LookAtVietnam – It is easy to find vegetarian cooking shops or restaurants in HCM City since they boomed in the area over recent years.

Herbivore’s hangout: Van Canh Restaurant in District 1 serves a wide selection of different vegetarian dishes.

But vegetarian food restaurants now exist throughout the city and attract investment from businesspeople and individuals.

More than 50 vegetarian food shops and restaurants ranging from budget to luxury restaurants have been opened it a quick and easy choice for eating out.

Unlike before, when steamed glutinous rice was the only dish on the menu for vegetarian breakfasts, there are many options including vegetarian fried noodle, bread, dumpling, bi chay (rolls with vermicelli and shredded crispy mock pork) and goi cuon (spring rolls with vermicelli and mock shrimp).

They are sold in the mornings by mobile vendors along Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street in District 3, Dinh Tien Hoang street in District 1, Nguyen Van Cu street and Huynh Man Dat street in District 5 and Dang Chat street in District 8.

A vendor who sells both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food at District 3’s Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street said that she has sold there for ten years.

Vegetarian fried noodles is her best seller, she said.

The price for the dish is very cheap, only from VND5,000 to VND10,000, she said.

A lot of people also sell vegetarian fare on a more permanent basis from their housefronts.

Along Su Van Hanh street in District 10, Vuon Chuoi street in District 3 and Hong Bang street in District 11, many small vegetarian pavement stalls stand side by side for customers to choose from.

Hu tieu

(a dish with flat rice noodle with mushroom, tofu, carrot and white cabbage) is the popular favourite sold by most stalls on Hong Bang street.

Vegetarian hu tieu there is very delicious with a special sauce cooked according to Chinese style.

Moreover, the city has many well-known vegetarian shops and restaurants including Thuyen Vien Vegetarian Shop in Phu Nhuan district, Au Lac Vegetarian Shop in District 4, Viet Chay Restaurant at District 3’s Vinh Nghiem Pagoda and Thien Quoc Vegetarian Restaurants in District 10.

Each shop or restaurant brings their own style with a menu displaying ten to 50 different dishes per day.

If vegetarians want to enjoy vegetarian buffet, they can go to Van Canh Restaurant in District 1, Tan Cang Tourism Area in Binh Thanh district, Bat Dat Restaurant and Thien Hong Restaurant in District 5.

The vegetable buffet at Van Canh Restaurant has been very popular among Saigonese for the last seven years and is only available for two months – the first and seventh month of the lunar calendar.

The dishes at the Van Canh Restaurant are traditional Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta food.

The menu for vegetarian buffet is as varied as any non-vegetarian one, with 35-40 dishes per day and it changes everyday, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Viet, the restaurant’s Catering Sales Manager, said.

Unlike the Van Canh Restaurant, vegetarian buffets at other restaurants are always served the first day and the fifteenth day of each month of the lunar calendar.

Vu Lan Festival

To meet increasing demands for meals without meat on the Vu Lan Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, many non-vegetarian shops and restaurants also add vegetarian dishes to their menu.

Restaurants on Le Quy Don street in District 3 and Nam Ky Khoi Nghia in District 1, display signs saying they are selling vegetarian foods for the festival.

Some non-vegetarian shops even temporarily stop operations until the end of the seventh lunar month while some vegetarian pavement stalls and shops appear.

“It’s quite easy for an office worker like me to find a restaurant serving vegetarian food during this month,” says Nguyen Thi Thanh Trang, a manager at TBSSport on District 1’s Nguyen Trai street. “So, I can go veggie anytime I feel like.”

Trang says that her love of vegetarian food started with her family tradition during the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

“You will feel lots of refreshment, your mind will be kind of light and flowing and your smell will be more pleasant,” Trang says, adding that she eats vegetarian for health reasons, not religious reasons like her parents.

Dinh Huynh Yen, 50, a charity fund-raiser to help poor people get heart operations in District 8, says vegetarian fare helps her relieve fatigue and get sound sleep.

“I turn veggie for 7-14 days a month depending on the month, but up to 20 days this month,” she adds, noting that she knows many businessmen and actors living on non-meat diets like Kim Cuong, Thanh Kim Hue city among others.

Yen is among those who organised a vegetarian food festival at the City’s Children Cultural House late last month, the first of its kind in the country, she says.

“Some of our neigbour countries have a vegetarian day of their own, while we have not,” she says, hoping that the event will return next year on an annual basis.

“It was unexpectedly successful with thousands of visitors, including many foreigners,” she notes.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News