Finding vegetarian food while travelling

Finding vegetarian food can be a challenge while travelling.

I am not vegetarian for religious reasons, so I am not so strict about use of non-vegetarian sauces when I can't find pure vegetarian places.

However, sometimes, I do find the taste of non-vegetarian sauces or stock quite offending. In Cambodia, I quite grossed out by the meat stock used in the fried vegetable noodles. In Laos, some fishy paste used in the papaya salad was too overwhelming for me.

In general, Indian restaurants would offer some vegetarian options and Italian restaurants would also have at least a vegetarian pasta dish. As stir fry is quite common in Southeast Asian and East Asian countries, it is always easy to ask for a stir fry vegetable dish.

But it is a lot more difficult if you want to try the local stuff. So I am always delighted to find vegetarian local food.

I like Thai food and in Changmai (Thailand), I was so happy to find quite a number of vegetarian stalls. In Vietnam, it was delightful to find all sorts of roadside stalls selling various vegetarian stuff on days which the locals observe vegetarian diets. If you do not dare to eat roadside fares, there are small local vegetarian stalls around. You just of to just to locate them.

This blog is meant to share some of those adventures looking for vegetarian food while I travel.

Typically, I travel on a shoe string budget, which means I normally eat cheap and only treat myself to nicer restaurants occasionally. I also like local fare and not adverse to eating at the roadside hawkers. So you will find that most of the eating places mentioned are local stalls or mid-range restaurants.

Vegetarian Food in Cambodia

I was in Cambodia between 20-27 Dec 07.

It was not too difficult getting vegetarian food if you stick to restaurants that cater to tourists. There is normally always a fried rice with vegetables item if all else fail.

But it's difficult find special local food that does not contain meat. Whereas in Vietnam, it was a lot easier to get local vegetarian food.

Phnom Penh

In Phnom Penh, the best restaurant I found was the Indian restaurant Chi Chas (listed in lonely planet). It was cheap and good. I had my breakfast there for two mornings. The breakfast set consist of 3 chapatis, a dish of dhal and an omelette for US$1.5.

Their ala carte menu was pretty good too. I love the vegetarian samosa and the aloo pratha. The pratha was very crispy and nice.

breakfast set at Chi Chas

The other restaurant I tried in Phnom Penh was Amok. This Thai restaurant is featured in many guide books.

Amok seems to be a pretty popular dish with the tourist as it was advertised in many restaurants. It is a Thai dish made with fish. The guide books kept mentioning it. So I had to try it. Amok restaurant offered the vegetarian version made with either tofu or mushroom.
I had the mushroom amok for US$3. It was pretty good but I thought it was just a curry dish.

I also had pad thai but it was really bad (the noodles got stuck together and the taste was not that good). There was a pretty good vegetarian selection on the menu. So that's a good place to go if you like Thai food.


Siem Reap

Within the Angkor historical park, there are many stalls offering cooked food at various temples. There is normally a vegetable fried rice or vegetable fried noodles for about US$2 a dish. The prices does varied a bit. I found that they have different menu with different prices listed. There was a stall at Bayon which has price listed at $3.5 per dish but offered me "discount" at US$2. I later found that the 2nd stall closest to Bayon offer same fare at US$2 and service was much better.

There is also a row of road side stalls near the old market offering the same thing. Dishes were US$1 and fruit shakes were $0.50.

However, a word of warning: except for the fried rice, all fried noodles and vegetables are cooked with meat stock. I was quite grossed out by the meat taste in the stock. So the best is to stick to fried rice.

I ate at the road side stalls in Siem Reap for 2 nights but found the meat stocked used in the cooking quite offending. I started looking for something else and I found that there was a row of stalls at one side of the old market (Psar Chaa) that were selling Khmer cooked food at prices slightly more than the road stalls but cooked better. I had a Khmer curry for US$1.5 with nem (fresh spring rolls) for US$1. It was a lot of satisfying than those road side stalls though I paid almost the same thing.

But by far, the best restaurant I found was the Soup Dragon. This is featured in the guide books and very popular. The restaurant was packed in the evenings. Initially, I thought it would be pretty expensive. But I took a look at the menu and the prices were on average US$2 a dish. But I was alone and I did not want to queue and take whole table for myself. So I went there during lunch instead. The fresh spring rolls (Vietnamese style) was really fantastic! I always like Vietnamese spring rolls, and this was really good! The soup noodle was wholesome and satisfying as well. It was full of vegetables and mushrooms and the stock was delicious (though it was obviously enhanced with some artificial flavouring). The spring rolls, a bowl of soup noodle and a iced coffee set me back by US$4, which I found really worth the money.

