Vegan in China

[xit]

Starting a thread for all things vegan. For reference, it means no meat (that does include fish (not a plant), poultry and seafood), dairy, eggs and honey, and other animal byproducts in the diet. It also affects other areas of life, so for example no leather shoes, or woolen socks. There can be many reasons why one would choose to live such a life. The effects meat industry has on our planet, health, religion, ethical reasons,...For me personally, it's 'do not hurt'. I'm hoping we could use this thread for discussion and advice.

 

I'm moving to China this year and am looking for some advice. As far as I understand, regular restaurants don't provide actual vegan options, as the vegetables are likely to be cooked in some sort of meat broth. The university canteens are also unlikely to make separate vegan dishes. Now, I actually come from a country that is really big on meat, dairy and the like, so this situation is not new for me. What I'm really looking forward to is meal prep and cooking. But I have so many questions. I see China really likes tofu and soy milk. Is every type vegan or do I need to be careful of some? Any good recipes? What about sauces, which ones are vegan-friendly? Breads and noodles? Also are shoes and sneakers without leather easy to find? In my home country when I ask for zero leather people look at me like I'm crazy 

 

These are just some of the questions of the top of my head. I really hope more people will join and we can share tips and tricks, recipes and restaurants and everything else~

[Yunita]

hai, actualy i'm not vegan, just vegetarian (still consumtion the egg and milk) what city will you stay? from my experience becarefull of their oil, ussually they use pork oil, but that is depend of the city

[Minotaur]

I don't think we use pork oil very often. Animal oil is pretty rare in the supermarket, but people may prepare pork oil in their own kitchen.  I'm reasonably sure it is not just in the city I lived.

[Yunita]

because last year i go to beijing, and almost restourant use pork oil, its why i ask what city would he stay,

i also go to hangzhou and i found easy become vegetarian in hangzhou

[Minotaur]

@YunitaPlease don't take it as I am underestimating your Chinese, but I wonder if you mistook Zhiwuyou for Zhuyou. 

[abcdefg]

Quote

I don't think we use pork oil very often.

 

Agree with @Minotaur -- I mostly see vegetable oil in use here in Kunming. Lard is sometimes used in baking (as is butter.) There is an issue with what is called "gutter oil" 地沟油 in some cheap cafes. They buy it from unscrupulous vendors who recycle waste oil that can contain most anything.

 

I'm not vegan (or vegetarian,) but if I were, it would make me want to cook most of my meals at home where I could keep an eye on what goes into each dish.

 

We have several Buddhist temples and monasteries here (in Kunming.) Two of them that I'm aware of serve lunch to visitors. If I were trying to learn more about what to eat and what to avoid, while following vegan precepts, I would try to make friends with some of those cooks. I'll bet they have plenty of practical advice; tips that are difficult to find in books or on the internet.

[Yunita]

@Minotaur : thanks for the information, just because 3years ago i went to beijing and find that, xoxoxo

and this year i will also go to xi'an to continue my master, and as you said, i hope i can find many vegetarian restourant

[kouch]

I don't think it will be that hard, but it might be easier or harder depending on where you are going in China since the food can be really different from a province to another. 
As for me, I eat only halal meat and I usually didn't eat the other products you mentionned like milk, fish, honey... If I did I was the one buying it so it shouldn't be a problem. Also, you can always ask them to remove something from your food, especially eggs, they will do it. 

Where are you going in China ? 

[Minotaur]

Yes, food safety is definitely a concern to anyone living in China. Xi'an is a good place to satisfy your appetite, make sure to enjoy yourself! 

[Yunita]

thanks you @Minotaur hope will be like that

[大肚男]

Also, if you eat out, even if the menu says something is a vegetable dish, make sure it contains no meat or meat products.

 

For some places, small amounts of meat or using a meat stock in the dish does not make it a non-vegetable dish.

[Alex_Hart]

Note that ham is often not considered meat, so I usually ask specifically if there is ham in a dish. 

