Vegetarian food in Ho Chi Minh city

I was in Ho Chi Minh city for about 5 days last week.

It wasn't too difficult to find vegetarian food. There are a few vegetarian restaurants around, though it does take a bit of effort to look for them. You just have to keep an eye for them. I always look for the word "chay" (pronounced like zai as in banzai).

Vegetarian restaurants are called "quan chay". I was in a shopping centre looking at a menu, which did not appear to have any vegetarian options. The waiter could not speak English, but when I told him "an chay" (meaning "eat vegetarian"), he immediately pointed me to a few vegetarian dishes.

Of course, it helps that my friend there had a few local friends who knew were the restaurants are. Here's a few places I went to.

	Sen Vegetarian (Lotus Restaurant) This restaurant really needs to get into the Lonely Planet or any of the travel guide. It is a good restaurant in the Pham Ngu Lao area, which is the backpackers area. It is less than 5 min walk from Sinh Tourist. Prices are comparable (and in fact cheaper!) than the restaurants that caters to tourist in the Pham Ngu Lao area. A bowl of pho is only 26,000D. (I had a bowl of soup noddles of 35,000D at one of the touristy restaurant) Dishes are 30,000D upwards. A spring roll is 5,000D each. They crispy spring roll (see pic on left) is small and at 5,000D each, seemed pretty pricy. But it really good. They also sell vegetarian baguette (called Banh Mi) for 10,000D each. I tried to buy one to bring to the airport on my last day at HCMC, but they were sold out at 1pm. The mango salad (see pic) is similar to Thai's som tam, but not as spicy. It is sweet and tangy, and the extra herbs differentiates it from the Thai version. It is really tasty and makes a good appetizer. The pineapple rice is more like fried rice put in a pineapple. I won't recommend this. I really like the fried tofu with lemon grass (see garlic). The toppings on the deep fried tofu is a mixture of lemon grass and some other herbs. It was a little too salty for my taste, but otherwise would have been perfect. The second time I visited the restaurant, they run out of it. We ordered a braised pork in claypot (see pic). I must say it looked too much like the real thing! If I weren't in a vegetarian restaurant, I wouldn't touch it! The sauce is really tasty though again too salty. But it's great if you mix it with steam rice. The claypot tofu (see pic) is great too. The dishes here were all between 30,000D to 40,000D (i.e. about SGD $2 to $3). It is cheap by our standards, though this is probably one of the better restaurants locally. But if you go to the tourist street, the prices were all 35,000D to 50,000D. We walked into the Zen vegetarian restaurant (just 3 min walk from Sen Vegetarian), which is listed in the Lonely Planet. The place was practically deserted. We took a look at the menu and the prices were more expensive than Sen! So those of you who end up in Pham Ngu Lau, I really recommend Sen Vegetarian over the other restaurants. Address of the restaurant: 171 Ngyuen Thai Hoc. District 1. It is in the same block as the Chua An Lac temple, but on the side facing the main street. Directly opposite is the New Urban Male shop. The menu is in English, but very little English is spoken.
	Vegetarian Buffet at Liberty Hotel This is the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, also known as the Hungry Ghost month. My friend told me that many Vietnamese observe a vegetarian diet this month. Indeed, I saw a few restaurants put up posters indicating vegetarian options. I was walking along Pham Ngu Lau and I noticed this poster publicising a buffet for 110,000D for lunch and 140,000D for dinner. 140,000D is SGD $10! I am not sure if the restaurant is a vegetarian restaurant or not. We got there at 6pm and the restaurant was full of people. I think we were the only foreigners there. There was a very large spread of food and I didn't get to eat all of it. Finally, I had my first bowl of pho in Vietnam. Pho (pronounce like "fur") is rice noodle with beef broth. The pho was delicious and it was served with 2 slices of "beef". But what I was most delighted to find was a tomato broth noodles. I tried this once when I was in US. It was a vegetarian restaurant ran group of Vietnamese nuns in Portland OR. I liked it very much. But I was not able to find it again. So I was really happy to see it. It was really delicious. Unfortunately, I don't know what is it called. I like Vietnamese fresh spring rolls. They had 3 types of rolls. But one of them had this stinking vegetable which I really hated. There were a few pots of curries on the buffet spread as well. One of the curries is ketchup based (see pic), without curry powder and coconut milk. I don't know why it is even called curry at all. But it is good. I tried this curry when I was in central Vietnam and liked it very much. What is good about the buffet is that it is an opportunity to try many types of Vietnamese food. Well I tasted as much as I could without over-eating. I just could not eat buffet the way I used to eat when I was a te The restaurant is called Van Canh and is located inside the Liberty Hotel. There is a chain of Liberty Hotels around the area. This one is located directly opposite from the famous Ben Thanh Market across the round-about. It is at the junction of Calmette road and Tran Hung Dao.
