Reva posts her vegan/ plant based food (mostly Indonesian cuisines) on Instagram. She shared with Meatless Movement recently why and how she became a vegan because of her baby.

Tell us about yourself, please

Hi I’m Reva Pernandan from Indonesia, and I have two boys. One is a 5-month old baby; and the other, 2 year old.

I hardly have enough time on my hands, having to take care of the house, children and work at the same time. And so it took me quite a while to complete this interview with Meatless Movement.

But thankfully, here is my story. I live in Bogor City, and work in Jakarta. Due to the pandemic, I have been working from home (WFH) since March 2019.

I have been breastfeeding my second son since his birth. When he was 1 month old, I began to notice that whenever I consume any meat products, it would cause an allergy or intolerance in him. He would develop rashes on his cheeks.

So yeah, that’s how i convert myself as a vegan, for my baby boy.
Reva Pernanda

Yes! Whenever I ate meat, dairy products, eggs, honey, or even any non-meat items that were cooked with pans not solely used for plant-based foods, it would trigger a reaction causing my baby to break out in rashes.

As my baby is very sensitive and can have a reaction to even the slightest mix of animal products, my greatest worry is when a non-vegan restaurant does not wash their cookwares thoroughly before preparing my food.

Therefore, when I eat out, I am extremely careful with not consuming food that had been cooked in the same pan as meat. I usually ended up having salads or fresh fruits in non-vegan restaurants. Most of the time, I prefer to prepare and bring my own food.

To be honest, it wasn’t easy to do the switch in the beginning. I started off as a flexitarian and pescatarian. I began to experiment taking organic meat products; thinking that if it that worked, I could still continue to eat my meat.

In the end, I had to accept the reality that going with a full plant based diet was my only choice. And here I am today, a happy breastfeeding mom and a vegan.

I became a vegan in May 2021, one month after I gave birth to my second son. Before I started on my plantbased diet, my weight was 73Kg; I lost 16kg within this 4 month! My weight is now the same as when I first graduated from university. People can’t tell that I’m already a mom of two haha.

Where is your favourite go to place?

Although it’s not easy finding vegan food in Indonesia, eating out isn’t as hard as it seems. From tempeh to tofu and fresh vegetables to healthy noodle and rice dishes, the options are still extensive.

I definitely want to recommend Burgreens Restaurant to you. It’s located at Jakarta. The restaurant serves meatless foods that taste like the real thing. My favorite item on the menu has to be their yellow spice chick’n bowl (or ayam goreng kuning in Bahasa Indonesia). When I offered it to my husband, who’s an ayam goreng kuning lover, for the first time. His verdict: “gila, apa ini? Ini bukan ayam? Kalau populasi ayam hilang di dunia, masih aman sih”

It means: “This is insane! How possibly this is not a chicken? you gotta kidding me right? I think if the population of chicken is gone, I’m perfectly fine with this food”.

yellow spice chick’n bowl (or ayam goreng kuning in Bahasa Indonesia)

I can still remember vividly my first time trying their vegan ayam kuning bowl. lt’s so good, I stopped craving for the real thing after that. Burgreens also offer them as frozen products, so I can cook meatless food in the comfort of my home.

Indonesian food never comes without sambal as a condiment, and often served together with steamed rice and kerupuk (deep fried cracker). As an Indonesian, these are the comfort food I really missed.

So I decided to explore different plant-based Indonesia cuisines. I now document and share them in my Instagram account @piring.plantbased. Piring means plate in Bahasa (native language) while plantbased is foods derived from plants with no animal-source. I hope to inspire people to switch to veganism and to tell everybody that you too can find many yummy plant-based cuisines in Indonesia too.

And for other moms who may be having the same problem as mine before, you are not alone.

Another sundanes cuisine by piring.plantbased

Embarking on this journey can be overwhelming, but I dove in and have never looked back. I’d grown up eating meat and enjoying it, but now I don’t see it as food anymore.

All images courtesy of @ piring.plantbased