Notes from Cambodia Travels

1. Backpacking alone

I did not make much effort looking for travelling partners, and I end up travelling alone.

Though it would be nice to have some company, I find it quite pleasant to do the itineraries exactly how I like it. The quiet time alone is quite a nice break.

The only issue was when I want to take photographs. But that's when a tripod come in handy. I typically won't bother to bring along a tripod when backpacking. But since I was not moving around much for this trip, I decided one along.

Self pic taken with tripod at Phnom Bakheng. Can't resist the photo opportunities with the linga!

2. Sisowath Quay

(The site of the accident)

It was not on my itinerary at all when I first booked my ticket. But it end up being one of the first thing I had to do at Phnom Penh. I bought fresh flowers and went to the site of the accident to pay respects to the five paddlers who drowned there.

3. Traffic nightmare

The first thing I noticed as the car travelled from the airport to the hotel was that the driver was driving rather slowly even though the traffic was not heavy. I soon found out why. If the car was driving any faster, there would have been lots of accidents. Pedestrians, bicycles and motos cut across haphazardly.

Phnom Penh is laid out in a grid layout, which means there are lots of traffic junctions. Few have traffic lights. At every junction, the vehicles have to slow down and cross carefully.

Even when there are traffic lights, they are often ignored, especially by motos and tuktuks, which will just cross even though the light is red!

At major roads, I find that I have difficulty crossing the road. Even if the pedestrian lights are green, you really have to watch out for the moto cycles and tuktuks.

I also found out that if you made an attempt to step on the road, NEVER step back! Just try to go forward or risk run down by the moto that cut in behind you!

In the end, I decided that I will just pay US$1 and take a ride back to the hotel! (Yes, there were a couple of times I nearly got ran down!)

3. Shopping & Piracy

Adidas seemed to be a rather popular brand. There were lots of Adidas dryfit shirts on sale for US$5. And I saw at Psar Thmei, Singaporeans who were snatching them up like they were free! Some were obviously fakes. But some claimed to the real thing from the factories. I am rather suspicious about it.

My best buys are two pairs of Columbia 3/4 cargo pants for US$4 each at the Russian market. They turn out to be very comfortable. I like these for travelling because I can put passports, wallets and cell phones in the various pockets. I saw the same thing being sold at Siem Reap and I was quoted US$14!

The spare battery I got at Psar Thmei for my camera looked authentic enough. But at US$9, I find it difficult to believe it's the original from Panasonic. I keep expecting it might blow up during charging...

Lonely Planets for US$5 anyone? I was wondering why they were so cheap. But look inside and you understand why. The prints look like photo copies. But they were real nicely bounded. But at US$5, it's really hard to resist. In the end I did get a copy for Lonely Planet Thailand...

I got the book "The treasures of Angkor" at the museum at Phnom Penh. At US$9, I thought it was a good buy, as the paper was good and it had beautiful color pictures. I looked all over and could see no sign that it was pirated. I was expecting something of that quality to cost more then S$30. But at Angkor, I found that the people were hawking the same book for US$7 each, and that can be bargained down to US$5!


4. Camera and battery

I bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 just before the trip. I had been wanting to get a Lumix because I have seen the pictures and colors were real good from my friends with Lumix cameras.

However, I kind of regretted it after I got it. I thought I should have gotten the FZ10 instead, which is more compact in size (and $150 cheaper). But in the end I was glad about it because the zoom was really great to zoom into the details of the carvings or things far away.

And the extra battery at I got at Psar Thmei was a real steal at US$9! At Changi Airport I saw it being sold for about S$70. But at that price it can't be original. I was real worried that it might blow up during charging or had a very short battery life. But it ended up working fine. The battery life was as good as the one that came with the camera. It was a good thing I bought it as I did have to change battery twice during the trip.

5. Cheap travels

Ok, this was suppose to be shoestring trip. So I was staying in fan rooms. The rooms at Phnom Penh was US$8 a night at the Dararaeng Sey hotel, primarily because I wanted to stay near the river. At Siem Reap it was US$5 a night at the Naga guesthouse. (It was US$3 for common baths, but I decided that I can spend additional US$2 for attached baths) The room was rather shabby and I considered changing guesthouse at one point because there is a crazy restaurant across the street that plays loud music all the way till 5am!

