Was reading my post about being a vegetarian again when I realised that I didn't really talk about my experience being one in Indonesia! So I suppose this is a continuation of that veggie lyfe post. Thoughts about being a vegetarian in this lovely country of mine. And it's great actually!
To begin with I just want to say that I think Indonesia is a great place for vegetarians. We have lots of veggie dishes and most importantly, we invented tempeh. Also tofu is like a daily staple here, like it's readily available everywhere. The only problem I find about these conveniences is that most of the time, food sellers fry meat and tofu and tempeh together in one wok. So yeah, gotta watch that.
I'm gonna break this post into two parts - at home and eating outside.
Although I'm the only vegetarian in the family, eating at home is never a problem because thankfully my father needs to have a veggie dish in our meals. And like mentioned above, tofu and tempeh is always there. For breakfast I usually make my own. Most of the time I eat oatmeal with soymilk, bread, or the occasional nasi kuning (yellow rice with tempeh, potato and gravy). For lunch it's usually stir fried vegetable, tofu, tempeh or soups. And we should never forget: Sambal!
For dinner it's always stir fried vegetables which I share with my parents. And then usually my mum would cook another dish that consists of tofu and etc. Eating at home is never a problem! :)
Sometimes we don't cook and we buy food from outside. There are a few Chinese restaurants in my hometown and we always frequent two of them. Thankfully they are very understanding and they serve vegetarian dishes. And they even delightfully cook the vegetarian version of my favourite non-veg food. Like stir fried butter chicken with garlic (changed to tofu), Salted egg crab (changed to tofu), and even stir fried "eel" with fumak (a vegetable here), changed to mushrooms instead.
One of the greatest concerns that I had was eating out. But thankfully in my experience of eating out (which I rarely do... Haha) I found no problems too. There are always vegetarian option. Be it simply fried tofu and tempe, pasta with mushroom sauce etc. There's also the occasional fried rice/noodle/beehoon with vegetables only. Worst case scenario would be me eating the dessert only haha.
And also yup you gotta be careful about the place where they fry your food, cause sometimes they fry both meat and tofu./tempeh in one wok. Most of the time I close one eye, unless it's blatantly obvious that they do that like the roadside stalls. And of course you can always ask the restaurant if the food you ordered contains meat or not. Or just simply ask any meatless options.
Indonesia food in general is quite vegetarian friendly because we have a lot of veggie dishes. Here we have lalapan which is basically raw/boiled vegetables served with sambal. Pepes which is like steamed dishes in banana leaves. There are chicken pepes but there's also tofu ones. Orek tempe which is stir fried tempeh strips. Telur Balado, which is eggs in chili gravy/sauce. I can continue man, the list goes and on. But yes basically, veggie options aplenty! Just double check if needed.
Oh and also one thing: be careful with terasi (balacan) cause some chili may contain those.
Sadly I don't take a lot of food photos... Haha. But I'm planning to do so this year! Gonna start sharing it on my instagram heh. I've made it a habit that I don't carry my phone to the table so usually I don't snap photos. Except for dinner because I'm the one cooking so I have my phone to kill time hah.
I am looking forward to trying out more vegetarian food here. I found a few
vegan restaurants in Jakarta so might wanna check them out :) I think vegetarianism is not really common in Indonesia. Maybe in Jakarta/Medan/Pekanbaru where there's quite a high Buddhist population. But I know it is gaining more attention. I was reading a few articles and there's even a vegetarian society of Indonesia! Wow.
Alright that's all for now! I am planning to share more veggie stuff this year, both on the blog and on instagram. Indonesia sure is a lovely place to be a vegetarian! :D
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