	Local Roadside Stalls I told my friend I would like to try their local 大排挡(roadside stalls). Our Vietnamese friend brought us to this street where there are 4 to 5 Vegetarian stalls at a stretch. These are small "hole in the wall" eateries, with dining tables spread out along the streets. There were 3 of us. We each had a order of fried wanton, fried spring rolls, fresh spring rolls, curry noddles, and sugar cane. We were really stuffed and the bill came up to only 110,000D for the three of us! A bowl of noodles was only 15,000D! Unfortunately, there is no English menu and no English spoken. If you are not here with a Vietnamese friend, it will be difficult to order. The only thing you could do, I guess is to point at what others are eating. The street is Tran Dinh Xu. It is only a short distance from Pham Ngu Lao. At one end of the street, there is a Vegan restaurant call Dao Vien. The looked like a pretty nice restaurant too.
	Dinh Y If the restaurant is crowded with locals, it must be serving good local food. And Dinh Y does fit the bill. Dinh Y is listed on the Lonely Planet. It is across the road from Thai Binh Market, at the other end of Pham Ngu Lao area. (About 10 min walk from Sen Vegetarian or SinhTourist). I came during lunch time and it was packed with local working crowd. There was only 1 table of tourist. I ordered a bowl of soup rice vermicelli (hu tieu) and it was only 20,000D. (About SGD $1.50). I also order 2 fresh spring rolls (I think it was 2,000 each, i.e. about 15 cents!). But what I enjoyed most was Cha Gio, or fried spring rolls. A order of 6 spring rolls was 15,000D if I was not wrong. It was serve was a plate of greens and a dip. I saw how the locals eat it and ate it the same way. They take a leave of lettuce and wrapped the spring roll in it with other herbs like mint and basil (and a bunch of leaves which I can't recognize). It was great! The waiters could not speak English. They have an English menu and I just pointed at what I wanted in the menu. For simple good and inexpensive Vegetarian fare, I would really recommend this.
	Viet Chay On Sunday, I made a trip to Chua Vinh Nghiem (永严寺), which is supposedly the biggest Buddhist temple in HCMC. This is Chinese Mahayana temple. It was preparing for the Water and Land Grand Service (水陆大法会). There is a vegetarian restaurant within the temple grounds. It is a relatively upscale restaurant. Main dishes were 40,000 upwards. Food was pretty good, but pricy by local standards.
	Tourist stop I took a day trip to Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnels. For lunch, we were drop at a nondescript eatery, which the tour guide claimed is inexpensive. It wasn't expensive for a tourist, but I think the locals would find it overpriced. Most dishes were 35,000D to 50,000D. There were only a few vegetarian options. I ordered a fried vegetarian spring rolls with rice. It was served with 5 mini spring rolls. 35,000D. The spring rolls were actually quite nice though. There are 2 types of wraps used for fried spring rolls. This one was the "net" type, which I like better. I don't know how to specifically ask for this though.
	Fruits On my first day here, I was delighted to find pink guavas at the Ben Thanh Market. It was only 30,000D per kg, which is about SGD$2 per kg! Pink guavas are quite rare in Singapore and are quite expensive. When I was in Taiwan, I bought 1 fruit for almost SGD$1! I bought 1 kg of pink guava and 1 kg of custard apple (I bought smaller fruits for 30,000D per kg. Bigger ones are 40,000D - 50,000D per kg). The guavas were very fragrant. I left it on the table in my friends apartment. When we came back from dinner, the whole place was filled with its fragrance. I had pink guavas and custard apples every day. The only problem was that they rippen very fast. I bought 2 kg of pink guavas home. Unfortunately, quite a few them were crushed. Dragon fruit is not native to Vietnam, but is widely cultivated and cheap here too. But I don't like dragon fruit. Durian was quite common too. These are big durians. But it doesn't doesn't have the pungent durian smell like those from Malaysia. So I wasn't interested.

