Being Vegan in South East Asia

Introducing our second instalment of the ‘Being Vegan In…’ blog series! Ta-dah!

While sat rigidly on a Boeing 787 leaving Tanzania; munching on a depressingly artificial inflight meal, I couldn’t help but feel excited at the prospect of all the food South East Asia had to offer us. I looked forward to all the weird and wonderful vegan delights awaiting our discovery in a land famous for its culinary creations.

Vegetarianism has been popular in this part of the world for hundreds of years and is a well established way of life, with many Buddhists and Hindus choosing to avoid meat. In this knowledge, my hopes were high.

Well, South East Asia… You certainly didn’t disappoint! Here is a brief country by country summary of what we’ve been nibbling over the past two months.

THAILAND

Home to the mighty Pad Thai, as well as the Panang, Massaman and Green curries. Thailand really is fantastic for hungry vegans, with nearly all popular dishes available with vegetables (and often tofu as well) rather than chicken, pork or fish. We really didn’t experience too many problems being vegan in Thailand, with the only real difficulty coming from two ingredients: eggs and fish sauce. Both are loved by Thai chefs, and therefore used in loooots of dishes. Pro tip: if ever in doubt ‘jay’ means ‘vegetarian’. Occasionally you will see red and yellow triangular flags with the ‘jay’ symbol inside, indicating that the whole restaurant/food stall is a meat and (normally) dairy-free zone!

Thai lady preparing a vegan Pad Thai for two weary travellers

Here's one I made earlier!

Our favourite foods of Thailand include:

THE BEST spring rolls that we’ve ever tasted, stuffed with taro and beansprouts, with a light, thin, crispy pastry (made at a street food stall in Bangkok’s Chinatown).
The ‘chicken’ burger found at ‘Vegan Heaven’, Chiang Mai (not exactly authentic Thai cuisine…. But definitely stood out as delicious!).

LAOS

As we travelled east to Laos, noodle soups replaced curries, becoming the more popular and common offering. In particular a dish named ‘Bo Bun’ was delicious and super duper fresh tasting. The vegan version of the rice noodle soup is made with tofu, beansprouts, lettuce, mint and ginger. It makes for a perfect refreshing and healthy lunch for those HAWT days. Pro tip: avoid the cold vegetarian buffet at Luang Prabang! Yes all the food looks yummy and is ridiculously cheap, but you will get ill. That is a fact.

Bonus pro tip: if you ever get a chance to try the vegan coconut pancakes (prepared and sold at lots of street corners) do! They're very scrummy.

Amy buying five pancakes (~40p)

Aforementioned coconut pancakes

VIETNAM

The hectic and chaotic streets of Vietnam have a lot to offer the travelling vegan. Don’t be put off by the dangling dead ducks hung up at every street corner, or the deep friend chicken feet offered to you by a tiny smiling Vietnamese lady -this country is vegan-friendly if you know where to look!

Amazing peanut, tofu & vermicelli noodle stir-fry, Madam Thu Restaurant, Hue

In particular, the noodle soups and pho are often vegan and delicious, we found some excellent veggie cafes and restaurants where mock meats are used in these dishes ('Quorn' could really learn a thing or two from Vietnamese chefs). Noodle soup was pretty much our breakfast, lunch and dinner! If we got peckish, we could always pick up a fresh baguette, which are widely available (due to the French influence) from local vendors.

'Beef' noodle soup

Tofu noodle soup

We also encountered some spring rolls while staying on Cat Ba Island which came very close to matching up with the Bangkok delights!

So goooood!

CAMBODIA

Honestly, laid back Cambodia has brought more of a challenge than the previously visited countries. Exciting vegan options aren’t as obviously available and Khmer dishes do seem to revolve around meat. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way! We’ve managed to find vegan versions of the famous Amok curry, which have been delicious!

Tofu & vegetable Amok curry

Veganism has, for the most part, been a piece of (dairy-free) cake! We’ve been able to enjoy really healthy (well… apart from all those spring rolls), fresh, tasty and authentic Asian food. It’s been lots of fun discovering new foods and ingredients (how many types of aubergine are there?! Answer: lots!). If we’re being really honest though, we are slightly craving a breakfast which doesn’t feature so much chilli…