Before we arrived in China we heard a lot about the hardships of being a vegan traveling around China and I started researching what to do or what to say in order to get by. After a long search on the web I found that saying "i eat vegetables" is about the best phrase I can use that will hit the spot by trying to explain I'm a vegan. You can say a phrase that means "I don't eat meat" (or without meat-meyo rou) but they may understand that you eat other things like chicken or worse, dog.
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During our one and a half month in China we found that it was virtually impossible to say and pronounce properly even simple words in Chinese (and be understood) because of the tones they have in their language so mostly we found ourselves showing a note that said the phrase "I eat vegetables,"(Wo Chi Su) and surprisingly it worked!
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*In this post we will
not write the names of the dishes that we ate since we never really knew them, so instead I'll try to explain the dishes and basic ingredients.
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Our first dinner in China that mostly worked by pointing and nodding with the owner at different groceries they had in the fridge. In the end it worked and we got 3 dishes that we found all over China: mushi tofu in red sauce, Chinese cabbage and a dish of mixed mushrooms
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A great street food dish is this fried soft tofu with spicy seasoning you can find everywhere
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| rice noodles in different sizes in a small restaurant in Kunming, served cold with delicious sauce |
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Shao Kao- Chinese street BBQ, the good ones mostly open from around 8 pm, they usually have a big selection of veggies and tofu next to the meat and fish.
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Choose your veggies, choose your sauce and get an amazing dish at Spicy Snacks restaurant in Beijing
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| Street snack of fried potatoes mixed with spicy seasoning |
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| more noodle dishes |
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Pita bread stuffed with veggies and tofu, the most common place we found this cheap, tasty and filling dish is in the Muslim Quarter in Xian
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| Kind of carrot patties served with Chinese pickles |
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| bread and some veggies at our home stay at Danba, west Sichuan |
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lovely wrap with pickles, sauce and a fried bread stick. I only found this stall during the morning time in Dali, Yunnan
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| "stinky" tofu on the grill. I wouldn't really recommend this dish..... |
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| We found a place that makes corn polenta in Kunming bird market |
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| Choose your veggies and make a soup in Kunming |
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| BBQ mushrooms |
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| We never had a bad eggplant dish in China, it was a winner every time! |
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| some of the best street vendors we found were in Guiyang, Guizhou |
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| spicy mashed potatoes in Guiyang |
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In Leshan we got to a restaurant where they were really happy to serve us but didn't know much English. When they understood we don't eat meat they made us this lethal dish of fried green chilies, of course I finished the dish but later I paid the price......
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#Note: I have to say that even if you get the cook or server to understand that you are a vegan it sadly doesn't guarantee your food won't be cooked in animal fat or that you will get small pieces of meat (sometimes they think that small pieces are OK) or you'll get it with fish sauce and you just have to accept it that mistakes will be made. Because I became vegan mostly for environmental reasons. I believe that if I really did my best to explain myself and still got a dish that is not vegan, I will eat it because to order a new dish will just be wasteful.
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Our lovely street noodle woman at the muslim quarter in Xian. We came back here at least five times. If you ever find her send her our regards!
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