Vegetarian Dishes When Eating Abroad

[english grammar man]

Do you want to know what's in your dish?

Eating no meat at all can be problematic in places as familiar as McDonald's and is another challenge altogether when teaching in a country that has such delicacies as dog, rat or eyeball soup on the menu, especially when the menu is written in a foreign language.

The solution is to teach and work in countries with populations bound by a religion that mandates meatless eating.

There are, four primary Asian religions that have edicts against meat eating:

1. Buddhism
2. Hinduism
3. Taoism
4. Jainism

Three of the above religions are found in India, which is, therefore, a place vegetarians can visit without having to worry about the gamey nature of that viscous substance covering the tofu.

China is a huge country with predictably diverse cuisine that can encompass everything from vegetarian faux-meat in the country's Buddhist regions, to anything on four legs (except a table, goes the saying) in Cantonese areas.

The western restaurant version of Indonesian food is heavily meat, chicken and fish based.

It may surprise anyone familiar with the Filipino fondness of fried entrails on sticks.

If you really want to avoid eating strange meats and dishes, then the International Vegetarian Union has sections devoted to vegetarian phrases in world languages.