Thai Cuisine - Thai Vegetarian Cuisine

Thai Vegetarian Cuisine

Although a vegetarian festival is celebrated each year by a portion of Thailand's population, and many restaurants in Thailand will offer vegetarian food during this festival period, pure vegetarian food is normally difficult to find in Thailand. All traditionally made Thai curries, for instance, contain shrimp paste, and fish sauce is used as salt in nearly all Thai dishes. Meat dishes are also commonly part of the alms offered to Buddhist monks in Thailand as vegetarianism is not considered obligatory in Theravada Buddhism; but having an animal killed specifically to feed Buddhist monks is prohibited.

Traditional Thai vegetarian fare, without any meat or seafood products of any kind and also excluding certain strong tasting vegetables and spices, is sold at specialised vegetarian restaurants which can be recognised by a yellow sign with the word che (Thai: เจ; ; lit. "vegetarian") written on it in red. These restaurants serve what can be regarded as vegan food. Many Indian restaurants of the sizeable Thai-Indian community will also have vegetarian dishes on offer, due to the fact that vegetarianism is held as an ideal by many followers of the Hindu faith. Indian vegetarian cuisine can incorporate dairy products and honey. Due to the increased demand for vegetarian food from foreign tourists, many hotels, guesthouses and restaurants that cater to foreign tourists, will now also have vegetarian versions of Thai dishes on their menu. Pescatarians would have very few problems with Thai cuisine due to the abundance of Thai dishes which only contain fish and seafood.