Taking the veggie trail in Jakarta

By Melinda J. Hewitt

JAKARTA (JP): What do Mahatma Gandhi, Paul McCartney, Johnny Weissmuller, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Plato, Benjamin Franklin and Julie Christie have in common?

Probably nothing much except their fame and their being vegetarians. Judging from the above personalities, vegetarianism is not a new dietary trend.

Whether for health reasons, spiritual goals, respect for animal rights, economic or ethical reasons, vegetarians are to be found all around the globe. The oldest vegetarian organization in the western world is the UK Vegetarian Society founded in 1809; today, with millions of members, the organization estimates that 49 percent of the population in the UK "is eating less meat".

The word "vegetarian" does not come from "vegetable", as many assume, but rather from the Latin word "vegetare" which means "to enliven". When the Romans used the term homo vegetus, they referred to a vigorous and dynamically healthy person, but people today think of a vegetarian as a person who eats no meat.

With the wealth of information available to support a move toward a vegetarian diet, vegetarians, or those intending to become one, face fewer difficulties. Just as environmentalists encountered a certain amount of ridicule and scorn several decades ago, so did the vegetarian. There is more acceptance today; most airlines even offer a vegetarian option for their passengers.

One hassle for vegetarians, including in Jakarta, is trying to find a suitable place to eat out.

The Indonesian Vegetarian Association (KVMI), a member of the International Vegetarian Union, provides a listing of vegetarian restaurants in Jakarta, which number over 20, mostly in West, North and Central Jakarta. The three biggest and the most popular are Citarasa on Jl. Pluit Kencana Raya, Mudita in Jl. Batu Ceper, West Jakarta, and Padmanadi in Complex Mitra Bahari, Jl. Pakin, and also in the food court at Pluit Mega Mall.

A glance at the menu from Padmanadi Restaurant shows a range of would-be meat dishes which have been transformed into vegetarian delicacies, such as roast duck, bakso (meatball soup), steamed tuna, satay and even fried prawns. These meatless dishes are made with the creative use of soya beans, gluten and mushrooms, with accompanying vegetable side dishes.

Some Jakarta business people are committed to promoting vegetarianism. Bambang Sumantri of Grup Progress changed the menu in the hospital he founded, RS Medika Griya in Sunter, to vegetarian two years ago, and it is the only strictly vegetarian hospital in Jakarta.

He has also opened a restaurant called Love Powers in Nirwarna Sunter Asri housing complex in North Jakarta.

Unlike other restaurants, Love Powers specializes in vegetarian fast food. The names of the dishes are unusual, to mention a few: Power Clay Pot (vegetables and rice cooked in a clay pot), Power Mix (rice and side dishes with "chicken nuggets"), Power Rendang (a take on West Sumatra stewed beef in coconut milk, with gluten and mushrooms), and reportedly the most popular Power Satay, which Bambang claimed was the best satay in Jakarta.

With the first outlet of Love Powers in Sunter functioning as a training center, Bambang plans to open eight more branches; the first in Kelapa Gading will open in December. Bambang said the enterprise was not profit-oriented but "just a bridge to actualize our love and compassion and to improve the quality of life".

There are lots of other vegetarian dishes available locally. They include gado-gado (boiled vegetables in a spicy peanut sauce), sayur asam (tamarind vegetable soup), tempeh in all its savory varieties, as well as sayur lodeh (vegetables cooked in coconut milk). Other dishes can be modified to make them vegetarian.

Jakarta is becoming a more vegetarian-friendly city day by day. KVMI secretary Susianto said the organization's membership was around 2,000 scattered throughout Indonesia. It publishes a monthly newsletter, Info Vegetarian, on vegetarian cooking and also runs regular informative seminars for members and nonmembers. For more information, check out its website www.ivu.org/kvmi.