Posted by crazy_veg on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Apr 2007 · 42 posts
Are there any authentic vegetrian chinese dishes if I were to go out to a chinese resturant?
Posted by secondbase on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Dec 2005 · 5540 posts
If it's a nice place, you shouldn't really have a problem. Ask about fish sauce and chicken broth, but you shouldn't have too much of a problem finding something you can eat that is mighty tasty :)
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Posted by Capture on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Jul 2007 · 3981 posts
If nothing else you should be able to get steamed tofu and veggies! Yum, yum! I'm sure they should have at least one vegi sauce for you!
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Posted by Duckalucky on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Aug 2006 · 1127 posts
I have had good luck requesting that they see if the chef will prepare me something without any meat, poultry, fish, or broths made from the above. You will be getting whatever they dream up, and that can run the spectrum from delightful to dreary -- if they can accomodate at all.
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Posted by beanthai on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Jul 2007 · 151 posts
I always get 'spinach and bean curd' (or a silken crumbly tofu) and they cook it with garlic and a little oil. It is very basic, delicious and apparently more traditional chinese so you may have to venture to a Chinatown to get it.
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Posted by Saskia on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Jan 2007 · 1976 posts
Just make sure their tofu with brown sauce dish doesn't have minced pork in it. Request a vegetarian version if it does. On the menu the tofu dish might look vegetarian, but at some restaurants the sauce has minced pork. I found out the hard way. :(
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Posted by Saskia on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Jan 2007 · 1976 posts
One more thing, ... I like vegetable lo mein, vegetable pan fried noodles and mu shu vegetables. Again just make sure there is no meat stuff in the sauce.
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Posted by Cephi on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Feb 2007 · 371 posts
I spent a semester in Shanghai. I wasn't vegan nor even vegetarian yet -- it would have been EXTREMELY hard to have been. Probably the only reason I won't go back :'(
But there was tofu. And even though I knew that american chinese food was probably very different, even still I was surprised by how big the differences were. I never saw a single egg roll, that surprised me.
But what surprised me even more was what I did find there. The one dish I probably would have expected to be a totally American invention... Sweet and sour! Yes, the sweet and sour dishes over there were VERY very close, to my mind, like the good old sweet and sour dishes we Americans get here in the states. So if you want as authentic a dish as possible, get sweet and sour tofu. At least, that's Shanghai cuisine -- it's different everywhere I guess, it's a big old country.
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Posted by Anonymous on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Dec 1969 · 11789 posts
My favorite dish at my favorite chinese restaurant is and they say it word for word :D is number 1 and beyond
Broccoli and garlic sauce with no sugar, some fried tofu cubes (fried before it goes in there) and some mushrooms and put over the white rice they give you is heaven on earth. I eat it with one mustard packet.
The other two dishes I get is vegetable lo mein with fried tofu cubes, broccoli , mushrooms and no added sugar and vegetable fried rice no egg no sugar.
If you don't like the brown sauce they do make a white sauce but I don't know if your going to like it. I think it's good okay nothing special though.
Posted by hyperpolyglot on Jul 12, 2007 · Member since Jan 2006 · 3 posts
I spent a semester in Shanghai. I wasn't vegan nor even vegetarian yet -- it would have been EXTREMELY hard to have been. Probably the only reason I won't go back :'(
Well, I've been a vegan in Beijing for 2.5 years now so I feel I should point out that it's very much doable. The big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have a bunch of vegetarian restaurants... not an awful lot in proportion to the population, perhaps one per million people, but it still comes up to a reasonable number. Here's a list of the Shanghai restaurants (in Chinese!) http://www.ivu.org/ivcb/gb/restaurants/shanghai.html. Also the regular restaurants generally do make vegan foods if you specify everything starting from what kind of oil to use to them in Chinese. Language skills are a must, but vegan food in the big cities isn't a problem. Just so that you wouldn't worry too much and might get back to Shanghai. :)
If it's a nice place, you shouldn't really have a problem. Ask about fish sauce and chicken broth, but you shouldn't have too much of a problem finding something you can eat that is mighty tasty :)
If nothing else you should be able to get steamed tofu and veggies! Yum, yum! I'm sure they should have at least one vegi sauce for you!
I have had good luck requesting that they see if the chef will prepare me something without any meat, poultry, fish, or broths made from the above. You will be getting whatever they dream up, and that can run the spectrum from delightful to dreary -- if they can accomodate at all.
I always get 'spinach and bean curd' (or a silken crumbly tofu) and they cook it with garlic and a little oil. It is very basic, delicious and apparently more traditional chinese so you may have to venture to a Chinatown to get it.
Just make sure their tofu with brown sauce dish doesn't have minced pork in it. Request a vegetarian version if it does.
On the menu the tofu dish might look vegetarian, but at some restaurants the sauce has minced pork. I found out the hard way. :(
One more thing, ... I like vegetable lo mein, vegetable pan fried noodles and mu shu vegetables. Again just make sure there is no meat stuff in the sauce.
I spent a semester in Shanghai. I wasn't vegan nor even vegetarian yet -- it would have been EXTREMELY hard to have been. Probably the only reason I won't go back :'(
But there was tofu. And even though I knew that american chinese food was probably very different, even still I was surprised by how big the differences were. I never saw a single egg roll, that surprised me.
But what surprised me even more was what I did find there. The one dish I probably would have expected to be a totally American invention... Sweet and sour! Yes, the sweet and sour dishes over there were VERY very close, to my mind, like the good old sweet and sour dishes we Americans get here in the states. So if you want as authentic a dish as possible, get sweet and sour tofu. At least, that's Shanghai cuisine -- it's different everywhere I guess, it's a big old country.
My favorite dish at my favorite chinese restaurant is and they say it word for word :D is number 1 and beyond
Broccoli and garlic sauce with no sugar, some fried tofu cubes (fried before it goes in there) and some mushrooms and put over the white rice they give you is heaven on earth. I eat it with one mustard packet.
The other two dishes I get is vegetable lo mein with fried tofu cubes, broccoli , mushrooms and no added sugar and vegetable fried rice no egg no sugar.
If you don't like the brown sauce they do make a white sauce but I don't know if your going to like it. I think it's good okay nothing special though.
I spent a semester in Shanghai. I wasn't vegan nor even vegetarian yet -- it would have been EXTREMELY hard to have been. Probably the only reason I won't go back :'(
Well, I've been a vegan in Beijing for 2.5 years now so I feel I should point out that it's very much doable. The big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have a bunch of vegetarian restaurants... not an awful lot in proportion to the population, perhaps one per million people, but it still comes up to a reasonable number. Here's a list of the Shanghai restaurants (in Chinese!) http://www.ivu.org/ivcb/gb/restaurants/shanghai.html. Also the regular restaurants generally do make vegan foods if you specify everything starting from what kind of oil to use to them in Chinese. Language skills are a must, but vegan food in the big cities isn't a problem. Just so that you wouldn't worry too much and might get back to Shanghai. :)