At Phnom Penh, I found a real good and cheap Indian restaurant called Chi Chas and ate there a couple of times. The Thai restaurant Amok was pretty good too and I had my most expensive meal at US$5.

At Siem Reap, I was eating dinner at the roadside stalls. But I got real sick of it after 2 nights because of the meat broth they used in the cooking. In the end I found that for an additional dollar or two, I could get much better vegetarian food at the Indian restaurants and the eateries at the Psar Chas! The Soup Dragon serve really good food, and has good vegetarian options for US$2 each. But it was difficult to get seats at night though I manage to eat there for lunch.

In Phnom Penh, I walked around quite a bit, though I end up taking motos a couple of times because it was really hot and the traffic is quite a nightmare. In Siem Reap, I cycled to the temples (bicycle rental was US$1.5 a day), but on the last day I decide to hire a moto to bring me to a temple that was too far to cycle (had to pay $15 for the whole afternoon). The vehicles here drive a lot faster than in Phnom Penh. Because the roads are narrow, the cars and buses can drive really close and it was quite a harrowing experience. Not advisable for those who are not good at cycling.

I got some mangos real cheap at Siem Reap (4 big mangoes for less than S$2).

I did not really need a hair cut yet. But at US$2, I decided that I might as well go for a trim! I was served drinks when I got in. After the hair cut, I was given a short massage on the shoulders and neck, and finally a wet towel. I decided that I give give another US$1 for tips! This was at a nice saloon at Siem Reap. I wonder how much those road side barber charge.

Overall, I spent about S$700 including shopping. (Air ticket was about S$300. Airport tax and entrance fees were about US$80. Shopping about US$80.) Not bad for a 8day/7nights trip considering this is peak travel season.

6. Sunset

(sunset from Pre Rup)

Sunset was beautiful. But it was crazy to have hundreds of people perched on the temple at Phnom Bakheng to watch sunset.

I happened to chance upon Pre Rup which was further away. There were fewer people and it was more pleasant there. I spent 2 evenings day. But it was a long ride back to town in the dark after that.

7. Toilets

There were numerous toilets through the Angkor historical park. So it was not a big problem.

However, whoever designed the toilets is a real idiot! The design did not allow for natural light to filter in. The toilets were really dark inside. Many of the toilets had lights switched off probably to save electricity. Using the urinals in the gents were not too bad because of the light that filtered in from the entrance. However, I heard some laddies complaining about not being about to see in the stalls.

A good architect would have design it to allow for natural light and ventilation. That would have saved the need for electrical lighting.

8. Rubbish everywhere

In Phnom Penh, people just bring out their rubbish and throw them on the streets! The rubbish would just pile up as a heap on the road side. The rubbish collector would then come round and scoop them up.

I almost stepped on a poop on the streets. I got a child urinated on my leg when I walked pass. And I could smell urine in the temple grounds!

9. Beggars & Child prostitution

The first thing I noticed upon arrive at the airport was sign boards about protecting children from prostitution. Such signs were pretty common everywhere. It appeared that it might have been a big problem in Cambodia.

There were also lots of beggars everywhere. Many of them children. It was quite sad sight.

I did not give to any beggars -- you know the rhetoric about how that does not help them to be financially independent and may play into syndicates who control the beggars. I also saw how one Taiwanese gave some money to one child and was suddenly swamped by a crowd of children asking for money.

But I could not help but wonder, it which point, it really just become an excuse for not feeling or lack of compassion.

While eating breakfast, I saw a few kids carrying plastic bags, collecting left overs from the customers. I contemplated buying a few baguettes and gave to them. But in the end, I did not move. It was one of those moments of inaction, torn between compassion and cynicism, paralyzed by indecisiveness.

On the flight back, on the airline magazine, I read about the Riverkids Project. I think it is probably more helpful to support programs that empower the people rather than giving money to the beggars.

Last respects

The first thing I had to do in Phnom Penh was to visit the site of the drowning and pay respects to the five dragon boaters. I woke up early and made a trip to the market to buy five lotus flowers and bouquet of white chrysantanum. It was early in the morning and the pontoon was quiet except for a few tourist boats. The pontoon was a pretty big structure, bare and rather ugly, and I understood how fatal it can be if trapped underneath it. I said my quiet prayers with a sense of desolation, and then watch the river carried away the five lotus flowers. Go in peace, friends. 22 Dec 07. Phnom Penh.

情痴

人间自是有情痴
此恨不关风与月

-欧阳修 《玉春楼》 (唐)