My Experiments with Vegetarian Food in Thailand

“The problem is that you guys don’t experiment”, said my colleague who felt sad at my plight of trying to eat boiled vegetables and the occasional fried vegetable (after confirming that it is not fried in fish oil).

The comment was the last straw needed for me to do something about it. That evening, I set out to find a restaurant that will allow me to “experiment”.

As I strolled along the road, I saw a restaurant named “Bibimbab”. The name sounded familiar as my friend had recently mentioned about this being a dish from Korea and also that it has a vegetarian variant. The familiar East Asian scent of the sea food greeted me as I entered the place. As the waitress handed the menu, I asked her if there was any vegetarian dish. She pointed to not one, or two, but, four of them! This place was heaven. You may think I’m going overboard with the praise, but that is because of my earlier experiences.

In my earlier experiences a few restaurants shockingly declined to serve as they did not have anything in the menu that could be offered to me. I was surprised that a restaurant could rather have a customer walk out hungry. There was an instance in a mall where there was a counter that served only Indian food – Dal & Roti etc., Unfortunately for me, it was a take-away only place and I had to exit the mall to eat. I gave this option up and many declines later, I settled to a burger at Burger King. The fact that I hate burgers did not matter at that point. In another instance I had ordered the vegetarian version of the Phad Thai only to find Chicken in it because the nice people at the restaurant thought Chicken was vegetarian.

I requested my colleagues at the dinner table at a team meeting not to tell me if by chance I eat something that wasn’t vegetarian. It had reached a point where I looked up Quora and a helpful soul had suggested to try the vegetarian friend rice in any of the thousands of Seven-Eleven stores across the country. I had kept this as my last option.

Given this background, four vegetarian options in the menu was indeed heaven. I relished Bibimbab and instagrammed it, affirming my sudden love for Korean food.

Inspired, I spoke with the chef in the hotel I was staying to find out if he would do something in vegetarian, after explaining my preferences and constraints. He made an amazing noodle soup.

I didn’t have to resort to the vegetarian fried rice in the seven eleven store. The formula that seemed to work for me is that if the chef looks like he is ready to talk and has time, then game-on. Else, look out for Korean or Japanese restaurants.