Mottainai: Plant-based Whole Food Café

Let’s Rethink about Eating

Different from bustle of Gushan Ferry Pier, Gunan Street is much quieter.
The afternoon sun is still scorching, while plants blooming at the door attract passers-by to an oasis, Mottainai.

Mottainai was moved to a new site and reopened in November 2018. Compared to the previous neat and tidy space near Kaohsiung Cultural Center, the new place, originally a seventy-year-old house, is so cozy and relaxed that customers can hardly notice the lapse of time. “We are so lucky to find a place like this, and this place transforms us,” the owner, Lilyth, said.

Childlike Happiness in an Urban Jungle

To recall the memory of Kaohsiung people, the rooftop paradise of Talee Department Store closed for six months in order to repair and repaint facilities and also increase its security. In 2017, children can use facilities for free on holidays in the hope of having parents and children recreate sweet/happy childhood memory.

Because of the beauty of the old house, they spent more than six months delicately decorating. The primary concern is not to increase the burden of the earth; therefore, besides keeping tables and chairs, they collected second-handed furniture. The wall-covering is natural stucco from Germany, while the bar counter is piled up together by store-owners and partners. “We pick up a handful of dirt on a construction site, and ask for more once it is clay that we want. Mixing up with sands and rice stalks, it will become 100% degradable material. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; hundreds of years later, the store will return to its original state.”

Let’s Rethink about Eating

The innermost of the store lies a blackboard on which all ingredients and dressings are listed. A notice writing pure vegetable cuisine, friendly ingredients, and raw desserts is posted on the glass door. It is not only an idea but also a magic of cooking. While vegetable dishes usually contain vegan grocery to replace meat, Mottainai chooses plants instead.

To prepare a better-flavored plant-based food, Lilyth and her partners make great efforts. Taking “Pull-apart Mushroom Hamburger with Marinara” for instance, making yeast is the first step for bread. Meanwhile, fresh and organic king oyster mushrooms from Rich Year Farm in Puli have to be baked and dried before pulled apart. Flaxseed is made as sticky as jelly to have a special taste.

To have palatable plant-based food be on the taste buds of customers, they spend much time on collecting and preparing ingredients. They look for farmers sharing similar ideas and products by themselves. Also, in order to make these ingredients fully absorbed by customers, they barely have leisure time. They even try to plow and sow in Pingtung to better understand and experience how hardworking the farmers are.

When being asked what “deliciousness” means, Lilyth, a vegetarian for thirteen years, thought and answered: “You eat comfortably.” “Comfortably” happens not only when someone eats but also before and after these ingredients are made into food. “The reason why I choose to be a vegetarian is animal rights because I think how food is processed in a factory now is too cruel. Some people want to pay a cheaper price for meat, so animals are confined to limited space. But we need to pay the price because their excrement in waters will cause eutrophication that prevents other living things from surviving. Also we are even likely to consume their excrement.” Lilyth said. On the one hand, she is allergic to food addictive. On the other, she was looking for a new job and would like to have a restaurant where she eats comfortably. After Mottainai opened, she thought about a possibility of changing it into a platform of promoting her idea.

 
 

Lilyth has to compromise between idea and reality. “I strongly suggest that financial planning is essential to everyone starting a business,” she seriously answered. Before promoting an idea of shaking capitalism or consumerism that exhausting resources on earth, we need to survive in a world of commerce. In other words, a high proportion of organic ingredients should be used in pure plant-based food, and we sell it in a reasonable price. But Lilyth would never give up sustainability of the restaurant.

Sometimes she is worn out of the dilemma. However, she may not find how glamorous her eyes are when she talks about these ideas. This is inspiring. “In terms of coffee shop, we are way too sincere.” So, come and try!

 

Mottainai Plant-Based Whole Food Café

Food雄雄Gushan, vegan, Cafe, CoffeeComment