India, Japan

[Guest guest]

Hi

 

It's a shame that vegan food is so difficult to come by. I know Hari

Krishnas believe you need milk in your diet, so presumably it is the

same in Hindu as well. It was lucky there was a knowledgeable

Chinese restaurant.

 

Jo

 

, " Maynard S. Clark "

<MaynardClark wrote:

>

> My experiences in India were really quite something, since I've

been vegan for a very long time.

>

> My traveling companion and I had attended the IVU's 37th World

Vegetarian Congress in Goa, India, then we traveled throughout three

states of India: Goa, Karnataka, and Maharastra.

>

> http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/maharashtra/

>

> Everything was fine in the first two states because we were guided

in a tour organized by a vegan accountant from Goa, who smoothed the

way for all of us in a tour of 40-some vegetarian and vegan tourists.

>

> In Mumbai (that's Bombay in Maharashtra), our lodging was in a

Parsi-owned hotel; very gracious, but neither vegetarian (though

quite vegetarian-friendly because it was India, as we found

elsehwere, and " modern " ONLY in the sense that the building had been

upgraded somewhat, but not at all comparable to Western lodging

standrds - we had to double padlock our room and walk down the hall

to our " private bath " which was a lavatory, toilet, and shower all in

a common room, with no architectural separation for the shower;

therefore, since water filled the entire room and drained kind of

sideways, our last task in selfcare needed to be the shower, then

drying ourselves off in a dry corner of the " private bath " separated

from our room by the long walk down the hall).

>

> Well, our expectations may have been a little steep for the

cultural. The Monsoon had flooded Mumbai the year before, so the

musty air reeked of clay and pungent spices and what one Indian woman

in the USA calls " the characteristics smells of India " , a reason for

her not returning frequently.

>

> We found that there are TWO types of restaurants in India: " pure

veg " and " veg/non-veg " . In the first restaurant, only lacto-

vegetarian meals are served; no eggs, but plenty of dairy and

NOTHING! vegan whatsoever, as we learned.

>

> A side note: In the USA, if every restaurant served vegetarian

meals, and half of all items were vegetarian, most US vegetarians

would be happy; but we vegans were not.

>

> We tried every possible variation of " all veg " or " pure veg "

restaurants and found that even chopped fruit, dry oatmeal, black

coffee, fruit juice, dry toast, and veggieburgers are soaked in

butter during cooking, topped with dollops of butter, dripped after

cooking with butter, and worse.

>

> Even the all JAIN restaurants are this way.

>

> So my traveling companion suggested " our friends the Chinese " , who

were, or course, happy to have us ask at a Chinese restaurant a few

blocks from our Parsi-owned hotel, The Bentley (pictures of The

Bentley are all over the web; some comments are favorable, and a few

are not): " We're vegetarians from the United States, but we don't use

milk, cheese, or dairy products. That's called 'vegan' in the US.

Can you serve us 'vegan' meals? "

>

> " Oh, no problem. We Chinese; no dairy! This is India; we know

vegetarian. No meat, no milk or cheese, no problem! "

>

> So we ate our dinners " royally " each evening, for 300 rupees for an

elegant vegan dinner for two (about $10 at the time, per evening),

with light snacks throughout the day.

>

> Sincerely,

> Maynard S. Clark - BLOG: http://tinyurl .com/2qc9oo

> BEST ADDRESS: maynard.clark

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>

> Shahida Anwar <vegyah1 wrote:

> Thank you to Dee Thur, Alf, Marwen, and his friend Noriko for

replying to my queries about japan.

>

> I am now back from japan. I was really impressed with the

country and the people and thoroughly enjoyed myself over there. Not

so much with the food though.

>

> I had my phrasebook marked on the page where it said " I am

vegetarian " and the waiters in the restaurants read the Japanese and

were helpful in pointing out the vegetarian dishes on the menu.

There were very few though as even when there was no meat the stock

in things like noodles and soup was often fish stock. I tried

looking for vegetarian restaurants - including looking on

happycow.com - but these were usually not near to where I was.

Shojin-ryouri is only available in Buddhist temples which have a

kitchen attached to them. These were not in centres of towns and

were only open for a short time each day so I never go the chance to

go to one and they couldn't have been the mainstay of my diet.

