Global Veggie

Last visit to Bangkok in March and I found that there were too many veggie restaurants that have come up or there is a special veggie menu . Which means , over the years, people have started understanding the importance of being vegetarian.

I recall my very first visit to Bangkok in the year 1987 and at that time, the only thing that was served to me in the name of veggie food was some green leaves boiled in water sprinkled with salt and pepper. And since then, now a full menu and even full restaurants serving only veggie food is a big change.

Given that Bangkok is a Tourist Paradise, it reflects the mood of the global community and not just the locals,.

However, the green leaf in hot water was not just a dish in Bangkok, but in Europe and Africa , it was still worse, where as a traveller, I had the only option to have salad plate and at times , make my own sandwich with salad. The Europeans would pity me for being a veggie.

Much later in my life , I realized that the rest of the world was not so much into veggie, just for the simple reason that the delectable vegetable cooking never was known to them. Hence, veggie food was best avoided. It was only in the Indian sub continent, where the vegetables were cooked deliously and hence formed the part of daily meal. The Italian cooking still has some veggie touch, but for the rest of Europe, it is only French Fries and for Germans, the Potatoes, which is a veggie ultimate food. Same for the Russians and then the Latin Americans.

Vegetables , if cooked nicely with assortment of spices, makes a perfect diet. Also, it is relatively very easy to cook vegetables, then meat and poultry.

No wonder, today Britain is so crazy about the curries. and Naans.