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"Safe" restaurant items

For common restaurant cuisines!

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AmeliaJ QLD • Posts: 164

1 7 Jan 2011

I'm obsessed with eating out. So I thought I'd try to start a thread dedicated to the reasonably "safe" veg*n items you can get at restaurants in various styles of food. They mightn't be perfect (ie pasta might contain egg....) but just pretty safe bets for when you're trying to be social!

Please add more ideas! Here are a few I could come up with. (Clearly not an exhaustive list of cuisines wink

)

Thai: Love a good fresh stir fry with tofu and nuts- for example a chilli and basil number.
Indian: I love that they usually list which of their veggie items have cream etc in them. Love pumpkin dahl (or any dahl really!)
Chinese: Not a huge chinese fan but my fave thing to order at a chinese restaurant is salt and pepper tofu
African: Tricky one as the restaurant I am thinking of was also a Steakhouse but they made an amazing "lentil wot".... yummo
Japanese: Veg or tofu sushi? A bit unoriginal....
Italian: A lovely light pasta with chilli and lemon juice thrown through- the one I'm thinking of actually comes with seafood but I get it without. Note to self: Request that they don't put parmesan on it. For some reason they take the liberty of doing this.

Would love to hear some more suggestions!

tarkine Iran • Posts: 296

2 7 Jan 2011

If you can find an Ethiopian place (eg. the Horn here in Melbs) go for the missa wat with injera pancake. Totally vegan, totally amazing!
There's a Japanese bar down the road from my office which I regularly get dinner from when I'm working late (which is pretty often these days) - they do awesome soba noodles, as well as something called avocado nigiri...
My fave tho' has to be Middle Eastern hummus and flat bread - predictable, yes, but I never seem to get sick of it...

tarkine Iran • Posts: 296

3 7 Jan 2011

Likewise Vietnamese rice paper rolls...

RaV3N WA • Posts: 2152

4 7 Jan 2011

Italian - most pasta dishes can be made veg*n - just take away meat / cheese. With Italian you ALWAYS need to ask for no Parmesan. It may not be on the menu, but it'll be on the meal!!
My fav Italian pasta dish is Aglio e Olio. It's basically made up of pasta, oil, garlic and tomatoes.
And of course pizza with no meat / cheese.

Japanese - seaweed salad!!! And Rice Inari. Om nom nom!

When you go to noodle bars and the like, you will need to check if they use fish sauce/stock in their sauces... it may not be listed!

april-san QLD • Posts: 368

5 7 Jan 2011

RaV3N said:

Japanese - seaweed salad!!! And Rice Inari. Om nom nom!

Going to Japan next week, am fully prepared to live off inari from convenience stores if necessary, soooo good happy

But I've had a bad experience with seaweed salad once, at a sushi bar, there was squid on top as a garnish and I didn't realise what it was until i put it in my mouth sad

So be careful with anything white in Japanese food

Little_Kitty United Kingdom • Posts: 376

6 8 Jan 2011

tarkine said:

Likewise Vietnamese rice paper rolls...

I live off rice paper rolls..i LOVE THEM

+ 2

AmeliaJ QLD • Posts: 164

7 8 Jan 2011

RaV3N said:

With Italian you ALWAYS need to ask for no Parmesan. It may not be on the menu, but it'll be on the meal!!

I was so surprised! this caught me out twice (different restaurants). I assumed they might leave it off given the customising of the meal in the first place... but I assumed wrong! Ate around it though.... rather than having it thrown in the bin.

AmeliaJ QLD • Posts: 164

8 8 Jan 2011

april-san said:

RaV3N said:

Japanese - seaweed salad!!! And Rice Inari. Om nom nom!

Going to Japan next week, am fully prepared to live off inari from convenience stores if necessary, soooo good happy

But I've had a bad experience with seaweed salad once, at a sushi bar, there was squid on top as a garnish and I didn't realise what it was until i put it in my mouth sad

So be careful with anything white in Japanese food

My boyfriend was in japan earlier this year, he met up with some other travellers and a few of them were veg. For lunches/cheap eats, they said if you buy the cheapest bento boxes, they're usually vegan. They go up in price according to whether they have seafood etc in them. Enjoy your time in Japan!

AmeliaJ QLD • Posts: 164

9 8 Jan 2011

tarkine said:

Yummo!! Actually, the place I went to which has the lentil wot also had a pancake thing on the side. it tasted sort of lemony. Good to know it's likely to be vegan!

tarkine Iran • Posts: 296

10 8 Jan 2011

AmeliaJ said:

tarkine said:

If you can find an Ethiopian place (eg. the Horn here in Melbs) go for the missa wat with injera pancake. Totally vegan, totally amazing!

Yummo!! Actually, the place I went to which has the lentil wot also had a pancake thing on the side. it tasted sort of lemony. Good to know it's likely to be vegan!

Yep, that sounds like injera, it's a bit tangy. It's traditionally made with sorghum and bicarb of soda, which is what gives it the little bubbles.

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