Doing It for the Culture – and Keeping It Vegan
When people think of vegan food, images of bland tofu or fast food Impossible burgers may come to mind. But the vegan food landscape has blossomed into much more. People have brought their cultures into vegan businesses, with offerings fit for anyone’s palate.
Some people mourn the food they are no longer able to eat when they first become vegan, but these Long Beach business owners are showing that people don’t have to make any cultural sacrifices when transitioning to a vegan diet.
“I'm not going to stop eating the things I love,” said Carmen Santillan of Cena Vegan, a plant-based Mexican business offering authentic street food. “I just have to figure out a way of how I can still enjoy them without incorporating animal products into that. And that's what we did.”
Cena Vegan, with two locations in Los Angeles and one in Long Beach that opened earlier this year, was an idea born from the ground up – literally. Santillan’s foray into crafting original vegan recipes started with the time her husband, Mike Simms, had to feed a group of 200 volunteers at the top of a mountain.
Simms promised to feed the group vegan tacos after their volunteer work cleaning up the forest on top of Echo Mountain. When he was unable to procure donations from businesses such as Whole Foods Market, the husband-and-wife team turned to the internet to learn how to make their own plant-based proteins. Now, Cena Vegan is known for its seitan, a vegan meat alternative.
“[The tacos] had the chewiness, the texture of carne asada,” Santillan said. “They had the citrus flavors and all the spices and everything. It was incredible. I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is wonderful.’”
After feeding their recipes to amazed family and friends, Santillan and Simms were convinced to start a business.
They started with a taco truck in Northeast Los Angeles, an area locally known for its bustling Mexican street food scene.
“We figured if our tacos can be well-received in Northeast L.A., then we've got something going on here,” Santillan said. “It was an incredible response. It fills a void that did not exist.”
Now a beloved L.A. institution, Santillan said Cena Vegan’s success has exceeded her wildest dreams, with locations having lines going down the street and around the block. In her interactions with the community, Santillan said eventually other individuals were inspired to start their own vegan businesses and share their own take on the food they grew up with.
“[Cena] gave back to the community,” Santillan said. “It created businesses and inspired people in a way that they didn't even dream of.”
One unique cultural vegan business is San and Wolves Bakeshop, a popup business owned by Kym Estrada that offers vegan Filipino baked goods – the only of its kind.
People would often be skeptical of Estrada’s pastries and Filipino veganism as a whole, even telling her it’s impossible to be Filipino if you don’t eat meat.
“We’re able to win them over when they eat our food,” Estrada said. “Our demographic is mostly not vegan at all, so I’m happy to know that.”
Despite not having many Filipino friends growing up, Estrada said the people she met through her business made her feel less alone.
“I thought I was a unicorn,” Estrada said. “But every time we do a popup, it’s just good vibes.”
Estrada said the process of “veganizing” Filipino recipes taught her about Filipino culture and history as a whole, exploring the different provinces and their ways of making signature dishes.
“It all leads to colonization, but of course we made it in our own ways,” Estrada said. “I feel connected to my culture because I just know more about our culture. Going back in history, I learned so much more than just food.”
After running as a popup bakery for years, doing pre-order pickups at their kitchen location in Los Alamitos and selling at various markets and events, San and Wolves is opening a physical location in Long Beach in 2024.
“A vegan Filipino bakery just doesn’t exist,” Estrada said. “It's important for Filipinos to have representation in this vegan space.”
Furthering Asian representation in the vegan space is Vegan Bánh Mì Thảo, a plant-based Vietnamese sandwich popup. Owner Tiffany Luong said the business offered her a way to be more rooted in her culture as a first-generation Vietnamese American.
“I have all this vegan cooking knowledge but also grew up with a lot of Vietnamese home cooking,” Luong said. “I want to combine those experiences and create a super savory menu that isn’t really tofu and faux meat-based. [I want to] offer that to people who went vegan and never really got to try Vietnamese food.”
The offerings at Vegan Bánh Mì Thảo are different from other bánh mì places in that they are all whole food based, meaning they don’t include faux meats. Luong tries to make as many things from scratch as she can, aside from the bread that she sources from Little Saigon in Orange County.
Luong said her recipes provide more options to consume Vietnamese food, since restaurant menus may have vegan options but are typically more focused on their non-vegan offerings.
“I just miss eating foods that I grew up with,” Luong said. “It's not really as accessible. Vegan food overall is trending, [but] I don’t really meet a lot of Vietnamese people that are fully vegan like myself.”
Vegan Bánh Mì Thảo started because a friend offered to host Luong as a popup at a vintage store. This offer, Luong said, came after she complained about hating her job to this friend, who then offered her an alternative.
“I encourage anybody who wants to embrace their culture – just do it,” Luong said.
It wasn’t long after that first popup that Luong was running the business full-time. She got Instagram messages to pop up at other places and said yes to every opportunity. These opportunities led to cultural connections she hadn’t expected.
“Prior to this business, I wasn’t really around many Asians,” Luong said. “Since I started, I’ve been connecting way more with my culture and my Asian community. That’s one of the best things about this business.”
This connection to the local community is an important aspect of these businesses, who view their customer base as more than just customers.
Community is also a top priority in how Cena Vegan operates. They partner with Support and Feed, an organization that partners with local restaurants to bring plant-based food to those in need.
Santillan said this mindset was inspired by her mother, who taught her how to cook. She grew up in a rural part of Mexico where people ate what they grew and shared it with their neighbors.
“Food was not just nourishment, it was also medicine,” Santillan said. “And it was instinctive.”
Santillan remembers what it was like to grow up in communities of poor means, so it is all the more meaningful for her to help others.
“What we are is in service to the community, providing meals and being helpful when we can,” she said.