China for Veggie Travellers

This page is an overview of being a travelling veggie in China. You might want to skip straight to the China cheatsheet, designed to be printed and carried around.

What to expect

Most of China is a great place for veggies, most of the time.

There are vegetarian restaurants in all the major cities and many smaller towns. Yet newly-arrived veggies are horrified to see pork intestines, duck, and fish dishes on the menu. These are so-called "mock meats", imitating the texture, shape and sometimes flavour of meat. Certainly a bit wierd at first, some of these dishes can be delicious,, and add welcome variation to your travelling diet. I love shui zhu yu: slices of mock fish, wrapped in a thin layer of seaweed, floating in tomato broth with mushrooms and tofu, with a shiny layer of chilli infested oil on the surface.

vegan shui zhu yu

You can´t always eat in vegetarian restaurants, but put in a little groundwork and you´ll eat well anywhere. Typical dishes include crispy fried dumplings of mushroom and pumpkin, spicy noodles quickly stirfried with brocolli and pickled snow peas, slices of firm, smoked tofu topped with chilli and scallion sauce, and garlic-smothered eggplant that melts on your tongue.

Restaurants

Vegetarian Restaurants

chuan

Thanks to the historical influence of Buddhism, China has a 2000 year tradition of pure vegetarian food. Buddhist and Buddhist-influenced restuarants found throughout the country, often situated inside or near Buddhist temples, serve a wide variety of vegetable and "mock meat" dishes, along with shelves of Buddhist texts and, frequently, jars of vegetarians pastes and bags of mock meat to take home. Mock meats are typically made of gluten or tofu, but can be made of other staples like rice and konjac, a jelly-like substance.

Menus are increasingly accompanied by photos of the food, particularly in bigger cities, which makes ordering very easy. In case of no photos, you have a few choices: ask for recommendations and go with the flow; try specifying ingredients like tofu or green vegetables using language or photos; or try asking to see the kitchen. This request will rarely be refused. Pointing at things you like works well, and is a good ice breaker, too. If you want to rely on recommendations, a useful phrase is to ask for something not too hot, or not hot at all (see below), if you want to go with the flow but not have your head blown off. If you have a dish you particularly like, it´s a great idea to take a photo of it. Then next time you´re in a restuarant, you can get your camera out and show them exactly what you want.

Finding vegetarian restuarants is easy in the biggest cities, as most guidebooks will recommend one or two. Searching the web in English will often produce results, either from Happy Cow, or expats blogs. You may have some success searching in Chinese, too: copy-and-pasting chinese characters into search engines, and feeding the results through a transolation engine (see resources, below). As a fallback, seeking out the largest Buddhist templates and asking for a nearby vegetarian restuarant can sometimes produce results.

Non-vegetarian restaurants

Outside vegetarian restaurants, things get a little harder, but with a few key phrases under your belt, you should never have much trouble. There is no particular word for "vegetarian" in Chinese -- the nearest you can get is "I only eat vegetables". Many travellers report success with the white lie, "I am Buddhist". Having said this, making yourself understood is not usually difficult. People may think you are a little strange, but not completely incomprehensible, and usually ¨get it¨. It is wise to learn the names of some of your favourite ingredients, and to carry photos around with you of your favourite dishes.

Ma po doufu

Traditional restaurants usually have several vegetable or tofu side dishes. There is amazing variety of mushrooms in China, usually unappeallingly translated as 'fungus'. Sometimes a bit of pork or beef is added for texture or flavour to an apparently veggie dish, so it is important to explain carefully that you don't eat meat, rather than just asking for a vegetable dish. Requesting a dish with no meat stock is not always understood, but worth trying anyway.

Street food

Firey noodle cooking

Street food can be a great choice. Look out for people running fried noodle (炒面 chǎomiàn) stands, with all their ingredients laid out in front. You just tell them you don't eat meat, point at the vegetables and tofu that you want, and they'll fry the lot in front of you. Breads, fried snacks and cakes can also make decent street snacks, though it can be hard to be sure o the ingredients.

Dumplings (饺子, jiǎozi), a national staple, are delicious. Restuarants are rarely willing to make special veggie dumpings if they are not already on the menu, but a dedicated street dumping stall will often oblige. Vegans should note that many veggie dumplings contain egg, so make sure you specify otherwise.

Steamed buns are also ubiquitous. Vegetable ones can be found, but red bean ones (包子豆, bāozi dòu) are the more common veggie variety, and are popular for breakfast.

Zòngzi (粽子), is a triangular snack of sticky rice with dried fruit and nuts, wrapped in a bamboo leaf. They are traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, but can be found throughout the year. Sometimes they have meat in them, so ask before you buy.

