"Traditionally Thai people ate a vegetable-based diet with fair amount of fresh water fishes and poultry. That is to say in the old days the majority of Thais. who are Buddhists, were naturally demi-vegan. However as the country becomes more affluent and its cuisine developed and differentiated, meat particularly pork and poultry plays more and more important role in Thai cooking. Vegetarianism had been confined mainly to the Chinese Buddhist temples and devoted Thai-Chinese populations. Fortunately since the advent of Santi Asoke Sect advocating vegetarianism as an essential Buddhist precept about 30 years ago, Thai vegetarian cooking has been increasingly gaining momentum.In a nut small, Thai vegetarian cooking is simply the use of non-meat ingredients in Thai cuisine which is characterized by hot pungent and aromatic flavors. Yet due to influence of Chinese and lately other Southeast Asian cuisines as well, a number of Thai vegetarian dishes have mild flavors. Therefore in this book of Thai Vegetarian Cooking there are quite a lot of recipe choices to choose from." From the introduction to Thai Vegetarian Cooking Sangdad Publishing, © October 2008. ISBN 978-974-05-8934-1 See Thai recipes from this cookbook: Vegetarian Tom Yum Goong Soup and Vegetarian Roasted Chili Paste (Nam Prik Pao). |
