Less with the words and more with the photos! Here are some snaps and vids of vegan finds around Bangkok during the 2014 Thailand Vegetarian Festival.
MBK Center Vegan Stalls
Most shopping centres in Bangkok (and there are plenty) put on some sort of spread or event related to the vegetarian festival. MBK is known for its electronics (any phone issues in BKK? This is the place to go), but during kin jay you'll also find some fabulous vegan finds as well.
Sticky rice with taro and bamboo in charred banana leaf
I'm not good with video, but I pressed record anyway.
Sathorn Square Groove Event
Not so much a dance club as a week-long pop up vegetarian food market, I was stoked to spend the morning and evening eating from its vendors stalls. Sadly they opened late and closed early, so I missed a lot of what was on offer, but I did manage to grab a few snacks.
Various dumplings of wonderment
Of all the dumplings, the Chinese chive and shiitake cabbage were my favourite. One was taro, another was bamboo and black pepper, and there was a fifth that had a flavour I couldn't place. Some text from the company's instagram translated as “filling fractures,” so let's go with that. Filling fractures flavour.
Sweet silken tofu pudding with fresh fruit
I also managed a sweet silken tofu pudding with pear and papaya that I bought not knowing what it was because of language barriers and everyone for a million miles around the stall telling me how much it cost over and over again no matter what I said and motioned. Is it a drink? 35 baht. Is it soy? 35 baht? What's inside? 35 baht. OKAY. So good.
Breakfast off the street
Venture out in the morning and there are stalls that will disappear in a few hours' time. Mostly the hawkers are purveyors of arharn gap kao, or food with rice.
Stir fried rice straw mushrooms and morning glory with rice
More street eats
During the festival the sheer volume of vegan food available makes it impossible to sample everything (believe me, I've tried), but thankfully portion sizes tend to be moderate and leave room for more snacking as the day goes on.
Kanom jin nam ya (fermented Thai rice noodles with spicy curry)
Kanom jin is one of my favourite street foods in Thailand, where coils of fermented rice noodles at room temperature are served with various different curries. Most hawkers will sell at least two: nam ya (spicy and salty) and nam phrik (sweet). Combined, they are heavenly. Fresh herbs and vegetables always grace the kanom jin table, especially lemon basil.
Kanom jin nam ya will melt your face off, so never order it unless you love heat. Or order nam phrik with a tiny splash of nam ya.
Fried squares of brilliance
I don't know what the fried green is, but don't they look pretty?
Central world food hall
Clockwise from left: mushroom tapioca curls, Mushroom and green bird's eye chilli parcels, spicy makrut lime leaf “chicken,” nam prik, mallow leaves (bai po), Pepper “pork.”
Outside of the magical supermarket on the 7th floor of crazy big Central World, there are always stalls during the vegetarian festival that sell some items not easily found elsewhere. Save for the mushroom chips and nam prik (from Groove Event), the remaining baggies of food (typical way of serving takeaway in Thailand) were purchased there.
And so much more
This is only a tiny, and I mean infinitesimally small, representation of what's on offer around Bangkok during the vegetarian festival (which is more about temples and food here, with none of the face stabbing of Phuket). Stay tuned for more pictures and nonsensical text.