 

I would steer clear of any soups unless you can ask in Chinese - I usually specify that bone soup is also meat, and this has really baffled a lot of waitresses/waiters. I actually think the jump from meat eater to vegetarian is much harder in China than in the US, but that the jump from vegetarian to vegan is much easier. I don't try to be vegan at all, but have gone long periods of time as an 'accidental' vegan simply due to the lack of dairy. On the other hand, virtually every vegetarian I've met in China lived off of 番茄炒蛋, stir fried tomato and eggs, while trying to bring up their Chinese level.

 

I'd also disagree with the others - pork fat is very common in Hangzhou restaurants. Lard and soup are the two things that make it most difficult for me. On the other hand, vegetarian restaurants are pretty plentiful here (well, they exist anyway) and once you know what to ask for, I don't think it'll be that hard to be vegan. Cheese and other dairy products are what made veganism so hard in the US, and they just aren't really here.

 

And yes, I would agree with abc that you should cook most of your own meals. I was a strict vegetarian when I got here, but I now will eat fish when eating outside with friends or when I'm a guest at a person's home, and I just push the meat to the side when I invariably get some in a random dish after the waiter told me it would be vegetarian. A lot of my friends made similar concessions of some sort, though plenty just gave up on vegetarianism out of frustration. This group generally includes those who never really liked tofu, which was a surprisingly large number of vegetarian classmates.

[xit]

Thanks everyone. I'll be living in Jinan, Shandong province. I'd imagine they use meat broth for cooking, so in the end it's best just to cook my own food. What about snacks? And things like instant noodles? Can you find vegan ones?

[winterpromise31]

You might be able to find vegetarian restaurants. I found two in Taiwan. One was strictly hotpot. The other had a wide variety of Taiwanese dishes. I'm vegetarian, eat only a little bit of dairy, and we didn't have too many problems while in either Taiwan or China. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I did eat at a vegetarian restaurant in Hubei as well. It was a restaurant attached to a temple so their cooking was very healthy! 

[grawrt]

you can try here:

https://www.happycow.net/

 

I'm not sure how up to date it is but I just decided to check a few vegan and vegetarian places i've gone to in Beijing and they were all listed there so I think it might still be a relevant website  I also second checking out the Buddhist temples. I've eaten at a few temples myself, they either just had the canteen open to visitors which was really delicious when I was in Hangzhou, or had a separate restaurant when I was in Harbin. 

 

I know this isn't exactly a 'meal' per say but my friend loved going to shaokao late at night where she got the mushrooms and some veggies done, and the buns roasted. Its really nice easy meal to pick up, cheap and not much to worry about. 

[imron]

9 hours ago, grawrt said:

cheap and not much to worry about. 

Except the constant smell of roasting meat   I know a couple of vegetarians who would avoid it for that alone.

[hoshinoumi]

I know this won't probable help and I'm no expert in the topic discussed, but in Xi'an there's a big muslim community, so it's a bit easier to find vegetable dishes (I know they only don't eat pork but it was always easier to find something without meat in a muslim canteen rather than the average one). I'm not vegan so I can't give you any more details because I didn't pay attention to what oil was used or something like that.

 

Hope it helps

[trevorld]

Compared to Japan and various parts of the United States I felt that China was pretty veg*n friendly (there are an estimated 60 million vegetarians in China).  Taiwan is supposedly especially veg*n friendly (some estimates put vegetarians as 13% of the population).  Even in the rural mountains of Yunnan (compared to say rural Montana) you could order several fried vegetable dishes, fried tofu dishes, and steamed rice at the typical Chinese restaurant and if you are eating family style with a group of non-vegetarians the Chinese aesthetic is to order several dishes including a few vegetable dishes for a balanced meal experience so even if most of the dishes are non-vegetarian there will often be a couple of veggie ones for one to sample (especially if you or someone you trust can guide the selection a bit and know some Chinese to inquire on ingredients).  Most Chinese restaurants will have fresh veggies, cooking oil, tofu, and spices on hand and could whip something up vegan if you manage to ask nicely in the off chance nothing on their menu is vegan.  Even in the worst case scenario you'll likely have some steamed white rice to hold off hunger pains (perhaps keep some packets of pickled vegetables on hand as a flavor enhancer).  If you do hot pot try to arrange that one of the pots (or one half of a divided pot) has a vegan broth and that people aren't to add meat to that half of the pot. 