>

> Places like starbucks are in abundance - I never go to a

starbucks in London - but I did go to quite a few in japan to eat

their vegetarian sandwich (there was only one choice) and to have

some decaf coffee. Most Japanese places had not heard of decaf

coffee. They had green tea but it is not like the one we drink in

London. It really was green. It was ok but mostly available cold

because of the heat and I didn't like the taste so much that I wanted

to drink it all the time and I don't drink indian tea so was a bit

stuck.

>

> After a few days I decided to look for indian restaurants. I had

a railpass and was travelling around japan and each time I got to a

new town where I was staying for more than one day I went to the

tourist information centre and got addresses of some indian

restaurants. There was usually at least one located fairly centrally

and I went and had some lentils. Even here though they had sticky

rice rather than basmati rice.

>

> If I was in an out of the way place - like on one of the islands

down south - where there were no restaurants or starbucks - I rang up

the hotel or ryokan (japanese hotel) to tell them in advance that I

was a vegetarian and they did try to provide vegetarian food,

although there were always a lot of eggs in the meal.

>

> If anyone is going to japan in the near future, my advice would

be, particularly if you are vegan, to find out where the vegetarian

restaurants are by looking on happycow.com and try to book your

hotels near them.

>

> I managed mostly by compromising (eating a few eggs and drinking

indian tea and going to starbucks - neither of which I do at home)

and finding indian restaurants.

>

> I think as vegetarians we will have problems in most places -

apart from Gujarat in India - and really need to be prepared. Next

time I go away I am going to take my own green tea bags and plan my

eating place as diligently as I plan the sightseeing.

>

> I hope you all had a wonderful eid.

>

> Shahida

>

>

> Marwan Marwan <marwan.marwan wrote:

> Salaam alaikum Shahida,

>

> This an email reply from my friend Noriko, you can reach her

directly at

> noriko1189 if you have any other questions, or just post

> your questions here and i'll ask her to reply directly to the group

so

> that we can all share the information...I hope this is helpful :-)

>

> ---

>

> Vegan or Vegetarian is not very popular in Japan. Vegitarian food

is

> called " shojin-ryouri " which is originally for monks who work at

temple.

> You can still ask " shojin-ryouri " at traditional styled japanese

> restaurant. But these days MACROBIOTIQUE is quite popular, Last

March when I went back to Japan, I realized many hotels and good

restaurants have Macrobiotique menu, not much variety though...

>

> So if you go to restaurant, you can ask Shojin-ryouri or

Macrobiotique menu.

>

> If you have time in ahead, I suggest to call or visit visitor

> information, ( big city has English information too) they might

have

> some list of Macrobiotique available restaurant.

>

> This is the web-site for tokyo tourism information.

> http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/index.html

>

> When you get there, visit them and tell them where you plans to go,

they might give you the English information centers address or phone

number in the city you will visit..

> (Since Tokyo's English visitor information is the biggest, they

have

> most information than small city I think)

>

> If you go to bakery, you can ask no milk and no egg bread. Quite

many people are allergic for milk or eggs, I heard they often have

some

> special bread for the customer who is allergic for milk and egg.

>

> Please let me know if I can help you more

>

> Hope you will enjoy your trip to Japan!

>

> Noriko

>

> Shahida Anwar wrote:

> > Salaam Marwan

> >

> > Thanks for replying. I am going to be travelling round, starting

in

> > Tokyo and then south and, I think it is westward, towards Kyoto

all

> > the way down to the islands. Just some general idea about what in

> > Japanese cuisine is suitable for vegetarians (no fish or meat and

> > preferably no eggs) would do so I can ask for it in the

> > restaurant/shops. There should be some tofu available and I have

soya

> > milk and yogurt at home any way and I think that will be

available.

> >

> > Look forward to hearing from you.

> >

> >

> >

> > */Marwan Marwan <marwan.marwan/* wrote:

> >

> > Salaam Shahida,

> >

> > What area are you going to in Japan. I have a Japanese friend that

> > could look things up on the net for you.

> >

> > Let me know :-)

> >

> > Take care,

> > Marwan.

> >

> > vegyah1 wrote:

> >> Does anybody here live in Japan or has visited it recently? I am

> >> going

> >> there shortly for a visit and would like to know if vegetarian

> >> food is

> >> available easily or about some restaurants.

> >>

> >> Shahida

>

>

Maynard S. Clark MaynardClark

> http://Maynard.Clark.GooglePages.com - Links ALL my blogs and

photo sites

> " Making connections for plant-based diets "

> Vegetarian Resource Center (since 1993)

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>