Purity of spirit
Celebrate the Vegetarian Festival at Bangkok’s best markets
Hundreds of worshippers in white fill a road as they join a procession carrying a tiger statue from the Chao Pho Sua Shrine, or Tiger God Shrine, near City Hall during the annual Vegetarian Festival celebration.
The yellow flags at restaurants and food stalls all around town signal the return of the annual vegetarian festival, which falls in the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar.
This year, the nine-day celebration kicked off last Saturday and will stretch until Sunday when people abstain from all kinds of animal meat and animal products such as fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste and pla ra (fermented fish), as well as eggs, dairy products and honey. People who practice Chinese-style vegetarianism during the festival must also not consume five plants with pungent odours, namely garlic, onion, Chinese garlic or rakkyo, chives and tobacco, as they are thought to damage the heart, kidney, spleen, liver and lungs respectively, according to Chinese belief.
Vegetarianism in the 21st century sees a huge differences between the old days where choices of food were limited to tofu, pickled vegetables and mixed vegetable stew or jab chai. Today’s vegetarianism greatly expands not only in terms of food selection where practitioners can enjoy all types of meat in meatless versions, thanks to mock meat and food innovations, but also in terms of convenience where vegetarian food is available on the shelves of convenience stores all-year-round.
But besides fine-dining restaurants in shopping malls or roadside food stalls that serve meat-free food during the annual vegetarian festival, there are also vendors and small shops hidden in several markets across Bangkok where vegetarian dishes are freshly cooked and served at affordable prices. Many of these places offer vegetarian food throughout the year.
Life takes a stroll through Bangkok’s markets in search of good-quality meatless treats that are not just friendly to the palate but also to the purse.