Vegan in Malaysia [View All]

Saya hanya makan sayuram.

I traveled to Malaysia for about 10 days in January 2008 for business.

As someone who's been vegan for almost 20 years now, I was a bit concerned about my ability to eat in Malaysia. Overall, it was a stunning success. Yes, I was served a few dishes that I declined to eat after the first bite because I could tell that something wasn't quite right, but I'd say that 95% of the food I was served was vegan on the first try.

As anyone who's traveled in Asia knows, the idea of "vegetarian" food varies greatly by country, region, city, etc. For example, I had an awful time finding vegan food in Japan a few years ago--though I hear it's improved recently, albeit slightly--because there's fish flakes, fish stock, or some animal "flavoring" in almost all the food you find pre-packaged and in restaurants. In Hong Kong, on the other hand, it was very difficult to find pre-made vegan food, but easy to talk a chef/waiter through my dietary requirements.

Eating in Malaysia was made easier by the fact that everyone speaks English. All my carefully memorized and rehearsed vegetarian phrases were only good for a laugh, apparently. :) Also, Malaysia is an intersection of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cultures and cuisines, with a strong tradition of vegetarian food being eaten by ~20% of the population during certain religious holidays/festivals. There were quite a few Chinese vegetarian-only restaurants available in the cities, and it was very easy to avoid eggs/dairy at these restaurants--despite the fact that my Mandarin and Cantonese are awful at best. I had the most difficulty eating at the (Muslim) Malaysian restaurants.

I thought this group might enjoy seeing a few pictures of vegan food and vegetarian restaurants from my trip. I'll post a few over the next day or so...if there's any interest. :shrug:

Terima Kasih!