themadman

Am I the only one who's curious that true vegetarian specialties in South-east Asian food are much rarer compared to their meaty companions? I'm starting a South-east Asian restaurant here in Bangalore, India. To cater for the larger percentage of vegetarians in this country, we need more veggie dishes than you might find in USA, for instance. While creating my menu, I wanted to showcase dishes that weren't just "tofu-ised" versions of meat-based dishes. That is, I wanted to avoid things like "Som Tam without fish sauce or dried shrimp" or "Sayur Lodeh without belachan" or "Mussaman curry with fried tofu". I was surprised by how comparitively difficult it was to find true-blue veggie dishes in the region (compared to say, Indian cuisine) You folks got any suggestions? What are your favourite veggie dishes from Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore, or Thailand? (That means pure vegetarian.)