 

Markets will usually have a wide variety of fruits and vegetables on sale at fairly affordable prices.  If you are near a Chinese supermarket in your own country (such as Ranch 99 in parts of the US with large Chinese populations) I'd highly recommend checking it out since they'll often have ingredient labels in both English and Chinese added to authentic imported Chinese brands and you can create a list of certain brands of Chinese foods you'll likely be able to find in China that are vegan and which are not.  Although many recipes aren't vegan I'd recommend Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice as a cookbook for how to make delicious meals using ingredients easily found in a Chinese supermarket.

 

Other comments:

 

* Most Chinese vegetarians are Chinese Buddhist vegetarians who for religious reasons also don't eat alliums (i.e. garlic and onions), if you tell a waiter you are vegetarian (吃素的) they may not recommend a dish on the menu as vegetarian if it has alliums in it even if otherwise acceptable to you e.g. scallion pancake fried in oil.  However despite the lack of alliums these Chinese (Buddhist) vegetarian restaurant are a great place for vegan meals.

* Mushrooms (often sold cheaply in dried form), chilies (if you like it hot), alliums, ginger, various pickles (often sold in convenient small portable packets), and fermented foods (including black bean sauce or fermented tofu), and MSG can be aquired-taste vegan flavor enhancers easily found in China.  Note some kimchi (from Korea) has seafood in it.
* Honey is often used as a sweetener in China (i.e. I see it often added to dried sweet potatoes)

* Chinese noodles often contain eggs

* Dairy is pretty rare in Han Chinese cooking, dairy is more commonly used by ethnic groups with a tradition of herding livestock (i.e. Mongolian and Tibetan ethnic groups)

* There are two types of oyster sauces a non-vegetarian one made from oysters and a vegetarian one from oyster mushrooms.  I'd be wary of fish/shrimp/shellfish in certain sauces as well.  However soy sauce is usually vegan as are vegetable oils and various chili sauces.  Rice vinegar and rice cooking wines are likely to be vegan as well.

* Like in Japan watch out for shrimp/shellfish to be added to snack foods such as bags of rice crackers

* Chinese like to put meat in tofu dishes (so you need to ask in a restaurant if a tofu dish is veg*n or not) but a block of tofu in a supermarket will likely be vegan

* Soymilk is also likely to be vegan but will unlikely to have had Vitamin B12 added to it.  Unlike in the US vitamin B12 fortification will probably be rare in other foods found in Chinese supermarkets as well so if you'll be in China for a while make sure you have a plan for Vitamin B12 (i.e. vegan capsules).

* Many Chinese restaurants do like to make soups with meat broth and/or simmer-braise foods in meat broth.

* Chinese breads are often disappointing to westerners (too sweet for a savory bread and not sweet enough as a dessert) and you may not have access to an oven to bake your own.

* White rice is often served at the end of the meal in China so you may want to ask for it earlier if you are accustomed to eating white rice with the other dishes instead of after the other dishes.

* You can often find small tapioca pearls in Chinese supermarkets (add a can of coconut milk and a vegan sweetener to make a fantastic vegan tapioca pudding) as well as sweet rice flour (not to be confused with 'normal' white rice flour) can also often be found in Chinese markets and can be used to make delicious chewy baked goods (or you can use it in the microwave and make mochi).

* Chinese were often surprised to find out that I (as a 6'2" 190 lb white foreigner) was a vegetarian and very often asked me why I was a vegetarian.  You may want to formulate a short stock response in Chinese to such a question (although the asker probably doesn't really care much about the answer - you're a foreigner and barbarian foreigners do weird things).

[xit]

Whoa thanks~ Hmm maybe it would be useful to make a list of Chinese names for non vegan ingredients and meals. Are the ingredients labels on the back trust worthy?

[trevorld]

Chinese food scandals occur but I don't think many Chinese manufacturers are going to intentionally mislabel non-vegan ingredients from a label in order to get vegans to buy the food item.  An English translation mistake on the English label of an imported product at a Chinese supermarket in a western country is a more likely scenario but the Chinese label will probably be correct if you know the relevant words.  Some good characters to know are 奶 (milk), 蛋 (egg), 虾 (shrimp), 鱼 (fish and other seafood), 肉 (meat), 素 (often means the item is Chinese Buddhist vegetarian such as mock meats).