For Vegetarians:

A quick, serious question: Do any vegetarians who live in Bangkok read this blog? How and where do you eat? 

Right now, I'm trying to pull together a few vegetarian dishes and wondering how flexible one must be when they don't eat meat and live or travel in Southeast Asia. Do vegetarians eat food knowing there may be shrimp paste or fish sauce in an otherwise meat-free meal? Or do they avoid this sort of thing entirely?

Because not eating fish sauce and shrimp paste is sort of like swearing off olive oil in the Mediterranean and trying to get fed. It must be difficult. 

(I know everybody is different. So consider this a survey of sorts. Write what you like. I am interested.) 

Comments

[Paul Garrigan]

I'm vegetarian and will never knowingly eat meat, but I'm not too strict. When I'm dining out I ask for 'ahaan jay' but you never really know what you're getting. I understand that a lot of foods that might appear vegetarian actually have things like animal renet in them. I just try and do the best I can. My wife is a great cook and she makes superb Thai food using soy and tofu; my personaly favourite is her yam vegetarian dish - that's what's on the menu for this evening.

[Jarrett]

Whats in the vegetarian yam, Paul?

[Paul Garrigan]

I can scan the recipe for you if you like. It's in Thai but I'm sure either you can translate it or somebody can do it for you. It is from a book we bought in one of the local shops a while back; I'm sure you can still buy it. The book is called อาหารมังสวิรัติ (ISBN 978-974-387-124-5). I think even if you just show them the ISBN they will be able to give you the book; there is actually a few nice Thai vegetarian recipes in there.

[Paul Garrigan]

If you want me to scan and send that recipe just email me on info@paulgarrigan.com and I'll email it back.

[Jarrett]

Thanks!

Ill look into it.

[Chris]

Anothai Restaurant on Soi Rama 9 Hospital is quite good. http://www.bangkok.com/restaurant-dining-experiences/vegetarian-dining-bangkok.htm

[Jake Raden]

you need to go to Pun Pun in Chiang Mai for research if you wnat to know how to make AMAZING truly vegetarian meals and dishes.

[Jarrett]

Thanks Jake. Id love to, but no time for that now! Hopefully I can get up there sometime in the future. Appreciate the recommendation though. Jarrett 

[ap]

Not a resident of Bangkok. But when I travel it would make me want to repeatedly come back to a place where something is truly vegetarian (no fish sauce or shrimp paste). I wouldn't eat fish or shrimp normally, so sauce and paste all fall in that category. I am sure it happens inadvertently where I do consume something like fish sauce when travelling to a country where there is language barrier. But you make the best decision you can based on the info you have. If I can get a true vegetarian dish, that simply would be awesome.