Stocks, oils, and cooking practices

The downside to eating outside vegetarian restaurants is that the idea of keeping cooking utensils separate is unknown. Your stir fried greens are likely to be cooked in the same wok as bits of meat. Soupy dishes like boiled noodles or hotpots are almost certain to contain meat stock (and this includes instant noodles). You may be able to turn a blind eye to the frying situation, as woks are heated to extremely high temperatures, and are well scraped between dishes. And avoiding soupy dishes is the best way to avoid meat stock.

I am told there is a risk that your dishes are fried in animal fat. Having said this, nearly all the cooking oil you see in shops is of vegetable origin; and whenever I have visited a restaurant kitchen to point at vegetables, I have sneaked a peek at their cooking oil, and have never seen anything other than soy or vegetable oil.

Regional Cuisine

Nan chef

China is massive and diverse, and this is reflected in its cuisines. For overall styles (Northern, Eastern, Western, Southern schools, etc) refer to a decent guidebook. As far as veggies are concerned, you needn´t worry unduly about these variations. Even in Xinjiang province, in the far west of China, a largely Muslim area with a fondness for mutton that extends to practically every dish, you will survive. This is largely because of extensive Han Chinese migration across the entire country -- a policy not universally welcomed by indigenous populations, but one with the useful side effect of ensuring the universal availability of vegetarian-friendly Han Chinese cuisine. And even in Xinjiang you can experience a small part of the local cuisine: huge varieties of fresh and dried fruits, tasty flat breads, and the occasional vegetable dish (but watch out for the mutton fat).

Self catering

As with most places in the world, the only way to ensure you're not eating animal products is either to cook for yourself or dine in a vegetarian restaurant. If you are lucky enough to find somewhere to stay with a wok and a gas ring, you will find local markets bursting with a massive variety of fresh, green vegetables, mushrooms, nuts, fruits, and freshly made tofu.

There are plenty of decent websites and blogs full of ideas for cooking Chinese food. The first thing novices should learn is how to correctly look after a wok (in short, NEVER clean one with soap). Chop ingredients into small chunks, and prepare them all in advance. Get the wok really hot, and add ingredients in order of how long they will take to cook (e.g. hard things like carrots first; soft things like beansprouts last).

Food on the move

A wide variety of fruit and nuts, especially peanuts and sunflower seeds) is available pretty much everywhere, bagged and loose. Dried raisins, kiwi fruits, apricots and dates are common, along with more exotic fruits.

veggie instant noodles from china

Instant noodles are the perfect travelling food in China, but It is hard to find ones with vegetarian flavourings. Look for brands with ingredients in English in large supermarkets. A commonly available brand is pictured here - 百家, Bái  Jiē  ¨Original Hot & Sour Flavor¨. Travelling with small amounts of soy sauce and sesame oil means you can buy any instant noodles, throw away the packets, and flvour them yourself. You can get hot water for free pretty much anywhere in China -- importantly, long distance trains have a hot water point in every carriage.

tofu snacks

Firm tofu snacks (dòufǔ  gān), flavoured with spices and vacuum packed with a little oil, are a fantastic standby, and are available absolutely everywhere. Make sure you learn the characters for tofu (豆腐) as sometimes tofu snacks are sold right next to meat snacks in very similar packaging. Check ingredients for meat, too.  Apparently they do sometimes put beef flavourings in, though I have never seen this.

If you are flying, it is wise to take your own food. Airline staff are not always familiar with the concept of special meals, and when you do get them, they are not always pleasant. Saying ¨special meal¨ and showing the characters for ¨vegetarian¨ or ¨vegan¨ (see the China Cheatsheet) are your best bet.

Emergency cop-outs

Pizza is a pretty popular dish. You´ll find it in all big towns and cities. There´s usually a vegetarian pizza and vegans can always ask for one without cheese.

The major cities all have at least one expat-run bar which will serve expat food. Unfortunately, this is usually fish and chips or steaks. But you might be able to get chips and a salad, or a pasta dish.

The usual suspects of Starbucks, KFC, and McDonalds, are everywhere. You can get fries, and sometimes a salad, in KFC and McDonalds. Starbucks has cookies, cakes, and sandwiches.

The usual range of Lays crisps (chips), Pringles, and Snickers can be found everywhere.

Useful resources

Now go on to read and maybe print out the China cheatsheet.

China summary

Pros: Wide availability of vegetable dishes. Vegetarian restaurants in all major cities and towns. An indigenous strand of traditional vegetarian cooking.

Cons: Language difficulties. Surprise meat turning up in vegetable dishes.

Images of Chinese food

Fried noodles Laghman noodles veg kebabs mock pork belly Piles of nan Fried, firm tofu Konjac Tasty pickles street side roasted pulses