Entrepreneur and environmental campaigner Bobsy Jureidini (commonly known as just Bobsy), has lived in Hong Kong for 20 years and is one of the city's most recognisable advocates of the green lifestyle. The co-founder of popular vegetarian venues the Bookworm Cafe on Lamma Island and Life Organic Cafe in SoHo, his latest venture is Mana!, an organic vegetarian takeaway in Central serving healthy, fast Slow Food to go.
Where are your food roots?
Lebanon. I'm of English stock, but born and raised Lebanese. I was baptised in olive oil [laughs].
Was food important to you when growing up?
I grew up in a household where we didn't have much variety in our diet. My inspiration came from neighbours and friends' mothers who felt sorry for me and my brother and treated us to Lebanese home cooking - rice, chickpeas, lentils and a lot of greens. Fundamental to Lebanese cooking are spices such as cumin, coriander, lemon juice, sea salt, pine nuts, raisins - it's food to die for. But I only became a foodie when I became vegetarian.
When did you become vegetarian?