South East Asia: Finding Vegan Food in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia
Travelling Vegan in SE Asia
In 2009, I travelled through South East Asia from equatorial island to the far north of Thailand, discovering the vegetarian threads running through the region. Hear Diana and I banter about my trials and triumphs on everything from missing passports to cheeky elephants.
(25 min) Play or download (MP3 26MB) (other formats) (via iTunes)
The Restaurants
I talked with:
- Jack from Whole Earth restaurant in Singapore
- Chong Keng Hoon from Luk Yea Yan in Penang, Malaysia
- Nan from Taste from Heaven in Chaing Mai, Thailand
- Nicolas from Chamkar in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
These links are mostly to reviews on Happy Cow – whose founder Eric Brent was on our episode about Digital Vegans.
Elephant Nature Park
Taste from Heaven raises money for the Elephant Nature Park, where I volunteered. I talked about washing Elephants in the show: here are some of my holiday snaps. Click on the thumbnails for the full picture.
Verdant Reports
Before The Vegan Option, I produced some five minute podcasts under a pseudonym, and released them at Verdant Reports .org. They include three five minute clips about my journey through SE Asia.
(Verdant Reports didn’t really catch on. Perhaps because they didn’t have Diana to keep me in check, and perhaps because the name is both obscure and difficult to spell out in your web browser.)
Those reports use the same interviews but are more focussed on travel advice, so you might find them useful if you’re planning to go to the region.
Also
20% of chefs surveyed by the Time Out New York Kitchen Report admitted to putting animals in the ostensibly vegetarian option (in a graphic that’s since been removed from the page).
Diana mentioned the Supreme Master restaurants (which we in London know as “Loving Hut”).
Other Vegan Travelogues
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau was part of our last episode, Judgemental!, advising us on how not to be, well, judgemental. She podcast her visit to the UK (although, sadly, she did not visit us in London):
Jasmin Singer and Dr Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House drove across the United States to get to Marianne’s new job in Portland. During their “Great American Road Trip”, they continued to podcast every week:
- Episode 130, with Honey LaBronx
- Episode 131, with Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Katie Olson, and Brian Endl
- Episode 132, with Bonnie Goodman from Mordamart, Sue Eakins from New Dawn Sanctuary, Kit and Pete Jagoda of Rivers Wish Sanctuary, and Tracy Martin of Rabbitron
- Episode 133, with Rich Roll
Thanks
Our thanks go to Robb Masters and the Elephant Nature Park mahouts for the music, and our interviewees including Lisa Green, Izzy, and Dr Peter Flügel of SOAS, University of London.
Thanks also to Kip Dorrell of Messy Vegetarian Cook, who took the picture of Taste from Heaven’s Choo Chee Curry at the top of the page during her own trip to Thailand’s Kin Jay national vegetarian festival.
