April 4, 2019 Written by Rita Sung
On April 4, 2019, on behalf of the Taiwan Vegan Academy, Dr. Karunas Zhu, President of the Taiwan Vegan Academy, was honored to invite Dr. Susianto Tseng, founder of the WVO World Vegan Organization, to officially launch the first WVO Vegan Kitchen! Lin Hongchi, former legislator, also attended the opening ceremony and praised the veganism that is rapidly growing locally and globally. About a decade ago, under the impetus of legislator Lin, all parties were gathered to pass the vegetarian label certification in the Legislative Yuan to promote vegetarian and vegan food safety and healthy diets. Lin applauded the fact that vegetarian education has greatly improved. Even public schools have been willing to accept going meatless once a week, which was not possible for parents to agree to in the past! Vegetarianism and veganism have gradually broken away from image of being unhealthy, which represents a new way to reverse disease and the best way to practice environmental protection and respect for all life.
The grand opening ceremony of “the FIRST WVO Vegan Kitchen" was launched by legislator Lin Hongchi, Dr. Susianto Tseng and Dr. Karunas Zhu. President Susianto announced excitedly, “The SECOND WVO Vegan Kitchen will soon be opened in Jakarta!" In this celebratory and bustling event, President Susianto Tseng delivered certificates of appointment to the first Young Vegan Ambassador of the WVO: Lew Zhen Wei and Chair of the WVO Bangladesh: Tony Lew. Amid the roaring applause for the awards, everyone could smell the irresistible creamy curry tempeh made by the Ambassador of the WVO, Chun-chi Huang. He generously shared the recipe for “Southeast Asia Curry Tempeh” – Red & yellow curry, fresh lemongrass, a little salt, soy sauce, scallops, carrots, potatoes, and king oyster mushrooms mixed with rice noodles cooked by President Karunas Zhu. Every bite was full of rich, homey flavors blended with fresh tempeh; we started drooling just by looking at it!
In the afternoon of April 4, 2019, Dr. Susianto Tseng, the father of Tempeh, was invited to deliver a speech entitled, "Tempeh Production and Nutrition Analysis” at National Taiwan University where WVO HQ located. Dr. Tseng mentioned that Tempeh originated in the 18th century in the Indonesian royal household. The Chinese name of tempeh was created by Dr. Susianto Tseng using two Chinese characters which sound like “tempeh” and mean, “the treasure from heaven.” This Indonesian national treasure is rich in protein, antioxidant capacity and suitable as a vegetarian supplement food. Dr. Susianto Tseng, who teaches at Stikes Kuningan, Indonesia, said, "Many people are still worried that vegan diets could lead to nutritional deficiencies. In fact, the highest protein is not in eggs, or milk, soybeans are 34% protein, and green beans are 24%, compared to only and 12% in eggs. " In his slide show, he compared the protein content in foods (see Figure 1).
"Tempeh" is a masterpiece of soybean fermented food. In addition to high protein, tempeh is rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin A. Please see the comparison table of Tempeh to meat nutrition (Figure 2). Although spinach has more iron than tempeh, the fermented tempeh enzyme is active, which helps it to be easily digested and absorb calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins!
In addition to high nutrition values and absorption, tempeh contents healthy unsaturated fat. In contrast to meat, which contains saturated fat and raises cholesterol levels. Evidenced shows that higher intakes of saturated fat increase the risk for cardiovascular disease. The benefits of tempeh are inexhaustible. We can’t appreciate more to this magnificent gift from heaven!
A tempeh manufacturer who was invited to take part in the event felt overjoyed to be on the same stage with Dr. Susianto Tseng. The founders of Xiang Heh Jia Biotech (翔鶴佳) came all the way from Kaohsiung, and shared their organic tempeh products, such as tempeh snacks, tempeh shredded floss and tempeh fermented bean curd, as well as others. They hope to design a series of innovative tempeh products which can be popularized in Taiwan! Su Xinren, founder of Yibu Tempeh, once discovered the nutritional benefits of tempeh, and then decided to develop quality tempeh by researching bean species, origins, temperature, enzymes, and water quality. Perfecting each element is the key to producing quality tempeh. Dr. Susianto pointed out that Indonesia is often regarded as the world's largest producer of Tempeh and the second largest is the Netherlands. Each year, Indonesia consumes about 2 million tons of soybeans, and 40% of it is used to produce Tempeh!
President Karunas Zhu concluded that promoting veganism is a lifetime mission and will need the support and dedication of everyone! Following the steps of Dr. Susianto and Dr. Karunas, partnerships of the World Vegan Organization (WVO) have grown to 23 countries. Let us join hands to spread this green power to every corner of the world!
