egg-milk vegetarian), and guo biansù ( 鍋邊素 ; "pot-side vegetarian").He regularly checks the Chineselanguagemedia for food-relatedarticles and translates them intoEnglish. He also introduces theidea of 'up-stream cooking'. “Thismeans”, he says, “trying to usefewer and fewer processed foods andwork oneself upstream towards thecomplete use of fresh produce. Oneexample is that although I have madehummus for about three decades, Ialways used shop-bought tahini. Itwas only a couple of years ago that18 march 2012 www.communitycenter.org.tw
it crossed my mind to find out howto make this, and indeed, roastingand grinding sesame seeds is not sodifficult at all”.Taiwan's vegetarian restaurantstraditionally use a lot of fake meatand other processed foods, soNOMM’s restaurant reviews includea 'fake meat/processed food index'.He would like the idea to get pickedup by a newspaper or magazine, sohe tries to maintain good journalisticstandards. “That way, hopefully”,he says, “it will promote moreinteractive discussion of foodissues, and we can all move towardshealthier lifestyles for ourselves and'High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash.Are we supposed to eat this stuff, or is it going to eat us?'- Annita Manningthe planet. Indeed, I would love tohear back from readers and make theNOMM site more interactive”.Vegetarianism and sportsMark thinks that many people,encouraged by meat industries, areled to believe that eating meat isnecessary to human life. But in hiscase, being an endurance athleteat 51 (bicycle racing, marathonrunning and triathlon/ironman),he actually feels healthier now thathe has stopped eating meat. Hesays, “I hope that my occasionalappearance on the podium at theend of a race might help counterthe misunderstanding that meat isnecessary for sport and for life. Iam therefore designing ‘meat-free’running/triathlon/cycling outfits towear on these occasions, and I wouldlove to hear from other vegetarianathletes so we might help promotethis together”. Mark uses his biketo go everywhere. Not only becauseit's a choice which clearly helps theenvironment, but also because as avegetarian athlete, he wants to set theexample in the small things too.We are What We eatWe generally eat twice as much asnature requires and we sometimesdon't really pay attention to whatand where we eat. As Alfred E.Newman once said, “We are livingin a world today where lemonadeis made from artificial flavors andfurniture polish is made from reallemons”. We are what we do, andwe are, too, what we eat. That'swhy it seems important to be moreaware about the evils that existin our societies when it comes tofood, and to try to be as healthy aspossible, for ourselves, and for theenvironment.Marina Burana is an Argentineanwriter born in 1986. She haspublished two books of shortstories in Spanish and is nowwriting plays in English. Shespeaks French and readsAncient Greek. She also playsthe violin, paints and studiesChinese in Taipei. Her e-mail ismarinaburana@yahoo.com.ar.Just a few of the things that are going on around Taipei this month...museum of Contemporary artUntil April 15thWonderland: New Contemporary Artfrom Australiawww.mocataipei.org.tw39 Changan W. Rd., Taipeinational museum of historyUntil March 14thDreams Come True: The Art of Disney’sClassic FairytalesGallery: 1F, Rooms 101-103http://www.nmh.gov.tw49 Nanhai Rd., Taipeinational palace museumUntil May 14thWestern Mythology and Legends:Selected works from the LouvreExhibition Area II, 1F, Library Buildinghttp://www.npm.gov.tw221 Zhishan Rd., Sec. 2, Taipeinational taiwan museumJanuary 17th ~ April 15thImpressions of Taiwan Railway in 1970shttp://formosa.ntm.gov.tw2 Siangyang Rd., Taipeisuho paper museumUntil March 24thThrough Western Eyes: An exhibition ofpaper cuttings by Tim Buddenhttp://www.suhopaper.org.tw68 Changan E. Rd, Sec. 2, Taipeisun Yat-sen memorial hallUntil March 8thDepicting Alishan: A joint exhibition ofwater ink painters from both sides of theTaiwan StraitsYat-sen Gallery (3F(E))http://www.yatsen.gov.tw/en/505 Renai Rd. Sec. 4, Taipeitaipei Fine arts museumUntil June 10thTime Games: Contemporaryappropriations of the pastGalleries 1A and 1BUntil May 13thJourney through Jiangnan: A PivotalMoment in Chen Cheng-po’s ArtisticQuestGalleries 2A and 2Bhttp://www.tfam.museum/181 Zhongshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipeitaipei international Film FestivalMarch 25th is the DEADLINE forsubmissions for the 2012 Taipei FilmFestival New Talent Competition. Moreinformation at http://eng.taipeiiff.org.tw - Click on ‘Information’.taipei international Children’s FilmFestivalMarch 3rd ~ April 5thMore information at http://www.ticff.org.tw/about-e.htmlwww.communitycenter.org.tw march 201219
Page 1: Publication of the Community Servic
Page 5 and 6: Letter From The EditorPublisher: Co
Page 7 and 8: Amy'sulturalCorner台灣Oolong TeaT
Page 9 and 10: OFF THE BEATEN TRACKRICHARD SAUNDER
Page 11 and 12: locations. As we all have different
Page 13 and 14: Racing against hunger atTaipei Euro
Page 15 and 16: then came the fantastic Day Trips (
Page 17: What do you get whenan expat from t
Page 21 and 22: Why is there a need for thisservice
Page 23 and 24: found one in his childhood friendJo
Page 25 and 26: Taiwan YouthClimate CoalitionUpcomi
Page 27 and 28: y invitation only. We meet for four
Page 29 and 30: The ‘Maple Leaf’ExperienceGener
Page 31 and 32: BUNSTExT: IVY CHEnIMAGES: xIAnG TIn
Page 33 and 34: COMMUNITY GROUPSOrganization Teleph

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