Not the idea of plant-based food. Not the explanation. Just heat, aroma, and that familiar tingle that tells you this dish isn’t trying to be polite.
During this year’s J Festival, Betagro’s Meatly! plant-based range arrived with bold ambition. Four new dishes — Plant-Based Larb with Rice, Khao Kua Kling with Plant-Based Minced Meat, Stir-Fried Thai Chili Ramen with Plant-Based Pork Belly, and the Plant-Based Shrimp Cake — offered meat-like textures, spicy punch, and authentic Thai flavors. Each was designed to thrill the senses while staying entirely plant-based.
** In Thailand, “Jay or J” (斋, Teochew dialect) refers to vegetarian/vegan food eaten during the festival, often tied to the Vegetarian Festival (Tesagan Gin Je). It’s widely used in Thailand in both spoken and written contexts, especially on street signs and flags.
These weren’t dishes framed around restraint or virtue. They looked and behaved like everyday Thai food — chilli-forward, richly seasoned, meant to be eaten quickly and talked about later. That detail matters more than any launch headline.
Scroll through Instagram or TikTok during the festival and the reactions are telling:
- A 12-second TikTok clip of sizzling Plant-Based Pork Belly got a caption: “Okay… but it tastes like the real deal 😳🔥 #plantbasedchallenge”.
- On Instagram Stories, a foodie shared: “Surprised! Didn’t know it was plant-based. Spice is on point 🌶️🍜”.
- On a microblog post, a home cook noted: “Meatly! makes lunch ordering fun again. Texture is crazy realistic.”
Short clips. Small posts. No long captions. Just bites, nods, and approval. They don’t try to educate or persuade. They just show that this tastes legit, works with rice, and doesn’t feel like a compromise.
There’s no big viral wave. No influencer pushing it hard. And that’s the point.
Plant-based food in Southeast Asia doesn’t need reinvention. It needs permission to taste familiar. Spicy food gives it that permission. In this region, spice signals seriousness. It tells eaters the dish belongs at the table, not on the side.
Betagro, long associated with conventional proteins, seems to understand that behavioral shift. By leaning into bold flavors during a culturally significant food period, the company places plant-based eating back where it started — inside daily life, not outside it.
For younger urban consumers, this approach fits how food decisions actually happen. Lunch breaks. Group orders. Shared plates. Nobody wants to justify what they’re eating. They just want something that works in the moment.
What’s interesting is how little fanfare surrounds it. Sales of Meatly! have surged before — 154% growth last year, with distribution through foodservices up 30% — yet most of the online buzz is subtle, low-key clips and micro-reactions. The absence of hype suggests plant-based food is moving into a new phase — judged by taste, price, convenience, and repeatability, not ideology.
After the festival ends, most people won’t remember brand names or menus. They’ll remember the feeling. The heat. The fact that a meat-free dish didn’t feel different.
And maybe next time, they won’t even notice it’s plant-based.
That’s when plant-based food simply becomes food.
Source: Betagro
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