What's Your Fav Thai Vegetarian Dishes? =)

[yy]

After going through the entire forum by typing in "vegetarian", I realize we do not have a thread on some of our favourite Thai vegetarian dishes here (although to my great excitement and surprise, it has lots of good old posts on Thai vegetarianism and related - I will relish all of those old threads slowly).

Here are some of my favourite ones:



Undeniably, the soft cabbage and the braised bamboo shoots in a peppery soup are on my list of favourites, costing about THB20 per dish (2 people's serving). Got them off the street carts of BKK during Kim Jay 2009 and they cannot taste any better But here in this post, I am using another photo of the bamboo shoots (not the same one I posted on another recent thread).

The other favourite is a vegetarian tom yum soup, also about THB20 (again, servings for two) and also off the street vendor during the same Kim Jay. The last favourite is toufu larb, a really beautiful dish (maybe it's cos I love toufu?) with sufficient spiciness. It's my first time ever trying any larb and it's an unforgettable dish. It's a bit overpriced at AUD15.90 though, even for a Thai restaurant in Australia. However, Thailicious has a good two pages full of vegetarian dishes, something which is a bit more than the usual non-vegetarian Thai places. All the dishes there are like 0.5times more than the usual cost of similar dishes elsewhere.

[Mahindrasarath]

That's look pretty good yy, but I wonder y some vege dishes they artificialy decorated like" meat,egg,chicken..." Is it does mean that people still appeting for meat?

[Susana]

YY, I like all kinds of stir fried veggies, particularly green ones. Sometimes I'll cook a single veggie, such as cabbage or broccoli. I quite often use garlic and ginger liberally with my veggies.

A favorite is onions, a mix of hot and sweet peppers with chunks of mushrooms. Sometimes I add basil and/or ginger. Always garlic. I like bamboo shoots, too, but since I can't get them fresh I don't usually have them.

Tom Yam is a staple, particularly in wintertime. I'm still working on a palatable soup base, however. This summer I will experiment with dehydrating daikon radishes and other veggies for a soup base. Suggestions, anyone?

[yy]

Mahin, you have raised a good question which has many reasons behind it.

I think the use of mock meat, which I see as being the most prevalent among the ethnic Chinese vegetarians, has its roots in ancestor worship, among other reasons. As a Chinese, I know for one that the offering of meat products, the shan shen (the three lives), especially a whole cooked fish, chicken and a slice of pork, is important during times of ancestor worship. Whether the devotees' fears are legitimate or not, many of these well-meaning children and grandchildren of the deceased, especially when they are recent Mahayana Buddhist converts, will try to offer vegetarian look-alikes of the shan shen so that the ancestors will not get so upset with the vegetarian offerings they are unaccustomed to.

N definitely, there are those non-vegetarian Chinese who go vegetarian on the 1st and 15th days of the lunar calender. Many of these devotees, who feel they can't go for the entire lifespan but will like to show their commitment to sparing sentient lives on these two special days each month, are often unaccustomed to the meat-free diet and find it more comforting if the side dishes contain meat look-alikes. N the gluten or soy protein used to make mock meat also gives a more stomach-filling effect as that of eating meat. Personally for me, since Day 1 when I first ever tried eating any mock meat as a non-vegetarian, I have always felt that you can always very easily distinguish between mock meats versus real meat in terms of the taste, so if I ever do eat mock meat, it is always it tastes good in its own right, and not because it tastes like meat or that I miss meat.

Another reason is that of convenience. Once the name sticks, e.g. mock vegetarian goose or zai er, it is so hard for manufacturers to just give it another name without confusing people. For example many mock meats are made from soy protein. Without referring them to e.g. vegetarian chicken nuggets, vegetarian fish fillets etc, how does the manufacturer rename all these flavours of soy proteins?

That said, it is definitely not the ideal situation, and Chinese vegetarians are increasingly calling out against this mock meat industry. Hopefully in time, things will change. I myself have stopped purchasing frozen mock meats since last year and have also ceased the use of mock meat in our last annual reunion dinner.

[yy]

Don't anyone else has any fav Thai vegetarian dishes? Hmmm... Kim Jay needs to put in more effort to lure people

[Susana]

I had wondered about that, too, YY. Thanks for the clarification.

The names of soy products masking as meats that I have heard of tend to be cutsie: not dog - hog dog and tofurkey - turkey. Cute names for sure, still I've never tasted any of them.