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Pleasurable lightness of being vegan
Not what it seems: A vegan restaurant in Central Jakarta sells dishes that look like meat-based favorites such as satay (skewered meat), but they are all made of plant-based ingredients like soybeans and mushrooms, among other ingredients
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ot what it seems: A vegan restaurant in Central Jakarta sells dishes that look like meat-based favorites such as satay (skewered meat), but they are all made of plant-based ingredients like soybeans and mushrooms, among other ingredients. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
About three and a half years ago, Firmansyah Mastup, 31, a private company employee living in South Jakarta, was advised by his doctor to reduce his consumption of red meat over health concerns.
In order to reverse his poor health condition radically, Firmansyah decided to try to become a vegan in late 2016.
Vegans cut off consumption of all animal products altogether, including milk, eggs and the shrimp paste often used to make Indonesian-style sambal (chili paste) and the peanut sauce dressing of the gado-gado (cooked salad). His health started to improve.
His commitment to the lifestyle became stronger when he discovered that becoming a vegan does not serve only his personal health, but the environment as a whole: “I have started to read many articles on how animal farms contribute to climate change and impact animal welfare adversely,” he said.
According to the website of an international NGO, Climate Nexus, animal agriculture contributes about 75 to 80 percent of total agricultural emissions. A 2009 nonfiction work by Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals, also details the cruelty that animals go through in the husbandries.
Vegans should also not be worried about nutritional deficiencies, since they can meet their protein, fat and carbohydrate needs from vegetable sources, according to healthline.com.
This concern for animal welfare was the reason why Diana Beauty, 30, also a private company employee living in South Jakarta, decided to become a vegan.
When she visited a village on a mountaineering trip in Nepal in 2017, getting close to nature made her heart more compassionate and loving toward all parts of nature, including all animals.
A turning point came shortly afterward when she visited a milk factory on a business trip and became aware that milk production compromised cows’ whole life cycles.
“They breed the cows only to make milk and at the age of two they are being forced to reproduce using artificial insemination. After they have produced the amount of milk required, they will be sent to the slaughterhouse to harvest their meat,” she said.
Diana added that chickens also had to go through a similar life cycle in order to produce eggs for human consumption.
“How come I claim to love animals while still consuming their milk and eggs?” she asked rhetorically. By January 2018, she had made up her mind to become a vegan.
People’s attitude
Firmansyah and Diana said the most challenging part of becoming vegans in Jakarta had nothing to do with finding outlets that could provide their needs: When they eat alone, they just go to restaurants exclusively selling vegan foods like Burgreens and Blue Zone.
Firmansyah, Diana and their friends also initiated the Jakarta Vegan Guide, which can be found via its Instagram and/or Facebook accounts, to help Jakartans find vegan outlets in the city.
Whenever they eat in restaurants or outlets selling omnivorous foods and drinks, they just make special requests: “For instance, I will order gado-gado using GoFood and request the driver to tell the chef to remove the shrimp paste from the peanut sauce and eggs from the salad,” Firmansyah said.
Diana, meanwhile, said she was lucky to have nonvegan friends who willingly accompanied her to vegan restaurants whenever they went dining out together. Her employer also has a canteen in which she can order vegan foods.
During business dinners in restaurants selling omnivorous foods, she would just request the waiters or waitresses to remove eggs from her salad, for instance.
Luckily, the restaurant waiters and waitresses and GoFood drivers always fulfill their special requests to remove animal products from the foods (and sometimes drinks) they order.
To go back to a point made earlier: The most challenging part of adopting a vegan lifestyle in Jakarta has to do with people’s attitudes, which often consider the vegan lifestyle a weird choice to make, according to Diana.
Many people often claim that other animals were created to be devoured by humans, say both Diana and Firmansyah. “They can often feel offended whenever you cite the climate and environmental costs of eating animals,” added Firmansyah.
After a while, to avoid unnecessary debates, both of them decided not to explain to other people too much about their choice. “I simply say: ‘This is my lifestyle’,” Firmansyah said.
All in all, their chosen lifestyle has been worth their commitment: Firmansyah said that he had been able to maintain a stable weight since becoming a vegan.
Diana, meanwhile, said she enjoyed the emotional benefits of being a vegan: She feels lighter, more patient and less agitated. Also, there was a bonus: Friends say that her face looks more glowing and cleaner now.
Thanks to these benefits, the two of them do not miss the flavors of red meat or any animal products at all.
