(Click for bigger pic)Today's vegetarian lunch: A really yummy Eggplant Tofu curry and white rice, with hot sauce, sweet sauce and soy sauce, from the Asian Fusion restaurant at Park Central complex in Central Phoenix. Asian Fusion is a new Asian fast food restaurant, owned by an Indian. They serve the typical Chinese dishes with a Pad Thai thrown in. I am not a big fan of Chinese food, but I like the Chinese eggplant dish and the fried rice, when made right.
Today's Eggplant Tofu curry tasted really good and the portion was huge. I could not finish it for lunch. The above picture was taken of left-overs I had for dinner. The rice portion was small though, at least for us Indians, since we eat a lot of rice. They were kind enough to offer a second helping of rice for me to take home with my left-over curry, at no extra charge. However, I still think they could make reduce their lunch special costs and make the portions a little smaller.
Cost: $7.51 (includes $0.52 tax), about 330.44 Indian Rupees.
Vegetarian alert: None for today!
Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.
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Really enjoyed the whole "veggie lunch in America" series. It also made me miss Phoenix, best vacation ever. If you ever go back, try a place called Veggie Fun.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that pad thai has fish sauce as one of the ingredients. Is that true ?
ReplyDeleteS
S,
ReplyDeleteI too have heard that Pad Thai has fish oil in it. In fact, I learnt of that at the Cheesecake Factory, of all the places! They had Pad Thai on the menu, and when ordering, I told them that I am a pure vegetarian - no eggs or any other animal products in my order. A few minutes later, the waiter came out of the kitchen and told me that their Pad Thai is made with fish oil. He said they cannot make Pad Thai without the fish oil, but if I really want it, he can get me just the rice noodles, bean sprouts and some crushed peanuts on top! Ugh!
Almost every dish I have at most Thai restaurants smells of fish to me. I have heard that Thais use fish oil in almost all their dishes, just like we put thadka in most of our dishes.
However, all restaurants may not do this. You might want to check if they can prepare your order without using fish oil.
Hope that helps.
LL
Thanks LL for your exhaustive comments on padthai!Last week a few of my friends dragged me out to a Thai restaurant and very unwillingly I ordered pad thai.My friends just pooh-poohed the suggestion that it might contain animal products. My heart was not into eating it and I just picked at it and got a box. I didnt have the heart to throw it away since there are many millions out there starving for a single meal. But I wasnt happy trying to finish it up either! My research on the internet about pad thai didnt make me feel better, so I felt I needed to ask someone.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, thanks again- I dont feel any better that my suspicions are confirmed, but in the future I'll try avoiding such situations.
And only another fellow (strict) veggie will understand the sense of violation you feel when u are told that something you have just eaten contains animal products!
S
S,
ReplyDeleteWhen in doubt, ask the waiter. If you don't get satisfactory answers, and if you really do not want your principles compromised, just don't eat it. I can't believe that you tried to finish the Pad Thai despite knowing it has fish oil, simply because you did not feel like wasting it. Don't worry about wastage - just throw!
You are right: an awful, helpless 'sense of violation' is the only way to describe the feeling we experience on discovering animals in food we are eating. Having been in the US for close to 6 years now, it has happened to me on far too many occasions.
If you are in the US, the only way to ensure that you don't end up consuming animal products, is to cook yourself, making everything from scratch and carefully reading the ingredients in everything you purchase.
LL