Rubbing my eyes, contact lenses still in, I slowly woke up to an orange sun just beginning its daily ascent. We were still on a bus, just about to arrive in Nha Trang after driving all night from Saigon, but waking up alive meant I'd survived seven consecutive days of being a vegetarian (coinciding with the start of a bicycle trek from Nha Trang to Saigon, an exercise in which I would need all the calories I could get, regardless of source - future blog post on that experience). Since then, in the name of science I did another one week stint as a vegetarian which led me to finish writing this post.

Vegetarian restaurants in Saigon

[ Above is a map I made of vegetarian restaurants mostly around Districts 1, 3, and Binh Thanh. Red Markers indicated closed restaurants. Google and other online resources for Vietnam/Ho Chi Minh City are useful sources too but I always find them to be both lacking, inaccurate and, out of date, which means I've wasted a lot of time looking for restaurants that no longer exist or have moved. Feel free to suggest additions in the comments or let me know if you want to be a collaborator on the map and I'll give you access. I will only list restaurants that I have verified or which you can vouch for. The map will be updated periodically.]

Why eat vegetables and not animals in Vietnam?

With any luck, you should actually enjoy eating a healthier diet and feel better for it, both physically and mentally or spiritually. If you do convert to vegetarianism you should do it for yourself before any other reason.

Not eating tons of meat has health benefits. It will lower your risk for various diseases while you'll be eating more of the good nutrients you probably aren't getting enough of. You'll avoid more of the poisons like pesticides and heavy metals that accumulate in higher concentrations in animals. Vegetarian restaurants in Vietnam often go an extra step and refrain from using MSG in their food. (Next time you eat out in Vietnam, you'll be praying that Ajinomoto is the worst of all the additives used in most other restaurants.) Being vegetarian can be good for your conscience too - less animal farming is better for the environment and uses less of our resources and not killing sentient beings is something they'll appreciate (although it's up for debate whether invertebrates feel pain). If you're Buddhist then you should be concerned about what Buddhism says about that last point. Otherwise, try not to let it bother you. Try not to think of a purple elephant while you're at it.

If you happen to meditate, you may be interested in knowing that vegetarians shoved in an fMRI machine show more empathy. Personally, I've found myself feeling a bit more compassion for animals. From an enlightenment perspective, this extra push in compassion may help with your concentration, as meditation on compassion leads to improved concentration. (Thus compassion, beyond or despite its altruism, also shapes us into better human beings.)

In Vietnam, we should be especially concerned about what poisons may be going into our foods because when hearing reported seizures of rotten meat for sale to consumers (40 tons of rotten meat seized in Thu Duc District in the first half of 2012) we know it's just the tip of the iceberg. Fear of death due to eating rotten chicken may be reason enough to vegetarianize yourself, when chicken is often undercooked here, not to mention Vietnam's own various raw meat dishes including the raw beef thrown in pho. Lack of refrigeration is common at the numerous informal restaurants and carts in Vietnam despite the tropical weather and, whereas vegetable dishes can go unrefrigerated for awhile, meat dishes will spoil quickly despite being cooked possibly hours before being served to and eaten by customers, with leftover lunch being kept in the afternoon heat to be served for dinner.

Meat in Vietnam is often served with skin and fat included, making it even less healthy (although it can also be more delicious this way). And sinewy Vietnamese beef doesn't even taste good, does it?! This is why beef imported from Australia or the US is available for a markup here, for even minimally discerning tastes. I would honestly not miss eating Vietnamese beef. But Vietnamese people enjoy gnawing on chewy stuff, apparently.

Buddhists in Vietnam are also supposed to eat vegetarian once or twice a month, based on the lunar calendar, and can eat free vegetarian meals at pagodas on those days. The world is a better place for it on those days at least.

Vegetarians become aware of protein alternatives (e.g. broccoli, soy, beans, etc. although most beans are actually quite rare) and Vietnamese vegetarian restaurants have numerous mock meat dishes, some of which are rather convincing. How could you live in the south of Vietnam without eating "cơm tấm", broken rice served with grilled pork, shredded pork skin, and a slab of pork meatloaf? Thankfully, vegetarian restaurants in Saigon can do a convincing faux meat version (pictured above) of this signature dish and other Vietnamese favorites of mine like chả giò and canh khổ qua. Besides soy-based "meat", Vietnamese use wheat gluten (mì căn) to make mock meats. I'm impressed by what Vietnam has done with vegetarian (generally vegan) cuisine and want to encourage even more conversion of the low hanging fruit of Vietnamese cuisine into meatless versions.

Generally, meals at Vietnamese restaurants might come with fresh herbs but lack vegetables beyond a measly slice of unripe tomato and cucumber. We all know we should be eating more vegetables and eating at a vegetarian restaurant is an easy way to inject some vitamins into our diets.

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Vietnamese Vegetarian Restaurants

Saigon has vegetarian restaurants sprinkled throughout the city, from cheap (under a dollar per meal) to fancy (e.g. Hoa Dang a.k.a. Loving Hut). But if you like to stay up late and eat late meals it can be harder to find your favorite veggie spot still serving - often the normal vegetarian "com chay" quans, like most restaurants in Vietnam, stop selling after lunch around 2:00 PM and start back up around 4:00, but then after 8:00 close for the day. I work late at night which is normally not a big problem for food in Saigon where late night joints can be found throughout town. So a late night vegetarian restaurants would have at least one customer!

There are basically two types of vegetarian restaurants in Vietnam. The most common is a "quan com chay" and they are easy to find all around the city. Just make sure it says "cơm chay" and not "cơm cháy" because the latter is a kind of crispy rice wafer., which may not be vegetarian at all. A quan com chay will generally have a cart in front with a buffet of a dozen or so vegetarian dishes such as tofu, mock meats, sauteed vegetables, greens, etc. to be eaten with rice.

The other kind of vegetarian restaurant is the proper restaurant with non-plastic chairs for seating, with air conditioning, where you will be shown a proper menu from which you will order dishes. This is where you'd take guests whereas the former is where you'd stop in for a quick meal.

Won't it suck?

Issues that might come up:

Hunger: Do you find regular Vietnamese portions to be too small, even after eating in Vietnam for awhile? Then it won't be better when eating vegetarian. I was used to it, and was already eating several vegetarian meals a week, but still felt hungry sometimes. But at most buffets you can choose to order more side dishes and even more rice. But Quan Thien Tam at 152 Ban Co, right off Dien Bien Phu in District 3, a 15000 VND rice plate is enough to satiate almost anyone's appetite.

Craving for animal flesh: I recently quit smoking. Thinking about a specific meal containing meat sometimes does not compare to the desire to smoke a cigarette after you've just quit.

Availability: It's available all over Saigon as long as you don't need to eat after 9 PM or so! I did not restrict myself to a vegan diet so eggs and milk products were "on the menu" so it was possible to eat at many normal restaurants too.

This is bún chả giò, rice noodles tossed with fried spring rolls and some bean sprouts and herbs, like salad with fish sauce as the dressing. Except the fish sauce here isn't made from fish and the spring rolls have tubers and other plans as ingredients instead of pork. It's delicious aka "ngon" in Vietnamese.