[Perth] Local initiates have been working hard in recent months to show people that vegetarians can also eat "chicken," "ham," "pork" and "duck" without compromising their ethics or their often hard-to-please taste-buds. Consequently, it was only logical to celebrate the Third Anniversary of "Ching Hai Day" with a grand barbecue that included a cooking demonstration to show how simple and easy it is to prepare such delicious vegetarian foods. 　

Not surprisingly, more than one eyebrow was raised, but even more appetites were satisfied, when guests sampled the special vegetarian "chicken" kebabs. Over double the number of expected guest came for the celebration _ no doubt as a result of a national, ethnic radio station advertising the event on their weekly Au Lacese program. Fortunately vegetarian "chickens" and "cows" grow much larger than the average feathered and mooing variety, so there was sufficient food for all.

Not satisfied with cooking delicious meatless "meat," two local initiates, who formerly owned a bakery before they were initiated, baked a scrumptious 4-tired "Ching Hai Day" cake without cracking one egg shell. Could this mean that the humble chicken could soon find itself free to roam the range, so to speak? Judging by the satisfied grins on the cream and kebab smeared faces of guests, our feathered cousins should opt for early happy retirement as soon as possible.

A truly joyous day was had by all and ended in riotous laughter when initiates watched themselves on TV when the video recording of the day was played. All this must surely go a long way to proving that while Quan Yin initiates can certainly be accused of being down-right meatless and eggless at the very best of times, they can never be accused of being lifeless.