I eat lots of fruits and vegetables

Someone once asked me how I get well-built without eating meat.

My friend who was with me answered for me, "He eats LOTS of fruits and vegetables!"

Yeah, I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. And that's all to it! You don't need to eat meat.

The truth is, it is exercise that builds muscles, not meat. Of course, protein is required to for muscles to grow. But ultimately it is exercise that builds muscles, and vegetable proteins are just as effectively as meat protein to fuel muscle growth.


My diet

There is nothing special about my diet. I do not make or pack my own food to work. So I just eat what is available in the cafeteria, food courts or hawker centers.

These are my considerations when I get my food:

Brown Rice: I always get brown rice if it is available.
Green Leaves: I always make sure I have some green leaf vegetables. Actually, I grew up hating green leaf vegetables, but green vegetables are important for vitamins and minerals. I do like Kai lan and spinach, but they are rarely available at the usual food stalls because they are more expensive. Most likely, you will get cai xin (which I hate but will still eat), xiao bai cai (I really hate it when they cook the whole plant without cutting it into smaller pieces) or Chinese spinach (xian cai).
Protein food: I love bean sprouts and tofu. Other protein-rich vegetables are long beans, french beans and peas. The cafeteria at my office serves India vegetarian food, so sometimes I can get chickpeas and dhal.
Mock meat: Mock meat adds variety and texture to the meals. But I usually limit to just 1 dish each meals, because these tends to be highly processed with lots of additives and seasoning. These tends to be made from wheat gluten (which is a form of protein) or soy (Texturized Vegetable Protein), and are actually high in protein.
Deep fried stuff: People always say vegetarian food is mostly deep fried stuff, but I don't think that's true. There is a lot of fried food available at the vegetarian stalls. But if you choose to avoid the deep fried food, there are still other choices. The only problem is that the deep fried stuff tends to be the tasty stuff... I usually limit to a maximum of 1 dish of fried food each meal.
Other vegetables: Generally, I try to get vegetables and limit deep fried or highly processed food stuff to at most 2 side dishes. The one vegetable that can be found at almost all vegetarian stalls is cabbage and that's one of my favourite vegetables. Brinjal is nice too, except that it is tends to be cooked too oily and salty, so I don't take that too often. I consider potato a carbo food rather than a vegetable dish, so if I get potato, I will ask for less rice.
Desert: I will go for green bean soup or red bean soup if I would like to have some protein. Otherwise, I will get cheng teng or some thing with real fruits (like honey dew sago).
Drinks: I drink at least 1 glass of soy milk everyday. My favorite is Unisoy Organic Soy Milk with no sugar added. If I buy from Mr Bean, I will ask for less sugar. Generally, I avoid sugared drinks. In the morning, I drink black coffee with very little sugar (Kopi O siu dai). I always drink Chrysantamum tea without sugar and avoid soda drinks like Coke or Sprite.
Eggs: I do like eggs. But I do not rely on it for protein. I know people who will eat 3 to 5 hard boiled eggs every day, but I don't do that. I allow eggs mainly for convenience, because many cakes and pastry has some eggs. Sometimes I'll add a fried egg to my breakfast.
Milk: I am slightly lactose intolerant. I can take milk tea or coffee without problem but a piece of cheese cake or a glass of fresh milk will send me to the toilet. Most of the time, the milk I take is what gets into the tea, coffee or deserts.

So, I really just eat the usual stuff available from food court. There is no special home cook food or magic diet. I just try to be more careful and mindful about what I eat. Here's my typical meal each day:

Morning: A plate of fried bee hoon or fried kway tiao, sometimes with an egg or tofu. A cup of black coffee with little sugar.

Lunch: Brown Rice with 4 - 5 dishes. A piece of fruit. I usually ask for less rice and have more side dishes instead. I always bring a lunch box with me and sometimes I will split the lunch into two portions. The other portion to be eaten after 3pm.

Tea Break: The other portion kept from lunch, or some biscuits, or a egg mayo sandwich, or a curry bun. I need a tea snack because my lunch is light and I will usually get hungry by 3 to 4pm and dinner is usually after 7pm.

Dinner: Rice (about 1/3 of a bowl) with lots of vegies/tofu. My mother is not a very creative cook, but there is always lots of variety, even if they are cooked almost the same way. My family is not vegetarian, but if I eat at home, my mum cooks vegetarian for everyone. I will eat 2 to 3 pieces of fruits. There is always fruits in the fridge because we buy fruits regularly as offerings to the Buddha.

I know for many people, home meals are the most problematic because the rest of the family are not vegetarian. You will need to talk to family for more vegetarian variety. You can also prepare some extra side dishes for yourself, like pickled vegetables, veggie patties, and salads. These can be kept in the fridge and you can just take small portions for yourself if the rest of the family are not interested.

Supper: No supper. If I am hungry late in the night, I will eat an apple or an orange.

Snacks: I avoid snacking. Once in a while, I may have an ice cream, or some potato chips. If temptation is great, I will snack on some nuts (cashews or almonds), or eat a piece of fruit instead.

Supplements: I have a bottle of Vitamin B12 on my desk and once in a while I will pop a pill.

I do not take protein supplements until recently, although a few years ago, I did take some spirulina (I stopped because it was too expensive). And there is really no need to unless you want to really put on bulk. We can get enough protein from our regular diet. The other problem is that most protein supplements are whey protein, which is milk protein. Although I am an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I did not like the idea of taking whey protein. If you have read the book The China Study, you will know why. Whey protein is after all animal protein, and taking it in concentrated amounts can't be too good for you. Two months ago, a friend introduced a vegan brown rice protein, and I have added it to my diet. It is called "Brown Rice Protein" by Jarrow Formulas. It is not available in the shops, but someone is selling it on Singapore's Ebay. Since I just started on it, I can't tell if it is any good. But at least it adds variety to the soy-based protein that is most common form of protein in Asian vegetarian diet.

So that's basically how I eat. Nothing very special really.

Vegetarians can have hot bods

I'm going to be a bit shameless and show off a bit.

Vegetarians can have hot bods. You really don't need to eat meat.

Anyway, I know I look hot in that picture because the sun was really blazing hot that day. Trust me...