Kim Tuyen was waiting patiently for half an hour in front of the Hoa Hao Buddhism Organization booth at the Ho Chi Minh City vegetarian food festival last Thursday.
The chefs are making coconut milk and sometimes picking up herbs from a big bowl.
She is happy to wait since she rarely gets the chance to taste authentic banh xeo (pancake) from the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.
The chefs arrived in the city last Thursday and only stayed for the duration of the festival at 23-9 Park in District 1 until Sunday.
“I just finished my work nearby and found this festival by chance. I have tried vegetarian banh xeo before and it tasted really good; so I want to eat again today,” Tuyen says.
As two pancakes appear on her table, she looks delighted. “I am a long-term vegetarian. Only my daughter and I are vegetarian, so we eat separately from other family members. Eating food with a lot of vegetables like this make me feel light and healthy.”
The pancake, made on a non-stick pan without using oil, has a bright yellowish coat. It is filled with green peas, bean sprouts, and slices of carrots and tofu, and served with a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs.
An American from California, who introduces himself as just Jeff, says: “Vietnamese use conservative spices and good sauces, which makes the food very tasty.”
Jeff has tried the banh xeo and also tried pizza, skewers, banh chuoi (banana cake) and plans to eat more on the last day of his trip to Vietnam. “Though I’m not a vegetarian, eating this kinds of food makes me feel good. And knowing that the money I paid will go to charity makes me feel much better.”
Besides Vietnamese cuisines, there are also foreign foods like Thai or Indian, contributing to the festival’s variety and color.
At the Indian booth set up by Ashoka, a chain of city-based restaurants, young manager Sumit Sharma says: “Our restaurant serves north Indian food. There are more than 40 dishes in the menu. We have an Indian chef here so people can see how the food is made.” North Indian food is made predominantly from wheat while rice is the staple in the south.
A vegetarian himself, Sumit says: “In Indian, we prefer to cook vegetarian food at home while Vietnamese tend to go to restaurants.” It is no doubt influenced by the fact that a third of Indians are vegetarians and there is a long tradition of not cooking meat at home.
Sumit’s favorite Vietnamese food is pho chay (vegetarian noodle soup). “For the first 10 days after I came to Vietnam, I only ate bread and butter,” he recalls.
“Then I came to work for this Indian restaurant and now I can eat vegetarian food every day.”
Nearby, tasting naan bread with yellow dal, is young English couple Laura and Mundia. The two have been in the city for two months and will become teachers at an international school in September. Laura says though she’s not a vegetarian, she loves vegetables and often visits vegetarian restaurants back home.
“In England, you can only find a maximum of two vegetables in a dish. There are five or six different kinds of herbs and leaves in a Vietnamese dish, which I like,” Mundia says.
Some people chose to go vegan not only for health reasons but also for good causes. Veronika, a young German doctor working for a city hospital, says: “I’m a vegetarian. I gave up eating meat two years ago as a reaction to the cruel animal slaughter and to show respect to the environment.”
But she finds it hard to be a vegetarian in Vietnam. “When I first came here, I ate fruits to survive. Later, I found some vegetarian restaurants from my travel book. Sometimes I go to eat with friends but there is no vegetarian food and I just eat some salads”.
“I hope this event will help promote the vegetarian habit in the country because there are many good reasons to be a vegetarian”.
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