The Hardships of a Vegan Traveling in the Meat-lovers' Paradise of the Philippines

OK, so to be a vegan in the Philippines is not an easy thing to do but the good news is-  it's not impossible! The local diet is definitely meat-based and I'm talking breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even just being a vegeterian is hard- for example there are many pizza chains in the big cities but it's hard to find a pizza without ham, chicken or pork on it! In local eateries and street stalls it is very rare to find vegetarian or vegan options among the heaps of pork, chicken, fish balls, hamburgers etc but the the restaurants that cater to tourists will usually have a few veggie (easily-turned vegan) options. After a month-long trip in the Philippines I have some helpful advice and useful tips for the vegan traveler:

 1. Vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants in the Philippines

• Sagada, North Luzon: Gaia cafe is an amazing Eco-friendly vegan restaurant and Sagada Brew is a nice vegan-friendly place.
• Manila the capital has a lot vegan and vegetarian restaurants, the easiest way to find them is with the "Happy Cow" App. We ate at Cha-a in Robinson Palace Mall in Makati, a vegan chinese place with many "imitation meat" options. 
• Puerto Princesa, Palawan- Namaskar vegetarian restaurant is by far the best option in Palawn for vegan dishes and also you can find Ima's restaurant that serves descent vegetarian food.
• El nido, Palawan- You can find nice falafel, hummus and thina at Blueazul and Happiness restaurant in Corong Corong.
• Port Barton, Palawan - in Gacayan restaurant on the main street you can get a filipino meal including a main dish, rice, coke/sprite and fruit for only 50 pesos! They have a veggie option everyday, when we were there it was a pumpkin curry.

2. Vegan street snacks

• vegetable lumpia- deep-fried Filipino spring roll
• banana lumpia - deep-fried banana filled spring roll
• sticky rice in banana leaf
• fried potatoes/ sweet potatoes on a stick (camote cue)

3. Useful tips

• if you eat at the touristic places, every menu has one or two vegan dishes that are usually pasta with tomato sauce (check that they don't add ham or cheese), vegetable chop suey with rice (sauteed vegetables in some kind of anemic sauce), or some vegetable noodles (make sure its not egg noodles).
• A nice local dish that you can find in some places is adobong kangkong- green leaf in soy and vinegar sauce.
• double check that the dish you ordered is really vegan, you have to be specific saying: no meat? no eggs? no cheese? no oyster/fish sauce? etc.  (we ate a dish that two people told us its only Jack fruit and coconut milk and only later we found out it also included chicken).
• If you go on one of the many popular island-hopping boat tours that include lunch, make sure you ask ahead for a vegetable dish (and remind them again because they usually forget) and maybe bring some of your own snacks/fruits just in case.
• buy your nuts and almonds in Manila, you can also get soy milk in Manila.
• when ordering fruit juice/ shake remember to ask for no milk!

4. Cook for yourself!

• We found a few guesthouses that offered a communal kitchen for the use of the guests: El nido Hakuna Matata guesthouse, Port Barton- JBR Tourist inn
• If you couchsurf you can usually cook in the host's kitchen, we know of couchsurfing options in Manila, Cebu, and Puerto Princessa but there are probably more.
• even if you don't have  a kitchen its easy to buy a  knife and a bowl and then you can buy some vegetables in the local market and make your own salads.
• The Philippines have some of the best fruit so feast on juicy mangos and pineapples, great for a day at the beach!
• After cooking quite a lot in JBR in Port Barton we even came up with our own mango curry in coconut milk dish, scroll down for the recipe!

A dish at Cha-a and potato stick on the street

Sticky rice and sweet potato fries

Gaia cafe- stir fried noodles and vegan muffins

 left: vegetable lumpia and banana lumpia
right: a nice dinner we cooked in Manila

cooking at JBR inn

pumpkin curry and vegetable curry home-made

  left: mango curry, right: adobo Kangkong 

Mango curry in coconut milk

Ingredients:
5 really ripe mangos
6 of cloves of garlic
1 table spoon of chopped fresh ginger
2 small onions (red or white)
1 medium sized green Chili
1/2 tea spoon salt
1/2 tea spoon black pepper
3 tea spoons of curry powder mix
1 can of coconut milk
1 table spoon cooking oil

How to make:

• chop the onions, chili, ginger and garlic into small pieces.
• peel the mangoes and scoop the "meat" from the seed and cut into medium cubes, open the can of coconut milk.
• in a wok or a big frying pan on medium heat add the oil.
• once the oil is hot add the onions, garlic and ginger and fry them for 2-3 minutes while mixing.
• add the mangos, chili, salt and pepper and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes.
•  When the mango is hot add the coconut milk and the curry mix. Let it cook until the curry loses about 1/4 of its liquid and becomes nice and thick.

serve hot with rice, and enjoy :)

• You can make it a pumpkin (squash) curry by 300 g of pumpkin instead of mangos. Chopped the pumpkin into medium size pieces and fry them for 4-6 minutes before adding the coconut milk,  or you can make a mix with 2 mangos and 250 g pumpkin for another lovely rich curry!